The Kansas City Star
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Template:Infobox bandThe Kansas City Star is a newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri.
Contents |
History
William Rockhill Nelson Legacy 1880-1927
The paper originally called The Kansas City Evening Star was founded Sept. 18, 1880, by William Rockhill Nelson and Samuel E. Morss after they moved to Missouri after selling the newspaper that became the Fort Wayne News Sentinel in Nelson's Indiana hometown where they had been active in Democratic politics.
Morss quit the newspaper business within a year and a half because of ill health. The paper name was changed to The Kansas City Star in 1885. In 1901 Nelson also bought the morning paper The Kansas City Times. Both papers were purchased by the employees in 1926 following the death of Nelson's daughter.
The whole transfer is the subject of a tragic legend.
Nelson provided in his will that his newspaper was to support his wife and daughter and the be sold. He died in 1915. His wife died in 1921.
Nelson's daughter Laura Kirkwood died alone in a Baltimore hotel room in 1926 at the age of 43. Laura's husband Irwin Kirkwood who was editor of the paper led the employee purchase. Kirkwood in turn died of a heart attack in 1927 in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he had gone to sell thoroughbred horses. Stock in the company was then distributed among other employees.
Virtually all proceeds from the sale and remains of Nelson's $6 million personal fortune were donated to create the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art at Oak Hill on the site of Nelson's home.
A young Ernest Hemingway was a reporter for the Star from October 1916 to April 1917. Though his time on the paper was brief, Hemingway credited Star editor C.G. "Pete" Wellington with changing a wordy high-schooler's writing style into clear, provocative English. Throughout his lifetime he referred to this admonition from The Star Copy Style, The Star's style guide:
- "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative."
Roy Roberts and Republican Legacy 1928-1976
The Star enjoyed a pivotal role in American politics from the late 1920s when Iowa-native Herbert Hoover was nominated at the 1928 Republican convention in Kansas City through the 1960 at the conclusion of the presidency of Kansas favorite Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Although Nelson was a Democrat, the Star took a decisive turn to the Republicans under Roy A. Roberts[1] (1887-1967). Roberts joined the paper in 1909 and was picked by Nelson for the Washington bureau in 1915. Roberts became managing editor in 1928. He was instrumental in pushing Kansas Governor Alf Landon for the Republican nomination in 1932 when he was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Roberts was elevated to president of the Star in 1947. The Star was not particularly kind to hometown Democrat Harry Truman who had been backed by famed big city Democratic Machine boss Tom Pendergast. The Truman administration in its closing days in 1953 filed antitrust charges against the Star over its ownership of WDAF-TV. The Star had run WDAF-AM since 1922. The Star lost its case and had to sign a consent decree in 1957 that led to the sale.
President Harry S. Truman himself worked two weeks in August 1902 in the mailroom making $7.00 the first week and $5.40 the second. In 1950 Truman half joked in an unmailed letter in 1950 to Star editor Roberts, "If the Star is at all mentioned in history, it will be because the President of the U.S. worked there for a few weeks in 1901."
An ironic turn occurred in 1954 when Topeka correspondent Alvin McCoy won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles questioning the business dealings of the Republican national chairman. Roberts reported the Pulitzer Prize in a four paragraph item.
Roberts semi-retried in 1963, officially retired in 1965 and died in 1967.
The 1976 Republican National Convention was held in Kansas City and nominated Kansas Senator Bob Dole for Vice President.
Corporate Ownership 1977-Present
Local ownership of the newspapers ended in 1977 with the purchase by Capital Cities. In 1990 the Star became a morning newspaper taking the place of what was then the larger Kansas City Times. The Walt Disney Company acquired Capital Cities/ABC in January, 1996. Disney sold the paper to Knight Ridder in May 1997 as Disney moved to concentrate on the broadcast rather than newspaper investments.
Knight Ridder's legacy is a massive $199 million, two-block long, glass-enclosed printing and distribution plant on the northeast side of the Star's landmark red brick headquarters at 1729 Grand Avenue. The plant which is to open in 2006 took nearly four years to build and is considered a major effort to revitalize downtown Kansas City. The plant contains four 60 foot high presses.
McClatchy Company bought the Knight Ridder newspapers in 2006 including The Star and has announced it plans to keep the paper although it will divest itself from some other papers.
Pulitzer Prizes
The newspapers won Pulitzer Prizes:
- 1931 - A.B. MacDonald for articles about a murder in Amarillo, Texas[2]
- 1933 - Editorial Writing[3]
- 1944 - Henry Haskell for Editorial Writing[4]
- 1952 - Coverage of the Great Flood of 1951)[5]
- 1954 - Alvin Scott McCoy's local reporting coverage that led C. Wesley Roberts resignation as Republican National Chairman[6]
- 1982 - Local news reporting of the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse ((along with The Kansas City Times)
- 1982 - Rick Atkinson (of The Kansas City Times) for national reporting for a series on the West Point Class of 1968[7]
- 1992 - National reporting by Jeff Taylor and Mike McGraw's critical examination of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.[8]
Country song
Country musician Roger Miller had a 1968 hit called "Kansas City Star"[9] about a local television rhinestone cowboy personality who would rather stay home than become a bigger star elsewhere. The title was presumably a double entendre inspired by the newspaper:
- Kansas City star, that's what I are
- Yodel-leedle lay-dee, you oughta see my car