 We appreciate the courtesy of the sponsors of the Skeppy Hollywood Theatre in making available additional time to the Hallmark Playhouse so that we can bring you this special full hour program. Mr. Helton, as mayor of Kansas City, it was my pleasure to declare this broadcast of the Hallmark Playhouse the Kansas City Radio Hour. And I am most delighted to welcome you and your distinguished company for this event. Thank you, Mayor Kemp. It's a great pleasure for us all to be here. Remember a Hallmark card when you carry enough to send the very best. Tonight from Kansas City, the makers of Hallmark Reading Cards bring you Jane Wyman and Robert Young in the story of Kansas City on the Hallmark Playhouse. This week, Hallmark brings you Hollywood's greatest stars and outstanding stories chosen by one of the world's best known authors. A distinguished novelist, Mr. James Helton. Ladies and gentlemen, this is James Helton. I expect you've all heard stories about Kansas City, but the one we tell tonight is another one and a better one. A story that began about a hundred years ago when Senator Tom Benton was on his way down the Missouri by steamboat. Reaching a bend where there was already a small village perched on the high bluffs, he couldn't help but exclaim to his companions, gentlemen, another generation will see a great city on these hills. Tonight, a century later, we celebrate the truth of this prophecy, the dream that came true, the story of Kansas City, the story of the city that is at the crossroads of America. Such a story asks to be told in every form of telling. Henry C. Haskell Jr. and Richard B. Fowler have told it well in their recent book called The City of the Future, and tonight we dramatize it in the spirit of pride, which makes the Kansas City Centennial a great occasion for not only the city, but for the country. In our drama, we are happy indeed to have with us two of Hollywood's most famous and popular stars, Jane Wyman and Robert Young. And now, the story of Kansas City on the Hallmark Playhouse. You are about to hear a story that took over 100 years to write. A story of the days when Kansas City was young. It is a story of courage and a story of the dreams of men of courage. It is a story of a city's birth and growth and struggle against hardship and against grief, and of the unconquerable spirit of the men who believed in her and fought her battles. Listen closely, America, for here is the story too of your city. For as Kansas City grew, so grew most of the other young cities of her time. And with them grew the nation, young, hardy, idealistic, on its way onward and upward, a stronghold for free men, a hope for enslaved men everywhere. Listen, America, for the story of Kansas City that took over 100 years to write. In the beginning, there was land and rock and river. In the beginning, there was the beauty of wilderness blossom and tree and fruit. In the beginning, there was cliffs and hill and plain and wooded forest. The beaver made his home in the river currents. The deer nibbled the green grasses along its banks. The buffalo on the distant plains browsed in the tall grasses and the car-Indian lived in his wigwam in the manner of his fathers. Along the Missouri, the trees of the upland wood stood like men of God with their arms raised toward the heavens. The fox made his home in those forests, the opossum, the raccoon, the deer. And in the spring, the fragrance of the blossoms of the dogwood and the red bud, the locus, the plum, the cherry, made a glory of the air. The tall grass came from the valleys and the hills to the very edge of the river. And when the wind ran her longsingers back through it, there were the wild strawberries and blackberries, the wild roses and lilies, the gay flirtatious sunflower. In the autumn, the land with a blaze with goldenrod and the wild geese and cranes with shrill screams and trumpetings of farewell rose in the air and disappeared over the southern horizon. The buffalo on the distant plains raised his head to see them go and then went back to his browsing. The deer took a farewell drink of Missouri water and headed into the forest for the winter. And the beaver plunged and leaped in the river currents. Yes, in the beginning there was the beauty of wilderness blossoms and tree and fruit. In the beginning there was cliff and hill and plain and wooded forest. And the car Indians living in his wigwam in the manner of his fathers. This was the prologue, this the stage that nature set for history. It was 1821 when the first leading man entered that stage, a Frenchman named Francois Choteau, a fur trapper. He came with his brother and with a paper in his pocket that said he could establish a trading post. All right, this is a beautiful country. Isn't that mon frère? Beautiful, but it is the edge of the world. Wilderness, complete wilderness. Yeah, I think right here is the spot for the trading post. Here when my wife can have the river for her front yard, the forest for her kitchen garden. You are a romanticist. In the spring I am always a romanticist. But I am also practical. The river will let me establish my commerce because the Indians will find it very easy to pack their canoes with fur and bring them down to me. Make no mistake, my brother. I have an eye for business as well as beauty. I intend to establish a very successful business right here. That was it. That was the beginning. A fur trapper with an eye for business as well as beauty. After Choteau had built his post, several dozen French families would follow him into the wilderness. They would be the nucleus of the first settlement within the present boundaries of Kansas City. Do you hear that sound? You're listening to the voice of progress and civilization as it begins to take possession of the wilderness. It's a symphony of sounds, having rhythm, having beauty, having joyousness. The joyousness of builders, watching the future take shape beneath their hands. The joyousness of builders who build with hope as well as logs and axes, who build with dreams as well as hammers. How beautiful these sounds. As beautiful as the birth cries of a newborn child. And so the settlement grew as men labored and planned to set their homes upon the land. In 1838, a missionary's son named John McCoy was operating a store to sell merchandise to the Indians and to settlers on their way further west. He was an enterprising young man with prospered when he broke the first wagon track through to a natural rock levee on the river. In 1838, the owner of that levee, Gabriel Prudhomme, died. John McCoy called a hasty meeting with 13 other settlers. Gentlemen, Prudhomme had 257 acres that's going to be put up for public sale. I think we should organize a company and bid for that land. What do we want with all that land, John? Well, that land's good for a lot of things. The levee is one of the best steamboat landings in the river. Land around it can't be beat for a town site. How much money do you think it'll take to bid in the property? Can't tell. But whatever it is, among the 14 of us we ought to be able to meet it. Now, why don't we form a company and appoint Bill Sublet as our representative to buy the property? Bill can strike as good a bargain as anyone in this part of the country. What do you say, men? What do you think we should call our company, John? Have you thought of a name? Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. How about the Kansas Town Company? Ready to close the store for the day? Well, I bid in the property. We got it. How much? $4,220. And it's a lot of money. It's a particular lot of money. The folks that find money is hard to come by as we do. But it's going to be worth that amount many times over. You really believe that, don't you? We're going to make it worth that, Bill. We're going to make it worth it. We're going to lay out a town site the like of which has never been seen before. It's going to be the kind of place that'll make a man stop the first time he sees it and say to himself, this is what I've been searching for. Now, at last, I have come home. God has made the land beautiful. And I made God give us the inspiration and the power to build a beautiful city on the land. Kansas City began to grow beside the waters of the Missouri and the Missouri still sang her to sleep at night with the ancient lullabies of the wilderness river. Now there are new things going on all around her. Stores being built, warehouses, homes. New people began to arrive almost daily. America was on her way west on horseback and by covered wagon. 40,000 went through Kansas City in a single year. 40,000 with their hopes high and their eyes on the horizon. 40,000 in a word pounding with their pulse beats. Gold. The people of Kansas City helped out with them when they could and listened to their stories, waved them goodbye and wished them well. Gold in California? Well, maybe. They didn't have time to go and see. They were building a city. By 1850, they were 700 residents, a large settlement in those days. And the Jackson County Court granted the settlement a charter which gave them the right to incorporate. Yes, 700 inhabitants with almost all the European bloodstreams mingled in their veins. 700 pioneers who now met in freedom, inequality, in democracy to build a city. Six years later, there were 2,000 permanent residents. Many of the 2,000 were good, God-fearing, industrious men. But here and there among them was the rascal, the gambler, the renegade. And there were enough of these to thoroughly frighten the young, gentle woman from Pennsylvania who arrived with her husband in 1856. Riding right down the public street in broad daylight, look at them. So, Sarah, my dear, I'm afraid they're a little under the influence of firewater at the moment. Oh, I hardly think it's any matter to laugh about, Kirsty. This is a frontier town, Sarah, and a river town to boot. You can hardly expect it to be as settled and respectable as Philadelphia. Come on, let's go for a walk. How dare you? Of course. This is your new home. You must get acquainted with it. Oh, yes. Can't I get acquainted with it from the window, Kirsty? No, Mrs. Coach, you cannot. Come on. I'm anxious to show it to you. Well, all right. If you say so, Kirsty. Take a deep breath of that air. Isn't that magnificent, Sarah? Well, yes, it's very nice, Kirsty. That's a test to all the plastic Yankees. Kirsty! Come, dear, we'll cross the other side of the street. There's a free country. There's going to be three in the thousands, one of them all, but we have to kill it. Isn't there any law and order in the town? Well, yes, of course there is, but you have to realize this settlement is like a half-grown boy right now. No matter how well you have him disciplined, every now and then he's bound to break over the traces. Certainly isn't much of a town. Trouble of frame-building. It's hardly more than shag. Oh, Sarah, you mustn't look at it and see what it is now. You've got to look at it and see what it's going to be. Yes, sit down a moment on this floor. Let me tell you something. Yes, Kirsty? That dusty street we just walked on. Sunday, that street is going to be a great circular boulevard, and within that circle, the city will be set like a jewel, Sarah. The city of the future. It's going, it isn't going to remain a jumble of frame buildings. It's going to be like, like a citadel, Sarah, a citadel that we've helped build from wilderness wood, log-ranets, a citadel of buildings and libraries, museums, schools, churches, parks, and people will come to it. Through that valley down there, but they won't come on horseback or in wagons. They'll come on trains. Sarah, I tell you, I can see it. I can see it as clearly as it was actually before me now. I wish I could see it too, Kirsty. You will, Sarah. You will when you've lived here a while. There's vitality to this town, energy, imagination. People are working and working together to build it. That's the amazing thing about it. I'm not the only one who feels this way. It's like a flame that has been kindled and everyone who lives here for a time begins to feel the warmth of that flame within himself. Those people will build the city I'm talking about, Sarah. They'll build Kansas City. And you'll be one of them, Kirsty. Yes, Sarah. I'll be one of them. Turn to the second act of the story of Kansas City, starring Jane Wyman and Robert Young. The story of Kansas City is only one thrilling chapter in the Epic of America. And part of the story of Kansas City is the story of greeting cards. For it is here that hallmark cards have been created through the years. It is here that America's favorite greeting cards are made today. Hallmark cards, the kind more people choose than any other in the world. For most of us, greeting cards are a part of our everyday lives, closing the gap between people and places. But this was not always the case. If you had looked at the turn of the century, you would have found only postcards. Or for Christmas or Valentine's Day, you might, by dint of search, have discovered a few crude messages on tinsel sheets or gaudy ribbon paper hearts. So it was that from the very first, the makers of hallmark cards envisioned greeting cards that would be different, carrying messages as personal as a warm handshake, presented in exquisite taste. From this dream, hallmark cards were created, with this one friendly purpose. To help people say what they want to say. The way they want to say it. Through the years, the new custom grew. Of sending greetings by card the year around. On every occasion, when the right word from the right person can mean so much. Through the Second World War, when more people were separated from friends and loved ones than ever before, greeting cards played their part in bridging time and distance. Any servicemen will tell you how much those greetings meant. Today, the sending of greeting cards has become a great tradition. Some of the best creative minds of our time have blended their talents to make hallmark cards more and more the perfect expression of friendliness and good taste. And always with the hallmark on the back of each card that says, you cared enough to send the very best. And now back to James Hilton and the second act of the story of Kansas City, starring Jane Wyman and Robert Young. Those were the days when the great westward track was beginning. When old Senator Benton would have seen strange and exciting happenings along the riverfront by the high bluffs he had so much admired years before. The high bluffs where now the city was going fast. It was jammed with the traffic of those great days. You are listening, America, to a story that took over 100 years to write. A story of dreams and of struggle, of growth and accomplishment. A story of men who came to carve a city from the wilderness. Men with a vision in their hearts and the strength and determination to achieve that vision. Since the days of Columbus, commerce and enterprise have been seeking the west. Over the Atlantic, across the Alleghenies, over the Mississippi, up the Missouri. Kansas City stands on the extreme point of navigation. It is the west of commerce. Beyond us, the west must come to us overland. The west at last is bound. And the community's first editor said those words at a merchant's banquet in Kansas City on Christmas Day of 1857. The men who joined in the applause knew what they were doing. They had courage, ingenuity, faith in the future. And above all they had a strong belief in what they were doing. A belief that was to be handed on from generation to generation. And that people in other parts of the country were to give a name. Last week when I was in Boston, I heard a man say, I tell you there's something about that town that's like no other town I've ever seen. I don't know what you'd call it. Unless you'd call it the Kansas City Spirit. The rest of the country gave it. The Kansas City Spirit. And that spirit was to be seen in action over and over as the years passed. It was to be seen in action a dozen or more times when the city itself seemed lost. And only the unconquerable will of her people pulled her up by her bootstraps and started her on her way again. The Kansas City Spirit whipped into the wind with colors as red, white and blue as the flag they raised there. And the men and the women and the children of the city followed that flag and that spirit into the future. The men who listened to Robert Van Horn on that Christmas Day of 1857 were the vanguards of a new generation. Businessmen, sober, industrious. It tanned upon the future. The electric future charged with excitement came to life all about them. Kansas City saw banks open. Newspapers founded. Telegraphic communication put through to the east. A regular stage service to Stockton in California started. A chamber of commerce established. They didn't wait for the future and take it as it came. They forged ahead towards it. One of the first settlers, Colonel McGee, used to be down on the levee every time a boat came in. He took people right off the river boats, drove them out to take a look at the land and did his best to imbue them with the same enthusiasm that was driving the rest of them on. Colonel McGee got a lot of new residents for Kansas City that way. But the trapper choteau had seen and what John McCoy had seen what cursey coats had seen was now beginning to take form and shape. In 1859, Sarah Coates could look from her own front windows at quite a different scene than the one that had first greeted her. Sarah, what on earth are you looking at? You've been looking out that window for over an hour. Oh, I don't know. I was just looking. Thinking how things change. It seems as though it was only yesterday that that street was a muddy road with a few frame buildings along it. And now already it looks like quite a respectable town. Yes, and tomorrow, tomorrow, Sarah, it will be a city. Why, one day you look out your window and think, my goodness, surely I'm looking at Philadelphia. No, cursey. One day I'll look out my window and there will be the city of the future that you like to talk about. And I'll say how proud I am to have lived here and to have been part of its growing. Philadelphia was there when I was born, but even in my small way I can feel that I helped build Kansas City. Of course you have. You love it too, now. Don't you, Sarah? It's my home. But Sarah Coates was soon to see a bleak change in the town she now calls home. She was to feel the warm, friendly atmosphere grow chilled with hate. She was to wake in the night to hear shots in the streets. She was to hear music played defiantly in the streets by improvised bands. Yes, music in the streets played defiantly by improvised bands spoken with inexpressible grief by the tall worried man gazing south from the White House. A house divided against itself cannot stand. I do not expect the house to fall. I do expect it will cease to be divided. To live in Kansas City during those dark days of pain-shattered conflict was to live in a house split asunder before your eyes. To live in Kansas City was to straddle the borderline between north and south. It was here the north and south mess, house to house, face to face, gun to gun. Friends found dark hours between them. Even families found their sympathies divided. Dr. Johnston Likens, one of Kansas City's first mares and his wife, like many others, faced an anguished decision. Johnston, I can't sign an oath of allegiance to the north. I know how you feel, but I just can't sign it. The tabulation of votes was only completed this evening. The unionists won, Maddie, so that was the decision. Every citizen of the city must take an oath of allegiance to the union. I can't sign it, Johnston, even though I lose your love. And to lose that means I lose all hope of happiness in this world. Till I can't. Maddie, you won't lose my love. That's not the issue. Sometimes, to a woman, issues are not as simple as they are to a man. It's not one issue. It's not one also, one broken home. It's thousands of broken homes. It's men killing and hating. It's bloodshed. It's death and tears and sons born uselessly. Oh, why did it have to come to this? Why did it have to come to this? Because the question must be solved once and for all, Maddie. It's like a festering wound. It must be cut out. The sooner the better, so the healing can commence. Johnston, I'm not going to take the oath. I can't say I'm an abolitionist when I'm not. I can't entreat myself with respect. Johnston, I'm going to go across the river in the Clay County. I'm going to stay there for the balance of the walk. Maddie, you can't do that. You belong here. No, Johnston. There must be no divided loyalties in Kansas City. The people must stand together, united as they've always been united. The city must not be torn apart. I've been very happy here. And after the war, we'll be happy again. We must have faith in Maddie for to have faith in anything. I love Kansas City enough to leave it. That takes a lot of strength, Johnston. But having you here somehow, I have that strength. I'll start getting my things together. Just so I'm ready to pull out, Maddie. Goodbye, Johnston. Take care of yourself. I'll get your shoes to hit the bottom drawer of the hide, boy. Yes, Maddie. And I'll put your sweaters in a box in the top of your closet. What did you say, Maddie? I said your sweaters are in the top of the closet. I can't hear you. I can't. Goodbye. Goodbye, Johnston. Goodbye. Although Kansas City chose its side and prepared to defend its principles, on a Sunday in October of 1864, it prepared to defend its very existence. A few miles to the south from the Zuri-Arcantor troops of General Price engaged in active warfare with the Union forces under Major Curtis. The Confederates were in a strong position in the wooded heights a few miles to the city, and they were able to repulse the Union attackers all along the line. It looked as though all hope was lost to the Union forces when an old man dodging the fire of both sides made his way out on the battlefield. He insisted that he be taken to Major Curtis. And finally it was done. The old man was spent and he could hardly move. But the spirit of Kansas City never blazed with more strength than when he spoke. Major Curtis, there's a concealed break in the opposite wall of the valley. Not everyone knows about it. You can get your troops around behind the enemy and attack them from the rear. I'll lead you there. Fifteen thousand men follow an old man on horseback across the valley. Now they move up the ravine toward the enemy forces. Now they cross the open plateau. Now they're in sight of the enemy. Now they open fire. Eight hours later it was all over. Forty-eight hours later the battle of Westport was over. And the victory of the Union forces was history. The most important battle of the war of the western sector had been won. And it had been won because an old man from Kansas City had come out on the battlefield to help protect that city. There's a mighty word that describes that old man. A word that describes him and the city he loved. And the word is indomitable. Whenever peace comes, it's sweet to the woman. When peace comes, it means that her man is safe. That her children are safe. And that her home is safe. When peace comes, Thanksgiving enters her heart. And she's able to sleep again in quietude and certainty. When peace comes, spring has a new beauty. The silence of the night and new comfort. The small busy problems of the day and new delight. And so peace at last entered the house divided and found that it had not fallen. But at last it had ceased to be divided. In that house, within those walls, dwelt north and south together. The brothers and the mother and the wife fell on their knees and gave thanks to God. With the coming of peace, Kansas City had to take inventory. What they saw was discouraging. Trade had stagnated. Supplies were scarce and expensive. The buildings were dilapidated. Streets were in disrepair. Kansas City had not much left, except the assets that they'd started with. A wonderful sight and the spirit of its people. But four months after Lee's surrender, Robert T. Van Horn was back in his editorial chair at the Kansas City Journal, scolding, prodding, leading. There is a tide in the affairs of men and the same is true of cities. We are now approaching the flood. If we do not act at the tide of our opportunities, our future history will be a record of failure and humiliation. Providence never resisted a lazy man. Fortune never smiled on an indolent community. Day by day Van Horn hammered on his theme, factories must be established to make furniture, farm implements, wagons and carriages. The hill should be leveled, streets graded. The city had to have fire protection in public schools. The words flew at Kansas City across the morning cups of coffee. The native pride began to kindle into excitement again. Men put down their cups and started downtown to do something about it. And once more, Kansas City was on her way. Years go swiftly when the heart and hand are busy. In the next five years, Kansas City established a municipal hospital. It organized a board of education and built its first schoolhouse. In fact, things were looking pretty good at the end of five years, but not quite good enough. Kansas City wanted something it didn't have. It wanted the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad to come through the city. It met a fight because other cities along the river were also determined to get that same railroad connection. But Kansas City knew how to fight. And in 1866, Colonel Charles E. Kearney was elected president of the Kansas City Lake Superior and Galveston Railroad Company. Gentlemen, we've got to act, and we've got to act fast. This may be the most crucial moment this town has ever faced. We've got to get a bridge across the Missouri, and we've got to get that railroad. But, Charlie, we've got it on good authority that that railroad contract's been sewed up already by another time. All right, then we'll unsaw it. The whole question of this railroad's going to be settled at a meeting of the stockholders in Boston. Most of those stockholders have never been out here, one town's the same as another to them. Well, we've got to sell them that are towns better than any other town on this river. John, I want you in Colonel Case to get to Boston as quick as you can. Cursey Coates is in Washington right now, isn't he? Yes, he is. Well, I'm going to send Cursey a telegram, tell him to ask him to drop what he's doing and get up to Boston and talk to those stockholders. You boys can meet him there and help in any way you can. Oh, I hope Cursey can get away right now. Cursey will get away. He knows what that railroad and the bridge will do for Kansas City. He'll get away. But, Mr. Coates, we have already committed ourselves to another city. You have a prior commitment to Kansas City. Well, whatever commitment there was, as made before the Civil War, things have changed since then. We can hardly be expected to consider that commitment still valid. That's not the reason for your decision. Other cities along the river without bonus in population. Oh, I see what you're thinking. I can even understand it, but please, hear me out. You don't think in terms of right now when you build a railroad. You think in terms of the future. And that's the way you should think. I tell you, one day, Kansas City is going to be one of the most important industrial and shipping centers of any city in the United States. How can you know that, Mr. Coates? Because that's what we're going to make her. Gentlemen, I asked you to look at the history of Kansas City. A few years ago, there was nothing but wilderness. And then men came with a dream of what a city could be and should be, and they started to build. They fought the wilderness. They fought disease, cholera, three cholera epidemics. They fought lawlessness and civil conflict among themselves, and each battle they fought, they won. You ask me how I know what this city will be tomorrow? I know because I know what she was yesterday. I know the road she came and what she had to conquer. And I know there are no limits to where she can go. Mr. Coates, I think all of us here must agree that as long as Kansas City has men like you to plead her cause, there are no limits to where she can go. Now then, here is how I propose that we solve the situation. We must have a railroad bridge across the Missouri. Give Congress. Well, give Kansas City authority to build that bridge, then we'll put the railroad terminal in Kansas City. If someone else gets the authority first, we'll put it in there. Now, what do you say? Thank you, gentlemen. Please, excuse me. If those are your terms, then I've got to get back to Washington as quickly as possible. Cursey Coates caught the next train for Washington and went into an immediate conference with Robert Van Horn, who was now representing the Kansas City District in Congress. A few days later, Van Horn was pounding on Cursey's hotel door. Bob, Bob, what's the news? We pulled it off. The bill has passed. We've got the authority to build the Hannibal Bridge. Oh, God be praised. Kansas City owes you a great debt, Bob. Oh, no. We all owe Kansas City a lot. That town has given us something to live for, something to fight with and fight for. I've enjoyed every moment I've lived there, Cursey. Even the bad moments, and there have been plenty of those. And now with these railroads coming in with a span across the Missouri, it's going to be even more exciting. This means progress, accomplishment, importance. A steel link to the East and to the future. Kansas City hasn't even begun to realize its potentials, Bob. You're right there. It's just what you've always said it was, Cursey. A city of the future. Yes. A city of the future. Just a moment, we'll return to the third act of the story of Kansas City, starring Jane Wyman and Robert Young. No matter how many cards you buy or what you pay for them, their choice is a matter of great importance, for they are the mirrors of your taste. And so today there are Hallmark cards with paintings by Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses, and many other famous professionals. And this Christmas, Hallmark brings you, for the first time, greeting cards that reproduce in full color and authority, pictures by the world's most famous amateur painter, Britain's great statesman, the right honorable Winston Churchill. This is the latest chapter in the story of Hallmark greeting cards. Thoughtfully chosen, your greeting cards say what you want to say, the way you want to say it. And the makers of Hallmark cards have made it easy for you to choose. The finest stores, wherever you live, display these cards in wide array for your selection. There are Hallmark cards for every occasion, the year around, and friendly people to help you quickly find exactly what you want. And when you visit the fine stores that offer you Hallmark cards, you will take pride in looking on the back of each card you choose for the Hallmark imprint. For through the years, America has come to recognize the special significance of the Hallmark on the back of their greeting cards. It says you cared enough to send the very best. And now before we continue with the story of Kansas City, we pause for station identification. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System. This is KMBC, Kansas City, Missouri. Now back to James Hilton and the third act of the story of Kansas City, starring Jane Wyman and Robert Young. You know we started this story with the dream of Tom Benton, who saw the high bluffs above the river and had a vision of a splendid city. But even the old senator could hardly have dreamed of what was soon to happen, not merely the increasing traffic of men and goods through this gateway to the western world, but a bridge to the future which was quite literally a bridge. The great span of steel across the Missouri and the steel that was built on the steel, the railroad fanning in from the east, crossing the river and fanning out again to the west, the triumph of new industrial technique and of the skill of countless craftsmen. And so, as in the fulfillment of destiny, the great bridge was built. A listening America to a story that took 100 years to write. Men live and dream and leave the dreams behind them. A bridge across the river speaks eloquently of a dreamer. A building, a park, a street, a city skyline. Men's dreams live longer than their lifetimes. Men's dreams and deeds live longer than their names. A city stands, a dream made permanent in steel and concrete. A city stands and does her dreamers proud. Dreaming is not restricted to the poets of a city, nor to the engineers, the architects, the craftsmen, the city fathers. Joseph McCoy was a dreamer who came to Kansas City in 1867. He was a young, lanky, livestock shipper whom a lot of folks in his own hometown had thought was plumb loco. The reason they thought this was because of a dream of Joe McCoy. Texas is chock full of cattle that accumulated there during the Civil War. Why shouldn't those cattle be driven to Kansas for shipment? They wouldn't let you drive the cattle over that new farming country between Texas and Missouri. Why haven't any intention of driving them through the farming country? My idea is to set up a cattle town along the railroad up beyond the farming area. I'll ship them by rail from there. You know, that just might be crazy enough to work. Let me talk to a couple of people and see what they think of the idea. If they like it, maybe we can raise enough money to try it out. Joe McCoy's idea didn't sound loco to the Kansas City fathers. It was daring, and it was a gamble, but it had gigantic possibilities if it worked, and it did work. McCoy set up his cattle town at Abilene, and in 1871, Texas cattle began a mighty and never-ending stampede through Kansas City over the Kansas-specific railroad for shipment to the east. The dream of Joe McCoy had brought a new industry to Kansas City. In 1880, another of Kansas City's great dreamers came to town, William Rockhill Nelson. To hear him talk, one would hardly classify him as a dreamer, but in his own way, he was one of the most magnificent dreamers of them all. Now, I don't intend to start out by making much of a speech. I hired you men because I liked your ideas, and you seemed like the kind of man I could work with. You may have heard that I'm starting publication of this newspaper on a shoestring. That statement is not quite accurate. I'm starting it without a shoestring, but I intend to end up with the best newspaper in town. I want the Kansas City star written and edited for its readers, and I want to start to do a job for those readers. I came here because I think this town is more color and more excitement and more get-up and go-to-er than any other place in the United States. I intend to stay here. A great city must be something more than a good place to make your money and then clear out. And so William Rockhill Nelson entered history. He marched into print fighting, and what he fought for, he usually accomplished. He went after good streets, sidewalks, sewers, street lights, the more efficient police force, and the people of the town began to look to him, first for support and then for leadership. His Kansas City star, as he had dreamed it would, became the conscience and the voice of Kansas City. Yes, there were a lot of dreamers in Kansas City. Back in the days preceding the turn of the century, there was a man named Walter Dickey and a man named Eugene Rust. Just look at that building, Walter. You know, I don't think there's anything to equal that, any place in the country. I don't see how there could be. You know, I never really thought we'd live to see it. When we first started talking about having a convention hall, it seemed like something way off in the future. Well, it did take two years to get it, one year to raise the money and plan the building and another four years to build it. Did you ever really think we'd get the Democratic Convention to come in? Not the way Chicago and Cincinnati Milwaukee were bidding for it, did you? Well, I don't mind admitting I did a lot of praying. Say, did your boys gonna stand there admiring that building all night or are you coming along to the convention committee meeting? No, sure, we're coming along. We just sort of stop by for a moment. Yes, I know. As a matter of fact, I do the same thing myself every time I pass convention hall. You two fellows did a great job fighting for that building the way you did. It's not only going to bring the Democratic Convention to Kansas City. It's going to bring a lot of other conventions, a lot of people, a lot of business. These whole towns gonna see that the Democrats have such a good time, every other convention will want to come here. Yes, I'm sure it is. And from all I've heard, convention hall is now the personal pride of every man, woman and child in Kansas City. Rock Hill Nelson was right. Convention hall was now the civic heart of the city. Because of its Kansas City felt that it could make itself a center of events in the West and a city to be recognized by the nation. For months everyone in town talked and laid plans for that Democratic convention which was scheduled to open on July 4th. And then on April 4th at exactly one o'clock, Kansas City heard a sound that chilled and shocked the air. It was impossible to save it. In a few hours convention hall had burned to the ground and a sigh of grief and anguish and frustration echoed through the entire city. The Democratic convention was only three months away and now they had no place to house it. The Kansas City people huddled unhappily about the ruins, staring at them in stunned beliefs. Then suddenly someone noticed Walter Dickey and Eugene Rust moving from person to person. Charlie, can we put you down for a subscription? Now, Walt, you surely don't think you can rebuild this auditorium? We've got to rebuild it. The Democratic convention is coming here. We've lost the convention. Man, they'll never come now. No, no, we haven't. We'll have this whole rebuild in time for the convention. Are you crazy? It's only three months off. We can do it. We've got to do it. Couldn't we put you down? Well, sure. You can put me down, Walt. In fact, if you think it can be done, I'll get a pad and start rusting up subscriptions myself. How are you doing, Walt? I've got about 30 names so far. How about you? Well, I've got 60. I'm taking every set offer at the dollar subscriptions as well as a thousand dollar subscriptions. Kansas City is going to rebuild that auditorium in 90 days and everyone in town is going to help do it. When the star went to press that night, it carried the story that the hall would be rebuilt. The subscriptions poured in from all over the city. No one person led it. It was a great spontaneous civic uprising. Kansas City was going to keep that convention. They wired the Democratic committee that the hall would be ready and they received an answer a day later from the secretary of the committee. To the directors of Convention Hall, Kansas City, Missouri. Any person who has come in contact with the businessmen of Kansas City must have been impressed with the fact that the town contains a higher degree of public spirit than any other city in the United States. I believe its people will provide a suitable place for the Democratic National Convention. Sign CA Walsh, secretary of the Democratic National Committee. Every day of the fire, telegrams went to the steel companies and the other companies that would have to supply the necessary materials. When the Carnegie Steel Company reported that the time limit was impossible, the directors of Convention Hall wired back, Kansas City, we don't know what impossible means. The entire city swung behind the project. Kansas Cityans went directly to the heads of the steel and lumber companies. They went to the presidents of the railroads. We must have the fastest possible transportation for that steel. We only have 90 days for the entire job. Our railroad will be glad to cooperate. As a matter of fact, we'll have guards ride with your shipments of steel to see that there are any delays. As soon as the steel began to arrive, the builders went to work. All right, man, now keep moving, keep moving. This is a big job, but we can make it. The construction moved ahead 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Once more, the naked frame of the building stood against the sky. Once more girders swung into place. Walls went up. Stairs were built. Workmen hardly paused to eat. It was one of the most spectacular races against time in the history of the nation. But Kansas City was fighting with every means of command. The convention was due on July 4th and suddenly at night on July 3rd, all sounds ceased. All right, boys, that does it. Convention hall is finished. You did a great job. Now let's clean up and go home. If I was a sentimental man, I think I'd be crying. Do you ever think we'd actually... Sure. I knew we would. Sure. I did, too. Well, it's done. The people are coming in with the funding and the flags now. Everything's going to be ship-shaped for that convention tomorrow. Well, Bill, tomorrow morning will be the dawn of a great day for Kansas City. Yes, a great day, a great year, and the dawn of a great century. I think the 20th century is going to be Kansas City's century. A tragic convention was the great triumph everyone knew it would be. And on New Year's Eve, at the close of 1900, all of Kansas City gathered into convention halls to welcome the beginning of what William Rock Hill Nelson had called their century. With what has been, and what will be, and find, though, the 20th century dawned on the horizon lighting up the wonders and the marvels of a new age. 100 years back to the beginning. In the beginning, there was land and rock and river, and the car Indian living in his wigwam in the manner of his father's. Between the beginning and now are the long years recorded in terms of men's courage and men's valor. In the beginning, the tall grass came from the valleys and the hills to the very edge of the river. Between the beginning and now, men dreamed and built the bridges that arched the torrents. And the 20th century crossed that river by rail, by car, by airplane. In the beginning, there was the beauty of wilderness blossom and tree and fruit. Between the beginning and now, men built a city to stand against the skyline like a modern castle. A city is a poem written by men in lines of steel and concrete. A city is music composed by men in notes of rivets, drills, horns, whistles, traffic. The city is a painting conceived by men in terms of light and shade and hue. The city is a signature, the shining accomplished signature of the men who have created her. Kansas City is the signature of John McCoy, of Corsi Coates, of Robert Van Horn, of William Rock Hill Nelson, of all the men who dreamed of her and fought for her and left something of their dreams behind. Because of them, Kansas City ranks now as one of the great cities of the nation. Because of them, she has taken her place among the great industrial cities of the world. Because of them, she has beauty, she has spirit, she has heart. The Kansas City story is a great epic in the history of the country. Because the Kansas City story is the American story. It's the story of wheels rolling westward, of men braced against the elements, of free ideas being nurtured on free soil. They said her people had spirit, and they were right. The city came by it honestly. It was a spirit that had been observed among certain pilgrims at Plymouth. It was a spirit that lit up a night in Boston when a group of Americans chose to brew a harbor full of British tea. It was a spirit that had been seen in Concord when the streets echoed the sound of fight and drum. It was a spirit before which men warmed their cold hearts on certain icy nights in Valley Forge. The Kansas City spirit is the American spirit, intensified. That spirit which says, My land, here will I stay and build my home. Here is where I will live, and what I will live for. Here is security. Here is beauty. Here is promise. Yes, the Kansas City story is the American story. For as Kansas City grew, so grew most of the other young cities of her time. And with them grew the nation, young, hardy, idealistic, on its way, onward and upward, a stronghold for free men, a hope for enslaved men everywhere. Kansas City in the year of its centennial can look back on many moments in which it can show great pride. America in the year of Kansas City centennial can look back on many moments of pride in Kansas City. And as for the years ahead, the words that Percy Coates said almost 90 years ago still say it best. Kansas City hasn't even begun to realize its potentials. It's a city of the future. A city of the future. If your grand performances tonight and your help in making this a great day for us all. Thank you, Mr. Helsing. It's been a pleasure. Yes, it's been a real pleasure, not only to take part in this notable centennial, but to see something of the city whose history we've been celebrating. And it certainly is an exciting history. Unfortunately, an hour was too short even to begin to tell it all. The growth of this century is just as dramatic as the growth of the last. And those who visit the city today can see wonderful evidence of it. Miles of parks and boulevards, for instance, and a residential area that struck me as just about the most charmingly planned place to live in of any I've ever seen. Yes, that's the development that Mr. Nichols brought to the city. And that's the whole story in itself. Famous all over the world, I understand as an example of enlightened city planning. And by the way, what about this theater we're broadcasting from tonight? Isn't it magnificent? Oh, and don't forget the Rock Hill Nelson Gallery where the Hallmark art awards are now on exhibit. That's certainly one of the finest galleries in the country. And by the way, the pictures are touring the country, and anyone who has a chance to see it shouldn't miss them. You know, James Bob, I think we'll have to come here again one of these days. And thank you, Mayor Kemp, for being such a gracious host. Well, it's been a great pleasure to have you, Mr. Hilton, and your distinguished cast here with us tonight. Thank you very much, Mayor Kemp. And now the time has come for me to say that the Hallmark Playhouse is going off the air for the summer month. And I'd like to take this opportunity of thanking our audiences for their warm appreciation and the help they've given us by so many letters and good wishes. Speaking for all of us Hallmark players, I can truly say what a happy show it has been and how much we're indebted to our orchestra, our writers, our sound men and technicians, all of them such fine and friendly workers. Thanks also to Bill Gay who produces our show, to Lynn Murray who composes and conducts our music, and to Jean Holloway who adapted the script tonight. So until we meet again, this is James Hilton saying good night and may the summertime be happy for us all. Look for Hallmark cards that are sold only in stores that have been carefully selected to give you expert and friendly service. Remember Hallmark cards when you carry enough to send the very best. Jane Wyman will soon be seen in the Warner Brothers production, The Glass Menagerie. Robert Young, star of Father Knows Best, appeared to the courtesy of Maxwell House Coffee. Our cast tonight included B. Benedett, Isabel Jewel, Ted Osborne, Ted D'Corsia, Hans Conreed, Herb Butterfield, Polly Bear, Lon Clark, Roger DeCoven, and Maurice Copeland. This is Frank Goss saying good night to you all for the summer holidays until we see you again next fall on the Hallmark Playhouse. The special full-hour Hallmark Playhouse you had just heard was made possible through the courtesy of the manufacturers of Skippy Peanut Butter who relinquished their time in which Skippy Hollywood Theater is normally heard.