Monday, April 30, 1934

Walked to school with Ruth Ray and home with Pauline. They both came down this evening.

Manhattan Love Song - Released April 30, 1934
Starring Robert Armstrong, Dixie Lee and Nydia Westman
Director: Leonard Fields
Genre: Comedy/Romance Drama
Based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich

Plot Summary:

After having been swindled out of all their money by a crooked business manager, formerly wealthy socialites Jerry and Carol discover that they owe their chauffeur and maid back wages they are unable to pay. They're forced to let their former employees live in their luxury apartment in lieu of paying the money they owe them.

Sunday, April 29, 1934

Ruth Ray, Mother and I went to Sunday school and church this a.m. Pauline and us went out to the at gallery and a baseball game. Ollie was over.

1934 Ford Fordor Deluxe Sedan

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were wanted for the murders of 12 people, including nine law enforcement officers.

And they were passing through Topeka, Kansas.

It was Sunday, April 29, 1934, and America's deadliest couple drove near the city's eastern edge, seeking to steal a vehicle to replace the beat-up Ford they had been using. They always abandoned their car and stole another when they felt the law was getting too close.

Bonnie stood on the running board and looked into cars. She spotted the keys inside a tan 1934 Ford parked in Jesse and Ruth Warren's driveway at 2107 S.E. Gabler.

The fast, sleek sedan belonged to the Warrens, but not for long.

By the time they got it back, it would have more than 160 bullet holes.

Saturday, April 28, 1934

Cleaned up the house today. Took a bath. Went up to Pauline's. Played ball, danced, etc. Ruth Ray came by this p.m.

Weeding Wembley - April 28, 1934

A row of stadium groundstaff meticulously pick out dock leaves, dandelions and daisies by hand from the hallowed Wembley turf in readiness for the FA Cup final between Manchester City and Portsmouth later that Saturday. The game was played in a thunderstorm which rendered the pitch sluggish, with City emerging 2-1 winners. "While [the Manchester City captain] Cowan strode majestically with the cup - and Brook, like a schoolboy, ran off with the lid - the Portsmouth players stood like men dismayed and dazed by a sudden calamity," reported the Manchester Guardian on the following Monday.

Friday, April 27, 1934

Pauline didn't go to school today. I walked to school and home with Ruth Ray.

Phase of the Hoover Dam - April 27, 1934
Location: Clark County, NV and Mohave County, AZ
Constructed 1931-1936; Dedicated September 30, 1935
A total of 3,250,000 cubic yards of concrete was used in the dam
More than 582 miles of cooling pipes were placed within the concrete
Employment peaked in 1934 at 5,251

Thursday, April 26, 1934

Walked to school and  home with Ruth Ray. Went up to play with kids. Pauline got kinda mad at Nadine.

Vaile Mansion - Independence, Missouri

Built in 1881, the Vaile Mansion in Independence is a prime example of
Second Empire Victorian architecture. Colonel and Mrs. Harvey Vaile
built the mansion to include 31 rooms, painted ceilings, flushing toilets
and a 48,000 gallon wine cellar.

Located aat 1500 North Liberty Street in Independence, Missouri, the
Vaile Mansion is open April-October as well as holidays for tours.

Wednesday, April 25, 1934

Walked to school and home with Ruth Ray. All of us kids went out and played up at Pauline's.

James Crawford "Jimmie" Angel (August 1, 1899 – December 8, 1956)

Born in Cedar Valley, Missouri, Angel was an American aviator after whom Angel Falls
in Venezuela, the tallest waterfall in the world, is named.

The falls, which cascade from the top of Auyantepui in the remote Gran Sabana region of
Venezuela, were not known to the outside world until Jimmie Angel flew over them on November 18,
 1933 while searching for a valuable ore bed.


Jimmie Angel's Flamingo monoplane

On October 9, 1937, Jimmie Angel returned to the falls with the intention of landing. On board
 his Flamingo monoplane that day were his second wife Marie, Gustavo Heny, and Miguel
Delgado, Heny's gardener. Jimmie attempted a landing but despite a successful touchdown, his
El Rio Caroni aircraft nose-dived when it hit soft ground at the end of its landing run. The wheels
 sank in the mud making take-off impossible.

The occupants were unharmed but had to trek across difficult terrain with low food supplies
for 11 days to make their way off the tepui and down to the nearest settlement at Kamarata.
When word got out of their exploits, Angel received near-legendary status in Venezuela.
His aircraft remained atop Auyantepui until 1970, when it was disassembled into parts and lifted
 down by Venezuelan military helicopters. Today an El Rio Caroní can be seen outside the airport
 terminal at Ciudad Bolivar. The airplane was re-assembled in the city of Maracay's aviation museum.

In keeping with his wishes, Jimmie Angel's ashes were scattered over Angel Falls in July 1960.

Tuesday, April 24, 1934

Walked to school with Ruth Ray. Walked home with Pauline, Nadine and Donald. Went up to Pauline's and Ruth Ray's.

Laurens Hammond and his invention, the Hammond Organ

American engineer and inventor Laurens Hammond of Chicago received Patent 1.955.350
for an "Electrical Musical Instrument," and introduced the Hammond Organ Model A the following
year. The Hammond Organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to wind-driven
pipe organs, but in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues,
rock music and gospel music.

In addition to the Hammond Organ, Laurens Hammond also invented a silent spring-driven clock,
the Teleview system of shutter-glasses for viewing 3-D films. World War II gave Hammond new
clients for his inventions. He helped design guided missle controls and was awarded patents for
infrared and light sensing devices for bomb guidance, glide bomb controls, a camera shutter and a
new type of gyroscope. The glide bomb was the forerunner of today's guided missiles, carried by
nuclear submarines.

At the time of his death in 1973, Hammonds held over 100 patents.

Monday, April 23, 1934

Walked to school and home today with Ruth Ray. Ruth Ray and Nadine and Pauline and I went out and played this evening.

James G. Balestrere (June 24, 1891 - Oct. 19, 1959)

Born in Palermo, Sicily, Balestrere initially settled with his family in Milwaukee in 1903.
When he was a teenager, his family moved to the Kansas City area. Balestrere became a bigshot
in the Kansas City outfit during Prohibition. Though a stone mason by trade, he is believed to have
teamed with the DiGiovanni brothers - Joseph and Pietro ("Sugar House Pete") - in a bootlegging-
related venture, supplying sugar to moonshine operations.

After Prohibition, Balestrere put his mason skills to use constructing a local restaurant/casino. (He
 previously worked operating a grocery store and a drug store.) The gambling establishment became
known as "the White House." In the late 1930s, Balestrere also managed a keno game for local politician
and crime boss Tom Pendergast.

Balestrere reportedly became a partner in the Kansas City mob's leadership group. Control of mob
looks to have been shared by Balestrere, Thomas "Tano" Lococo, Charles Carollo and Anthony Gizzo.
Some procliamed Gizzo was the boss, but the Kefauver Committee, after hearing Balestrere's
 testimony in September 1950, decided that Balestrere was the big man.

James G. Balestrere is buried in Kansas City's Calvary Cemetery.

Sunday, April 22, 1934

Went to Sunday school and church with Ruth Ray and Mother. Nadine was down. Got some books. We made some candy. Or rather Nadine did.

Little Bohemia Lodge

On April 22, 1934, the FBI went toe to toe with John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and their gang
 in a shootout that left an FBI agent and a bystander dead.

The gang decided to hide out at the Little Bohemia Lodge in northern Wisconsin. The owner of the
lodge managed to get word to the authorities. FBI agents were dispatched to the scene. As the
agents approached the lodge, the owner’s dogs began to bark. Since the dogs barked incessantly,
their warning was ignored by the gang. A few minutes later, a car approached the agents. Thinking
that the gangsters were inside, they opened fire in an attempt to shoot out the tires. Shooting high,
 which often happens when firing on full auto, they hit all of the occupants of the car, and killed one
 of them. To make matters worse, they had the wrong guys. Dillinger and his crew were still inside the lodge.

Dillinger and the boys heard the shots and knew that the heat was on. They opened fire on the agents
from the lodge. After throwing some hot lead at the G-men, the gang bolted for the door. Dillinger
and two of his guys turned one way and made a clean getaway. Nelson turned the other way, and
wound up at a nearby house in a car with the owner of the lodge and a neighbor.

A car containing two of the FBI agents and a local constable approached Nelson. Nelson pointed
 his gun at them, and ordered them out of the car. When they complied, Nelson shot all three of them.
Agent W. Carter Baum was killed; Agent J. C. Newman and local constable Carl Christensen were
injured. The final tally: two dead (one lawman and one innocent bystander), four injured (two
lawmen and two bystanders), no gangsters in custody.

Saturday, April 21, 1934

Kate and Helen and Mother and I went downtown. Saw "Narcotic." Got me some white pumps. I think they are kinda cute.

Narcotic
Stars Harry Cording, Joan Dix, Patricia Farley
Directors: Dwain Esper, Vival Sodar't
Genre: Biography/Drama

Plot Summary:

As the opening scroll tells us, Narcotic was "presented in the hope that the public may become aware of the terrific struggle to rid the world of drug addiction." The movie itself is a salacious plunge into a world of sordid pleasures. It tells us the story of Dr. William G. Davies, an infamous snake-oil salesman who started his career as a promising medical student. In the opening sequence he saves an unborn baby by performing a cesarean operation after the mother was killed in an automobile accident. Stock medical footage shows a woman's stomach being sliced open like a ripe watermelon and the baby popping out like a jack-in-a-box. But the allure of opium proves too strong for the doctor to resist. After a single night of relaxation in a Chinatown opium den, Davies becomes a slave to drugs. As his medical practice deteriorates, he shifts his attention to "selling medicine by demonstration." He says to his nurse/fiancee, "I can't see anything wrong if my preparation has merit." However, his "preparation" is one of the great quack cure-alls: "Tiger-Fat." Davies soon becomes one of the leading sideshow attractions for a carnival. His success as a carnival huckster initially allows him to run with a fast crowd. In the movie's most shocking episode, Davies and his ritzy friends retire to a hotel room together for a drug party. "We're gonna get lit," says a woman. A buffet of drugs is spread out on a table and each guest takes their drug of choice. "It takes a needle for me to get a bang," says a woman. As each participant indulges, the party quickly turns into an orgy of excesses, one woman hikes up her skirts, another laughs hysterically, a man pontificates, another man becomes paranoid. The movie provides a litany of different reactions to drugs. Ultimately, Davies' drug addiction leaves him gaunt and stooped, living in a hovel with no hope of returning to his previous life. 

Friday, April 20, 1934

Walked to school and home with Ruth Ray. Daddy called up Aunt Kate. Aunt Minnie is sick pretty bad.

Gestapo headquarters in Prinz-Albrecht-Street in Berlin
Gestapo is an abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei "Secret State Police"

Hermann Göring, Chief of the State Secret Police Office, names Heinrich Himmler
Deputy Chief and "Inspector of the Prussian Political Police" (April 20, 1934)

Thursday, April 19, 1934

Walked to school and home with Ruth Ray. Saw "I Am Suzanne" this p.m.

I Am Suzanne!
Director: Rowland V. Lee
Stars Lilian Harvey, Gene Raymond and Leslie Banks
Genre: Musical, Romance
Running Time: 98 minutes

Plot Summary:

In a plotline curiously similar to the much-later Lili, Harvey is cast as Suzanne, a crippled dancer
in love with young, self-involved puppeteer Tony (Gene Raymond), who finds it easier to talk
to his wooden-headed creations than to human beings. Growing jealous of her puppet "rivals,"
 Suzanne actually shoots a puppet designed in her image -- which leads to a bizarre dream
sequence, in which the heroine is put on trial by the King and Queen of Puppet Land (played by
Podrecca's Piccoli Marionettes). In time, Suzanne recovers from her lameness and enjoys a
happily-after-ever denouement with Tony, no thanks to her Svengali-like manager Baron (Leslie Banks).

Wednesday, April 18, 1934

Walked with Ruth Ray. Had quite a few lessons. Went up to Pauline's. Nadine got a job at Warren's.

April 18, 1934
The first "washateria" (laundromat) is opened by C. A. Tannahill in Fort Worth, Texas.

The electric-powered washing machine, invented in 1908, was a great time- and sweat-saving device—but only
 for those who could afford it and had regular electricity. C.A. Tannahill noticed that many in his Fort Worth
 community didn’t fit that description. In 1934, he purchased four electric washing machines and installed them
in the same building. He charged people by the hour to clean their clothes in his “washateria,” now better
known as a laundromat.

Tuesday, April 17, 1934

Walked with Ruth Ray, Nadine and Pauline to school. I sure felt stiff. Waited for the kids this p.m. Traded for a movie magazine and read it.

April 1934
Cover image: Lupe Vélez (July 18, 1908 – December 14, 1944)

Vélez began her career in Mexico as a dancer, before moving to the U.S. where she worked
in vaudeville. She was seen by Fanny Brice, who promoted her, and Vélez soon entered
films, making her first appearance in 1924. By the end of the decade she had progressed to
leading roles. With the advent of talking pictures, Vélez acted in comedies, but she became
disappointed with her film career, and moved to New York to work in Broadway productions.

Returning to Hollywood in 1939, she snared the lead in a B comedy for RKO Radio Pictures, The
Girl from Mexico. She established such a rapport with co-star Leon Errol that RKO made a quick
 sequel, Mexican Spitfire, which became a very popular series. Vélez perfected her comic character,
 indulging in broken-English malaprops, troublemaking ideas, and sudden fits of temper bursting
into torrents of Spanish invective. She occasionally sang in these films, and often displayed
 a talent for hectic, visual comedy.

Vélez had a number of highly publicized affairs but married only once, for five years to Olympic
athlete Johnny Weissmuller (of Tarzan fame). In the mid-1940s, Vélez began a relationship with
actor Harald Maresch, and became pregnant with his child. Supposedly unable to face the shame 
of giving birth to an illegitimate child, she decided to take her own life. Her suicide note read:
"To Harald: May God forgive you and forgive me, too; but I prefer to take my life away and
our baby's, before I bring him with shame, or killin' [sic] him. Lupe."

Buried in Mexico, Lupe Vélez has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard.

Monday, April 16, 1934

This evening us kids played ball. I got hit by a motorcycle. Had the doctor. Hurt my knee, side and foot. Helen's was here.

The Air Mail Act of 1925 (Kelly Act) authorized the postmaster general to contract for domestic airmail
service with commercial air carriers. It also set airmail rates and the level of cash subsidies to be paid to
companies that carried the mail. By transferring airmail operations to private companies, the government
 effectively would help create the commercial aviation industry. Various routes were designated and
contracts for carrying the mail over these routes were then awarded to many different private air
service companies. The Contract Air Mail routes became known as CAM's.

After a series of crashes by the original contractor between Chicago, Illinois and Minneapolis,
Minnesota, with interim stops in Milwaukee and LaCrosse, Northwest Airways took over the
routes on October 1, 1926. NWA was incorporated on August 1, 1926 as a Michigan corporation
 formed by a group of Detroit and Twin-Cities businessmen using borrowed aircraft.

NWA immediately purchased three Stinson Detroiter aircraft (see above) capable of carrying the
mail and three passengers at 85 mph. On April 16, 1934 Northwest Airlines was incorporated,
 replacing the former Northwest Airways.

Sunday, April 15, 1934

Ruth Ray, Mother and I went to Sunday school and church. Ollie was by this evening. Played pinochle. Got some little pies. Sure good.

Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868)
Legendary frontiersman and Indian fighter

Kit Carson's life reads like an adventure novel.

He left home in rural Missouri at age 16 and became a mountain man and trapper in the West.
He explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and
 married into the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. Carson was hired by John C. Fremont as a guide,
 and led 'the Pathfinder' through much of California, Oregon and the Great Basin area. He achieved
 national fame through Fremont's accounts of his expeditions and became the hero of many dime novels.

Carson was a courier and scout during the Mexican-American war from 1846 to 1848, celebrated
for his rescue mission after the Battle of San Pasqual and his coast-to-coast journey from California
 to deliver news of the war to the U.S. government in Washington, D.C. In the 1850s, he was the Agent
 to the Ute and Jicarilla Apaches. In the Civil War he led a regiment of mostly Hispanic volunteers
 at the Battle of Valverde in 1862. He led armies to pacify the Navaho, Mescalero Apache, and the Kiowa
and Comanche Indians. He is vilified for his conquest of the Navajo and their forced transfer to
Bosque Redondo where many of them died. Breveted a general, he is probably the only American
to reach such a high military rank without being able to read or write, although he could sign his name.

Kit Carson is buried in Taos, New Mexico. 

Saturday, April 14, 1934

I went up to Pauline's today and we played ball nearly all day. Helen's was by. Ruth Ray and I went to the show and saw "Roman Scandals."

Stars Eddie Cantor, the Goldwyn Girls, Ruth Etting
Directed by Frank Tuttle
Written by George S. Kaufman (original story)

Plot Summary:

A kind-hearted young man is thrown out of his corrupt home town of West Rome, Oklahoma.

 He falls asleep and dreams that he is back in the days of olden Rome, where he gets mixed up

with court intrigue and a murder plot against the Emperor.

Friday, April 13,1934

Today was supposed to be "bad luck," but I got through okay.

Bonnie and Clyde's identification order

The End nears . . .

On April 13, 1934, an FBI agent, through investigation in the vicinity of Ruston, Louisiana, obtained
 information which definitely placed Bonnie and Clyde (in a car stolen in New Orleans) in a remote
section southwest of that community. The home of sometime accomplice Henry Methvin and
the Methvin was not far away, and the agent learned of visits there by Bonnie and Clyde. Special
 agents in Texas had learned that Clyde and his companion had been traveling from Texas to
Louisiana, occasionally accompanied by Henry Methvin. The FBI and local law enforcement authorities
 in Louisiana and Texas concentrated on apprehending Bonnie and Clyde, whom they strongly
believed to be in the area.

To be continued ... 

Thursday, April 12, 1934

Walked to school with Ruth Ray, Pauline and Nadine. Waited for them after school.

Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Located in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains

Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288 ft
 (1,917 m), famous for dangerously erratic weather. For 76 years, a weather observatory on 
 the summit held the record for the highest wind gust directly measured at the Earth's surface,
 231 mph (372 km/h) (or 103 m/s), on the afternoon of April 12, 1934.

Wednesday, April 11, 1934

Viola Kerns, Elizabeth Holland and Annabell Smith gave their Expressions today.

Alexander Majors (October 14, 1814 - January 13, 1900)

Alexander Majors was a U.S. businessman, who along with William Hepburn Russell and
William B. Waddell founded the Pony Express. In about 1860, the firm now known as
 "Russell, Majors and Waddell" formed the "Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express
 Company" to get the contract to deliver mail between Missouri and California, which had previously
been held by Butterfield Overland Mail which was delivering the mail in 25 days or more over
a route that went through the South. With Civil War clouds brewing, the group proposed
delivering the mail over a central route through Salt Lake City, Utah, and proposed doing it
in 10 days via a horse relay called the Pony Express.

Even though they succeeded in making the deliveries they did not get the contract and went
bankrupt when the Transcontinental Telegraph opened in October 1861. Majors provided
rail ties for the crews of the Union Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental
 Railroad. After the railroad was completed, he continued to haul freight to towns not yet
serviced by the railroad.

Majors' two-story frame farmhouse, built in 1855, still stands on the Missouri side
of State Line at 81st Street. The house is now a museum.





Tuesday, April 10, 1934

Walked to school with the kids. Ollie was over this evening.

April 10, 1934: Chicago Black Hawks win the Stanley Cup

The 1934 Stanley Cup Final National Hockey League championship series was contested
by the Chicago Black Hawks and the Detroit Red Wings. It was the Red Wings' first
appearance in the Final, and Chicago's second, after 1931. The Black Hawks won the best-
of-five series 3–1 to win their first Stanley Cup.

Note: In 1986, the team name was changed to Chicago Blackhawks.

Monday, April 9, 1934

Note: Ruth didn't write today.

Mary Evelyn "Billie" Frechette (September 15, 1907 – January 13, 1969)
Singer, waitress and, most notably, John Dillinger's girlfriend

Frechette met Dillinger in October 1933 and was arrested on April 9, 1934 on the charge of
harboring Dillinger in her St. Paul, Minnesota apartment, and served two years in federal prison
 for harboring a criminal. During her arrest, Dillinger and a companion watched from a block away;
he wanted to attack the lawmen and rescue her, but accepted the argument that he would die in
the attempt. She served two years and a day under the Federal Harboring Law at the Federal
Correctional Farm at Milan, Michigan, and was released in 1936. After her release, she toured
the country in a theatrical show called Crime Doesn't Pay - proving just the opposite, that
sometimes it does pay. Several members of Dillinger's family toured with her.

Sunday, April 8, 1934

Ruth Ray went to Sunday school and church with us. In the evening we went up to the Linwood and saw "Mr. Skitch." I'd read the story.

"Mr. Skitch"
Starring Will Rogers, Rochelle Hudson and Zasu Pitts
Director: James Cruze
Writer (story): Anne Cameron; writer (script) Sonya Levien
Genre: Comedy/Adventure/Romance

Tagline: "Meet the Skitches, they'll keep you in stitiches as they
hit the high spots of hilarity from Missouri to California."

Saturday, April 7, 1934

Nadine, Pauline and Ruth Ray were all down today.

April 7, 1934: Russo-Finnish Non-Aggression Pact Renewed
(Pact was originally signed in 1932)

The pact stands for five-and-a-half years. Then, on November 28, 1939, three Finnish border
guards disappear from their (far north) Pummanki border guard post. Tracks indicate that
 Soviet troops have crossed the border and kidnapped the men.

The Soviets deny the charge. USSR Foreign Minister Molotov (for whom the deadly cocktail
is named) claims that the Finnish reply to its denial reveals its hostile intentions toward the
the Soviet Union therefore nullifying the 1932 non-aggression pact. On Moscow Radio an
announcement is read by the Leniningrad military district that the Finnish provocations
have continued, sparking Russian works to demonstrate and demand that the Finnish
provocateurs be punished.

In Finland the cabinet can't decide on how to react. There's a growing feeling that the
Soviets have to be placated somehow, but some ministers (especially ones in territories
near the border being demanded by the Soviets) still resist any concessions. The two
countries are now at what amounts to a stalemate.

Friday, April 6, 1934

Note: Ruth didn't write today.

Betty in Blunderland
Released April 6, 1934
Director: David Fleischer

Late at night, Betty Boop is making a jigsaw puzzle with a picture of Alice in Wonderland on it.
She dreams she’s Alice, stepping through the looking glass into Wonderland. There she sings
“How Do You Do” to Humpty Dumpty, the Duchess, the Mad Hatter, the Walrus and the Carpenter,
 and the Mock Turtle, before being kidnapped by the evil Jabberwock.

Thursday, April 5, 1934

Walked to school with Pauline. I sure had a lot of mathematics tonight.

Original printed edition (Spanish edition) from April 5, 1934.

The magazine has 53 pages (13 x 9.5 inches) and includes 64 costume designs original of the era.
Fashion trends from Paris, London, etc. A "Rochas" and "Heim" original designs on the cover,
and pages of advice, advertising, etc. It also includes sewing tips, and tips for knitting, and
diagrams and explanation to make a pattern from one of the dresses.

Wednesday, April 4, 1934

I stayed for volleyball after school. Got wave set for Mother.

Philadelphia Briefs - April 4, 1934

In the 1930s several new tabloid newspapers, most of them weeklies, were launched
in the United States. Most of them were in New York, though new titles appeared
across the Northeast. Many individuals involved in different incarnations of Broadway
Brevities, which had become a weekly tabloid in 1931, edited, published or wrote for
papers such as Broadway Tattler, New York Tattler and Scandal. The Annenbergs,
respectable in later years as the publishers of TV Guide and the Philadelphia Inquirer,
were the focus of police action in the 1930s for publishing Philadelphia Brevities and
similar papers in Washington, Chicago, Baltimore and New York.

 

Tuesday, April 3, 1934

Ruth Ray, Pauline and I walked to school. After school Gweyn and I walked way down to the Union Station.

Union Station - Kansas City, Missouri 1933

The Beaux-Arts station opened on October 30, 1914. Encompassing 850,000 square feet, it was the
 second-largest train station in the country. The design by Jarvis Hunt had a main hall for
ticketing, and a perpendicular hall extending out over the tracks for passenger waiting. The Grand
Hall ceiling was 95 feet high and the Grand Hall clock had a six-foot diameter face. Due to its
central location, Kansas City remained a hub for both passenger and freight rail traffic.

Union Station made headlines on June 17, 1933, as four unarmed FBI agents were gunned down by
gang members attempting to free captured fugitive Frank Nash. Nash was also killed in the gun battle.
The “Kansas City Massacre” highlighted the lawlessness of Kansas City under the Pendergast
Machine and resulted in the arming of all FBI agents.

In 1945, annual passenger traffic peaked at 678,363. As train travel declined beginning in the 1950s,
the city had less and less need for a large train station. By 1973, only 32,842 passengers passed
through the facility, all passenger train service was now run by Amtrak, which eventually suspended
service, and the building was beginning to deteriorate.

The building continued to decay until, in 1996, residents in five counties throughout the metro area
in both Kansas and Missouri approved the so-called "bi-state tax", a 1/8 of a cent sales tax, part of
 which helped to fund just under half of the $250 million restoration of Union Station. Renovation began
in 1997 and was completed in 1999. The remaining money was raised through private donations
and federal funding. Today Union Station receives no public funding. Current operating costs are
funded by general admission and theater ticketing, grants, corporate and private donations, commercial
 space leases and facility rental.

In 2002, Amtrak restored passenger train service to the station. There are currently two trains daily
to and from St. Louis, one train daily to Chicago, and one train daily to the southwest (ultimately
 to Los Angeles).





Monday, April 2, 1934

Went to school. Daddy took Pauline, Ruth Ray and I. I walked home with Ruth Ray. In the evening went skating.

Celluloid Kewpie doll

Kewpie dolls and figurines are based on comic strip-like illustrations by Rose O'Neill
 that appeared in Ladies' Home Journal in 1909. The small dolls were extremely popular
  in the early twentieth century. They were first produced in Ohrdruf, a small town in Germany,
then famous for its toy manufacturers. They were made out of bisque and then celluloid.
Another company later created the first hard plastic editions. Their name, often
shortened to "Kewpies", is derived from "cupid", the Roman god of beauty and – as Eros
 is the Greek version of Cupid – erotic love. This particular style of doll was awarded as
a carnival prize and often collected

Their creator, Rose O'Neill (June 25, 1874 – April 6, 1944), is buried in Springfield, Missouri.

Sunday, April 1, 1934

Ruth Ray went to Sunday school and church with me. Nadine, Pauline and I saw "Dinner at Eight" with Jean Harlow. Sure good. Nadine and I went to our church in the evening.

"Dinner at Eight" poster

Starring: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery
Director: George Cukor
Writers: Frances Marion, Herman Mankiewicz and three others

Plot Summary:

Social climbing Millicent and Oliver Jordan throw a dinner for a bunch of New York
society types, each of whom has much to reveal.