Happy In Bag

Friday, February 16, 2007

Ground Control












The old
TWA building has become my favorite structure in Kansas City. Much like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, the formerly decrepit edifice now shines proudly. It's not just the building that's been spruced up. The neighborhood surrounding the site has also been revived. The final touch is the rocket on the southwest corner of the roof.

posted by Happy In Bag @ 7:43 AM  

7 Comments:

  • At 10:02 AM, Blogger Xavier Onassis said…

    This comment has been removed by the author.

     

  • At 1:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    So um, Kennedy's is burning?

     

  • At 6:44 PM, Blogger Xavier Onassis said…

    I tried posting this before, but realized I'd gotten the facts crossed so I deleted it.

    Tried again this morning, but the girlfriend called and we went out to run errands.

    OK. I'll try this again. I love that building too. My old man is a retired TWA mechanic. Having the TWA Moonliner back up there is awesome.

    The original Moonliner was 80' tall and was at Disneyland. Howard Hughes bout logo rights from Disney and it became the TWA Moonliner. Hughes had a smaller replica built and put it on the building.

    After TWA left town, the Moonliner could be seen along the highway in Concordia advertising Space Craft Trailers (http://www.spacecraftmfg.com/).

    Recently, a guy bought it, cleaned out the pigeon poop, and restored it. You can see it at the aviation museum at the downtown airport.

    The advertising company that occupies the old TWA building now commisioned the replica you see on the building today. So it is a replica of a replica of the Disneyland rocket.

    This ends today's history lesson.

     

  • At 7:13 PM, Blogger Happy In Bag said…

    Thanks, XO. Good stuff.

    Panos, your note alerted me to the awful news. Following XO's lead, here's a bit o' history. That building once housed the Waldo Astoria dinner theater. I think they had a competitor located around 51st and Main. If I'm not mistaken, the guys who ran Waldo Astoria are the same people who now operate the dinner theater just west of 91st and Metcalf. I dated a girl who worked at the Waldo Astoria and I recall picking her up after her shift ended around 10:15pm or so.

     

  • At 8:19 PM, Blogger Xavier Onassis said…

    I remember the Waldo Astoria too.

    But not until I was reminded by a local news story.

    That explains why every time I see an ad for the New Theatre Restaraunt, I picture it being in Waldo.

     

  • At 9:40 AM, Blogger bgo said…

    Hey y'all, I am old enough to remember going to see The Longest Day at the Waldo Theatre in 1962, just shy of turning 10 years old. I live nearby this former space and feel truly sad about what happened.

    bgo

     

  • At 2:44 PM, Blogger Happy In Bag said…

    I never realized it was a movie house, BGO. That's astounding.

     

Post a Comment

<< Home