National Archives at Kansas City

National Archives to host author John Simonson for a discussion of Paris of the Plains: Kansas City from Doughboys to Expressways

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information: Kimberlee Ried, 816-268-8072

Kansas City, (MO)…The National Archives at Kansas City will host author John Simonson for a discussion and signing of his book Paris of the Plains: Kansas City from Doughboys to Expressways on Tuesday, December 7 at 6:30 p.m. Simonson will be available to sign copies of his book after the discussion. A 6:00 p.m. reception will precede the event.

From the end of the Great War to the final years of the 1950s, Kansas Citians lived in a manner worthy of a place called Paris of the Plains. The title did more than nod to the perfumed ladies who shopped at Harzfeld’s Parisian or the one-thousand-foot television antenna nicknamed the “Eye-full Tower.” It spoke to the character of a town that worked for Boss Tom and danced for Count Basie but transcended both the Pendergast era and the Jazz Age. Simonson introduces readers to a town of vaudeville shows and screened-in porches, where fleets of cream-and-black streetcars passed beneath a canopy of elms. This is a history that smells equally of lilacs and stockyards and bursts with the clamor of gunshots, radio baseball and the distant whistle of a night train.

John Simonson has edited newspaper and magazine copy from New York to California. As a Kansas Citian he's written about the arts, education, medicine, sports, business and local history for Ingram's, Kansas City Magazine, St. Luke's Hospital, UMKC, Andrews McMeel and others. Since 2008 he's been blogging about the more obscure events of Kansas City's past at parisoftheplains.com. He lives in a house built in 1929 with Susan and their four-legged best friends, Eliza and Blossom.

Copies of Paris of the Plains: Kansas City from Doughboys to Expressways will be available for purchase at The Kansas City Store at the National Archives. Following the program the author will be available to sign copies of his book. For more information or to make a reservation for this free event call 816-268-8010 or register by emailing: kansascity.educate@nara.gov.

The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 13 facilities nationwide where the public has access to Federal archival records. It is home to more than 50,000 cubic feet of historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by nearly 100 Federal agencies. Serving the Central Plains Region, the archives holds records from the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The facility is located at 400 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108. It is open to the public Tuesday - Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for research, with the exhibits open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 816-268-8000 or visit: www.archives.gov/central-plains.

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NREKA 10-49

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