KC Confidential

Most wannabes are more than happy to get their 15 minutes of fame….

In the case of former Overland Parker Karolyn Grimes she doesn’t need to settle. The child actress many know as ZuZu Bailey – from her role as Jimmy Stewart‘s cute-as-a-button daughter in the Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life” – is beyond celebrity.

She followed that role as David Niven and Loretta Young‘s very young daughter in another holiday classic, “The Bishop’s Wife.”

However, the Hollywood born, child star’s promising movie career was cut short by the death of her mother, and a year later her father via a car accident. All of which resulted in her being farmed out to a troubled uncle and his wife in Osceola, Missouri. After which followed a career as a medical technologist courtesy of the University of Central Missouri and her eventual migration to Kansas City.

While some knew of Grimes tres glam holiday past, it wasn’t until 1993, after her second husband’s death, that she began to realize her ties to those films could translate into a lucrative, post Hollywood life.

“Target decided to reunite the Bailey kids in their stores,” Grimes says. “They sent us all around the country. That’s when I realized all those people standing in line to get our autographs really loved that movie and it had an importance in their lives.”

Overnight the 50-ish Grimes career as a classic movie, child star was born.

Having worked with Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant, “I didn’t really meet any of them,” Grimes says. “But Loretta Young contacted me. She used to send me Catholic prayers.”

These days – at the ripe young age of 82 – Grimes spends her holidays (and year round) making appearances, celebrating her role as Zuzu and “It’s A Wonderful Life” at events and festivals world wide.

It’s the perfect storm of celebrity.

“I have the best of both worlds,” she says. “Because people don’t recognize me from the movie, but when I tell them their faces light up. It’s really a lovely opportunity for me to meet new people and see how happy it makes them. Mostly it’s in the fall and winter, but I do autograph shows like the Cherry Blossom Festival in Marshfield, Missouri.”

Meanwhile, back-at-the-ranch, Grimes has a daughter in KC and friends she likes to visit.

That said, to this day, she’s yet to throw the switch on KC’s infamous Plaza Lighting.

“I was supposed to do it one year, but then they gave it to someone who won some Ryan Seacrest reality show. I just think it’s so funny because whoever heard of him today, but I’m still going.”

Grimes wildest Zuzu story?

“Oh wow, nobody’s has ever asked me that,” she says. “I know I have some good ones, but let’s see.”

How about any Zuzu groupie action? Continue reading →

Getting actual news out in a timely manner hasn’t been of much importance of late…

Not at the Kansas City Star anyway.

The former grande dame of local news and information has long since been turned into a loosely written amalgam of left-leaning slants, run by underpaid wannabe journalists.

Don’t get me wrong.

I’m sure they’re all nice and well-intentioned. That said, we live in a news world populated by writers who believe their opinions far outweigh the more even handed kind of reporting of the Art Brisbane and before era.

Not long ago one of the highest distinctions a Star staffer could achieve was the so-called William Rockhill Nelson “Full Nelson” award. Employee’s names were inscribed on plaques hanging in the Nelson Room outside the old cafeteria at the Star building at 18th and Grand. It was more an employee award than anything related to journalism.

Ah, but now everything Rockhill Nelson-related has been scrubbed from the newspaper’s history. Kinda like schools with the names of folks like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have been rubbed out of their existences.

Hey, it’s the way of the Brave New World…like it or lump it.

And now – at long last – the Star has blown editor Mike Fannin a farewell kiss.

Seriously, how many DUIs, assault convictions and other low brow activities does it take?

Former Star publisher Mark Zieman handed Fannin his crown – despite that he’d just garnered a DUI and suffered through an affair with a married subordinate and gosh knows what else.

Clearly, the days of the Star appointing high brow individuals to top positions are long gone. Although, I suspect with handing what’s left of the keys to the kingdom to Greg Farmer is another step in that direction.

 The $64 million question: Does it really matter any more? Continue reading →

Everyone has their Achilles heel…

Even if you never heard of George Orwell or his novel, 1984, like my suburban neighbors. That said, the definition is, “a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can lead to a downfall.”

These days Achilles heels are everywhere, even at daily newspapers like the Kansas City Star and Arizona Daily Star. In KC, it was always a given that the comics, puzzles, horoscopes and the microscopically small daily TV listings were of vital importance.

Not to me, except maybe as a child or young adult. I’ll admit to pouring over the Sunday comics and weekly TV grids in search of an odd old movie. It was tedious and time consuming, but hey, that of course was before Al Gore invented the Internet.

I found cartoons like Peanuts, Blondie even Brenda Starr (remember that one?)  somewhat tolerable, but never really sank my teeth into crossword puzzles and other games, though I know others did.

As I grew up, I found other distractions far more important. Things like pro wrestling, backgammon and dating, to name three.

That the Star placed such – to me, inexplicable – importance on comics and the like was baffling, but I figured in time, the rest of you would outgrow them as well.

Was I ever wrong.

Fast forward to the present where any number of other distractions take up countless hours of my life. Who has time tiny for black-and-white comic strips anyway?

I’ll tell you who, newspaper readers…and in droves.

Which may explain why many oldsters still venture into their driveways to get what passes for daily news.

And like Art Brisbane and his forebears knew, take them away at your peril. Continue reading →

Talk about where’s Waldo…

As popular as Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes is – the loss to Indy aside – his insanely tall and clearly insane – little brother Jackson Mahomes is the opposite, as in unpopular.

For the past two years locals have groaned and endured the goofy-beyond-belief Jackson’s over-the-top antics, as he romped around KC, shadowing the Chiefs and leading Patrick’s wife Brittany astray in embarrassing ways.

Given how conservative Patrick and National Football League are – Hunter Biden aside – it never really quite made sense.  I mean, it’s a “free country” and anybody can dance embarrassingly on TikTok and swear up and down they’re not gay – but who needs that kind of action?

Likely not the Chiefs.

And yet, three weeks into this season Jackson has been totally missing in action.

Sop what gives?

Well, for starters he quietly announced he was leaving KC earlier this year.

“I’m moving to LA,” Jackson wrote March 1st.

That after stating publicly that the media was “destroying” his life. Continue reading →

Who can forget the wild and crazy Summer of Love 2020?

Not Hollywood.

While I never stopped going to movies during the COVID hoopla – long as theaters were open – my wife, daughters and I were pretty lonely in the nearly empty auditoriums.

That was then…

Finally, with the  Tom Cruise sequel to his dated, boring, original Top Gun, people started coming back to theaters. Not like pre pandemic days, but, hey, the longest journey begins with the first step.

Out here in the desert, I typically see two or three movies a month, which includes a tons of previews or trailers. The latest crop stands out because it includes three movies depicting African Americans in old timey jungle flicks.

Reminds me of those politically correct, “We believe” yard signs.

You know, the ones with slogans like “Black Lives Matter,” “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights,” “No Human Is Illegal” and “Climate Change Is Real.”

‘Member them?

Well, for around $30, you can still buy those signs online or better yet, revisit that bygone epoch by watching movies like Black Panther Wakanda Forever, The Woman King and The Beast.

Take your pick, but prepare for a helping of revisionist history. Continue reading →

How long before the SEC & Big 10 stop paying big bucks to lesser teams like Mizzou, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, I wondered?

“To answer your last question: Never,” fired back the Guy Who Days What Others Think. “It’s a dumb idea only put forth by those who are still red-assed about the changing landscape of college sports. Oh and Missouri will never leave the SEC for the B1g 12. That ship has sailed.

“What’s truly hilarious is watching the same batch of morons at KU who bad mouthed Missouri for leaving, in full panic mode trying to find a new conference to land in. Missouri made the right move in 2011/12, and it’s still the right move. The Big 12 was a dead man walking from the day it was formed in complete and total dysfunction.

“The Texas & OU programs that MU, aTm, NU, and CU left behind have been humbled over the last decade. Gone are the days where they dictate what goes on in a conference. They will sit down, shut up, and row in the same direction as all the other teams in the SEC. Texas A&M threw a hissy fit when UT/OU applied for membership, but when it came to nut cutting time, they were told to sit down, shut up, and vote yes. And that’s EXACTLY what they did.

“And trust me, I’d rather travel to Nashville, Athens, Oxford, Knoxville, etc. than Ames, Lawrence, Omaha, Mancrappin’ KS, Lubbock, or Waco. It’s not even a contest.”

Hold it right there, dude…

Most football fans never travel to away games, with rare excecption. And driving for a couple hours, rather than days is far preferable to me. If I’m looking for vacation options, it rarely involves a sporting event, although I have gone to a few Orange Bowls while visiting my parents in Florida.

Back to the dude… Continue reading →

A year ago it looked like the Big 12 might be toast…

A handful of schools that made up the college sports conference many Kansas Citian’s grew up with had bailed 10 years earlier to escape bullying by Texas and Oklahoma.  They included, Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC; Nebraska to the Big 10; and Colorado to the Pac 12.

Then last summer, Texas and OU said they too were going to the SEC for bigger bucks. Which left Kansas, K-State and the remaining Big 12 schools in the lurch. With just eight left, starting in 2025 many thought the Big 12 could be kaput.

Ah, but not so fast…

The Big 12 went out and signed significant schools Brigham Young, Houston, Cincinnati and the University of Central Florida in Orlando – all of which begin conference play next year.

Bullet dodged.

And just as something approaching a calm was starting to set in, all heck broke loose again a couple weeks back, when Southern Cal and UCLA announced they were quitting the Pac 12 to join the Big 10.

Which calls into question now if the Pac 12 can survive.

The $64 billion question: Which Pac 12 schools can the Big 12 lure.

At present, the betting money is on Arizona – my alma mater here in Tucson – and Colorado.

Should those schools or any others leave the Pac 12, the consensus is it would doom the west coast’s premier college sports league.

In recent days there are a number of developments in that regard.

Take a column and radio interview with Denver Post sports writer Sean Keeler, who wrote that Colorado should jump at the chance to rejoin the Big 12.

“I would say the fan base would be 60-40 Big 12 and maybe even higher,” Keeler said in a podcast interview. “They feel burned, they were duped – they feel duped by the Pac 12 – they feel like red-headed mountain step cousins. You know, it’s not been good. The fans don’t like the Pac 12.”

Like Mizzou, Colorado’s gone from Big 12 powerhouse to bottom feeder. Continue reading →

Seems like only yesterday…

The never-ending, ongoing demise of the Big 12 Conference, that is. The crazy part is – Colorado started it by bailing for the Pac 10 a dozen years ago; followed by Nebraska to the now infamous Big 10 a year later; and Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC in 2012.

The reason they gave: to get away from the financial bullying by Texas.

Funny thing, because looking back, those great escapes resulted in Texas and Oklahoma saying last summer they were bailing for the SEC. Meaning Mizzou and A&M will be reunited with school they fled to escape.

Go figure.

Clearly, the fallout from those moves has not been pretty.

For starters, Kansas gave Mizzou the cold shoulder until recently, ending the so-called “oldest rivalry west the Mississippi.”

Ditto for the Nebraska-Oklahoma fall holiday classics.,

Nobody seemed to care much about Colorado, but Nebraska fell from being a perennial Top 10 in the Big 12, to a Big 10 also ran.

In the meantime, Missouri went from a Big 12 college basketball powerhouse to reegular losses to lowly UMKC – AMC Theatres founder Stan Durwood’s old team. And after playing KU for a No. 1 ranking in 2007, it’s fallen into football mediocrity. Continue reading →

What were the odds?

That when outspoken KC comedy legend Craig Glazer and his brothers chipped in to purchase an expensive life insurance policy on their dad several years back, that Stanford’s & Sons founder Stan Glazer would outlive all three of them.

Less than zero, they all thought, but et that’s exactly what happened.

Craig held funerals for both his brothers – Jeff Glazer and Jack Glazer – shortly before checking out himself in 2018 after half watching Patrick Mahomes launch his wildly successful career pre season games from his hospital bed.

Now the last surviving member of the storied Glazer clan ground to a quiet close recently when 90 year-old father Stan went for a dirt nap in Arizona near Tucson.

So much for those crazy Glazer kids cashing in on the pricey policy. Continue reading →