Celebrating Greater Kansas City (Urban Tapestry Series)

Celebrating Greater Kansas City (Urban Tapestry Series) by Brisbane, Arthur S.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781881096610.

"Kansas City is a city with a story to tell," proclaims Arthur S. Brisbane, president and publisher of The Kansas City Star. "The question is how to tell it." Do you go straight for the jugular? No, he decides, you start with the stomach. And so begins Celebrating Greater Kansas City, an endearing look at the area and communities that, Brisbane contends, owe their heart of America distinction largely to beef. "Beef, as things would turn out, begat much of what we think of as Kansas City today," he says, pointing to such colorful native sons as writer Calvin Trillin, who made local barbecue a tourist attraction, and restaurateur Arthur Bryant, whose tasty--albeit greasy --plate of beef has attracted everyone from U.S. presidents on down. Over the years, beef brought hordes of moneymakers to town-- from industries as varied as telecommunications and automotive to printing and the federal government. And the result was a remarkably stable economy that today affords such cultural and entertainment amenities as the Kansas City Art Institute, countless jazz and blues clubs, and the beloved Kansas City Chiefs. Aided by hundred of outstanding images collected by photography editors Laura Maxwell Shultz and the late Suzanne Robinson, Brisbane masterfully and humorously tells the story of Greater Kansas City, a community that admittedly "didnt amount to much before the cattle came." And though Kansa City has moved away from its Grade A roots, one thing hasnt changed, concludes Brisbane: "Were still eating barbecue."