Three ideas were percolating in my head for this mid-May post: (i) Today is the third anniversary of the finale of the (Vahe) Gregorian Chants; (ii) David Von Drehle’s The Book of Charlie is being released next week; and (iii) Lorenzo Cain had a moving retirement ceremony at Kauffman Stadium. Coincidentally, all three stories have a Covid angle.
A teaser for Von Drehle’s book…
But first…
(Vahe) Gregorian Chants: The Chiefs won the Super Bowl on February 2, 2020. Kansas City Star sportswriter Vahe Gregorian was a very busy man covering the playoffs and the big parade.
Vahe then jumped into Royals coverage as spring training opened in Arizona on February 12.
On March 12, spring training was suspended. Covid.
On March 24, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas issued a “Stay-At-Home” order.
Each morning the order was in effect, Vahe tweeted a theme song to start the day. Songs were selected to match up with how we were living with Covid – and looking forward to things getting better.
Each week, Vahe’s songs were compiled into a playlist in the Lonnie’s Jukebox section of Hot Stove. I anointed them “Gregorian Chants” and sometimes added bonus picks and commentary. Here is a sample from Day One:
Day One (March 24): Vahe’s choice has a direct word-link to the Stay-At-Home order. It is “Stay”, a song covered by many artists since it first hit the charts six decades ago. The version linked in Vahe’s tweet is a performance by Jackson Browne, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen at the 1979 No Nukes concert…For those of us who grew up on rock ‘n’ roll in the ‘50s and ‘60s, our pick would be the original by the guy who wrote the song, Maurice Williams. His doo-wop version with the Zodiacs went to #1 in 1960. It is the shortest #1 song in chart history (96 seconds). Listen to his “Stay” here.
The Stay-At-Home order lasted until May 15. A total of 53 days. Which meant 53 songs. And eight Hot Stoves (#124-#131).
Vahe’s last Gregorian Chant, three years ago today:
Covid was still in pandemic mode, but we were moving from isolation to social-distancing (“across the street”).
Fast forward to February of 2023. Vahe again had the pleasure of covering a Kansas City Super Bowl victory.
David Von Drehle: On the same day the Stay-At-Home order was issued and Vahe posted his first song, there was a column in the Washington Post, headlined “I probably have a “mild or moderate’ case of COVID-19. I don’t think I could survive worse.” The author was David Von Drehle, a Post columnist based in Kansas City.
I met David when our mutual friend Adam Sachs lured us to join the Monarchs Club, a booster club for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. When I met him, he was with Time Magazine, and in 2017, he moved over to the Washington Post. He has often been quoted in Hot Stove (his first newspaper job was on the sports desk at the Denver Post where he worked for five years during high school and college). We also cross paths at Truman Library Institute events where he regularly interviews historians and dignitaries.
David wrote his COVID-19 column while ill: “It’s going to be a race now to see whether I can finish this column before I pass out. Writing even this much has been the most taxing thing I’ve done in a week, since I finished my last column in a delirium.”
He followed up with a column three days later, headlined “What the gift of this unpleasant infection has helped me understand.” An excerpt:
“My weakness is my community’s strength. The less I am good for, the more magnificent my family and friends become…I am surviving the virus but not spreading it. Some of us are chosen to suffer, some to console; some to isolate, others to plunge into the fray; some to give, some to receive; some to be broken, others to be healers…We need to respect it and give it the fullness of time…But joy comes in the morning. Joy comes with the breaking of fevers and easing of fears. Joy comes with the battles won or bravely lost. With the sacrifice of self to the service of others, joy comes.”
David recovered and returned to his normal busy life. His columns in the Post. His interviews – below, from last month, with Doris Kearns Goodwin at the Truman Library Institute’s “Wild About Harry!” dinner.
He was instrumental in forming the investment group that purchased Rainy Day Books last year. When Rita was recuperating from her hip replacement, David showed up on our doorstep with dinner. He continued to be quoted in Hot Stove.
David also finished a book…
The Book of Charlie: The full title is The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man.
In 2007, David and his family moved to Kansas City from Washington D.C. His new position (then with Time Magazine) allowed him to work remotely. Soon after his family moved into a Mission Hills home, David saw his across-the-street neighbor washing a car in the driveway. The neighbor was Charlie White, and the car belonged to Charlie’s girlfriend. Charlie was then 102.
To David’s surprise, he would have the opportunity to talk to Charlie for seven years. When Charlie died in 2014 at the age of 109, David wrote a column in Time Magazine headlined “Life Lessons From One of the World’s Oldest Men.” An excerpt:
“Talking to Charlie was like falling into a history book. He was born in 1905, during the second Theodore Roosevelt administration…he bemoaned the fact that he had recently been compelled to give up golf, at 101…Even more amazing, though, was Charlie’s brain. He salted his conversations with details plucked effortlessly from yesterday’s newspaper and events of a century ago.”
A photo of Charlie at age 103 ran with the column (photo credit – KC attorney Doug Dalgleish, Von Drehle’s next door neighbor and Charlie’s son-in-law).
Von Drehle had a lot more to say about his centenarian friend, including how Charlie persevered and thrived through 109 years of dramatic changes in the world. Hence, The Book of Charlie.
As readers of Von Drehle’s columns know, his knowledge of history is vast, and he excels at placing events in context. With Charlie’s roller-coaster life as a guide, David takes us through advances in transportation, medicine and communication while sprinkling in bits of history about Kansas City and the world at large.
Charlie was born before cars were mass-produced and lived to see astronauts on the moon. He was born before radio and lived to use a smartphone. As a boy, he sat on a hilltop watching the construction of Kansas City’s Union Station and lived to see it restored to its former glory. During his life, 19 presidents served the nation (Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama). Also, two World Wars and assorted other conflicts.
Facing many obstacles along the way, Charlie pursued a career in medicine. He talked his way into medical school at Northwestern and worked his way through by playing the saxophone at clubs in Chicago. In his early days as a doctor at KC’s General Hospital, he dealt with the mob and the Pendergast machine. He went from being a family doctor before antibiotics to being the first doctor in Kansas City to specialize in anesthesiology, including improvising techniques for open-heart surgery.
Charlie loved the medical world. His expertise led to staff privileges at Baptist Memorial, St. Luke’s, Children’s Mercy and St. Joseph hospitals. He retired from his practice in 1975, but he stayed involved in medical circles. When he was in his nineties, he still met regularly with physicians to keep up on medical advances, joined in rounds with medical students and teaching doctors and served on a medical missionary trip to Haiti.
The qualities that repeatedly come through are Charlie’s Stoicism, grit, resourcefulness and resilience. His mantra in life was passed along from his mother, “Just do the right thing.”
Candice Millard, a Kansas City author of many best-selling books, has a good take on this:
“As is true of Charlie himself, this book is not just about goodness but grit, not just kindness but courage. It is also a shining example of the magic that can happen when a master storyteller finds a subject that has hidden within it a million tantalizing opportunities to learn, to question, and to grow. To say that The Book of Charlie is inspiring is a vast understatement. I am a better person for having read it.”
Lonnie’s take: What she said.
Buy the Book and See David: The Book of Charlie will be released on Tuesday, May 23. That night, David will be interviewed by KCUR’s Steve Kraske at 7:00 at Unity Temple on the Plaza. The event is co-sponsored by Rainy Day Books and the Truman Library Institute, and tickets are available with purchase of the book from Rainy Day. See details here.
For more, see Dan Kelly’s interview with David in yesterday’s Kansas City Star (click here).
Lorenzo Cain Retirement: After Lorenzo Cain thrilled Royals fans from 2011 to 2017, he signed as a free agent with Milwaukee. He made it to the postseason with the Brewers in 2018 and 2019.
He was with the Brewers in 2020 when spring training was suspended for Covid. Cain returned when the short season started, but only played five games before opting out of the balance of the season.
He played two more seasons with Milwaukee in 2021 and 2022 and then retired…except for signing a one-day contract with the Royals for May 6, 2023 so he could retire a Royal.
Cain said one of the benefits of opting out of the 2020 Covid season was bonding with his three boys. “Throughout that time I was home, I felt like we built another, I would say special bond that I think was missing. I feel like we are closer more now than maybe throughout them growing up.”
The bonding with his boys was evident on retirement day. He signed his one-day Royals contract with them at his side. And at the ceremony on the field, his three boys spaced themselves from center field to second base to relay a ball to the pitching mound where LoCain was stationed for his throw of the ceremonial first pitch to Salvy Perez (video here). The entire ceremony was a first class presentation by the Royals and graciously received by Cain (as reported here by Vahe Gregorian).
Cain’s decision to retire as a Royal was five years in the making. In 2018, when he played his first game as a Milwaukee Brewer at Kauffman Stadium, Cain received a standing ovation in his first at bat (click here). Later in the game, he hit a home run and got another ovation (click here). Cain was deeply moved by the reaction of the fans, especially on the home run. “You don’t see that often,” he said. Forever Royal.
On a smaller scale, also in 2018, Cain got that appreciation from Rita and me. We were on an MLB stadium tour, and one of our stops was Pittsburgh. The Pirates were playing the Brewers, and when we arrived, Cain and his teammates were taking batting practice. We went to the lower boxes and called out to Cain (“Kansas City! Kansas City!”). He came over to talk to us, and we got one of Rita’s favorite photos.
Thanks for everything Lorenzo. Enjoy your next chapter.
Lonnie’s Jukebox (1) – Gregorian Chants: As I scrolled through Vahe’s song selections, the big winner was Bruce Springsteen. Next in line, the Kinks and Bob Seger. I have consolidated Vahe’s 53 songs and my bonus tracks and commentary into one long playlist that is accessible on the Lonnie’s Jukebox website (click here).
Lonnie’s Jukebox (2) – David Von Drehle Edition: David’s breadth of knowledge on history is matched by his interest in music from many genres.
When I featured “Joy to the World” from the Big Chill in the last Hot Stove post, David responded, “Thanks for taking me back to The Big Chill. Along with American Graffiti, one of the two best anthology soundtracks of all time.” Those are also my two top choices.
So David is a rock ‘n’ roll guy, right?
Not so fast. Check out the songs below, each of which is paired with a headline and quote from a column by David. He’s everywhere.
To start, as he told Don Imus in an interview, David is a big country music fan…
“Bigger Than the Beatles” by Joe Diffe. An “Appreciation” column related to Covid deaths (3/31/20). “Diffe made hits that played well as background music, but had hooks that sent you grabbing for the volume knob.”
“Kiss An Angel Good Morning” by Charlie Pride. “Charlie Pride immersed himself in a genre that seemingly had no place for him.” (Column dated 12/14/20). “An injury to his pitching arm prevented him from making the step from the last days of the Negro Leagues to the newly integrated Majors. Baseball’s loss was music’s gain.”
“Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” by Loretta Lynn. “Another queen is dead. Long live Loretta Lynn” (10/5/22). Loretta died less than a month after Queen Elizabeth in the fall of 2022. “There’s a famous song that says country music needs trains, trucks and Mama – but like its cousin, the Delta blues, country just needs a lot of real life to chew on: sinning, praying, loving, hating, cheating, drinking, wishing, crying. Loneliness, epiphanies and laughter. So the more life threw at Loretta Lynn, the truer to life she could be.”
Country blended with other genres (John Prine described his own genre as somewhere between Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan)…
“Summer’s End” by John Prine. Another “Appreciation” column related to Covid deaths (4/8/20). “There will be a lot of both, laughing and crying, among the many fans of John Prine, in celebrating and mourning a rare poet of American song.”
Some jazz, blues and swing…
“La Fiesta” by Chick Corea. “We must find space to celebrate the joy and genius of Chick Corea” (2/12/21). “As a composer, Corea was tuneful and propulsively rhythmic – it’s almost impossible not to sway while listening to “La Fiesta,” for example.
“Yardbird Suite” by Charlie Parker. “Middle America cannot be forgotten unless is forgets itself” (8/28/20). Von Drehle used the 100th anniversary of Charlie Parker’s birth to celebrate the contributions of the middle of America – it is much more than flyover country. In the 1930s, Parker began his career on the “glittering Black Broadway of Vine Street” where the Benny Moten Orchestra, Count Basie and others spawned Kansas City swing, jazz and blues.
And a little Broadway…
“Tonight” from West Side Story, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. “The lyrical genius of Stephen Sondheim.” (11/27/21). “The most admired composer-lyricist of late 20th-century musical theater…”.
Lonnie’s Jukebox (3) – Coon-Sanders Nighthawks and Charlie: In 1913-14, Joe Sanders was a senior at Westport High School. He was a good piano player and performed at various clubs in town. When he came home with mounds of coins and bills received as tips, his older brother Roy thought Joe might have fallen in with the wrong crowd. Roy found out the truth by following Joe one night.
In the early 1920s, Joe formed an orchestra with drummer Carleton Coon, and their Coon-Sanders Nighthawks became very popular in venues catering to white audiences. Prohibition was ignored while Kansas Citians enjoyed booze and the dance crazes of the Roaring Twenties. Over in the 18th and Vine area, the Benny Moten Orchestra and others were performing their special brand of music for the Black community.
One of the major venues for Coon-Sanders was the Hotel Muehlebach where they drew big crowds. The band began broadcasting their late night hotel shows on WDAF radio, one of the first licensees of the new technology. In these early days of uncluttered airwaves, Coon-Sanders music could be heard on radio around the country. They became known as “The Band That Made Radio Famous.” The Nighthawks also toured extensively, recorded their music on major labels and had long-term engagements in Chicago and New York.
“The Coon-Sanders Nighthawk Orchestra was the most successful and influential of the early white bands to come out of Kansas City,” says historian/archivist Chuck Haddix (a/k/a Chuck Haddock on KCUR’s Fish Fry). Chuck has chronicled the orchestra in a fascinating essay that includes fun vintage photos. That’s Joe at the piano.
“Sluefoot” by Coon-Sanders Nighthawks. Good slide show included at the link.
“Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” by Coon-Sanders Nighthawks. Fox-trot, Charleston, etc.
In The Book of Charlie, we learn that Charlie White graduated from Westport High School in 1922 and then attended junior college. He often listened to Coon-Sanders on late-night radio and thought the rising popularity of dance bands might be an avenue for him to make some money. One big problem. He didn’t play any instrument. But the resourceful Charlie bought a used saxophone from a classmate who gave him some rudimentary instruction. Charlie then learned songs by matching notes while listening to Coon-Sanders on the radio. Within a couple of years, Charlie had a repertoire of some 300 songs.
As Charlie had hoped, he made decent money playing in dance bands at high schools, ballrooms and clubs in Kansas City. This carried over to Chicago while he was in medical school at Northwestern. Prohibition was good for the music business in both cities, from Pendergast to Capone.
Small World Trivia: A few years ago, my law partner Jim Bird told me about a Kansas City pitcher who played in the major leagues and was the grandfather of Debby Bird (Jim’s wife) and Suzanne Meyer (a high school classmate of Rita’s at St. Teresa’s). Baseball Reference shows that he pitched in the majors in 1917 and 1918. His name – Roy Sanders.
You see where I’m going? Major leaguer Roy Sanders was the older brother of Coon-Sanders’ piano player Joe Sanders.
On Broadway: For many years, Rita and I have gone to New York to see Broadway shows over Memorial Day weekend. Then came Covid. We cut back on travel, but this year we finally head back for a Broadway binge. So the next Hot Stove may get delayed until June. But for a very good reason.
Loose Park Report: It’s that time of year. Ducklings and goslings this past week.
And the resident heron posed for iPhone close-ups.
