Ingram's May 2024

1987 Real estate dealers Kroh Brothers file bankruptcy. Presbyterian Church (USA) says it will move to Louisville.

1988 KU wins NCAA basket ball tourney at Kemper Arena. Ewing Kauffman launch es Project Choice. 6 firefighters die in explosion at construc tion site in south Kansas City.

1989 Woodlands Race Track opens. Braniff Airlines files for bankruptcy. Old Tyme Days first held in Lee’s Summit. Chiefs hire Marty Schottenheimer. Corporate Report becomes Ingram’s Magazine.

1990 Tom Watson quits KC Country Club after Henry Bloch’s membership is rejected. Voters OK $50 million bond to overhaul KC Zoo. Cultural Education Center opens at Johnson County Community College.

GM opens its Fairfax plant.

Former KCK Mayor Jack Reardon dies.

merce reports that at least 60 associa tions and groups maintain their national or international headquarters in the met ropolitan area, forming a multi-million

Kansas City is a relative newcomer to the reverse-investment game, but is learning quickly. In the past six years, the metropolitan area has attracted 13 foreign companies from Europe and the Far East. In total, these businesses created some 535 jobs locally and made $16.5 million in capital investments. 1983 APRIL Participative Management It is not business as usual for many Kansas City companies. The times do not allow it. Markets have shifted, costs have increased and technology has ad vanced. But an equally dramatic develop ment—one that may be harder to handle than others because it has occurred more slowly—is that employees’ attitudes have changed. Employees want more than a paycheck. They want to exert influence over their work and their work environ ment, and they want immediate feedback on the jobs they’re doing. Some organizations and companies are attempting to meet the challenge by involving their employees in the deci sion-making process. Each organization uses its own approach but the goals are usually the same—better-quality prod ucts and services, cost containment, bet ter morale, an entrepreneurial spirit, and creativity and accountability throughout every level of the organization.

jor tenant for its $20.8 million, 16,600 seat Kemper Arena, on which the city and arena still owe $17.9 million. The Kings probably would go to Sacramento, where their new owners live and hold title to 435 acres of land that has been promoted as a great place to build a 17,000-seat arena. 1984 This promises to be a good year eco nomically in the Kansas City metropoli tan area. The national recovery, which began in the first quarter of 1983, is ex pected to continue, and we in Kansas City should share in the growth. Rela tively stable prices and interest rates, along with the presidential election and consumer confidence, should combine to keep the economy on an upward path. Kansas Citians should be particularly pleased, since the recession(s) of 1980 and 1982 hit the area much harder than the nation overall. But we started on the road to recovery a full six months sooner than the national economy. It’s inaccurate to say Frank Morgan maintains a low profile. The man has no profile. One Kansas City businessman says writing about Morgan is “like writ ing about a ghost.” If that’s true, he’s the most powerful ghost you’ll ever hope never to meet. Only when something big happens in Kansas City does Frank Morgan’s name materialize. In his mud-splattered blue ’78 Chevrolet Caprice, he’s the sort of motorist wealthy Kansas Citians parading their red Jaguars down J.C. Nichols Park way like to honk to the side—just for clut tering the scenery. They’d be surprised, JANUARY A Strong Recovery Gets Stronger APRIL A Look at Frank Morgan

dollar industry. 1982

JULY Keeping the Presses Roll ing in a Standstill Economy Nurtured by the presence of giant Hallmark Cards, the printing industry in Kansas City has grown to claim the No. 14 spot on a national list that ranks the sales volume for printing and publishing in urban areas. Share of Libel Insurance? When Penthouse magazine was or dered in 1981 to pay Wyoming beauty queen Kimerli Pring $26 million for in sinuating in an article that she was sexu ally promiscuous, shock waves roared through the insurance industry. Nowhere were they felt more strongly than in the offices of Employers Reinsurance Corp. and Media/Professional Insurance Inc. These two Johnson County-based compa nies write some 80 percent of all libel in surance policies for an industry segment that generates an estimated $25 million in annual premiums. (Editor’s note: A federal appellate court later overturned the Penthouse verdict; Pring never collected a dime from it.) AUGUST Who Writes the Lion’s

SEPTEMBER Who Says the Kings are Moving?

NOVEMBER A Local Line-Up of Foreign Firms

It could happen. The Kings, the most improved team (with 45 wins and 37 loss es) in the National Basketball Association in the 1982-83 season, could leave Kansas City in the summer of ‘85—just pack up and move, leaving the city shy one major league basketball team and short one ma

Reverse investment. That’s the U.S. name for a game other countries have played for some time—stimulating local economies with jobs and cash generated by foreign firms.

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Kansas City’s Business Media

May 2024