Museum July 2015 TWA Museum 10 Richards Road Kansas City, MO 64116 Newsletter 816-234-1011 [email protected]

Board of Directors From the Director Pam Blaschum. . . Pam Blaschum-Director Karen Holden Young-Early History The first quarter of 2015 has been a busy and exciting time for Ann Noland-Volunteer Coordinator the museum. I went to to view items offered to Nancy Sitzmann-Event Coordinator us by American in the TWA Hangar. The hangar is scheduled to be demolished later this year to make way for a new taxi Mary Ellen Miller-Board Member way. In addition to doors and emergency equipment, John Mays-Board Member there was a mountain of Chris Funk-Board Member usable items that will be Carol Emert-Board Member/Archivist useful for exhibits in our newly acquired space at 10 Richards Road. A world of thanks to Alex Christopher Nold-Member Stojanovski and Eric Chapital of American who ______first contacted us with the offer. In addition, 1937 Lockheed Electra (Ellie) Crew: we received such wonderful help from our retirees in LA. Thank you, Judy and Tom Ruth Richter-Owner Vavrek for putting out the request for volun- Scott Naumann-Pilot Volunteer teers, numerous retired flight attendants and Captain Kirk McQuown-Pilot Elvin Kozachenko for organizing former TWA mechanics to disassemble the large equipment Curt Walters-Website Design/Pilot and move it to the ground floor of the hangar. ______Our target date was May 4 and 5. We are Volunteers waiting for the arrival of the 50’ trailer full of memorabilia. Moving all these items was ac- Zana Allen Gwynn Williams complished in just a day and a half thanks to all Ken Carrison Judy Wilson their help. Carol & Dean Connor In April, Archivists Carol Emert and John Mays accompanied me to where Keith Epperson we were the guests of Alaska Airlines for the third annual Airline Archivist Summit. Larry Chalberg All in attendance were treated like royalty. Our sessions were held at the Museum of Flight and a special private tour of the plant in Everest was arranged. It Donna Gentry was amazing to see the enormity of a 747/400-8 from ground level. Mary Ann Harris We hosted our Hangar dance April 25th with over 280 in attendance and had a suc- Bill Kelley cessful silent auction that raised funds for flooring and other necessities for the Larry & Marcia Lillge renovation of our new spaces. Art Lujin We are looking forward to the arrival of the original “Wings of Pride” and will be John Mays working with TriStar History to provide tours of this beautiful aircraft. Dennis McCarthy Thanks to Christopher Nold who organized our first scout merit badge program. Our group were high school “American Heritage Scouts”. Chris did such a great job. Richard Rees After his program, all the girls and leaders were treated to a tour of an Army Chi- Ray Rowe nook helicopter and a visit to the control tower at MKC. We look forward to many Frank Ruege more scout programs and will be working with Eagle Scouts Rob Baker, TWA/AA Charlie Sheldon pilot, Phil Liming of TriStar and Chris Nold of our Board of Directors. Judy Shenefield Please consider joining us at the museum—either as a new volunteer or just for a visit. Frank Von Geyso Alice Wasko Page 2 Thank you! TWA Museum Wish List The TWA Museum would like to sincerely thank the following: The 816 Hotel, Doug Gamble, CEO and Donald Ray-- Volunteers! Manager, a night in the TWA room for silent auction! Library Shelves Archive Boxes The Raphael, Patrick Joyce, Director of Guest Services, night at the Raphael for silent auction!

Chris Funk, CEO, Picture and Frame Industries for framed pictures for the silent auction!

American Airlines, Eric Chapital, Project Manager/ Aircraft Maintenance LAX and Alex Stojanovski for their assistance in securing the equipment and Elzbieta VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE Kizer, AA Air Cargo--shipping! REPORT

Perfection Floor Tile, Nathan Ferman, President and We appreciate all the monetary support that you have provided CEO for the 800 room flooring! for the Museum in the past. But we are in great need of volun- teer help. Sherwin Williams, Christian Curry, Manager, Mission Store, 5 gal. paint for the scout room! We are expanding and have received new items from the TWA Hangar at LAX (which is being torn down this fall). Sherwin Williams, and Michelle Ellington, Manager Liberty, MO, 5 gal. paint for new library and new ar- We are waiting for the DC-9 Wings of Pride (the original plane chive storage area! that the employees purchased for the airline) sometime this summer.

With these new acquisitions it is essential that we have more volunteers to help with these exhibits. They will be in separate spaces from the main Museum.

The times would be either 3 hour shifts (10A-1P or 1P-4P) or a 6 hour shift (10A-4P). We need you to sign up for specific days (Tuesday thru Saturday) and shifts so we can count on your help.

If you could help us, please get in touch with the Museum, our phone number is 816-234-1011 or our email twamuse- [email protected].

You will meet many interesting people, learn many stories and make new friends. We would also like to welcome our newest volunteers Larry Chalberg, Sr., Dennis McCarthy and Ken Carrison.

Ann Noland Volunteer Coordinator Page 3

Reunion at the TWA Museum Royal Ambassador Service Vegetarian green pepper Mexicana 40’s Hangar Dance! Yield: 8 servings When Jerry Harbison called to reserve a table for 10 at the April 1 1/2 cup. pinto beans, cooked 12 oz. diced tomatoes in juice Hangar Dance, I saw he was coming all the way from Alexandria, Virginia. That caught my 3 ea. medium onions, chopped 1/2 cup cashews attention and then I found 2 ea. stalks celery, chopped 1/2 cup raisins out that this was to be a 3 ea. cloves garlic, diced 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar celebration for Joseph Har- 3/4 tsp. basil 3/4 cup brown rice, cooked bison’s 98th birthday on 3/4 tsp. oregano 2 tbsp. vegetable oil April 25th, the day of the 1/4 tsp. black pepper 4 large green bell peppers dance. The Harbison 2 tsp. chili powder 1 qt. spicy tomato sauce family traveled from all over the to Procedure: meet in Kansas City for 1. Pour oil into pot. 2. Saute onions, celery and garlic until soft. 3. Add spic- Joseph’s 98th birthday! es, diced tomatoes and vinegar to pot. 4. Combine raisins, cashews, brown The orchestra leader rec- rice and pinto bean. Add to pot and heat to a simmer, continue cooking for ognized Joseph and we all 10 minutes. 5. Cut pepper in half, remove seeds and blanch. 6. Fill pepper sang happy birthday to with 1/2 cup of filling 7. Cover with sauce and heat in 350 F oven until done him! Jerry Harbison (about 1 1/2 hours) wrote “The TWA museum provided us a grand venue to help celebrate our Fa- A visit to the TWA Museum. . . . ther's 98th birthday. We Charlene Flynn and her mother, Charlotte Hirni of Nevada, are very proud of our fa- Missouri visited the museum recently. These girls seemed ther, Joseph, and a very grateful TWA family. Whenever, we get to have a great time! Volunteer Frank Ruege gave Char- to Kansas City, we love to visit the TWA museum with dad, it lotte a lesson on flying the Connie. At 92 you’re never too brings back so many fond memories.” Thank you Harbison fami- old to learn! Although as they were leaving, Frank told ly for making the evening more special! Charlotte that if he boarded an airplane and she was in the (submitted by Nancy Sitzmann) cockpit, he would probably fly another time!!!!!

Joseph Harbison began his career with in Pittsburgh, PA (PIT) in 1939. He started work in the mainte- nance shop, and because of his good organizational skills, man- agement moved him into the office to maintain the flight and maintenance records for each aircraft. During the WWII mobili- zation and due to TWA's critical contracts supporting the nation- al war effort, Joe was exempt from military service. His TWA career took him to Washington, DC (DCA) and Philadelphia, PA (PHL), and to Kansas City, Missouri (MCI) where he worked in the TWA maintenance center. North Kansas City became home where Joseph and Agnes Harbison raised their family of five children (James, Paul, Jerry, Mary, and Barbara). Joe's final job before retirement was as Federal Aviation Administration (FAA/ TWA) liaison. Joe was re- sponsible to ensure that all federal maintenance rules and regulations were in compliance and com- pleting the aircraft mainte- nance records and reports. Joseph retired in 1981 with over 41 years of service to Trans World Airlines. Page 4

April 25th TWA Museum 40’s Style Hangar Dance a great success!!!! Many thanks to everyone who attended and contributed to the success of the April Hangar Dance. We had almost 300 in attendance and in addition to the wonderful music we had a very successful first silent auction! We are looking forward with great anticipation to next year’s hangar dance. Below are a few memories from the evening. . .

Carol Emert delivers snacks to tables Saturday 96 yr. old Ralph Shackelford The Moonlight Serenade Orchestra in preparation for the dance. is given a standing ovation provided the sounds of Frank, Dean, for his service in WWII. and many other great crooners!

It was a reunion for many former TWA-ers and though the weather was not nice enough for the hangar doors to be open, it didn’t seem to spoil the mood or the evening! One of our young guests dressed for the occasion

Volunteer Judy Wilson checking in our guests! It was a wonderful evening for reunions, dancing and a wonderful mix of young and old, former TWA employees, former military servicemen and women and some great ballroom dancers. For more great photos go to the TWA Museum website: twamuseumat10richardsroad.org or mingle.com/TWA. Page 5

Tom Perry Family Visits the Museum Report From the Archives! In April, John Mays, TWA Museum Librarian, Pam Blaschum, Direc- tor, and I attended an archives conference in Seattle, Washington. For three days we attended informative meetings, attended lec- tures, toured the Museum of Flight, and discovered how airplanes are made at Boeing. We visited with colleagues and representa- tives from a variety of aviation museums throughout the US, and shared information about museum Best Practices and caring for an aviation collection. Attending this conference will greatly assist us as we move forward in building and expanding our museum pro- grams, planning for the future of our archives, and discovering ways to offer TWA’s history to museum visitors and on-line. A couple months ago, we were thrilled to discover that our muse- um spaces were going to increase with the acquisition of several new rooms to the South of our current Education Center and stor- If you have visited the TWA Museum the first case you see age. This was welcome news in archives because we had run out of is the Tom Perry Collection! A few months ago, Volunteer room for collections items some time ago. We began painting and Judy Shenefield found out she was giving a tour to Tom cleaning our new spaces this week with the help of John Mays, Perry’s sister, niece, and great niece. You never know Zana Allen and Dick Rees. We are also in the process of laying out a who you’ll run into at the TWA Museum! floor plan and naming rooms. Once the painting and cleaning is done, and the air-conditioning and heat are up and running, we will begin moving shelves, flat files, cabinets, and rolling racks with all Anything look familiar????? of their contents into the new Did you know that the folks at “Mad Men” consulted with storage spaces and library and the TWA Museum to make sure the sets they were creating research center. for the Mad Men series were authentic??? Carol Emert TWA Museum Archivist

Above and left: LAX items ar- riving at the Museum! The TWA Museum has also been con- tacted regarding an upcoming Tom Cruise movie “Mena” where he plays a TWA Cap- tain. Due to be released in January 2017.

Above left, volunteer John Mays painting the new space at the mu- seum; above right, volunteer, Dick Rees, counts glasses for our col- lections inventory.

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Welcome to our newest “Friends of What was the date of the last scheduled Constella- the Museum”! tion passenger flight? (see below for the answer) Welcome to the TWA Museum New Friends of the Museum. Thank you for you support to this wonderful muse- um. We really appreciate your interest TWA Museum’s Archival Library in preserving the TWA History. Submitted by John Mays Gary and Sandra Hall The museum has developed a library, consisting of thousands of pages of historical docu- ments, books, periodicals, photos, slides and films related to Trans World Airlines. The pur- pose of the library is to acknowledge the history of Trans World Airlines and to establish a Kenneth and Joan Wright strong connection between commercial aviation's present and its past. To achieve this goal, the museum needs not only to attract general visitors to view its exhibition spaces, but also to support and encourage researchers and writers to directly access, study and build on our Dana Hawa collections. With our recently-added space, our library will maintain a public (with access restrictions) reading room where research access to items within the museum and library collection could be viewed. A museum archives-dedicated website will allow access to the library’s holdings in an accessible online format. Nancy Pate The library’s ultimate goal is to expand access to our collection to those interested in com- mercial aviation history. To fulfill this goal, the museum will: Jim (Jet) Thompson • Lead the nation in providing access to digital material related to Trans World Air lines. Kenney Schmitz • Build a comprehensive digital collection that is among the best in the country. • Negotiate with e-publishers to make popular digital material easily available to pa-

trons. Mark and Elizabeth Cassen • Create and collect oral histories. • Introduce new models for improving information access and delivery. Jason Myers • Implement a user-friendly website and catalog. • Maintain a public (with access restrictions) reading room where research access to items within the museum and library collection could be viewed. Cherie D. Fleishman The museum’s volunteers have received hundreds of research requests, originating from former TWA employees/families, media outlets, researchers, writers and students. Re- quests are fulfilled in a timely manner, as we realize that most inquiries are made with copy deadlines. The museum accepts each inquiry as a priority, and if we are unable to fulfill the request directly, we make every attempt to locate alternative research outlets. Requesters are satisfied with our services and that we attempt to respond to all requests within 24 hours. The museum has already received several positive comments regarding our services:

Quote from William F. Cass, a researcher who is writing a book: “Many thanks for this. That is a real service that you are providing. The Museum’s contribution to this book has been tremendous.” Quote from Dave Drimmer, owner of a 1939 Boeing 307 Stratoliner that was

originally owned by : "Many thanks for your ongoing research efforts re- garding the Hughes Stratoliner. I sincerely appreciate this new area of archival material and again, thanks for your time and interest with my request, you've been very helpful, take care." Quote from Yemane Demissie, a professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts working on a social history documentary on Ethiopia: "This is amazing! Thank you for researching so TRIVIA ANSWERS. . . much information in such a short time frame. I'm traveling at the moment and will follow up On April 6 1967, TWA operated its last on all of your leads and suggestions this evening. I will get back to you as soon as I've re- scheduled Constellation passenger flight viewed the material. I really appreciate your time and generosity.” and became the first airline to go“ all jet” although 1649A Jetstream freighters sol- The museum's archives-dedicated website, currently under construction, may be found diered on for another month, until May here: http://www.twamuseumarchives.org/ 11th.

Please support us by selecting TWA Museum as the benefactor! TWA Museum personalized ticket sales link: http://www.midwestclassic.com/tickets -fore-charity.php?cid=MTU2Ng==

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If you have a TWA story you’d like to share, please email your story with a picture or two to nlsitz- [email protected] or mail to the Museum email [email protected] or mail to TWA Museum, 10 Richards Road, Kansas City, MO 64116

TWA Museum 10 Richards Road Kansas City, MO 64116