Never-before-seen home movies from the 1920s show Kansas City history in a new light

Kansas City’s history is well documented in still photographs.

As early as 1869, cameras captured the construction of the Hannibal Bridge. In the decades that followed, numerous images of the city’s parks & boulevards system began to appear.

By the early 20th century, photos and postcards showed a growing downtown complete with skyscrapers and soon, a renowned suburban shopping district.

But moving pictures, not so much.

Until the 1940s, we know of only a few newsreels or footage from big events show Kansas City “in motion.”

Movie cameras for home use had been introduced in 1923. But they were, of course, pretty pricey for the average Joe.

Michael Wells, special collections librarian at the Kansas City Public Library agrees with that assessment.

“Over the years we’ve had people come looking for film of Kansas City in the 1920s and 1930s, and we haven’t been able to help out,” Wells says.. “And unfortunately, we haven’t had other institutions we could refer them to.”

This might be the year that all changed.

Here’s why.

In January, a Leawood man named Joe Tomelleri reached out to The Star. He wondered if we might be interested in seeing some old films that he’d bought on eBay.

Joe has a master’s degree in biology, and makes his living as a scientific illustrator. In a roundabout way that’s what led him to start collecting vintage cameras and the kind of film that was used in them. (It’s an interesting story in itself.)

Tomelleri calls his collection “a hobby,” but in just a few years he’s purchased several shelves worth of home movies from the 20s and 30s. Mostly footage of vacation trips taken by the kind of traveler who could afford to do so.

He says that because so few people have a projector, online sellers often don’t know much about the reels they’re getting rid of.

As a result, the prices are “pretty low.” And sometimes, Tomelleri says, he decides “just to wing it.”

Here’s where things get interesting.

After buying some unmarked reels from a seller in southwest Missouri, Joe sat down to watch them. First, a baseball game popped up onscreen, and he noticed that the scoreboard said “Muehlebach Field.” On closer inspection, he saw “KC” on the players’ uniforms.

The film was from a Kansas City Blues game, later identified as the team’s 1927 season opener. Sixteen thousand spectators and a marching band turned out for it. So did the mayor and city manager who clowned around before the game.

Long story short, the reels also contained other shots from around town and nearby cities.

Shortly after that, Joe bid on another set of films from the same source. Sure enough, back came more glimpses of things he recognized. And bit by bit, more hometown film clips began lining his shelves.

In fact, one of the reels contained shots of a large man with a cigarette holder surveying race horses. It looked exactly like famed political boss Tom Pendergast to him.

“I was afraid to reach out though,” Tomelerri says. ”What if it was his lookalike brother or something?”

But he did, and here’s the result.

We’ve created (with help from the library’s Missouri Valley Special Collections) a five-part video series called “Reel Rare: Found Films From Old KC.” The first installment can be seen here. Four more will publish in the next three weeks.

The plan is to showcase Joe’s one-of-a-kind movies, teamed with context from local historians and archivists.

Along the way, we’ll explore the mystery of who likely filmed them, and how the pieces of this cinematic puzzle might fit together.

Michael Wells refers to the films as “slices of life,” something we’ve seldom seen from Kansas City in this era.

Jeremy Drouin, the library’s special collections manager, notes that “whenever you see footage it seems more real. You catch little details.... the speed that people are walking, or the cars going by. It adds a depth.”

We hope you find the films as charming and fascinating as we do. Maybe some of the faces and places in them will even look familiar.

If so, please let us know.

Having trouble seeing the video? Watch it here.