by JOHN ROBINSON
If you remember that phrase, you watched too much TV in the ‘50s. Back then, the Bob Cummings Show featured a trendy photographer who flew an airplane that readily converted into a car. He lived in Joplin, Missouri.
That isn’t Joplin’s only connection to moving pictures. Dennis Weaver hailed from Joplin. And Joplin’s portion of Route 66 remains preserved forever in reels of celluloid.
Some Joplin pictures take a snapshot in time. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, a kid migrated to Joplin to find work around the booming lead mines. By his own admission, young Thomas Hart Benton came of age among the bawdy houses that flourished around the mines. A lifetime later, he immortalized those early days in a mural that watches over the grand room at Joplin City Hall.
The remainder of this article appears in the Spring 2007 issue of Show-Me Missouri. Click here or call 888-715-6334 to subscribe.