- [Jim] We remember a bitter cold European winter and honor the memory of one of the lasts who could tell us about what he saw at the Battle of the Bulge.

(gun shots) A look at St. Louis's history making role in American fashion.

When we showed young women, they didn't have to dress like their mothers and grandmothers.

- Maybe they didn't want to look exactly like them in clothes that were perhaps described as frumpy.

(upbeat music) - [Jim] And she was world famous when she decided to adopt east St. Louis as her home, a look back at the life of Katherine Dunham and some of her last thoughts on why dance is a serious business.

- Everybody seemed to be in it just for a matter of personal pleasure.

And there's more to it than that, you know.

(instrumental music) - [Jim] It's all next On Living St. Louis.

(crowd cheering) (soft upbeat music) I'm Jim Kirchher, and we're gonna start off on a sad, but not really an unexpected note because, well, the passing away of somebody who lived to be 98 is not really unexpected but we thought it was worth noting, because Eugene Ganz experienced something that not only changed his life, but made history.

Anne Marie Berger on the story of the World War II veteran, whose story we hope will live on.

(melancholic music) - [Anne] On a cold February morning, friends and family of Eugene Ganz a purple heart and bronze star recipient who survived the Battle of the Bulge during II, gathered to bury him with military honors.

(gun shots) (tranquil music) I've been sharing stories about the gateway chapter of the veterans, of the Battle of the Bulge for many years most recently in December, 2018, when a dozen or so of those once young men who fought and survived that battle as well as their families, friends and grateful Americans gathered to mark 74 years since the start of the deadliest battle of world War II.

And of course, Eugene Ganz was there.

He wasn't just a member.

He was the group's chaplain.

- We honor our soldiers and women buried in unfamiliar soil as well as those buried here in their homeland all gave some, some gave all.

I was an infantry man in the Battle of the Bulge and I was injured, lake cut open and cut open and frozen feet.

Otherwise I gave, came out with, - Otherwise, you were just fine.

- Right?

- [Anne] The first time I met this group was in 2007, they looked different.

Then there were over 322 active members, mostly veterans of the Bulge proudly wearing their veterans uniforms.

They spoke about their experience in the Ardennes Forest during the winter of 1944 and '45.

- We had no indication in the battle the day before.

- Well, we were already in the Germany.

I thought, well, the war's just about over.

So I thought we were gonna go home.

- They told us that we would be home by Christmas.

The only draw back there was, they never told us what Christmas that we would be back.

- [Announcer] In one day, the enemy smashed through the defenses of the American first army on a 45 mile front and was biting deep into Luxembourg in Belgium.

In 24 hours the initiative changed hands in the German Army which had put the word blitz Creek into all languages unleashed its desperate offensive.

- [Anne] The Germans needed to get through the Arden Forest in the first day, despite the surprise attack and the heavy American casualties in their initial assault, they didn't accomplish that.

(gun shots) They underestimated the American soldier.

- They were told how easy it was gonna be overrun.

The American they're not fighters or anything.

- Individual people, small units of 10, 12, 15 and smaller that helped control the roads and lot.

There was an awful lot of heroics.

(melancholic music) - [Anne] Surviving the enemy was difficult for the American forces but equally as challenging was enduring the cold weather, the winter of 1944 and '45 in Germany reached record low temperatures.

- The weather was even more serious as the enemy was.

- Was the coldest winter in years in Germany.

- As brutal that it may sound if you were wounded or injured and were only evacuated two hours or less, a simple fact of life, you froze to death.

- We always said we had two enemies, the cold and Germans.

Tried to keep the memories fresh as the young people study.

And it's been our pleasure one by one.

We drew up out of it, but some of us, the good Lord has given us the health and strength to continue on.

(tranquil music) - With the passing of Eugene Ganz at 98 years old there are no more active veterans of the Bulge in the gateway chapter.

(melancholic music) Associate members those who had a parent or loved one who fought or have an interest in the battle will preserve their story.

(melancholic music) - Our next story also takes us back to the middle of the last century when some history was being made in St. Louis, not exactly world changing history, but as Brooke Butler shows us it was changing what America was wearing.

(soft bright music) - [Narrator] In current teen culture wearing, oversized vintage dresses is trendy, but there was a time that dressing like your mom or grandma wasn't as cool.

(bright instrumental music) What is now widely known as junior clothing, wasn't an option prior to the 1930s.

And we can thank St. Louis for that much desired separation between teens and older generations.

St. Louis has no shortage of claims to fame, but from its founding as a fur trading hub, to being the home of some major footwear and garment companies, fashion plays a major role in our city's history.

(bright upbeat) - St. Louis's is just filled with all kinds of just wacky interesting stories.

- [Narrator] Valerie Battle Kinzle is the author of, "Ready to Wear" a history of the footwear and garment district in St. Louis.

- I am married to a man who is third and fourth generation footwear industry international shoe company.

And after 40 years of marriage and asking him countless questions, and he's like, "I really don't know."

I really don't know, my interest was peaked.

So I started digging found, there was much to be said about the shoe industry, but also at the same time simultaneously, there was the ready to wear garment industry in St. Louis too.

And they both developed pretty much at the same time but really made St Louis a a place to be for footwear and garments.

(bright music) - [Narrator] By the early 20th century, ready to wear dresses, meaning the clothes you selected in the store didn't need to be custom tailored, were already well established.

Although the industry no longer one size fits all, they needed to address the growing resistance of one style fits all.

(bright music) In 1929 a man named Irving Sawyer was the merchandising manager of the St. Louis store Kline.

And he saw the opportunity to cater to a more specific market.

- Mr. Sawyer saw that there was a need for younger women that they their body shapes were not necessarily the same as their mothers and grandmothers, and maybe they didn't want to look exactly like them in clothes that were perhaps described as frumpy.

- [Narrator] And wear better to learn what and women wanted to wear.

Then the fashion design students at Washington University.

- And he went and looked at some of the designs and he was just wild by them and what these girls were putting on their clothing their designs were fun sleeves, and ruffles and interesting collars and embellishments like buttons and bows and cinched oasis.

And of course, shorter hem lines.

- [Narrator] Mr. Sawyer then sent a few of the designs to be made and hosted a fashion show.

The dresses sold out immediately after the show.

And from there, the market for junior dresses surged.

(soft music) Over the next few years, the number of dress manufacturers tripled employing nearly 20,000 workers and production in St. Louis was second in the country, next to New York City.

Not only did this new market grow the garment districts dress companies, but it also formed a collaborative with the Washington University's Dress Design program.

In 1941, an advisory board of fashion design students was assembled to help influence local dress designers.

The board would rate mockup designs and soon developed a successful track record.

- In fact, it was such an influence that "Life Magazine" which was a staple on people's coffee tables.

In most of the 20th century, they came here in 1944 and did a huge story, talking about how these girls were the key behind the junior segment.

- [Narrator] The young design students we're also learning from some influential instructors.

Bessie Recht was an instructor of dress design in addition to her personal design work at Dorsa dress incorporated in St. Louis.

In fact, Bessie's designs were so successful that she filed for and obtained a patent for some of her junior dress designs.

And as the junior dress surge was beneficial to the garment district.

It's even more worth mentioning the benefit it had for business women.

In a time before equal rights legislation and the women's liberation movement.

It was rare for women to make it to the top of their career field, but junior dresses allowed women to dominate the field.

Even when the market conditions created some obstacles.

- There was a woman designer here in St. Louis, named Grace Ashley.

She was the first designer to ever copyright her name as far as using it on products.

And in the 30s and 40s, she came up with something called, the Grace Ashley Stud Jewel Dress.

And you have to remember, there were shortages of many things during World War II.

One of the things there were shortages of was fabric.

- [Narrator] To navigate around this shortage.

Grace Ashley Stud Jewel Dress only required fabric for one junior size dress, but then allowed for the buttons and studs to be interchangeable making it seem like you had multiple dresses.

- This was very popular.

And she was a pretty smart woman too in that she would only sell to one store per city.

And that way it was looked at as sort of an exclusive item.

- There are countless other successful designers that came out of St. Louis in junior dresses, but also other garments and footwear.

But by the 1970s with the forming of labor unions and the increased cost of materials the St Louis garment district saw a steep decline when companies realized they could save money by outsourcing production overseas.

- And that really led to the demise of the companies here in St. Louis, but there is an upswing.

- [Narrator] In the spirit of a true author.

Valerie couldn't end her book with demise.

So while St. Louis may never again be the world leader in junior dress design, there has been a recent resurgence in garment production companies.

(soft upbeat music) - New seamster, new pattern makers, new people, new creative people, jewelry makers and many of them are locating in refurbished buildings down on Washington avenue.

(soft upbeat music) - Over the years, we've been able to profile a lot of people, some famous, some obscure.

For black history month, we thought we would feature a story we did with one of the most famous Katherine Dunham, dancer, anthropologist, social activist.

She opened a performing art center in east St. Louis in the 1960s.

Shortly before Dunham's death.

Anne Marie Berger was able to do a story with her and conduct what we believe was probably her last TV interview.

- I think that people have lost something they've lost the idea of what dance is.

Everybody's seems to be in it, just for a matter of personal pleasure.

And there's more to it than that you know.

- [Anne] Such as what?

What are?

- Such as expressing your culture, expressing the meaning of your life, and the meaning of the people that you came from, the meaning of your family and your roots and that kind of thing.

Dance does this, you know, it's in there we just have to take it out and use it.

- [Anne] In 2006 Katherine Dunham, would have celebrated her 97th birthday.

However, she passed away way just one month before reaching that milestone.

(instrumental music) (audience cheering) But not even her death to prevent her loyal friends and students from both sides of the river from celebrating her life and legacy.

(indistinct chattering) - How are you?

- So on June 22nd, miss Dunham birthday, hundreds of people jam the Dudley Theater at the Missouri Historical Society, to pay tribute to the matriarch of black dance.

(instrumental music) Katherine Dunham was born outside of Chicago in 1909.

Her mother died when young Katie was just four years old.

And for the next few years, she and her older brother Albert Jr, lived with relatives as their father traveled as a salesman.

(instrumental music) It was during this time that Katie became exposed to the world of entertainment, going to local theaters, seeing live performances up close.

(instrumental music) Dunham began dancing herself, appearing in various productions but planned a career as an anthropologist, not a dancer.

(instrumental music) So in 1928, Dunham enrolled at the University of Chicago while she worked on her anthropology degree she did continue to take dance lessons and perform.

She even founded her own student dance company.

(instrumental music) During her studies, she was introduced to the concept of dance as a cultural symbol and began to study the anthropological roots of dance.

(instrumental music) After her graduation in 1935, Dunham accepted a fellowship to study anthropology and dance in the Caribbean.

There she earned the trust of the natives of Haiti and Jamaica, inviting her to join them in their most sacred rituals.

It was this experience that changed the focus of Dunham's life and the development of modern dance.

(drum upbeat music) Dunham returned to Chicago in 1937, and immediately began incorporating African and Caribbean styles of movement into a new modern dance technique.

- Her technique, which is totally different than what any of us had ever had.

But even today it's different.

She really created a technique that is unique unto herself.

(bright upbeat music) - [Anne] In a nation where there had been no path for black dancers, Dunham formed this country's first black dance company and took them all the way to Broadway and Hollywood.

(upbeat music) - She just got into the center of your body and I will tell you something, there wasn't one part of your body that didn't move.

(upbeat music) It was extraordinary.

(upbeat music) - [Anne] Katherine Dunham and her dance company received enthusiastic reviews both critics and audiences.

They toured throughout the United States, Latin America Europe and Dunham didn't just receive praise for her dancing and choreography.

She was recognized as a scholar and anthropologist.

- She just was interested in other things that this was a very intelligent woman.

(upbeat music) - [Anne] Dunham broke down dance barriers blending her unique dance movements with other genres such as ballet, but she often found herself on the front lines of discrimination, performing in theaters where she herself would not be allowed to buy a ticket.

(soft bright music) In 1944, at a performance in Louisville, Kentucky, the crowd cheered for more after the curtain closed, but instead of an encore, Dunham announced to the all white crowd that she and her company would not return until people like her could sit with people like them.

- And do you realize how hard that must have been at that time?

She was really breaking all kinds of barriers and she was going out on a limb and she was putting herself up there going against tide.

And this was a very difficult time and she was one of the first.

(orchestral music) - [Anne] In 1941, Dunham married John Pratt, a costume and set designer who happened to be white.

(orchestral music) In the beginning their friends and families disapproved of their union.

Interracial marriages were not common in those days but the couple's obvious devotion to one another, dispel the negativity.

(upbeat music) Dunham would only wear costumes designed by her husband and their collaboration resulted in her exquisite stage presence.

(orchestral music) In 1952, Pratt and Dunham adopted a daughter, Marie Christine, and Dunham, and her new family toured the world with her dance troop.

(upbeat music) - I would certainly say that the travel has been one of the very important things.

And if I had not traveled, there are so many things I just wouldn't know.

I think it's 57 countries of the world, and that's a lot.

- [Anne] Her contributions to her craft are immeasurable.

But to the people in this auditorium it was her human nature they were most grateful for.

- Ms. Dunham has a way of pulling the good out of everyone.

At that point in time, there was a lot of gang rivalry going on and she just could not understand how these people were hurting each other.

So she tried to channel that anger into something positive.

(orchestral music) - [Anne] Dunham offered the young men and women of east St. Louis alternatives to violence through what she knew best, dance.

To her dance wasn't just simply moving your body.

It had a much deeper meaning that young people needed to discover.

- I want them to take nothing for granted, to take everything else possible.

And that I think is a big problem here for people to be able to understand that they have it.

They just have to use it.

(bright instrumental music) (audience cheering) - Finally, another piece from our friends at stl.org who've been profiling entrepreneurs, creators, innovators throughout our region.

People like Retta Leritz Tussey although you might be more familiar with the name Retta Jane.

(singing in foreign language) - I think the biggest risk would be to wake up at 90 years old and look back and realize I never did at anything.

I had an idea and I didn't take the shot.

(singing in foreign language) There's a reason the classics are called that, my grandmother and my mother were both in fashion and very very big influences to me.

They're both Retta Jane.

So my grandmother was first Retta Jane and then my mother and I am also Retta Jane.

So hence the name of the business.

Grandmother owned an antique store.

My mom was big in design.

(melancholic music) When I look at some of the old pictures of my grandmother, my mother, I laugh because I'm wearing the exact same things that they were I mean, kind of the same person generations apart.

(singing in foreign language) The things that they pass down in their wardrobe still irrelevant today.

(soft music) Looking at these pieces that were designed in the '40s and the '60s and the '80s their quality made, they're beautifully cut and those were the inspiration for most of what Retta Jane is.

These ideas come from just pieces I've loved over the years.

That's where it starts and then getting it in the studio kind of either physically breaking them apart and breaking them down.

But sometimes it'll start with a great fabric that we find or a great color scheme.

Maybe that's been an my mind for a while or I'll jot notes down and go back to 'em.

(tranquil music) The nuts and bolts keep me up, you know did we need another inch on that hymn?

Was that good?

Was that the right button and the right thread?

It's usually one little aspect that can launch the whole collection.

(tranquil music) I think clothing and instill confidence in you.

Even if it's subconsciously, when you look good you feel good, when something's well made and tailored for your body, you have a different spring in your step.

That's what I wanna give these girls that are already in a very peculiar time in their lives.

You know, how can I even subtly give them a little bit more confidence to go out there and be their own selves.

(soft music) The little girls that I would interview they would say, "Nobody designs for me."

They're either designing for my little sister or they're designing for my teenage cousin but nobody's thinking about me.

And I just thought that was so interesting that these girls were themselves identifying.

Like, nobody thinks that we matter.

(upbeat music) It's a risk to go in on such a fine, fine detailed part of the market.

But I think there's a lot of value in doing that.

And I think to know that somebody is taking the time to design for you and whoever you are, it could be the tomboy could be the girly girl but to know that somebody's designing specifically for you and thinking of you, I think that matters.

I mean, I think it matters for a little girl to know that she is seen, especially at that point in time.

(upbeat music) I really became emotional when we had our first photo shoot and I saw the first girls in our outfits.

I mean, that was very powerful to me to know that this work, that I've been, I had my hands on now for so many years has finally come to life and to see the expression on the girls' faces and see them dancing around in the outfits and to know that it fit well and they felt good in it.

I laughed in tears, very happy tears.

And I was elated.

(upbeat music) I mean, it was just a very powerful moment to know that I set out to do something to create these garments and to fill this void that no matter what happens from here on out, in a way I've done it.

(upbeat music) My grandmother's generation to my mom, Retta Jane it's the next iteration of our family in a way.

It's this beautiful legacy we're leaving to every girl.

(upbeat music) - And that's living St. Louis.

Thanks for joining us I'm Jim Kirchher and we'll see you next time.

(bright upbeat music) - [Ruth] Living St. Louis is made possible by the support of the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation, the Mary Ranken Jordan and Ettie A Jordan Charitable Trust, and by the members of Nine PBS.

(upbeat music)