- [Police Dispatcher] 11 mounting at the Southwest Bank.

- [Jim] Our "Best of Living St. Louis Summer" brings back the story of how a St. Louis bank robbery made it to the big screen.

But also, how a real cop saved the day.

- Two shots went about four inches over my head.

- [Jim] They grew up in the age of Lindbergh and brought their childhood hobby with them.

But passing it on to a new generation has hit some turbulence.

- [Earl] They're interested for a while.

Then they disappear.

They get a car and a girlfriend, and they're gone.

- [Jim] And we remember Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Johnnie Johnson who was there when it all began.

- Why don't we call this rock and roll music?

And then from there, it was just like wildfire with gas.

- It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(upbeat funky music) I'm Jim Kirchherr.

I think it's safe to say that over 19 seasons, "Living St. Louis" has had a pretty eclectic mix of stories.

Some were low key, art exhibits and such.

And then there was the story about cops and robbers.

Patrick Murphy looked back at a famous St. Louis bank robbery, with the help of a man who played a big role in what happened and a small role as himself in the movie - [Police Dispatcher] 11 mounting at the Southwest Bank Kings Highway and Southwest.

- Come on there's a stick-up at Southwest Bank.

- [Patrick] On Friday, April 24th, 1953, St. Louis police officers, Mel Stein and Bob Heitz were dispatched to a bank robbery at Southwest Bank, on the corner of Southwest and Kings Highway.

(siren blaring) The events that day would eventually inspire a Hollywood movie.

The crime itself would become one of the nation's most famous bank robberies.

It was Officer Stein who shot and killed the leader of the four Chicago robbers.

And even though he retired 34 years ago, he remembers the gun battle and shooting Fred Bowerman, as if it were yesterday.

(suspenseful music) - I pulled up in front of the bank.

Bob got out of the car on the right side and I got out on the left and he went to the side of the bank.

I opened the storm door and as I opened it, I saw Bowerman, who was the leader of the gang, fire a shot through the door and hit my partner.

- [Patrick] Stein, who saw extensive combat as a Marine in World War II, credits his military training for saving his life that day.

- We were always taught in the Marine Corps that when you went into the fire fight, you took cover and you made yourself as small a target as you could.

So I ducked down after I fired the shots.

And as I did, two shots went about four inches over my head.

And with that, needless to say, I backed out of there.

- Okay.

(gun firing) (women screaming) - [Jim] Inside the bank, there was pandemonium.

(people screaming) (guns firing) One of the robbers, Frank Vito, who faced life in prison if caught, placed a gun to his head and killed himself.

Another robber was shot in the back.

As over a hundred police from across the city arrived, Fred Bowerman made his move to escape.

- Stay where you are or I'll kill her.

- I took my position on the side of the bank or side of the storm door.

I saw Bowerman pushing a woman out with a gun, he had his shotgun in her back.

And he was pushing and pushing and pushing.

And they were coming real slow.

And I held real steady.

And after she passed in front of my line of sight, I started squeezing and I squeezed off a round and caught him through the spine.

But anyway, he died about three days later.

- [Police Dispatcher] Cannot get away.

- [Patrick] Documented by a Globe Democrat photographer, thousands of spectators gathered outside the bank, while police rolled tear gas bombs and rounded up the remaining robbers.

Officer Heitz never fully recovered from his wounds.

Stein chose to continue driving a patrol car, which he did until he retired more than 20 years later.

Which would've been the end of the story, but in 1958, director Charles Guggenheim filmed "The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery," starring newcomer Steve McQueen.

Playing the role of Officer Mel Stein was Mel Stein.

That's Mel in one of the films' publicity photos.

- I was told by my captain.

He says, "You're gonna be relieved for so many days, because you're gonna take part in a bank robbery."

I said, "What are you talking about?"

And he says, "They're gonna make a movie of the bank robbery and you're gonna play your own part."

It was another day's work.

I didn't have to patrol all over.

I was making a movie.

So what?

- [Patrick] And when it came time for the big scene, director Guggenheim and Officer Stein worked it out together.

- We got together in a group and said, "Well, how do we want to make this scene?"

And I suggested, "Well, how about doing it just exactly the way it happened."

He says, "Let's do it that way."

- [Patrick] Some banks might not wanna make a big deal about the day they were robbed.

But at Southwest Bank, they're proud of their place in history and proud of that movie.

- We were showing it, like, on the anniversary of the robbery.

They used to show it in the lobby, even serve popcorn.

So some of the customers used to come in and watch it.

You know?

- This is great.

The bank's actually got a picture of the bank robbery, in progress, on the wall.

- What's actually going on.

Yeah and then, in the meantime, there was shooting going on and that's why they were stooped down behind the cars and so on.

- Now things have changed around here.

- Oh yeah.

This area was all where the teller cages were and the money vault.

Of course, now it's all on the other side.

- And this is the actual vault that they- - This is the actual vault that the money was in.

Right.

They demanded all the tellers give 'em their money.

And then they were standing on the counters and wanting money that was in the vault, not just what was in the teller drawers.

So as they were going through all this, of course, the switchboard operator down in the basement, which they didn't know she was down there, was calling the police.

At the end of the day, actually, when we balanced the cash, my understanding, we were a couple of bucks ahead.

So evidently, we got a couple dollars of their money, I guess.

I don't know.

(laughs) They were too greedy.

(laughs) - [Patrick] There's something in the American character that loves a good bank robbery, particularly when the bad guys get their just desserts.

It's the stuff of legends.

But for one retired St. Louis police officer, the Great St. Louis bank robbery is very real, living in the memory of a spring day, long ago.

- Well, some of these things are vivid in your mind and they just remain there.

I mean, and then my dreams, I still dream about it.

(dreamy music) - Mel Stein, by the way, died in 2016 at the age of 102.

Back in 2004, our first season, Anne-Marie Berger went to a public birthday celebration, turned out to be the last birthday for a man who had gone through a lot of ups and downs.

But when he was 80, Johnnie Johnson was a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

And Chuck Berry's sideman was once again front and center.

(blues guitar music) - Yeah, Jed.

Just gimme a C. - It's July, 2004.

And these guys weren't warming up for just any show.

This was a party, a birthday party for one of rock and roll's greatest musicians.

Johnnie Johnson, known to many as the father of rock and roll, was celebrating his 80th birthday.

- [Announcer] Johnnie Johnson, y'all.

(upbeat piano music) - [Anne-Marie] And more than 10,000 of his loyal fans came out to wish him well and hear a little music.

(upbeat blues piano music) Johnnie was a self-taught piano player.

He never had a lesson.

His God-given talent got him inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

His star is on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

He played with some of the world's greatest musicians.

In fact, Johnnie's contributions to rock and roll are so great, that Mayor Francis Slay declared July 8th, 2004, which is Johnnie's birthday, Johnnie Johnson day in the city of St. Louis.

(upbeat blues rock music) But these accolades didn't happen overnight.

You see, Johnnie was a sideman.

He's best known for playing piano in Chuck Berry's band, a gig that lasted almost three decades.

But he did no recording on his own.

And it was almost a lifetime before he got any recognition for himself.

East St. Louis is where things started for Johnnie Johnson.

During the 1950s, jobs were plentiful.

There were tire factories, steel foundries.

And Johnnie moved here after the war to look for a job.

He worked a few places, including the railroad and he had a very short stint at a slaughter house, a job that almost put an end to his musical career, before it even began.

- One day I stuck the knife in the sheep's neck and the knife hit a bone and ricocheted off the bone, right through my thumb.

And like I say, I didn't even know I was cut until when I got to the end, where I would turn the sheep loose, I saw this thing dangling.

And looking, it was my thumb.

All this is white meat up under there.

It was just so quick, I didn't have time to bleed before I seen it.

And then, naturally, rushed me over to Barnes Hospital and put me to sleep and sewed it back on.

That was then, I worked for them exactly three hours.

And that was the end of that job.

(machinery grinding) - [Anne-Marie] Johnnie found a different day job.

But on the weekends, he took advantage of the East St. Louis music scene.

There were music clubs on every corner, entertaining crowds 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

- I performed in a little trio and called it The Sir John Trio.

And I was playing different little clubs around in East St. Louis.

- [Anne-Marie] Johnnie's band played regularly at this now long neglected building.

Back then it was a hotspot, The Cosmopolitan Club and on New Year's Eve, 1952, Johnnie found his trio one man short.

And he made a decision that would change the course of music forever.

- One night, my saxophone player got sick and couldn't couldn't make the job.

And I had heard Chuck Berry cause he was playing right up the street from where I was, a place called Huff's Garden.

And I had his phone number and whatnot, give him a ring and asked him, would he sit in for us one night.

And that one night lasted over 20 something years.

We stayed together.

Chuck playing this kind of music he played was something new to the black people because they used to hearing blues and whatever.

And Chuck come in with this, what we call at that time, hillbilly stuff.

And it went off like a Chinese firecracker.

(upbeat piano music) - [Anne-Marie] Johnnie's rhythm and blues sound jumped perfectly with Chuck's hillbilly style.

Chuck would bring the lyrics to rehearsal and Johnnie would score the music behind it.

It was the perfect partnership.

In 1955, Chuck and Johnnie went to Chicago to record "Maybelline," the first of many songs they would record together.

♪ Maybelline, why can't you be true ♪ ♪ Oh Maybelline, why can't you be true ♪ ♪ You done started doing the thing you used to do ♪ - And after "Maybelline" come out and whatever, then it became Chuck Berry Trio.

Because during that time, only the artist's name was mentioned on the 45.

No sidemen, whatsoever.

♪ Just let me hear some of that rock and roll music ♪ ♪ Any old way you choose it - [Anne-Marie] Johnnie thought they were just playing a shuffle style of music.

You know, the kind of music people could dance to, like the music of Fats Domino.

But this dance music was about to get a name of its own.

- And we went on this Allen Freed tour, and we were playing in Brooklyn, New York.

And Allen Freed was standing back there.

In fact, I was close to him as I am to you.

He said, "Look at those kids, boy they just rocking and rolling."

And right in the middle of his statement, he said, "Hey, why don't we call that music, rock and roll music?"

And boom.

That's where the name comes from.

Alan Freed was the first one I know to mention it.

"Why don't we call this rock and roll music?"

And then from there it was just like a wildfire with gasoline on it.

- [Anne-Marie] For the next 27 years, the man immortalized as Johnnie B. Goode was Chuck Berry's sideman, providing numerous rock and roll classics with his own piano style.

But as a sideman, Johnnie received little acknowledgement and certainly no royalties.

- To the public, they didn't know who I was.

But they also enjoyed my music 'cause I've been told years later, "I often wondered who was that playing all that piano on Chuck Berry's records."

- [Anne-Marie] In 1973, Johnnie called it quits.

He said it wasn't anything personal.

He was just tired.

(piano playing) Johnnie didn't understand the business behind the music and never realized that he could have made an income from many of Berry's hits.

And spent the next several years living an extremely hard life, a life of near anonymity, stricken with poverty and drowning in alcoholism.

While Chuck Berry was making millions from songs he and Johnnie created together.

His loyal sideman was dirt poor and drinking himself to death.

(upbeat piano music) But in 1986, Johnnie Johnson was given one last chance.

Not only for his music, but for his life ♪ Maybelline Chuck Berry was turning 60 and a future film documentary was being done about his career, in conjunction with the filming of "Hail!

Hail!

Rock 'N' Roll".

An all star performance was to be held at the Fox Theater, with such performers as Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Johnnie Johnson.

(upbeat rock music) This documentary revealed what many in the music business already knew, but few outside were aware of, Johnson's piano style was instrumental in the development of rock and roll.

- He does "School Days" as duh-duh-duh-duh-duh.

He ain't copying Chuck's riffs on piano.

Chuck adapted them to guitar and put those great lyrics behind them.

But without somebody to give him them riffs, voila, no song, just a lot of words on paper.

- Without the help of a sideman, what the artist playing wouldn't sound like nothing.

Unless he had something to back up what he was doing.

Now you take, just say Chuck and you get him out there with his guitar and nobody but him, they probably throw bricks at him.

Where when he added bass and guitar and the drums and all that, you got a beautiful sound All right.

- In 2001, Johnnie did file a lawsuit against Chuck Berry for his share of royalties from songs they created together.

But a judge ruled in Berry's favor, saying too much time had passed.

(upbeat piano music) Johnnie did become sober and he toured the world.

He recorded with Keith Richards, Bo Didley, Bonnie Raitt, and Aerosmith, just to name a few.

Johnnie recorded a few CDs of his own.

And in the end was billed, not as a sideman, but a front man.

(upbeat piano music) - He's a man who has been working in the music and entertainment field for a great deal of time and who has experienced it on a variety of levels.

I mean, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

This guy has an opportunity to work on some extraordinary levels in his profession.

And at the same time, he allows himself to funnel those kinds of experiences to the musicians in which he worked with, especially to this band.

- [Anne-Marie] So on his 80th birthday, his last birthday, Johnnie Johnson did what he did best.

♪ It was a long time coming ♪ But I know I'll see the day ♪ It'll be a long time coming ♪ But I know I'll see the day - I never imagine it would go this far.

I never imagined I'd get into the Hall of Fame.

Let's me know my music that I play has been recognized by the public.

And the being it's gift from God, I think he wanted me to share it with the public.

That's a good feeling, right there.

This is my contribution to music.

(upbeat blues rock music) - Finally, a story about kids and their hobby.

Well, actually it started out that way but then the kids grew up and took the hobby with them.

From our archives, this story from 2008.

(bright music) They come here because what they do requires a lot of open land and open sky.

They build and fly model airplanes, not the elaborate full-powered, remote controlled planes that take off under their own power.

Although there can be power involved to get the planes up in the air, after that, it's mostly about gliding.

(bright music) You'll see guys launching planes with a slingshot.

(bright music) Another kind of plane gets its altitude like a kite on a string, which is then detached and the plane flies free.

- [John] There it went.

Okay.

Now it's hooked up.

- [Jim] But the most common type of model plane here is a propeller plane powered by a rubber band.

- Kind of spiral up.

Let's do it this way.

Here we go into the wind.

(small engine whirring) - [Jim] Small motors can also be used, but they are timed to shut off after, say 15 or 30 seconds or so.

And then the plane flies free.

They all end up gliding.

If there's no remote control it is what's considered free flight and how long they stay up depends on whether they catch an updraft or thermal, which is how they got the name of this club.

- Thermal Ears is the name of the St. Louis Thermal Ears, used to be called it Kirkwood Thermal Ears.

It's one of the oldest clubs in the country.

And I think in '38 or '39 it was formed.

After Lindbergh flew the Atlantic, everybody went (chuckles) bonkers over aviation.

The kids' models came up from everywhere.

- [Jim] Most of the club members grew up in that exciting age of aviation between the World Wars, the age of Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart and record setting flights.

People were taking flying lessons.

Kids were building models.

Some of those kids would fly in World War II or become commercial or private pilots.

And others simply would never lose the childlike wonder of flight.

And now they're all pretty much back where they started, building model planes.

- This is a scale model World War II trainer of the German Luftwaffe in World War II.

It was a trainer plane.

- [Jim] How did you get started in it?

- When I was a kid.

(laughs) - [Jim] Do you think it's that Lindbergh generation?

- I'm sure it is.

It's almost like a disease.

It's a generational passion, that you'll see photographs back in the twenties and the thirties, the young guys and all through up to our age now.

(small engine whirring) - [Jim] Today, Don Crosby was flying a plane that could be steered by remote control.

The small engine gets this plane up pretty high but then it runs out of fuel and he can still steer it in and out of the thermals and keep it flying a long time.

- And you get any lift, you can work these things up.

Well, I've lost this airplane a couple times, go outta sight.

- And if you can get into one of those thermals, these airplanes will stay in it and it'll ride that thermal outta sight, so.

- [Jim] Then how do you get the plane back?

- You put your name on it and hope somebody will call you.

(Jim and Sid laugh) - [Jim] The planes are adjusted so that they will fly in circles.

But with updrafts and winds, that's sometimes still not enough.

There is a low-tech, but very clever, feature on some of these planes.

You'll see them light a wick, a slow burning fuse, that will at some point, bring down the plane.

- [Don] That's what pops this tail up.

That's what gets it out of the thermal.

When that fuse burns the rubber band in half, that pops up.

- [Jim] These guys seem to love just about anything that flies.

And today, Roy White brought out a kite and not just any kite, a 14-foot diameter kite that he built after seeing a picture of it in a magazine.

On a day like this, it was tough to keep it on the ground.

(bright music) - What do you think?

- I'm impressed.

(Roy laughing) That's cool.

That's very cool.

- [Jim] Well, what did you think the first time you saw it go?

- [Roy] Oh, well, when I first put it together, we had a nice little breeze and I just tipped it up and up it and went.

- [Jim] Yeah.

- It's just awesome, man.

It's just, it's the neatest kite I've ever built.

Got it there.

- [Jim] It is about the building and the flying and the challenges, but it's also about the camaraderie.

Just getting together with a bunch of guys on a nice day and getting in a bit of exercise, chasing down your airplane.

A lot of the members of the Thermal Ears are now in their seventies and eighties.

But they haven't given up hope that a new generation will discover what they did when they were boys.

- I go around to the schools and we build these small gliders at school.

They're interested for a while, then they disappear.

They get a car and a girlfriend, and they're gone.

- [Jim] Maybe today, it's computers or video games, A generation before, rockets.

But for them, it was and always will be airplanes.

And they realize there's a good possibility that when they go, the Thermal Ears Club may well go with them.

- [Earl] I think so, because there's not many kids coming behind us.

What you're looking at here, if you look at the age of the guys around here, it's a generational thing.

When we're gone, it's gone.

(bright music) - And that's "Living St.

Louis."

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Jim Kirchherr.

We'll see you next time with more stories from the archives.

(upbeat funky music) - [Narrator] "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 the members of Nine PBS.

(upbeat funky music)