- [Jim] It was the age of machine politics and St. Louis mayor Bernard Dickmann in 1940 made a move.

- [Lana] Dickmann wanted to be the supremo politician.

- [Jim] But the effort to steal the governorship backfired big time.

The fight against COVID 19 is more than just getting people vaccinated.

It's also about getting out the right information.

- I think it's important for people to have those questions answered by sources that they trust.

♪ I believe - [Jim] We look at Kevin McBeth's 10 years of directing the symphonies IN UNISON chorus, and his plans for these voices to emerge again from the pandemic year.

- [Kevin] I just have hope beyond hope that we'll start to see singing if even in smaller groups.

- [Jim] And the event 75 years ago that put Fulton Missouri on the world map and how Westminster College pulled it off.

- An iron curtain has descended across the continent.

- It's all next on Living St. Louis.

(upbeat music) I'm Jim Kirchherr, and we're gonna start off with some old news, you know accusations of voter fraud, an attempt to overturn an election, legislative and court battles.

But in this case, it's really old news.

In 1940 Missourians elected a Republican governor but he wasn't sworn in on inauguration day.

It was 80 years ago and they called it the great governorship steal.

(upbeat music) There are so many players in this story it's hard to keep track since only a few names might be familiar today.

And hardly anybody's around who was in on it.

We did however find two people who have written about the attempt to steal the governorship.

Retired UMSL professor Lana Stein wrote a book on the history of St. Louis politics.

- It was just a different era.

- [Jim] And Bob Priddy spent 40 years covering Jeff city for Missourinet.

And he knew the story as part of Capitol history.

- A case of where the Democrats were at firmly in control of state government at the time.

And they did not want to give up that control.

- They succeeded in preventing the new governor - From taking over for 40 days yeah.

- [Jim] So before we get to the 1940 governor's race, some important background.

We'll start with St. Louis democratic mayor, Bernard Barney Dickmann.

This is him unveiling a new fleet of streetcars in 1939.

In his two terms, he'd done a lot.

He built Homer G. Phillips hospital, started clearing the riverfront for a new Memorial and tackled the city smoke problem.

He was powerful, but not as powerful as the guy on the other side of the state, Tom Pendergast, boss of the democratic machine in Kansas city and by extension Jefferson city.

Pendergast prime people called the governor's mansion uncle Tom's cabin.

But by the late 1930s, that had changed.

- By this time Tom Pendergast had gone to prison.

He was in trouble and his machine out of Kansas city that had controlled democratic politics for decades was pretty much falling apart and Dickmann the mayor of St. Louis Bernard Dickmann thought that his little machine in St. Louis could replace Pendergast as the political machine in Missouri.

- He had wanted an ally in the governorship who would give them more patronage jobs in the state and see that a new deal money's got to the city.

Dickmann wanted to be the supremo politician.

- [Jim] The man Dickmann wanted in the governor's mansion was city excise commissioner, Larry McDaniel.

Who faced a Republican from Webster Groves Forest Donald.

And it was close when the results came in the Republican Donald had won by fewer than 4,000 votes.

And immediately the Democrats charged voter fraud.

A recount was demanded.

McDaniel refused to concede.

- But it was funny because I thought of it when we had the aftermath of this presidential election and whether there was fraud, et cetera.

There always is some fraud, but not like there used to be you know.

- And some of these things that you hear from 1940 and '41 sound a lot like some of the things that we heard just last year.

- [Jim] And the evidence, well there must have been fraud because their guy lost.

But the idea of a stolen election did not have popular support.

This was pure power politics.

- Oh, it very much was power politics because the Democrats really had Missouri in their grasp and they didn't want to let anybody have any part of it that wasn't a loyal Democrat.

- The story is that top Democrats held a meeting here in downtown St. Louis in what was then the DeSoto hotel.

It was behind closed doors of course and they devised a strategy to overturn the election and get McDaniel into office.

And this is where we have to introduce another key player in all of this.

In that meeting with Dickmann and other Democrats was the St. Louis city democratic chairman, Robert Hannegan.

- What I heard about Dickmann was that he was more of a showman, and that Hannegan was the brains in the operation.

- [Jim] This was the plan, an election became official when the speaker of the house received the results and announced the winner.

So the democratic majority voted to block the announcement and set up a special committee to investigate the election returns.

And it worked for awhile.

Inauguration date came and went with no swearing in of the Republican governor.

- But all of the other democratic officials were inaugurated on the traditional inauguration day.

- Well they were sitting on it basically and trying for ways to extend the situation so that they might prevail.

- [Jim] Report said the Democrats wanted some ballots thrown out on technicalities, but as for actual fraud if they had evidence, they didn't share it.

Note the quotation marks in the Post-Dispatch headline.

The outgoing governor Lloyd Stark stayed on as caretaker governor, but he was not happy about it.

He was a Democrat, but he was an antimachine Democrat and he tried to block the maneuvers.

The state constitution said any election could be contested but only after the apparent winner took office.

So governor elect Donald went to the Supreme court which unanimously ruled that the speaker of the house did not have the power to reject the election results.

The job was just announce them.

- The Missouri Supreme court in February, six weeks after the inauguration day finally told the legislature look, you've got to swear this guy in.

And then once you swear him in, then you can have your election contest.

And so they finally begrudgingly swore him in.

- [Jim] Forest Donald was inaugurated on February 26 of 1941, 44 days later.

And it wasn't over McDaniel still wouldn't concede and set the recount in motion.

A recount that began to show McDaniel was losing by an even bigger margin.

He finally gave it up.

He said, he'd been misinformed by exaggerated reports of fraud.

That same month Barney Dickmann who set out to become the state's big boss, didn't even keep his own job.

(trumpet music) Yeah and this event that in which became known as the governorship steal kind of backfired on Dickmann.

- Oh yes, it did.

Yes it did and the Republican candidate for mayor in 1941 kept complaining about the Dickmann, Hannegan, Pendergast machine et cetera, and used that rather artfully to win.

- [Jim] The man who beat him Mayor William D. Becker died a few years later in a glider crash at Lambert field part of a wartime demonstration.

Dickmann stuck around, he was the St. Louis postmaster when he stood with president Harry Truman at union station in 1948.

He had a bridge named for him but people kept calling it the Poplar street bridge.

Governor Donald later became Senator Donald served a term returned to practice law in St. Louis and died in 1980 at the age of 95.

The outgoing governor Lloyd Stark he went home to Louisiana, Missouri to help run the family business Stark Brothers Nursery.

Boss Pendergast served his 15 months in prison and in ill health lived out of the public eye, dying in 1945.

Larry McDaniel who'd had a long political career in the city died in 1948, after the governorship fiasco, he ended up taking a job as a parole officer.

As for Robert Hannegan and ally of Harry Truman, he went to Washington served as internal revenue service commissioner, US postmaster general.

And he was for a time part owner of the St. Louis Cardinals.

But he really made history again behind the scenes as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

It is set without Hannegan there may well have been no president Harry Truman.

- [Bob] Hannegan it gets a lot of the credit for getting Harry Truman on the ticket with Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.

- And that's the story of Missouri's great governorship steal, actually an attempted theft.

80 years ago, mostly forgotten, but still a heck of a story.

(jazzy music) Since 1994, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestras IN UNISON chorus has been celebrating the music of African-American and African cultures.

Its current director is marking his 10th year with the popular ensemble.

And he talked with Ruth Ezell about this past decade and the path that led him to this role.

♪ I believe - [Kevin] If somebody asked, had asked me just recently about my love of music.

And if I weren't conducting, you know what would I be doing?

And I really think that conducting found me.

- [Ruth] And fortunately for St. Louis audiences, Kevin McBeth found the IN UNISON chorus of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

The road he traveled to become chorus director began in his hometown of Houston, Texas.

McBeth's earliest exposure to music was in churches.

Classical music in his father's Lutheran church and gospel in his mother's Baptist church.

- And the story is told that in any situation at the end of the service I would make a beeline from the pew, down to whatever instrument was playing.

So if it was the organ, I was there just observing everything.

Or if somebody was at the piano, I was just standing and watching.

So I guess I've always had this fascination.

- [Ruth] That fascination served McBeth well in college, where his formal education focused on vocal music with the goal of singing in operas and musicals.

But it was also his first opportunity to conduct both instrumental and choral groups.

McBeth moved to St. Louis in 1995 to be director of music at Manchester United Methodist church, a position he continues to hold, in addition to his work with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

- I've always strive to be connected with the community.

I think it certainly benefits me, but it benefits our church and there've been some wonderful connections with every church that I serve where I've also been able to be a part of the community.

And so right away in 1995 I auditioned and sang with the symphony chorus.

So my entire time just about in St. Louis has been connected in some way, in some form or fashion with the symphony.

- [Ruth] McBeth describes his appointment to IN UNISON as a full circle experience.

And 2021 marks McBeth's 10th anniversary.

He succeeded the esteemed founding director, Robert Ray who retired in 2010.

- Robert is, well he is the quintessential musician.

Another one of those people that I think from a very early place in his life music was always, always, always first and foremost.

In a lot of ways he and I are very similar in some of the experiences that we had as young musicians and growing up in the church and growing up around all sorts of styles of music.

He was more the pianist where my background is vocal music.

And so I began as a singer, but Robert was a pianist and vocal coach, and that he still recalls his 15 years with IN UNISON, as he said as some of the best years of his life.

So it's just been great to stay connected with him.

He has been a tremendous supporter of mine in my time in trying to fill those very big shoes.

- [Ruth] Over the years, McBeth's role with the SLSO has expanded beyond the chorus.

He has welcomed a number of a claim singers to Paul Hall for guest performances he's conducted.

Some of the who's who includes Jennifer Holiday, Leslie Odom Jr, Sutton Foster, Boys II Men and Oleta Adams with whom he worked twice.

- When we worked with her for the first time she and I had become very good friends and talked on the phone.

And, you know, just talked about, you know her hopes and dreams of what this concert would be with her visiting with us.

And she said, Kevin do you mind if I came early, let me come sometime and let me just work with you in the chorus and let me just spend an evening with you and let's just get to know each other.

And that is extremely rare.

We, there are very few times that we get a chance to have that happen.

Most of the time the artist comes, it's a dress rehearsal we run everything through, the next night we perform and that's our experience.

But fortunately Oleta and her husband live in Kansas city.

She said, we'll drive over, we'll come on a Monday night and we'll just come and hang out with the chorus.

I can't tell you what that experience was like.

I mean I, it's, the emotion is so close to the surface in thinking about what we experienced with her.

(trumpet music) - [Ruth] When the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra marked its 50th anniversary in January of 2020, it was Kevin McBeth wielding the baton.

But any celebrating of his own 10 year anniversary with IN UNISON is not to be thanks to COVID-19.

So Kevin McBeth along with the rest of the musical world is imagining their performance landscape, post-pandemic.

- It's gonna affect the kind of music that we do.

IN UNISON chorus on the roster typically has in between 120 and 130 singers as is the symphony chorus.

And so with both those ensembles and that kind of base number, obviously I don't think we'll be able to, we won't be able to start back with that number of singers right away on stage in the hall.

And so, you know, how do we select music that we can do with smaller ensembles and smaller instruments accompanying us and all those kinds of things.

So, it's taken some strategic work and our artistic department and Maria Lynn Bernard our CEO has, you know has been at the forefront of taking each of those steps and trying to help us work through all of that as we get ready to go back to work and begin singing.

But I think like with the coming of spring and seeing things come to life again, I just have hope beyond hope that we'll start to see singing even in smaller groups come to life again.

So that's my hope, that's my daily prayer.

And I'm looking forward to the possibility of that happening.

♪ Amen (audience claps) - So I finally got my first COVID shot.

I didn't pull any strings, but it took time.

Computer time, phone calls took some time off from work, I needed a car.

I realized not everybody has those resources and maybe not my level of trust in the vaccine.

Gabrielle Hayes checks in on efforts to get the vaccine out to more of our neighbors and why some of them might still be hesitant about taking it.

(bright music) - [Gabrielle] As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.

One year later, healthcare workers try to get as many people vaccinated as possible.

- Got a little stick here, good job.

- [Gabrielle] But then also means answering questions, easing fears.

- Okay, that means left.

(both chuckle) - [Gabrielle] And addressing inequities.

- You have to look at COVID and healthcare through an equity lens.

- We know that our community has been quite burdened by COVID.

- [Gabrielle] How do you look at healthcare through an equity lens?

Well, Dr. Melissa Tepe at Affinia Healthcare says it starts with acknowledging they exist in the first place.

- So we want to ensure that our community has all of that information so that they can make an informed decision.

- [Gabrielle] Affinia Healthcare is a community health system.

It provides affordable primary and preventative care to tens of thousands of people.

In light of the pandemic alone, data from Alaska to Virginia shows inequities everywhere from testing to initial data from vaccine rollout, something Tepe says we have to confront and recognize as a barrier.

- We know that there may be more vaccine hesitancy in our community, especially with African-Americans, with other folks of color, with our immigrants.

And so, working through those challenges the medical system has a history of some abuse, right?

With those populations.

And so we need to work through that.

We need to continue to build trust and give accurate information so we continue to build those relationships 'cause we want this community protected.

- What Dr. Tepe is talking about, goes back centuries.

In 2008 the American Medical Association conducted a study on racism in health care.

In the end citing that the legacy of segregation, bias and exclusion continues to adversely affect African-American physicians and the patients they serve.

It's something health professionals are having to confront as the fight to get a hold of COVID-19 continues.

According to the CDC long-standing systemic health and social inequities put people of color at an increased risk of getting and dying from COVID to be a little more specific that's things like discrimination, access to healthcare, lack of representation, housing and gaps in education, income and wealth gaps.

Have you all experienced people with some hesitancy?

- Yes.

- [Gabrielle] Yeah.

- Even if they're here that doesn't mean they're not a little anxious or they're not a little worried, like you said this is a new vaccine.

So I think those are normal feelings.

(bright music) - [Gabrielle] Feelings Arlene Williams says she felt too.

- Yes I was very apprehensive because it came so quickly the vaccine came so quickly and usually it takes a much longer time to develop a vaccine.

- [Gabrielle] She really wanted to wait until medical experts got the kinks out.

However, the risk of getting the virus wasn't something she wanted to gamble with.

- But I am a nurse and I have patients and I have family and I wanna make sure that I'm safe and I keep everyone around me, I wanna make sure they're safe as well.

- [Gabrielle] That was on Gradon Ballard's mind as well.

Yeah you know just a little bit of questions, but I said I'd rather take my chances with the vaccine than take my chances with COVID so.

- [Gabrielle] He owns a dental practice.

And though he had his own reservations he felt it was the right thing to do.

- It's easy.

- [Gabrielle] Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, get vaccinated.

(both chuckle) - [Gabrielle] Thank you so much.

- Those are the syringes.

This is where the vaccine is in, the famous liquid gold.

- Hesitancy over the COVID-19 vaccine is very layered.

At one point, the World Health Organization named it a top threat to global health.

Experts say part of it has to do with misinformation and disinformation.

And yes, they are different.

Misinformation is false info regardless of intention, while disinformation is thought to be deliberate.

How is Affinia Healthcare grappling with all of this?

Well, the CEO says it starts with open communication.

Is that a barrier for you all to work when people can read all kinds of things that aren't even remotely close to the truth?

- Oh certainly it is.

It's especially complex during a pandemic.

So our accountability to assure that our patients and other audiences have as much evidence and information that's based upon the science.

- [Gabrielle] In fact researchers at the National Institutes of Health say not only has disinformation confused and made people hesitant, but it's also overwhelming.

Dr. Tepe who's already gotten the vaccine herself says that's why actually having conversations with patients is vital.

- They do have questions along the way.

I review all of the consent forms as they come in so to go through some of those questions like if they're reporting any history of any allergies, or if they've had a prior infection.

We want them to ask those questions again 'cause I think I do think it's important for people to have those questions answered, by sources that they trust.

- [Gabrielle] So what does the future of this work look like?

- That's it.

- [Gabrielle] Well though there is a vaccine we still have a road ahead.

But those in the front lines say the work no matter the challenges must continue.

- Whatever long haul looks like for as long as we can be helpful to our communities, as long as we can assure that our communities are safe, as long as the vaccine is available and our capacity will permit, we will continue to be part of the solution around vaccination.

(bright music) - Finally, a piece of world history that's also local or at least regional history.

Well 75 years ago in March of 1946, Winston Churchill came to Fulton, Missouri and talked about an iron curtain.

It was a long shot asking the former prime minister of Great Britain to give a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri of all places.

To deliver the Annual John Findley Green lecture.

It was president Harry Truman though who put in a good word for the school and his home state and Churchill accepted.

Churchill and Truman spent three days together on the trip to Jefferson city, playing poker and getting to know one another.

And they got the red carpet treatment when they got to Fulton.

Some estimates put the crowd at about 20,000 plus a large press contingent.

The newsreel cameras were documenting the day that Winston Churchill came to this quiet little town and delivered a wake-up call to the world.

- From stepping in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the continent.

- [Jim] Those are the words remembered in what today is called the "Iron Curtain Speech."

But it was not the iron curtain line that initially caught the attention of the world that day in 1946.

Churchill called his speech "The Sinews of Peace" and with Britain declining and the US growing as a world power, he called for an Anglo American Alliance to face the communist threat.

- Neither the sure prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of world organization will be gained without what I have called the fraternal association of the English speaking people.

(audience claps) - [Jim] Within a few days, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin reacted calling Churchill a warmonger.

And president Truman who was on the stage during the speech, he initially tried to distance himself from Churchill's remarks, but as events began to unfold in the following months it became clear that Truman shared Churchill's concerns about communist expansion.

15 years later, with the construction of the Berlin wall, the east-west division, the descent of the iron curtain was set in concrete.

Churchill died in 1965, his symbolism had become reality.

Eight sections of the Berlin wall now stand on the Westminster campus.

The sculpture titled "Breakthrough" was the work of Churchill's granddaughter artist had Edwina Sandys.

It was dedicated in November, 1990, one year after the wall was opened.

The speaker that day was former president Ronald Reagan, a man who wants challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down this wall.

- Today, we come full circle from those anxious times.

- [Jim] And in 1992 Gorbachev himself also now out of power came to Westminster to speak before the remnants of the wall.

It was 46 years after Churchill here had warned of the iron curtain.

And that's living St. Louis.

Thanks for joining us, I'm Jim Kirchherr and will see you next time.

- [VO] Living St. Louis is made possible by the support of the Mary Ranken Jordan and Ettie A. Jordan charitable foundation.

And by the members of Nine PBS.

(upbeat music)