- [Jim] Nothing wrong with the old lemonade stand, but these St. Louis kids have bigger ideas for getting their businesses off the ground and they're getting help.

We look back on what made Sweetie Pies a St. Louis soul food favorite, the one time backup singer and her down home recipes that started it all.

And, as we work to return to the moon, we remember the eccentric St. Louisan who said she got there first and recorded an album.

- The last thing I wanted to do was fact check her.

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

(upbeat music) I'm Jim Kirchherr.

First Job, paperboy, afternoon edition after school route.

Those days are gone, but I'm not here to talk about the good old days and certainly not to gripe about these kids today.

In fact, just the opposite.

Brook Butler's story is about kids who, well, they're not looking for jobs that aren't around anymore.

They're putting themselves to work.

- [Narrator 2] Well, it didn't take long for Jimmy to set himself up in business with his mother's help.

Now, all he needs is some customers.

- [Brooke] The lemonade stand.

Some might consider it a staple childhood experience.

Kids might not know it at the time, but they're learning some of the fundamentals to entrepreneurship.

And, while the money earned in their tiny business venture will likely be gone by the time they enter adulthood, the skills they've learned could shape their future careers.

But, these kids are taking the lemonade stand to the next level.

- [Brooke] Are you excited to make some money?

- I'm gonna swim in it.

(upbeat music) - [Brooke] Young Biz Kids Day gathers dozens of aspiring entrepreneurs for an opportunity to set up and operate their own business.

- I like to tell parents, you know when your kids are really good at sports, you take them to a community center, you put 'em on a sports team.

You know when they're really good at dance, you go take them and put them on a dancing.

Well, where do you take those entrepreneurial kids that have that entrepreneurial bug?

You bring them to Young Biz Kids so that we can help them to cultivate what it is.

- [Brooke] Ariel Biggs is the founder of Young Biz Kids Day, which started in St. Louis, but has now spread to six other states.

And, it all got started because of her own biz kid.

Her son, Mikey Wren, got inspired to pursue his own business after a successful run with no other than a lemonade stand.

- So, what we did, we set up next to a shoe store and, the shoe store, the new Jordans was releasing that day.

So, everybody was standing outside waiting on those new Jordans, they was like, it's hot, I'm trying... Lemme go get... Gimme some lemonade.

We right there.

Everybody came to buy lemonade.

They was buying by the gallon, by cups, jugs.

Like it was crazy.

And, I made $1,200 in three days off of selling lemonade.

- [Brooke] $1,200 in three days?

- Yes.

- [Brooke] Mikey could have bought a PlayStation, or a new bike, something similar to what the average eight year old would spend $1,200 on.

Instead, he invested in vending machines.

- That idea came about because me and my mom was leaving summer camp and, I was like, Mom, can I have something at the vending machine?

And, she was like, No.

But, she said All the money that you put into those machines goes to the owner, but if you had your own, all the money would go to you.

I took the money from the lemonade stands.

It still wasn't just enough yet.

So, I ended up sacrificing not getting gifts for Christmas just so I was able to get the rest of the money for my vending machine company.

I started off with two vending machines.

Now, today, currently, I own 12.

- In fact, he is the youngest person to own his own vending machine.

- [Brooke] And, Ariel, do you have a business background?

Were you in business before this?

How did you start to guide him?

- I've been an entrepreneur all of my life.

Middle school, high school, I braided hair, I sold candy.

So, I didn't know the term of what I was, but I knew that I was an entrepreneur.

I did not have a business background.

But, once I started business with him, I started taking classes and finding out anything that I could about business.

After doing some research and him being adamant about it, I started developing a kind of curriculum where I was like, I'm gonna walk you through this business plan.

We're gonna walk through market research, we're gonna walk through like just how to do research on starting the business.

We started that process.

It worked for him.

So, I started helping other parents walk through the same process on when a child comes to you and say, I wanna start a business, what does that look like?

- [Brooke] Even if the kids participating in Young Biz Kids Day don't plan to go into business as a career, they'll be well equipped with the knowledge, not only for basic financial literacy, but also to pursue the increasingly popular side hustle.

In 2022, some 40% of Americans have some type of side hustle, whether that's to just make ends meet or a fun way to supplement their income.

- 'Cause I wanna be like a veterinarian when I grow up.

So, like this will be fun to do as like a side business.

- Actually, I'm gonna do it on the side, but I think I'm actually gonna go into nursing.

- I see me going into real estate.

- [Brooke] Even Mikey has other plans for his career, but, for him, entrepreneurship goes beyond simply earning a living.

- So, entrepreneurship is more of a craft than running a business.

It's a way of mindset.

It's the way that you think, it's the way that you move.

It's how you develop yourself.

That's what entrepreneurship is.

It's not really just running a business.

So, I see myself perfecting that gift that I have of entrepreneurship.

- [Brooke] Do you see college in your future?

- It really depends.

I don't see paying for college in my future.

I see going to college for free in my future.

- [Brooke] Spoken like a true CEO and Mikey has invested a lot in his natural business capabilities.

After his successful start with Mikey's Munchies vending machines, he decided to write and publish two different children's books about entrepreneurship.

- When we started to brainstorm about him writing a book, he wanted a imaginary character, which is his briefcase.

But, then I was like, well, I'm the one taught you about business.

He's like, yeah, but don't nobody wanna list it to a mom talk about business.

Mikey doesn't like to tell everybody, but I am the briefcase that's inside the book.

When he put the briefcase in, it worked because all the kids love the briefcase.

When we would show up to events, they would be like, where is Biz?

Where is Biz the Briefcase?

And, I laugh, 'cause I'm like, well, I'm Biz the briefcase.

But, they really wanted to see the briefcase.

Are y'all ready?

(kids cheering) (horns blaring) - [Brooke] Do you really see the connections being made?

Like you said you were an entrepreneur all your life, but you really didn't know those terms.

I mean, these are young kids.

Do you see the connections being made?

- Yes, yes I do.

It's an educational program, which the kids don't get that part.

They think they're just selling, but they're gonna see the kids network and they're gonna see them making eye contact.

They're gonna see them making pitch, and then they're gonna be applying financial literacy, because, before the event, they have to set a smart goal on top of customer service, on top of standing up straight, 'cause the goal is for them to learn these skill sets through business, but, us as parents, knowing that these skills are gonna transfer to the rest of their life and they're gonna be able to use those skills.

- The closing of Sweetie Pie's Upper Crust here on Delmar got a lot of coverage.

It was pretty famous, the subject of a reality TV show, and recently the unfortunate real life drama of the Family Murder for Hire trial.

But, before all of that, Ruth Izel profiled the woman whose down home cooking started it all.

Robbie Montgomery opened her first restaurant in Delwood in 1997, and 11 years later, Ruth stopped in at Sweetie Pie's number two.

- [Robbie] Are these deep fires on?

It doesn't look like it.

- [Employee] Lemme check.

- [Ruth] Like any successful restaurant owner, St. Louis's Robbie Montgomery keeps tabs on everything.

- So, we gonna be a minute.

They gotta turn these on and get 'em ready.

- [Ruth] Yet, behind the scenes of the soul food restaurant, Sweetie Pie's at the Mangrove, Montgomery staff carries on with a lowkey precision, kind of like being on kitchen duty at mom's house on Thanksgiving.

- That's our homemade peach cobbler.

- [Ruth] Running this restaurant at the corner of Manchester and Tower Grove is part of a second career for its owner.

Clues to the first career hang in photos above the booths in the dining area.

That's Robbie Montgomery in the middle.

For about three decades, she sang backup for scores of big name recording artists, including Ike and Tina Turner.

That's right, Montgomery was an I-Cat.

She says cooking tips from her mother and cooking classes at Vashon and Hadley high schools came in handy when the group was on tour.

- So, things were segregated back in.

We didn't have the restaurants that we could go in, so we bought electric skillet and we would cook in the hotel's room and I was the designated cooker...

The cooker.

I don't know how, but really I was the best cook.

So, I mean, not being modest, but honestly I was the best cook.

And, so I just cooked all the time, but I-- - [Ruth] The soul food Montgomery serves up originated in the southern states, prepared and eaten by African Americans since the days of slavery, It was a testament to their culinary resourcefulness.

Slaves had to make due with cuts of meat their masters considered inferior, plus vegetables they grew for themselves.

After slavery, the recipes continue to dominate the culture through tradition, economic necessity, and sheer enjoyment.

Today, soul food is heartily consumed by individuals across the ethnic spectrum.

Family recipes handed down to Robbie Montgomery, whose mother was from Mississippi, make up the menu at Sweetie Pie's.

- And, then we gonna slice it.

I like to cube it.

That way it'll melt easier.

- She shared a couple of those recipes with us, starting with her enormously popular macaroni and cheese.

- We're gonna use a pound, two pounds of Velveeta cheese.

We're gonna take five eggs, crack them, whip that up.

I like to whip it up first, my eggs up, makes it easier to mix, three cans of pat milk, So, I sort of pour that over.

Two tablespoons of sour cream.

- [Ruth] Oh, yum.

- That's our secret.

Not anymore.

This is a pound of sharp cheddar.

We're gonna add a little salt, which is gonna be about three tablespoons to this amount.

So, we got our Velveta, we got our sharp, we got our sour cream, and we're doing a pound of Colby and Jack.

Two sticks of butter and two sticks of margarine.

And, we're gonna put a little sugar.

- [Ruth] Sugar, interesting.

- Just a little.

Just a little to take the edge off.

Not a lot.

That's about two table spoons and this size pan.

Then, we're gonna alternate with the regular milk.

Mix it up.

I always taste this mixture to make sure that it's seasoned well before I stop.

Tastes pretty good.

Gonna add just a little more salt.

Just a drop.

We're gonna top it with the...

This is a considered a fancy mild.

The other one was a larger shred.

This is a fancy mild cheddar that-- - [Ruth] Then, into the oven it goes, until it's bubbling and the cheese topping is perfectly brown.

Montgomery says they make about 30 pans of mac and cheese a day, even more on weekends.

And, if these aren't enough carbohydrates for you, stick around for Montgomery's cornbread.

- I've got four cups of corn meal, a cup of flour, a cup of sugar, and a tablespoon of salt, where we don't measure.

My tablespoon.

We're gonna put six eggs in here, a cup of buttermilk, which we don't measure, but I know what it is.

A cup.

- So, what is it that the buttermilk does that regular milk doesn't?

- The buttermilk gives it a richer flavor.

Now, we use the regular milk, but buttermilk was what they used back in the day.

And, I guess that was the milk that had soured or something.

I don't know, but later on, they developed buttermilk, and so the marginalized milk, we alternate in ours with that.

- [Ruth] After a little more stirring, Montgomery takes a baking pan containing three cups of hot vegetable oil from the oven.

- And, we're gonna pour this into our mixture.

And, you see how it's cooking it ever?

- [Ruth] Ooh, I like that.

- And, we're gonna leave that pan sitting there for a minute.

- [Ruth] The oil helps moisten the cornbread and gives it a crunchy crust.

- This is Maurice, my head cook, my head chef.

He's dropping the catfish filet.

We do the catfish and the fish over in this deep fryer.

- [Ruth] A word of caution, if you fill up on all this, you won't get your just desserts.

- [Robbie] So, that's Irma.

She's making the banana pudding.

That's my aunt's recipe made from scratch, banana pudding.

We have banana pudding on Fridays and Sundays.

These are our fried pies.

We do fried pies.

- [Ruth] Oh, yum.

- Miss Mary's frying the pie, making the fried pies.

- [Ruth] Oh, are they fruit filled?

What do you put in it?

- Fruit filled.

We got apple and peach.

We actually only do the fried pies on the weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

- [Ruth] I understand, understand why.

- Yeah, we have so much to do.

- Of course, watching all this preparation is making me really hungry.

So, I hope you don't mind if I sample this.

- I don't mind, being honest.

- Oh, this potato salad looks so good.

- Let's see.

You like?

Okay.

Probably need a little bit more salt.

- [Ruth] Running a successful restaurant can be grueling, but Robbie Montgomery makes it look easy.

Maybe, it's because singing for your supper and serving it aren't all that different.

- Yes, I mean, it's the same.

You're trying to please people.

Only, this time, it's with food.

When I was entertaining, I was trying to pick the right song that would knock the audience dead, you know?

So, it's the same thing.

I'm trying to prepare this food every day, so I get nothing but compliments, you know?

I mean, I can't please everybody, but I try.

So, you okay?

How you been?

When you gonna come down here and play for me?

- Soon.

- Okay, alright.

Let me know, alright.

Thank you.

Thank you, alright.

- One of the reasons for closing Sweetie Pie's Upper Crust was the upcoming expansion of the VA hospital.

And, Robbie Montgomery, who is now in her 80s, is taking some time off, but maybe some good news here, she hasn't ruled out reopening somewhere else.

- [Jim] Finally, while waiting for the Artemis moon rocket to take off this fall, I got to thinking about another St. Louis woman who moved from music to, well, to space travel.

At least that's what she said.

Lucia Pamela was, by the way, the mother of former St. Louis Rams owner, Georgia Frontier.

What Lucia Pamela's real claim to fame was, her trip to the moon, ahead of Neil Armstrong.

Her Wikipedia entry describes her as a musician and an eccentric.

- [Lucia] Oh, we have landed on the moon.

I'm so excited.

I see people.

Must be the moon people.

- Oh, and I didn't mention that while she was on the moon, she recorded a record album.

(Lucia singing) - [Jim] The late Lucia Pamela, she died in 2002 at the age of 98, was known for her quirky songs and her quirky personality.

She spent the first part of her life in St. Louis where her daughter, Georgia, was born and raised.

But, Lucia didn't make the album until she was 65 years old and living in Fresno, California.

And, I wanted to know about the early days in St. Louis that led her to the moon.

And, we found out a lot of facts as well as plenty of twists and turns.

That's her.

That's her.

This might be her.

We'll get to that.

But, separating fact from fiction, that became the problem, because, after all, this was someone who said she went to the moon in early 1969.

- [Lucia] Oh, I see aliens.

Let's take a look on the moon.

Come on.

Come on.

- [Jim] Recorded an album, and then later put out a companion coloring book.

(Lucia singing) The songs are not very good by mainstream musical standards, but they fit nicely into a fringe genre known as outsider music.

(Lucia singing) - Just anything that was kinda crazy, but sincere.

- [Jim] That's New Jersey Disc Jockey, Irwin Chusid, the original champion of outsider music, which he was featuring on one of his radio shows.

When someone sent him Lucia's into Outer Space album.

- I played it frequently.

It got really good audience response, probably write 'em.

- [Jim] He liked it so much that he got it re-released as a CD in 1992 and decided to write a chapter about Lucia Pamela in a book about outsider music.

He met with her to hear about her life.

She was almost 90 years old at the time, so she had a lot of stories.

How, as a child, she burned her hand and her fingers melted together.

And, the surgical separation made her that much better at playing the piano, so good that when the great Petorevsky heard her play, he said she would grow up to be the world's finest pianist.

There was the story about how race car driver, Barney Oldfield, taught her how to drive, about Zigfeld, about the Congressional Medal of Honor she won for entertaining troops.

And, of course, there was that trip to the moon.

- And, I couldn't tell if she believed what she was telling me or she was making it up on the spot, or if these were stories she had told for years.

And, it was just sort of a routine.

I really didn't know, but I felt a bond with her.

- [Jim] The issuing of the CD, the farfetched stories, the charming personality made Lucia Pamela into something of a cult figure.

In 2010, the Riverfront Times did a cover story about her written by Aimee Levitt, who now works in Chicago.

- Well, the story was her personality in her fantasy world and this legend about herself that she created.

She believed in her own world so much, it's really kind of charming.

- [Jim] A Belgian filmmaker made a documentary about Lucia Pamela, although it's never been widely distributed, and her life was the basis of a one act play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner.

It takes place on the moon.

And, there's Lucia, her accordion, and her Miss St. Louis Sash, because that was always part of her story, that in 1926 she was crowned Miss St. Louis, and she had the tattered clippings to back it up.

And, whoever shot this whole movie of a group of friends fooling around included this title card.

So, the person who found the film said, it must be Lucia Pamela, Georgia Frontier's mother, right?

Well, my best answer is maybe.

That title Miss St Louis of 1926, that was something I thought I could confirm.

- No, there is really no point to digging.

It's a story.

It's her story.

And, you can't like verify every fact, but it doesn't harm anybody.

- [Jim] But, I wanted to solve the mystery.

Someone said everything Lucia said about herself had a grain of truth.

And, I was hunting for the grains.

Let's start at the beginning, 1904, the year of the World's Fair.

That's the year Lucia Pamela Beck was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

And, she did grow up to become a professional musician and entertainer.

- Yeah, and she had talent.

I mean if you listen to the, Into Outer Space, you can tell she knew what she was... She was playing about 15 instruments in that, and she was very good.

- [Jim] In the 1930s, she was performing under the name Lucia Pamela all over town playing the accordion and the piano in hotels, and clubs, and on the radio.

One columnist said she was one of the few people who could play the piano and tap dance at the same time.

Well, so maybe this is her.

She was best known though for leading an all girl band called The Musical Pirates appearing in St. Louis and throughout the Midwest.

She also made a name for herself entering local parades and winning trophies for having the best decorated bicycle.

She had it all, talent, personality, and good looks.

Here's Lucia Beck at age 18, appearing in costume at a fancy society ball on the rooftop of the Hotel Statler.

So, it seemed she might well have been on the path to becoming Miss St. Louis.

And, if nothing else, I learned a lot about beauty contests in the 1920s.

And, there were a lot of them.

The papers printed a lot of pictures of bathing beauties, the winner of the Miss St. Louis contest and the finalists would appear in a local theater billed as Miss St. Louis and her Court of Shapely Bathing Beauties.

But, more than that, Miss St. Louis of 1926, if it was Lucia Pamela, would've gone to Atlantic City.

In the first years of the Miss America pageant, contestants came from big cities.

They had won a beauty contest sponsored by their local paper.

Here, it was the St. Louis Times.

So, I got a hold of microfilm of the St. Louis Times for the summer of 1926.

And, there was a lot of coverage of the Miss St. Louis contest.

Entrance were being featured on a daily basis, although not Lucia.

The final judging event, this was a big deal.

It would take place at the old Coliseum.

And, there she was, the 1926 winner of the Miss Saint Louis contest, Corinne Groves.

So, where was Lucia?

Maybe, somewhere in the group photo.

Here are all the 25 finalists who would be appearing in the theater.

Now, we're gonna read if she's in the 25 finalists.

If not, I don't know what the explanation is, but let's find out.

Ereta Gross, Pauline King, and Fay Gardener.

Yeah, I got nothing.

- The last thing I wanted to do was fact check her.

I don't want to do that.

She told a story, whether she believes it, whether she thinks it's fantasy doesn't concern me.

- [Jim] But, I was in to deep.

Maybe there were some other Miss St. Louis contests and Lucia had that clipping, and it took some time to find it, but I did.

It wasn't the Miss St. Louis contest of 1926, but Miss St. Louis contest of 1925, maybe she just got the year wrong, because there she is in the group shot wearing her Miss Tip Top Bottling sash.

Well, if she got the year wrong, she also got the winner wrong, because Miss St. Louis of 1925 was Dorothy Rashko.

But, here, at least, maybe was the grain of truth.

- It's a story.

It's her story.

And, you can't like verify every fact, but it doesn't harm anybody.

- [Jim] So, as for the home movies, well, maybe that's Corinne Groves, the real Miss St. Louis of 1926.

Or, maybe, by then, Lucia and her friends were already rewriting her life story.

Or, maybe it was just an inside joke.

Still, it became part of the Lucia Pamela story.

And, I was thinking about the end of the movie, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, when the newspaper reporter tears up his story and tells Jimmy Stewart, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

After all, this was someone who said she went to the moon.

And, Lucia Pamela stuck to that story 'til her dying day.

And, like others, I got pulled into her world, and her music, and it's way more fun just to take her at her word.

Take that, Neil Armstrong.

- [Neil] That's something I don't mind a bit.

- And, that's Living St. Louis.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Jim Kirchherr and we'll see you next time.

(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.