On April 27, 2013, on what would have been his grandfather and namesake’s 71st birthday, Ken “Trey” Zimmerman III became the first black belt in the Zimmerman Self-Defense System under his father Ken Zimmerman Jr. “Trey” began studying martial arts shortly before his fifth birthday. “Trey” has trained in Taekwondo, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Gojo Shroei Weapons System. His goals […]
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Theodore Roosevelt served as the twenty-sixth President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. TR is famous for the “Strenuous Life”. He practiced boxing and wrestling through his twenties and thirties. What is not as widely known is that he practiced Judo around 1904, when he was in his mid-40s. Roosevelt would eventually earn a brown belt in Judo. Yoshiaki […]
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At one point before I bought my own house, I thought home repairs were one of my skills. I helped my grandfather, Gilbert Ellis, make repairs to our house and the flat he lived in. Grandpa Ellis taught me how to replace electrical outlets, washers on sinks and build lots of things with wood. I put together lots of prefabricated […]
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The Tuesday Evening, February 18, 1919, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch detailed the arrest of two men and two women for the theft of numerous luxury items. Aware that a shoplifting ring was working a couple of the local jewelry stores, the St. Louis Police Department assigned several undercover police women to follow the suspects. Their work resulted in the […]
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The deadliest incident in St. Louis Police history was not a shootout, natural disaster, or act of terrorism. The deadliest incident in St. Louis Police history occurred on the night of Monday, September 3, 1900. Electricity was the assailant as a power line with 3300 volts of electricity fell onto the telephone lines, at Eight Street and Carr Avenue. The […]
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In April 1997, I took my daughter Caitlin, who was three years old, to the St. Louis Zoo. I subtitled the trip, “How to Leave the House with $25.00 and Come Home with $0.75.” In the late 1990s, the St. Louis Zoo had a travelling exhibit of the albino alligator. Caity really wanted to see it, so I took her […]
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Max Linder (1883-1925) built the Pathe’ Film Studio in the early 1900s. Linder’s comedy influenced Charles Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Linder is largely unknown today because his biggest film successes were in the 1910s. Also, the majority of his films are considered lost. Film fans today have the benefit of resources like the Internet Archive, which has a […]
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Huo Yuanjia was a real-life hero, who inspired mythic tales about his life. His life and exploits have been the basis of films starring Bruce Lee and Jet Li. The real Huo Yuanjia defeated foreign fighters when other countries were exploiting China in the late 1800s and early 1900s. His exploits were a source of pride at a time when […]
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On Friday, April 24, 1953, three men and a getaway driver tried to rob the Southwest Bank on the corner of Southwest Avenue and S. Kingshighway Boulevard in St. Louis, MO. The St. Louis Police foiled the robbery, which became the focus of a 1959 movie, The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery. The film is now in the public domain. Fred W. […]
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Great Grandma Caroline Ellis illustrates the difficulty of tracing family history. I do not know whether she did not trust the government or liked to mess with the census taker but she gave four different names from 1910 to 1940. The family all called her “Lee.” In 1910, Caroline is living with her parents on 4244 John Avenue in St. […]
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