(gentle music) - My advice to anyone, I said, just be yourself.

- [Jim] And that's just what he was on the field and in the broadcast booth.

- I mean I loved him and I was so lucky.

- [Jim] Mike Shannon may be gone, but certainly not forgotten.

TV executive and personality Andy Cohen is the latest edition to the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

And this is not his first star.

- We did this in Hollywood last year, but I gotta tell you there is no place like home.

- [Jim] She also came back to St. Louis, but for a different reason.

- And I thought if I go back to my hometown, which I love, I could start a theater company here.

- [Jim] And that's just what she did.

And meet the guy who gets his kicks making one of a kind soccer balls.

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

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - I am Anne-Marie Berger.

And I never imagined we'd start one of our shows with a reference to The Real Housewives of wherever.

But the incredibly popular series on Bravo and others like "Project Runway" were developed by executive producer Andy Cohen, a local boy who's made it really, really good.

And St. Louis couldn't be more proud.

(upbeat music) Cohen, who also hosts a nightly talk show, was recently back on a street he knew well growing up in Clayton.

- Ladies and gentlemen, Andy Cohen.

- [Anne-Marie] In early May, he was honored with a star on the Walk of fame in the Delmar Loop.

This in addition to the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

- We did this in Hollywood last year, but I gotta tell you, there is no place like home, really.

I love St. Louis, as you guys might know, and I love representing St. Louis every night on "Watch What Happens Live".

We have a light bright arch in the background.

We've got my Cardinals hat back there.

We have a lot of bats signed by legendary Cardinals.

And it's my pleasure to kind of shout out St. Louis every night on the show.

All my Clayton High school buddies are here right now.

- [Anne-Marie] Back in high school, Cohen knew he wanted to be on TV and credits Clayton High School Vice Principal Doris Randolph for getting him started with a summer internship at Channel 4.

- I learned so much.

The next summer I worked at KMOX Radio for the summer, and then I took off for the big city.

But, you know, on days like today, I really think of and thank Ms. Randolph for kind of guiding me, setting me on a course that brought me right here to this spot where I will be for eternity with great St. Louisans like Tina Turner and Tennessee Williams and TS Elliot.

I really want to thank you.

Thank you St. Louis for welcoming me back.

People from St. Louis are the nicest people anywhere, and I'm proud to be from St. Louis.

Go Cardinals.

Let's turn this thing around.

Thanks everybody.

(applause) (upbeat music) - Next, the life and times of another St. Louisan who did very well in two different careers without ever leaving home.

Cardinals baseball player turned Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon passed away at the end of April at the age of 83.

He was a man of many talents and many stories.

Shannon shared some baseball wisdom on "Donnybrook Next Up" in July of 2020, just a few days before the delayed start of that season.

- Well Mike, I was one of those five or 6,000 people at Wrigley Field in the 60s.

And I grew up with this love of traditional baseball under God's own light, on God's own grass.

I was upset when Wrigley Field put lights in and now I'm upset with the designated hitter coming to National League and even more outraged at this notion that in an extra inning game, they're gonna start with a runner on second.

Do you share my outrage?

- Yeah, I saw it the other day for the first time, we had a inner squad game and they went and they played the 10th inning and they put a guy on second base, he scored by the way.

- Well do you think that's good?

- You know what?

And I realize you're a traditionalist, but you know what Satchel Page used to say?

Don't look back.

Someone might be be gaining on you.

- Right, I get that.

- That's the way I look at it.

I'm more thrilled about this season than any other because of all the new rules.

I mean, it's gonna be, they're calling it a dash and they're calling it this and it's a sprint and so forth and so on.

But it's still, you gotta pit it, you gotta pitch it, you gotta catch it and you gotta throw it, period.

They can change all they want, but they haven't changed 90 feet to the bases.

The pitcher's mound is still the same, batter's box, all that stuff is still the same.

- When you entered the radio broadcast booth in 1972, you were following some big foot footsteps.

Harry Caray had been in it.

Jack Buck was in it, Joe Garagiola had been in it.

Was that pretty intimidating?

How did you feel doing that?

- Nah, it wasn't intimidating because I'll tell you why Charlie, because I used to take over for Stan Musial - Enough said.

- Mike, you moved so seamlessly from the game to the booth.

Did you realize before you made that move that you would be such a natural that the fans would love you so very, very much?

- Well first of all, Wendy, thank you very much.

And I never did think of that.

Now when I was a youngster, I used to listen to Harry Caray.

Now if you took the radio to the ballgame and you were watching the same game that Harry was broadcasting, you'd say "what the hell game is he doing?"

But if you were down in Potosi, Missouri and listening to the game, he had you on the edge of your seat.

I mean, he was phenomenal.

That was his technique.

That was the way he did the game.

And so my advice to anyone, I said, just be yourself.

And that's what I've been all these times.

It's like somebody said, do you prepare?

And I said yeah, I prepare because I know the game.

But when I come into the booth, I don't carry a bunch of books or anything because I think that people wanna know what's going on down on the field.

That's what my job is as a reporter.

I have to describe to that person that's not at the game what's happening.

And the greatest compliment that I get is from the visually impaired when they write me letters and they say "I love to go to the game, I bring my radio and I know what's happening because you've described it so well".

Now that's the biggest compliment as far as I'm concerned.

- I'm gonna jump in here, Mike, my grandmother who lived in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and that's where my mom and her siblings are from, she lost her sight at a pretty early age, could play the piano and could do so many things.

And you guys, I'm gonna start crying.

You guys used to say hi to her every year and say like and Grace Wiley is listening to the, you know, you did a different town every night and you'd say whatever the station was, and you would say hi to my grandmother in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

And I'll never forget that, man.

I'll never forget that.

That's a true story.

- It's phenomenal that how many people that their life is hooked to the radio broadcast of the baseball game.

They set their clocks by it.

Their day is run by it.

And talking about mostly the people that are not here in St. Louis.

They're in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and they're in Memphis, Tennessee.

And you have to understand about KMOX, the Cardinals were the first team west of the Mississippi.

And because of KMOX, they took a survey at one time, the KMOX went at night went into 46 states and six Canadian provinces.

- [Anne-Marie] Listening to Mike Shannon call a Cardinals baseball game was a gift.

And I can only imagine there was no better place to hear it than right next to him in the booth.

Joe Buck also visited "Donnybrook Next Up" and shared his appreciation for his former broadcast partner.

- I mean I loved him and I was so lucky, guys, when I look back at it, I grew up in the back of that booth.

Literally was down there every night of the summer down there during school nights, hanging around with his son Danny, making too much noise, getting the glare from my dad and Mike, like will you two kids shut up back there?

And then within 10 years, I'm his broadcast partner.

And for him to welcome me into the booth the way he did was just a beautiful gesture on his part.

It didn't have to be that way, but that's the road he took.

And I'm forever grateful because I would not have started my career with the Cardinals, A, if my last name wasn't Buck, and B, if the guy named Shannon wasn't cool with it.

- I used the quote that you had on Twitter about your dad taught you everything you knew about broadcasting.

But Mike Shannon taught you about baseball.

That was probably more the culture of baseball because you knew how to play baseball.

- Yeah, I think you're right.

And it's good to make that distinction.

I think baseball and all that goes into major League baseball.

I knew about balls, strikes, how many outs, all that other stuff.

But it was the nuanced stuff that I think you see off to the side or if you're Mike, he had such a keen eye for what he was watching that he was aware of all nine defensive players.

He was aware of the lineup.

He was basically managing games from the booth.

And I know the Shannonisms, the list of Shannonisms.

It is long and it is distinguished.

But he was an extremely intelligent very common sense smart man.

And I was lucky to be around him really my entire life.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Jim] This week in history.

On the night of May 21st, 1855 a group of nine enslaved St. Louisans, guided by Mary Meachum, headed to the riverfront north of downtown and boarded a boat to cross the river into the free state of Illinois.

Reports said police had been tipped off, and when they reached the Illinois shore, five were captured, four got away.

The newspaper said a woman and two children trying to escape, they belonged to Henry Shaw, another to the sheriff.

And Mary Meachum was arrested as the organizer.

She and her husband John Berry Meachum were former slaves who dedicated their lives to the black community in St. Louis.

They educated children, purchased enslaved people so they could work and buy their freedom.

They took great risks using their home as a waystation on the Underground Railroad.

Today, the Mary Meachum Crossing is part of the National Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program.

It's also the site of an annual Mary Meachum celebration.

It's on the riverfront trail, but it's hard for cars to get to, off the beaten path.

But that makes sense.

- It is out of the way but people have to remember that the slaves didn't go to a populated area to escape.

This was the farmer's crossing into Illinois.

It was far out of the city limits.

And relatively safe.

- [Jim] No one knows for sure how many people the Meachums were able to lead to freedom across the river.

But of course, they didn't keep records of their illegal activities.

But we know how they operated because we know the place and the time when things didn't go as planned.

167 years ago this week in history.

- We know St. Louis is a good baseball town.

Heck, it's a good soccer town too.

And a lot of people consider St. Louis a really good theater town as well.

Ruth Ezell looks in on one of the newer theater companies that's making a name for itself.

- [Ruth] In the first two minutes and 52 seconds of the play "Grand Horizons" staged by Moonstone Theatre Company, not a syllable passes between longtime husband and wife Bill and Nancy.

When the silence is finally broken, an eight word exchange sparks family turmoil to hilarious effect.

- I think I would like a divorce.

- All right.

(audience laughter) - [Ruth] The 2020 Tony nominated play by Bess Wohl contrasts the blase attitude of Bill and Nancy with the horrified reaction of their adult children at the prospect of their parents splitting up after 50 years of marriage.

- It just doesn't add up.

You don't fight.

- Did you get in a fight?

- They don't fight.

- Well, maybe they did.

We don't know.

- At the end of the day, we're gonna support whatever you want.

- Is this what you want?

Is this actually what she wants?

- [Ruth] This production at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center in March of 2023 marked "Grand Horizons" midwest regional premiere and Moonstone's fourth show.

Since the theater company launched in 2019, it has enjoyed glowing reviews for its work.

Sharon Hunter, who directed "Grand Horizons" is also Moonstone's founder and producing artistic director.

- There's a business side of me and there's an artistic side of me.

And I should be saying that I'm very grateful for that because as much as when I was just performing, I missed that in control kind of person that handles the business.

And when I was doing business, I always missed the performance side of me.

So I'm able to blend the two.

- [Ruth] We first met Sharon Hunter prior to a rehearsal for "Grand Horizons".

Hunter's involvement in theater stretches back to her high school days.

But as a student at Lindenwood University, she also became involved in radio.

Hunter went on to produce and host her own shows at KEZK and Y98 by day while acting at night.

After 10 years, it was off to New York where she focused on producing and performing in place and cabaret for another 10 years.

- So when I moved back to St. Louis from New York, I had kept my ear to the ground about how theater in town was really flourishing and women were coming into their own as artistic directors and owners of theater companies.

And I thought, if I go back to my hometown, which I love, I could start a theater company here and I could give jobs to people, which is the one thing that I really wanted to do because there's so many talented people here, on stage and off, designers, creatives.

It's amazing.

And that's what brought Moonstone Theatre Company to life.

- [Ruth] Moonstone's focus is on 20th century classics and new plays.

It's first production was Neil Simon's "Jake's Women".

It's about a psychologically challenged writer adrift in a troubled marriage.

Over the course of the play, Jake has a series of conversations, both real and imagined, with all the women, both dead and alive, in his life.

Sharon Hunter originally planned to raise the curtain on "Jake's Women" in May of 2020, but the pandemic forced a postponement for about a year and a half.

In the interim, Hunter used the time constructively.

- I actually started the St. Louis Theater Task Force where all the theaters would get together for meetings every two weeks out of every month.

And we would talk about what do we do to get ourselves to come back for theater?

And that was so supportive.

We really leaned on each other and got some great ideas.

I started a podcast called Moonstone Connections and then we finally started our theater company with our first production was in November of 2021.

- [Ruth] The second production was David Auburn's "Proof" a family drama revealing the sometimes fine line between genius and insanity.

Then a return to Neil Simon and "Barefoot in the Park" about a newlywed couple adjusting to life in New York City.

The emergence of the Omicron variant during this period created more production and scheduling issues for Moonstone.

But the shows did go on.

- I think now everything seems to be in a pretty good place.

Theaters come back and I'm proud that I was able to still start a company during pandemic.

- Rose Court is the next stop on the line.

It's more of an assisted situation.

- Medical facility.

- You're there till you.

- Okay Dad, come sit with mom.

- [Ruth] In "Grand Horizons" the characters Bill and his oldest son Ben were played by real life father and son Joneal and Jared Joplin.

These veteran actors have performed together on several productions over the years, and they share an appreciation for what Moonstone and the St. Louis theater scene have to offer.

- We have depended so much on companies like Moonstone over the years that have come along and kept the audiences growing in the St. Louis area and offering a multitude of choices for them, the kinds of theater that's available and helping to bring young actors along.

And that is such an important thing to a community like St. Louis to be able to continue that.

And Moonstone is one of the ones who stepped forward now and is doing that.

- [Ruth] Regional theater in general is.

- Oh gosh, yes.

I believe this is the Midwest regional premiere of this show, which is a heck of a feather in the cap too.

- Yes indeed.

- And I love to bring theater to audiences that will help them to think about their own lives and inspire conversations between themselves and other family members.

To me, that's what theater's about.

It's seeing something in the moment that you are just like, wow, I want to go home and I wanna have a good conversation with my daughter or my husband.

That kind of thing.

(bright music) - Finally, in recent years, we've heard the term artisanal used quite a bit.

There's artisanal bread, beer, pickles, ice cream.

But soccer balls?

Well that's a bit of a first.

And Veronica Mohesky found that story right here in St. Louis.

- [Veronica] During the pandemic, many of us picked up interesting hobbies like baking sourdough, knitting, or rollerskating.

After he got a leatherworking kit, Jon Paul Wheatley began making soccer balls.

- I had no intention of making the balls at that point.

Just made like a wallet, pencil case, that kind of thing.

And then just one day decided to just have a go at making a ball.

Wasn't any kind of like grand vision.

It wasn't some big strategy thing.

I didn't kind of intend on lurching into balls and kind of focusing on that for the next few years, which is what's ended up happening since then.

But at the time, I just wanted to attempt to make a little ball and I did it, it was very bad.

It was embarrassingly bad, but I had fun doing it.

So I made another one.

And honestly I've just kind of been in that headspace ever since.

And now you can see I'm kind of surrounded by balls.

- [Veronica] Jon Paul isn't just crafting your average soccer balls though, or footballs as he calls it.

He's originally from England, as you can probably tell, but he's lived in St. Louis for the past seven years.

The balls he creates often include intricate designs or unexpected materials.

- So I've made things like I've made balls out of things like recycled football boots.

There's a money ball floating around here that I made from just like recycled dollar bills.

There's like a dish cloth ball that I made once, there's a train themed ball that's made from these recycled material that are on the seats of the London Underground.

And there has been times that I've tried to make a ball out of something and it just hasn't worked.

You never know if it's gonna really work until you actually try it.

- [Veronica] Though they may not be ready for an MLS game, Jon Paul says his quirky footballs are great for playing with too.

A couple of years ago, he started posting his unique creations on Instagram, a move that turned his hobby into a career.

- I think I had about 50 followers.

It was all just like people I knew and my mom basically.

But about a year ago, just randomly, I started posting videos documenting the whole process of what goes into like the design and making and stitching a ball.

And yeah, just randomly, I woke up one day on one of those videos, the algorithmic gods I like to say just kind of noticed it and kind of like, you know, given it some love and yeah, like a million people saw that video in the space of me falling asleep and waking up.

And it was just like I woke up and kind of checked my phone and it was just like, wow, this is really ridiculous.

- [Veronica] Now Jon Paul has over 159,000 followers on Instagram and over 545,000 on TikTok.

And he's become a viral sensation among soccer or football fans.

His wife and business partner, Allison Diaz Wheatley, says sometimes people even recognize him in public.

And every once in a while, I mean, he's a little niche celebrity in his own right, especially popular with young soccer football players.

So sometimes he'll be approached asking if he's that guy on TikTok who makes the footballs.

- [Ruth] And his online fame has opened up some unbelievable opportunities for him.

- I just finished a project where I was making a ball for Messi.

- [Veronica] Yes, you heard that right.

Jon Paul was commissioned by FIFA to make a ball for Lionel Messi of Argentina, who is recognized as one of the best soccer players in the world.

- FIFA asked me to do work on the project, and it was basically just, the brief was just designable for Messi basically.

I was also in Qatar for the duration of the World Cup working on the project with FIFA, which was also a super fun project.

The task there was to basically create a ball that commemorated that World Cup.

- [Veronica] The panels of Jon Paul's World Cup Ball represented the countries participating in the tournament.

- I worked on each individual flag panel during each team's game, and then as the teams got knocked out, I would add those flags to the ball.

So the outcome of the tournament actually affected the design of the ball.

The nice thing about that was I had to finish the ball actually at the final, like at the World Cup final.

So I was literally, I sat on the side of the pitch right after Argentina had won like one of the craziest games I'd ever seen, just finishing the ball in Qatar.

It was one of the most surreal moments I think of my life.

- [Veronica] After making a ball for Messi and partnering with FIFA, and again with Adidas, Jon Paul is making one for St. Louis's MLS team too.

- It's been amazing just kind of seeing them start from nothing basically.

And already we've vastly kind of exceeded people's expectations.

- [Veronica] And though each ball takes about a week to make, he's working on ways to streamline the process since he is starting a business.

- We're planning on launching a ball company here in St. Louis.

The plan will be to sort of launch these limited edition runs of these very unique kind of experimental handmade balls.

Each run will be, once they're gone, once they're sold out, there will be no more of that design kind of thing.

- [Veronica] The company will be called 12 Pentagons and Allison says St. Louis is a great place to start it.

- Weaving in the story of St. Louis and its rich history of soccer history and traditions, it's pretty exciting.

- I have no ties here other than the fact that it's a cool city and I want to stay here, and one of the great things is that it's such a great place for entrepreneurship, and there's a lot going on here.

It's an exciting, exciting place to be.

(bright music) - And that's all we have for "Living St. Louis" tonight.

We do love hearing from you.

So send us your comments and ideas at ninepbs.org/livingstlouis.

I'm Anne-Marie Berger.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy & Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.