Organ Grinder and Monkey Country Club Plaza 1959

When Martha and Mack brought Marilyn and I to Kansas City we often visited The Plaza. I will NEVER forget the Organ Grinder outside of Putsch's Cafeteria. Now a statue of him stands on the Plaza at Ward Parkway and outside the new Season's 52 Restaurant.

By Steve Crum

Although organ grinders are a long lost part of Americana, they used to set up their temporary street sites in large cities. As a child, I recall seeing one entertaining on a sidewalk during the 1950s at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. It consisted of a man, stereotypically an Italian, cranking a stand-up organ while his monkey would entertain passersby with somersaults and makeshift dancing. The music he played was always one tune, perhaps Pop Goes the Weasel, which would sound repeatedly. A crowd would gather, the monkey [a small, capuchin type] would take his cute little hat off, tip it, and then pick up a tin cup and hold it out to the watcher(s) for donations. This meant a sparse living for the grinder. No doubt PETA, the ASPCA, and other animal rights groups had much to do with the end of the organ grinder and his monkey as an occupation. All this I say for those under 50 who probably never personally experienced an organ grinder, except maybe in vintage cartoons and movies. [A clip of a more recent organ grinder with monkey:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57fhOePVRFE