University Daily Kansan, December 9, 1980 Page 3
The day after Thanksgiving is generally considered to be the first day of the Christmas season, but visitors to the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City got a head start on the festivities Thanksgiving night. More than 120,120 people jammed the Plaza that night to see the Plaza Lights come on for the first time of the year. A flip of a switch by Royals star George Brett turned the shopping area into a wonderland of color.
Plaza lights blazing on
By DOUG BURSON Staff Reporter
After three months of preparation, shimmering lights once again adorn the many shops and stores that make the city a festive place. In 4, 8, a Christmas fairyland this time of year.
Beginning on Memorial Day, four men worked every day on the lighting, constantly checking electrical lines that stretch nearly 47 miles.
The crew spent 3,000 working hours ensuring that the 152,000 white, green, amber, red and blue lights that outline the Plaza were in working order.
The Plaza lights have gained international recognition since 1925 when a single strand of Christmas lights was used in the area by the area by Charles Pitrat, a local resident.
Today, the Plaza Merchants Association finances the project and sees to it that light sockets, condensors, and wiring are embedded into a package of beautiful color.
"The single strand of lights that Charles Pitrat used as his way of contributing to the Christmas spirit has grown into the city's most beloved City," Catherine Rickbone, director of
public relations for the Plaza Association, said.
"Preparing and making sure the lights are assembled and working correctly has been a major challenge."
The lights are traditionally turned on officially sometime during Thanksgiving evening and are lighted at 5 p.m. each day after.
The lights are not actually turned on for the first time on Thanksgiving evening. Rickbone said that two days before the holiday, a symmetry, a lest run is made from 2 to 4 a.m.
From the time the official lighting takes place until January 1, Kansas Citians and people from across the country and around the world see the renowned Plaza lights.
"Before the Kansas City International Airport was built, some airplanes were intentionally routed so that passengers the lights from the air." Rickbone said.
Some spectators even view the scene from the air.
The Plaza lights have had a colorful history in more than one way. One year each of the buildings was done in blue lights alone.
"We decided not to do that again because it looked so boring," Rickbone said.
In earlier years, along with the spectacle of lighs, each building was lined with
Only during World War II was the Plaza Association prevented from highlighting the Plaza with Christmas lights because of a mandatorily blackout.
A number of well-known people have had the honor of switching on the lights over the years. Royals star George Brett and Nancy McBride, a 28-year-old woman from Shawnee Mission, flipped the switch this year.
"Once we had the mayor of Seville, Spain, turn on the lights from his hometown through a hook-up we put together," Rickbone said.
Clarence Kelly, director of the FBI; Charles Wheeler, former mayor of Kansas City, Mo.; foreign students and the mayor of Perth, Australia, have been some of the others who have participated in the lighting ceremony.
Some people had made reservations for rooms at the Alameda Plaza Hotel, directly across from the Plaza, more than a mile away. The hotel could witness the lighting, ceremony.
Beginning January 2, the long process of dismantling the lights and wire will begin and should be completed by Easter, Rickbone said.
WASHINGTON—A consumer group last week singled out a plastic beagle that "pudderies" in its own pan as the most toy of the 1800 Christmas shopping season.
"The only gimmick with this toy is that here's a dog that urinates," said Ann Brown, head of the Americans for Inventive Action Consumer Affairs panel.
Puddling puppy wins '80 award as stupidest toy
By United Press International
The toy is called "My Puppy Puddles," and is made by Hasbro.
The group also said that a stuffed teddy bear made by Sunkyng Ltd. in Seoul, Korea, was the most dangerous toy found in its annual survey.
It said the bear's small nose was easily removed, revealing a plastic peg and rusty metal disc with sharp edges, any of which could be deadly if swallowed.
A spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said that he did not know if the bear was under investigation, but that imported stuffed animals were a problem this year and shopper should examine them carefully.
See PUPPY page 4