Gentry Trotter April Fools

[marlu]

Has the Gentry Trotter April Fools report on the failure of the marshmallow crop in the South been uploaded somewhere?

It was really well done even showing the marshmallow barges on the Mississippi riding high in the water with their low tonnage marshmallow loads.

[Pink Freud]

This sounds like the KSDK "Newsbeat" story Aaron Mermelstein did on April Fool's Day about a purported marshmallow tree at Missouri Botanical Garden something like 35 - 40 years ago......not long after Gentry Trotter was KMOV's (ahem) "flamboyant" movie reviewer, addressing his viewers as "Hey, Sugarplums!".

[marlu]

This sounds like the KSDK "Newsbeat" story Aaron Mermelstein did on April Fool's Day about a purported marshmallow tree at Missouri Botanical Garden something like 35 - 40 years ago.

Yes - I believe you are correct it was Mermelstein who did the report - it even had barges on the Mississippi riding high in the river due to there being a poor harvest of the marshmallow crop.

If I could change the title I would.

[fatlaz]

Is the Gentry Trotter that used to do movie reviews on KPLR 11 in the 70s the same Gentry Trotter that is involved with Heat Up/Cool Down St. Louis? He must be 90 years old! He looks good for 90.

[Pink Freud]

Is the Gentry Trotter that used to do movie reviews on KPLR 11 in the 70s the same Gentry Trotter that is involved with Heat Up/Cool Down St. Louis? He must be 90 years old! He looks good for 90.

He did "Sugarplums!" movie reviews for KMOX-TV (now KMOV) way back in the '70s, before branching out into many local leadership roles. Here's a really interesting story about his career from a 2008 St. Louis Magazine podcast:

Gentry W. Trotter
A public relations practitioner and community advocate, Gentry W. Trotter is regularly in the public eye; he founded both Heat-Up and Cool-Down St. Louis, served on the national board of the NAACP and got his start in media at the age of 18 (working, over the decades, in broadcasting, print and radio). But Trotter insists that his preferred place is behind the scenes—especially when that means helping African-Americans and women advance in the business world. Trotter also classifies himself as a conservative, though he is careful to clarify that statement. “I’m a political conservative, though that doesn’t make me a [political party] or a [political party],” Trotter says. “People forget that civil rights trumps one’s political affiliations. I think that people assume wrongly that because you’re black, you’re a liberal ... And I’m a perfect example of that.”

I know you’ve heard of the conservative Globe-[political party]. Dunc Bauman was the conservative publisher; he was one of my mentors. He put me on the board of Junior Achievement. It’s interesting that a black male would be supported by a staunch, conservative [political party] of the Globe-[political party]. I have always believed, from him to Lee Lieberman, who ran Laclede Gas, that in St. Louis we’ve made progress and it’s been the conservatives—the liberals talked about it, but the conservatives had the power and the clout, and if they didn’t want to move things forward, they wouldn’t have done it.
You can find Dunc Bauman’s book [Behind the Headlines] at the library, and he had some interesting things in there about people in the African-American community, including the late president of the Urban League, Bill Douthit. I was involved, as you know, in the leadership of the Urban League for 10 years, which was another connection between the African-American community and the business and civic and white community and Jewish community. I was, like, the chairman of four committees [laughs]. I enjoyed being behind the scenes, helping people, identifying bodies and people and minds and matching them.

I’ll never forget this guy on the Junior Achievement board who said, “Stop talking about this economic pie! What pie, what is this economic pie they’re talking about?” He never got it. His position was the future of civil rights is education. I was like, “Education? That’s a joke, that’s pathetic!” All the white people said, “Hey, if you get educated, then you’ve made it.” But that’s just one little element, because once you’ve made it, you have to have the bankers working with you, and everybody else. How many blacks and women do we know who’ve got that, and they still got people standing in the doorway? It’s interesting how people think that education is the ultimate panacea for everything ...

There are a bunch of people who are a little more radical, and you know what, this whole movement requires conservative people like me; remember, my background is the late Roy Wilkins, Uncle Roy. We were a conservative group of people. St. Louis is a conservative town. One of the reasons we didn’t have a riot is that black people in

St. Louis and Missouri are just as conservative as white people. You need all levels of people to make a difference. I’m the kind of person who says, Sit down and talk and be rational. In my case, it’s, Let’s interface, let’s put blacks and whites on boards. Not just on boards like the Heart Association or the Goodwill Society, but things like Junior Achievement, and in boardrooms, where it counts.

My mother nearly had a stroke when I told her I was a Ronald Reagan person. It was like, “Aaaaugh! How could you do that?” And I was on the state committee for Ronald Reagan, and it tickled him, because when I was on the national board of NAACP, there were only three Republicans, out of 64 people, and I was one of them, and they’d always kid me. I’m sitting here, looking at a picture of myself with a Crisis T-shirt, with the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. And I thought, That’s interesting. And Jesse Jackson and myself. But there’s a lot of pictures of me with George Bush, with both Bushes, Ford and President Reagan, and letters from President Reagan. It’s a potpourri of people.

A white male can be aggressive, and it’s a good attribute. But a woman can’t be aggressive. She’s pushy, like a black person. She’s “overbearing.” I had to go through that with people. “Oh, he’s a brilliant guy, but ...”

I fight that all the time; to me, if I don’t feel comfortable with a job, I won’t take it. If somebody comes to me, I try to educate them first and give them a speed-reading course in culture and common sense. ----- Gentry Trotter, 2008