(upbeat music) - [Narrator] These St. Louis teenagers were in London cutting a record meeting the Beatles.

They were this close to making it big.

- And then what happened?

- It was a mess.

- What a bummer.

- [Narrator] What might have been for the Aerovons.

Editing a film is creative and tedious work.

And for one St. Louisan, there is the payoff.

- Just to be in a room of people watching a film.

That's the best part.

- [Narrator] Every town has trick-or-treaters with sacks of candy.

St. Louis kids come armed with jokes.

- So no one quite knows when jokes started getting told in St. Louis.

We do know that it is special to us and one other city.

- [Narrator] And a story about teaching young people to make the right decisions.

- [Phil] This applies to life.

I say, if you make one bad move on this chess board, it could be the game.

- [Narrator] It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) - I'm Brooke Butler.

Our first story starts with a common teenage garage band fantasy of making it big.

But the difference for this St. Louis group is they actually did.

Well, kind of.

It just took them several decades to realize it.

55 years later, their story is getting another spin.

(television crackling) - [Announcer] There are rumors around that this is Britain's revenge for the Boston Tea Party.

3,000 screaming teenagers are at New York's Kennedy Airport to greet, you guessed it, the Beatles.

This rock and roll group has taken over as the kingpins of musical appreciation.

- In the 1960s, the British invasion rocked America, pun intended.

The Rolling Stones, the Who, and of course the Beatles.

Their influence was everywhere, even in the heart of the Midwest, inspiring a St. Louis group of teens to pursue a dream as big as their sound.

They were called the Aerovons, taking the name from a defunct group who inspired band leader Tom Hartman.

Tom assembled the Aerovons with one vision in mind: to be the next Beatles.

And they didn't just dream it.

It almost happened.

Take us back, where do you wanna start?

You wanna start with, let's start.

More than 55 years later, Tom Hartman, from his Florida home, retells his almost famous story.

- I was just a kid.

I was 12, I guess, or 11.

And there was no band yet.

There was only me coming home from school, going into my bedroom, and putting on records, and learning hit records, Beach Boy records, whatever.

I mean, I was just in my room going, wait, oh, that's a C minor, not a C major, whoa!

And that would make my day, you know?

When the Beatles came out, that became, like, just, you know, flunking out of seventh grade over it.

It became, like, an obsession with me.

So I really had my sights on trying to get a band together.

- [Brooke] Tom recruited brothers Mike and Bill Lombardo, and as he was attending Bayless High School at the time, Tom also invited guitarist and fellow classmate, Bob Frank, better known by his nickname Ferd.

He shares his Aerovon memories with us from his St. Louis home.

- There's that band picture of the Aerovons.

When The Beatles came to the U.S., I didn't even really care about 'em.

I was not into that kind of music.

and I was into a different role in music.

♪ You'll let me hold your hand - Their introduction was "The Ed Sullivan Show."

My mom talked me into coming into the living room one night.

She goes, "You gotta see this."

And (laughs) I saw that, and then came back to school with my hair combed down.

And then Tom approached me.

Hartman was excellent.

I learned so much from him, and we became best friends.

So now I'm an Aerovon.

(laughs) And here's where the story really starts.

(Bob laughs) (upbeat rock music) - [Brooke] The Aerovon success wasn't just driven by their fantasy of becoming as big as their British idols.

In fact, this group of teens were dedicated musicians, working tirelessly to perfect their newly crafted sound.

And they quickly became the go-to Beatles cover band, booking gigs all over St. Louis.

But there was one key player that began to push them to the next level.

- But one day there was a thing in St. Louis called Last Train to Clarksville.

And the promotion in 1966 was they were gonna take a train.

It would go to Clarksville, Missouri, for a few hours.

And what the catch was is they were gonna have a local St. Louis band on every car of the train.

There were only so many cars that only the best bands in St. Louis were gonna make the cut.

And, you know, we were all going, we're not known enough yet.

My mom came in the room and said, "What is this now?"

And I said, "Mom, just make a sandwich or stop."

And the guys were like, "You know, come on.

If she can do something..." And a few days later, she came back and said, "You're on the Last Train to Clarksville."

So she got us booked on it.

- [Brooke] Wow.

- Yeah, and that's the way it went from there on.

- [Brooke] That's how Maureen Hartman, or Mrs. Hartman, as the band called her, except for Tom, who called her mom, became the Aerovons' band manager.

She booked them at many popular clubs around the area, even during the seventh inning stretch at Busch Stadium, the exact same place that no other than the Beatles performed.

- Mrs. Hartman went out and got a sitar.

Now we didn't know how to play it.

but we sat it up on the stage just 'cause the Beatles were using it.

She really supported what we wanted to do.

- She was learning as we go.

She bought a famous book called "This Business of Music," and she was studying it while she was working with us.

And she said, "Listen, from what I can see, you know, you've kind of done all you can do here in St. Louis.

The next step is you writing your own piece of music, and we'll try to get some money together and make a demo of it and see where we can take it."

So that's how that all began.

♪ Though I know I'm far from home ♪ ♪ I'm going to stay ♪ Till tomorrow ♪ Tomorrow - [Brooke] On a keyboard in his basement, Tom wrote what would become one of their more famous hits, "World of You."

♪ Without sorrow - The group gathered the $250 to record their demo at Premier Recording Studios in Midtown, now home to Once Films.

Other major artists of the time, like Ike and Tina Turner, Miles Davis, Bing Crosby, also recorded albums here.

So it's no wonder that a nearby Capitol Records distributorship would check in to see if there were any up-and-coming artists.

And there just so happened to be one, and they were impressed.

Soon Mrs. Hartman got a call from Capitol Records in California with interest in sending the group there.

- And to show you what a dope I was, I was like, "Mom, I don't wanna record in California.

That's where the Beach Boys record, it's great and all, but I want to record where the Beatles record."

And the Beatles recorded for EMI, which owns Capitol, or owned them.

So my mom said, "Well, he's really got his heart set on going to London and playing this demo for EMI."

And the guy was a little taken aback.

And he said, "Well, you know, if that's the case, the guy you wanna see is Roy Featherstone in London at EMI."

- [Brooke] Roy Featherstone, the guy who went on to sign Queen, heard the demo and invited the group of St. Louis teens to fulfill their dream of recording in Abbey Road Studios.

- I mean, if you're gonna dream, you might as well dream, right?

♪ Swinging London ♪ All upon a jet flight ♪ We were on our way ♪ Swinging London, shivering - So our first night in there, there was a club called Speakeasy.

So there's McCartney with Jane Asher sitting, Peter Asher, they're all sitting at a table, and it's like, oh my god, this is unbelievable.

(laughs) Never did I ever expect to stand in the same room with a Beatle, especially...

I was just a senior in high school then.

And the next night, we went back, and there was this Black guy that walks in.

He's got a Bolero on.

And Tom and me were making fun of him.

Who does this guy think he is?

Jimi Hendrix?

Well, it was Jimi Hendrix.

(laughs) ♪ Swinging London - [Brooke] The Aerovons had other run-ins with big-name artists of the time, including Pink Floyd, and yet another member of the Fab Four, George Harrison, who chatted with the aspiring stars in the studio both groups now had in common.

- Sitting there realizing how many famous songs were made right in that room, you know?

It's "A Hard Day's Night."

It's "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

You know, it's "Strawberry Fields."

It's everything, "A Day in the Life."

It's everything they've done.

It was stunning to think you were in that.

It just made you feel like, what am I doing here, you know?

It's like... - [Brooke] But of course the studio wasn't just in the habit of letting teen garage bands hang out with what is arguably one of the most popular bands of all time.

The Aerovons were talented, and their sound compared to that of the Beatles.

♪ Sunday morning, goes outside ♪ Picks up the milk ♪ Mailman says hi ♪ Asks how things are, Bessy Goodheart ♪ - EMI expected them to take off, but fate had other plans.

And then what happened?

- It was a mess, Brooke.

It was... We had finished the album, and midway through, you have to remember that that album cover has three people on the cover, but four of 'em went to England.

- By then, we were, I was out of high school.

Vietnam was screaming hot.

I said I had to quit the band.

I know I'm going to Vietnam.

There's nothing wrong with me.

(chuckles) And then I got number 308 in the lottery.

So I didn't go to Vietnam, but now the band I was in is over in Abbey Road with my replacement.

What a bummer.

- [Brooke] What a bummer.

- Yeah, what a bummer.

- Ferd turned out all right though.

He went on to become the guitarist for John Mellencamp and earned these platinum records.

But Ferd's replacement ended up being another domino in the band's falling out.

After going behind the band's back and complaining to executives at EMI, he was quickly kicked out.

The Aerovons came back to St. Louis as a trio, but their return also brought news that another member's wife had been having an affair while he was away, leaving the band as a duo.

After months of buildup, the album's release was canceled, deserting a collection of songs that almost never saw the light of day.

- Well, in 2003, I got a call from England, and he said, "Is that Tom Hartman of the Aerovons?"

And I said, "Yeah."

And he said, "Are you aware that your album is bootlegged over here, and I can go into any record store and spend $50 and get a bootleg copy of it?"

And I said, "I had heard some rumors that there were boots.

I didn't know it was that expensive."

- [Brooke] The Aerovons' "Resurrection" album was released on CD nearly 35 years after it was first recorded, but even better was, earlier this year, at Euclid Records in downtown Webster Groves, the album was released on vinyl as the recording originally intended.

- [Bob] I mean, we're probably the only band who's ever had an album released 55 years later.

- [Brooke] Wow.

- So that's a story in itself.

The beauty of it was it was a 17-year-old kid with other kids and we made an album and that was pure.

- We're not famous, but we have this cult following, I guess.

I'll get random emails from, like, Germany and just strange places saying, you know, just discovered the Aerovons, and just, you know, this is amazing and all that kind of stuff.

And if it finds the people that like that, that's what it's for.

- A group that brushed against stardom but got lost in the shuffle, their story is one of what-ifs and near misses, but their music lives on.

(gentle guitar music) Our next story involves some investigative reporting and research, but Veronica Mohesky sort of came up empty.

Turns out that another Halloween has come and gone, and we still don't know where the jokes came from.

- Do you guys have a Halloween joke for me?

- [Veronica] If you grew up in St. Louis, you know that Halloween treats are not just given.

They must be earned through jokes.

We came out to American Legion Post 400 in Fenton for a Trunk or Treat event.

And even though it's not Halloween yet, most kids are still telling jokes.

- So no one quite knows when jokes started getting told in St. Louis.

We do know that it is special to us and one other city in the Midwest, but it seems to have started in the early 20th century.

- [Veronica] Amanda Clark is a public historian at the Missouri History Museum.

She says it's still unclear why St. Louis and one other city, Des Moines, Iowa, have this tradition.

But there are some theories.

To understand how this custom may have developed, we need to go back to the 19th century.

- You know, we start seeing Halloween traditions show up in St. Louis in the 1860s, 1870s.

- [Veronica] At that time, Halloween parties became popular, particularly for women.

- And the thing that gets pulled out in those parties, which I find really fascinating, is they all focused on different types of activities that would help a young woman figure out who her future husband was gonna be.

So it's all about the future and not about ghosts, but it's about connecting somehow on the spiritual plane to your future.

- [Veronica] Halloween then began to shift more towards mischief and pranks.

- You see this transition happen from the mid to late 1800s.

It's adults having these Halloween parties and banquets, and then you have, it seems like a younger set of, you know, teenagers and young people having parties that get out of hand and destruction ensues.

- [Veronica] The 1944 film, "Meet Me in St. Louis," includes scenes about historic Halloween hijinks.

- Here, throw that on the fire.

- I'm the most horrible!

I'm the most horrible!

(dramatic music) (children cheering) - [Veronica] According to reports at the time, vandalism, stealing, wearing costumes, and trying to scare people were just some of the ways people played pranks on their neighbors.

But this destructive tradition began to get out of hand.

On Halloween night in 1938, a 15-year-old boy named Wilford Brohammer was breaking streetlights and pulling fire alarms with friends.

The teens then threw some rocks at a window on Indiana Avenue.

A resident, 70-year-old William Fares, claimed he fired his gun to scare away the pranksters, but he accidentally shot Brohammer in the leg.

Luckily, the boy survived the wound, but unfortunately, tragedies like this were not uncommon.

So Halloween traditions began to move away from dangerous pranks.

- And it becomes more focused on parties and costumes.

And so your costume becomes the pranks and mischief.

When it comes to trick-or-treating, no one quite knows for sure where it gets its start.

There is a newspaper mentioned in the early 20th century of a phrase trick-or-treat, but we don't know if that's where everyone got that idea.

But we do know that, prior to World War II, kids were going around doing the trick-or-treats, asking for candy.

And then after World War II, you know, it stops for a little bit, but it does resume after World War II.

- [Veronica] Clark says telling jokes while trick-or-treating was another way to encourage kids to avoid mischief.

- Some of the theories are that, as those pranks were getting out of hand, it became an in-between option of, how about you just tell me a joke instead of teepeeing my yard or doing something like that?

How about you just tell me a joke first, and then I'll give you the candy?

So that kind of exchange is one of the theories.

No one knows though where it started.

- [Veronica] And though St. Louis shares this tradition with Des Moines, Clark says telling jokes is an important part of the culture in our region.

- I think what makes the telling jokes so special is that it's something that, in a world in which we are all increasingly very similar, right, like our traditions are similar, our tastes are similar, the foods we eat are all very similar, we like to cling to the things that say, no, this is ours, this is special.

Whether you're from here or not, telling a joke at Halloween is part of living here.

- [Veronica] For "Living St. Louis," I'm Veronica Mohesky.

- There was a time when doing a story about a filmmaker meant either going out of town or waiting for them to pass through St. Louis, but there is a thriving filmmaking community here that's growing and getting support.

Ruth Ezell introduces us to someone whose name you might want to watch for in the credits at the upcoming St. Louis Film Festival.

- [Ruth] In July of 2024, the annual St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase opened with a gripping, fast-paced documentary about the 2007 Asian Cup championship soccer team from Iraq.

(dramatic music) (narrator speaking in foreign language) - [Ruth] "Lions of Mesopotamia" is told against the backdrop of Iraq's Civil War.

Soccer players from opposing factions united to pull off an unlikely victory and temporarily unified their country in the process.

- [Narrator] 'Cause they succeeded where everybody else failed.

- [Ruth] On hand for the screening was the film's editor, Lucas J. Harger.

- Now I'm just excited to, like, have everybody experience and be in a room of people watching this film.

There's some highs, there's some lows, and so I'm excited just to be in a room of people watching a film.

That's the best part.

- [Ruth] Harger is a partner in Bruton Stroube Studios near Midtown St. Louis.

It has been creating still photography and films for more than 40 years.

We paid a visit to have a conversation with Harger about the journey that led him to finding his passion.

- I grew up in rural, quite rural Michigan, and I was homeschooled.

And it was me and my brothers, and we happened to get a camera at one point when I was, I don't know, maybe like 10 or 11.

And so we just started making backyard videos as everybody does with a camera when they're young, cutting in camera like, okay, cut and then action, and kind of going back and forth.

But in the community that I grew up in, wakeboarding was a big thing.

A lot of other people in film, there's kind of like this skateboarding background of making skate videos and stuff like that a lot of 'em have, but for me, it was wakeboarding.

And so I found myself in kind of a community that had a ton of wakeboarders and professional wakeboarders, and they all needed, like, sponsorship videos and this.

And with wakeboarding videos, there was always like a narrative kind of, whether it was funny or, like, weird or whatever.

There was always kind of like a story element.

And so I kind of came up making those videos for my friends kind of all through high school, and just always interested in the process of filmmaking, but also the community of filmmaking.

I never really just fell in love because I watched "Jaws," and, like, "I wanna do that."

For me, it was making these films and then having all of your friends come around and, like, look at what I made.

And then you all sit around the TV and watch something, and, like, everyone's laughing, it's funny.

It's like that communal aspect, very similar to the "Lions" screening, like the communal aspect of, like, being in a place and, like, watching something.

And so from high school and the wakeboarding videos, kind of went into a very roundabout way through college, handfuls of colleges here and there, didn't do college, did college, ended up graduating with a music business degree.

But all through college, I was always doing, like, videos for small businesses and people that I knew, shooting and editing, but editing was always the thing that I loved.

And so when I landed here in St. Louis and found my way to this company, it was always editing and trying to stop shooting.

I didn't want to be on set.

I didn't want anything to do with production.

It was always the process of, like, the final rewrite of the film.

Like, we can actually make something now.

Everything up to this point is just gathering.

Like hunter gatherers, you're gathering all the assets, and then you get to the edit.

That's when you actually make a movie.

- [Ruth] And "Lions of Mesopotamia" makes Harger's case.

He wove archival soccer action, news footage, and recent interviews into a rich tapestry of documentary storytelling.

It was a moving evening for many members of the audience who are part of the Iraqi community in St. Louis.

After a post-screening discussion with Harger and the film's director, Lucian Read, they got some good news from moderator Emmett Williams of Cinema St. Louis.

- What happens is during our St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, 10 films are selected and automatically get into our St. Louis International Film Festival in November, which is a pretty big deal.

And I'm not supposed to tell anybody this for like 13 days or so, next Sunday, but we would love for your film to be part of the St. Louis International Film Festival, and... (audience cheering) - It's a very long process, very tedious, very time-consuming, but it's very rewarding when you, like, you hit it, you know it's working, audiences love it, people are vibing with it.

It feels really good.

- Finally, St. Louis's Chess Club in the Central West End has put the city on the international chess map, but our chess story takes us to the cafeteria tables at Normandy High School.

In our documentary this year, "Rebuilding the Dream," we were introduced to Phil Berry who serves as both a chess coach and a life coach.

- Right?

(laughs) Woke up this morning, I was tying my tie and I said, "You know what?

I'm gonna bring 10 ties to school with me."

And they're gonna say, "We don't wear no ties."

No, you don't wear 'em yet.

Amir, right quick.

- [Reporter] Phil Berry works with young people at Normandy High School.

- Just follow me.

- [Reporter] He's not a school district employee.

He's embedded here by the school district's partner, the nonprofit Beyond Housing.

- There we go, about right.

- [Reporter] Sometimes he takes on big issues that students are facing and sometimes this.

(gentle music) - Excuse me, ladies.

I'm gonna be doing a demonstration on how to tie a tie in a minute.

One day, you might get married and wanna tie your man's tie.

Now you can follow me if you want.

Somebody gonna follow?

- Yes.

- [Phil] I just feel like I'm there to share my experiences and show them, you know, open up the world to them.

And tuck it in.

- In the same hole that my thumb in?

- [Phil] Uh-uh, across.

- Just in the middle.

- [Phil] Yeah, yeah, right through there.

Get that thumb up here.

Where your thumb at?

- Right here.

It's so tricky.

- Right.

See how she got it turned backwards though?

See the label?

Yeah, we call it dressing it up.

You pull it up.

It wasn't easy growing up here in St. Louis.

Rough, tough city.

No dad.

Could easily went the other way, went down the wrong road.

(upbeat percussive music) My youngest brother was shot and killed in Los Angeles.

(students chattering) I made up my mind.

If I was to ever become a father, I was gonna be a good one.

Second thing I made up my mind was, I wanna get an education.

(soft music) (students chattering) (Phil laughs) I remember though being in class with guys who could care less about school and things.

And so there was a balance I had to keep between not being beat up and bullied because I was a smart guy.

Two squares with these two.

It should be two squares.

I was thinking the other day that my job at the school is to change the climate, change the conditions and the culture at the school.

(school bell rings) One day, a fight about to break out between the guy I just played chess with, who gave me a great game, and somebody else.

I said, "Man, you could be the best player in prison, man.

They got chess players all over prison, good ones."

And you go there.

"Or you can be a grandmaster down at Central West End."

Why you put this over here?

It's up to you.

Now you've brought your bishop down, and you're attacking.

If I'm not careful, you can attack that, but I can get you with that one.

This applies to life.

I say, if you make one bad move on this chess board, it could be the game.

I said, same thing in life.

If you make one bad move, it could be your life.

It could change everything.

(solemn music) And man, it's building a camaraderie between the students.

All right, good game.

Set 'em up, set 'em up.

Guys come back each time at lunch period, forget all about eating, and come and sit down and ready to play.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - And the queen's coming at that square.

And it's a double attack, or it's a double check, so that means, can't move there.

You can't move right there.

You can't move right there, can't move right there.

And it's a double check.

- [Phil] Yeah, oh, yeah, that was it.

- [Student] Yeah.

- [Reporter] This past October, the Normandy High School chess team competed against 14 other area high schools in the Ed Baur Open and came away with a first-place trophy.

(gentle piano music) - And that's "Living St.

Louis."

Keep sending us your thoughts and suggestions at NinePBS.org/LSL.

I'm Brooke Butler.

Thanks for joining us.

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