ABSTRACT
Kansas Citians at middle and high status levels liked to believe that a spirit of social democracy prevailed in their city and that all people of merit had a chance to rise to the top. Kansas Citians applied the phrase old families to any who had acquired their wealth before the stock market crash and even to the off spring of men who had established their prominence. Approximately 730 Kansas City families—including the married sons and daughters of Missoukana members, elderly couples who had retired from active participation, though not actually members of the club, had earned designation as "members of the Missoukana crowd"—were identified with the third level. In 1955, 350 Jewish families plus another 135 single Jewish men and women ranked as members of Kansas City's upper class. Kansas City's economic and occupational leadership, nevertheless, was concentrated in the hands of men fifty-five and over.
