City founder R.A. Long subject of documentary
Saturday, November 17, 2007 5:21 AM PST
By Leila Summers
Printable version
E-mail this articleA PBS documentary about R.A. Long is scheduled to premier Sunday in Kansas City, Mo., before airing there publicly on Thanksgiving Day.
The 26-minute film titled "Ours to Give, the Life and Legacy of an American Family," explores the business success and philanthropic contributions of Longview's founder, Robert Alexander Long. The film is expected to be picked up across the country by PBS stations.
A date hasn't been set on when the film will show in Longview or when it will air on the local PBS station.
Film-makers visited Longview for a weekend in March to explore Long's legacy in the Northwest and interviewed local residents. One of those residents, Mayor Dennis Weber, is visiting Kansas City to attend the premier.
"About a third of it was about Longview," said writer Peter Hansen of the film's final cut. Other footage is based in Kansas City, which was headquarters for the Long-Bell Lumber Co.
In 1918, Long expanded his timber operations from Kansas City to Southwest Washington. At age 68, Long purchased around 14,000 acres to establish the city of Longview in the 1920s.
Though he was "getting a lot of grief about it," Long made many generous contributions --- including a high school, library and train station --- to his name-sake town, founded for the workers of the lumber mill he established, Hansen said.
"It was from all that spending that we derived our title," Hansen said. "We felt giving was something that ran deeply within the entire family."
Many people compare Long to philanthropists like Carnegie and Rockefeller, said Diane Quattrocchi, a Kansas City member of the R.A. Long Historical Society.
"Our whole mission is to bring him back," she said.
Hansen, himself a member of the historical society devoted to Long, said he enjoyed working on the film, but it was difficult at times.
"When PBS says they want 26 minutes and 40 seconds, they mean it," he said. "There was an awful lot we could have put in and didn't have time for."
There hasn't been discussion on producing another film on Long, though Hansen said there is quite a bit of footage for a sequel.
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