working on more scripts. A few were optioned but never made. “It was just disappointment after disappointment,” Glazer said. “And eventually, everything dried up. Dan [York] looked at me one day and said, ‘Look, you’re talented, but sometimes you gotta do something else to make your dreams come true.’ So I flew back to Kansas City in 1990. My dad was about to give the Stanford and Sons restaurant to my brother, Jeff, and I came back to help run it.”
I
think it’s fair to say I have the most recognizable voice in the city,” Glazer said one Wednesday morning about a month ago. His Macho Man Randy Savage–on-valium voice is a constant on local airwaves. He records advertising spots for Stanford and Sons (always closing with his “Think about it!” catchphrase) and shows up as a radio guest on 98.9 the Rock, Mix 93.3 and Q104, alongside whatever comic is performing at Stanford and Sons that weekend. He’s a regular around local TV stations, too. On another recent morning, at KSHB Channel 41, he introduced himself to an attractive young woman working there as “the most controversial media figure in the city,” then asked her if she was single. She mentioned a fiancé. He replied that he’d written a book about his life as an outlaw and that he’d bring her a copy of it the following week. On this Wednesday, though, his black Lotus sports car was parked next to the entrance of Entercom’s Mission offices, and Glazer was waiting with comedian Nick Vatterott to go on Johnny Dare’s morning show. Glazer sipped coffee and explained his media routine. “We do Dare on Wednesdays, and sometimes we also do 610 Sports on Wednesdays,” he said. “Thursdays we used to do Channel 5 TV, but they canceled that show [KCTV’s Better Kansas City]. Friday we’ll do NBC 41, and sometimes WDAF Channel 4. And we always do Mix 93.3, Q104 and Alice 102. And if it’s a black comic, we might do Hot 103 Jamz. There are occasions on Fridays where I’ll do five or six shows: four radio, two TV.” One of Dare’s assistants came over and asked Vatterott what he wanted to talk about during the interview. Vatterott said he wanted
Calling shots in the Entertainment Tonight dressing room. to make fun of Matthew “Mancow” Muller, the Kansas City-born, Chicago-based morning DJ syndicated in some small U.S. markets. “Johnny doesn’t like Mancow,” the assistant said. “They don’t get along. He doesn’t even like it when people mention him.” Vatterott suggested that he talk about bad morning DJs in general. He got the OK. Inside the studio, Vatterott and Glazer took their spots in front of microphones across from Dare as the host talked his way into the segment. After some chitchat with Vatterott, Dare brought Glazer into the conversation. Glazer plays a heightened version of himself on Dare’s show — raunchier and a little racist, in the mold of Archie Bunker. Glazer told a story about having sex with a woman he met on Grindr, the website on which people post their locations in the hopes of finding some nearby individual who wants to hook up. “You’re just one big herpe,” Dare said. The actor Rick Schroder (Lonesome Dove, NYPD Blue) called in during Vatterott’s segment. He and Dare spoke for 10 minutes about a new, unscripted show that Schroder is involved with, in which he’s teamed with the U.S. Army to depict military life. Glazer was not impressed. “A little over the top,” he said on the air, after Schroder hung up.
“How is your book selling?” Dare shot back. “Why are you bringing up the book?” “Because you’re trying to demean Rick Schroder.” “I wasn’t demeaning him.” “It’s always ‘big me, little you’ with him [Glazer],” Dare told his audience. “You are going to be the guy whose greatest regret in life is that you didn’t get your movie, about you, made. … You know you’re never going to get this movie made.” Glazer’s tone changed. “Well, I’m not going to get into it, but we’re just about there.” But before the segment was over, Glazer had brought Dare, Vatterott and every 98.9 listener up to speed on the progress of the film. In the parking lot afterward, discussing Dare and his show, Glazer said, “Look, credit to Johnny: He’s the most successful media personality in the history of the city. But is he a friend?” He paused and let a wounded look register briefly on his face. “You know, would a friend say that he hopes your movie never gets made?”
D
are and Glazer’s relationship perhaps owes its chill to the deterioration of their business venture. In 2004, as Stanford and Sons faced a lawsuit from its Westport landlord, the Glazer brothers and Dare opened a hard-
rock-and-barbecue club together in the space. Johnny Dare’s, as it was called, filed for bankruptcy less than a year later. “It was a great idea at the wrong location,” Glazer said. “Our salaries were way too high. The space was too small. Johnny tried to get involved with running it, which led to a million arguments. Once it wasn’t doing so hot anymore, he wouldn’t be there. For him, it was just like, ‘Well, I’ll just move on and keep doing radio, no big deal.’ So I think ultimately our relationship was damaged as a result.” (Dare didn’t return phone calls for this story.) The closing of Dare’s was Glazer’s final bow in Westport, where he had seen his 1990s success in that district dry up. For a few years after his 1990 return to Kansas City, Glazer kept an apartment in Los Angeles. But by 1994, he had begun to import a bit of Hollywood to KC. The Glazer brothers had taken over Stanford and Sons and had gone after a younger crowd, adding a dance club and a pool room. A few years later, Stanford’s Comedy Club — which Stan had opened at a different Westport address and still owned — closed, and Glazer moved it back above the original Stanford and Sons. The dance-club version of Stanford and Sons had begun attracting local star athletes, and now the comedy club was booking national celebrities. The address was again one of the hottest spots in Kansas City, a place to see Chiefs and Royals players, comics on their way up, beautiful women and rich men. From 1990 to 1995, food and liquor sales nearly doubled. Glazer became a vocal cheerleader for Westport as an entertainment district. Along with Bill Nigro, another Westport merchant and property owner, he spearheaded Chiefs pep rallies and car shows there. Playboy Playmates and Chiefs players would attend. “I suppose Craig was kind of a ringleader for a lot of fun stuff in Westport in those years,” Nigro recalled recently. “Some of the more outstanding press we got for our events definitely happened because of Craig. I’d probably say that a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff of organizing the events was more on my plate. But we had great times there in the ’90s in Westport.” Glazer’s name appeared constantly in the Star, in Hearne Christopher Jr.’s city-gossip column and Jeffrey continued on page 10
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