Book Birthdays celebrate one year of a book’s life in tweets, reviews and more. This month we’re saying Happy First Book Birthday to Skywalks: Robert Gordon’s Untold Story of Hallmark’s Kansas City Disaster (Bison Books, March 2023) by R. Eli Paul.
About the Book:
In 1981 the suspended walkways—or “skywalks”—in Kansas City’s Hyatt Regency hotel fell and killed 114 people. It was the deadliest building collapse in the United States until the fall of New York’s Twin Towers on 9/11. In Skywalks R. Eli Paul follows the actions of attorney Robert Gordon, an insider to the bitter litigation that followed. Representing the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against those who designed, built, inspected, owned, and managed the hotel, Gordon was tenacious in uncovering damaging facts. He wanted his findings presented before a jury, where his legal team would assign blame from underlings to corporate higher-ups, while securing a massive judgment in his clients’ favor.
But when the case was settled out from under Gordon, he turned to another medium to get the truth out: a quixotic book project that consumed the rest of his life. For a decade the irascible attorney-turned-writer churned through a succession of high-powered literary agents, talented ghost writers, and New York trade publishers. Gordon’s resistance to collaboration and compromise resulted in a controversial but unpublishable manuscript, “House of Cards,” finished long after the public’s interest had waned. His conclusions, still explosive but never receiving their proper attention, laid the blame for the disaster largely at the feet of the hotel’s owner and Kansas City’s most visible and powerful corporation, Hallmark Cards Inc.
Gordon gave up his lucrative law practice and lived the rest of his life as a virtual recluse in his mansion in Mission Hills, Kansas. David had fought Goliath, and to his despair, Goliath had won. Gordon died in 2008 without ever seeing his book published or the full truth told. Skywalks is a long-overdue corrective, built on a foundation of untapped historical materials Gordon compiled, as well as his own unpublished writings.
A Word from the Author:
On the blog, R. Eli Paul meditates on last year’s anniversary of the Hyatt Regency’s skywalk collapse, exploring how to reconcile the unfinished business of history.
Reviews:
“Now, in true whodunit fashion, R. Eli Paul has told Gordon’s story. And, given the preponderance of evidence, he concludes that Gordon was right. ” – Charles E. Rankin, Roundup Magazine
“Paul’s account is clear and well-paced even as he takes the reader through the weeds of legal arguments, filings, and rulings. It is a laudable and worthy addition to the skywalks story and an inventive use of an unpublishable—for whatever reasons—series of manuscript drafts. An appendix includes sections from Gordon’s book, giving readers a sampling of his voice and of the story as he wanted it told.” – Steve Paul, Missouri Historical Review
“Skywalks departs from the established tick-tock formula of telling true-life disasters. Instead, it examines a very public tragedy through the unfinished work of a man who may have been driven mad by the weight of his search for the truth and accountability. In the end, Robert C. Gordan might justifiably be counted as the last victim of the skywalks’ collapse.” – Max McCoy, Kansas History
“Author Eli Paul shines a light on one of Kansas City’s darkest hours.” – Dan Kelly, Kansas City Star
UNP blog 