By Sally Tippett Rains
What are the odds that two brothers would end up becoming authors and they would each have a book come out at the same time? That happened with Dennis Dillon and Dan Dillon of St. Louis and they will be teaming up for a special presentation at the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis on March 19, 2024. The museum says, “One is among the most respected, most read sportswriters in St. Louis; the other is an Emmy Award-winning St. Louis TV producer/trivia host.”
Dennis Dillon is the co-author of “Lost Treasures of St. Louis” (written with Cameron Collins) and Dan Dillon has written “The Ultimate St. Louis Trivia Quiz.” At the event, they will share the best of the marvelous history, “pop culture” and trivia that can be found in each of their recent best-sellers in “Brothers and the City” Tuesday March 19 the in the Missouri History Museum’s Lee Auditorium.
Some of the questions that may be answered are: What was Wild’s Palace of Poison? The Pevely Fountain? Sam the Watermelon Man? Who remembers Venture Stores and Central Hardware? Who had the most single-season bats as a Cardinal? What popular laundry detergent was actually developed by hometown Monsanto? Whose “body parts” were insured for $50,000 by Lloyds of London?
The Dillon brothers will take guests down St. Louis’ “Memory Lane” as they examine some of the most popular, landmarks, innovations and innovators that were part of the fabric of St. Louis– along with some incredible facts you never knew you never knew about.
There will be a mini-Trivia Quiz with prizes for the most knowledgeable St Louis-philes in the audience and hundreds of pictures and memories of the people and moments that have made St. Louis special.
Even though their careers are intersecting with books about facts about St. Louis, it took a long way for them to come together in similar endeavors.
They look like loving brothers in the photo and are close today, but growing up in a family of six kids—Dennis, Dick, Dan, Mary, Mike and Margaret—Dennis says they were not that close. In fact they fought like cats and dogs. Dennis was the oldest and Dan was four years younger— which when you are a kid is worlds of years apart.
Dan remembers their brotherly rivalry as kids.
“Dennis and I fought a lot when we were growing up,” he said. “It was always his fault and I’ve finally forgiven him.”
They have grown closer as the years have gone by. Though they have the same parents and lived in the same places, they each have happy memories of two different towns.
Both brothers werett born in Kansas City to Richard and Marjorie Dillon.
Richard was a claims adjuster for Aetna Insurance, whose headquarters back then were in Hartford, Connecticut.
“Our family moved to Manchester, Connecticut when I was in fourth grade, and even though we only lived in K.C. only until I was nine years old, I was a big fan of the Kansas City Athletics,” said Dillon. “I remember sitting in my bedroom and listening to their radio broadcasts. My favorite player was their shortstop, Joe DeMaestri.”
It became more difficult to follow the Athletics once they were in Connecticut.
“We moved outside Hartford when I was five,” said Dan. “I loved Connecticut and started school there. I was nine when my Dad was transferred again.”
They would soon find out about the St. Louis Cardinals as they moved to the Bridgeton area in 1963.
“The neighborhood we lived in- Carrollton- was definitely ‘Leave-it-to-Beaver-land,'” Dennis said. “It was a perfect community with its own shopping center, schools churches. Sixty years later, I still have three close friends from that neighborhood, which was unfortunately bulldozed for the Airport in the late 1990s.
The Cardinals went 93–69 that year and finished second in the National League, and the brothers were fortunate enough to be at Busch Stadium 1 on September 29, 1963, when Stan Musial played his final game.
“I was in eighth grade,” Dennis said. “We had a pretty typical childhood. We played Little League baseball. When it wasn’t an organized activity, I played some kind of baseball whether it was Indian Ball, ‘Hot Box’ or just throwing a tennis ball against steps.”
He said growing up, baseball was his favorite sport. “But sometime during his early adult years, I became a big fan of football–both college and pro.” Could have been during college when he was getting his Journalism degree at the University of Missouri- Columbia.
Speaking of Journalism, both brothers went into the Journalism field—and they had successful award-winning careers. Dan started out at UMSL his freshman and sophomore year and then transferred to Mizzou. So the Dillon duo have dueling Journalism degrees.
While Dennis came home to St. Louis, Dan spent several years in Columbia working as a disc jockey until he changed his focus to television.
“Luckily, I was able to take a lab course in production working at KOMU, the TV station in Columbia,” he said. “I fell in love with TV production. When I graduated in 1976, KOMU hired me as a cameraman/director. I learned how to direct TV news, commercials and a daily women’s program. I was the first commercial producer to work with videotape rather than film.”
In 2014, Dan retired as Senior Writer/Producer at KMOV Channel 4, the CBS Affiliate in St. Louis after 31 years. During his time there, he won 14 regional Emmy Awards for Writing, Producing, Directing and Editing. In his long, successful television career he worked at KPLR, KTVI and then finally KMOV, which was called KMOX when he first started.
Dennis had quite a career himself and is a retired sportswriter and editor who worked 12 years at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. He was the beat writer for the Football Cardinals before they moved to Phoenix and became the Arizona Cardinals.
He put in 26 years at The Sporting News after the Globe-Democrat ceased publication in 1986, and has also has written for SI.com and ESPN.
In 2011, he received the Bob Broeg Award, presented by the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame (St. Louis Chapter) for entertainment, integrity, and professional devotion to the game of football.
Along with their lucrative media careers their families have always been important to them.
“I’ve been married to Tracey for 41 years,” said Dennis. “We have four kids: Chris, Amy, Ryan and Ben; plus five grandkids, Sean, Annie, Molly, Maura and Kate.”
“I met my wife, Kim, in Columbia- she was the Art Director at KOMU,” Dan said. “We will celebrate our 40th Anniversary this August. I have two spectacular daughters: Kylie and Mackenzie. I get a great amount of joy spending time with my 11-year-old grandson Cameron.”
They are both getting a great amount of joy out of having books out at the same time and their upcoming talk at the Missouri History Museum.
Originally published in 2017, “Lost Treasures of St. Louis” was such a popular book it is now in an all-new second edition, allowing fans to continue the journey down memory lane.
He has done several book signings including in January at the Buder Library
While Dennis’ book has descriptions of hundreds of places, his brother Dan has hundreds of questions in his book.
“My latest book is ‘The Ultimate St. Louis Trivia Quiz’ said Dan, “It spun out of my 20-year part time gig as a trivia night host in St. Louis. I had piled up hundreds of questions about St. Louis and decided to organize them into categories. The book contains 100 different categories, 1000 questions.”
“As I like to point out: there’s something here for everybody in it. St. Louis is certainly a ‘trivia town’ and we love to talk about the Cardinals, high school, St. Louis history memories and pop culture.”
Since Dan’s first book was called “Where Did You Go To High School?” the answer to that question for the Dillons was St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
The Dillon brothers will taking their act on the road together for a few events, Saturday and Sunday March nine and 10 they will be selling their books at the spring craft sale at Lindbergh High School, Ten days later they will be doing their presentation together at the Missouri History Museum on March 19.
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Where to meet Dennis Dillon and Dan Dillon
Book Events:
Monday March 4: “Lost Treasures of St. Louis” presentation at Oak Bend Library, 6 pm. 842 S Holmes Ave, St. Louis, MO 63122
Saturday March 9-Sun. March 10: They will be selling their books at the craft festival at Lindbergh High School, 5000 S Lindbergh Blvd, St Louis, MO 63126
Tuesday March 19 at 11 a.m.: Dillon Brothers co-presentation at the Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63112
How to Get the Books:
Lost Treasures of St. Louis by Dennis Dillon: CLICK HERE
The Ultimate St. Louis Trivia Book by Dan Dillon: CLICK HERE
