KC icon ran clothing empire and was kidnapped. A new movie musical tells all about her

Terence O’Malley has spent much of the past 20 years telling and retelling the story of his great-great-aunt Nell Donnelly, one of the iconic characters in Kansas City history.

First was a documentary and an accompanying book, then a stage musical. Now comes “Nelly Don ­— The Musical Movie,” for which O’Malley is writer, director, executive producer and co-lyricist. When it opens Sept. 29 at local theaters, his storytelling mission will be complete.

“What more can I do except don a dress and walk around with a placard on me?” he said.

“It seems like I’ve been obsessed about it, but I’m not really obsessed. It’s just something that I believe in, and I always have.”

O’Malley’s non-obsession took root when he was a child. His grandmother kept a scrapbook with newspaper stories about the infamous 1931 kidnapping of Donnelly, who had founded the Nelly Don brand that became the world’s biggest manufacturer of women’s clothing.

He was fascinated by the family history he discovered with his sister and cousin.

“We were like little kids reading this scrapbook about my aunt, who we knew, getting kidnapped,” O’Malley said. “It scared the hell out of us.”

But he never forgot about it, not even as he went off to Alaska to work first as a TV reporter and then as deputy press secretary to the governor. Or when he attended Washburn University School of Law and then built a south Kansas City law practice (now working with his son, Conor).

The kidnapping is a big part of the movie, as it was of the documentary, book and play. O’Malley also tackles Donnelly’s marital troubles head-on, as well as her relationship with James A. Reed.

She married Reed, a former Kansas City mayor and U.S. senator, in 1933, two years after giving birth to his child, David Reed, while both were married to other people. The story at the time was that Nell and husband Paul Donnelly had adopted the boy after she took a trip to France and returned with him.

When David was 3 months old, Donnelly and her chauffeur, George Blair, were abducted. With pressure from Reed, local mob boss John Lazia ordered his men to search for her. They found and freed the captives within 34 hours.

O’Malley eventually saw through the French adoption story and approached his mother with his doubts.

“I kneeled down in front of her, and I said, ‘Mother, this whole thing about Nell going over to France and adopting a baby,’ I said, ‘Come on, that’s a bunch of nonsense.’ And my mother, in her sweet, polite way, goes, ‘Well, we just don’t like to talk about those things.’

“I said, ‘I knew it. It’s nonsense.’ And she said, ‘Well, I guess somebody ought to know that Grandma, on her death bed’ — this is her mother, my grandmother — ‘said, “Well, somebody ought to know that David is Nell’s child.”’ That’s all I needed to know.”

The adult David Reed had no problem with O’Malley revealing the whole story, even helping him with the research.

It has culminated with “Nelly Don — The Musical Movie,” which includes all the music that O’Malley and Daniel Doss wrote for the stage play plus one more song. The cast is different except for one character, although it still consists of area stage actors.

O’Malley said 215 applied for parts in the movie and 85 were invited to audition.

“Out of all those 85 people, there was only one Nell,” he said.

That would be Julie Pope, a Chicago native who has appeared in multiple local stage productions, including “A Chorus Line” last month at MTH Theater at Crown Center. She also stars in “Earlybird,” a comedy that played at the Milwaukee Film Festival in the spring.

The cast features some familiar faces, including Jim “Mr. Stinky Feet” Cosgrove and assorted O’Malley relatives. All were paid, even though it was a non-union production.

Some of the movie’s settings also might be recognizable. Among the shooting locations were Shawnee Town 1929, the Stevens House in Kansas City’s Northeast area, Cockrell Mercantile in Lee’s Summit, Pryde’s Old Westport, Browne’s Irish Marketplace and the Livestock Exchange Building.

The production employed more than 100 people, including actors, musicians and technical people.

O’Malley has financed the entire operation, spending about $200,000, not counting ongoing marketing expenses. That amount also doesn’t factor in his many hours on the project.

“I don’t feel like I have to be compensated for my time,” O’Malley said. “It’s like what you do. It’s intellectually rewarding.

“First, my thinking was, well, if I really calculate all the time and everything that I’ve put into this, sure, this is a million-dollar movie. But in reality, it’s not. And now, it’s kind of a point of pride that I was able make this film for the amount of money I have contributed.”

How much he earns back, of course, depends on how many people buy tickets to the movie. It is scheduled to open Sept. 29 at three local theaters, including the Regnier Extreme Screen in Union Station, but O’Malley said “Nelly Don” could play on as many as 11 screens. AMC Theatres has picked up the movie for possible future showings in the area.

“That’s really exciting because AMC only runs four to eight independent films a year,” O’Malley said. “Otherwise, all their films come from the major studios or major distributors.”

The writer/director/producer/lyricist emphasizes that this film is a musical, not a drama, and as such he took liberties with the presentation to “make it a little more fantastical than you would if it was a non-musical thing.”

“Because a musical is inherently fantasy,” he said. “You don’t break out into singing songs in real life.

“My whole key concern about it is I just want it to be entertaining. I just want people to enjoy it.”

‘Nelly Don ­— The Musical Movie’

Opens Sept. 29 at Regnier Extreme Screen Theatre, Glenwood Arts Theatre and Screenland Armour. Also, Nov. 17-19, Tallgrass Film Center, Wichita.

Terence O’Malley’s previous projects

▪ “Nelly Don: A Stitch in Time” documentary film and book (2006)

▪ “Shooting Back in Time — The Kansas City Union Station Massacre” documentary (2008)

▪ “Black Hand Strawman — The History of Organized Crime in Kansas City” documentary (2009)

▪ “Tom & Harry: The Boss and the President” documentary (2013)

▪ “Nelly Don: The Musical” (March 14-31, 2019, MTH Theater at Crown Center)