STRICTLY BUSINESS: CAPE GIRARDEAU BAKER SELECTED FOR QVC SHOW

Wes Kinsey, a Cape Girardeau baker who has been designing and baking cakes, pies and other pastries for the past two decades, will showcase one of his products nationally.

My Daddy's Cheesecake, a downtown bakery owned by Kinsey, is one of 20 companies selected for "Most Promising Products," and will be showcased for national sales during a prime-time television broadcast by QVC Inc. next summer.

"We don't know the date yet," said Kinsey, "but, we're looking forward to the event. We were selected out of more than 200 companies which submitted items.

Kinsey submitted two items during a recent preliminary show, held at Columbia.

QVC selected the "Death by Chocolate Cookie Wedge," said Kinsey

The cookie wedge is a fudgy type of brownie baked as a 9-inch round cake and sliced into wedges.

The QVC program, a joint effort of the QVC and the Missouri Department of Economic Development, is part of "The Quest for America's Best -- QVC's 50 in 50 Tour," which includes visits to all 50 states over a 50-week period.

A national broadcast will be presented featuring products from Missouri.

The Missouri items were selected by QVC from among more than 200 small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs who displayed products during trade shows last month at Columbia.

QVC's 50-state tour will feature events from each state. QVC Electronic Retailing, a division of QVC Inc., is the world's largest electronic retailer, using television to market a variety of consumer products.

"We're hoping to be swamped by calls," said Kinsey. "QVC's average viewing audience is about 15 million people.

Kinsey purchased My Daddy's Cheesecake store at 111 N. Main in August.

"My Daddy's Cheesecake is already known nationally," said Kinsey. "We ship out hundreds of cheesecakes every year, mostly during the Christmas and New Year's holiday season."

The company, however, offers year-round shipping to all 50 states.

My Daddy's Cheesecake, a gourmet cheesecake business, was established almost a decade ago by another chef, Tom Harte, who had spent years in the kitchen as a hobby.

Tom, his wife, Jane, and Joe and Lauchette Low opened a part-time cheesecake business at Plaza Galleria in 1987 and in 1992, opened the retail My Daddy's Cheesecake buisness downtown.

Kinsey, who has more than 20 years experience in baking, and his wife, Ann, purchased the business two years after Kinsey started working at My Daddy's as a chef.

Although the primary product is cheesecake, the baker also offers wedding cakes, cookies, muffins, scones and brownies.

Downtown business to close

Chrisman Art Gallery & Outfitters will close its store at 34 N. Main after more than 20 years, half of them in the downtown area.

"We'll probably be out by the end of March," said David Vinson of Chrisman Art Gallery & Outfitters. "The building will be leased or sold."

Chrisman opened downtown in the mid-1970s, moved to West Park Mall in 1981, and returned to downtown in June 1991.

The Vinson family of Dexter, which operates Chrisman Art Gallery operations at Dexter and Kansas City, purchased the former Otasco Drug Store Building at 34 N. Main in 1991 and completed remodeled -- flooring, carpeting and walls, including a new brick front exterior.

"We never really got to where we wanted to be," said Vinson. "We felt that with all our other businesses it would be in our best interest to close.

The Vincent Family has many interests in three corporations -- Chrisman Oil Co., Chrisman LP Gas and Chrisman Art Galleries.

The operations include a 10,000-square-foot art gallery at Kansas City; a 7,000-square-foot gallery at Dexter; service stations and convenience store operations, propane fuel business, pizza and video stores at Dexter.

Hiring time at Super Max

It's hiring time at Tamms.

With the Tamms Super-Max Correctional Center scheduled to open in December, application packets for correctional officers/youth supervisor trainees are now available, and tests are tentatively scheduled March 11 and 12 at Shawnee Community College. A special workshop will be held March 10, from 2 to 6 p.m. at the college.

Application packets are available at Tamms Village Hall.

The new Super Max will be a 500-bed facility for the state's most dangerous and problematic inmates.

There will be 250 employees at the facility, 250 of them in security positions.

Qualifications for correctional officer trainee are a high school diploma or GED, and valid Illinois driver's license. Applicants must be Illinois residents and U.S. citizens.

People interested in other positions at the center may call the Illinois Department of Corrections Personnel, (217)-522-2666, extension 2100.

Pricey 'Oscars'

Clark Gable's Oscar for "It Happened One Night" (1934) fetched a record $550,000 from an unidentified telephone bidder during a Christie's auction in Los Angeles.

The previous record? "$510,000 for Vivien Leigh's Oscar for "Gone With the Wind" (1939).

The unidentified bidder later revealed himself as Steven Spielberg, the movie director. Spielberg donated the Oscar to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Total cost of the small statute was $607,500 when commissions and taxes were added in.

B. Ray Owen is business editor of the Southeast Missourian.