In 1962 Lanny Ellis hocked his Chicago lifestyle to venture in the pawn shop business with his brother Darrell Johnson.
Ellis says "it was really my brother's idea that he rubbed off from one of his acquaintances"
A part of the store's history includes a lot of changes from the 66' tornado destroying the original location, to the impact of new technology, to the diverse group of people it attracts.
He says "expanded from what it used to be, the very very low end on the pay scale to people that have a good earning"
Store manager Phil Slater believes some people have a negative image of hock shops but says a slew of pawn shop themed TV shows is slowly changing that view. He says "pawn stars and all that have really changed what everyone thought and you know that's why we did a lot of remodeling is to show people that it's not somewhere they need to be scared of"
Ellis says "but that show in two years since its been on the network has probably done more to us to upgrade our image and bring people into the pawn shops that for some reason had been apprehensive to walk into the front door"
He says over the years, many interesting collectibles have made their way into his shop: from sports memorabilia, motorcycles, rare coins and then some.
He says "had artificial teeth offered to me with gold caps and had a guy with an artificial limb wanted to pawn his leg. I didn't take it."
Slater says "the weirdest thing that someone brought in to try and pawn was on Thanksgiving they tried to bring in their turkey to just try to get a couple of extra dollars."
Ellis believes it's the customer service and honest reputation that has made Capital City Pawn shop so successful.
He says "my philosophy is kill them with kindness and they will beat a path right back to your door"
The brothers own 9 Locations in Kansas and Nebraska.
