Jim Reardon papers

Summary: This collection documents Jim's management and promotion of numerous rock bands with Mid-Continent Entertainment (Lawrence, Kansas) and Reardon & Associates (Hays, Kansas and Denver, Colorado) between 1964-1975. The collection includes recordings, photos, promotional materials, correspondence and other records documenting bands such as The Blue Things, The Jerms, The Red Dogs, The Rising Suns, Spider and the Crabs, and others. It also includes recordings of Lee Barnett & Sound 70, Jimmy Dee and the Destinations, and Monsters of the Midwest. A 2024-151 accretion consists of two letters, one from Jim Reardon to Tom Tourville in 1982, noting Jim's recollections of some of the bands he worked with in the 1960's, the other from Jim Reardon written in 1988 to the Red Dog members following their 20th year reunion in December 1988.
A 2025-016 donation includes a 2018 Kansas Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony program; a note from Jim Reardon regarding a radio revival commemorating rock bands that toured Midwest ballrooms; promotional material for the Spider and the Crabs, The Jerms, The Rising Suns, and the Fabulous Flippers; and histories, promotional content, and a scrapbook on The Blue Things.
A 2025-043 donation includes a history of the Red Dog Inn; a collection of band promotion documents; information on Jim's induction into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame; a newspaper article on the Burgundy Street Singers; a Fabulous Flippers interview featured in the "kbojian" newspaper; a history of "My Happiness"; and references to Vic Damon's studio.
A 2025-084 donation includes CDs: Best of Richard Scott and Been Down this Road Before by Richard Scott, Cracker Barrel; Midwest Showtime vol. 2; The Complete Bristlecone by Mike Chapman; Monsters of the Midwest KFMC Radio. Information on the Jerms, Spider and the Crabs, Red Dogs, Central Standard Time.
A 2025-087 donation includes a yellow packet holder, photograph of The Fabulous Apostles and copies with identification of people, and a Kansas Music Hall of Fame 2016 Induction Ceremony Program.
Accession 2025-186 donation includes 8 compact discs of various Kansas based music artists.

Also included is "Rock and Roll Memories" by Tom Tourville featured in the Pipestone County Star, February 2025.

Accession 2026-137 includes one photograph of The Jerms, four DVDs of the Kansas Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies from 2005, 2006, 2016, and 2018, a CD titled "The Beast", and a CD titled Flippers Early Terry Tapes Volume 1.

Administrative History: In the early 1960s, John Brown and Jim Reardon, childhood acquaintances of Beloit, Kansas, managed and promoted numerous rock bands in northeast Kansas through Mid-Continent Entertainment at the Red Dog Inn in Lawrence. Jim left Mid-Continent in 1965 to finish college and started the Dark Horse Inn and Reardon & Associates in Hays, Kansas. Jim and his business partner Dick Doll managed and booked bands out of Hays between 1966-1968. Jim moved to Denver in 1968 and continued as an entertainment promoter until 1975, working with national acts like Steppenwolf and Evil Knevel. Jim returned to Hays in 1971 and shortly after began law school at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.

Finding Aids: https://www.kansashistory.gov/p/jim-reardon-collection/21094