Rock and Roll Collections
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Originally known as the Blue Boys, the Blue Things were a folk-rock group from Hays and then Lawrence, Kansas, that was active between 1964-1968. Jim Reardon managed the group through Mid-Continent Entertainment in Lawrence. In 1964 the group recorded several demos at the Damon studio in Kansas City which led to a contract with Ruff Records in Texas and two singles. Between 1965-1967, the group recorded multiple singles and an album for RCA. Members included Mike Chapman (lead guitar), Richard Scott (bass), Val Stoecklein (guitar and vocals), and Rick "Laz" Larzalere (drums). Rick left the band in 1965 and Bobby Day from Salina replaced him. The group recorded briefly for Dot Records in California in 1968 before disbanding.
See the Jim Reardon papers and the John Owen Brown papers.
Cornstalk (See Pittsburg Peace Festival)
The Fabulous Flippers were the lead act of the Mid-Continent Productions booking agency owned by John Brown. While helping manage the Downes swimming pool, Brown decided to host a dance event at the pool’s community hall and hired a four piece band out of Hays called the Flippers to perform. The event was a critical success, and afterwards Brown founded Mid-Continent Entertainment as a music promotion and management company. The Flippers became the first band represented by Mid-Continent Entertainment.
After Brown and Flippers band leader Terry Wierman relocated the band to Lawrence while attending college at the University of Kansas, the Fabulous Flippers coalesced into one of the biggest bands in the Midwest. The band included Terry Wierman on guitar, vocalists Dennis Loewen and Danny Hein, Jerry Tammen on drums, Jim Gross on sax, Gary Claxton on trumpet, and Dennes Frederick on bass. Throughout the Flipper’s career, they recorded eight singles, one LP and one EP.
See the John Owen Brown papers and the Jim Reardon papers.
James N. Reardon & Associates (Hays, Kansas)
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.
See the Jim Reardon papers.
The Jerms (1966-1971)
Formed by high school students in Topeka, Kansas, in 1966, the Jerms were one of a number of successful garage bands to emerge from the Midwest in the 1960s. The original group included Galen Senogles (guitar), Jake “Tom” Jacoby (bass/organ), Mike Doyle (drums/vocals), and Russ Wilcox (guitar).
Mid-Continent Entertainment based at the Red Dog Inn, Lawrence, Kansas, originally managed the group. Jim Reardon left Mid-Continent to start the Dark Horse Inn and his own agency in Hays, Kansas, and the Jerms followed. While Jim and Dick Doll booked the group out of Hays, the National Ballroom Operator’s Association honored the band with its “outstanding dance band” award at its 20th annual convention in Des Moines, Iowa.
In 1967, Shelby Singleton (who recorded Jeannie C. Reilly) produced a Jerms version of the Jim Reeves song Green Door in Nashville which reached 103 on the charts. The same year the Jerms appeared at the Nashville Pop Festival.
The Jerms issued seven singles with various labels including Casino, Del Mar, Shana, Honor Brigade and Exit. Over the years the following artists appeared with The Jerms: Galen Senogles (guitar), Larry Burton (guitar), Mike Doyle (drums), Jake "Tom" Jacoby (bass, organ), Bill Leacox (drums, organ), Angel Hay (vocals), John Murray (organ), John Neal (vocals), Larry Faucet (percussion), Mike Lingle (drums), Larry Lingle (guitar).
See the Mike Doyle Collection and the Jim Reardon papers.
Mid-Continent Entertainment (Lawrence, Kansas)
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.
See the John Owen Brown papers and the Jim Reardon papers.
This silent film by Robert Blunk Jr. documents the Pittsburg Peace Festival, otherwise known as the Kansas Woodstock, or Cornstalk. The rock music festival took place over Labor Day weekend (September 4-7) in 1970 southeast of Pittsburg, Kansas, in northern Cherokee County. Strangely, the film states the event took place in October of that year. Locals Kenny Ossana and Fulton Wilhelm organized the festival after being inspired by the Woodstock Music and Art Fair held in Woodstock, New York, the previous year. Featured bands included "Jerry Hahn and the Brotherhood" from San Francisco, California, and an early incarnation of the band "Kansas" from Topeka. The film includes only a very brief clip of a performing band. The majority of the film documents the festival organizers, attendees, vendors, and clean up. The festival sparked outrage over illicit drug use and may have influenced the 1970 state and local elections.
The Red Dogs and the Red Dog Inn (1965-1972)
The Red Dogs were hired in 1965 by John Owen Brown's Mid-Continent Entertainment to be the house band for the Red Dog Inn. The band played in Lawrence monthly and was on the road every weekend plus summer tours. The Red Dogs performed a wide variety of songs and musical styles. The original lineup of the Red Dogs included Steve Elliot on guitar, Kent Leopold on sax, Butch Neese on bass, Don Lindley on drums, Jerry Knaack on guitar, and Doug Cunningham on sax. Later additions to the Red Dogs lineup included Steve Dahl, Dave Jewell, Bob Meyerhoeffer, Evan Johnson, Randy Shaw, and Roger Lewis.
The Red Dog Inn was a nightclub in Lawrence, Kansas. The nightclub was opened in Liberty Hall in 1965 by Mike Murfin. Murfin partnered with John Brown and Mid-Continent Entertainment to run and book events at the Red Dog Inn. Liberty Hall was originally constructed in 1856, but was lost to an electrical fire in 1911, the current Liberty Hall was constructed in 1912. Liberty Hall has been operated under multiple names, including the Bowerstock Opera House, the Jayhawker Theater, the Red Dog Inn Night Club, and Bugsy disco club.
See the John Owen Brown papers, the Evan Johnson papers, and the Jim Reardon papers.
The Rising Suns (1964-1972)
The Rising Suns were a soulful horn-rock band originating from Topeka, Kansas, in 1964 originally called the Dantes. Mid-Continent Entertainment in Lawrence, Kansas, managed and booked the band. The original members included John Neal, Bob Brennan, Dave Newman, Ron Mikkelsen, Greg Thompson, and Steve Dahl. The band disbanded after they lost all their musical equipment in a bus crash. A horn band from Coffeyville continued playing as the Rising Suns until 1972.
The Coffeyville Rising Suns, previously called the Dalton Gang, was a seven-to-eight member horn and show band. They were unique among the other Mid-Continent Entertainment bands for featuring their first interracial lineup fronted by African American singers including “Big” Walter Downing, and later, Izzy Martin Jr. Other members of the Rising Suns when they signed with Mid-Continent Entertainment in 1966 included: Buddy Wolfe, Bill Snow, Steve “Porky” Datson, Jim Jensen, Dave Smardo, and Don Sappenfield.
Both the Topeka and Coffeyville Rising Suns were inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
See the Ron Mikkelsen papers, the Steve Alter papers, the John Owen Brown papers, and the Jim Reardon papers.
The Sensational Showmen (mid-1960s - mid-1970s)
A succession of bands using this name played in Kansas from the mid 1960s into the mid 1970s. The final version of the group began as a concept in 1968 among several Parsons High School students. Steve Hartman, Jeff Crane, Mike Seeley, Randy Cruise, and Mike Young. Jerry Cruz soon replaced Young on trumpet, and the group began playing local dance jobs. Chris Cruz joined around 1970, playing trumpet and rhythm guitar. Later, Randy Cruse moved away from Parsons and Mike Fitzmorris became the lead guitarist.
See the Chris Cruz papers and the Jim Reardon papers.
Spider and the Crabs (1964-early 1970s)
Spider and the Crabs was a soul band based in Lawrence, Kansas, that operated between 1964 and the early 1970s. Four fraternity brothers at the University of Kansas founded the band in 1964 but personnel changes shortly after led to a six member group including Steve Smith (guitar), Mike Sollenberger (bass), Bob Hanna (organ), Charlie Shoemaker (saxophone, trumpet and keyboard), Mike Berlau (drums), and Michael “Spanky” Landes (vocals). The band played songs by Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, The Temptation’s, Otis Redding, Bobby “Blue” Bland, James Brown and other popular soul acts. Mid-Continent Entertainment based at the Red Dog Inn in Lawrence managed and booked the group. By 1967 several of the original members had left and Mid-Continent continued booking the band with new members. In 1968, the band released a single on the Veritas label of "Some Kind of Magic/I Can't Have Yesterday."
See the John Owen Brown papers and the Jim Reardon papers.
The Young Raiders began as a Topeka, Kansas, band known as the Dantes before signing with John Owen Brown’s Mid-Continent Entertainment. With Mid-Continent Entertainment, The Dantes became the first version of the Rising Suns. On December 16, 1966, the Rising Suns’ rented station wagon had a tire blow out and rolled while travelling on Interstate 70. Nearly all the band members were injured. With the band in the hospital, manager John Brown turned to a band from Coffeyville, Kansas, known as the Dalton Gang, to fill in and perform Rising Suns events that had already been booked.
It took the original Rising Suns over six months to recover from the accident. By this time the Coffeyville band had fully subsumed the Rising Suns identity, so Brown had the original group rebrand as the “Young Raiders.” The group delt with large membership turnover. Later editions to the Young Raiders included Steve Clark and Ken "Rat" Weidenback. Clark spent ten years with the band, the longest tenure of any member with the group. The band left Mid-Continent Entertainment in 1971, rebranded and continued to perform through 1978.
See the the Ron Mikkelsen papers, Steve Clark papers and the John Owen Brown papers.
