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Title: Joe Sanders
Description: Illustrations and information about the Coon-Sanders band, or the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, a Kansas City band in the 1920s, starting with the meeting of Joe Sanders and Carleton Coon in 1918 and ending with Carleton's death in 1932 (at the age of 39) but not before becoming "the most successful hyphenated dance band in the annals of American pop music," playing regularly in the late 1920s for Al Capone in Chicago, etc.
Object Type: Vertical File

Title: A KC Landmark Goes Overlooked
Description: Article marking the 100th year of the Hotel Muehlebach at 12th and Baltimore. First opened in May 1915 on the former site of the old First Baptist Church, the 500-room, 12-story, $2 million hotel quickly became a social epicenter for locals and visitors alike, and remained so through the mid-20th century. The hotel's elegant decor, various restaurants, musical entertainment, and high service standards attracted famous names such as Helen Keller, Bob Hope, The Beatles, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman. The guest rooms are no longer in use, but the hotel's public spaces are frequently booked for events, and most of the areas have been preserved as they originally appeared.
Date: 2015-04-21
Object Type: Newspaper Article

Title: Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawks
Description: Interior view identified as "Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawks. America's Premier Radio Orchestra." Identified on the back by Fred Edmiston as: Backrow, left to right: Carleton Coon, Joe Sanders, and Pop Estep. Front row, from left: John Thiell, Floyd Estep, Harold Thiell, Bill Haid, Joe Richolson and Rex Downing.
Date: 1926
Object Type: Postcard

Title: Frank M. (Pop) Estep
Description: Portrait identified as Frank M. (Pop) Estep, bass player for the Nighthawks. According to Edmiston's book, p. 326-7 - Frank (Pop) Estep was born in Adrian, Missouri, in 1878. He played bass with the Nighthawks from late 1922 or early 1923 until late 1927 or early 1928. He eventually moved to California and died in 1949.
Date: 1927~
Object Type: Postcard

Title: Coon-Sanders Nighthawks
Description: Identified in Edmiston's book as "Framed Nighthawk display for an engagement about late 1925." Identification clockwise from top-right: Sanders, H. Thiell, F. Estep, J. Thiell, Haid, Downing, Pope, Richolson, Pop Estep, and Coon.
Date: 1925~
Object Type: Postcard

Title: Carlton Coon Rites Friday
Description: Article announcing the death of Carleton Coon and the arrival of his body in Kansas City. Coon died May 4, 1932 in Chicago as a result of blood poisoning caused by an abcessed jaw.
Date: 1932-05-05
Object Type: Newspaper Article

Title: Rites for Carlton Coon
Description: Article describing the funeral of Carleton Coon, co-director of the Coon-Sanders Orchestra. The services were conducted by a minister of the Third Church of Christ Scientist, and Coon was buried in Mt. Moriah Cemetery.
Date: 1932-05-06
Object Type: Newspaper Article

Title: Coon-Sanders Nighthawks
Description: A portion of this book gives information on Carleton Coon and Joe Sanders and their musical group called The Nighthawks, "the most successful and influential of the early white bands to come out of Kansas City". Johnny Coon is also mentioned.
Date: 1905-06-27
Object Type: Book

Title: SC1-1 Joe Sanders Collection Finding Aid
Description: Joe Sanders was born in Thayer, Kansas, and spent the majority of his childhood in the Kansas City area. He started his musical performances as a boy soprano in local church choirs and graduated from Westport High School. After World War I he organized an orchestra with Carleton Coon called the Nighthawks which played on the local radio and traveled the country. After Mr. Coon's untimely death in 1932, Sanders continued as a composer, piano player, singer, and conductor of his own band. Sanders died in 1965. This collection of material, such as scrapbooks, travelogues, photos, sheet music, etc., provides information and detail about Sanders, covering his formative musical years and later successful band career. It also contains information on the relationship between Carleton Coon and Joe Sanders and the formation and travels of their band in the 1920s.
Date: 1908~/1950~
Object Type: Finding Aid

Title: The Big Band Almanac
Description: History of the Coon-Sanders Band, also known as the Kansas City Nighthawks, formed in 1919 with their first broadcasting over the radio in 1921. Subject of "doubtless the first radio fan club. ..the 'Nighthawk Club,'" on early WDAF radio programming.
Date: 1978
Object Type: Book

Title: The Dance Band Era--The Dancing Decades from Ragtime to Swing: 1910-1950
Description: History of the Coon-Sanders Band, also known as the Kansas City Nighthawks, a Kansas City and Chicago-based band (led by Joe Sanders and Carleton Coon) of the late 1910s to the early 1930s, performing regularly on WDAF radio, with photo and map.
Date: 1971
Object Type: Book

Title: ''Rupe'': Wayne Ruppenthal
Description: Article describing the life and career of trumpeter Wayne Ruppenthal. Ruppenthal, a native of Russell, Kansas, began taking cornet lessons at age 13 from "Mr. Deines", a former member of the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks Orchestra.
Date: 1997-02
Object Type: Magazine Article

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