Special Collections and Archives Finding Aids

Scope and Contents The Arthur B. Church – KMBC Radio Collection was donated to the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1996 by Arthur B. Church, Jr. The collection relates to KMBC radio and television stations in Kansas City and its owner and operator, Arthur B. Church, dating primarily between the 1920s and the early 1950s.The collection is broken down into seven series. A timeline provides day-to-day and year-to-year information about the operation of the station. Business correspondence, ledgers...

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The majority of the audiovisual materials in this collection are recordings of the radio music program, Cyprus Avenue, hosted by Bill Shapiro on KCUR.

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Bob Foster was a Kansas City record collector. Recordings include radio programs, classical music performances, and recordings of church choirs, high school bands and choirs, and college bands and choirs in the Kansas City area.

Scope and Contents The Bob Wills Tiffany Transcriptions Collection was gifted to the UMKC Libraries in 1999. The collection consists of Bob Wills Tiffany Transcription audio discs as well as related promotional print material. Bob Pinson of the Country Music Foundation recommended and directed to UMKC an extant set in the possession of a producer’s wife.Print material is housed in LaBudde Special Collections and includes a leasing contract for radio stations, cued radio scripts, sheet music and a...

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City Sparks was a radio program on KCUR that broadcast concerts of Kansas City musicians and bands. The collection holds the multitrack tapes from the performances and the stereo mixes for broadcast as well. Collection Donor, Tom Mardikes, produced and recorded the shows. The audio items are supplemented with paper files consisting of technical recording documention, release forms, and articles related to the musicians and bands.

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Consists of audio recordings of music compiled by Dick Dexter's brother, Dave Dexter (music journalist and record executive), radio advertisements for Interstate Securities Company (later ISC Financial Corporation), and radio broadcast recordings that include parts of Kansas City Chief's football games.

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The collection consists mostly of recordings of radio broadcast programming from Kansas City that specialized in the jazz genre.

Scope and Contents The Gaylord Marr Collection was a gift of Olga Marr in the summer of 2011. The expansive nature of this collection is a reflection of Professor Marr’s long and prestigious career in academia. A series of personal documents feature Marr’s private diaries and many manuscripts of his own writings, as well as material from his college years and other items related to his day to day life and career. Marr’s teaching life is represented here by many documents and course materials related to his...

Scope and Contents The Raymond Scott Collection was donated to the University of Missouri-Kansas City by Mitzi Scott, Raymond Scott’s widow, in 1993.Housed in LaBudde Special Collections, the original manuscript collection, which encompasses much of Scott’s career until 1980, is organized into 11 series: manuscript music scores; published music; correspondence; news clippings; journals, diaries and scrapbooks; production notes; personal; engineering and inventions; miscellaneous; oversized...

Scope and Contents The Richard and Mary Jane Miller (KWKI Radio) Collection was transferred in May 2015 to the UMKC Miller Nichols Library from Frank Absher, executive director of the St. Louis Media History Foundation. The bulk of the collection consists of company memos related to KWKI 93.3 FM Kansas City during its stint as a soul music radio station from 1971-73. Most of the memos originate from Richard J. Miller, president of the St. Louis-based parent company Communications Fund Inc. (CFI), which at the...

Scope and Contents The Stephen R. Johnson Collection was gifted to the UMKC University Libraries by Debra F. Johnson and Russell Johnson in March 2016.Housed in LaBudde Special Collections, the manuscript collection contains a diverse assortment of materials from the music video and television director, animator, painter, and writer’s personal and professional life. There are awards and accolades, storyboards and screenplays, and newspaper clippings about Johnson’s work. There are photographs of...

Scope and Contents The Vic Damon Collection was donated to LaBudde Special Collections by his son, George Damon, in the 1990s.The manuscripts collection consists of the handwritten logbook kept by Damon documenting recording sessions produced by his Kansas City studio; related correspondence and notes; 17 photographs; and a trophy awarded by Cash Box for the success of the 1948 song My Happiness, produced by Damon. Mounted captions used for a Vic Damon exhibit previously on display in the UMKC Miller...