A history of the Coon-Sanders Orchestra, the band whose saucy and bustling music and carefree and extravagant musicians symbolized the era between World War I and the Great Depression. It examines the two leaders and their very different personalities, as well as the various band members.

Carleton A. Coon, Sr., and Joe L. Sanders formed the Coon-Sanders Orchestra in 1919 in Kansas City, Missouri. Three years later, under the name "Nighthawks," the band began broadcasting experimental, highly-popular midnight radio programs over Kansas City's WDAF. Their music was played all over the world, and the band remained at the top until Coon's death in 1932. Here is the complete history of the Coon-Sanders Orchestra, the band whose saucy and bustling music and carefree and extravagant musicians symbolized the era between World War I and the Great Depression. This work covers it all, from the two leaders and their very different personalities, and the various band members, to their association with Jules Cesar Stein (who set the band on a five-week tour that made enough money for Stein to found the Music Corporation of America, or MCA), to their adventures playing around the country.