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Kansas City Jazz Heritage Trail

Zone 4 of 4: 31st Street to the Plaza

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A malt shop that was frequented by the University of Kansas City students, the Kangaroo was established by Abby Abercrombie and Bill Buffe in 1938 to offer a venue for UKC students who lacked a Student Union at that time. The Kangaroo offered a live music jam session on Thursday afternoons that attracted KCU students and Southwest High School students and included a variety of musicians who earned money by playing gigs, including the up-and-coming local saxophonist Charlie Parker. Parker would become widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz musicians of the 20th century, but in 1938, he and other members of Jay McShann's band performed here when they weren't entertaining crowds at the larger venues with their bandleader. The 1939 University yearbook included a collage of images from jazz scenes, including a photo of an 18-year-old Charlie Parker playing at the Kangaroo. The university was segregated at that time, and the Kangaroo was open to white students. The photo is the only known image of Parker playing the alto saxophone in Kansas City prior to his move to New York and international fame.


A photo showing the building where the Kangaroo was located. The gas pumps are on the east side of the building and the Kangaroo would have been on the west end.

Building, Wheel, Sky, Electricity

A collage of scenes at the Kangaroo from the 1939 University of Kansas City yearbook includes Charlie Parker in the second photo on the right.

Photograph, Coat, Art, Suit

Add for the Kangaroo Sweet shop in the Kangaroo Magazine

Font, Gesture, Rectangle, Happy

Kansas City University was established in 1932, and just five years later, students pushed for an official college mascot. The city was abuzz with a new kangaroo exhibit at the Kansas City Zoo, and students noticed how their school's initials "KCU" rhymed with kangaroo. In 1937, students started a humor magazine called The Kangaroo, which featured a drawing of "Kacey Roo" by former Kansas City resident Walt Disney. When current student Bill Buffe and recent KCU graduate Abby Abercrombie started their malt shop, they tapped into the popularity of the student-selected mascot.

The Kangaroo was located just east of the street car tracks at the time, and thanks to the expansion of the KC Streetcar, the coffee shops and restaurants that are now located here will once again be "on the right side of the car tracks" as the Kangaroo advertised itself. The student newspaper and yearbook included several mentions of the Kangaroo, known colloquially to students as their "jelly joint," which was slang for dancing a little too close to the opposite sex.

Chuck Haddix, "Charlie Parker jams for UMKC students," Backstory, Important Moments in Kansas City, Kansas City Magazine, August 2020, p. 120.

Christopher Wolff, A Pearl of Great Value: The History of UMKC, Kanas City's University, UMKC Alumni Association, 2016 p. 31-32.

Chuck Haddix, "Bird at the Jelly Joint," JAM: Jazz Ambassador Magazine, Aug/Sept 2015 p 6-8.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

https://charlieparkerskc.org/map/gigging/kangaroo

https://charlieparkerskc.org/map/gigging/kangaroo