Machine Politics and organized crime, Prohibition and Kansas City jazz, economic boom and the Great Depression, civil rights and women's activism – "Boss" Tom Pendergast connects it all.

Join the Kansas City Public Library and Tom's Town Distilling Co. on April 26 for Boss Bash, an evening of cocktails, appetizers, and notorious tales celebrating the Library's newest historical website The Pendergast Years: Kansas City in the Jazz Age & Great Depression.

Tom Pendergast, whose corrupt political machine ruled Kansas City from 1929-39, is the inspiration for and namesake of both the website and Tom's Town. Tom's Town utilized the Library's resource for local history research, the Missouri Valley Special Collections, in building its identity in the Crossroads District. That partnership continues today, with Tom's Town serving as a key sponsor and partner for the new Library website and the Boss Bash.

Your Boss Bash ticket provides access to the event on the second floor of Tom's Town Distilling Co., plus:

-- Three tickets for custom Boss Bash cocktails created by Tom's Town, as well as heavy hors d'oeuvres

-- Pendergast-era stories and scandals presented by actor, director, and experimental live theater impresario Heidi Van and performers from Fishtank Theatre

-- Live music by the Steve Gray Trio

-- A Kansas City image custom created by the Library and its Missouri Valley Special Collections so that Boss Bash guests can take a little piece of KC history home with them.

Explore the underground world of The Pendergast Years (pendergastkc.org) and get your tickets to Boss Bash today!