Gary Brueggen – Living Category – Inducted 2018

  Gary Brueggen was born in the small farming community of Cashton, Wi, where at the young age of two he became captivated by polka music he heard on the radio. Recognizing his potential, Gary’s parents bought him his first set of drums at five years old, and by the…

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Chester Budny – Deceased Category – Inducted 2015

  Born on May 20, 1921 in the “Old Polish” Fleet Avenue neighborhood of Cleveland, OH, Chester Budny became one of the city’s great southside musicians of the 1940s and 1950s. At the young age of 4, he displayed a keen interest in music and was given a violin at…

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Frank Borzymowski – Living Category – Inducted 2013  

  Music has always played an important part of Frank Borzymowski’s life. His first professional gig was at the ripe old age of 14 and it wasn’t long after that all of Baltimore’s Polonia wanted to book Joe and Anita’s boy for their functions. Frank’s high school and college years…

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Adam Barthalt – Pioneer Category – Inducted 2006

    Adam Barthalt was born in Ridgewood, Queens, NY on June 11, 1935. Adams’s deep-rooted interest in music began unpretentiously at the age of three with a toy accordion he received from his grandparents while on a visit with his mother to Europe.   By the time Adam was…

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Billy Belina – Living Category – Inducted 2004

  Billy Belina has spent a major part of his life playing and promoting polka music. Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1947, Billy has his parents to thank for much of his success in the polka industry. In his early years, Billy often joined his parents on the two-hour…

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Roger Bright – Deceased Category – Inducted 2003

    Roger Bright of New Glarus, Wisconsin, was a musician, bandleader, recording artist, deejay and performer.   Roger Bright was born February 12, 1937, and died August 28, 2001, at Boulder Colorado Community Hospital from a heart attack he suffered while performing at a polka festival in Boulder.  …

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Fred Bulinski – Living Category – Inducted 1992

    Having been raised in an ethnic community in Niagara Falls, New York undoubtedly had something to do with Freddie Bulinski’s early exposure to and fascination with Polka music. He was born February 5, 1947 to Fred and Martha Bulinski, the eldest of three children. His sister, Suzanne is…

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Kenny Bass – Deceased Category – Inducted 1989

  Kenny Bass (Peter Bastasic, Jr.) was considered one of the all time polka greats that made Cleveland the great polka center that it is.  Since 1948 he had hosted radio programs on local area stations including former WSRS, WJMO, WBKC, WELW, WLYT and currently on the Chardon station.  …

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Johnnie Bomba – Living Category – Inducted 1980

  Johnnie Bomba was born in Chicago.  While in the 4th grade at Sacred Heart School.  He started playing clarinet with the school band.  In 7th grade he already played with local dance bands, and in 8th grade formed his own group.  In De La Salle High School he was…

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Ray Budzilek – Living Category – Inducted 1973

    Ray is the son of Frank and Lottie Budzilek, who were both born in Warsaw, Poland.  He played polka music at about 8 years of age on a toy piano.  He then switched to accordion and began playing at weddings.   He organized a musical aggregation in his…

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Eddie Blazonczyk, Sr. – Living Category – Inducted 1970

  Eddie Blazonczyk was a native Chicagoan, son of Fred and Antoinette Blazonczyk, who for years operated the Pulaski Village Ballroom and later the Club Antoinette in Chicago.  Eddie started playing polkas in the early fifties with a four-piece combo known as “Happy Eddie and his Polka Jesters.”  They performed…

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