One of the best-loved American Slovenian performers on the button accordion was Matt Arko Hoyer, the “granddaddy” of the button accordion players and pioneer performer of Slovenian polka and waltz music. Matt was born in Slovenia in 1891. He came to the U.S. in 1911 and settled in Cleveland. As he learned to build, repair and tune accordions while in Slovenia, he continued this work in America. He formed the Hoyer Trio,…
Antonina “Antoinette” Blazonczyk was born and raised in the southern mountainous part of Poland in a village called Chocholow. Also known as “Gazdzina z Chocholowa” – Antoinette was a “goralka” and extremely proud of her Polish Heritage. Back in the 1940’s Antoinette Blazonczyk recorded four 78 rpm records as a vocalist featuring authentic “goralska” music on the Podhalan Record label. In 1948 she had purchased the Pulaski Village located at 17th & South…
The life of Pat Watters spanned a time period that included driving mules across Texas to jet trips to Europe. Music provided a living and a career for him and a brighter life for those he touched. Born in Dallas County, Texas in 1902, his childhood was spent in frequent moves between ranching and operating small businesses. After ninth grade, he went to Wyoming to dig silos. He then attended business school in…
Born Earl McNellis, on a farm in Millville, Minnesota, he attended schools at Hyde Park, Millville, and Lake City. He was a pioneer in television musical programs, starting out in the 1940’s with a vaudeville group known as Uncle Louie and the Town Hall Players. When Uncle Louie left, McNellis took over with parts written around the country bumpkin character, Cousin Fuzzy. In 1947, with vaudeville dying, McNellis started an old time…
Born in 1908, Victor “Fezz” Fritsche started his own band in 1940. He used seven men mostly, sometimes three or four. In the early 50’s, he had the “Fezz Fritsche Show” on KNUJ radio in New Ulm, Minnesota. He called his orchestra the “Goosetown Band”. Fezz sprung out of Goosetown, the area that New Ulm sonamed because geese roamed free on the streets and yards in pioneer days. He profited from his band and…
Lawrence Duchow started his musical career in 1932 playing with Hal’s Bluebirds out of Chilton, Wisconsin. Their first job was for a dance at Kleist’s Hall in Potter, Wisconsin. Lawrence took over the operation reins in 1933 and called it the Lawrence Duchow and his Red Raven Inn Orchestra as the band was performing at the Red Raven Inn in Hilbert, Wisconsin. The band grew and began to record for Decca and later…
Joe was born in Mt. Pleasant Township, Pennsylvania, on February 26, 1931. He graduated from Hurst High School in 1948. Joe was always attracted to Polka music and it is easy to understand why he would become an outstanding Polka promoter. With a strong determination and the use of his personal he was able to bring Polka music into an area that was relatively foreign to this type of music. Beginning in 1951, he…
Lou Prohut was born in Chicago where he attended local parochial schools and began studying the accordion almost as soon as he learned to walk. His talents led him to an appearance on the famed Morris B. Sachs Amateur Hour when he was a mere five years old. After breaking into the professional ranks over radio station WNQX in Yanktown, South Dakota, Lou entered the keen competition of the Horace Heidt show and became…
Ted was born in New York of Polish parentage. While attending Commerce High School, he began his first formal study of music at 13, and formed his first band shortly thereafter in 1935. He played violin and trumpet. During the 1939-1940 World’s Fair, Ted played at the Polish Pavilion of Krakow. In 1939, he entered his band in the Academy of Music Band Contest against fifteen other bands of all types. The Maksymowicz…
Roman (Romy) Gosz was born on August 2, 1910. He took his first piano lesson at age 7. At 11 he joined his father Paul, and his two brothers, George and Mike, in the Gosz family orchestra in 1921. In 1930 Romy took over the band. When he lost his trumpet player in 1931 and couldn’t find a replacement, as a band leader, Romy had to fill in himself. He taught himself to play…
Ignacy Podgorski was a musician, composer, arranger, publisher, recording artist and violinist who conducted his own orchestra. He was born on February 1, 1886 in Kielce, Poland. As a boy he lived in Czestochowa where he obtained his musical education and acquired a love for native folk-lore. In 1906 Podgorski came to the United States with his wife Alexandra and they settled in the Bridesburg section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In a short…
Brunon Kryger was born in Lodz, Poland in 1899. From early childhood his ambition was to be an entertainer. The outbreak of W.W.I. dampened his career for a short time for he had to serve 3 years and 4 months in the Polish Army. After his discharge he studied at the Poznan Conservatory of Music, and upon completion of his studies in 1923 he toured Poland with leading musical shows as on entertainer and M.C.,…
John Anthony Wilfahrt, better known as “Whoopee John” Wilfahrt, was born in 1893 on a farm near New Ulm, Minnesota. His grandparents, Joseph Wilfahrt and Franzeska Hauser, migrated to America in March, 1867, with three of their children and settled on a farm in Sigel Township, a few miles from New Ulm. The family came from the small village of Swarzach located in the Bohemian Forest of western Bohemia., then part of Austria.…
Johnny Pecon was born on February 3, 1915 in Cleveland. At age five he began playing on a small accordion. In his teens he already sat in with some of the Slovenian polka bands. At age 19 he formed his own polka band. Johnny joined the Navy in 1942, trained as a Seabee and shipped to New Guinea in the South Pacific. Here he put on shows for the troops. After the…
She was known in the polka field for her song hits “Wishing Well Waltz” and “Violins Play For Me”; but she was also known in the radio and stage field as a radio announcer, operatic and concert singer and a comedienne. Gifted with a great voice and acting talent, she used her abilities well. A soloist in the Midwest and San Carlo Opera Company, she sang in “Il Travatore,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “Barber…
Mattie Madura’s musical career began with an old broken violin given to Mattie’s father by an old friend. With time and bits of wire and glue, it was pieced together. When it was finished he gave it to his younger son, Mattie. From then on Mattie was “that boy with the violin.” At the age of nine, while attending St. Helen’s School, he learned to sing while playing the violin. His second love, the…
Eddie Zima was born in 1923 in Chicago and began playing the concertina when he was 6 years old. His mother, Eleanor, upon noticing his eagerness and ability to play, signed him up for lessons. The concertina was too big for the boy to carry, so he hauled it to lessons in his little red wagon. He attended St. Helen’s grammar school in Chicago’s north side from which many polka musicians graduated. He…