Chapter One
At the midwinter meeting of the International Board on January 13, 1945, in Cleveland, it was unanimously voted to hold the international convention in Detroit. There was great concern as to whether a convention would be held at all because of the wartime restrictions on travel, but it was awarded to Detroit because of its past performance in 1944 and its central location. Apparently the War Committee on conventions relented and allowed the convention to be held, but wartime restrictions prohibited the traveling to Detroit for this event of anyone but the members of the twelve finalist quartets as chosen by the judges, from the four regional preliminaries held in New York City, Cleveland, Chicago, and Kansas City on May 17, 18, 19, and 20, 1945. Although announcement was made in each city, of the five top-ranking quartets in that particular preliminary, the twelve finalists were picked on an all-Society basis rather than through the naming of the top three in each sectional contest.
Gardenaires
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Continentals
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The convention was held on June 14-17, 1945. Michigan had qualified only three quartets for the finals, these being the PROGRESSIVES (Bennett, Restivo, McKerrell and Arnone), the GARDENAIRES (Danic, Rubert, Miller and Tubbs) and the CONTINENTALS of Muskegon (Freye, Bishop, Weaver and Peterson) which turned out to be our top performer with a fine third place medalist finish. Muskegon won first place in Group 2 and Oakland County first place in Group 3 in the Achievement Awards program of the Society for 1945.
Six Michigan men were elevated to the International Board of Directors, including G. Marvin Brower from Grand Rapids; Ray Hall from Grand Rapids (a special one-year term, stipulated by the revised by-laws, as a representative of the 1944 International Championship Quartet); C. W. Coye from Muskegon; Harvey S. Jacobs, Oakland County Chapter; B. F. "Monty" Marsden, Detroit and Guy Stoppert from Flint.
By 1945 the Michigan District, with Gordon Grant at the helm, Marv Brower as vice president, Harold Wright as secretary and Horace Conklin as treasurer, had increased its chapter count to 41 and was still growing. The district quartet contest was held in Flint on February 24, 1945, with 31 quartets competing. The GARDENAIRES from Rosedale Gardens, a community in Detroit that had a chapter for a short time, won the District quartet title. Lou Burke sang baritone in the original GARDENAIRES but Chick Miller succeeded him for the international contest. Second place went to the AMBASSADORS of Detroit and Oakland County, third to the PROGRESSIVE INDUSTRIES FOUR from Detroit and fourth to the CONTINENTALS, who improved fantastically to get a third place medal in the international contest a few months later.
The District meeting held at Lansing on July 14, 1945, was one of the most fruitful in Michigan history. A new and stronger constitution was drafted. The state was divided and each officer was given certain chapters to visit. At a follow-up meeting held in Detroit on October 20, 1945, the 48 members of the Board of Directors, representing the 48 chapters (we had grown) in Michigan, constitutional amendments were made to add all past state presidents to the Board as well as adding international officers and board members. The annual district contest was awarded to Saginaw and February 23, 1946, was set as the date.[highlights ours]
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