1955 turned out to be a busy year
The midwinter convention was held in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 23-25, 1955. At the board meeting, important rule changes were enacted which affected the chorus contests, as follows: 1) Limit of one competing chorus per district in the international contest, 2) Directors must belong to the Society, 3) No director may direct more than one chorus in the finals, 5) The minimum number of men in a competing chorus was reduced from twenty plus the director to twenty including the director. Other important changes involved the changing of the Chapter By-Laws pertaining to the acceptance and/or suspension of chapter members. In addition, actions taken by the Board at this meeting called for the naming of a chief area governor to be in charge of all area governors in the district. This chief governor is to be named by the immediate past president, which at that juncture was Loton Willson who had refused to run for a second term. Other changes called for all district delegates to take their places after the spring regional meeting is concluded, rather than waiting until July 1. The personnel makeup of the district executive board was also changed under the new constitution providing that the chief area governor and the district editor shall take seats on the Board.
The Grand Rapids Chapter scored a big first on the Great Lakes Invitational Show on April 16, 1955, when they booked the CHORDETTES, one of the most famous feminine barbershop quartettes, along with the BUFFALO BILLS, the 1952 international champions. The CHORDETTES, who originated in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, hit the road to fame when they took their place before the microphone on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scout Program. One of the girls was the daughter of the 1959 International President King Cole. They had appeared on the Great Lakes Invitational in 1957 before they became famous. Also appearing on this same show were the PITCHBLENDAIRES, the current district champs, and the MISSISSIPPI MISSES of Fort Madison, Iowa, the reigning queens of the Sweet Adelines. Grand Rapids had a tradition of putting on great Invitationals, back to the early Forties.
Gag rule imposed on district Troubadour
One interesting aspect occurring during this period concerned the reporting of news coming out of international headquarters, which of course at that time was located in Detroit. As the Troubadour aptly describes it; "A gag and censorship upon information from international headquarters has been slapped upon district bulletin editors by the International Executive Board, it was revealed last week by Robert G. Hafer, international secretary.
"In a letter to the Michigan Troubadour, Hafer wrote, `this office has been instructed by the International Executive Committee to issue monthly releases to all district bulletin editors simultaneously and to refuse to issue news material to the editors individually between official publicity releases.
"According to Hafer's letter the reason for the gag rule was that a complaint had been made to the international Public Relations Committee and also to the Executive Board that they felt it `unfair' that other district bulletins were being scooped by the Michigan Troubadour `because of its easy access to the international office.' The only way out, according to the thinking of the Public Relations Committee, was to deprive all district publications of access to information from the international office or to give it as they wrote and interpreted it.
"The Michigan Troubadour, immediately upon receipt of the Hafer letter, wrote a vigorous protest to Hafer for the attention of the Executive Board and asked that Michigan's representatives upon the Executive Board, Howard Tubbs, and Loton V. Willson, member of the House of Delegates, take up the case in the Louisville winter meeting. Troubadour Editor Roscoe D. Bennett and Associate Editor Jack Klaiber collaborated upon the protest to Hafer charging vigorously that the international was usurping the rights belonging to all members when it sought to deprive members of any information sought from international headquarters...the Troubadour takes pride in its `scoops' because it gave to the Michigan District information promptly that they would not otherwise have had...we are entitled to all the information at international headquarters and we are going to ask for it. Should there be refusals, of course, we will proceed to get the information from other sources or explain to our readers why it is not available and who is to blame.
Muskegon Chapter sets recruitment record
One other historic event happened in Muskegon in January when the Muskegon Chapter signed up 69 new members in one evening in the biggest recruitment campaign ever recorded. This huge input of membership skyrocketed the Muskegon chapter to 170 members, second in the nation at that time to Manhattan, N.Y., which had 218 members to lead the Society. [To my knowledge, this recruitment record still stands today. The Muskegon Chapter in the early Forties had over 300 members.]
Spring convention held in Detroit
The 1955 Michigan District convention and regional quartet contest was held in Detroit April 29-30 with the headquarters at the Hotel Tuller. The preliminary semi-finals were held in the hotel on Saturday afternoon with the finals at the Art Institute on Saturday evening. In somewhat of a different fashion from previous years, committee meetings were held on Friday evening with the District House of Delegates meeting being held on Saturday morning. Lou Harrington was the general chairman for the event.
 Pitchblendairess |
 Treble-Makers |
There were nine quartets in the actual competition, although a total of 16 had been entered. The three quartets which qualified included the WOLVERINES (Al Rehkop, tenor; Bob Craig, bari; Dick Florence, bass, and Joe Sipots, lead), the PITCHBLENDAIRES (J. Golding, D. Clixby, D. Golding, T. Pollard) and the TREBLEMAKERS (Ed Reddick, tenor; Bill Rowell, lead; Vic Van York, bass, and Glenn Van Tassell, bari). The AIRE-TONICS of Muskegon for a short time were included in the three winning places and were so announced. However, an error in final tabulations by the judges had misplaced the Muskegon group. The correction found the WOLVERINES in the top group and the AIRE-TONICS the alternate or fourth place finisher. Other quartets were the ONCHORDS of Saginaw, the TUNE GRINDERS, the AIRE-MEN, the NIGHT HAWKS of Detroit, and the METRO CHORDS of Grosse Pointe. The TUNE GRINDERS, recently organized by Howard Tubbs, and the AIRE-MEN by Carleton Scott, came out with old-time costumes reminiscent of the old days. The checkered suits might have been tight fitting for the TUNE GRINDERS, but they were impressive. The AIRE-MEN dolled themselves up in a style of the older days of barbershopping and then sang their hearts out. They sang so enthusiastically that they wouldn't give up even when their time limit had expired, and the timekeepers were kept busy chalking up penalty moments. It had seemed they didn't care. They wanted to sing and they did. Incidentally, after the preliminaries, the Scott group hastily changed into some brilliant vests and then went around singing some more before the finals.
Lou Harrington elevated to district president
 Lou Harrington
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After serving seven consecutive terms as secretary of the Michigan District, Louis R. Harrington was elevated to the district presidency at the annual election of officers. Loton Willson had previously declined the nomination because of the cost and time involved. Ray Leatz of the Fruit Belt Chapter, Halley Dion of Muskegon and Don Wright of Addison were elected vice presidents. Harrington's vacated secretary's post went to Seaborn Lawrence of Detroit and John W. Klaiber of Grand Rapids was reelected to the post of treasurer. Two other men named to the district Executive Board included Loton Willson as chief area counselor and Roscoe Bennett who was renamed as Troubadour editor. A new post of area counselor-at-large was created and Cecil H. Fischer of Grand Rapids was appointed to the post. Reappointed as area counselors were C. D. Sanborn, Gordon Grant, Peter V. Pell, Alvin Olson, and Wheeler Batdorff. New appointees included Ray McCalpin of Grosse Pointe, Barney Campbell of Wayne, E. L. Shantz of Fairview, William Chase of Traverse City, Stedman Rohn of Ludington, Robert Brown of Benton Harbor, John Comloquoy of Jackson, Dr. M. J. Kennebeck of Muskegon and Frank Brown of Lansing.
By action of the House of Delegates, three proposals were to be presented to the International Board when it met in Miami, Florida. The first involved abandoning the method of mailing out membership cards directly from the international office and return that formality to the chapter secretary; the second change would have each district have a degree of autonomy in the matter of fixing minimums for chapter memberships, and the third would be to simplify the selection of songs in "Songs for Men" book, substituting some of the `old chestnuts' for the newer and more difficult arrangements. Clarence Jalving, in proposing change two, commented: "The districts know their own personnel. That is, a chapter may fold because of weak leadership one year and then brighten under strong leadership the following year with some district help. I believe that each district could serve the international better if it were permitted to set its own minimums—with the approval of the international of course—and then maintain those minimums. It isn't good to see this increasing number of forfeited charters just because some chapter may miss by three or four or even a half-dozen members in a period of depression." The required membership at that time was twenty members or the chapter charter was revoked.
Michigan places three quartets in finals at Miami international contest
Thrilling the throngs of Michiganders in the audience at Miami, Florida, on June 16-19, 1955, the WOLVERINES, the PITCHBLENDAIRES and the TREBLEMAKERS of Detroit, Michigan's three representatives in the international quartet contest of SPEBSQSA, survived the semi-finals and reached the final round of fifteen. It was the first time in three years that Michigan was represented in the finals. The contest was won by the FOUR HEARSEMEN of Amarillo, Texas, with the CONFEDERATES of Memphis, Tennessee, in second place.
There were 11 choruses in the international contest that year, but the Michigan District was not represented. The GREAT LAKES Chorus of Grand Rapids, the current champion, could not make the trip. Holland's WINDMILL chorus, next in line, also found it impossible to attend as did the PORT CITY Chorus of Muskegon, which was next in line. The international chorus contest was won by the Janesville, Wisconsin, chorus, [my first chapter, incidentally] with Michigan City, Indiana, in second place.
Mark P. Roberts, a member of the Grosse Pointe Chapter, was elected to the post of international treasurer at this convention, which gave Michigan at least one seat on the International Executive Board. The term of Howard Tubbs had expired on June 30, so the district maintained at least one seat. Lou Harrington, the district president, was a member of the International's House of Delegates, which was the Society's legislative body. Newly elected International President Arthur A. Merrill, of Schenectady, New York, appointed the following Michigan men to serve on committees, including: Willis A. Diekema, William Bond, John M. Hill, Edwin S. Smith, Mark Roberts and Duncan Hannah. George O'Brien of Saginaw continued in his position as chairman of the Old Songs Committee, a post he held for many years prior. At the board meeting, all of the Michigan proposals mentioned earlier were turned down.
"Song of the Year" started in Michigan"
In 1955 the district had begun the selection of a "Song of the Year" to be sung by the Michigan District. John Hill, chairman of the Long-Range Planning Committee, under whose jurisdiction comes the selection of the song, had selected "Son of the Sea" for 1955; and in 1955 it was announced that "Mandy Lee" would be the song selected for 1955. It was successful in 1955, and although everybody didn't exactly know every note, a vast majority did, so that whenever a gang sing or an improvised quartet popped up its strains were sung.
Fall contest a dilly
In one of the most spirited contests in the history of the district, the TREBLE MAKERS of Detroit (Bill Rowell, lead; Ed Reddick, tenor; Glen Van Tassell, bari, and Vic Van York, bass) were established as champions of the Michigan District for the 1955-56 term in the district quartet and chorus contest held at Jackson on October 21-23, 1955. Sharing top honors with the youthful Detroit four was the GREAT LAKES Chorus of Grand Rapids edging out Michigan's best for the state championship and the right to represent the district in the international to be held in Minneapolis in June of 1956. Bob Weaver directed the chorus of 60 singing "Son of the Sea" and "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleent".
In the quartet contest, finishing second, after the results had been erroneously announced, were the ONCHORDS of Saginaw followed by the FOR-TUNE TELLERS of Jackson. During the excitement of the contest and the announcement of the winners, the Jackson four were announced as second place winners and given the second place tokens. A subsequent check made at international headquarters, disclosed that someone had goofed again, making a ten- point error in the net score which switched things. The new tabulations found the ONCHORDS in second position and the FOR-TUNE TELLERS third. The ONCHORDS, Saginaw's hardest workers, refused to permit an exchange of trophies and announced as far as they were concerned, the results would stand as originally announced. The TUNE GRINDERS of Detroit (Ralph Schirmer, tenor; Jay Smith, lead; Joe Jones, bari, and Howard Tubbs, bass) won the junior championship, and the BEACONAIRES of Muskegon (Dr. Paul Borton, tenor; Al Burgess, lead; Bob Van Bogelon, bari, and Louis Seguin, bass) took the novice crown.
The chorus contest was close and spirited. The WINDMILL Chorus of Holland with Francis Hodgeboom directing, took second place, followed by the PORT CITY Chorus of Muskegon. Other choruses competing were Dowagiac, directed by Tom Grove, the Kalamazoo Chorus under J. E. Rednick and the Jackson Chorus directed by George Cripps.
In other events occurring that year was the announcement that two of the Michigan finalist quartets at Miami, the PITCHBLENDAIRES and the WOLVERINES, were disbanding due to lack of time from business affairs. The Michigan District and the Detroit Metropolitan Association of Chapters were making plans to bid to hold both the 1958 and 1959 international conventions in Detroit, the bids to be submitted at the midwinter convention in Denver in 1956. Bill Bond, the president of the Detroit Chapter, carried the invitations to Denver.
C. D. (Chase) Sanborn of Pontiac was named as the Area Counselor of the Year for his outstanding work during 1955-55 as the head of Area 3. Loton Willson made the presentation at the district meeting in Jackson. Sanborn was the first recipient of this award; and the award is still presented annually to the outstanding area counselor, which today bears the name "Chase D. Sanborn Area Counselor of the Year" Award in his honor.
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