The international midwinter convention was held in Asheville, North Carolina, the last week in January, 1958. Deliberations and decisions made at this meeting were many and varied. The new international field man's duties were reviewed. (This was Floyd Connett). The Society was to be incorporated in the State of Wisconsin. Publication of a new Contest and Judging Procedure handbook was approved. An International Contest and Judging Committee of six members was set up, in addition to an Associate Committee composed of one member from each district. Miscellaneous changes to the by-laws were approved.
Three quartets qualify at preliminaries Extension Chords |
 Chords Counts |
 Sharpkeepers |
The 1958 Michigan District regional quartet preliminaries were held in Jackson, Michigan, on April 26-27, 1958. The three quartets selected to represent the district in the international contests in Columbus in June were the EXTENSION CHORDS (Sid Helder, Cal Verduin, Don Hall and Don Lucas) of Grand Rapids, the CHORD COUNTS (Mike Lucas, lead; Marty Hardenberg, tenor; Chet Oonk, baritone and Jack Oonk, bass) of Holland, and the SHARPKEEPERS (Bob Craig, Gordon Limburg, Bill Rowell, Al Rehkop) from the Detroit Chapter.
At the annual district meeting at the Hayes Hotel in Jackson on April 26, 1958, new officers were elected, as follows: Cecil H. Fischer of Grand Rapids as president, Seaborn Lawrence of Dearborn, Alvin Olson of Kalamazoo and T. Richard Wiseheart of Oakland County were elected vice presidents, John Klaiber was reelected treasurer and Louis Harrington, secretary. Other business included a motion by Howard Tubbs that the annual per capita subscription fee for the Michigan Troubadour and the $2 per capita contribution to the district convention travel fund be based upon the membership of each chapter as of December 31, and the motion was passed. John C. Comloquoy, Jr. was awarded the C. D. Sanborn Area Counselor of the Year Award.
At the annual "Bush League" contest, the STAFF SERGEANTS were declared the champs, the first appearance of this group in the district.
The Michigan District "Song of the Year" selected by John Hill, chairman of the district's Song Selection Committee, was Duncan Hannah's arrangement of "Dear Old Girl." The arrangement, introduced by Hannah to his own Oakland County Chapter, spread far and wide throughout the district and is still sung today by many Pioneer District barbershoppers.
Drastic loss in membership concern of BoardAt the Michigan District executive board meeting held in Ithaca, Michigan, on May 25, 1958, President Fischer and the Board discussed at length the loss in membership from a figure of 1738 to a low of 1336 as of that date. As head of the Membership Committee, Vice President Lawrence, with the aid of the area counselors, was to make a concerted effort to increase the membership. President Fischer then announced the new appointments of area counselors, as follows: John Comloquoy, Jr. as chief area counselor and Frank Tiggleman as area counselor at large. Other counselors appointed included William Favinger, Area 1; Frank Tritle, Area 2; C. D. Sanborn, Area 3; Gordon L. Grant, Area 4; Harold Stark, Area 5; Dr. John Schmittdiel, Area 6; Elmo Crawford, Area 7; Al Burgess, Area 8; E. Van Dezande, Area 9; Gordon Washburn, Area 10; William Hansen, Area 11; and Henry Brown, Area 12. The advisability of promoting and staging a district high school quartet contest was discussed. The success of the western Michigan contest at Grand Rapids was cited, and it was pointed out that this contest could be expanded to include quartets from the entire state.
Jalving elected First Vice President of Society at international conventionThe international quartet and chorus contest and convention was held in Columbus, Ohio, on June 10-15, 1958. The Deshler-Hilton Hotel was the headquarters with the Veteran's Memorial Auditorium the site for the contests. At the annual House of Delegates meeting, Michigan was elated when Clarence Jalving of Holland, Michigan, was elected first vice president of the Society, and District Secretary Lou Harrington was reelected for another year to the International Board to fill the unexpired term of Rudy Hart of Indiana. In other business, the Board changed the designation of International Secretary Bob Hafer to executive secretary of the Society. Hafer had been a member of the Northwest Detroit Chapter when the Society headquarters was in Detroit.
 Great Lakes "58" |
In the quartet competition the GAYNOTES of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were the dominant quartet. The SHARPKEEPERS of Detroit and the EXTENSION CHORDS from Grand Rapids both made the semi-finals, while the CHORD COUNTS of Holland missed the cut for the semi-finals. In the international chorus contest, the COTTON BOLLS Chorus of Memphis, Tennessee, was the victor. The Michigan representative, the GREAT LAKES Chorus under Chapter President Lou Mahacek's direction, did a creditable job but did not qualify for the top five. Aside from the five first places, the other eight choruses were unranked, so the true position the chorus placed is unknown. This was true of the first few chorus contests held in the Society.
Grand Rapids led the district in organizing high school quartet contestsThe Grand Rapids Chapter was one of the leaders in the state in organizing and conducting high school quartet contests. The contests were started in 1954 and were proving quite successful and entertaining. The contest in 1957 had eight young quartets competing with a quartet made up of three 15-year-olds and one 16-year-old from Holland winning the event. For their fifth event in 1958, the chapter opened the contest to the entire state hoping to draw more entries. In the '57 contest, all the normal quartet singing rules were observed, with the exception of costumes for the stage presence category. Surprisingly enough, however, all of the competing quartets wore costumes of some sort. The top prize of the contest was $200 to be used only in buying quartet costumes. Other awards were given to the individual competitors. We can see the forerunner of our present YMIH program and in some instances, our present junior quartet contests.
Kalamazoo hosted fall district contest Staff Sergeants |
The fall contest was held in Kalamazoo on October 17-19, 1958, with contest events taking place at the Kalamazoo Central High School and meetings at the Hotel Harris. Eighteen quartets vied for the district crown with the STAFF SERGEANTS from the Wayne and Oakland County Chapters (Don Spurlin, tenor; Bernie Smith, lead; Jack Golding, baritone, and Don Golding, bass) taking the district championship. The INCIDENTALS of Kalamazoo (Cliff Snyder, tenor; Herm Dykema, lead: George Bingham, baritone, and John Hoppe, bass) were the junior champions (for quartets that had competed but not won previously), and the CHORDER MASTERS of Dearborn and Oakland County (Edward Lilly, tenor; Ed Reddick, lead; Roger Craig, baritone, and Carl Dahlke, bass) were declared the novice champions (for quartets that had never competed or won in district competition). Closely pressing in second were the FORE-BEARERS OF HARMONY of Detroit and in third were the CHORD COUNTS of Holland.
 Port City "58" |
 Fruit Belt |
In the chorus competition, the chorus selected to represent the district in international competition in Chicago in 1959, was the Muskegon PORT CITY Chorus. The 26-man group was under the direction of Al Burgess. In second place was the finely tutored FRUIT BELT Chorus under the leadership of Bill Hansen. The Niles-Buchanen Chorus was selected as the "Champion of Michigan" for the year, because Muskegon having won a previous championship, was not eligible. The Dearborn chorus under the direction of Roger Craig took the junior crown. This chorus had gained its laurels the hard way. Only minutes before the time when the chorus was scheduled to go on, four important singing members were being treated for injuries suffered in an auto accident. The Contest Committee shifted the order of appearance to give the Dearborn men a chance to perform. Two of the injured, swathed in bandages and tape, appeared in time to exceed the required minimum of 20 by one. The car was driven by Norm Shamus and with him were Stan Robbins, Louis Kapczi and Sam Vasiu.
Expansion plans announcedPlans were announced to the Michigan delegates that steps toward enlarging the Michigan District were being taken to include two Ontario counties, Kent and Essex. In addition, Michigan was also casting eyes on two other Canadian cities, Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie, and the Upper Peninsula from the Land O' Lakes District. The addition of the Canadian counties was started when Windsor, just across the river from Detroit, petitioned Michigan to take it into the district. Copies of the petition were also filed with the Ontario District and international headquarters. The Canadian counties involved were at one time leading barbershopper centers. There were chapters in Windsor, Wallaceburg, Chatham and Leamington. Windsor was still functioning, but the other three had been inactive.
When news of the possible annexation of the Upper Peninsula reached our brothers in the Land O' Lakes District, they passed a resolution to the effect that in no way were they willing to relinquish the Upper Peninsula.
By the official action of the Ontario District House of Delegates on October 28, 1958, the application of the Windsor Chapter for transfer to the Michigan District was officially approved. No mention was made, however, of the two counties in question.
Membership continued to declineMichigan and the entire Society were experiencing a serious decline in membership during 1958. One of the main reasons was the slight recession encountered in the economy of the nation that year. As Society President Joe Lewis commented, "I do not believe there is any slacking of interest in barbershopping. The general recession business-wise has had an ill effect...more men have been beating the bushes for business, sticking to the grindstone for their economical welfare. Barbershopping is a leisure, a hobby. When the pay checks dwindle and business pressures mount, men will just not turn to play." Even though the district had picked up four new chapters during the year, three others had folded (Midland, Cadillac and Lowell), and the total district membership stood at 1536, 202 shy of last year's total. Extreme concern was expressed over the possible loss of another quartet slot in international competition due to the downturn in membership. The loss in membership was not all due to chapters folding. Three of the big chapters showed a falling off of membership. Dearborn, which in 1957 had a total of 135 members was down to 90. Much of this could be explained in the fact that with the organization of the Wyandotte Chapter, some of the Dearbornites living in the Wyandotte area shifted their membership. The Detroit Chapter was down to 89, and Muskegon, always a big one, fell from 138 members to 95. Muskegon, being a manufacturing city, was extremely hard hit by the economic decline.
Holland gained membership and won an awardSome chapters in the district did show slight gains, however. One of those was Holland, which showed a 69 percent gain in membership, and was recognized for this by the international office when it named Holland as the "Michigan Chapter of the Year." In appreciation of the effort, an engraved gavel was presented to the chapter, and it was announced that the chapter would be featured in an upcoming article in the Harmonizer magazine.
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