The midwinter meeting of the International Board was held at Harmony Hall in Kenosha on January 23-26, 1964, under the guidance of newly elected International President Dan Waselchuk. A few of the important decisions decided by the Board at this meeting affecting the Michigan District involved the raising of the minimum membership requirements for both licensing and chartering to 20 members to license and 35 members to charter. The minimum membership to retain a charter remained at 25. This particular move was completely contrary to the thinking of the leaders in the Michigan District. In other actions, the resignation of Mark Roberts as secretary-treasurer of the Harmony Foundation occasioned the election of Past International President Clarence Jalving to fill his unexpired term.
Waselchuk's motto for 1964 was "Service." In line with this he appointed a special "Service Projects Committee" under the chairmanship of First International Vice President Al Smith. Smith, along with Lou Laurel, O.H. King Cole and Rupert Hall worked diligently on their assignment and presented their findings at the convention. At the San Antonio convention in June of 1964, the International Board warmly received and adopted the Institute of Logopedics as a Society-wide service project. As President Waselchuk so eloquently stated, "The slogan `We sing...that they shall speak' correctly implies that we are a musical organization. However, in addition to the obligation to ourselves and to our public to produce the finest close harmony possible, we'll now also be obligated to the thousands of children we will be helping to gain the priceless power of speech."
New Troubadour editor announcedBeginning in 1964, Jack Oonk was appointed as the new editor of the Troubadour, replacing Jim Davenport who had been the editor from November of 1961 until December of 1963. The Troubadour at that time was being published ten times per year, and it was a major undertaking.
District experienced financial woes early in 1964The district treasury was having difficulty at the time collecting the per-capita dues from the chapters. Jack Klaiber, the long-time district treasurer, reported chapters were not remitting their annual dues based on their membership. At that time, chapters remitted dues directly to the district treasurer ($4 per member). Contributing to the problem was the fact that the district membership fell from 1571 members on December 31, 1963, to 1279 members on February 28, 1964. This alone left the district treasury $1,116 short of its anticipated income. Fortunately for the district this situation was short-lived, as late renewals and remittances improved greatly by April when the membership total grew to 1624 members. It is interesting to note that the Troubadour expenses were running about $3400 for the year for ten issues compared to today's budget of about $4500 for six issues.
Waselchuk and FOUR-MORE quartet featured at regional May 8-10 at WindsorInternational President Dan Waselchuk was the official international representative to the spring regional convention, and the FOUR-MORE quartet from Madison, Wisconsin, one of the most entertaining Society quartets of the era, was the headliner quartet. It was not unusual at the time to feature top-notch Society quartets to entertain at our conventions.
 Treble Shooters
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Because of their membership status, Michigan was allocated three quartets to the international contest in San Antonio that year. Winning the right to represent the district were the AUTO TOWNERS (Bostick, Dahlke, Van Tassell, Palmieri), the TREBLE SHOOTERS (Whitledge, Boint, Winters, Jorgensen), and the FOUR-FITS (R. Seely, Burke, McCalpin, Wearing).
The Wayne WONDERLAND Chorus, with Dale Clixby as director, won the district chorus championship. Actually, the chorus contest ended up in a tie between the Wayne and Detroit chorus at 712 points, with the nod going to Wayne based on their harmony accuracy score which was one point higher than Detroit. Eight choruses competed with both Kalamazoo and Utica-Rochester being disqualified for an insufficient number of contestants on stage. Third place went to Windsor, followed by Oakland County, Grosse Pointe, and Greenville.
At the convention, Chuck Sherwood of the Jackson Chapter was named the Area Counselor of the Year for 1963.
A John Hill arrangementThe song of the year for 1964 was "The Charm of Erin" which was composed and arranged by John Hill of the Lansing Chapter, who was featured in the May 1964 Troubadour. John was responsible for the "Song of the Year" idea in 1954, and was the composer and arranger of many popular barbershop songs, including "Son of the Sea," "Rose on Your Cheek," "All Dressed Up With a Broken Heart," "Mammy," and one of the most popular "Cruisin' in My Model T."
During the early 1950's, John was very active in the Society, especially with the Contest and Judging Committee in which he was certified to judge in all five categories. It was John's influence which led to the standard five-man judging panel used throughout the Society at the time. He was also a member of the College of Arrangers and the International Song Arrangements Committee. He helped to produce the "Songs for Men" series of song books.
On April 24, 1964, the annual Boyne City "Bush League" quartet contest found the DELTA AIRES being crowned the 1964 Bush League champions over a fine field of nine quartets. Members of the quartet included Herb Benjamin, Doug Beaver, Len Johnson, and Bill Grumbley. The TREBLE SHOOTERS finished second followed by the OCCASIONAL FOUR. Chase Sanborn was crowned the Bush League King for 1964. The event was well attended, and the audience enjoyed the show thoroughly. Loton Willson was extremely proud of the tradition in which he had played such a great part in instituting and organizing the event over the years.
Auto Towners move into prominenceIn 1964 the BEATLES invaded America, and the ROLLING STONES invaded the Ed Sullivan show, and the AUTO TOWNERS invaded the San Antonio international quartet contest. They proved to be the Michigan District bright spot by singing their way to sixth place, the highest any quartet from Michigan had placed for many years. The TREBLE SHOOTERS gained a 35th place finish and the FOUR-FITS were 41st out of a field of 45.
The Muskegon PORT CITY chorus ended up in 14th place out of a field of 15. As director Al Burgess lamented, "the Muskegon chorus never, and I mean never, has sung a better job." Al further stated the competition was just too tough. The Michigan District was well represented on the judging panel, with O. B. Falls (district contest and judging chairman) and Burt Szabo (now a member of the international staff) adjudicating the contests.
Fall senior quartet contest on tapDuring the summer, plans were laid for the second senior quartet contest. The first having been held in Holland the previous year had met with mediocre success. In 1964 the contest, with Past President Bill Hansen at the throttle, promised to be a more exciting contest with more entries. The rules established at the time, stated: (1) All contestants must be 45 years of age; (2) Each quartet will sing two songs, and (3) The presentation must take at least four minutes and not over six minutes; (4) Quartets will be judged solely on the basis of Arrangement, Balance and Blend, Harmony Accuracy, and Voice Expression; (5) Uniforms were not required, however, quartets were expected to adopt a uniform mode of dress—comical dress accepted.
We listened to barbershop on radioOne of the favorite listening spots on radio on Saturday night in the Detroit area was station CBE-1550, from Windsor, Ontario. Paul Eberwein, a member of the Windsor Chapter, was the disc jockey which featured a thirty-minute barbershop program of quartets and choruses. It proved quite popular in the area.
At the Michigan District Board of Director's meeting held at the Beacon Hotel in Grand Haven on July 24, 1964, various matters of concern were expressed, chief of which was the matter concerning the difficulty of many chapters to maintain the required twenty-five minimum membership requirement.
Fall convention highlightsThe annual meeting of the Michigan District House of Delegates was held on Friday evening, September 25, 1964, at the Hotel Hayes, Jackson, Michigan. Two proposals were introduced to amend the district by-laws. The first was a proposal by the Dearborn Chapter to provide for an additional district vice president to be designated as first vice president. The second, received from the Lansing Chapter, requested that the district sanction fee of 5 percent on gross ticket sales be eliminated and replaced by a sanction fee based on the net earnings of the show and that a new percentage be fixed at 15 percent of the show's net earnings. After considerable discussion, both motions were defeated.
Attending the meeting were International Executive Director Barrie Best and Field Representative Chet Fox who informed the delegates of the progress of the Society's project, the Institute of Logopedics, and showed them a film acquainting them with the Institute's activities. The Achievement Award Committee, headed up by Ernest Dossin, presented the Gold Division Plaque to the Dearborn Chapter and the Silver Award Plaque to the Wayne Chapter.
The election of officers found Al Burgess returning for another term as district president, Mike Mudgett as Zone 1 vice president, Charles Sherwood, Zone 2, Bart Tillitt, Zone 3, and Bob Tracy, Zone 4. R. J. Mike Schied of Flint replaced John W. Klaiber as district treasurer. Klaiber had been the treasurer for ten years, and had done an outstanding job. Lou Harrington remained as the district secretary, and Bill Hansen remained as immediate past president and international board member.
TREBLE SHOOTERS and the MOTOR CITY Chorus win fall contestThe TREBLE SHOOTERS (Bob Mulligan, tenor; Bob Winters, lead; Cliff Jorgensen, bari, and Bob Whitledge, bass) from the Detroit Chapter, captured the district championship, outscoring ten other quartets to take the crown. In second place were the DELTA AIRES from Flint followed by the FOUR-FITS from the Grosse Pointe Chapter in third. The Michigan junior championship was won by the E'SPRIT de CHORDS from the Utica-Rochester Chapter, and the Novice Award went to the NOTE ABLE FOUR from the Jackson Chapter.
In the fall of 1963, the first seniors quartet contest was held in conjunction with the convention. Only two quartets vied for the contest with the STILL TRYIN' FOUR from Muskegon being declared the winner. In the fall of 1964, a foursome of "old timers" from the Grosse Pointe Chapter called the 19TH CENTURY FOUR (Art Dupius, lead; Joe Troe, baritone; Meinrad Braun, tenor, and Ben Landino, bass) gave the Friday night audience a treat as they walked off with the championship. The Grand Rapids Chapter PRESIDENTS came in second, while the STILL TRYIN' FOUR from Muskegon came in third.
 Motor City
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In the chorus contest, the Detroit #1 MOTOR CITY Chorus with 38 voices under the direction of Bill Butler walked off with all the marbles. Holland was second followed by Wayne, Dearborn, Oakland County, Greenville, Jackson, and Monroe, respectively. As a result, the MOTOR CITY Chorus won the right to represent the Michigan District at the international chorus contest in Boston in 1965.
Although the exact history of the beginning of the annual Labor Day camp-out at Harrisville State Park is not known, we do know that Tom Pollard and John Smith of the Wayne Chapter were partly responsible as they both had summer cottages in the area. It is also known that the FOUR-FITS from the Grosse Pointe Chapter camped there earlier and talked about the pleasant surroundings to fellow barbershoppers. At any rate, over Labor Day in 1964, the word-of-mouth apparently reached high pitch, because 45 families descended upon the state park in Harrisville, most of them camping in the park. In cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce and the local city officials, a weekend of exciting events took place.
On Saturday night they put on a show for the entire community that featured the AIRE-MALES, the FOUR-FITS, the WONDERLADS and a combined chorus of about thirty voices all tied up in a neat package and emceed by Tom Pollard. The public address system, lights and stage were made available at the City Marina Park; and, due to the newspaper and radio advertising throughout three counties, it was well attended by both natives and tourists. On Sunday, the Ladies Auxiliary of the V.F.W. put on a dinner for the barbershoppers which was attended by about 100 people. This was followed by another impromptu show including Sweet Adeline quartets.
The Harrisville camp-out tradition continues even today. The city has proclaimed every Labor Day weekend in Harrisville as "Harmony Weekend," and reservations have to be made early in the year to obtain a camp-site in the park. The barbershoppers have acquired the respect and support of a warm-hearted community that has continued for years. The city even went so far as to build a performing shell in which performances by the quartets and choruses can be staged. Although this event started out as primarily a men's barbershop event, the Sweet Adelines have comprised at least fifty percent (if not more) of the attendees in recent years. The city has moved the shell, closer to the marina, and has added an Art Fair which is proving extremely popular. It is a festive occasion each Labor Day at Harrisville.
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