In Larry Hardesty’s monumental set of notes on the history of the 1733 Ballroom, he begins with something of an elegy. This is his opening paragraph:
There has not been a dance in the 1733 Ballroom since the early 1960s. Nevertheless, the mere mention of it to some of Kearney’s longtime residents frequently brings forth stirring memories of times gone by.
These individuals, now in their supernumerary years, have a variety of reactions.
We’ll get to that variety of reactions after a bit (and Larry is in the process of continuing his research into the 1940’s and 1950’s), but let’s first give a brief sketch of the 1733’s history. What we know as 1733 had about a 40-years history, opening in 1925, with ups and downs from the forties on and into the mid-sixties when it closed for good. First called the 1733 Amusement Park and located 4 miles west on the south side of Highway 30, the dance hall measured out at 80 x100 and was attached to the ranch house. Its owners said that it would seat about 400 but could accommodate 600 more patrons.
By the late Thirties, it came to be advertised as the 1733 Nite Club, probably a sign that the end of Prohibition had extended the service to include alcohol instead of customers needing to bring their own. From the start it was involved in America’s wet-dry politics, certainly until voters rolled back prohibition, and sometimes even after that where ordinances involving entertainment or what was allowed on Sundays were involved.
The 1733 took the place of the Midway Amusement Park run by Lincoln Denison of the Midway Hotel, which was already advertising the best dance floor in the state of Nebraska. Of course, 1733 and midway denote the same geography, mid-way or 1733 miles either way from Boston to San Francisco. That midway location featured in the early Kearney’s national ambitions, sometimes shortened to Omaha to Denver.
Later, two men from Omaha, Julius Stein and John E. van Dorn, joined Denison in its operation. In their time, the dance hall was joined by swimming made possible by flooding the Cotton Mill basement.
Midway had boasted a Roller Coaster, a Merry-Go-Round, and a Ferris Wheel, and its promoters boasted that the Roller Coaster cost $25,000, although the actual records suggest about half that. They billed the facility itself as offering “high class and refined” entertainment. A windstorm wrecked it, that was followed by bankruptcy, a reopening, and then was destroyed by fire after it reopened. It is said that a blizzard kept the local firefighters from saving it from ruin.
Here is an historic photo of the cars at the entrance to the midway and the park.
The first mention of the 1733 was the announcement of a baseball game to be played on May 31, 1925, the game itself an introduction to the new as the old began to fade away. Less than a month later, the 1733 dance hall was in operation by June 1925 under the proprietorship of Charles Augustus Bartz, with its official opening June 15, 1925. Bartz estimated he hosted a crowd of 3000—the Hub estimated the crowd at about 500. Arts and Entertainment where there were few wealthy patrons have had always to promote themselves and exaggeration is one of promotion’s tools. Besides his local creamery, Bartz also ran a poultry business, so not surprisingly the 1733 often offered chicken dinners. Over time, other features joined the dance hall, among them a sand-bottom pool measuring 50 x 125, as well as showings of silent movies and wrestling matches. And, as late as 1951, the 1733 was heralding its all newly lighted and graveled parking lot that would accommodate 1,500 cars.
No doubt the 1733 held an appeal for student population, beginning with when now UNK was then the Nebraska State Teacher’s College. Rumors about NSTC students availing themselves of the entertainments that 1733 provided have varied. One is that the college arranged for school buses to take students to 1733, but conversely others recall that NSTC students were barred from going there. Likely, that may have depended on who was the college president at the time or what were the prevailing sentiments of the community, either about the ballroom or about the campus.
Over the years, prices for dances varied a good deal, probably depending on the times and on the popularity of the band playing the dance. Entry was often around a dollar or a dollar and a quarter-which would be about $30 today-but some dances asked for less than half of that. Part of the phenomenon of 1733 involved the number of groups who would plan outings there and the occasions for those outings. So many planned outings at the 1733 for their members or for charity functions that they virtually represented most of the community. Groups came from churches, political parties, social clubs, and professional organizations, such as the Elks, Job’s Daughters, Does, and Owls. A special feature seems to have been the Fireman’s Annual St. Patrick’s Day Dance, but almost any holiday or eve would do-Christmas Eve, New Years Eve included.
Part of a circuit that covered places like The Pier in Grand Island and other dance halls from McCook to Omaha, and like them, over the years, the 1733 saw many owners and managers, some of them with a very short-term presence, especially as the 1733 would close and reopen more than once. Perhaps the best-known over the longest period of time would be members of the Bamford family, Peachie and Reno Bamford, Reno’s parents Charley Bamford and Helen Sunderman, and in the following generations, Hunter Bamford and Jim Bamford, as well as Reno’s uncle Lamont Sunderman.
Among other owners and managers, Kenneth Penrod owned the 1733 during most of the 40’s and into the 50’s. Robert Thrasher, his wife and daughter, also came on board in the 1940’s. Many locals recall relatives working there, for instance Bill Ingram Sr. cowboyed at the ranch and his wife Gladys (a Sheen?) did as well.
As you would expect, many of the 1733 folks were involved in local affairs. For instance, the November 9, 1966 Kearney Hub reported that Dale D. Sautter would be assuming the duties of county sheriff as a result of the 5,425-2,900 defeat of Reno Bamford in the race for the post to be vacated by retiring Lloyd Frank.
Before we reflect a bit on that history-and what it perhaps overlooks-we’ll take a look at Kearney Creates’ main concern in all this—the bands that played at the ballroom.
Bands
Too many bands, often called orchestras, played at 1733 to mention all of them here. And those that played there for the public turns out to be a bit different than just who played there. Traveling bands had a tough time finding time to rehearse, and some stopped at 1733 when no performance was scheduled, just to grab some rehearsal time, or may even have rehearsed there for performances at other local or nearby dances. That no doubt included some celebrities not listed on 1733 playbills. Additionally, sometimes a band passing through would hear that another band was performing and they’d stop and jam with them following the performance.
From way back when, one of the most popular groups was George Wiester and his Peck’s Bad Boys, appearing in the opening month of the ballroom. Their name was a reference to a fictional character from the 1880’s who appeared in a book with the title Peck’s Bad Boy and his Pa. In addition to George Wiester, the members of “Peck’s Bad Boys” included Karl Bartz, “Bus” Barler, Lester Graham, Hayden Buford, Gerald Shafto, and Walter Allison. George Wiester, as often was the case with musicians who played at the ballroom, had a full-time day job. For a time, he worked as a printer for the Kearney Hub. By 1944, he would be building airplanes in Van Nuys, California, and still later would continue his newspaper vocation by going to work as production compositor with the Los Angeles Times. Many band members had such stories.
Soon after, the Bad Boys were followed by The Gulf Coast Seven and then the Rinkeydinks Orchestra out of Hastings, The Arcadians, the Gold Coast Jazz Band, the Silvermoon Orchestra, the Dreamland Serenaders, the Paramount Orchestra, the Wilson Brothers 7 Piece Orchestra out of Central City, and the Dakota Dance Kings. That was just in the first season. Several of the groups played the venue more than once during this time, and the ballroom then hosted dances every Wednesday and Saturday night.
Many other well-known musical figures would play at 1733, including Preston H. Love; Lee Williams; Nat Towles, and little John Beecher. Later, they would be followed by the Aristocrats-a 10-piece orchestra from Tampa, Florida, Guy Hite and his Midway Hotel Orchestra, Colorado Blue Derby, Gordon L. Neligh and his Orchestra, Adolph Simanek and his Blue Streaks, Glen F. Miller and his 7 Aces, and the Pioneer Cord Radio Orchestra. Guy Hite was a Kearney resident who would own and operate Hite’s News and Shoe Repair in the 1940s. His band would play up until at least the late 1960s, particularly at the Eagles club.
Or moving ahead a couple of decades, Tommy Tucker played the Valentine Dance on February 14, 1947. Tucker had a national reputation associated with such radio shows of the 1930s as the Fibber McGee & Molly show and the George Jessel show. A Local favorite was the Bobby Mills Orchestra out of Columbus and then later Grand Island. He also owned the Bobby Mills Music Store in Grand Island.
The All-College Spring Dance of April 16, 1958, featured Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye, well-known from the Sammy Kaye shows that aired at one time or another on all of the major networks. The price for admission was set at a whopping $1.75 a person.
Over the years, the 1733 entertainment included Beebe’s Club Royale Orchestra of 8 pieces, Herb Feierman’s Krug Park Orchestra out of Omaha, Chan Caldwell and his Harlem Club band of 13 pieces, the well-known Eddie Osbourne, as well as closer to home, Clark Yanda. Helen Kappas was vocalist for Bobbie Mills in many of their appearances at 1733.
Bands booked dance nights as they traveled, mostly East/West or West/East, sometimes in the newly constructed interiors that would accommodate players and equipment in pretty Spartan mobile quarters. That would include the first one, reportedly designed by Lawrence Welk. At one point, the 1733 selected well-known band leader Welk to play there instead of a then nearly unknown newcomer to the music world, a guy named Elvis Presley. (But when Welk changed marimbas, he gave his band’s original marimba to local musician and realtor, Janice Wiebusch, so his legacy lived on here for many years.
As the times changed, 1733 would host Don Shaw and his Orchestra, with rock n roll artist Ronnie Meek, a change in style brought about as teens listened to the likes of Bill Haley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Then came Don Sohl and his Road Runners, a four-piece band out of Norfolk formed in the late 1950’s. Here are excerpts from what the Columbus Telegram had to say about Sohl.
Nebraska rock and roll legend Don Sohl passed away Oct. 3, 2007, in Columbus at age 68. The king of rock and roll in the Midwest started playing country music around Northeast Nebraska in the mid-1950s, before the dawn of rock and roll. He was one of the very first to pick up on the new rock and roll craze. His 45-rpm records from that era are some of the best ever recorded, and are treasured and highly collectable recordings today. The late Denny Volk can be heard on most Sohl early recordings.
Around 1963, Don decided to take the band to New York City. The band was there for several years. They were a hit on Broadway and played in 7–8-hour lounge performances, alternating sets with such musicians as Gene Krupa, Mitch Ryder (later of the Detroit Wheels) and David Clayton Thomas (later of Blood, Sweat and Tears).
Don Sohl and the Roadrunners were among the first inductees into the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame. Many an aspiring musician was drawn into the world of rock and roll by seeing Don and his Roadrunners perform. That account indicates the quality of much of the entertainment at 1733. Follow that with Buddy Knox and his Orchestra singing his big hits, such as Party Doll. By 1962, the 1733 was booking The Eccentrics, based out of Lincoln. That band included Denny Zager and Rick Evans, who released the 1969 number one hit In the Year 2525. That same year-1962, not 2525-Marty Martin and the KOLN-TV Rangers played. He later become Boxcar Wilie
Still later, Wes Hird and Clark Yanda were part of a band called the Music Masters, which played big band music at venues around the area. Yanda said that, when the big bands came to the 1733 Ballroom in Kearney, he was often one of the musicians recruited to fill in on trumpet. Among the other celebrities who are known to have or may well have performed at 1733 are Harry James, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Victor Lombardo, Tommy Dorsey, and Louis Armstrong. In fact, Betty Grable was probably there twice, once with then husband Jackie Coogan, and then again with a later husband, Harry James. Sometimes memories confuse playing at the USO or at the Air Base or on campus with playing at 1733.
Reflections, Memories, and Hindsight
Looking back, Verle Straatman recalled how 1733 attracted huge crowds during the 1930s and 1940s, noting that ballroom dancing was the favorite pastime for an awful lot of people. Glenn Luce, who also played at the 1733 Club with the Tommy Morgan Band, said in the early days, Lawrence Welk would stay for three nights, and the ballroom would have public dances Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Straatman also recalled how, at that time, alcoholic drinks were not legal in public places, so 1733 Ballroom patrons would go out to the cars to spike their sodas.
And Jim Bamford joked, after the ballroom became history when a tornado destroyed in in 1964, that many oldsters around the area were glad the walls couldn’t talk. Others noted that the ballroom business was increasingly in decline between 1945, reflecting the growing economic prosperity that gave people more choices in entertainment. In their view, it was prosperity, not television, which brought the heyday of ballroom dancing to a close. In any event, the appearance of rock and roll, changing tastes, and a new generation made the larger bands obsolete.
But then there are more disputed or troubling memories, too. For instance, throughout its life, the 1733 got two reputations—some remember a family oriented, fun place; others recalled a boisterous and sometimes rough place…possibly from attending different sorts of events, or possibly as seen from different sorts of backgrounds and personalities, or possible some of both. Some remembered the Hasty brothers, Duane and Vernon, were the bouncers! If you needed bouncers, it would be a good guess that the crowd sometimes included folks who got a bit unruly. Possibly Prohibition and bootlegging as well as the pretty constant coming and going of entertainers explains why records show that there were some fairly unsavory characters around the 1733 now and then, some with police records.
And then there is the fact that the 1733 pool, closed as the Harmon Park pool was built, was opened again during WWII to accommodate the black troops at the Kearney air base. Meaning those troops were not going to be very welcome in other venues. And that is a reminder that the KKK was still very strong in Kearney, in fact in the whole Tri-City area and beyond in the State of Nebraska. That might also explain why there was a Black USO club in Kearney during the war. And that sad part of our history is confirmed by the fact that the KKK hosted an all-day district rally at the 1733.
Liquor issues were really only resolved when America repealed Prohibition in 1933. August Wicks was by then involved in the liquor sales. Law enforcement noted that the combination of traffic and liquor had made Watson Blvd-as west 30 was then called-the most dangerous road in the county.
Peachie Bamford, who operated the ballroom with her husband, Reno, paid the 1733 perhaps its best and most lasting tribute long ago when she said that anyone then aged 55 and up would always remember the 1733 Ballroom. That is good note on which to end the story.