MINNESOTA POLKA: Six Fat Dutchmen / Suitor’s Waltz / Victor 25-1110 / c1948

Описание: Harold B. Loeffelmacher (1905-1988) was multi-instrumentalist known as the “bard of the bass horn,” who founded the “Six Fat Dutchmen” polka band in New Ulm, MN, in the early 1930s. Loeffelmacher, whose grandparents were German immigrants, was born near Fort Ridgely and moved to nearby New Ulm with his family in 1922. Harold’s first instrument was the violin, then he moved on to trombone and bass horn. For a time, he worked as a salesman, playing in a band on the side. In the early 1930s, he formed his own group, using the name “The Broadway Band” and “The Continental Band” before settling on “The Six Fat Dutchmen,” although “the original band of 1934 had seven musicians, and none was fat” (Greene, 1992). The band toured southern Minnesota and adjoining states through the 1930s and 40s, swelling to eight or ten members over time. Loeffelmacher signed a long-term contract to record for RCA Victor in 1946, and hired musician/arrangers Verne Bottenfield and Leroy ‘Silvers’ Dewanz to create “the book as it was called, that is, the written-out songs for each specific instrument . . . a key to the band’s success” (Sveine 2019). New material was also drawn from the catalog of Vitak & Elsnic, a publishing company that had become the ‘gold standard’ for the genre of polka music. The “Six Fat” toured for upwards of 300 dates a year from Canada to Texas, and recorded prolifically for RCA until 1960, before cutting back to around 100 dates a year and recording for Dot records. Over the years, band members included: Der Cammack (tuba), Bill Brown (accordion, concertina, tuba, trumpet), Christy Hengel (accordion), Dick Dale (vocal, saxophone), Elmer Scheid (concertina), Spike Haskell (clarinet), Babe Wagner (trombone), George Haber (trumpet), Johnny Gag (concertina), Jerry Rockvam (clarinet), Ernst Zimmerman (piano), Swede Rockvam (bass drum), Ken Grebnick (trumpet), Emil Milbrett (concertina), Lester Schuft (trumpet), Leroy Dewanz (clarinet) and Vernon Bottenfield. Harold Loeffelmacher passed away in 1988. He was inducted into the International Polka Hall of Fame in Chicago in 1975, and the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in 1990.

[Suitor's Waltz, Six Fat Dutchmen, Victor 25-1110, recorded a1948, matrix 1110-B]
The flip side of this disk is Kalle Pe Polka:    • MINNESOTA POLKA: Six Fat Dutchmen / Kalle ...  
Polka Playlist:    • Polka Time