Missoula’s 1920’s Dance Halls, Dance Bands, and the Origins of Jazz in Missoula – by Ed Erlandson and Richard K. O’Malley
Fancy footwork in the Garden City by Ed Erlandson
Recently a reader asked for information about Tokyo Gardens, a dance hall that attracted thousands of Missoula area residents during the 1920s and possibly the 1930s. To the best of my memory, which seems to be deteriorating with each passing year, that fun place was on the Missoula County Fairgrounds in a building which doubled as exhibition space during the annual fair.
I would like to hear from anyone (P.O. Box 545, Bigfork, Mont. 59911) with information about the Tokyo Gardens and also about names and personnel of the various bands that were playing through those decades.
I recall that during the ‘20s and ‘30s a popular place to dance on weekends was the Winter Garden dance hall in Greenough Park, on the east side of Rattlesnake Creek about 100 yards north of the Vine Street Bridge.
Also, in later years the Old Country Clubhouse on South Avenue East was used for quite a few seasons by Saturday night dancers as was the Casa Loma Clubhouse which was on South Avenue West near the fairgrounds.
Although the waltz and fox trot were the two old reliables during the period from 1920 to 1940, there were enough dance crazes sweeping through the nation to keep the older people shaking their heads and wisely proclaiming that the “younger generation most certainly was going to the dogs.”
Perhaps the most widely gyrated of these crazes was the Charleston, which took its name from the same city in South Carolina. There were those who suggested sternly that this dance might be hazardous to your health, threatening to your knees in the same context as what happens to tennis players who use their elbows to excess.
Even earlier was the dance introduced by Vernon and Irene Castle and logically called the Castle Walk. This was somewhat milder than the Charleston, but attracted quite a following.
Not to be outdone by Charleston, S.C., the British came up with a dance craze that spread to France and then hopped a liner to spread throughout big ballrooms of the United States. This was the Lambeth Walk, said to have originated as an imitation of the strutting residents of Lambeth, a London slum.
New York’s Harlem claimed responsibility for such footwork as performed in the Black Bottom, Truckin’ and the Suzie-Q, and even tried to get the nation’s eye with one called the Congeroo.
About 1937 a lively variation of the square dance gained considerable usage in ballrooms around the nation. This was called the Big Apple and required some dexterity of foot for jitter-buggers.
Mixed in with all of this were Latin dances made popular on the movie screen by such stars as George Raft and Carole Lombard. Who can forget the rhythm of the rumba, tango, conga, Carioca and mambo? And then there was the continental.
Dancing is a universal language – it makes the young mature and it makes the elderly young. I think Fred Astaire would back me up on that frenzied statement.
The above article appeared in the Missoulian on April 19, 1980.
Musical treats for happy feet by Ed Erlandson
The response to the April 19 column on dancing in the Missoula area indicates there was a lot of waltzing and fox trotting during the 1920s and 1930s.
Letters from Robert E. Jones, Myrtle Stone, Lavonna Keith Bachman, Fred Barthelmess, Ed Bebee and John Lannegrand of Missoula, Lucille Karkanen Wanderer of Philipsburg and Muggs Huff of Kalispell were of most help in bringing back places and names familiar to many old-time residents.
First, on the dance halls, the Wintergarden was in the 200 block of East Main Street in the Union Hall, and the Elite ballroom was at the west end of the 100 block of West Main across the street from the Missoula Hotel. Jones relayed information from LaMar “Mope” Dickinson that the Elite floor was set on springs to give the trippers of the light fantastic a little extra zip.
These two dance halls were used extensively during the winter months, while the Greenough Park Pavilion was jumping during the summer months. Tokyo Gardens in the fairgrounds provided dancing during the fairs.
Probably the best-remembered band playing for proms and other events in all these places as well as the Florence Hotel and other popular spots was that of the Sheridan brothers, Tom and Phil. Members at various times included Maurice Driscoll, piano; Hal Hunt, trumpet; Clyde Hunt, trombone; Fred Ironside, bass; Herb Omsted, Mort Sullivan and Al Marineau, trombone; Lou Nichols, Claude Kiff, Bill Fewkes and Rozzie Young, saxophone, and Clay Crippen, banjo.
After the Sheridan brothers went to Great Falls and later to Spokane, other bands were formed here by those who had played for them.
Dickinson also played with the Sheridan band and later took over the organization after the brothers had died. Others in the band were Buck Stowe, drums and vocal (he later had his own band); Oliver Malm, piano; Doug Thomas, saxophone; Percy Willis, violin; Junior Dean, sax and clarinet; the Black brothers, guitar and trumpet, and George Bovingdon, trombone.
Lucille Wanderer recalls that she sang and did exhibition Charleston and hula dances with the Sheridan band and was billed as “Missoula’s Juvenile Star.” She said her career ended when the band moved to Great Falls and she was too young to accompany the group.
Tommy Meisinger had a great band in this area, and there were quite a few others, including Ben Oertil’s band from the Bitterroot; Les Smith playing at the Casa Loma out by the fairgrounds; the Melody Four of the Karkanens; Rocheleau’s Red Tops; Borcher Brothers; and the Ray Besancon Orchestra, which may have come ahead of the Sheridan band. Hal Hunt and others in the Sheridan band had their own orchestra in later years.
Muggs Huff recalled playing drums with the Rocheleau group when it came to Arlee and later playing with Hal Hunt when that orchestra opened the Gold Room in the University of Montana Student Union.
It was not uncommon for the younger set of Missoula to go to dances at many western Montana locations – Rockaway, PostCreek, Whispering Pines, Lolo Hot Springs and just about every town in this end of the state.
Literally and figuratively, they all had a ball.
The above article appeared in the Missoulian on May 17, 1980.
Story of Jazz And Its Start In This City
By Richard K. O’Malley.
It is a far cry from the blatant cacophony of one “Jazbo” Brown, negro trombone player of not so long ago, who baffled his listeners in the South’s river country, to the muted suavity of a Duke Ellington mood – and in that distance a bewildering change of technique and colloquialism has evolved.
“Jazbo,” who has been generally recognized as the father of dance music as it is played now, blew his horn in various Southland honky-tonks until, perhaps bored with the monotony of his own noises, he contrived to produce a series of caterwauls, wheezes and grunts from his instrument until he became the idol of his horn-playing contemporaries. Emulation followed “Jazbo” and with that emulation came the beginnings of dance rhythms as they are played today. From the colored sliphorn man’s first first (sic) name the term “Jazz” was derived, to denote the similarity in execution to his weird style.
Not a great while later a colored organization called “The Original Dixieland Jazz Band: – a cognomen covering a multitude of sins – journeyed northward to take that section of the country by storm. Up to that time the closest the North had to jazz was a faintly nasal hopscotch dance music called “ragtime.” Jazz and its accompanying jungle taint was feted and wooed by Northern dancers.
It was from that time onward that bands began adopting the jazz style until the welkin fairly rang with the gyrations of muted brass and throaty saxophone interpolations of dance music. In justice to truly modern music it may be said that at this stage of American musical development the distaste for jazz music found its basis. And not without reason; for in its infancy jazz was a thing both fearful and wonderful. Saxophones were generally regarded as instruments of torture, and in many cases when handled by jazz pioneers were not a great deal more than that.
Into the Parlor.
Slowly, but steady advance jazz discarded its tatters and tip-toed apologetically into the parlor – and with it came a revolution in the world of modern music.
Once dance music was called “ragtime,” later giving way to the more popular term, jazz, then onward to the present day when it is known as “hot” music. A trumpet player “played the cornet” until a dusky son of Ham named Louis Armstrong took his trumpet and ventured into the musical jungle to come back with an amazing number of runs, breaks and frumperies. Those who play as closely to his style as is possible- and it may be said that it is no small feat – are referred to as “Louie-men.” Mr. Armstrong defies musical theory and manages to squeeze unheard of high notes from his horn. He is the envy and frustration of many modern brass-men.
As for the catalogues of terms used by musicians and synonymous the “hot’ era, a beginning at the bottom reveals the drummer. He may be called “Percush” (a relic of the staid “percussionist), “Joe-rhythm,” or the “Hardware section.”
For him to play a fox trot at a smooth dance tempo is called “riding it.” If he increases his pace he may be either “swingin’ out a little” or “jigging it.” But if things get well under way and he takes undue liberty with his instruments he is “taking off.” Any member of a band who varies from the theme with a great number of interpolations or “hot” music is “taking off.”
A pianist is usually marked by reference by his ability at hand movement. For example, the statement, “Eddie’s oke but he hasn’t got any right hand,” doesn’t mean that Eddie has lost that member but that his bass, or rhythm, is weak. He may also be referred to as a “Hines” man, meaning he cuts a great many musical didoes in imitation of a well-known negro piano player. If he is termed “a good sweet man” it means he plays soothing melodies well but is not a “take off” man. “Sweet” men often capitalize on their soothing melodies, as in the case of the nationally-known Lombardo – a “sweet” band and more or less disliked by musicians who cater to the wild moods of “hot” music.
Musical Slang.
Any reference to “corny,” or “cornfed” or “out in the patch” designates any musician who plays an outmoded form of “hot” music. A man who plays jazz, using the term as it was used in the beginning, is “corny.” Unfortunately for a good many “hot” musicians, a number of present-day dance bands capitalize on their “corn.” Ted Lewis and his band still play jazz and are apparently greatly desired by the public, an evidence that “hot” music still has its enemies.
The term “breathless” applies to playing the saxophone (although it may be used for any wind instrument) describes a tone very similar to its name. “Breathless” attacks are used usually as a saxophone ensemble background, while another member of the band is “taking off.” Playing an instrument in a “hot” manner is called playing “dirt,” and if a “dirt-man” “swings out” during a tune he is “taking a lick chorus.” This usually entails many and varied digressions from the main theme and travels far and wide into the forest of musical experiment.
A gentleman earning his livelihood by playing the bass viol calls his instrument a “dog-house” and is known as a “dog-house,” or sometimes more formally, a bass-man. In other days when plucking a bass viol became popular he was known as a “slap-bass” player.
Sousaphone players are sometimes called “plumbers” – probably because of the great amount of tubing in the instrument. So far nothing more radical than “sax man” has been made out of the reed section. However, a clarinet player calls his instrument his “stick.” The violin still retains the homely title of “fiddle.”
“Joint” is an elastic term. A man may call his violin a “joint,” or he may refer to the name of a familiar tune as a “joint.” For instance, he may say to his horn-playing cohorts, “Let’s swing out on that Limehouse joint. I’ll take off in the middle, while you guys jam-up. I’ll be dog-eat-dog, up jig and jam out.” Which translated would be, “Play Limehouse Blues in a fast tempo. I’ll digress from the original theme while each of you follows along with his own interpretation. Every man for himself and play your own ending.”
Dance bands that cater to the more soft or less intricate melodies and are often known as “sticky” bands are held in more or less disregard by “hot” men.
History in Missoula.
“Hot” music in Missoula found its beginnings with Phil Sheridan who began his sallies while a student at the State University in 1918. Phil’s bands began with the jazz era and it was after that time he made dance band management and drumming his work. Phil Sheridan is given credit with developing a number of musicians who later made good in the musical field elsewhere. Sheridan took over the Elite dance hall in Missoula and here organized his first modern “hot” band, which later made a successful eastern tour. With the beginnings of “hot” music in Missoula were “take off men” such as Al Marineau, who now directs his own dance band; “Barney” Dean and “Angus” McNaught, who were Missoula’s saxophone “dirt men,” and a number of others who have by now either quit the profession or established their own dance bands.
In the peculiar fraternity of musicians there is a custom both widely known and observed. It is called “jamming,” or “jam session.” The meaning of such terms is explained by the supposed manner of attack upon music employed at these “jam sessions,” all of which may take place after the musician has finished a four-hour dance job, or whenever a number of them get together and decide to adventure experimentally into the realm of hot music. At these sessions “dirt men” “take off” on all possible musical tangents and play modern music just as they themselves see fit. Many modern methods of phrasing and execution find their birth at these gatherings, at which laymen are barred and those of the fraternity welcomed.
Jazz was toned down by Whiteman, made into “hot” music by natural evolution in the combination of white and black music, until now Duke Ellington, colored orchestra leader, has been commissioned by the Metropolitan company to write a modern opera. “Hot” music has found its place in the American listeners’ ear and seems to have definitely lifted the saxophone from the woodshed to the front room.
A reminder of former regard for that instrument is evident today when rehearsing is called “wood-shedding” – reminiscent of the place where the embryo artist was forced to retire in order that his family might be kept from going deaf.
Perhaps from somewhere “Jazzbo” Brown and his amazing horn look down upon the leaps and bounds made since the beginnings of his wayward wailing in the river country, to marvel at the grown-up child of Jazz.
The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on April 28, 1935.
Richard O’Malley, writer of the above article, was the author of the Butte novel, “Mile High, Mile Deep.” He graduated from the University of Montana journalism school in the early 1930’s and worked as a reporter for the Missoulian for a short time. He then worked for several other Montana newspapers and later became an AP bureau chief in Paris, and later Frankfurt. He reported on several world conflicts throughout his newspaper career. He was on board the USS Missouri when the Japanese surrendered in Tokyo Bay. He died in Arizona in 1999.
His article on Jazz in Missoula included a photo of Phil Sheridan – “Whose orchestra brought jazz to Missoula.”
Dance Hall Trivia
Here’s some interesting Dance Hall trivia from several early day Missoulian newspapers:
In 1903 at Fort Missoula a proposal to honor Sergeant Emmet Hawkins, the champion rifle shot of the army (to honor a splendid record in rifle competitions in the East) was canceled in 1903. “It had been arranged to give the sergeant a reception and a ball as a celebration of the fact that the famous colored marksmen had carried off the honors for the Twenty-fourth. . . Owing, however, to an order issued by the commanding officer at Fort Missoula, the dance and reception was perforce abandoned through the refusal to allow the use of the hall for that purpose.” The sergeant immediately applied for a transfer to Fort Assiniboine. “He’s jus’ the best ever,” mournfully explained one soldier yesterday. . .
County Deputy Sheriff Pat Callahan shut down the dance halls in Taft saloons in 1908, saying he intends to give the town a much better reputation in the future.
A Ladies Federated Society in 1909, with Mrs. Tylar Thompson as an elected officer, passed a resolution, “That in regular meeting we, by unanimous vote condemn the dance halls as a menace to the youth of our city and earnestly request his honor the mayor and the honorable members of the city council to use their power to close such institutions. . .”
In 1917 Commissioner of public safety Thomas Kemp “served notice on all dance hall managers that the city ordinance requiring registration of young girls who attend public dances be strictly enforced, beginning at once.”
Minors were banned by a City ordinance from local [Missoula] dance halls, according to Police Chief W. J. Moore in 1920. He announced that a “special officer will be detailed to that work.”
Special policewoman Mrs. H. H. Hayes was selected by the city council in 1921 to see that regulations were enforced at local dance halls. “She has charge not only of the dance hall regulations, but juvenile cases as well, working in co-operation with the district probation officer, Mrs. Jane Bailey.”
1924 – Dancing Tonight – Greenough Park – Sheridan’s Orchestra – Hear Our New Organ With the Orchestra – The First Organ Ever Used With a Dance Band – Featuring Al Leclaire At The Organ – 10c Dance. – Dancing Every Thursday and Saturday.
1924 – Dance At Frenchtown – Big Gym Hall Saturday Night Music by Melody Four – Admission $1.50, Including Supper.
1924 – Dance to Beaudette’s Rhythm Kings at the Bitter Root Inn – Tickets, $1.10 – Supper.
1925 – Danceland The New Mammoth Riverview Pavilion – River View Park – Florence – Borchers Bros. And Their Six-Piece Dance Band – Missoula’s Best – Men, $1.10, Ladies Free.
1925 – Al Marineau And His Vandal Dance Band – The Orchestra From the University of Idaho – Winter Garden Tonight
1928 – Dance Tonight at ELITE – The Greatest Musical Aggregation in the Country – Charles Dornberger and his Victor Recording Orchestra – The Autocrats of Dance Bands – The finest, most entertaining group of musicians to ever play here, as they are even better than they were two years ago – The only inspected and approved Ballroom in Western Montana capable in every respect of accommodating enormous dance crowds
1929 – Elite – Tonight – Music By Mope And His Boys – with Buck Stowe and Paulie Keith, Entertainers – Note: Buck has the prettiest new drums you ever looked at. You know Harry Owens, famous composer and orchestra leader of California, who used to play trumpet here with Sheridan’s. Well his latest waltz number, “Make Believe You Are Mine Tonight,” will be featured. Men, 75 c – Ladies, 25c.
1929 – Dance Tonight – Orchard Homes Clubhouse – Music by The Orioles – A Hot Dance Band – Gents $1.00 – Ladies Free.
1929 – Dance Lolo Tonight – Vagabond Orchestra – Auspices Lolo Women’s Club.
1929 – Dance Tonight – At the Grand Spring Opening of The Bitter Root Sugar Beet Club – Featuring Bobbie’s Collegians – A Snappy 6-Piece Orchestra. Dancing from 9 ‘till 3. A delicious supper served at 12. Bus will leave depot at 8 o’clock. Notice – Good Roads All of the Way.
1929 – Join the Crowd and Dance at Pine Grove Community Clubhouse Tonight – Music by Tommy Meisinger and His Five-Piece Band – Good Roads – Good Supper – Given by the Pine Grove Community Club
1929 – Dance At Clinton Tonight – Music by Vags. Good roads. Supper at midnight.
1929 – Music By Stephenson’s Blackjackets – A Fine Dance Band – A Good Supper at Midnight – Ladies Free.
1930 – Crescent 8-Piece Orchestra Featuring Charles White and His Xylophone – Missoula’s Bigger and Better Dance Band at the Winter Garden – At the Opening of the Palace Hotel Dining Room.
1930 – Phil Sheridan and his Montanans will return to Missoula next Saturday to play at Tokyo Gardens. Their return will mark the completion of a ten-thousand mile tour lasting three and a half months, during which they played some of the finest ballrooms and resorts in 10 different states.
The story of jazz in Msla link:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/352209573/?terms=dance%2Bband