Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Jazz State of Indiana

http://www.duncanschiedt.com/

On page 237 of Duncan Scheidt's The Jazz State of Indiana, sax player Waldo Sundsmo reminisces,

"...In the summer of 1923, I went to Clear Lake with a local band... When our season closed that fall, a pianist from Elkhart, Dick Lucke, came around looking for a sax man, and for three years I was a member of his Arcadians. Joe Farren and Ducky Yontz were the trumpet team. Late in that time, we were in vaudeville, part of the first Orpheum road show, hitting the big time with such singers as Marion Harris and Margaret Young, both Brunswick recording artists. There were also the Two Black Crows, the dancer Bill Robinson, and George Jessel, who at the time was just introducing his "Hello Mama" telephone act."

This morning I brought Duncan Scheidt's The Jazz State of Indiana along with me on my early morning train ride. Seems that the passage above is just loaded with clues!!!

I learned about this book & purchased it after record hunting at a vintage phonograph show in Union, IL that my sister & I went to this spring. We didn't find Dick's vintage album that he recorded, but we did meet some fascinating & helpful people. Many pointed to Duncan, and thought that we could find and contact him pretty easily.

Well, I whipped out my Blackberry smart phone and did a quick Google search. Boom! Found him easily, and there was even a phone number!

Dana and I called him right away on speaker phone, right there at the show. We had a wonderful conversation, learning that he's been a jazz photographer since 1939. He remembered our great-grandfather and sent us a great band photo, which is posted in a previous entry below.

Below are photos from Duncan's book, The Jazz State of Indiana, scanned & sent to us from Robert Coon, one of the helpful folks we met at the vintage phonograph show.

Dick Lucke- piano (he played everything except the harp)
Waldo Sundsmo- tenor saxophone
Jimmy Kirkwood- alto saxophone
Walt Lucke- alto saxophone (he played various reed instruments)
Max Williams- trombone
Joe Farren- trumpet
Charles Ducky Yontz- trumpet
"Shady Lane"- banjo
Jimmy Jackson- drums
Don Combs- bassoon
Click on the photo to enlarge.

Cover of Duncan Schiedt's The Jazz Sate of Indiana

Page from The Jazz State of Indiana, showing the context of the passage quoted above.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Walt, Dick & Dottie on a vaudeville stage in Chicago

Photographed by H.A. Atwell, Chicago
This photo poses a mystery. Where was it taken? When was it taken? Was Dottie merely a dancer in the band, or were she and Dick in love? Were they married yet? This photo is poster size, and larger digital copies are available.
  • Dick is at the piano.
  • Dottie is directly above him, holding a baton.
  • Walt is stage left, second from the left, saxophone in hand.
Some other band members' names are known and will be added.

Dick & Dottie's wedding portraits

Dick Lucke at the piano

Dorothea Seery Lucky
Dick Lucke photo, after air brush water damage restoration efforts, under convex glass. That's me in the reflection.

Dorothea Seery Lucke photo, under convex glass. That's me in the reflection.

In the early 1920's, Dick & Walt were touring the country with their band, Dick Lucky and his Arcadians, the Dance Orchestra Unique. Meanwhile, Dottie was busy enjoying life at Hyde Park High School and dancing everywhere from the ballet classroom to the theater stage to Chicago's roaring 20's hotspots. How and when did the two lovebirds meet?

 The front of a tour poster from the 1920's. Note the lucky horseshoe! Dick is at the piano and in the cameo. Walt is in the foreground with two of his saxophones and a clarinet.

Both boys were proficient musicians, influenced by music from every direction.  At home, they were raised in a musical household with a German violinist, conductor, and draftsman as a father. The town they lived in was even filled with music. Elkhart, Indiana, was the original home of Conn Instruments.

Their father Robert was a draftsman at Conn's factory, and the two boys worked there as young men. They worked in the manufacturing, repair and sales areas- on such projects as Big Bertha, the world's largest marching drum! The drum was used by the University of Chicago for many years, and is still used by the University of Texas today. See posts and photos below for more details!


While performing, they used Conn instruments exclusively, as noted on the poster. 





Dick Lucke at Bloom Studio, Chicago, playing the vibes. From my collection- I really need to have this photo & the similar photo above professionally removed from the frame and scanned!






Walt's saxophone case








Walt Lucke at Bloom Studio, Chicago, saxophone in hand. Clarinet & ? are ready to swap out, as seen on stage!


Walt's saxophone

Photo courtesy of Duncan Schiedt
 

Dottie's Pointe Shoes



Pointe shoes made at the Chicago Theatrical Shoe Company. No information is known about this company yet- nor a good place to have these shoes restored! The original satin color was an apple green, as made evident by a small piece of fabric found in one of the shoes.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

In February of 1922, 8 months before the landmark game between Princeton & the University of Chicago, where her husband-to-be would deliver the world's largest marching drum, Dorothea Seery started this diary. She was 16 years old in Chicago, and had a full dance card.



The cursive writing, while pretty, can be difficult to read & will be transcribed in the coming weeks. More pages of Dottie's journaling can be found as a separate page on this blog. They are filled with news of Chicago friends, dances, parties, clubs and gossip. Below her writing are maps and other sections that are quite interesting. At the bottom are mysterious, signed cigarette papers...








These signed cigarette paper rolls were tucked into the back cover of Dottie's diary. These fellows were either University of Chicago frat boys or Hyde Park High students with big dreams. One of them, Dick Irwin, was still a senior at Hyde Park High, slated to graduate later in the year. He would end up in the American National Business Hall of Fame some 60 years later. See below!
One of the signatures above belongs to Dick Irwin. From the American National Business Hall of Fame's website: Dick Irwin used his business to have fun and make a contribution to society. The contribution consisted of collaborating with college professors to produce high quality textbooks, books that influenced the minds of hundreds of thousands of college youth. The fun consisted of doing something that was enjoyable. To be sure, Dick Irwin worked long hours, maintained a heavy travel schedule and took risks daily. But as he put it many years later, "I never had a morning I didn't look forward to going to work." That attitude, combined with hard work and a winning business strategy made the career of Dick Irwin one to be remembered and emulated. And so it will be through the efforts of the American National Business Hall of Fame.*This article, by Alexander N. Davison, was first published in The Journal of Business Leadership Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1988. http://www.anbhf.org/laureates/rdirwin.html

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Big Bertha! October 23, 1922, University of Chicago vs Princeton football game.


"We built this drum at Conn. Had the pleasure of going to Chicago with it and seeing the football game between Chicago and Princeton where drum was first used. (Dick Lucke)" 

"Attended this game with a good friend, Doug Wells (Delta Tau Delta) while I was attending Hyde Park High.
Dorothea Seery Lucke"
This photo, adorned with Dottie's precious clues, has proven to be such a terrific nugget of history! Thank you, Grandma Lucke!

On July 22, 2010, I was sifting through photos. I came across this one, and was struck with the notion to use Dottie's clues in a Google search online.

I googled "University of Chicago Marching Band drum" and was amazed when I got some big results!

From the University of Chicago Band's website: http://band.uchicago.edu/Site/History.html
From the Longhorn Band's website: http://mbe187.music.utexas.edu/Longhornband/History/Bertha.aspx

I immediately wrote to the University of Chicago, the University of Texas, and the Longhorn Alumni Band. Here are the responses!

University of Chicago:
Jenny,
Thanks so much for your message.
On behalf of the University Archives, yes, I'd be glad to accept the photo of the Conn Instruments drum that your great-grandfather helped to build for the University of Chicago.
I don't know if you have yet looked at our Archival Photographic Files site, but it includes a number of photographs of the big drum: http://photofiles.lib.uchicago.edu/ you can do a search on "drum," and you will see a range of images of the drum in use and being moved.

Best wishes,
Daniel Meyer
Associate Director of Special Collections
University Archivist
Special Collections Research Center
University of Chicago Library
1100 E. 57th Street
Chicago, IL 60637


University of Texas:
Dear Jenny,
Thank you for the information and the photo.  We would love to see a copy of the photo.  It has been refurbished, but is definitely still going strong at every football game.  It would be fantastic if you could see it some day in person also.  It is here!

University Bands Office Staff - AML
Longhorn Band
Butler School of Music
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station, E3102
Austin, TX 78712
lhbinfo@mail.music.utexas.edu
512.471.4093 (ph)
512.471.6449 (f)


Longhorn Alumni Band:
Hi Jennifer,

On behalf of the Longhorn Band as well as the Longhorn Alumni Band, thank you so much for the photo. What a very interesting history your family has with Big Bertha! We are adding the photo to the LHB archives, and alumni and current members will be so interested to see this picture. Thank you for sharing your family's history with us!

Thanks,
Mari

Walt & Dick Lucke, two peas in a pod!

From David Hummel's collection. BIG STORY TO BE ADDED!
Waldemer, Richard & puppy Lucke, probably at home in South Bend, Indiana. From David Hummel's book & collection.
The boys were 3 years and 2 days apart. Walt: December 4, 1898 and Dick: December 6, 1895.

I'd wager then that the photo of the two boys as children was taken circa 1902.
The other photo................................................

The two Lucke's were close in age & in just about everything else too. Fathered by a violinist, they both would follow in his footsteps as musicians. The nearby Conn Musical Instrument factory, where they worked for a time, really set the stage for them as well as for area music. Indiana was buzzing with jazz in the dance halls and vaudeville stages. By the time they were young men, their path was clear: they would create a dance orchestra and tour the country, with the name "Dick Lucky and his Arcadians, Dance Orchestra Unique". Everyone spelled their name "Lucky", so they went with the flow, even using a lucky horseshoe as a design element in their posters and as a fashion statement. In later photos, look for lucky horseshoe pins and bolo ties.

Walt's serious gaze at the camera would in later years morph into a deep passion for photography. This trend also has continued through the generations.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Lucke descendents make new connections, spanning miles and generations apart!


Obituaries for Robert and Jessie Lucke, from David Hummel's book and collection.  

Robert and Jessie Lucke, from David Hummel's book and collection.
These photos and several others found on this blog are here thanks to David Hummel.

David Hummel began documenting the Lucke family history some years ago, and is now writing a book for our family. I crossed paths with him this spring thanks to Wayne Kuntze (and thereby, ancestry.com). We three are all descendents of Karl Lucke, Robert's father.

Since our connection this spring, David has entrusted me to the task of writing the Richard Lucke chapter of his manuscript. David hopes to have the manuscript ready by 2011, to be printed and bound as a book for our family. He will also give a copy to the Library of Congress.

I have been curious about my musical, theatrical, vaudevillian ancestors since childhood. It all began one sunny afternoon in my childhood bedroom, when Grandma Lucke (Dorothea/Dottie Seery Lucke) taught me the 5 positions of ballet. Once I had the knack of that, she went on to show me the basics of Hula Dancing. I was captivated by my dancing grannie!! At that wee age, I didn't have the where-with-all to ask her about vaudeville or her fascinating life, but she did make such an impression on me! Ah, hindsight!!!

However, I did commit bits of oral history told to me by my mother to memory. I continue to do so. I began reading and writing about it as soon as I learned to research and document, starting in the terrific grade school library at Cooke Magnet in Waukegan, Illinois. Back then in the 1980's, the scope of resources available included card catalogues, books, photos, phone books, and home phones. Such a leap back from today's ability to surf the net for information, perhaps while whizzing along in a train. Today, I can find and save links to vast web resources and archives to sift through later from anywhere. All while talking to my mom using my wireless cell phone (omg- and with a phonebook built in!), now having the where-with-all to try and ask the right questions!

As a teenager in the 1990's, I was introduced to a family in southern Illinois. As I stood there shaking hands with the kind folks, I saw their computer glowing softly in the background. They had a computer AND they were connected to the interwebs! I gathered as much tact and grace as I could muster under the circumstances, and then begged to have a few moments at the helm. For I was suddenly struck with the idea that maybe, just maybe... since we were connected to people all over the country and the world... maybe I could find the album that my grandpa Lucke and his brother recorded... and finally hear what kind of music they made, what kind of music grandma Lucke danced to! They obliged, and showed me how to do a search. I managed to leave a post on a website that listed old jazz albums and lore. I had faith that someone who knew, or someone who was also looking, would come across it and contact me some day.

Years later, David happened across my digital trail and tried to contact me. He thought he found me in Elkhart, Indiana, where the Lucke's lived for many years. Alas, it was another Jennifer Moran; she never responded to him and the trail was dropped. David started a new trail, however, in his manuscript.

Shortly after Wayne & I began corresponding, Wayne mailed David's manuscript to me. I almost fell over when I saw my words woven into the manuscript in my hands-

 As mentioned above, Richard, or Dick as he was called, formed his own band. In Figure 4.2, we see him at the piano, with his younger brother, Waldemer or Walter, second from right on the clarinet. Walter played all the reed instruments. The band was called “Dick Lucky and His Arcadians Dance Orchestra Unique”.

Bands such as this, prevalent in the 1920’s and later, were known as Territory Bands.  Appendix V is an article about Territory Bands found on the internet (http://www.nfo.net/).  The site also specifically mentions Dick’s band, repeated here as follows”:

MICHIGAN
Daggett Area
“Dick Lucky and His Arcadians Dance Orchestra Unique”
In private correspondence, Jennifer Moran has noted:  “…my great-grandfather, Richard Lucke, was a Vaudeville musician, and I believe they performed primarily in the mid-west.  I know that he frequently traveled to Elkhart, Indiana to purchase instruments from Conn Instruments for his band and for his music store.  He used the Conn name on his advertisements, noting that he used their pieces exclusively”.

The author attempted to contact Jennifer Moran through the website and by written correspondence, but was unsuccessful. If any reader knows Jennifer, please have her contact the author.  She may have additional information that would complement this history and she may enjoy this history. It is suspected that she lives in or near Elkhart." -David Hummel  

I scrambled to my computer, reread some notes from Wayne, did some searching, and found a promising email address for David. I explained my story- our story- and hoped that it would reach him, and that I would hear from him soon. 

Bingo! A few days later, the three of us were connected, and the photos and stories began to flow. 

We hope to meet face to face next year. Pouring over David's manuscript will be the main focus. If there's time, we'll also check out the Hyde Park neighborhood Dottie grew up in, explore the Chicago theaters and dancehalls she danced in, and maybe other spots which we have yet to discover. It's probable that Dick visited & perfomed at these old hot spots too. Plans to visit other family locations in Indiana and Michigan are also brewing, along with a road trip to the Conn Instrument archives in South Dakota. There may be sketches & instruments crafted by our ancestors there, along with newsletters, photos and other treasures to include in the history.





Robert Lucke's drafting set, likely used to design musical instruments for Conn Instruments of Elkhart, Indiana, during his 17 year career there.


 "With best wishes from your Father. October 25th, 1926."
Given to Richard Lucke by his father Robert Lucke. Robert learned violin in Berlin, Germany before immigrating to the United States as a young man. Robert was a master carpenter, draftsman, violinist, and, in later years, a conductor. He conducted at the Majestic Theater in Southbend, Indiana for 9 years. He also worked for Conn Instruments in Elkhart, Indiana, for 17 years as a draftsman. When old enough to work, his children joined him at Conn Instruments, leading them to fascinating musical careers. The musical tradition carries on to this day, generations later, with Richard's decendents Dana and Joel Tock. I even dabble a bit!



"Robert F LUCKE  was born in Oct 1866/1868 in Germany. He died before 10 Apr 1930. He married Jessie Jenny STEVENS on 22 Feb 1895 in St Joseph Co, Indiana
Waldemer Bert (Walter) LUCKE was born on 4 Dec 1898 in Indiana. He died in Muskegan, Michigan.
Jessie Jenny STEVENS was born on 14 Apr 1878 in Holton, Muskegon Co, Michigan. She died in Jun 1970 in Elkhart, Elkhart Co, Indiana. She was buried in Prairie St Cemetery. She married Robert F LUCKE on 22 Feb 1895 in St Joseph Co, Indiana.
Gertrude E LUCKE was born on 29 Oct 1903 in Indiana. She died in Jun 1987 in Elkhart, Elkhart Co, Indiana. She married Walter Edward CLICK in 1923.
Richard Robert LUCKE was born on 6 Dec 1895 in South Bend, Indiana. He died in Oct 1966 in Daggett, Menominee Co, Michigan, at home. He was buried in Daggett, Menominee Co, Michigan, Oakwood Maple Gr. He married Dorthea Maona(Dottie) SEERY in 1924."- Wayne Kuntze
 
Robert and Jessie Lucke and children, Indiana, circa 1904.

Wilhelmine Shaer Lucke and Karl Lucke. Photos provided by Wayne Kuntze. Wayne and I crossed paths on ancestry.com in February 2010, as we were both researching our Lucke ancestors. These gems are the oldest known Lucke family photos! Also known as Charlie & Winnie, they are my great-great-great grandparents.

"Wilhelmine (Minnie) SHAER (SHERER) was born on 6 Jan 1839 in Germany. She died on 24 Mar 1918 in Nadeau Twp, Menominee Co, Michigan. She was buried in 1918 in Daggett, Menominee Co, Michigan, Oakwood Maple Gr. She married Karl F (Charley) LUCKE in 1854. "-Wayne Kuntze


"Karl F (Charley) LUCKE was born on 16 Apr 1838 in Germany. He died on 20 May 1912 in Nadeau Twp, Menominee Co, Michigan. He was buried about 23 May 1912 in Daggett, Menominee Co, Michigan, Oakwood Maple Gr. He married Wilhelmine (Minnie) SHAER (SHERER) in 1854."-Wayne Kuntze


A home for information and photos!

A compilation of photos & stories, collected thanks to mom’s great archiving, years of research, help from family and new connections. I’ll be adding all that I have & more as it comes. This will also serve as a place to document the process of searching.
If you are interested in experiencing the story from beginning to end, start here & scroll up!
Additional photos & stories are very much welcome and encouraged!  Thanks for visiting! -Jenny Moran