So far, the 41st Annual World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival had been some kind of fun (personal and otherwise)...from the Thursday tuneups at West Peoria's Sky Harbor Steakhouse to the ride on the Spirit of Peoria (an excursion I wouldn't have been allowed to take if the ticket seller at the dock hadn't recognized me from last year; I hadn't signed up in advance in 2015) to watching the New Rag Contest and the Duet Contest to playing in the party room (the very room where Duet and New Rag were staged).
Still had an axe to grind.
Last year, at the very last moment at the very last OTPP afterglow party, I was jamming with two of the 2014 Regular Division finalists (including the man who'd just gotten through winning it all)...and the one who didn't win it all in 2014 liked what he was hearing from me.
He couldn't leave it at that.
This same contestant asked me: "Why don't you play like that onstage?"
Then he instructed me to play alongside recordings.
I started doing that, first with a Sony Walkman, then- starting this past February- with an MP3 player I'd won at our company's picnic in September of last year.
When I can't take my MP3 player to a piano practice session, I'll work those rags out on an organ (in an effort to slow down). Or else I'll watch ragtime videos on YouTube and study them.
Nevertheless, I was so darned put off by his (let's face it, Bill Edwards') question that I was all set to boycott the 2015 C&F party-room sessions.
Boycott a party room?
Isn't that a contradiction in terms?
Anyway, the Friday afterglow worked out fine, and I definitely was fired up about the next day...where nineteen contestants (eleven Regular Division ones and eight in the Junior Division) would duke it out.
For 2015, the folks at the Old-Time Music Preservation Association changed some rules around to get more older contestants in there. (For a while, more JDs than RDs had gone out for OTPP 41.0.)
First of all, they decided to change the cutoff year for contest songs to 1939 (it previously was 1929).
Second, contest coordinator Faye Ballard was given the green light to put her contestant's hat back on.
Then they did the unthinkable:
Ted Lemen and Co. opened this year's competition to Regular Division pianists who'd previously retired undefeated.
Well, the philosophy was: "If we're going to go out...we're going out WITH A BANG!!"
And all nineteen of us were going to show our stuff on...a 2010s era Charles Walter studio piano. (The plan was originally to replace the famous 1883 Weber upright with a 2015, fresh-out-of-the-box Knabe studio model...but the Knabe proved too stiff for many of this year's hopefuls. So, the fresh-out-of-the-crate piano was put in the other party room and the Walter shifted over to the contest stage at the hotel's conference center.)
And Michigander Will Bennett became the first OTPP competitor to show the contest audience what the Walter can do...and he took advantage of the new song rules by playing "Jeepers Creepers" and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)."
The crowd got a second helping of the Wolverine State Sound when John Remmers stepped up to the stage. John (a retired college professor) decided not to dip his toes into the waters of the 1930s, feeling comfortable with "My Sunny Tennessee" and "Scott Joplin's New Rag."
The next two performers were new to the contest...and neither one was from Michigan.
Junior Division contestant (and Illinoisan) Amberlyn Aimone turned in a pair of rags also written by ol' Scott himself: "Swipesy" and "The Ragtime Dance."
Nina Freeman (a JD'er) made the trip that fellow Texan Melissa Roen Williams had signed up for a year ago (and didn't take). And Nina made the trip really count by polishing off "Fig Leaf Rag" (Scott wrote it) and "Russian Rag," one of George Cobb's most famous compositions.
David Cavalari (fresh off his New Rag Contest triumph) put the ball back in the RD court in his bid to get back to that division's finals...and he started his 2015 quest out with a bang, playing "Fingerbuster" and "The Finger Breaker."
Then came the first performer to jump in on the most drastic rule change of all.
Instead of cohosting the ceremonies alongside Ted, Adam Swanson jumped back into the ring to add to his already matchless list of OTPP championships...and he launched his 2015 effort by saluting Eubie Blake (the most famous composer to come out of Adam's new stomping grounds, Baltimore, MD) with "Memories of You" and "Troublesome Ivories."
Pennsylvanian Michael J. Winstanley was the fifth of the eleven Regular Division performers to go up to bat, and he played "Deed I Do" (one of my favorite 1920s tunes) and "That Eccentric Rag."
Then came the youngest of the three Duet Contest partnerships.
Nathan Beasley went up first; he knocked it out with Luckey Roberts' "Pork and Beans" and Mark Janza's "Aviation Rag."
Fellow JD'er Danny Souvigny was trying to hook a third championship in that division (to go with his 2012 and 2014 triumphs). This year, Danny took to the stage with "After You've Gone" and "Go Wash an Elephant."
Adam Yarian (a Marylander-turned-Californian; he now lives and works in Los Angeles) was the last to go to the Charles Walter studio piano prior to the Saturday session's lunch break. The first C&F contestant to win three JD titles and three RD championships, Adam Y. showed the Embassy Suites crowd just how he helped raise the bar at a time when Adam S. was starting out (and learning fast!) as a contestant.
Adam Y. gave 'em "Handful of Keys" and "The Pearls."
Well, lunch time came and went; contest fans had a dizzying array of places to eat within (at the very least) walking distance of the Embassy Suites East Peoria...like the Steak 'n' Shake next door.
The place was packed.
In fact, that restaurant was so packed that Saturday afternoon that I had to leave that S 'n' S without eating a single bite.
This year, I drew eleventh position...and so, I had to kick off the second half of this year's prelims. (Yep...I followed Adam Y.)
I turned in a "Hardhearted Hannah" that had the same beat as Del Wood's version of "Down Yonder;" after that, I did "In My Merry Oldsmobile."
For "Olds," I took inspiration from 1980s-1990s OTPP contestant Mark Lutton, who used the lower keys to "start" his car. When it came to reworking "Hannah," I started thinking about all the crap some people at the C&F had given me through the years- from Steve Foster scolding me for starting over in a practice session in 1993 to Bill Edwards' 2014 question- and I did something I'd never set out to do in competition before:
I hit the keys with my forearms during the middle of "Hardhearted Hannah."
Well, the audience really liked it...and I'd never felt more comfortable about playing in C&F competition than on OTPP Saturday 2015.
Dan Mouyard- the first to win a Reg crown after taking a Junior title- came up to bat next, and he wowed 'em with "I Found a New Baby" and "Steeplechase Rag." (Morgan Siever, the top JD contestant in 2010 and 2011, rocked those same two numbers when she was in competition.)
And then came...the contest coordinator, a woman who, when she was twelve, almost won the whole ball of wax (at a time when everybody competed for just one top prize).
Faye's first foray into OTPP competition since 2010 worked out fine (well, I like to think so!)...and she turned in a couple of her old standbys, "Royal Garden Blues" and "Honky Tonk." (Sorry, Bill Doggett fans...not that "Honky Tonk.")
Speaking of JD...three more younger pianists weighed in at that moment.
First up was the fifth of six Illinoisans to go at it in 2015, Megan Jobe (she came back after sitting out 2014).
I'm glad Megan came back, for it gave the Embassy Suites crowd a chance to hear her unique style, which she brought to "Cleaning Up in Georgia" and "The Entertainer."
Fourteen down...five to go.
It would've been seven to go if Isaac Smith (who delayed Danny's march to three Junior Division championships by winning the division in 2013) hadn't gone to Des Moines to compete in the Iowa High School Track and Field Championships...and if Madeline Yara (from Mint Hill, NC; one of the Charlotte suburbs) had found two pre-1940 tunes to work on.
So...it was left to Isaac's and Madeline's younger siblings to carry on the family names in the OTPP battles.
And carry on they did.
Mia Yara celebrated her thirteenth birthday by entering the New Rag Contest; the next day, she took to the Charles Walter to bat out "At the Jazz Band Ball" and "Mood Indigo."
Then the guitarist-keyboardist-vocalist in the Charlotte-area rock band Controll Freex (visit www.controllfreex.com) gave way to Eli Smith...who brought home "Grizzly Bear" and "Dizzy Fingers."
Two of last year's RD finalists were next...the two I jammed with at the final 2014 afterglow party at the Embassy Suites East Peoria.
Ethan Uslan (he's also Maddy's and Mia's old-time piano mentor) hadn't lost a beat in his effort to hang on to that Ted Lemen Traveling Trophy...and he started his defense of that title by firing up "Syboney" (I hope I spelled it right) and "Georgia on My Mind."
Bill himself (the only Bill in competition this time, since circumstances kept Bill McNally in the New York City area for Memorial Day weekend) was in fine, fine form himself as he brought back a couple of tunes he'd entered before: "Mississippi Rag" and "Toot, Toot Tootsie (Goodbye)."
Leo Volker rounded out the 2015 prelims, using "Maple Leaf Rag" and "Magnetic Rag" to close out the Saturday leg of a one-Smith, one-Yara weekend in East Peoria.
Well, that was it...nothing to do but (1) finish the food I'd finally gotten from Steak 'n' Shake and (2) join everybody else in finding out how the JD competition went. (To say nothing of wondering who was going to play the next day!)
When contest judges Paul Asaro, Patrick Holland, and Raymond Schwarzkopf came out of deliberation, they found out that Mia kept the Yara family rolling in the dough by pocketing $40 (good for fifth place in the Junior Division).
Nathan got fourth place among the J's (that's $60) and Eli made sure a Smith would get paid (he picked up $100, the third-place prize in the division). Meanwhile, Nina took her second-place prize of $125 back home to San Antonio, TX.
And Danny S. still had the magic...and it made him $250 richer.
One question remained: "Who's gonna play in the Regular Division semifinals?"
Wait for my next post and you'll get the answer!
I'm going to take a break from telling the story of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival to tell you a little about...the 2015 edition of the Illinois get-together.
I missed the first eighteen (1975-1992) contests, and after making all but six (1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, and 2011) of the next 22, I sure didn't want to miss what was billed as the final edition.
Well, at least the final Illinois staging.
OTPP 2015 was the final Land of Lincoln installment because of the real difficulty Old-Time Music Preservation Association members had been having in recent years to get younger hands steering the contest wheel and keeping the Memorial Day weekend event going.
More to the point: The fans who'd been supporting the C&F had been getting older...and many of their children and grandchildren hadn't been stepping up to lend their support for the contest.
With all of that in mind, John and Kimberly Santamaria (a couple from Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL) flew to the Peoria, IL area to find out just what Ted Lemen's claim to fame was all about.
Kimberly and John head up a group interested in bringing the event to Florida.
And from what I could tell, the Santamarias liked what they saw.
I met John and Kimberly at OTPP Weekend's first function- the Thursday night (5-21-2015) tuneups at the Sky Harbor Steakhouse in West Peoria, IL.
Folks who'd been coming to the steakhouse tuneups ever since the restaurant became part of the OTPP festivities noticed something different:
That 1883 Weber upright known to contest fans as "Moby Dink" had been moved to Sky Harbor.
What's more, Moby Dink stood proudly to the right of that yellow Grinnell Bros. upright.
And that meant lots and lots of possibilities for duets.
Lots of those duets involved one of this year's new contestants, an Illinoisan named Nathan Beasley. (Check out his YouTube videos...you'll really get a kick out of them!)
Nathan (he's in the yellow shirt in the photo above) played alongside just about any fellow ragtimer who went to the tuneup session...and he was kicking hind ends and taking names.
Do you remember reading about how Marty Mincer and "Perfessor" Bill Edwards began to really hit it off when they first met in the late 1980s at OTPP? Well, Nathan and fellow Illinoisan (and reigning Junior Division kingpin) Danny Souvigny started to forge that same kind of friendship during OTPP 2015.
And it was some kind of fun to follow...especially as Contest Thursday turned into Contest Friday (and the activities moved to the riverboat Spirit of Peoria and, ultimately, to the weekend's main venue, the Embassy Suites East Peoria).
5-22-2015 was the day of the OTPP New Rag Contest, which was won by Virginian-turned-Minnesotan David Cavalari (he turned in a rollicking number called "That Old 45 RPM Rag").
Right after that came the first (and hopefully not only) OTPP Duet Contest.
Just three pairs went out for the top prize: Dan Mouyard and Adam Yarian (the first and third contestants, respectively, to win the Regular Division crown after bagging Junior Division titles); Adam Swanson (the most decorated performer to ever enter the C&F) and the ol' "Perfessor" himself; and- you might've guessed it- Danny and Nathan.
Turned out to be some kind of close, and any of the three duos could've snagged the crown.
As things turned out, it was Bill the "Perfessor" and Adam the Prodigy. (Well, if you've ever seen the movie "The Entertainers," well...)
With that mystery out of the way, one big one remained as the main competition drew near: "What're they gonna use for a contest piano, now that 'Moby Dink' is at the steakhouse?"
Stay tuned for Part Two, and I'll tell you.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes continued to come to the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival as the 1980s gave way to the 1990s.
With the contest about to embark on its fourth year as a Decatur, IL event (its fourth year as an indoor attraction after twelve of them taking place outdoors in Monticello, IL), the Monticello Railway Museum decided to pull out.
With that, a new group was needed to put the C&F on...and so, in March 1990, the Old-Time Music Preservation Association (OMPA) was put together. Its purpose, besides overseeing the contest, was to promote the very first form of popular music to ever come out of these United States.
All you needed to become a member of OMPA (besides a love of old-time music) was, at first, an annual fee of $20. And, if you forked over that fee, you'd also get a newsletter called The Old Piano Roll News.
Two months after the organization began, its first major order of business was to ultimately hand six cash prizes (and two championship trophies) to the six most deserving of twenty 1990 OTPP hopefuls- fifteen Regular Division performers and five Junior Division contestants. (In those days, all the JD pianists competed for just one cash prize.)
The Junior Division field that year was almost a family affair (or Family Affair, if you will) thanks to the presence of Tom, Katie, and Carrie Drury...but they and Aaron George couldn't prevent the Dax Baumgartner Express from chugging to a third straight title (and a berth in the Regular Division the next year).
Speaking of Regular Division...two of the contestants came back to the festivities after a long stretch of time away: Bruce Petsche (he won it all in 1980) and Faye Ballard (she almost won it all in 1976...as a twelve-going-on-thirteen-year-old). Plus, as was the case in 1988, the Two Kellers (Sue and her mother Betty) were in search of the Traveling Trophy. Lillian Nelson, Marcy Fruchter, Fran Stowe, and Fletcher St. Cyr were first-time contestants, and they were after the Big Dough.
What's more, Neil Moe was trying to become the first Junior Division titleholder to snag a Regular Division championship.
"Perfessor" Bill Edwards, Marty Mincer, Therese Bradisse, Mark Lutton, and Lorraine Pantalena all came back.
Taslimah Bey didn't.
Paul Gronemeier didn't, either.
Neither did the reigning RD champion, Julie McClarey.
Her and husband Steve's family was growing...otherwise, Julie might've won the 1990 Reg crown.
That crown went to Marty, an apple farmer from Hamburg, IA...and he became the first Hawkeye Stater to bag OTPP's top prize, with Bill, Sue, Neil, and Betty also getting RD prize money. (And Marty won it all in his grandfather's band uniform.)
By the way...it's a great time to tell you that, if you're going to compete in OTPP, you've got to put on a costume. You've got to compete in something people generally wore during the 1880-1929 period.
This means that men contestants have generally worn period suits, tuxedos, and- more often than not- that familiar white shirt-vest-bow tie-slacks-arm garter combination (the outfit I like to call "bartender's duds"). Sometimes, the OTPP men have added hats to the outfits.
And another exception besides Marty's band uniform (that actually was his granddad's) was the overalls Dale Wells once competed in.
Women contestants usually have donned those long, long dresses from pioneer days or from the turn of the 20th Century...or they'd put on those flapper dresses (or gowns) from the 1920s.
And some OTPP women have worn the bartender's duds themselves...and Jennifer Booker once competed in overalls, while Taslimah went at it in a tuxedo.
In 1991, fifteen pianists total did their thing at Decatur's Holiday Inn Conference Hotel (the venue's then name)...and all but three were in the adult division. (Dax wasn't one of the RDs...and neither was Sue. And that made the '91 competition a one-Keller event, thanks to Betty's presence as a competitor.)
The JD field consisted of newcomers, two of whom we'd be hearing from for years to come. That year, Kris Becker finished third in the Junior Division, Marty Sammon (that's right, blues fans- THAT Marty Sammon) came out second best, and Adam Downey took Dax' place as the best JD ragtimer.
And Adam would go on to his own three-year run at the top of the younger division.
With Sue no longer competing (and, instead, getting ready to embark on a long run of serving OTPP in many other ways- especially as a contest judge), Dale slipped in as one of the 1991 RD finalists; in the process, he joined Betty, Mark, Marty M., and the ol' Perfessor as the Top Five.
This time, the computer programer from the DC area swapped places with the apple farmer from Southwest Iowa...with Bill E. snatching the Big Trophy away from Marty M.
The two of them became not just good friends, but GREAT ones (teaming up from time to time as The All-American Ragtime Boys), and Marty M. and Bill E. went into 1992- the second straight fifteen-player year- having old-time piano fans wondering which man would reign supreme in the Regular Division.
Then Paul G. ended his two-year hiatus from OTPP...and he was joined by Reg newcomers Ginny Kaiser and Brian Holland (sorry, Motown fans...not THAT Brian Holland). Meanwhile, Doris Barnes ended a seven-year stay away from the contest.
In the Junior Division, Adam D. and Marty S. competed against three newcomers, one of whom we'd be hearing about for years to come: Ryan Casteel, a Missourian named Max Schiltz, and a Nebraskan named Julie Ann Smith.
Julie Ann came within three points of derailing Adam in 1992...but she'd go on to make a name for herself another way. Now known as Julie Smith Phillips, she's one of the world's best-known harpists (and a noted harp instructor as well).
If you'd like to know more about this harp giant (she got started on the instrument the year before she made her OTPP debut), go to www.harpjas.com.
As things turned out in the RDs for '92, Dale and Mark kept their places among the division's Top Five...and Marty Mincer came out ahead of Bill Edwards.
And Paul Gronemeier came out ahead of everybody and got the crown he'd been after.
You could bet that Paul was going to come back for 1993...and he did. It was a year in which the field ballooned to nineteen contestants- five JDs and fourteen RDs. What's more, eight newcomers (all but one in the Reg Division) fueled the field's growth.
The lone new JD'er for 1993, Dalton Ridenhour, would come back to Decatur for more. And of the seven RD newcomers, only Bob Milne had any real name recognition in old-time piano coming into that year's OTPP. And like Dalton, Bob would come back to the contest...but in Bob's case, not to compete. (I loved his workshops.)
Richard Ramsey, Chuck Bregman, Patty Davis, David Galster, Erma Ryan, and I rounded out the rookie field. There we were, thirteen RDs trying to take Paul's long-sought crown away...and four JDs trying to prevent Adam's clean sweep (something Julie Ann almost did a year earlier).
While I stank out the Holiday Inn, Bob lived up to his reputation as a top-notch pianist...and Richard was a revelation.
Richard and Bob joined Bill, Marty M., and Mark in the RD finals...and in the process, pushed Paul out of the money line. Somebody else would win the contest's top cash prize- now $1,200- as well as the Traveling Trophy.
Marty M. was that someone else...and he became the first champion in either division to get the crown back after watching someone else take it away. And that made him the OTPP version of Muhammad Ali.
About 24 hours earlier, Adam D. punched his ticket into the Regular Division. But his closest competitor this time wasn't Julie Ann S. or Marty S.
After sitting out 1992, Kris came back to place second in the JDs.
I didn't do as well as I'd hoped (all the juniors beat me)...but I learned a lot from that first OTPP experience (including learning to play "Tickled to Death" after hearing the then thirteen-year-old Julie Ann Smith nail it).
Even so, Dale, Brian, and other contestants- as well as other OTPP fans- encouraged me to come back for 1994.
I did.
Dalton did, too.
In fact, he and I were the only two 1993 newcomers who also weighed in as competitors the following year.
Marty M., Bob M., Bill E., and Brian H. came to Decatur's Holiday Inn during 1994's Memorial Day weekend...but not to compete. (Matter of fact, Bob and Bill ran some workshops that weekend. And theirs were the very first workshops in contest history.)
Meanwhile, the field shrank enormously...to ten, five in each division. On top of that, each division boasted just one newbie.
The lone first-time JD contestant this time was Cecilia Fleisher (whose version of "American Beauty" I really loved)...and the only new RD contestant blew everyone away.
Quebec native Mimi Blais came into the 1990s as a classical pianist. She got the ragtime bug soon after, and then...and then...ended a four-year absence from performing arts centers to launch a concert called "Around Scott Joplin."
That did it.
Thanks to playing ragtime, Mimi received the acclaim that couldn't come from playing classical music...and by 1994, she was ready to see what she could do in the best-known ragtime competition in America.
Mimi skunked everybody. Matter of fact, the last competition piece she played, Scott Joplin's "The Crush Collision March," nailed it for me.
You talk about unstoppable!
It was a year I'll never forget...not only because it was the year all five Regular Division hopefuls (Mimi, Mark, Dale, Adam D., and I) made it to the semifinals AND finals, but, most importantly, it was when Marty Sammon became the Junior Division kingpin...and Mimi Blais raised the bar exponentially in the Regular Division.
The 1980s were an era of big events and political stunts; an era of style over substance.
C. Everett Koop (Ronald Reagan's surgeon general) wanted to wear his old uniform from his days in the Navy to his new job...and because of that, all subsequent top doctors have had to don the fruit salad.
There was Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No!" campaign to fight drug abuse. (And, by the way...alcohol is a drug, too. And that's a whole other post in itself.)
And what about the "effort" to prove the value of teachers in America...AKA the program to send one into space?
About four months after Francis Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe- said teacher- lost their lives in the Challenger explosion, the "Hands Across America" event took place.
It didn't help that the 1986 Memorial Day weekend was chilly and misty outside in Monticello, IL. (Monticello was one of the "Hands Across America" stops.)
And it ultimately helped drive the Monticello Railway Museum to look for a new place to hold its top fundraiser, the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest. For '86, the organization used Monticello High School's football field as the contest venue rather than the museum itself.
It was too much to take for everybody...so, the MRM made The Decision.
The organization took the whole show to the then Holiday Inn...in Decatur, IL.
And for the first time, OTPP wouldn't have to directly fight atmospheric conditions.
That first indoor iteration of Ted Lemen's claim to fame drew eighteen contestants, with all but two competing in the Regular Division.
So while Neil Moe only had to get past Cathy Wamsley to become the first three-time Junior Division champion, all sixteen Regular Division hopefuls advanced to the division's 1987 semifinals. Three of the adult contestants were newcomers to OTPP who'd make names for themselves in later years: Dorothy Baldwin, Betty Keller, and...the "Perfessor" himself, Bill Edwards.
And, as things turned out, Bill and Dorothy joined Linda Harmon (a newcomer from the previous year) and longtime participant Paul Gronemeier in the contest finals...won by a man who, at that time, made the Washington, DC area his stomping grounds: Ron Trotta.
As the event's final outdoor Regular champ, Ron staged a near-Garrison finish (instead of standing in last place in the 1986 RD prelims, he was fifth; Ron moved up to third at the end of the RD semis). A year later, Ron started out in first place once the 1987 RD first round came to an end and stayed on top until he was officially declared the contest's first indoor Reg champion.
OTPP '87 was a success.
With that in mind, the contestant field for 1988 jumped up to 23...twenty RDs and three JDs.
In the Junior field, only Cathy had a 1986-87 connection...but she still wasn't able to connect with the division's top prize. Neither did Neil's sister, Mary Ann.
Mary Ann and Cathy could only watch as Dax Baumgartner inaugurated his own three-year stay at the head of the Junior Division.
Mary Ann's brother was part of the activity that continued to reshape the Regular Division- a contingent that saw Ed and Janet Kaizer come back for some more prize money (and in Janet's case, a chance to snatch the Traveling Trophy out of Ron's grip and get the statue back for herself). Dale Wells came back, too.
To top it all off, five newcomers who'd go on to become huge names in old-time piano made the trip to Decatur: Dick Zimmerman, Todd Robbins, Jim Radloff, Marty Mincer,
and Betty's daughter Sue.
And after two rounds, it looked as if Sue (instead of Janet) would be the one to give Ron a taste of his own medicine.
But the ex-math teacher from the Nation's Capital became the third undefeated RD champion...after breaking a semifinal-round tie with Sue Keller. And Janet, Paul, Linda, and Marty joined Ron and Sue as Reg finalists.
1989 saw other OTPP changes besides a Regular Division field without Ron Trotta and his near-Garrison finishes. First of all, the contest would- for the first time- employ four judges (instead of the three of previous years).
Second, two new JD contestants (Jason Planck and Christina Sparks) would try to stop Dax from successfully defending his newly-won crown.
Plus, in the RD, seven newcomers would join in the hunt (nineteen performers strong) to hoist the Traveling Trophy. Three of the biggest names were a Michigander named Taslimah Bey,
a Bay Stater named Mark Lutton,
and...an Illinoisan named Julie McClarey.
Julie had the shortest trip of them all: She and her husband Steve lived on the other side of town from Decatur's Holiday Inn.
Five cash prizes (not the six of 1986-88) awaited the nineteen Regular Division hopefuls...and after missing out in '88, "Perfessor" Bill made sure he'd get a check from the contest in his third try. Marty, Sue, and- you probably guessed it- Paul were 1989 RD finalists, too.
In fact, 1989 represented Paul Gronemeier's best chance since 1980 to jump into the OTPP winner's circle. (He finished second to Bruce Petsche in '80.)
But Julie McClarey's near-perfect technique and enthusiastic performances prevented Paul from getting his hands on the Big Dough.
And, as things turned out, the McClareys could really use the championship money.
After all, Steve's and Julie's family was growing.
What kind of effect would a growing family have on Julie's chance to defend her newly-earned title?
I'll have the answer when I come back for Part Three. (Stay tuned!)
Oh, by the way...a Bay Stater is someone from Massachusetts.
So was Tony (in 1982)...a couple of years before Virginia entered.
I'm talking about the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival...an event that, at long last, has a database.
And the credit goes to three people: Dan Mouyard (the first Junior Division champion to become a Regular Division champ at the Illinois event), Judy Leschewski (a 1977 contestant who found out she could make more of an impact by becoming the celebration's first contest coordinator- a job she held for decades), and Dale Wells (a 1994 Regular Division finalist whose own stint as an OTPP contestant ran from 1986 to 2010).
Dan emailed me a couple of weeks ago; in his post, he added a link to the C&F database...and once I got on there, my eyes were some kind of full.
Lots of great, great memories!
I'd first heard of the contest in 1979. I was in college at the time, and one Saturday afternoon that May, I hurried back to my dorm room, turned on my TV set, and...watched the tail end of NBC Nightly News (Saturday edition, of course), where the last report showed Dorothy M. Herrold banging away on an antique upright piano placed on a caboose in front of the Monticello Railway Museum. (That's right...the contest was held outdoors back then.)
The reporter called Dorothy (who'd just become OTPP's first three-time undefeated champion after besting the previous titleholder, 1975-76 standardbearer Joybelle Squibb) "The Chopin of Ragtime."
Two years and seven months earlier, I'd walked inside a church and decided to give the ol' 88s another chance (after a reluctant start in 1965).
After watching that TV report in which the old teacher from La Porte, IN showed the crowd how old-time piano really works, I'd never given attending the C&F (let alone actually entering it) any sort of thought.
Until 1993...thirteen years after the database starts.
According to the database, three contestants went after the crown DMH had just vacated: John McElhaney, Paul Gronemeier (as things turned out, a longtime OTPP hopeful), and- as things also turned out- the first man to get the Big Trophy, a Californian named Bruce Petsche.
At first, OTPP was a one-day competition in which each pianist had to prepare three selections. And the audience joined a panel of judges in selecting the champ.
In those days, Ted Lemen's claim to fame had no Regular Division-Junior Division setup; everybody, regardless of age, competed for the top prize. (Bruce pocketed $250 for winning it all.)
So, in 1981, the field shot up to twelve hopefuls...including little Jennifer Booker, Paul G., and defending titleholder Bruce.
Even Dorothy came back to Monticello, IL to fight to get her crown back. (Can't do that today if you've topped the RDs three straight years.)
Instead, Mark Haldorson (a man from Illinois' Peoria area) inaugurated his own three-year stint ruling old-time piano.
And Tony Caramia (now one of the big names in ragtime piano) was one of ten 1982 performers trying to end Mark's reign.
Two years later, 31 other pianists (Jennifer and Paul were two of them) fought to claim the title Mark had just vacated.
One of those musicians was...Virginia Tichenor, who's now one of ragtime's big names as well.
Nope...pianist-drummer Virginia didn't take the crown.
That championship went to a professor from Peoria's Bradley University, Janet Kaizer. (By the way...another of the contestants Janet had to get past to make it to the top was her own husband, Ed, himself a Bradley prof.)
Well, after that mini-marathon, the Monticello Railway Museum made some changes to its Number One fundraiser.
First of all, OTPP was turned into a two-day event, with prelims on the first day and finals on the second day. Then the field was busted into two pieces- a Junior Division (for pianists eighteen or younger) and a Regular Division. With this new format, the JD champion was determined on the first day, and the top five RD performers would come back to play the next day for that division's title.
So, with a new format for 1985, Janet got to keep her Reg crown, while Neil Moe became the first Junior titleholder.
Funny thing: Neil WAS the Junior Division for 1985.
The next year was the final outdoor C&F (due to the weather turning bad and due to an event called "Hands Across America")...the only year the event was staged at the football field at Monticello High School...and the first year all RDs had to go through qualifications for a spot in the division's semifinals before five finalists could be winnowed out.
In the RD field (fourteen performers strong), Janet and Ed were still in there, and Paul was still knocking on the door. They were joined by two newcomers who'd each go on to embark on a long association with the contest: Michigan's Dale Wells and Wisconsin's Linda Harmon.
And a third RD newcomer would really shake things up: Ron Trotta.
Meanwhile, eight teens/preteens would make sure Neil wouldn't get to enjoy a second straight year of being the sole JD contestant. They included sisters Heather and Kori Wilken...as well as Ed's and Janet's son, Joe.
And Jeremy Lehmen, who joined Jennifer in sitting out 1985, joined her in coming back to Monticello in '86 to challenge Long Tall Neil.
Neil pushed all his challengers aside to keep the Junior Division crown.
Then, with circumstances producing a six-member Regular Division finals contingent, Janet was on her way to becoming the third performer to wrap up three adult titles in as many years...while Ed (holding down second place coming into the RD finals) was trying to make sure the two biggest cash prizes would go to the Kaizer family.
But Ron snatched all of that away, charging from fifth (RD prelims) to third (RD semis)...all the way to the very top.
With twelve World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contests in the books, the Monticello Railway Museum had some new questions to answer about its pet project as the museum prepared for 1987.
The questions included: "Can Ron Trotta keep his hands on the championship trophy?" "What's Paul Gronemeier got to do to get that title?" "Has Neil Moe got one more title left in him?" "Are the Kaizers coming back?" "Will Linda Harmon come back? She's great...especially when she's playing upside down!"
The biggest question was: "Where's the contest gonna be held NOW?"
I'll tell you what happened in Part Two of this post.
I'm Jim Boston, and thanks for finding this blog!
You pack the place, that's what!
It was standing room only at Ed's (No Name) Bar in Winona, MN, for the 2-17-2015 showing of "The Entertainers."
And one of the movie's two directors, Nick Holle, joined us just in time.
Faye Ballard, Nick, and I received a warm, warm welcome from the audience...an audience that included festival director Crystal Hegge, Dave from the Upper Mississippi Jazz Society, and Ed himself (the man who runs said venue).
"The Entertainers" really went over with the overflow crowd at the bar located at 3rd and Franklin Sts.
About 95 minutes after the film rolled, Nick, Faye, and I fielded questions from audience members. (And we had a ball!)
Then the crowd switched from the barroom (where the documentary was actually shown) to Ed's (No Name) Bar's concert room...where a 1970s (or maybe 1960s or 1980s) Kimball studio piano was located.
Faye and I really went at it...me doing "St. Louis Blues," E. Warren Furry's "Robardina Rag," and "Santa Lucia."
Then Faye showed the stuff that made her a frequent Regular Division finalist at the documentary's subject event, the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival (now held at the Embassy Suites East Peoria in Illinois).
The contestant-turned-contest coordinator's selections were her trademark tune "Mack the Knife," "Sailin' Away on the Henry Clay," and "Pork and Beans."
Then the university office systems coordinator (Faye) and the factory machine operator (me) teamed up to do "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey."
The audience ate it up so much that they asked Faye to fire up an encore.
She did...and it was none other than "The Entertainer."
I ended up doing the last tune in the mini-concert...and it was a rag written in 1954 and recorded the next year by Fritz Schulz-Reichel (its author) and by Johnny Maddox, "The Crazy Otto."
I felt very comfortable...I felt the fun...I had real fun.
And most important of all, the people who crowded into Ed's venue had a blast, too.
When's the next screening of "The Entertainers" going to take place? Where will it happen?
Wherever it is, I hope I'll be able to make it there...and I hope you can, too.
Nope...not Winona Ryder.
Winona, Minnesota.
This is one extremely beautiful city, and the reason I'm in town (a city of over 25,000 people) is...the tenth annual Frozen River Film Festival.
Winona State University puts this event on each winter (last year, it took place in January); during five or six days, different venues across town present movies of all kinds.
The festival officially kicks off tomorrow and lasts until 2-22-2015, but tonight...one of Winona's most famous hot spots, Ed's (No Name) Bar, jumps the gun at 7:30 PM (CST) by showing that initial documentary about the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival, the 2012 release "The Entertainers."
Right now, Faye Ballard, her mother Erma, and I are staying at the home of two of the FRFF's volunteers and supporters, Steve and Nancy Bachler.
The house isn't too far from the WSU campus...and the school isn't too far away from Ed's, the bar located at 3rd and Franklin Sts.
Faye, Erma, Nancy, Steve, and I are having a real groovy time right now; as I'm typing this out, the FRFF showing of "The Entertainers" is less than three hours away.
Speaking of real groovy time...I had one yesterday while driving from Omaha to Winona (a trip I wouldn't have made if last week's prediction of a winter storm for Nebraska and Iowa to fall on 2-16-2015 had come true).
I was tooling along in a 2014 Chevy Malibu that Enterprise Rent-a-Car loaned out to me, groovin' to the music on Sirius XM Channels 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 49, just glad to get on the road for the first time in 2015.
And then...at the 200-mile mark on Interstate 90 in the Gopher State, it started to snow.
Things stopped looking so groovy for the moment.
Had to pray that I could get to the Bachlers' house safely (and get that Chevy parked and out of harm's way).
Managed to make the right exit (Exit 252 on I-90)...but then, the seven miles on Minnesota State Highway 43 that led to Winona started to take a harrowing turn: After nearly driving off the road, I had to slow down.
It would've been worse if another driver hadn't sped by me.
So I decided to follow said motorist...and got inside Minnesota's Most Beautiful City at 6:54 PM.
Then I spent the next half hour finding Steve's and Nancy's house. (This, even after spending part of Sunday night studying an online map of Winona and planning out how to get from Exit 252 to the area around the Winona State campus!)
At The Weather Channel, they like to say: "It's amazing out there!"
Sometimes, I like to strip out "amazing" and put in "depressing!"
But things got straightened out, and I got to the hosts' house at 7:30 PM...when Nancy, Erma, Steve, and Faye greeted me with open arms (and my choice of beer, wine, coffee, tea, or water).
I had a roaring case of dry mouth, so...I opted for the water.
It came in a large mug. (Thanks so much, Nancy!)
If you're visiting Winona, maybe you'll like the restaurant the Ballards and I have been visiting: Jefferson Pub and Grill (on Center St. between 1st and 2nd Streets). Great sports bar, great food...especially the burgers (such as the "Goody Burger," which features barbecue sauce and an onion ring).
Well, that's it for now...and I hope to see you at the Frozen River Film Festival!
By the way...to learn more about this event, log onto www.frozenriver.org.
