Harold Loeffelmacher
Encyclopedia
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
best known for forming the polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
band known as the Six Fat Dutchmen
Six Fat Dutchmen
The Six Fat Dutchmen was a polka band formed around 1932 by Harold Loeffelmacher in New Ulm, Minnesota. The band was known mostly for playing the "Oom-pah" style of polka music that originated from Germany and the German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia...
. The band, based in New Ulm, Minnesota
New Ulm, Minnesota
New Ulm is a city in Brown County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,522 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Brown County....
, traveled extensively and played as many as 335 dates per year, mostly in the Midwestern United States
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
. Over a span of 14 years the Six Fat Dutchmen recorded 800 polkas, waltzes and schottische
Schottische
The schottische is a partnered country dance, that apparently originated in Bohemia. It was popular in Victorian era ballrooms as a part of the Bohemian folk-dance craze and left its traces in folk music of countries such as Argentina , Finland , France, Italy, Norway , Portugal and Brazil , Spain ...
s on the RCA Victor label, and for ten years they were signed by Dot Records
Dot Records
Dot Records was an American record label and company that was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood. In Gallatin, Tennessee, Wood had earlier started a mail order record shop, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B air personality Bill "Hoss" Allen...
. Loeffelmacher was inducted into the International Polka Association's Hall of Fame in 1975. http://www.internationalpolka.com/fame1975.htm#1975
Biography
Loeffelmacher was born in 1905 on a MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
farm near Fort Ridgely
Fort Ridgely
Fort Ridgely was a United States Army outpost near the Dakota reservation in southwestern Minnesota . Built between 1853–1855, it played an important role in the Dakota War of 1862...
. After his family moved to New Ulm, he took violin lessons, then moved to wind instruments, including the brass horn. Later he took up the trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
, which became his primary band instrument.
In 1932, he started "Six Fat Dutchmen," which grew from the initial six to over a dozen musicians. They played the Nebraska State Fair
Nebraska State Fair
The Nebraska State Fair is a state fair held annually in Grand Island. It is an approximately ten-day event; since the early 1990s, the fair ends on Labor Day. Prior to 2010, the fair was held in Lincoln, Nebraska.-History:...
for 26 straight years and earned recognition as the nation's number one polka band of the year, seven years in a row.
During Loeffelmacher's long career of touring from show to show, it is claimed that he eventually wore out seven buses while accumulating as much as 90,000 miles of road travel annually. In winter while the other band members would break from their hectic schedules and take well-deserved vacations, Loeffelmacher would often continue to perform solo on the bass horn
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
, but his true instrument was the trombone. He performed a dozen times on the long-running nationally-televised TV series, The Lawrence Welk Show
The Lawrence Welk Show
The Lawrence Welk Show is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years , then nationally for another 27 years via the ABC network and first-run syndication .In the years since first-run syndication...
.
In 1990, three years after his death, Harold Loeffelmacher and his Six Fat Dutchmen were inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame
Minnesota Music Hall of Fame
The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame is located at First North Street and Broadway in New Ulm, Minnesota, USA, in the former public library. It has memorabilia of individual musicians and musical groups as well as photographs of all who have been inducted...
. http://www.mnmusichalloffame.org/inductees.html His son Harold and daughter-in-law Virginia accepted the award on his behalf. His family currently resides near St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In 2006, 74 years after the band's founding, a compilation CD of the Six Fat Dutchmen's original recordings was produced.