This is a typical 1920’s dance band. It is uncertain which band it is, but it is probably playing at the Elks Hall, not Sunset Lodge.
The University of Illinois dance band that the Wheelers brought up to play for their guests would have been composed of the same instruments. – Courtesy Tom Carter’s collection

A rock sitting out in Omena Bay would have heard so many kinds of music floating over the water over the years. All through its history, music from dance bands, pump reed organs, pianos, gramophone’s, a famous “Cremona” violin, and John Van Holt’s beloved Viola, drifted in the breezes of Omena.

The earliest music was heard from the Chicago Club people, who brought their piano with them when they came for the summer in the 1860’s. They came by Schooner so the piano would have had to be firmly strapped down against the roll of the waves. But imagine the first sounds of piano drifting across the water in those rustic times.

John Von Holt and his “beloved Viola”. A viola is slightly larger than a violin and a fifth lower in sound. This photo is from the 1920’s or after, courtesy of the Von Holt family. Thanks to Omena Historical Society

One of the earliest was John Von Holt’s beloved Viola. John and his family were among the early members of the short lived Omena Congregational church around 1890. He was still playing in the 1930’s or 1940’s.

Music at the Resorts

By the early 1900’s guests at the many resorts in Omena brought music. General Grierson, a Union Calvary officer during the civil war and later in the west, had an especially busy year the summer of 1910 at his small resort in Omena, The Oaks. One of his guests, Mr. Stafford, was a skilled violinist and “the happy possessor of a genuine Cremona violin, one of the fine violins made in Cremona, Italy from the 16th to the 18th centuries.” This could have been a Guarneris, an Amati or a Stradivarius violin, we don’t know for sure which, but a rare and valuable instrument. And I am sure he was playing it.

Sunset Lodge was a thriving resort in the early 1900’s, and part of their success no doubt came from their entertainment. In the evening guests played Charades, listened to stories told by Leonard Wheeler, and gathered in the social hall to dance the Virginia Reel. Later Charles Wheeler and his son’s Horace and Gene took over Sunset Lodge and brought a dance band from the University of Illinois up to provide music for the social hall dances.

Dancing in Afternoon Dresses

By 1909, at the Freeland Resort, Albert Freehand, a “genial host and excellent conversationalist”, cranked up his Victrola after dinner and the guests, dressed in their “afternoon dresses” listened or danced.

A reed pump organ like this one, which was formerly in the parlor of Sunset Lodge, is the type Mrs. Lay would have wheeled out to the end of the sidewalk to play for her neighbors. They were quite lightweight, as the sound was produced by pumping the pedals rather than interior works. Courtesy Dan Ziegler who let us poke around in Nancy Jo’s paint shed behind Sunset Lodge one afternoon.

And across the bay from the end of the cement sidewalk at about the same time, music from an old-fashioned reed organ could be heard on warm summer afternoons. An old pump organ was wheeled there from the Lay cottage. People from all along the beach would gather in their canoes and sit along the beach and enjoy singing or just listening to Mrs. Lay play.

Dr. Earl V. Moore

Summer Sunday mornings in the 1920’s found a full church of Indians, township residents, and cottagers. They were enjoying an accomplished new organist, Dr. Earl V. Moore, playing the small pump organ. Dr Moore was just a friendly, grandfatherly neighbor to the other cottagers of Omena Point. However, downstate he was the organist at University of Michigan. Later becoming the head of the Music School at the University of Michigan. U of M named the new music school building after him. He was co-founder of Interlochen Music Camp which is now a year round school as well as camp. He was a man well known and respected in the music world. It was our good fortune that he and his family had a cottage in Omena.

Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the summer, Dr Moore teamed up with summer resident and tenor Versey Legg, whom Ruth Craker dubbed the “sweet singer of Omena Point.” They practiced together every Saturday at the Moore’s cottage, to the delight of the neighbors. Providing probably the most outstanding music of any church in northern Michigan at the time.

They didn’t have a piano, so for the summer Dr Moore would rent the old upright piano that was in the Anderson House next to the ice cream parlor (the Yellow House in the village). Sometimes Versey would provide an armload of sheet music and play while Dr Moore sang tenor solos to the enjoyment and amusement of the neighbors. Evidently, his musical talents didn’t extend to vocal performance. Versey dropped out of sight during the depression, never to be seen again, but others stepped in to fill his shoes.

Antique Gramophone image found on Etsy. This can be yours for $13,223.97

Music at Omena Church

Henry Schneidewind, a professor of speech at the University of Michigan, shared his talent in music and dramatic presentations for several decades all over Leelanau County. Henry liked to sing hymns, classical music, and always “How Great Thou Art“. For many summers he provided outstanding special music at church with Patrick Kuhl from the Detroit area. Patrick  has been the much loved organist at the Omena Church until his recent retirement.

Newt and the Salamanders were the featured band at Harbor Bar for many years. Those with cottages along the bay became insomniacs on this Saturday nights when their musical strains drifted across the bay.

And the tradition continues. For many years John Ray has played at Omena Church and other occasions. Eleven year old Charlie Spitznagel can be heard these days playing piano at OTYC functions or from the barn-wood cottage next door. He is now studying composition, and branching out with guitar as he attends the Chicago School of Rock. I’m sure you’ll hear more from Charlie in the days ahead.

Courtesy “Omena, A Place In Time” by Amanda Holmes, The Omena Historical Society.  The First Protestant Mission In The Grand Traverse Region by Ruth Craker. Thank you to Marsha Buehler for the information about the Chicago Club’s piano.