Chippewa Lake's Big Band era memories

I was in the car with a young woman – 40s is young, right? – and was surprised to hear music from the Big Band era of the 1940s on her satellite radio. How refreshing, I thought, and of course I had to comment. She said she likes to listen to it because it calms her. Well, that’s interesting.

A couple of hours later, I found myself scanning the CD racks for similar tunes and found one featuring a variety of old artists. Remember Ellington, Dorsey, Goodman, Miller, Basie and Shaw? What great music they produced. Songs you could understand, songs you could dance to. No arguing with young kids about lyrics they shouldn’t be hearing.

Listening to the CD, I am lucky enough to have memories of the ballroom at Chippewa Lake Park when it was still very much alive, when all those artists performed there during the summer months. The ballroom floor was one of the largest around. It was bordered on three sides by tables and chairs, with the bandstand on the north end. Light came from spotlights aimed at the orchestra and from small table lamps mounted on the outer ring of booths situated beneath the windows of the dance hall.

Couples took to the floor and swayed to the music from start to finish, with a short intermission for the band to take a break. One of my favorite memories is that of Chippewa’s owners, Parker and Janet Beach, dancing together. They were an elegant couple – he in his traditional khaki-colored shirt with bolo tie and matching trousers, and she with her silver hair upswept in a French twist and, in my vision, wearing a powder blue straight skirt with a matching top and a string of pearls. They made a striking couple on the dance floor. How wonderful to own all this – the lake itself, the amusement park and a ballroom to call your own.

I interviewed the Beaches a number of years ago and heard firsthand tales of the park and the bands who performed there. Parker was eager to share the plight of one band that was visiting. This was back in the days of radio, likely the early 1940s. Due to a musicians strike, the band was stranded at Chippewa and ended up broadcasting its music live from the ballroom to radio stations east of the Mississippi. The orchestra conductor was a young Lawrence Welk. He and his “boys” stayed and performed for an entire week at Chippewa.

Beach also brought in younger performers who appealed to the younger set. My friends and I were in the ballroom to see Pat Boone, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Diamonds. I asked Beach why he never had Elvis Presley, and he responded pretty vehemently that he thought Presley was a bad influence on youth and he didn’t want any trouble in his park. That would have been about the time Presley was just beginning his career. I definitely would have been there, front and center.

My younger brother used to attend free concerts at the open-air lakefront theater at Chippewa. Many up-and-coming bands made their appearance there, one being Neil Diamond. According to David Francis in his book “Chippewa Lake Park,” the last big band played at Chippewa in 1969, though other bands continued to perform there through the 1970s.

My best memories are from the late 1950s, though I’ve met people older than me who nostalgically recall those memorable times and earlier, when the big bands were at their peak playing songs like “Satin Doll,” “Stardust,” “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Opus One” and “Moonglow.”

As my grandson might say, “Sweet!”