THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

September 15, 1994

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

The second season for the Waupaca Chain o’ Lakes Indian Crossing Casino (1926) started out with enthusiasm. Mr. and Mrs. William R. Arnold left their home in Chicago, and came to Waupaca to make arrangements for the opening of the Indian Crossing Casino.

The opening dance was held on Thursday evening, April 29, 1926. The music that had been engaged for the opening night was Eli Rice and his Dixie Cotton Pickers, one of the best colored orchestras in the state at the time.

Until the first of July, only one dance a week was scheduled, but during July and August dances were held on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  There was no Sunday dancing at the Casino.

A new orchestra was engaged for each dance night. On night that there were no scheduled bands, the Casino could be rented out.

William and Harriet Arnold continued to operate the Indian Crossing Casino until February 28, 1929, when it was purchased by Paul I. Asplund and Louis Wendell.

On July 31, 1930, there was a special attraction called the “Battle of Music,” when two orchestras battled for a $75 purse. On August 7, 1930, Rube Tronson and his Cowboy Bank, who were famous radio broadcasters over WLS, the “Prairie Farmer Station” in Chicago, came to the Casino from the WLS Hayloft.

On October 14, 1930, Louis Wendell sold out his interest in the Casino to John F. and Agda Martin.  Paul I. Asplund and Mr. and Mrs. Martin ran the Casino jointly until in 1935, when Mr. Asplund sold his interest to the Martins.

The ban on Sunday night dances was lifted by the Waupaca County Board in April 1934.

At 12:01 a.m., April 7, 1933, the Prohibition Act on the sale of beer was revoked in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

On June 1, 1934, Allen Martin was issued the first Class B Malt Liquor License by the Town of Farmington, so now there was Sunday dancing and beer was being sold at the bar on the porch at the Indian Crossing Casino.

On September 28, 1935, John F. Martin and Agda Martin, his wife, issued a Quit-Claim deed to Allen J. (Al) Martin and Lillian Martin, his wife, and they then became partners in the Indian Crossing Casino.

This was the beginning of the scheduling of big name bands.

Well over 100 different bands or orchestras played for dancing pleasure at the Indian Crossing Casino, from the Grand Opening Night, July 4, 1925, until the Martins sold out to the James LaSage Sr. and Jr. families who took over September 15, 1955.

Under John and Al Martin’s management, the two popular orchestras that played the most return engagements were Archie Adrain and Tom Temple. Jimmy James and Benny Graham were two other popular attractions.  Tom Temple at one time played the trumpet with Charles Carroll, when he was the director of the Waupaca City Band.

The following are the names of many of the orchestra that played regular engagements at the Casino during the Martin era:  Harold Ferron, Harold Menting, Howard Kraemer, Jack Cameron, Wally Beau, Larry Woodbury, Johnny Nugent, the Castillians, Bob Malcolm, Bernie Young, Searl Pickett, Orville Bathke, Al Seeger, Belling Bros., Richard Maltby, Tony Winters, Chet Mauthe and Ray Alderson.

Waupaca, being located on the Soo Line Railroad between Chicago and Minneapolis, offered a good opportunity for the Casino to engage big name bands to appear here on their travel between major engagements.

Here are the names of some of the big name bands of the ‘40s and ‘50s that appeared at the Casino:  Glenn Miller, at the Casino, July 2, 1942; Tiny Hill, July 10, 1951; Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong, July 29, 1952; Duke Ellington, May 24, 1953; Les Brown, and his Band of Renown, August 17, 1953; Russ Morgan, Music in the Morgan Manner, September 9, 1953; Pee Wee Hunt and his Twelfth Street Rag, August 31, 1954; Count Basie, June 1, 1955; Lionel Hampton and his 17-piece orchestra, June 28, 1955, and Art Kassel, Kassels in the Air, August 7, 1947.

On July 25, 1946, there was a special attraction:  Gypsy Rose Lee, of Follies Fame, and her band.

Lionel Hampton at one time played with Louis Armstrong, and he was featured on the drums in the Paramount movie “Pennies from Heaven,” starring Bing Crosby.  He also starred on the drums for four years with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.

Many benefit dances were held while local and area bands played for old-time dances.  Dr. Salan and his Waupaca Troubadours, Lloyd Matheson’s Orchestra, Cousin Fuzzy, Johnny Check, Romey Gosz and Rube Tronson were only a few that appeared at the Casino.

It has been written by others that in the days of the Big Bands at the Indian Crossing Casino, crowds of college and high school students from many parts of Wisconsin merged at the Casino in May of each year.  It was exciting and spontaneous to the students, as with the annual spring break for the college kids on the beaches in Florida.

Groups of 10 or so would rent a cottage on the Chain o’ Lakes for one week in May of each year.  One week the college students came to the Casino, and the next week it was the high school students’ turn. In those days the students all came well dressed, and often the young ladies wore formals.  They looked sharp, too!

After John and Al Martin sold the Casino to the James LaSage Sr. and James LaSage Jr. families in 1955, they officially took possession on September 15, 1955.

The Indian Crossing Casino opened its first season on May 4, 1956, under the new ownership of the LaSage families with platter dancing.  The first dance night with live music was on May 19, with the Harold Ferron orchestra.

The new attraction at the Casino opening of the Sugar Bowl, a snack bar that was built near the Casino dance hall, where the young people could purchase coffee, sandwiches, soft drinks and ice cream.

In the years of the LaSage ownership from 1956 to 1960, the Casino continued to engage the well-known bands such as Russ Nelson, Harold Ferron, Jimmy James, Larry Woodbury, Eddy Howard, Woody Herman, Lee Castle, Art Mooney, Benny Graham, The Diamonds, the Dukes of Dixieland and the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.  The LaSages continued to have platter dancing (dancing to records) on afternoons and evenings when no bands had been engaged.

The James LaSage families sold out to John Goeltzer and Gene Frederickson in 1960.

During the next 15 years that followed, the big name bands were making fewer and fewer appearances at he Casino.  The price to engage one of these bands had escalated to the point where the Casino could not meet the competition from the larger cities.

The following are musical attractions who have been reported to have appeared at the Indian Crossing Casino during Mr. Goeltzer’s ownership:  Ricky Nelson, Bobby Vee, Gene Pimey, Bobby Vinton, The Beach Boys, Herman’s Hermits and the Everly Brothers who appeared on Saturday, June 27, 1964.

On the Memorial Day weekend in 1967, John Goeltzer closed the doors to the Casino because of the rowdy students, especially those from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  The doors stayed closed fro a couple of days, until the students left and things got back to normal.

After running the Casino for 15 years, he announced his plan to close the Casino on July 17, 1975.  He gave as the reason for closing was the extra long hours of work with little income.

He said he was tired of babysitting.

“If a carload of kids came to the Sugar Shack, you could shake them all upside down and not retrieve three cents.”

They would sit and drink water from paper cups that cost him over two cents apiece, he added.

Another factor was the Town of Farmington refusing to issue him a liquor license.

After the death of John Goeltzer in 1978, Ken Petersen purchased the property from the Goeltzer estate and one day later it was sold to Joseph S. and Virginia Leean, who took possession of the property, Lots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the Columbian Park, on October 15, 1979.

Ralph E. and Nancy Bellkes purchased the Indian Crossing Casino property from the Leeans on April 29, 1983, and with his son, Bill, as a partner have operated the Casino to its present day.

When built in 1925, the original Casino dance pavilion had no porch or bar on the channel side of the building.  There were steps leading down to the water’s edge, to the large doors to the building proper, where passengers could disembark from a boat, or launch.

After John Goeltzer closed the Casino in 1975, and the light use of the building in the next eight years that followed, the building had deteriorated to a point which took the Belkes a great deal of time and money to restore it to its original condition and safety.

Tons of cement and stones were laid underneath for renewed support and the entire porch was replaced.  Much of the work being done by the staff from Din’s Dock, headed by Bill Belke.

The tentative date for reopening the Casino after eight years was set for mid-summer, 1983.

In the Waupaca County Post for July 14, 1983, was this announcement:  “Come to the reopening of the Indian Crossing Casino.  Bring back the good-old days.  The porch is now open.  Cold beer, soft drinks and live music.

“Now appearing every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday through July.  Mike Burns ‘50s – ‘60s – ‘70s.  8:00 p.m. – midnight.

“The Indian Crossing Casino next to Ding’s Dock, County Trunk Q, Waupaca, Wisconsin. Come by boat or car.”

In 1992, the open porch was enclosed entirely with glass.  From July 1983 to the present, 1994, the Belkes have continued to provide top-notch music for the dancer’s pleasure at the Indian Crossing Casino.