Nase Novine, September 13, 1978

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The "Button Box" orchestra — Front row left to right: Bill Drasler, Fred Jerina, Joe
Umeck (former Instructor), Ron Latz, Hank Kapel; back row left to right: Rudy Grom,
Gus Kramer, Mayme Laben, Jane Bena, Frances Adler, John Samsa, Ed Laben and
Ray Podboy, Director. The Pearl Los
'Found Again
(SLOVENE FOLK MUSIC IS WELL AND KICKING AGAIN)
By Vladimir I. De Tonya
Not long ago, I was rushing Into the ele-vator
to the 42nd floor of the Board of
Trade Building in Chicago and to the new
Yugoslav ethnic television show "Yugoslav
Kolo". When I finally made it up to the
WCIU, Channel 26 studio, the flashing
lights reminded me that "the show is on".
I opened the side door as quietly as
possible... Soon thereafter the powerful
studio lights went on and an enthusiastic
Slovene "Button Box" orchestra and its
diatonic accordians sounded into a de-light.
The tiny red, yellow, blue and orange
accordians followed the rhythm of the old
Slovene folk songs and polkas accordingly
— the entertainment went on for more than
half an hour, long enough to please the
appetite of every listener, young and old.
When the "Terezinka Polka" or "Waukegan
Special" ended in a brilliant potpouri, and
after the cameras focused at the other par-ticipants,
I could not contain my excite-ment
and walked forward to the tiny little
accordians — they looked almost like toy
accordians, only they were real and with
alluring tunes. Only when I later arranged
the interview with the director of the "But-ton
Box" orchestra, with Mr. Raymond
Podboy, did I understand the beat of the
heart of the American born Slovene gene-ration.
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According to Mr. Podboy, the "Button
Box" orchestra was established In 1974 In
Chicago, more precisely at the Slovene
Center in Cicero. As Mr. Podboy put it,
"our beloved and now deceased friend, Mr.
Joe Umeck, was in charge of a bar on
Wednesdays at times — when he didn't
have much to do, he played accordlan.
That's where this whole thing started..."
Today this orchestra, whose members
live
; mostly in Waukegan and Chicago,
numbers 32 people. These performers have
traveled all over the United States. Besides
their second appearance on "Yugoslav
Kolo" the "Button Box" performed on "Bit
of Yugoslavia", the first Yugoslav ethnic
television show in the United States. The
orchestra also appeared on Radio WKRS in
Waukegan, north of Chicago, on WTAQ in
La Grange, WEVE Radio In Eveleth, Mi-nnesota.
"Button Box" also have appeared
annually at the Slovene ejhnlc folk festi-vals
at Sheboy and Willard, Wiscpnsln for
four years. In 1977 they entertained more
than 3,000 people on a dance floor in Chls-hol- m,
Minnesota. These distinguished
ambassadors of Slovene folk inheritance
play for Yugoslav clubs; they entertained
the President of Slovene Council in the
Republic of Slovenia, Yugoslavia, Mr.
Andrej Marine; they also play at fairs, like
in Milwaukee, and also at the Senior Citi
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- ZA.VAS.
OBRATITE SE SVOME ZEMLJAKU NA VASEM JEZIKU.
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Mr. Raymond Podboy, Director of the "Button Box" orchestra.
zens Day at the Lakewood Forest Preserve
each year. Recently they traveled as far as
California to the 1st Far West Button Box
Contest held in Fontana.
The "Button Box" recorded their first
record In June, 1977 — it was a beauty of
Its own,-- the "First time around". This
record consists mainly of old Slovene folk
songs, polkas and waltzes. Their second
record, another joy called "One more
time", was released in April, 1978. Prepa-rations
are ongoing for the third record
next year.
I asked the director of "Button Box", Mr.
Podboy, why he and his friends are doing
all this singing (duo and trio, and as a
whole group) and why they play - his
reply was: "We simply want.to promote our
Slovene culture and heritage, which we
Inherited from our parents. There are a lot
of Slovene people living in Chicago and
Waukegan, and all over the United States
— we sort of started this musical renais-sance
here and we tend to keep up' this
cause. Soon we will travel to Ljubljana
(capltpl of the Republic of Stovenla) in
Yugoslavia... But then, we have our obli-gations:
you see, we started the 1st SNBJ
Midwest Button Box Contest In Waukegan
In 1976; we had the second one in 1977 —
now, you understand, we have to play it
again, and I mean with our whole heart, for
the third time".
That means that there will be the Third
Midwest Button Box Contest in Waukegan
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Chicago se p
"State Street", najprometnija ulica u
sreu Cikaga, nece nlkad v!5e biti onakva
kakva je donedavno bila. Ova ulica, koju su
jo§ na po6etku ovog stoljeca zvali "Veli-canstve- na
ulica" zbog divnih prodavaoni-ca- ,
brlja6nica I najbljeStavijih robnih kuca,
za nekoliko dana ce potpuno opustjeti —
бак nl automobili nl autobusi nece vi§e
kroz nju prolaziti. Razlogf gradnja najveceg
amerl6kog lanCanog centra robnih ku6a I
supermarketa u centru Cikaga.
"State Street" se prvl put pojavila u povi-jes- ti
Cikaga (na karti) 1833. godine. Od
tada pa do danas ova ulica se mljenjala vec
nekoliko puta, a s njom se mijenjao i Cika-g- o.
Najnovija arhitektonska (i poslovna)
metamorfoza ove ullce (I Cikaga) kostat 6e
— this one will be held on Sunday, Sep-tember
10th at 1 :00 P.M. at 404 10th Street
in Waukegan. Contestants from all the
U.S.A. will participate.
Still I wanted to ask Mr. Podboy another
question, but he seemed to know what was
in my mind: "Yes, we are proud of what we
do, of course; our elders for years tried
prodly to preserve our music — we cer-tainly
wantto keep it for the future. Hope-fully,
through music, one day our children
will understand us better too. They will be
proud of their roots'..."
Yes, indead: it already feels like the
pearl lost and found again...
LAST MINUTE NEWS: Just as this
paper was going to print, we were
informed that the representatives
of the "Button Box" orchestra had
a very successful appearance at
the 1st Far West Button Box, Con-test
which was held on June 11th in
Fontana, California.
We are pleased to announce and
add our congratulations that Mr.
Ray Podboy and Mrs. Jane Grego-ri- n
Bena both won the first prize
trophies for their single accordian
performances in men's and wo-men's
division out of 27 contes-tants.
In addition, following the
closing of the contest, the Fontana
mayor of Slovene origin, Mr. Frank
Horzen, presented to Mr. Ray
Podboy and his orchestra the city
keys of Fontana.
Our sincere congradulations to
the "Button Box" orchestra — and
welcome back. — Editors.
odmln
17.1 milijuna dolara. Jednom, kad ovaj
( Ian6ani centar robnih kuca bude dovrSen, u
centru Cikaga cemo se cuditi drvedu, cvije-6- u,
miniplazama, uli6nim kafanama, uzivat
5emo u izlozbama umjetnosti i rucne radi-nos- ti,
divit cemo se najskupljim namjeSta-jim-a
koji'ce biti izlozeni na podzemnim
trotoarima.
Stvarno, ovaj Cikago kao da ima devet
zlvota: uvijok se ponovo rada. Cikago se,
ofilgledno, ne boji rlzika...
U svakom slucaju, preporu6ujemo svim
gradanima da stoje podalje od ove ulice
(pogotovo ako dodu u centar Cikaga auto-mobllo- m)
— radovi su ve6 u toku. Za
godinu dana imat cemo novo 6udo u Cika-g- u
— i nove cijene...