Page 11

Way Back Then.... Tom Koch

Here is a piece of history I extracted from Bob Brandi's files down at Carnegie Library. This is a from the June 1951 issue of "The Harmonizer", a column titled "I see by the papers."

"PITTSBURGH MAKES FRONT PAGE"

How's this for "far reaching" publicity? A newspaper publisher in Williston, North Dakota read a bang-up 3 page spread on the Pittsburgh Chapter in the Roto section of the Sunday, March 11th , edition of the Pittsburgh Press and wrote to the Chapter for information about how to organize a Chapter.

The Pittsburgh barbershoppers hoped to arouse plenty of interest in the immediate area, but didn't have any idea that their "splurge" might ignite the spark for the organization of a Chapter some 1200 miles away.

Timed to attract patrons to their big show held March 31st in Syria Mosque for the benefit of Children's Hospial and the Industrial Home for Crippled Children, the write-up and picture spread were fine publicity for the chapter and the entire Society.

Front page of the section depicted the Four Maldehydes in typical period costumes in a "Gay Nineties" setting and the other two pages showed the '48 champs, The Pittsburghers; Maury Reagan and a chart of his "clock system"; the ever popular Westinghouse quartet; the Sanguigni Truckers; the Pittsburgh Chorus and various chapter officers."

Back to page 10

Forward to page 12