Barroom Harmonizing Fades Away – April 25, 1947

Here’s an interesting little article with cultural implications that appeared on the front page of the Lorain Journal on Friday, April 25, 1947. It signaled the passing of the era of barroom singing in Lorain – those days of old when a tavern’s customers might suddenly burst into harmonious song.

So what was the reason for the end of the vocalizing in bars? As Robert Weigel explains, it was a combination of juke boxes (which became popular in the 1940s) and dance bands.

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Barroom Ballads in City Nearly Extinct
Juke Boxes, Dance Orchestras Replace Impromptu
Harmonizing That Thrived in ‘Good Old Days'
BY ROBERT WEIGEL

Ballads often vocalized in the good old days of free lunches and nickel beers are becoming as rare as the native buffalo in Lorain tap rooms.

Modernization of establishments and the rapid increase of juke boxes and dance orchestras in many places have forced out the impromptu barroom quartets of yesteryear, cafe proprietors say.

One proprietor who has been in business in Lorain for 30 years said the only time he hears “The Good Old Summertime,” “Silver Threads Among the Gold” and other oldtime favorites of harmonizers is when they’re played on a radio program. Several bartenders made similar reports.

Fraternal Sessions
A Lorain musician said he didn’t know of any cafe in the city where there was community singing.

Probably the only place in the city where “jolly good fellows” can burst into unrestrained renditions of the old favorites is in the bars of numerous fraternal lodges.

Here “Sweet Adeline” and “Down By the Old Mill Stream,” reported by local tavern owners to be dying out, sometimes come into their own when “the boys” get together on a Saturday night.

Over in the Bronx in New York, Harry Armstrong, 67, who wrote “Sweet Adeline,” said, “I don’t think 'Sweet Adeline’ will die out in the bars no matter what people say.” He credited the 51-year-old song as being a great harmony song, and a great drinking tune.

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The article was right about the fraternal lodges still being a place where one could harmonize in the 1940s.

My grandfather was a member of the Lorain Elks, and the lodge (and its bar) on Sixth Street was a favorite place for him to stop on the way home from his job at the Journal. My mother still remembers stopping at the Elks Lodge to wait for him, and overhearing the raucous singing going on in the bar. She even recalls one of the tunes, the rather bawdy “Roll Me Over in the Clover.” (Since this is a family-friendly blog, I won’t post the lyrics.)

But I will post this YouTube video of The Crew-Cuts singing “Down by the Old Mill Stream,” one of the favorites mentioned in the article.