Articles about Music
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Dance marathons, walkathons once talk of the town
By Bill Kemp. Published on March 13, 2016.
Although born out of the Roaring Twenties, dance marathons and walkathons peaked in popularity during the 1930s and the Great Depressio...
Duke Ellington big draw in Twin Cities
By Bill Kemp. Published on June 5, 2016.
Someone once said, presumably half in earnest and half in jest, that American contributions to world culture could be reduced to three ...
Church organ sparked conflict in Heyworth church
By Bill Kemp. Published on July 10, 2016.
“The devil was completely knocked out at Heyworth this morning at 2 o’clock,” declared The Daily Leader of Bloomington on Feb. 9, 1891....
Bloomington home to world champion singing mouse
By Bill Kemp. Published on June 25, 2017.
“The voice that spanned continents and oceans to win international acclaim is forever stilled,” announced a somber Pantagraph in Octobe...
Julia Vrooman brought jazz to WW I doughboys
By Bill Kemp. Published on September 24, 2017.
“Julia Scott Vrooman has always been in the news,” noted The Pantagraph in early October 1976. The occasion was her 100th...
Colonial Theatre once Colfax mainstay
By Bill Kemp. Published on April 29, 2018.
As with most small town movie houses, the Colonial Theatre in Colfax offered area residents more than a parade of Hollywood legends on ...
Short-lived performance hall once city’s finest
By Bill Kemp. Published on May 20, 2018.
For a few years after the end of the Civil War, the Academy of Music was Bloomington’s most elegant concert and theater hall. And thoug...
‘Welby and Pearl,’ minstrel act with local roots
By Bill Kemp. Published on October 28, 2018.
For the better part of four decades, friends Jacob Welby Bucher and Charles Carroll Fell of Bloomington performed as the popular vaudev...
Cousin Emmy had deep ties to Bloomington
By Bill Kemp. Published on March 10, 2019.
Cousin Emmy, a pioneering female country music artist affectionately known as “the first hillbilly to own a Cadillac,” spent a decade o...
Mandolin enjoyed ‘golden age’ in late 19th century
By Bill Kemp. Published on September 29, 2019.
“The members of the Lotus Club last evening entertained their lady friends at their rooms on North Center Street,” noted The Pantagraph...
May Christian, forever her own woman
By Bill Kemp. Published on October 6, 2019.
“I was always too independent,” Bloomington resident Annie May Christian confided in a remarkable scrapbook she compiled around 1903....
New Year’s Eve 1919 meant hope for better times
By Bill Kemp. Published on December 29, 2019.
One hundred years ago, New Year’s Eve 1919 brought hope for better days to come. After all, the nation had been deeply scarred by the t...
Community Christmas ‘sing’ once annual event
By Bill Kemp. Published on December 13, 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of countless holiday gatherings, school pageants, office parties, concerts, dinner da...