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Maurice Levy: You were. You were recalling that the the singer from the
hit parade with Snooky. Eibeck: Snooky Lanson. Levy: Do you remember about
him?
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Eibeck: Yes. Right. Yeah, yeah. And if there was a mistake made, it was
made right there, you know. Levy: Permanently. Eibeck: Permanently. That's
right. There was no way they could they could get it out. But, uh, he was
we liked Snooky. He was a very, very nice, congenial fella. But naturally
we were we were in a, in a chorus more or less. And Snooky was a star. So
the the the agency people, the advertising agency people, and them, they
catered to them and to Maureen Cannon and to these other people. And you
can't blame them. We did get a chance to talk to, like, the Mills Brothers
and and the Four Lads and people like that because we, we thought we could
sing as good or better than they did, you know, but they had the name and
the reputation. But we did talk to them. And, uh, we liked we liked all.
There were a couple of performers that, uh, you know, that seemed like
their nose was in the air, but most of them seemed to be. Seemed to be
pretty nice down there. Yeah, yeah. Snooky especially everybody liked
Snooky Lanson. He seemed to be about as congenial as anybody that we ever
had. And, uh, we we really liked like that.
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Levy: I picked up the name Jan Peerce a couple of times. Where do you
recall about him?
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Eibeck: Uh, well, the fact that he uses he used glasses about that thick,
you know, that. And, uh, uh, one show, something happened. I think he
finally came to the point where, when it was live, I think he got, uh, the.
Levy: Cataract? Eibeck: No, not the cataract. Instead of the glasses he
wore, uh. Levy: Contacts? Eibeck: Contacts. And something happened to the
contacts, and he couldn't make it. And they had to get somebody to pinch
hit for him. That's that's the one thing I remember because he couldn't
see. And, uh, I don't know where they used to put up the words for him or
what, you know, but he couldn't see and he couldn't do the he couldn't do
the song. That's. That's about all I remember about him. They had him in in
that year's time, I'd say about three times at least as long as that
program was on. And they had John Charles Thomas in. But he was, I think I
don't like to say this, but I think then he was a little over the hill, you
know, but he could still sell a song he didn't have.
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Levy: This is in the 40s and 50s.
Eibeck: Yes. This was in the 50s. The television shows were in the 50s.
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Levy: Yeah, because he sang. I can remember him singing on the telephone
back in the 30s.
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Eibeck: Yeah. That's right. He was quite elderly. Uh. Many other big
names. I know Patti Page, we had her on her radio program a couple of
times. In fact, she even appeared with us out at South Park. We did. We did
a live show one time from South Park with their planes flying over and
everything else. You know what that was like when they used to have that
out there?
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Levy: There at the Fairgrounds.
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Eibeck: We did. We did the program from the stage. Can you imagine with
all those people milling around and everything and all that noise? But I
think they only tried that once.
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Levy: That was that during the county fair?
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Eibeck: Yes, during the county fair.
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Levy: That was Labor Day weekend.
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Eibeck: Yeah. That's right. And one and one that one time Patti Page was
was the guest star. And I remember one nice thing about her. She didn't
talk to too many people. She sewed a knitted or something. She always had
something in her hand. She knitted. She was a young girl at the time, very
pretty, very attractive. But that's what she was always. And when it would
come to her time to sing, she could. She could really sing. She did a good
job. Uh, Mills Brothers we liked. We talked an awful lot with them. We had
them on our radio program, too, so we had a chance to talk to them. And
they used to tell us, uh, if you guys got any ambitions, if you have a good
job at home, stay at home and do this on the side. They said it's a killer
to travel around and do nightclub work and pick up this and pick up that.
You get a name, and if you make it real big, you you make big money. But,
uh, but if you have a steady job and can do something like this, you're
better off. They would trade a real good, steady job. This is one of the
things the Mills Brothers told us.
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Levy: Because they lived in motels.
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Eibeck: Right. And at that time, I guess, and I guess in their experience,
it was even worse because I don't think, I don't think.
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Levy: Before the 50s they couldn't stay in a in a regular hotel.
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Eibeck: Yeah. That's right. I really don't know.
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Levy: To go into the, the really dark neighborhood.
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Eibeck: But they, they were we enjoyed talking to them and uh, the Four
Lads, we, we talked to a couple of them, one, one of the Four Lads and I
can't remember seemed to be uh, a little bit, uh, a little bit on the
snooty side, but the, there were a couple of them that were very, very
sociable. But it was a good experience. And at the same time, while I
worked at Mr.. Uh, there was a program called Home Forum was on at 2:00,
five days a week every afternoon, and it was emceed by a lady named Evelyn
Gardner. And they called it Home Forum. And she talked about different
things, and they had a soloist on every day, all week to sing two songs.
And this is something else that I got into. I'd have to get off work at
like 12 or 1:00, and I'd go down there to the, to the KDKA in the Grant
building and at 2:00 the program would go on in about ten. After two, I'd
sing one song and about 20 after two I'd sing another song. And I did that.
You'd do that for a week, and I think I got 50 or $55 for that, which was a
lot of money, man, that was big money. And I did that about, uh, I'd say
average 3 or 4 times a year.
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Eibeck: And I did that for. I don't remember when that program went off,
but I must have done that for 3 or 4 years. That was another side side
thing that you could get because I could also sing solo. I couldn't not
only sing with a quartet or a chorus, but I could also do a solo job. Which
which is what you had to do. Bob Carter used to appear on that once in a
while, and I don't know if Mary Martha Brownie ever did, but I think Betty
Ellen Morris, who was our soloist, used to used to sing on her once in a
while, too. They'd get people that had good solo voices just to do to the
two songs. And Ross Merritt, who was a pianist in Bernie Armstrong's uh,
orchestra, the staff band. He he played most of the time, but sometimes
Aneurin Bodycombe accompanied you, too. He was the musical director there.
So that was another nice nice little side issue. You know, you picked the
two songs you wanted to sing and that was it. But for the week you had to
have you had to have ten songs ready. So that was another nice experience,
I enjoyed that. When I was telling you about those trips we made with the.
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Levy: Yeah, you started in with the barbershop quartets 1953. Yeah. And
you sang the entire time with the Westinghouse Quartet? Yeah. And it's
still called that today?
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Eibeck: No, no, in 1965, uh, after not competing from 1948. And our
predecessors had all left. Uh, we competed in contests and we were doing
it, uh, using an illegal name. We were still using the name Westinghouse
because we still had the Westinghouse tie in. But in barbershop circles, if
a championship quartet or a medalist quartet loses more than two of its
members, the name is automatically put into retirement, and nobody is
allowed to use that name anymore. So here we had four completely different
fellows in the quartet, and we were competing under the name Westinghouse,
which was illegal. And when we qualify to go to international in 1965
through our local district contest, somebody in our chapter wrote to
international that we were using an illegal name, and international wrote
us about this a month before the contest. So we had to change our name. So
our manager, Harry Smith at that time came up with the name Circle W4,
which is the circle which is the Westinghouse emblem. It's a circle with a
W in the middle. And that's the name that we're using today yet. So we
competed in 1965 at international and in 1966 with that name.
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Levy: So for 16, 26 years you've used that name? Eibeck: Yeah. Levy: 65.
And how many of the original quartet members are?
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Eibeck: Well, there are no original members. And from the time we changed
the name to Circle W4, there are two of us left.
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Levy: So you could. You can still use the name because.
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Eibeck: Well we are no longer medalists.
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Levy: Oh, I see you're no longer competing.
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Eibeck: We had, we had when we, when we competed again under the new name,
we were going in as a new quartet and we never did gain any laurels like
our predecessors did. Our predecessors were terrific. They they finished in
the medalists second, third, fourth and fifth in four different years, not
consecutively, which had never been done up to that time, up to a long
time. Levy: This is the Westinghouse? Eibeck: This is the old Westinghouse
Quartet. And this is a reason that we couldn't use the name Westinghouse,
because they had been medalists, and there were four of them were gone.
That was even, you know, the whole quartet was gone. But we never gained
the laurels in international like our predecessors did the best. The first
year we finished 27th out of 45, and the second year we finished 22nd and
we never qualified after that. And then in 19, the last time we competed in
well, 1966 was the last we competed because we made that that trip in 1965
and we felt that. We were too busy to really rehearse like we should for
contests like they want you to. So we never competed after 66, but in
district honors before that time we the.
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Levy: International.
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Eibeck: This was international in the district. We never did win the
championship either. But we finished second twice, third, fourth and fifth
once each, seventh once and 14th. And a lot of people know that we are, uh,
rated a great, entertaining quartet. But a lot of people never realized
that. We did pretty well in contest. Also, although we never we never boned
up for it too much. We we were always had too much, too much going for us
singing wise, you know, for entertainment. So we never worked that hard on
contest songs. But, uh, we still we still had some pretty good, pretty good
numbers there. You know.
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Levy: I'd say so.
Eibeck: So. Yeah. Yeah. That's right.
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Levy: Uh, the, uh.
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Eibeck: Now, these these trips. I didn't tell you about them, about.
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Levy: The.
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Eibeck: 65 we went to. There were three quartets and a fellow named Hugh
Ingram, who was the at that time, he wasn't the head honcho. He was the
what the heck was his title anyway? A fellow named Hugh Ingram, who later
became the the president of our, our society, uh, the chief executive,
rather, uh, the 12 of us. He he said he, he and he grew a beard at that
time. And he when we got down to the Gitmo Bay, he said, here's Jesus and
his 12 apostles. He had a beard and there were three quartets. But we had a
ball. We went down there in January and it was fantastic. It was like going
to Paradise, you know, it was warm. We went swimming every day and we had
sang all around the island. Then in 1969, uh, we went to the Far East
during the Vietnam War, uh, we spent 17 days on tour. Uh, we spent, uh. One
night we flew to, uh. One day, we took a commercial plane to San Francisco,
to the air base there. And we spent one night there, and then they flew us
to Japan, and we spent eight days in Tokyo and a couple of days in Okinawa,
the Philippines, Guam. And we just stopped at Wake Island and Hawaii. We
ended up in Hawaii.
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Eibeck: It was a 17 day tour. And, uh, there what we did, uh, we went to
the hospitals. There were five hospitals around Tokyo. A lot of people
didn't realize that. And we would go into the wards and sing 2 or 3 songs,
and they would talk to the boys at the same time, at the same time as we
were there. There would be professional football players there and, uh, and
television artists with big names. They would just go in and talk to the
kids in the ward, you know, and we saw some boy, we saw some bone chilling
sights, I'll tell you that. We saw some coming right in off the
battlefield, you know, with legs and arms missing and all bloodied and
everything. And the 1971. We repeated that tour, and it was a lot easier
because there were less hospitals and less, less wards. But we made the
same tour, and it was very gratifying because. It's amazing how some of
these young people appreciated our form of barbershop music, which, you
know, it isn't exactly commercial because we use no, no background of any
kind, just a pitch pipe. But these kids loved it. And when we would go talk
to them and we would bring names of the boys home and call their parents,
and it's amazing how many names we got of people in the tri state area.
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Eibeck: Each one of the four of us would would take so many names, and
when we got home, we would call their parents and tell them that their kids
were all right, you know, which was a and it was very, very self satisfying
singing very. And then in the evening we would put on a show for the, for
the, the, the men that were based there, the troops that were based in
those different places, like right now, you know, they had us write up
about the Philippines and about Subic Bay. Well, that's those are the
places we went to. And Clark Air Base is where we were stationed. That's
where we had the motel. And we didn't get paid for this. We got a per diem,
I think a $27 a day. But they provided the they provided the motel or hotel
facilities, and it would cost you maybe $5 a day and you had to buy your
own eats. So you really you really didn't make any money out of it. But it
was a very gratifying thing. And how many working men ever get to another
part of the world? You know, that's the way we felt. But they were that
that was I think, would be the highlights of our our barbershop
experience.
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Levy: The other. Of course, in the process, the local chapter would run
district conventions and things like that.
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Eibeck: Uh, we would you take turns. You have to, uh, you have to put in a
bid for district conventions, and they try to alternate.
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Levy: What does this district can take.
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Eibeck: Uh, Johnny Appleseed District. Uh, that's, uh, how many districts
do we have? 16. 16. 16 districts and each.
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Levy: District in which which.
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Eibeck: Johnny Appleseed would be just a small part of Pennsylvania and
most of Ohio and some parts of West Virginia and maybe Maryland. I think
Deep Creek, Maryland, at one time. No.
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Levy: Years ago, it was.
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Eibeck: Yeah. Not now. That's that's it. That's all that would be involved
in in the Johnny Appleseed District.
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Levy: So that's Pittsburgh in the Johnny Appleseed District, and they take
their turn putting on a district convention.
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Eibeck: Yes. Yeah. We put in a bid and we and now, besides the district
convention, they have what they call a divisional contest because there are
so many courses and quartets. So they break it down. They have two
divisionals a year and east and west. And then the survivors of this, of
these two contests, they're the ones that compete in the district. Years
ago, it wasn't like that. You just had a district contest and that was it.
And anybody could enter. Now you got to you have to go through the
divisional to qualify to sing in the district, in the district contest.
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Levy: So you mean there are more quartets today than there were?
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Eibeck: Uh, I think sometimes I wonder about that, but I think it gives
more quartets a chance. Uh, years ago, you'd have maybe 35 quartets in a
district contest, and other quartets from from other chapters would would
know that all these different quartets are in and they wouldn't get in
because they felt they had no chance. But now, since you have the
Divisionals, uh, we had how many quartets we have last week? 16. We had 16
quartets and one divisional, and they had another divisional the week after
which they probably had that many quartets. Then out of that you would
take, uh, six, six quartets from each divisional that would compete in the
district.
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Levy: And then the district goes where? What's next?
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Eibeck: The 3 or 4 or as many quartets as qualify. They go to
international and the international is in a different big city every year.
You have to bid four years ahead to get a bid to have the to host the
international contest. And the international contest, like last year was in
Louisville, Kentucky. And, uh, where is it this year? I don't even know. We
had Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh? Where?
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Levy: New Orleans.
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Eibeck: Oh, that's right, New Orleans. We were there once. Um. We hosted
it in 1982, and we are going to host it again in 1994. And it's quite an
economic plum. We we figure we bring.
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Levy: Many thousand people.
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Eibeck: Ten, 12,000 people. And you know what that means to a city, you
know, with motel and restaurants and the different things that you have to
plan, you have to plan different things for a week, you know, different
kind of trips and things like that. So it's it's an economic plum, really.
And, uh, Pittsburgh is in better shape to do it now because we have more
and better hotel accommodations. Years ago, we couldn't qualify. We didn't
have enough hotel accommodations that were close enough to a big
auditorium. And you have to have an auditorium that seats. What is the
requirement? 8000.
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Levy: So? So you use the Civic Arena then?
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Eibeck: Yes. The last time we used it. And before that we never had the
the facility. Uh,
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Levy: Well, they could also use the convention center too.
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Eibeck: No, the convention center. No, that doesn't hold that money. And
it's not set up. It's not conducive. It's not only the sound of seating you
could share. They set up chairs, you know, and you wouldn't be able to get
near that many people in it. No, the convention center would wouldn't be
able that would wouldn't satisfy anybody. But this is what they use in most
of the cities that qualify. They usually have an auditorium that houses
hockey or basketball or something like that, and they are able to
facilitate that and make it, uh, make it usable for, for the singing.
Because you have to be able to seat that many people. And there aren't too
many auditoriums like the Syria Mosque used to be, or like Heinz Hall, that
seat that many people. You can't even use a facility like that.
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Levy: Yeah, they only hold the Syria Mosque held 3900.
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Eibeck: Yeah, yeah. That's right.
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Levy: Heinz Hall holds about 2800.
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Eibeck: In the last year. So it's. It depends. It depends on the on on the
location too. They had one in, uh, Hartford, Connecticut, a couple of years
ago, and I understand that was pretty much of a flop. And they didn't have
many, many people there. You know, it depends on where it's at. San
Francisco draws well, naturally. You know, that's.
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Levy: A large cities with.
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Eibeck: New Orleans will draw well now.
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Levy: That they're fun places.
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Eibeck: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And they're not too badly located. But Pittsburgh
we we expect to do real well. And Pittsburgh. Was very favorably talked
about. Believe me, after the last convention, my wife and I went to at
least 3 or 4 more conventions in the. Where were we in Seattle, Salt Lake
City? Uh. Uh, where else were we? 3 or 4 other places? And, boy, the people
made it a point to tell me how much they enjoyed Pittsburgh. And and I know
you remember now, that's when the streets were all tore up.
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Levy: When they were building the subway.
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Eibeck: Yeah, yeah, that's what they were going through, all that
reconstruction. And if people really liked Pittsburgh, they really spoke
highly of it. And of course, there's no place that's more scenic. You know,
you go out to Mount Washington, a place like that, you know, that's that's
that's it.
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Levy: So, uh, the, uh. So what other places? I can recall speaking to
somebody else that you used. The society sang at the Fort Pitt Hotel. Oh,
yes. That was that was before your time?
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Eibeck: No, no no, no.
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Levy: Before the Fort Pitt Hotel down the street?
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Eibeck: No, that was just about just before. I think I was only at 1 or 2
meetings at the Fort Pitt. And then they used to meet at the, uh, the last
big place Downtown was the William Penn. That was the last big place before
we, uh. Uh, really before we merged with. With East Suburban. Uh, then we
were. We're at Saint Mary's. We were down there, but the big, big hotel
that the the Elks. And before that, before the Fort Pitt. Before the.
Before the William Penn. We were down at the, uh, on Fourth Avenue. That
hotel that was down there. Uh. Fourth and fourth and Wood. Fourth and Wood.
Across from a YMCA. It used to be.
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Levy: Called The Keystone.
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Eibeck: Keystone. Keystone, Keystone that. Before that and before that, I
guess, you know, they were they were they tried these different hotels.
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Levy: The, uh, how do you pick the music that you're going to sing? There
is a is there a. A roster of songs, or can you just adapt any anything you
think is useful to court barbershop quartet singing?
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Eibeck: Uh, it's for a regular barbershop quartet number. It should be a
song that can be sung by a lead that doesn't that doesn't need a great
range. And it should be, uh, be able to be quarted where you can get a lot
of four part chords out of it, a lot, a lot of sevenths barbershop
sevenths, as we call them. And uh, also at, uh. I don't know, uh.
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Levy: Most people associate people who just, I think, have superficial
contact with them. They when they think of barbershop quartet singing, they
think of the gay 90s.
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Eibeck: Yeah. Yeah.
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Levy: Well, because. That's what you use the associated guys that wear
garters on their sleeves and, uh, straw hats, straw hats, handlebar
mustaches. Yeah. And they. And they sing. Wait till the sun shines, Nellie.
Yeah, but you sing a more contemporary music that's been arranged for
that.
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Eibeck: We do, we do, and I do to this point, uh, for myself. Huh? Yeah,
from from myself and my quartet. Uh, we have good solo voices. And when I
came into the quartet, uh, the fellow that was singing lead was named Bill
McDowell. And he had an operatic voice, and, uh, they, they made up, uh, an
arrangement. And Bill sang the aria La donna e mobile. He sang the actual
aria, and they made a comedy number out of it, to the point where the other
three guys would come in and interrupt them in different parts of the, of
the number. But he actually sang the aria, and when Bill left, I did it.
And it's a number that would take about four, 4.5 minutes, and all the
parts that come into it are barbershop sounding, but the aria itself is
done just like just like in the opera. Levy: So it's just the tenor.
Eibeck: That's right. That's the tenor singing the La donna e mobile.
That's right. And, uh, this would last. This number lasts about four, four
to 4.5 minutes. And during this number we would get applause three times
during the course of the number. There were little places, you know, where
we'd do something, and then all of a sudden the people would really clap.
And, uh, we have also done solos because our bass is a tremendous bass. And
he does he does Old Man River and Some Enchanted Evening and songs like
that which are, which are not your basic barbershop numbers, but we still
arrange them as closely as we can in the barbershop style. You know, the
background, the other three chords, the four part harmony is still very
basic. Barbershop is basic as you can get it.
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Levy: But something like that be sung in a competition.
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Eibeck: No no no no no no. In competition you can't do anything religious
or in anything operatic would be strictly out. Uh, there's where you would
get the Gay 90s or a lot of our songs were originally, I think, from World
War One and then World War Two. There were a lot of nice songs there
conducive to good, what we call good four part harmony. But to entertain
people, you've got to do a little bit different. I, uh, I myself do, uh,
like Danny Boy, and I do the solo and the other fellows they oh and ah in
the background. Now, there are some barbershop arrangements made of it, but
that is not a conducive to good four part barbershop, you know, but still
can be done in four parts.
00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:47.000
Levy: Well, the international doesn't lay down. Do they? Lay down any
conditions?
00:26:47.000 --> 00:27:21.000
Eibeck: No. Every once in a while, every once in a while they'll come out
and, you know, they'll say keep it barbershop. Well, we keep it barbershop
as far as the chords go. But when you're singing for people, you still have
to entertain them. And, uh. You can't beat that great applause that you get
now. You don't go off hand and do something that the four freshmen would do
or anybody like that, you know, anything way out. But you do have to once
more alternate. And then we have some fun numbers. We have some comedy
numbers.
00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:23.000
Levy: Like what? What was the example of a comedy.
00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:47.000
Eibeck: For instance, Side by Side. We have a takeoff on that. We we do.
We use other words. And we do the basic parodies. That's exactly what we
do. Yeah. And that's what you have to do. And then there are some, some
quartets that are very imaginative and very creative. And they'll take a
song that maybe nobody knows about, and they'll make a comedy number of it.
And boy, it'll come across and it'll have the people roaring.
00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:50.000
Levy: There's some sometimes some choreography involved with the
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:51.000
Eibeck: Choreography involved and maybe little gimmicks.
00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:52.000
Levy: Gimmicks.
00:27:52.000 --> 00:28:19.000
Eibeck: Maybe little gimmicks, costume, costume, costumes. That's right.
Now, even in contest today, some of these quartets are so good that they'll
adopt a costume and they'll pick a couple of songs that fit that, and, and,
and they'll still sing in the barbershop vein, and it'll be terrific. It'll
be funny and still real, real good barbershop contest wise. So but you've
got to be imaginative and creative to do to do that.
00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:24.000
Levy: You're talking about for an entertainment as opposed to a
competitive situation.
00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:36.000
Eibeck: Yeah. Now these these quartets, they will still compete, but
they're more interested in getting sing outs or jobs in different chapters
with their with their humor, with their comedy.
00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:44.000
Levy: But now you put programs on and you're hired. Yes. You're engaged
by. Yeah, yeah. We all voters or producers, all.
00:28:44.000 --> 00:29:40.000
Eibeck: The chapters, all the chapters themselves put on one show a year.
As a rule, some may be put on more, but almost all of them put on one show
a year. And for this show, they will hire either 1 or 2 quartets. Years ago
they used to hire three and four and five, but today it's too tough and
it's cost too much. They'll hire 1 or 2 other quartets, what they call
headliners, and they'll expect this quartet to headline the show. They'll
have a name, and they'll also be able to entertain and sing. And this is
what all the chapters across the country do. This is one of the things that
kept the old Westinghouse quartet so busy. We used to be out of town every
weekend in the summer, and not in the summer, in the spring and in the
fall. This is usually when they have barbershop shows all over the country,
and we would be all over either Ohio or Pennsylvania or, or, uh, maybe
Maryland or and we've gone up as far as, uh, Winnipeg, Canada.
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:43.000
Levy: And the Canadians for a weekend. Oh, yes.
00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:46.000
Eibeck: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they've been involved for a long time.
00:29:46.000 --> 00:30:46.000
Levy: And the, uh, so you used the terms international. Are there any
other countries? Yeah. Who are involved. Well, let's let's just take a
break here for a second.
