["Clarinet Polka"]
- It's at our festivals.
Our sporting events.
Our churches.
It's even our official state dance.
- What is this music?
- It's polka!
- Happy music. Polka music, right?
- Polka is the soundtrack of Wisconsin.
- Polka is Wisconsin!
- And it has a special way of bringing people together.
- My wife and I danced every week for 60 years.
- It's music that's made for dancing;
begging you to clap your hands, tap your feet,
and get out onto the floor.
- Why did you start dancing, dear?
- For the women.
- [Squeezebox plays "Let's Have a Party"]
* Let's have a party
- I'm Mollie Busta.
And I've been playing and dancing the polka
since I was a little kid.
- [Squeezebox plays "Pulling Around the Floor"]
- I've been able to turn my passion into my career,
recording and playing polka music across America.
Over the next hour, I'm going to take a look
at how polka got so big in Wisconsin
and why we continue to love it.
- ["Pod Krakowem Czarna Rola" (The Black Soil of Krakow)]
- I'll discover its scandalous beginnings.
- Queen Victoria forbad the polka
to be danced in her presence.
- Visit some of Wisconsin's great polka festivals.
- I call this a Polish Woodstock.
- And talk to some of the people
keeping this folk tradition alive.
- We're just having fun. - Yeah, having fun.
- And most people don't like that much fun.
[laughing]
["Pod Krakowem Czarna Rola" (The Black Soil of Krakow)]
- Join me, Mollie B, for a celebration of
- crowd: Polka!
*
[cheers and applause]
- Polka! is funded in part by
Stanley J. Cottrill Fund,
International Polka Association
Wisconsin Dells Polka Fest
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
[indistinct conversation]
*
- It would be really strange
if there were this music and dance tradition
that literally millions of people participate in,
and nothing has been studied or written about it.
Well, truth is stranger than fiction.
That's polka.
[The Polka Family Band plays "Mocilnikar's Polka"]
- The happiest people on the planet
are at a polka dance.
I've been playing polka
since I was, probably, seven years old.
I'm fifty-three, and I've never seen a fight.
- It's happy music.
You don't see many fights or anything at the polka music.
- We fight after!
- In polka music, you don't sing about your troubles,
you forget your troubles.
[Hey Baba Reba plays "Ee eye ee eye ee eye oh!"]
- crowd: * Ee eye ee eye ee eye oh
- * Ee eye ee eye ee eye oh
- crowd: * Ee eye ee eye ee eye oh
- The catharsis that goes on
within a polka festival,
a dance, or listening to the music
is peace.
It brings you peace, it brings you joy,
it brings you happiness.
- Band: *Ee eye ee eye ee eye oh -crowd: *Ee eye ee eye ee eye oh
- Whoo!
- It's a folk tradition
like no other in Wisconsin.
When we celebrate life, chances are
we're dancing and playing the polka.
It's part of our heritage.
It's something we share with family.
It's a connection to our community.
The polka story
is the story of Wisconsin.
["Iron Range Polka"]
- If you want to look at a dance form
that distinguishes Wisconsin from other places--
not only in the nation,
but also in the world--
it's polka music.
And so it's fitting that it's our official state dance.
[cheers and applause]
*
- Polka emerged in central Europe around the 1840s.
Exactly how is something of a mystery,
but its name can be traced to a pair of Slavic words.
The world "Polka" essentially means Polish woman,
like "Polák" is a Polish man.
Although there's a Czech word
"pulka" that means sort of half,
and there is kind of a half step in the polka
when you're dancing it.
["Oh Suzanna Schottische"]
- Like the word itself,
the story of how polka began is murky.
But most common
is the legend about a peasant girl in Bohemia
who spontaneously invented the dance in front of her boss.
- She's usually a Czech or a Polish girl
and her boss is usually a German or Austrian,
and he notes it down some way
and spreads it all around.
- There isn't much historical evidence
to support this origin story.
It's more likely
that polka emerged out of another couples' dance.
- I say it came from the waltz.
[waltz music]
- To Europe's cultured society,
the waltz was scandalous.
It was shocking for a man and a woman
to wrap arms around each other.
But after a while,
the waltz lost that shock value,
paving the way for a new dance.
- Pop culture loves to outrage
the previous generation's norms.
Along around the 1840s, they just upped the ante.
Let's do it in 2/4 time and hop up and down frenetically!
["Tritsch-Tratsch Polka" by Johann Strauss II]
- Well, predictably, the polka
was condemned as licentious and horrible.
In the 1850s,
Queen Victoria forbad the polka
to be danced in her presence.
- But this new dance was a huge hit.
Polka spread through Europe like wildfire.
And it was at this time
that thousands of people were immigrating to America.
["Oj Maricka Pegla" (Marie is Ironing)]
- You had Germans and Swiss, and Luxembourgers,
and Dutch people, and you had French-speaking Belgians,
you had Polish and Czechs and Slovenians,
you had Finns, and Norwegians and Swedes,
and all of them had some form of polka.
- Polka turned out to be a fad in Europe
and would eventually subside.
But the immigrants headed to America
had polka ringing in their ears.
- Because it was the music and dance that
was popular in their homeland at the time they emigrated,
it became their heritage here.
["Goin' Home from Symphony No. 9" (alphorn song)]
- Today, Wisconsin's identity is closely tied
to the cultures of its European immigrants.
Sometimes in wonderfully apparent ways.
One of Wisconsin's most charming small towns
is New Glarus.
Founded by Swiss immigrants in the 1840s,
New Glarus not only looks like the old world,
it celebrates the old traditions.
One of those, of course, is polka.
["Pop N' John's Polka"]
- Every year, The Roger Bright Memorial Polka Fest
in New Glarus attracts thousands of people.
For some, the event is personal.
- Polka, Swiss music,
makes me think of my mom and my dad
and my heritage.
My mother was from Switzerland.
She lived to be 101, eight months and 28 days.
She had a great spirit, and she loved to dance,
and my father.
["My Ann Waltz"]
- My father is Swiss.
At an event like this,
you can't help but think of your old family members
and family fun times, really.
- I come here every year.
Sit and enjoy, and meet people,
and drink beer and listen to the music.
- 95 year-old New Glarus resident Herman Pfund
is a true polka lover.
For over half a century,
dancing was one his great passions.
- Oh, boy.
I miss it now because my legs won't let me.
I really miss it.
So I come and listen to it.
It's my background, Swiss.
And I love it.
- [laughing] Hey!
- The polka festival is a link
to New Glarus's Swiss heritage.
People can sample local-made cheese,
beer,
and bacon.
Half a block from the main tent,
Puempel's Olde Tavern is also a part of the festival.
["Baby Doll Polka"]
Puempel's was established in 1893,
and has hardly changed in all that time.
On a floor that's over a century old,
there isn't much room for dancing.
But that doesn't stop these polka lovers
from making the most of it.
The culture of the Swiss immigrants
is alive and well in New Glarus,
and a vital part of their tradition is polka.
*
[cheers and applause]
But New Glarus certainly isn't the only place
you can experience a great polka festival.
They happen throughout the year in every corner of the state.
One of the most popular polka festivals in Wisconsin,
and possibly the country, takes place right here in Pulaski.
*
Pulaski was settled by Polish immigrants,
who transformed its rocky soil
into the vibrant farmlands surrounding the town today.
But Poles brought more than agricultural skill to this area.
They also brought their music.
And in 1978, a festival was launched
that has become an institution.
Pulaski Polka Days is a four-day event
that attracts thousands of people.
Folks come here from across Wisconsin,
and across the country.
- I call this a Polish Woodstock.
["Polish Boyfriend"]
*
* I've got a Polish boyfriend
* He looks a lot like you
* Oh he's kind of nice
* Pretty dark eyes
* I love him
What are you grilling?
- Polish sausage.
- At Pulaski, you can have tasty Polish fare,
like a pierogi and a cabbage roll.
[drummer strikes cymbal]
- Yeah! - [cheers and applause]
- But what brings in the big crowds is polka.
["Old Time Polka Dance"]
*
- LeAnn and her Aunt Sue
are from a Polish family.
They've traveled to every Pulaski Polka Days
for over ten years.
- I initially came up here with a bunch of friends.
And then I told my family, told my aunt, my mom and dad.
And they said, "Oh! We're gonna have to go next year."
Well now, they've ruined my fun every year!
[laughing]
But then again, I have a dancing partner every year.
So it's all good! [laughing]
["Pod Krakowem Czarna Rola" (The Black Soil of Krakow)]
* Pod Krakowem czarna rola * Ja jej oral nie bede
- Sue and LeAnn enjoy dancing
to the festival's Polish style bands,
which attract a new audience.
- The Polish style has
a much more syncopated beat,
big amps, electric bass guitars, and loud drumming.
A loud sound.
It has a lot more in common with rock
than the other polka styles.
There's kind of a generation gap sometimes
with the people who don't like the music to be that loud.
It's one of the reasons that the Polish style
has kept a younger audience.
*
- Many of the young people dance in the hop style,
which came out of the Polish community.
- You dance in double time to the music.
One,two,three, hop! One,two,three, hop!
- This new generation of dancers is one reason
Pulaski Polka Days is so unique.
- Harold, I know you're a polka fan.
I'm a polka fan.
Why do you think this festival
is so important to the polka industry?
- If you come to Pulaski,
you're gonna see the younger generation coming out.
And that means a lot because a lot of our old friends
are now 70, 80 years old.
And we've got the younger generation involved in it.
And I tell you, it's a great honor to see that here.
- Pulaski's famous festival is a joyful reflection
of its Polish pedigree.
- People are
just very uninhibited
in terms of enjoying themselves,
enjoying one another, and just having a great time.
- Once you're here once, you'll come back every year.
- You'll come back. You will.
[cheers and applause]
- Hello, Pulaski!
- crowd: Whoo!
["Ein Prosit"]
- * Ein Prosit, ein Prosit
* Der Gemütlichkeit...
- Germans were the largest European immigrant group
to settle in America.
And today, over 40 percent of Wisconsin residents
have German ancestry.
- * Der Gemütlichkeit
- Oktoberfests are beer celebrations
held throughout Wisconsin and the nation.
They're inspired by the annual Oktoberfest
held in Munich, Germany.
*
This Oktoberfest is hosted by German restaurant Essen Haus
in Madison.
People come dressed for the occasion,
whether they have German ancestry or not.
- This place is nothing but German culture here.
Most people have something German on.
Or they're carrying something German...
in a glass.
- Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke
- crowd: Hoi, hoi, hoi! - Ernie: I can't hear you.
Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke
- crowd: Hoi, hoi, hoi!
["Fest Polka"]
- So they may be Irish as can be, but today they're German.
- Mannerchor Guys call out: Oans! Zwoa! G'suffa!
- European immigrants didn't just bring
their languages, cultures, and love of polka to America.
They also brought their favorite beverage.
["In Heaven, There is No Beer"]
* Well in Heaven there is no beer
* That's why we drink it here
- Beer!
- Gotta have beer.
Beer has everything in it, right?
- In Milwaukee, breweries like Miller and Schlitz
were founded in the 1850s by German immigrants.
Beer has been part of our state identity ever since.
- Wisconsin is rightly known as the party state.
People like to work hard, they like to play hard,
they like to have their beer and they like to dance.
- It's a beverage associated with community and celebration,
just like polka.
And you'll find beer served at most polka dances.
- This is the heart of the Midwest,
where these hard-working people,
like to have a good time.
And they like to go hear music that's happy, you know?
They want to hear music that makes them feel good.
- Hey! Woo hoo!
Ah, we're getting' goin' now.
["Dorf Kapelle"]
- Because European immigrants cherished their polka tradition,
they passed it along.
Generations have grown up with it
and then shared it with their children.
It's a link from the past
that has carried polka all the way up to the present.
Luckily, the polka tradition
is something kids take to naturally.
["A Polka Celebration"]
* We're gonna have a polka celebration
* You bring your friends out
* And I'll bring mine
- I grew up with my grandmother
teaching me how to polka,
and I stood on her feet as she taught me how to polka.
- * We're gonna party and have a good time
- The polka is a multi-generational dance.
It's grandma and grandpa,
and their kids, and the little kids.
- There are a lot of parents who are carrying around
a baby or toddler,
bouncing them along,
as they are inculcating that feel for the polka.
*
- Whoooooooooooo!
*
* We're gonna have a polka celebration
* You bring your friends out
- Well, you know what?
Put a polka record on for a kid.
Watch what happens.
["Gornick's Polka"]
- I don't care what nationality they are,
you put on music that's going
[singing bassline] * Oompah oompah
*
Once you hear that,
it's just the beat,
and then you just start doing this,
even if you don't know what you're doing.
- Band: Weee-hoooooooo!
- [cheers and applause]
["Poor Boy Lookin' for a Home"]
- One of his first words was polka:
"Polka, polka!" towards the radio.
He always has to have it on.
They both always have to have it on.
It's on at the house when we left.
- * Well-a old Mister fox
* Done found him a home He got a place to sleep
* Well, the fox got a place to call his own
- I have a video of him from six months old
standing on the back of the stage at Polka Days
watching his Uncle Chris play drums,
and he's just a-jumpin' on my lap and jumpin'.
["Root Beer Rag"]
- Zander and his family seem to have polka
running through their veins.
But they're not alone.
["The Tinker Polka"]
- When I perform at dances, I don't see
kids and parents looking at their phones.
I see them sharing an experience together.
I think it's neat to see the families that come to the event.
Not only do we then see the polka music being carried on
but it's a very family-friendly environment.
Do you feel the same way?
- Oh, yeah.
There's many times when we'll go to a dance,
and someone will be like, "Oh, I'll watch them,"
or "Oh, you guys go dance.
We'll take care of them."
And it's just like everybody's just a big family.
["New Ulm Waltz"]
- And you see a lot of other parents, too,
teaching their kids.
And you know that they're in that moment
like we get with our kids.
As parents, we're just proud
that we're passing it on to the next generation,
and we can share something that we all enjoy together.
["Saturday Night Waltz"]
- I come from a polka family.
That's me right there.
Growing up, I loved dancing and playing the polka,
especially with my dad.
Now, I'm a polka performer and recording artist.
Is everybody happy?
And on occasion, I still get to play along with dad.
- I grew up on a farm in northeast Iowa.
And I can't ever remember a time that I didn't like polka music.
So it was something I grew up liking an awful lot.
- Playing polka music is something
dad passed on to us kids.
My brother Chad plays drums.
Multigenerational musicians like us are common in polka music.
- One of the things
I think is that polka is
a genetically-transmitted trait.
There are so many wonderful family bands,
you can go two, three generations
where everybody plays polka.
*
[Box On plays "Karolenka" (Karen)]
- Box On is a Polish style polka band from Michigan.
Mom and dad are joined on the stage by seven of their kids.
At first, parents Rick and Alicia
were reluctant to form a family polka band.
- My wife and myself have always played in polkas,
since I was eight years old
and her also.
And we said we'd never want our kids to get into polkas
just because we know the travel and stuff.
It's a lot of work.
- But the Vinecki family started playing polka music
at local nursing homes, and people loved them.
Things snowballed from there,
and now they're playing around the country.
["You're Why God Made Me"] * You're why God made me
- But what do the kids think of all this?
- Since we grew up on polka music
that has been our thing.
And plus with just my dad playing accordion,
it just all worked out.
- It's fun to just do it as a family
and interact with each other.
It's not stressful. - No, it's not stressful at all.
- It's not like, "Ugh, mom and dad are with us."
It's like, "Oh, these are my cool parents
who play and still look young!"
- Yeah, they're young and awesome looking
so it's like, "Yeah, you can tag along!"
- I love it, I do.
I mean a lot of people are kind of questioning us like,
"How do you guys travel so much?
How is it, all of you being together 24/7?"
But we have a good time.
I mean, we're making memories everywhere we go.
["Karolenka" (Karen)]
* Karolenka don't you cry
* I will never say goodbye
- Every time we go out and we play,
it's a little bit better, it's a little bit better.
I'm proud, as a father, to know that these are my children.
- All right, Pulaski, come on everybody.
Here we go: Box! On! Box! On!
- Rick and Alicia have a talented polka family.
Alicia comes from one herself.
- Her family formed a Mexican band in the early 70s.
Alicia's mom was of Mexican descent,
her dad of Polish.
Her brother Hank remembers
grandmother's fateful suggestion.
- Hey, you guys are learning all this Mexican stuff.
Hey, remember, you are Hunkies, too.
You're from the old country. You're Polish.
You gotta learn some Polish songs.
So we started to learn a couple Polish tunes for her.
[singing "Hosa Dyna" in Polish]
* Oj od krakowa jade
* Z dalekiej obcej strony
* Bo mi nie cheilei dac
- The Guzevich family switched to polka music,
calling themselves The Polka Family Band.
But their appearance threw audiences for a loop.
- We have moustaches, long hair,
and we'd get up there, and we start singing.
[singing in Polish]
* Oj Boze Boze * Moj Boze
And all these Polish people are like,
"What in the heck is going on?
That's a bunch of Mexicans singing in Polish!"
* Graj Chlopcy Graj I na wodke mi dac
* Graj Chlopcy Graj I wodke popijac
* Graj Chlopcy Graj
- After nearly 40 years,
multiple Grammy-nominated Hank Guzevich
is the only original Polka Family Band member.
- [singing in Polish "We Are Family Polka"]
* We are family * Polka family
- Hank's sister Alicia is now with Box On.
You might notice Uncle Hank's influence
on this new young band.
Hank and his sister Alicia learned polka
from their parents.
Alicia and Rick passed it along to their kids.
It's a musical circle of life
that you'll find in many polka bands.
- ["Nobody's Lonesome for Me"]
- The Goodtime Dutchmen
are a popular multi-generational polka band
from Kewaskum, Wisconsin.
Ralph Thull used to play in his father's band.
Now, Ralph's kids join him on the stage.
The Goodtime Dutchmen formed in the 90s,
with all five of Ralph's kids.
Could you see talent in them at an early age?
- Oh, yeah.
Feet were always tapping, and
as soon as they could find the instrument, they picked it up
and went and practiced and practiced.
- We practiced anywhere.
And I can remember, you know,
"Oh, well now Randy's coming down to the basement,
"and he's practicing,
so he's driving me nuts."
So I would take my saxophone and go and play to the cows.
- Ah, I love it! And their reaction was?
- They'd move away from me.
[laughing]
["Southern Belle" by Copper Box]
- Ralph Thull's daughter, Michelle,
is now married to Danny Jerabek.
Danny comes from a polka family, too:
the Tuba Dan Band.
- When I was a kid,
my grandfather gave me his little button box accordion,
and says, "Hey, Danny, can you learn a couple songs?"
And I'm like, "No."
And my dad's like, "Yeah.
Yeah he will, Grandpa."
- Today, Danny and Michelle have their own band: Copper Box.
And while they play many genres of music,
polka is a tradition they will always cherish.
- Having both my side of the family
and my husband's side of the family
deeply rooted in polka music,
we try to pass down the tradition
because it's been around in our family for generations.
- Everybody, now.
* I love to polka
* When I'm dancing with my sweetheart
- The Thull family's polka legacy continues.
Ralph's grandson looks like
he's ready to take up on grandpa's instrument,
the good old polka mainstay:
the accordion.
[cheers and applause]
*
- Squeezeboxes like accordions and concertinas
play a big role in polka music.
This is a button accordion.
Confuse it with a concertina at your own risk.
- And a one, two... [accordions bellow opening note]
- The big divide among squeezebox players
is between concertina players and accordion players.
- What's the difference between a concertina and an accordion?
*
It takes longer to burn an accordion!
[laughing]
*
- There's the cartoon
of a fella dying and going up to Heaven.
There, St. Peter has a harp.
He said, "Welcome to Heaven, here's your harp."
And there's a guy going down the other way
and there's the Devil
saying, "Welcome to Hell, here's your accordion."
[laughing] *
- The joke is: a guy goes to the store and
takes his accordion to the mall and leaves it in the car,
goes in shopping,
and he comes back and there's seven more in his car.
- When I was 10, my accordion was stolen
out of the back of dad's station wagon
after they'd just packed up.
And that's all they took was my accordion.
Did it ever get returned? - No. [laughing]
Speaking of accordion jokes, it's an honest to God truth.
Someone actually stole an accordion,
they didn't put one in.
*
- Perhaps more than any other instrument,
the accordion is associated with polka music.
- They don't call it the "stomach Steinway" for nothing.
You can take an accordion, play by yourself,
and sound like a whole band.
- It's the only instrument
that you can start a party all by yourself.
I can't do it with a trumpet.
- But I can!
["Sneaky Pete"]
The accordion actually is a classical instrument.
The United States is probably the last country on earth
that considers an accordion
anything but classical
and has probably the largest stereotypes.
Okay, if you play the accordion, you're fat
and you've got to have lederhosen.
*
[whistles sharply]
- So how is an accordion different
than a concertina?
- The word in German for chord, a musical chord,
is Akkord.
And so an Akkordeon is an instrument
where you can press one button and get a chord.
[plays chords]
And on a concertina,
you just get one note per button regardless.
So if you want to make a chord,
you have to press two or more buttons.
- When they were first made, they just had
relatively few buttons, if you will, on each side.
When they added more octaves,
they left those existing buttons where they were
and they filled in around that.
- Kind of like the letters on a keyboard.
You know, they're not in alphabetical order or anything,
they're just based on usage.
- Don't you think that the guy
that really put them together had to be drinking a lot?
- I think so. [laughing]
- There's really no rhyme or reason
to what the pattern on the things are.
I never could figure it out.
- No matter where the buttons are, Karl Hartwich,
from Galesville, Wisconsin, has certainly figured out
how to play the concertina.
- He is the best concertina player that I know
on the face of this earth.
He plays so well.
- Aw, thank you, Jim. - I oftentimes--
- Aw! [smooch] - [chuckles good-naturedly]
*
- Karl was attracted to the instrument from a young age.
- I grew up with it when I was a little kid,
and I've just always loved the sound of the concertina.
It's got a nice reedy sound to it.
When I was five, six years old, I decided I wanted to play
either concertina or accordion,
and I decided to go with the concertina.
And I'm glad I did.
Because they just seem like they're more fun than accordion.
- Molly B: It's "Eddie's Waltz."
- Hey, hey! - Mark on the clarinet.
Karl and Jim on the concertinas.
- Just think: three down!
- Polka players are easy-going on the stage.
- I wish you "sto lat."
Sto lat, just like the shirt says, sto lat.
That means "May you live one hundred years!" in Polish.
- And they love interacting with their crowd.
- How many people paid to get in here today?
You were charged way too much! [laughing]
- One of the things about polka bands
is they have a very close relationship
to their audience.
- Are you having fun, Bob?
Is everybody having fun? - [audience cheers]
- There's a strong connection
between the musicians and their audiences.
They're not haughty,
they're not up on an elevated stage.
- You're a regular guy or gal.
You'll be out there
helping lug the amps and hooking up the cords.
- Test one, two, check.
Testing one, two, one, two.
- Just like everybody else.
- Musicians are the heart and soul of polka.
But only a few manage to do it full time.
And none of us are driving Ferraris.
- Well, I gave up on the first million,
I'm working on the third. [laughing]
Never happen, will it? - No.
- Not the way you pay! [laughing]
- You cannot make millions of dollars on polka music, no.
This is a hobby that we enjoy,
and everybody's got regular jobs.
So we come back to the real world on Monday.
Dragging your feet.
[sighing melodramatically] Uggghh!
*
- A lot of times, we don't get home
'til 3 or 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning
and go home, take a shower, and go right to work.
- A typical gig,
you might spend three, four hours
driving to it, and longer sometimes.
- It usually turns into a 16-hour day.
- Yeah.
- Travel is the hardest thing 'cause
not only are you a full time musician,
but you're always,
you're also just like a full time truck driver.
*
- One of Wisconsin's great polka players
is Steve Meisner from Whitewater.
At the age of five,
his extraordinary polka journey began
with a discovery in his grandmother's house.
- Her attic was always full of stuff.
My brother and I came across a 12-bass accordion.
And I said to grandma,
"Do you think my dad would teach me how to play this?"
And she said, "Well, when he comes to pick you up,
we'll ask him."
And he gets there, picks us up
and I said, "Dad, will you teach me how to play this accordion?"
And he said, "Sure, if you promise never to quit."
So that's it.
- So you never quit?
- I never quit.
- You started playing when you were five.
When did you step foot on stage and start playing?
- When I was six.
- Oh! So, very very soon.
- My goal when I was a kid
was to play with my dad.
So that's all I really wanted to do.
- Hey, how about a little father and son duet here?
*
- Steve's dad was the great Verne Meisner.
Hailed by the New York Times as "one of the titans of polka,"
Verne began his career playing in local bars at the age of 11.
- * Oh my She's making eyes at me
* Yeah
- He was a full time musician
his entire life,
a well-known bandleader around the country.
You could walk into any tavern
and the jukebox would have Verne Meisner on it.
- * She wants to marry me
* And be my honey babe
- Verne and Steve Meisner
primarily play Slovenian style polka,
a style that features the accordion.
*
- Slovenian style has always been
kind of the jazz side of polka music.
Most Slovenian-style bands,
they know how the melody's going,
doesn't necessarily mean we're gonna play
those exact notes tonight.
They're just feeling it and playing it.
- Okay, has everybody got their dancing shoes on?
Let me look around out there.
Okay, a one, and a two.
Polka time!
*
- Steve's dream of playing with his dad would come true.
In 1984, father and son
release the album Meisner Magic .
- That was so close to me,
because it was the first one I got to play second accordion on.
I wrote some songs, he wrote some songs.
And from that point on, every album after that
I helped produce and make all of his albums.
- Steve continued recording and performing with his dad,
but he would go on
to establish himself as an accordion virtuoso.
- His piano accordion playing is amazing.
He's able to do the bass part and totally counter melodies.
So he might be making this fantastic run going up,
while his bass side with his left hand
is coming down, doing a run.
It's like, "That's mind blowing."
*
- Steve gives all the credit to his dad.
He never stopped learning from the master.
- Just listening to his music
or just watching him,
he was the best teacher I could ever have.
Even when he wasn't teaching me, he was teaching me.
Kickin' his feet
or jumpin' around.
He would just light up the stage when he played.
- Are y'all havin' a good time?
- Yeah!
- Verne Meisner passed away in 2005 at the age of 66.
He's been inducted into several polka Halls of Fame.
But perhaps Verne's biggest legacy is what he gave his son.
* We don't want to go home
* We're having too much fun
* Yes we are
* We don't want to go home
- To me there's only one guy.
It was Verne Meisner.
He truly was, from day one, my inspiration.
- * We don't want to go home
* We're having too much fun
- [cheers and applause]
- Hey!
- Polka music is the soundtrack of Wisconsin.
*
And it turns up in all sorts of places in our state.
Festivals, bars, weddings,
and even sporting events like Badger football games.
[crowd cheers excitedly]
[band plays "You've Said It All"]
*
- [crowd sings] * When you say WIS-CON-SIN
* You've said it all
[band plays final notes]
But one of the most unusual places you'll find polka...
- Welcome to our polka worship service.
It is wonderful to be here.
- ...is at church.
- We're gonna use a few of our band instruments
that we have here today.
- This is an ecumenical polka church service.
It's based on a Roman Catholic tradition in the Midwest,
dating back to the 1970s, called a Polka Mass.
It's like other church services,
but instead of an organ or choir, there's a polka band.
- ["Chapel in the Valley"]
* Oh La! Oh Lee Oh!
* Please take our troubles for today
- The band plays religious songs
but with a polka beat.
*
- People don't dance at a Polka Mass.
They sing along to the music, as usual.
- * Great things happen when God mixed with us
- A Polka Mass is commonly held on Sunday mornings
at festivals like this one:
the Wisconsin State Polka Festival in Oconomowoc.
Another place you can attend a Polka Mass
is at a church picnic.
And one small town in Wisconsin
throws a mighty big one.
Church picnics featuring polka music are a summer staple
in communities across Wisconsin.
But the one in Bevent has become an event .
[indistinct conversation]
- Bevent is a small Polish community
about 20 miles north of Stevens Point.
It's here
that Saint Ladislaus Catholic Church
puts on a very popular picnic.
They've named it
"Event in Bevent."
- The main objective is a fundraiser for the parish.
And it's a way of getting people to come together.
The work it takes to put something like this on
is unbelievable.
- The chicken dinner served at Event in Bevent is very popular.
Bevent native Adeline Domask
oversees preparation of all the food.
- Chicken and ham.
Sauerkraut and sausage.
Chicken soup with the homemade noodles.
Potatoes, gravy, stuffing,
and about 300 pies, we make.
Everything homemade.
You better eat fast. [laughing]
- The food is served by
a small army of bustling volunteers.
The most experienced among them is Mattie Wanta.
- Cutting the bars.
Cakes and bars and all that stuff.
- Mattie's been a church volunteer for a long time.
- Uh, 72 years.
- She's lived in Bevent all of her 96 years,
and fondly remembers dancing the polka
with anyone she could find.
- My sister and partners and boys and whoever.
- You did not dance with boys!
- Yes I did.
- And Mattie's favorite kind of music
probably won't surprise you.
- Polka!
*
- Of course, polka is the big draw at Event in Bevent.
*
- Bevent's church picnic attracts
a large and enthusiastic dance crowd every summer.
This year, that includes
the extraordinary couple, Ashley and Randy Thull.
They're award-winning dancers
who teach people across the country how to polka.
They start with the basic polka step.
- We teach a six-step pattern.
- Okay.
- And if you're the lead,
you'd start with your left foot.
If you're the follow, you'd start with your right foot.
And it's pretty much left-right-left,
right-left-right.
You just keep doing that six-step pattern over and over.
And eventually things happen.
*
* Yee-whoo
We just like to go out and have fun,
like everybody else is on the dance floor.
- The primary difference
is we do try to add a little ballroom and swing
and some other dances.
- Whether it's polka or salsa
or any of the other ballroom forms,
a lot of the stuff just kind of intertwines,
and it's easy to put into the polka.
*
[Ashley laughs]
- You two are fabulous dancers.
Do you find that people
are embarrassed to go out and try dancing,
or don't feel it's welcome to go out there if they're a beginner?
- I don't think polka's like that.
I just really want to see
people go out and have a good time.
* It's enough to set my feet a-dancing
* Dancing
* Dancing all the night away
- Even if you don't know how to dance a polka,
you can get out there and bounce around and have fun.
I mean, really, no one's gonna to criticize you.
- It's true.
If you look around the dance floor,
everybody's smiling and having a good time.
*
- John and Lynn certainly have a good time.
They've both worked tirelessly to promote polka
throughout their lives.
And what better way to promote it than with dancing?
- I met her at a dance hall.
She was there one night. I was there.
We danced.
I said, "Wow, we do a good job together!"
So, here we are.
- John and Lynn have won many dance contests,
often placing higher than much younger couples.
- A lot of the routines that we do in polka,
we can incorporate in other forms of dancing
like swing, South American.
We do them all.
- I've loved it from little on.
I truly think I came out of the womb dancing the polka.
*
- She's 80 and I'm older than her.
- Much older.
Much older. - Eighty and a half.
- We just, we have a good time.
- John and Lynn may not be typical dancers.
But they're in the most common age group that likes to polka.
- One, two. Check one, two.
Testing one, two.
Check one, two.
- For a regular dance,
it's basically an older crowd.
But some of them are out there,
they walk in the door with a cane or whatever sometimes.
And as soon as
you start playing, the canes are gone
and they're out there dancing,
and you're thinking "How does this happen?"
- [counting out beat in German] Eins, zwei, drei, vier.
*
- The doctor said to my wife,
"What do you guys do for exercise?
You should really do an exercise program."
Well, we polka.
"Oh, that's it!
Don't worry about exercising."
So, polka definitely keeps you young.
- It keeps us alive [laughs] and moving!
*
- I just tuned 82.
- I'll be 79 next week.
- We really have a good time.
- It's wonderful, we love it.
*
- One of the things about a real dancing crowd is
that the couples are on the floor almost the whole evening.
- It's kind of unreal.
If you stick around here, you'd see
that some of the same people dancing, like, eight hours.
I mean it's like they're about on the floor
about every time there's music going on!
- They just have fun.
*
- Polka has played matchmaker
for a lot of the couples you see
on a typical dance floor.
- We met at a polka dance.
- We'd go to all the local festivals
and we'd meet up once in a while,
and just stayed in contact.
- I'd send him an email, "When's the next dance?
Is your dance card open so I could have a dance?"
And he said, "It's pretty full."
Because why did you start dancing, dear?
- Oh, for the women.
*
- I do a slide polka and she was nuts about it.
- I love to do the slide polka.
- And we really go.
We kind of do that while we're dancing.
And go like... Hell? [laughs sheepishly]
Makes us feel good.
We care for each other.
- We love it! - Yeah, it's great.
*
- My wife and I danced every week,
for 60 years.
Every dance hall around this area
that had polka music.
- Herman Pfund met his wife, Kathleen, in 1939.
They were married for 65 years before she passed away.
Herman is now 95 and will never forget
finding Kathleen.
- I met her in New Glarus here
at the-- used to be-- the Wilhelm Tell Hotel.
Her and her girlfriend were at a dance,
and I knew her girlfriend.
She introduced me to my wife and after that...
Whoa! That was it.
- Did you dance the polka the first time you met?
- Oh, you bet we did!
And ever since after that.
- Thank you. - Yeah.
- You guys know how to polka?
- I know how to polka.
- Perfect! We wanna see you out there.
- Polka is also a way we celebrate love.
- Just take that moment in.
Hold it right there.
Beautiful.
- We've been going out to Madison, Wisconsin.
The Essen Haus.
That's actually the first time we've polka-ed.
And had never really done it before.
But when we went out there,
everyone was out there dancing
and we just had a great time.
- Hey, you look beautiful.
- Both of our families had polka at their wedding, our parents.
Like, it's super fun.
- Well, Melinda and Justin,
congratulations to you both.
And thank you so much for having us
be a part of your special day.
We really-- It is an honor for us.
And, of course, this is a celebration.
And there's no better way to celebrate
than with good old-fashioned
polka music.
- Whoo! *
- You know, years ago,
all you had were polka bands at weddings.
And things have changed.
But every now and then,
you'll still get a polka band at a wedding
because they know what a wedding needs to really liven things up.
*
- Hey, hey!
- Hey! Ho!
- There's a high Polish community and German,
so it's great for this area.
I think polka's perfect.
- Polka is Wisconsin.
- Hey! Whoo!
- [cheers and applause]
- We're having fun now! - [laughing]
*
- Polka is a tradition that bonds us together.
For many, it evokes our fondest memories.
- There's something special about polka
that makes it easy to share with others.
It connects us to our history, to our state,
and especially to our families.
- It was such an important part
of my grandparents' life.
On Sunday afternoons,
it was a big family dinner at their place,
and we would dance in the dining room
and dance in the living room.
We have a family Christmas Eve party
that's been going on for 70 years.
And I had a great uncle,
he played Christmas carols playing accordion.
So that's a huge part of who I am and where we come from.
- My mom will be 90 this year
and we were standing right over here last year.
And she hasn't danced in a while.
She's got bad hips and all this and that.
So she agreed to dance with me off of the dance floor.
And we spun around a few times and we just had a great time.
It was a great memory.
- On his family's farm,
Ralph Thull has always tuned the radio to polka.
His daughter Michelle remembers one reason why.
- My dad thinks the cows milk better to polka music.
- We always used to play it in the barn all the time.
- I remember in the parlor,
he'd, of course, have the polka music on.
And sometimes if there was hired help,
they would come and switch the station.
And I remember my dad saying,
"The cow's milk much better.
"They're more well-behaved.
"Everything just works better
if you just keep that dial on polka music."
[Ralph laughing] [cows mooing]
- * We're going to have
* A polka celebration
- Wherever I play,
I see people filled with happiness and joy.
Polka really is the music and dance
of celebration.
- We are all in it for the fun.
And most people don't like that much fun.
But we're not most people.
- Everybody's smiling.
Everybody's having a good time.
It's just such a joy to be here.
*
[whistles invitingly]
- It's fun!
How can you not have fun with polka music?
You hear it
and you just want to dance,
you want to have a great time.
It's a beautiful thing.
- Lisa was selected to be this year's Polka Queen
by the Wisconsin Polka Boosters.
They're dedicated to the promotion the polka tradition.
- They're looking to bring out folks
who also have an interest and a love for music
who haven't been exposed to this.
We talk about it.
We share on Facebook and social media
events that we're going to.
So we get to expose this awesome music to a whole new generation.
[Box On singing "North Shore"]
* Gdzie mi sie
* Podzialy te siwe golebie
* Co mi podziubaly
* Dziewczynie po gebie
- This is not exclusively
a music for the retired.
It still is thriving today.
There are new and creative artists.
There are wild young people,
there are older senior polka bands,
and everything in between.
- We'll all stay in polkas for the rest of our lives.
It's who we are, it's in our blood.
I can't really see how it could ever die.
*
- People have been saying that it's going to die
since the 50s when it had its heyday,
but here we are
and it's still going. [laughing]
- In Wisconsin,
we celebrate life through polka.
- Whoo hoo!
- And what a wonderful life that is.
- [cheers and applause]
- Yay,"Polish Boyfriend."
- [cheers and applause continue]
- Polka! is funded in part by
Stanley J. Cottrill Fund,
International Polka Association
Wisconsin Dells Polka Fest
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.