["Goodtime Charlie Polka" Uncle Julius] [inaudible German], eins, zwei.
- Jim Kirchstein: Right around '46, '47,
which found me still in high school,
I went over to
Fish Lake Dance Hall one night,
and on the stage was Uncle Julius.
And he was dressed as Charlie Chaplin,
that kind of gear.
He put together all the best musicians he could find.
And they sounded fantastic.
I kind of got hooked on Old Time music right then.
When I did get into the music business
a few years later, I realized that
that music will never grow old.
- Narrator: After serving four years in the Navy,
Jim Kirchstein
came home to study electrical engineering
at UW-Madison.
- I arranged to have all my classes in the morning
so I could go back to Sauk City.
My brother built a toy shop in Sauk City,
and he let me use the basement to set up a record store.
I got my degree in '58.
And I kind of stayed with the music business
rather than go to work, so to speak.
["Midnight Express" Willie Tremaine's Thunderbirds]
- Narrator: Buying some used recording equipment
and a machine to cut the grooves of a master disc,
Kirchstein produced his first record
for a local band.
- I used a German sign on the record
as a way my little way
of discrediting
the military in Germany of using that sign.
And I got a call from RCA in Chicago,
our contact there.
He said that we can't use that German sign anymore.
We're getting too many raised eyebrows.
He said, "I got you a re-order here.
What label should I use? What name?"
[projector hums and clicks] And I often admired
a cousin of my wife's
from New Mexico, who was a teacher.
Her name was Cuca.
*
- Narrator: A big break came
when Kirchstein recorded a song
by a Madison band called the Fendermen.
- And it was called "Mule Skinner Blues."
- You mean to tell me that you haven't heard it?
- No, I haven't heard it. Here, play it.
It's really terrific, Suzy.
Wait'll you hear it.
- And I had a little room-- not a very big room--
but that was the first studio--
and re-recorded the "Mule Skinner Blues."
I had 300 records made
and circulated them through all radio stations
that I could find.
In those days, they would play your record.
- Excuse me, ladies. I have a special request.
["Mule Skinner Blues" the Fendermen]
- * Good morning, Captain
* Good morning to you
* Hah-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha *
* Do you need another mule skinner *
*
* Down on your new mud run
* Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha *
- And I got a call from Lincoln, Nebraska.
Disc jockey, he said,
"I'm getting so many requests I'm getting sick of it."
- * Hee, hee, hee, hee, hee - And then when all of a sudden
Lindy Shannon from the La Crosse radio station
called, and he said, "I think you've got something here."
- * Well, I'm an old...
- Narrator: News of the song reached a music promoter
with national connections,
who leased it from Cuca Records.
- And all of a sudden,
the boys appeared on Dick Clark .
That helped a lot because the record broke.
It started climbing the charts,
and I think it was around 2 million sales
is when we were kind of wondering
where our royalties were.
- You promised you'd let me look at the books tonight.
- Why, Proctor,
you know I wouldn't cheat you out of a penny.
The books are right here.
Come back sometime when I'm not so busy.
- Kirchstein: We had to litigate in order to get our money.
Out of the $50,000 I had coming,
after I'd paid the attorney,
I had $9,000 left.
But I used that $9,000 to build a studio,
and Cuca Records was off and running.
Doc DeHaven was our first album.
["Just Off State Street" Doc DeHaven]
[upbeat Dixieland jazz music]
Every little town in Wisconsin had a rock band.
Every little town had a polka band.
And we recorded them both.
["Broken Wine Glass Polka" Verne Meisner]
["Sidewinder" Vibra-Tones]
*
It was one thing after another.
We had bands coming in from all over.
["Sneeky Pete Polka" Verne Meisner]
- Narrator: To deliver records faster,
Kirchstein set up his own record-pressing plant
in Sauk City.
- We had an open-door policy
where we didn't charge for recording.
- He would let bands come into his studio,
and he would donate
the studio and his time as an engineer
to record them for free
because he would make his money on the back end
through pressing.
There's a lot of people that traveled
from every corner of Wisconsin
to take advantage of that.
- Toward the end of the '60s,
we had released over a thousand records,
mostly rock 'n roll.
["Gonna Take My Guitar" B Hodge] - I'm gonna take my guitar and leave this town *
* I'm gonna find me a new place to hang around *
* Baby, I ain't comin' back for a long long spell *
["Slippin' And Slidin'" The Citations]
[surfer rock]
- And then, of course, there's bluegrass.
["Bluegrass Breakdown" Bluegrass Hoppers]
- He was recording blues from Chicago.
["Dust My Broom" Earl Hooker]
[the Blues]
- Narrator: Cuca became well-known
for recording the "Old Time Music"
of Wisconsin's polka and ethnic musicians.
["Lovers Waltz" The Jolly Swiss Boys]
- Nate Gibson: He was recording
Czech bands, German, Polish,
Slovenian, Norwegian, Swiss.
All these different groups were coming through.
["Herdsman's Dream" Edelweiss Stars] * Yodel-oh-ee-dee Diddly-odel-oh-ee-dee *
* Diddly-odel-oh-ee-dee Yodel-oh-ee-dee-yodel-oh-dee *
* Yodel-oh-ee-dee Diddly-odel-oh-ee-dee *
- Nate Gibson: He was recording
a snapshot of what Wisconsin sounded like in the 1960s
and a lot of it.
["Long Hot Summer" Betty Moore vocalizing]
* Oh, hot summer
- Chorus: * Too much to pay - * My own way
["Do Lord" Chieftones] - * Lord, oh, good lord
* Oh, do you remember me?
* Look away beyond the blue
["Home Style Polka" Roger Bright]
[energetic polka]
["Spring" Birdlegs and Pauline] - both: * I feel that spring is coming on *
* I feel it all in my bones *
["Little Miss Brown Eyes" Vilas Craig] * Little Miss Brown Eyes
* I really do believe
* You don't care for me at all *
["Saxophone Schottische" Dick Rogers]
[slow polka]
["Little Dobro Polka" Goose Island Ramblers]
*
["Old German Polka" Syl Groeschl]
- Narrator: In the 1970s,
people began copying vinyl records [needle scratches LP)
onto audio cassettes.
And as record sales fell, Cuca--
like many independent labels--
began to fade away.
Eventually, Jim Kirchstein
donated master recordings--
and the Wisconsin music they preserve--
to the Mills Music Library at UW-Madison.
- Kirchstein: I liked the idea of having these recordings
of all these bands--
they were almost all from Wisconsin--
that I could make sure would never get lost.
["Swiss Echoes" Betty Vetterli & Martha Bernet]
And the music I don't think will ever grow old.
*