"The best thing I've seen in years."
Enthusiastic feedback from the estimated 200 attendees of all ages buoyed Saturday night's Night of Nostalgia at the Lars Hockstad auditorium into a must-do-again happening. Intended as a fundraiser for the Grand Traverse Pioneer & Historical Society, the variety show's lower than hoped for attendance morphed the event into a "friendraiser," noted organizer Ann Hoopfer.
But that did not lessen the enjoyment of those lucky enough to take a musical stroll through Traverse City history, accompanied by a slideshow of more than 300 historical photos.
"I have received so many raves and kudos about the show, about the quality of the performances and how it just seemed to be such a happening and everybody loved it," noted Hoopfer, adding that the show broke even but sowed the seeds for an annual tradition. "Everyone is saying, 'Oh, you have to do it again and everyone will come because it was really terrific.'"
Hoopfer spent an intense three months putting together the show, lining up performers, sifting through photographs and writing a detailed script for emcee Al Bonney. The Night of Nostalgia looked back to music dating from 1859, opening the show with Native American music. The ensemble Evergreen then played a reel, a jig and a waltz, illustrating some of the music that might have entertained the first white settlers of the region after a hard day in the fields.
Thirteen more acts followed, guiding the audience through the Civil War, vaudeville, the Great Depression, World War II, 1950s, 1960s and the modern era. In addition to the majority of musical numbers, poet Jim Ribby recited a Civil War era poem and a comedic poem by Robert Service. A collector of antique talking machines, Jim Warner played "Mr. Dooley's Medley" on an Edison cylinder device, with a 21st Century microphone broadcasting sound from the old-fashioned horn speaker.
The event concluded with a sing-a-long as all the performers led the crowd in singing "This Land is Your Land" and "God Bless America."
"I was amazed, surprised, it was way beyond what I expected we were going to put on," said Bob Wilson, president of the Grand Traverse Pioneer & Historical Society. "I just felt very proud of the community and all the people who donated their talents."
Hoopfer, too, enthused about the talent and time donated by the performers.
"God bless them, they weren't paid and did it out of the goodness of their heart," she said. "I knew that from the get go, that we have so many people in the community: they aren't famous, they aren't big names but they are really, really talented."
The backdrop of projected historical photos followed the eras forward through the decades of Traverse City history. Hoopfer drew on the Historical Society's extensive collection of "two-dimensional" items: thousands of images from the 1800s to the mid-1900s.
Finding pictures to illustrate the past 40 years was a challenge. Hoopfer delved into seven cardboard boxes of pictures that were dropped off ten years ago at the Con Foster Museum by a Traverse City Record-Eagle photographer. Destined for the trash, these pictures — spanning the 1950s-1980s, but not labeled or dated by year — represent the bulk of the society's modern photo collection.
But Hoopfer has an idea.
"I want the society to organize a series of scanning days where people can come in and bring their photographs and we can scan them, get information and give them right back," she said.
On Thursday, April 13, Grand Traverse Heritage Center executive director Dan Truckey and photographer John Robert Williams will discuss the S.E. Waite exhibit currently at the center, one of the last chances to see these Traverse City historical photographs. Doors open at 7 and the program begins at 7:30; there is no admission fee but donations to the Historical Society will be accepted.