Announcer: The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

[Clarinet Polka]

Speaker: It’s at our festivals.

Speaker: Our sporting events.

Speaker: Our churches.

Speaker: It’s even our official state dance.

Speaker: What is this music?

Speaker: It’s polka!

Speaker: Happy music. Polka music, right?

Speaker: Polka is the soundtrack of Wisconsin.

Speaker: Polka is Wisconsin!

Speaker: And it has a special way of bringing people together.

Speaker: My wife and I danced every week for 60 years.

Speaker: It’s music that’s made for dancing; begging you to clap your hands, tap your feet, and get out onto the floor.

Speaker: Why did you start dancing, dear?

Speaker: For the women.

[Squeezebox plays “Let’s Have a Party”]

Mollie Busta: 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”]

Mollie Busta: 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)]

Mollie Busta: I’ll discover its scandalous beginnings.

Speaker: Queen Victoria forbad the polka to be danced in her presence.

Mollie Busta: Visit some of Wisconsin’s great polka festivals.

Speaker: I call this a Polish Woodstock.

Mollie Busta: And talk to some of the people keeping this folk tradition alive.

Speaker: We’re just having fun.

Speaker: Yeah, having fun.

Speaker: And most people don’t like that much fun.

[laughing]

[“Pod Krakowem Czarna Rola” (The Black Soil of Krakow)]

Mollie Busta: Join me, Mollie B, for a celebration of

Crowd: Polka!

[cheers and applause]

Announcer: 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]

Richard March: 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”]

Brian Bruemmmer: 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.

Speaker: It’s happy music.

Speaker: You don’t see many fights or anything at the polka music.

Speaker: We fight after!

Speaker: 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.

Band: Ee eye ee eye ee eye oh.

Crowd: Ee eye ee eye ee eye oh.

Jay Welhoelter: 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.

Speaker: Whoo!

Mollie Busta: 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”]

James Leary: If you want to look at a dance form that distinguishes Wisconsin from other placesnot only in the nation, but also in the worldit’s polka music. And so it’s fitting that it’s our official state dance.

[cheers and applause]

Mollie Busta: 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.

Richard March: The world “Polka” essentially means Polish woman, like “Polk” 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”]

Mollie Busta: 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.

Richard March: 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.

Mollie Busta: There isn’t much historical evidence to support this origin story. It’s more likely that polka emerged out of another couples’ dance.

Jay Welhoelter: I say it came from the waltz.

[waltz music]

Mollie Busta: 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.

Richard March: 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]

James Leary: Well, predictably, the polka was condemned as licentious and horrible. In the 1850s, Queen Victoria forbad the polka to be danced in her presence.

Mollie Busta: 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)]

Richard March: 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.

Mollie Busta: 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.

James Leary: 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)]

Mollie Busta: 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”]

Mollie Busta: Every year, The Roger Bright Memorial Polka Fest in New Glarus attracts thousands of people. For some, the event is personal.

Mike Martini: 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”]

Eric Martini: 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.

Herman Pfund: I come here every year. Sit and enjoy, and meet people, and drink beer and listen to the music.

Mollie Busta: 95 year-old New Glarus resident Herman Pfund is a true polka lover. For over half a century, dancing was one his great passions.

Herman Pfund: 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.

Speaker: [laughing] Hey!

Mollie Busta: 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”]

Mollie Busta: 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.

Mollie Busta: 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]

Mollie Busta: 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.

Mollie Busta: 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.

Danny Jerabek: I call this a Polish Woodstock.

[“Polish Boyfriend”]

Mollie Busta: What are you grilling?

Speaker: Polish sausage.

Mollie Busta: At Pulaski, you can have tasty Polish fare, like a pierogi and a cabbage roll.

[drummer strikes cymbal]

Crowd: Yeah!

[cheers and applause]

Mollie Busta: But what brings in the big crowds is polka.

[“Old Time Polka Dance”]

Mollie Busta: LeAnn and her Aunt Sue are from a Polish family. They’ve traveled to every Pulaski Polka Days for over ten years.

LeAnn: 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)]

Mollie Busta: Sue and LeAnn enjoy dancing to the festival’s Polish style bands, which attract a new audience.

Richard March: 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.

Mollie Busta: Many of the young people dance in the hop style, which came out of the Polish community.

Speaker: You dance in double time to the music. One, two, three, hop! One, two, three, hop!

Mollie Busta: This new generation of dancers is one reason Pulaski Polka Days is so unique.

Mollie Busta: 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?

Harold Loeffelmacher: 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.

Mollie Busta: Pulaski’s famous festival is a joyful reflection of its Polish pedigree.

Jay Welhoelter: People are just very uninhibited in terms of enjoying themselves, enjoying one another, and just having a great time.

Speaker: Once you’re here once, you’ll come back every year.

Speaker: You’ll come back. You will.

[cheers and applause]

Mollie Busta: Hello, Pulaski!

Crowd: Whoo!

[“Ein Prosit”]

Band: Ein Prosit, ein Prosit. Der Gemtlichkeit…

Mollie Busta: Germans were the largest European immigrant group to settle in America. And today, over 40 percent of Wisconsin residents have German ancestry.

Band: Der Gemtlichkeit.

Mollie Busta: Oktoberfests are beer celebrations held throughout Wisconsin and the nation. They’re inspired by the annual Oktoberfest held in Munich, Germany.

Mollie Busta: This Oktoberfest is hosted by German restaurant Essen Haus in Madison. People come dressed for the occasion, whether they have German ancestry or not.

Speaker: This place is nothing but German culture here. Most people have something German on. Or they’re carrying something German… in a glass.

Ernie: Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke.

Crowd: Hoi, hoi, hoi!

Ernie: I can’t hear you. Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke.

Crowd: Hoi, hoi, hoi!

[“Fest Polka”]

Speaker: So they may be Irish as can be, but today they’re German.

Mannerchor Guys: Oans! Zwoa! G’suffa!

Mollie Busta: 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”]

Band: Well in Heaven there is no beer. That’s why we drink it here.

Speaker: Beer!

Speaker: Gotta have beer. Beer has everything in it, right?

Mollie Busta: 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.

Jay Welhoelter: 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.

Mollie Busta: It’s a beverage associated with community and celebration, just like polka. And you’ll find beer served at most polka dances.

Randy Thull: 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.

Speaker: Hey! Woo hoo!

Speaker: Ah, we’re getting’ goin’ now.

[“Dorf Kapelle”]

Mollie Busta: 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”]

Band: We’re gonna have a polka celebration. You bring your friends out. And I’ll bring mine.

Brian Bruemmmer: I grew up with my grandmother teaching me how to polka, and I stood on her feet as she taught me how to polka.

James Leary: The polka is a multi-generational dance. It’s grandma and grandpa, and their kids, and the little kids.

Richard March: 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.

Speaker: Whoooooooooooo!

Band: We’re gonna have a polka celebration. You bring your friends out.

Randy Thull: Well, you know what? Put a polka record on for a kid. Watch what happens.

[“Gornick’s Polka”]

Brian Bruemmmer: I don’t care what nationality they are, you put on music that’s going [singing bass line] 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”]

Speaker: 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.

Band: 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.

Speaker: 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”]

Mollie Busta: Zander and his family seem to have polka running through their veins. But they’re not alone.

[“The Tinker Polka”]

Mollie Busta: 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?

Speaker: 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”]

Speaker: 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”]

Mollie Busta: 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?

Mollie Busta: And on occasion, I still get to play along with dad.

Ted Busta: 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.

Mollie Busta: 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.

James Leary: 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)]

Mollie Busta: 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.

Rick Vinecki: 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.

Mollie Busta: 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”]

Band: You’re why God made me.

Mollie Busta: But what do the kids think of all this?

Box On Member: 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.

Box On Member: It’s fun to just do it as a family and interact with each other.

Box On Member: It’s not stressful.

Box On Member: No, it’s not stressful at all.

Box On Member: 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!”

Box On Member: Yeah, they’re young and awesome looking so it’s like, “Yeah, you can tag along!”

Alicia Vinecki: 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)]

Band: Karolenka don’t you cry. I will never say goodbye.

Rick Vinecki: 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.

Box On: All right, Pulaski, come on everybody. Here we go: Box! On! Box! On!

Mollie Busta: Rick and Alicia have a talented polka family. Alicia comes from one herself.

Mollie Busta: 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.

Hank Guzevich: 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]

Hank Guzevich: Oj od krakowa jade. Z dalekiej obcej strony. Bo mi nie cheilei dac.

Mollie Busta: The Guzevich family switched to polka music, calling themselves The Polka Family Band. But their appearance threw audiences for a loop.

Hank Guzevich: We have moustaches, long hair, and we’d get up there, and we start singing.

[singing in Polish]

Hank Guzevich: Oj Boze Boze Moj Boze.

Hank Guzevich: And all these Polish people are like, “What in the heck is going on? That’s a bunch of Mexicans singing in Polish!”

Hank Guzevich: Graj Chlopcy Graj I na wodke mi dac. Graj Chlopcy Graj I wodke popijac. Graj Chlopcy Graj.

Mollie Busta: After nearly 40 years, multiple Grammy-nominated Hank Guzevich is the only original Polka Family Band member.

[singing in Polish “We Are Family Polka”]

Band: We are family. Polka family.

Mollie Busta: 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”]

Mollie Busta: 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?

Ralph Thull: 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.

Michelle Jerabek: 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.

Mollie Busta: Ah, I love it! And their reaction was?

Michelle Jerabek: They’d move away from me. [laughing]

[“Southern Belle” by Copper Box]

Mollie Busta: Ralph Thull’s daughter, Michelle, is now married to Danny Jerabek. Danny comes from a polka family, too: the Tuba Dan Band.

Danny Jerabek: 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.”

Mollie Busta: 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.

Michelle Jerabek: 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.

Band: Everybody, now. I love to polka. When I’m dancing with my sweetheart.

Mollie Busta: 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]

Mollie Busta: 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.

Band: And a one, two…

[accordions bellow opening note]

Richard March: The big divide among squeezebox players is between concertina players and accordion players.

Mollie Busta: What’s the difference between a concertina and an accordion?

Speaker: It takes longer to burn an accordion! [laughing]

Karl Hartwich: 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]

Randy Thull: 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.

Mollie Busta: 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?

Ted Busta: No. [laughing]

Mollie Busta: Speaking of accordion jokes, it’s an honest to God truth. Someone actually stole an accordion, they didn’t put one in.

Mollie Busta: Perhaps more than any other instrument, the accordion is associated with polka music.

Jay Welhoelter: They don’t call it the “stomach Steinway” for nothing. You can take an accordion, play by yourself, and sound like a whole band.

Randy Thull: It’s the only instrument that you can start a party all by yourself. I can’t do it with a trumpet.

Michelle Jerabek: But I can!

[“Sneaky Pete”]

Michelle Jerabek: 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]

Mollie Busta: So how is an accordion different than a concertina?

Karl Hartwich: 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]

Karl Hartwich: 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.

Richard March: 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.

Jim Leary: Kind of like the letters on a keyboard. You know, they’re not in alphabetical order or anything, they’re just based on usage.

Randy Thull: Don’t you think that the guy that really put them together had to be drinking a lot?

Ralph Thull: I think so. [laughing]

Brian Bruemmmer: There’s really no rhyme or reason to what the pattern on the things are. I never could figure it out.

Mollie Busta: No matter where the buttons are, Karl Hartwich, from Galesville, Wisconsin, has certainly figured out how to play the concertina.

Jim Leary: He is the best concertina player that I know on the face of this earth. He plays so well.

Karl Hartwich: Aw, thank you, Jim.

Jim Leary: I oftentimes

Karl Hartwich: Aw! [smooch]

Jim Leary: [chuckles good-naturedly]

Mollie Busta: Karl was attracted to the instrument from a young age.

Karl Hartwich: 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.

Mollie Busta: It’s “Eddie’s Waltz.”

Speaker: Hey, hey!

Mollie Busta: Mark on the clarinet. Karl and Jim on the concertinas.

Speaker: Just think: three down!

Mollie Busta: Polka players are easy-going on the stage.

Speaker: I wish you “sto lat.” Sto lat, just like the shirt says, sto lat. That means “May you live one hundred years!” in Polish.

Mollie Busta: And they love interacting with their crowd.

Speaker: How many people paid to get in here today? You were charged way too much! [laughing]

James Leary: One of the things about polka bands is they have a very close relationship to their audience.

Speaker: Are you having fun, Bob?

Speaker: Is everybody having fun?

Crowd: [audience cheers]

James Leary: There’s a strong connection between the musicians and their audiences. They’re not haughty, they’re not up on an elevated stage.

Randy Thull: You’re a regular guy or gal. You’ll be out there helping lug the amps and hooking up the cords.

Speaker: Test one, two, check.

Speaker: Testing one, two, one, two.

Randy Thull: Just like everybody else.

Mollie Busta: 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.

Ralph Thull: Well, I gave up on the first million, I’m working on the third. [laughing] Never happen, will it?

Randy Thull: No.

Ralph Thull: Not the way you pay! [laughing]

Rick Vinecki: 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!

Brian Bruemmmer: 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.

Randy Thull: A typical gig, you might spend three, four hours driving to it, and longer sometimes.

Michelle Jerabek: It usually turns into a 16-hour day.

Danny Jerabek: Yeah.

Randy Thull: 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.

Mollie Busta: 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.

Steve Meisner: 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.

Mollie Busta: So you never quit?

Steve Meisner: I never quit.

Mollie Busta: You started playing when you were five. When did you step foot on stage and start playing?

Steve Meisner: When I was six.

Mollie Busta: Oh! So, very very soon.

Steve Meisner: My goal when I was a kid was to play with my dad. So that’s all I really wanted to do.

Speaker: Hey, how about a little father and son duet here?

Mollie Busta: 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.

Verne Meisner: Oh my. She’s making eyes at me. Yeah.

James Leary: 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.

Verne Meisner: She wants to marry me. And be my honey babe.

Mollie Busta: Verne and Steve Meisner primarily play Slovenian style polka, a style that features the accordion.

Brian Bruemmmer: 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.

Verne Meisner: Okay, has everybody got their dancing shoes on? Let me look around out there. Okay, a one, and a two. Polka time!

Mollie Busta: Steve’s dream of playing with his dad would come true. In 1984, father and son release the album Meisner Magic.

Steve Meisner: 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.

Mollie Busta: Steve continued recording and performing with his dad, but he would go on to establish himself as an accordion virtuoso.

Brian Bruemmmer: 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.”

Mollie Busta: Steve gives all the credit to his dad. He never stopped learning from the master.

Steve Meisner: 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.

Verne Meisner: Are y’all havin’ a good time?

Crowd: Yeah!

Mollie Busta: 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.

Verne Meisner: We don’t want to go home. We’re having too much fun. Yes we are. We don’t want to go home. We don’t want to go home.

Steve Meisner: To me there’s only one guy. It was Verne Meisner. He truly was, from day one, my inspiration.

Verne Meisner: We don’t want to go home. We’re having too much fun.

[cheers and applause]

Speaker: Hey!

Mollie Busta: Polka music is the soundtrack of Wisconsin.

Mollie Busta: 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: [crowd sings] When you say WIS-CON-SIN. You’ve said it all.

[band plays final notes]

Mollie Busta: But one of the most unusual places you’ll find polka…

Pastor: Welcome to our polka worship service. It is wonderful to be here.

Mollie Busta: …is at church.

Pastor: We’re gonna use a few of our band instruments that we have here today.

Mollie Busta: 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”]

Band: Oh La! Oh Lee Oh! Please take our troubles for today.

Mollie Busta: The band plays religious songs but with a polka beat.

Band: Great things happen when God mixed with us.

Mollie Busta: 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]

Mollie Busta: 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.”

Speaker: 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.

Mollie Busta: The chicken dinner served at Event in Bevent is very popular. Bevent native Adeline Domask oversees preparation of all the food.

Adeline Domask: 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]

Mollie Busta: The food is served by a small army of bustling volunteers. The most experienced among them is Mattie Wanta.

Mattie Wanta: Cutting the bars. Cakes and bars and all that stuff.

Mollie Busta: Mattie’s been a church volunteer for a long time.

Mattie Wanta: Uh, 72 years.

Mollie Busta: She’s lived in Bevent all of her 96 years, and fondly remembers dancing the polka with anyone she could find.

Mattie Wanta: My sister and partners and boys and whoever.

Speaker: You did not dance with boys!

Mattie Wanta: Yes I did.

Mollie Busta: And Mattie’s favorite kind of music probably won’t surprise you.

Mattie Wanta: Polka!

Mollie Busta: Of course, polka is the big draw at Event in Bevent.

Mollie Busta: 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.

Randy Thull: We teach a six-step pattern.

Mollie Busta: Okay.

Randy Thull: 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.

Ashley Thull: Yee-whoo.

Randy Thull: We just like to go out and have fun, like everybody else is on the dance floor.

Ashley Thull: The primary difference is we do try to add a little ballroom and swing and some other dances.

Randy Thull: 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]

Mollie Busta: 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?

Randy Thull: I don’t think polka’s like that. I just really want to see people go out and have a good time.

Band: It’s enough to set my feet a-dancing. Dancing. Dancing all the night away.

Ashley Thull: 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.

Mollie Busta: It’s true. If you look around the dance floor, everybody’s smiling and having a good time.

Mollie Busta: 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?

John Mlsna: 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.

Mollie Busta: John and Lynn have won many dance contests, often placing higher than much younger couples.

Lynn Mlsna: 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.

Lynn Mlsna: I’ve loved it from little on. I truly think I came out of the womb dancing the polka.

John Mlsna: She’s 80 and I’m older than her.

Lynn Mlsna: Much older. Much older.

John Mlsna: Eighty and a half.

Lynn Mlsna: We just, we have a good time.

Mollie Busta: John and Lynn may not be typical dancers. But they’re in the most common age group that likes to polka.

Speaker: One, two. Check one, two. Testing one, two. Check one, two.

Randy Thull: 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?”

Speaker: [counting out beat in German] Eins, zwei, drei, vier.

Speaker: 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.

Speaker: It keeps us alive [laughs] and moving!

Speaker: I just tuned 82.

Speaker: I’ll be 79 next week.

Speaker: We really have a good time.

Speaker: It’s wonderful, we love it.

Richard March: One of the things about a real dancing crowd is that the couples are on the floor almost the whole evening.

Randy Thull: 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!

Brian Bruemmmer: They just have fun.

Mollie Busta: Polka has played matchmaker for a lot of the couples you see on a typical dance floor.

Speaker: We met at a polka dance.

Speaker: We’d go to all the local festivals and we’d meet up once in a while, and just stayed in contact.

Speaker: 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?

Speaker: Oh, for the women.

Speaker: I do a slide polka and she was nuts about it.

Speaker: I love to do the slide polka.

Speaker: 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.

Speaker: We love it!

Speaker: Yeah, it’s great.

Herman Pfund: My wife and I danced every week, for 60 years. Every dance hall around this area that had polka music.

Mollie Busta: 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.

Herman Pfund: 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.

Mollie Busta: Did you dance the polka the first time you met?

Herman Pfund: Oh, you bet we did! And ever since after that.

Mollie Busta: Thank you.

Speaker: Yeah.

Mollie Busta: You guys know how to polka?

Speaker: I know how to polka.

Mollie Busta: Perfect! We wanna see you out there.

Mollie Busta: Polka is also a way we celebrate love.

Photographer: Just take that moment in. Hold it right there. Beautiful.

Justin: 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.

Photographer: Hey, you look beautiful.

Melinda: Both of our families had polka at their wedding, our parents. Like, it’s super fun.

Mollie Busta: 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.

Speaker: Whoo!

Randy Thull: 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.

Speaker: Hey, hey!

Speaker: Hey! Ho!

Speaker: There’s a high Polish community and German, so it’s great for this area. I think polka’s perfect.

Speaker: Polka is Wisconsin.

Speaker: Hey! Whoo!

[cheers and applause]

Speaker: We’re having fun now!

[laughing]

Mollie Busta: Polka is a tradition that bonds us together. For many, it evokes our fondest memories.

Mollie Busta: 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.

Michelle Jerabek: 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.

Randy Thull: 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.

Mollie Busta: On his family’s farm, Ralph Thull has always tuned the radio to polka. His daughter Michelle remembers one reason why.

Michelle Jerabek: My dad thinks the cows milk better to polka music.

Ralph Thull: We always used to play it in the barn all the time.

Michelle Jerabek: 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]

Band: We’re going to have. A polka celebration.

Mollie Busta: Wherever I play, I see people filled with happiness and joy. Polka really is the music and dance of celebration.

Jay Welhoelter: We are all in it for the fun. And most people don’t like that much fun. But we’re not most people.

Speaker: Everybody’s smiling. Everybody’s having a good time. It’s just such a joy to be here.

[whistles invitingly]

Speaker: 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.

Mollie Busta: Lisa was selected to be this year’s Polka Queen by the Wisconsin Polka Boosters. They’re dedicated to the promotion the polka tradition.

Lisa: 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”]

Box On: Gdzie mi sie. Podzialy te siwe golebie. Co mi podziubaly. Dziewczynie po gebie.

James Leary: 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.

Box On Member: 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.

Brian Bruemmmer: 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]

Mollie Busta: In Wisconsin, we celebrate life through polka.

Speaker: Whoo hoo!

Mollie Busta: And what a wonderful life that is.

[cheers and applause]

Speaker: Yay, “Polish Boyfriend.”

[cheers and applause continue]

Announcer: Polka! is funded in part by Stanley J. Cottrill Fund, International Polka Association, Wisconsin Dells Polka Fest and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.