"We were Brigham City's premier dance band," retired insurance salesman Earl Madsen says proudly. The only surviving member of the Merry Makers Orchestra, popular in the northern Utah area during the 1920s and '30s, the 83-year-old Madsen described his experiences:
"It was about 1925 when I joined the Merry Makers," he recalled. "I was a freshman or sophomore in high school at the time. I was occupied by the band two or three nights each week and every Saturday night and holiday through the winter and the summer. I guess that's what kept me on the straight and narrow through my growing up years," he says with a smile."We would play for both large and small groups, but our big assignments were out at Crystal Springs and at the Bluebird. We played at Crystal Springs for years and years," Madsen said. "For a couple of years, we went out two nights a week, all summer long. After that we'd go at least one night a week."
At the time the Merry Makers were playing at Crystal Springs, the route between there and Brigham City was a gravel road. "I don't think the dust ever settled on that road from the time just before the dance until after one or one-thirty in the morning.
"The county sheriff always had to be on hand," Madsen related with a grin. "Those were the days of `home brew.' There was a guy in Honeyville that capitalized on that. He put the bottles in the mailboxes out on the streets and the fellows would stop by and pick it up."
The Bluebird Ballroom was located on Brigham City's north main street. "On Peach Days, we would play at the Bluebird until midnight, gather up our trappings and get in the car and go up to Crystal Springs. We'd start at 1 a.m. and play until 4. At Crystal Springs, we wore our sport uniforms and at the Bluebird, we wore tuxedos.
"You'd never believe we played for three dollars a night. In those days, those were three big dollars. I was just a kid going to school, but I had more money than most parents. I saved my money to finance my mission."
Madsen studied piano and had played the clarinet in junior high. In high school, the band director picked him to be part of a dance band. "I bought a new (saxophone) and went once a week to practice. But every band practice, I'd `horse' around on the drums," he says.
Just two days before the Harvest Ball, the band director asked Madsen for a favor. " `Our drummer just came down with the mumps this morning,' he told me," recalled Madsen. "`I can't get a drummer to fill in, but I can get a sax player if you'll play the drum.' I said, `Sure, I'll do that.' And I played by ear."
The young woman who took Madsen's place on the saxophone was Thyra Morgan. Morgan already had a successful band of her own, an all-girls group called the "Gayety Girls," but they had one problem. "They didn't have a drummer," smiled Madsen. "She told me, `We'd like to hire you to play with the Gayety Girls.' So I said, `OK' - that meant money."
After a year with the Gayety Girls, Madsen was hired by the Merry Makers. "I hadn't blown one note on my saxophone and so I sold it. The woods are full of sax players," he quipped. "I spent my years playing the drums."
Earl Madsen estimates the Merry Makers were formed "in 1920 or '22. The problem is that all the original members are dead. No one ever wrote down the date they began playing together."
The Merry Makers performed for Brigham City residents from all walks of life. Whether for the town's elite Danzante dance club or a group of exuberant teenagers, they were always in demand.
In addition to various Brigham City locales, including the exclusive Commercial Club located on the top floor of the First Security Bank Building, the orchestra played to crowds in dance halls throughout the county.
"We were out in Willard and Bear River City every other week," says Madsen. "Fielding once a month, the county fair, even over to Logan."
But the end of an era was coming. In 1937, the manager of Crystal Springs, Walter A. Chamberlain, purchased the Bluebird Ballroom. In association with Orlando Petersen, Chamberlain renovated and redecorated the aging dance hall.
The grand reopening, held on Saturday, Oct. 16, 1937, was reported by the News and Journal:
"All lovers of dance are invited to attend the opening ball. Music will be furnished by the Merry Makers Orchestra, with Elaine Kofoed as soloist. An effort will be made to make the dances at the Bluebird this winter so interesting and entertaining that the young people will find great pleasure in dancing here and hence will not have a desire to go away from home for this pleasant and healthful recreation."
For a while, dances at the Bluebird thrived. Many starry-eyed teenagers met their future spouses while dancing under the "sparkling ballroom lights."
"I remember the ball that hung in the middle of the dance floor. It was covered with chips of glass," said Dorothy Pugsley. "It was beautiful."
Despite the hall's popularity and Walter Chamberlain's aspirations, both the Bluebird and the Merry Makers, like many of their contemporaries, would not survive another decade.
"I quit the Merry Makers in about 1940," Madsen says. "My wife said I had to choose between her and the band - I had missed too many nights' suppers. From there on, I don't think they lasted very long. Not to say I was an important cog in the wheel. But they had been playing for so long, they, too, were getting to the point where they wanted to have a little more time for themselves."
Minnie Jensen said the original Merry Makers played over KSL radio in the 1920s. However, no recording was ever made of the popular orchestra. Likewise, no recording was ever made of the Gayety Girls.