WISCONSIN POLKA: Bernie Roberts / Pretty Red Wing / Pageant 701 / 1955

Bernie Roberts was born Bernard Robert Feilbach on August 16, 1921, to John and Bertha (Mueller) Feilbach in Milwaukee, WI. The family relocated to Beaver Dam, and at age 15 Bernie learned to play the accordion, playing for house parties and birthday parties. In the early 1940s Bernie played with several local bands including Shorty and the Rhythm Ramblers, Johnny and the Grenadiers, and Lenny and his Melodians. In 1944 Bernie and a bass-playing friend, Norbert Neis, started a new band, the Bernie Roberts Orchestra, which included four of Bernie’s siblings: Violet, AKA Blondie, on 1st trumpet and featured vocals; Marcella on piano; Johnny on trumpet, sax and clarinet; and Oscar on drums; with the addition of Howard Haase on bass horn. The band toured Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois before making their first recording for Pfau Records of Milwaukee, “Jolly Musicians Polka,” in 1949. By 1952, Bernie was recording for Decca Records, and in 1954, he started his own label, Pageant Records, releasing over a dozen records during the next decade, most of them by his own band. Bernie’s sister, Violet, was a frequent singer on the sides, and was credited as “Blondie” on the labels and in newspaper ads, where she also used the stage name “Roberts.” The band hosted the Bernie Roberts Show, a Saturday evening program on radio station KXEL, in Waterloo, IA, for 11 years, from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s. Bernie married Marianne Deming of Hustisford, WI, on August 9, 1970. Having begun to experience health problems in 1969, Bernie and the band stopped performing by 1972. He and his wife moved to Garden Grove, CA, where Bernie busied himself as harness-horse trainer, owner and driver, something he and his brothers John and Oscar had participated in since the 1950s. In 1999, Bernie and the band were elected to the Wisconsin Polka Hall of Fame. Bernie “Roberts” Feilbach passed away October 5, 2004, in Anaheim, CA. Bernie Roberts Band members over the years included bass players Gary Johnson and Erwin Gassner; and piano players George Freeman, George Flint and Carol Neumann. Bernie’s sister, Violet Feilbach (4/4/1927-2/16/2020), was the singer “Blondie,” and married Elmer Moungey in 1952. Her obituary mentions neither a trumpet nor her musical past. [Pretty Red Wing, Bernie Roberts, Pageant 701, recorded 1955, matrix F9OB-3682] The flip side of this disk is At the Spring Waltz:    • WISCONSIN POLKA: Bernie Roberts / At the S...   Polka Playlist:    • Polka Time