Schuylkill Express Chorus
Proud Members of
In 1938, O. C. Cash and Ruppert Hall held a singing get-together of local men who had an interest in barbershop harmony. They met on the roof of a hotel in Tulsa, OK and when the singing started all activity in the downtown area stopped to listen, including traffic, much to the dismay of the police. And thus, the Barbershop Harmony Society had its informal beginning. To those who might be wondering, it was called originally (and still is officially) the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing of America or SPEBSQSA.
Word of this meeting spread throughout the nearby area then to other parts of the country including the Northeast where several groups began forming local organizations. On Friday evening, October 26, 1945, a giant step was taken. At a meeting in Newark, N. J., attended by 27 men from 12 chapters, the Mid-Atlantic District Association of Chapters was organized. Carroll Adams acted as temporary chairman and described the growth of the International Society, which numbered 197 chapters by this time. Representatives of chapters in Baltimore, Wilmington, York, Jersey City, Newark, and Paterson spoke on their individual problems, their successes and their hopes. With these men, representatives from chapters in the Bronx, Union City, Bayonne, Woodridge, Hackensack, and Brooklyn voted to apply for a District charter, which was issued by the Society on December 1, 1945.
In Pottsville, as in many other cities and towns across the country, there were groups of men singing in backrooms of all sorts of establishments, in living rooms and kitchens and anywhere else where they were tolerated just for the fun of ‘ringing’ a few good chords together. Prior to World War II, there existed a Men’s Chorus (Liederkranz Chorus) but the war effort plus men leaving to serve in the military left little time and a scarcity of talent so the chorus was disbanded in the early ‘40s. When the war ended in 1945 and our servicemen returned home, those who enjoyed singing got wind of the Barbershop movement. I took a few years but soon there was a Pottsville Chapter, which began meeting in 1951 sponsored by the Mahanoy City Chapter.
One of the early meeting places was the old Liederkranz Hall located in the 300 block of W Norwegian St in Pottsville. This chapter remained together until 1954 when they disbanded. An attempt was made in 1956-1957 to get the group back together again, but was dropped due to lack of participation. There was no chapter in Pottsville until 1975 when another attempt, sponsored by the Mahanoy City chapter, was tried and resulted in the chartering of the current Pottsville Area Chapter in 1976.
Initially the singing was by the chorus but soon saw the formation of several quartets emerging from Pottsville Chapter. The Miner Chords and Sawmill 4 were two of the most successful but there were others who enjoyed success to varying degrees. Pottsville was a very active chapter for many years.
In 1976 Pottsville produced their first show, and without interruption over the years, the annual shows have become a prime activity for our chapter. The chorus and its quartets also competed in the local district competitions.
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