Embedded Files
During the summer of my 17th year (1963), I had a summer job as a Rodman on a leveling crew for the US Geological Survey out of Waynesboro, VA ["leveling" is the process of establishing exact elevation above sea level, which is essential for producing accurate topographic maps]. It was my first experience living away from home. I rented an upstairs room from the Wells family, whose son Gene was a year younger than me and played organ in a local rock band "The Weekenders" (see picture below). Through Gene I met Charlie Mathias, leader of the Top Hats from Harrisonburg, which is about 30 miles north of Waynesboro on US Rt. 11. I filled in for the Top Hats' organist Larry May (pictured below) while he performed Marines Corps active duty. On July 27, 1963 I played the Harrisonburg Moose Lodge along with Eddie. On July 3-4, 1964 I played Crafton's with Eddie and Tom, and on July 10 I played a swim dance with Eddie.
The Top Hats had a regional hit with "No Letter Today." Playing in the Top Hats was my first experience in a professional show band. These guys did a lot more than just play music; they entertained audiences with a non-stop, energetic stage show. They made a set list and played one song after another with no breaks between songs for people to sit down. I learned that the longer you can keep a crowd on the dance floor, the more beer they'll buy, and the more likely the bar owner will invite you back. They brought the party to the crowd with a strong visual element including matching outfits and choreographed dance steps. Billy Hunter would do forward rolls on the stage while playing leads.
The next summer I teamed up with a high school band while working in Ocala, FL. They were good musicians but lousy entertainers and were eager to learn how to elevate their game to the next level. So I schooled them on the lessons I learned from the Top Hats. A year later, an agent from Nashville happened to be in the audience where they were playing in a Tampa club. He was impressed with their showmanship offered them the chance of a lifetime: Put music to a song called "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron." And thus the Top Hats had a part in the success of the Royal Guardsmen. Click here to read more about the Royal Guardsmen.
Here are a couple of the Top Hats' promo pictures:
Below is the 1963 Top Hats ledger showing the first gig I played with them in 1963 (July 27):
The next summer (1964) I played three dates with the Top Hats (July 3-4 at Crafton's and July 10 at a Swim Dance).
Below is an excerpt from an article Montpelier, the magazine of James Madison University, which is located in Harrisonburg. You can read the entire article at http://www.jmu.edu/montpelier/2003Summer/FP_MadisonWaterin.shtml
Madison's Waterin' Holes
Students congregate at the hot spots of yesteryear
Story by Chris Edwards December 11, 2003
Design by Lynn Allgood ('03)
IN THE 1930S, MADISON COLLEGE students crossed two-laned Main Street to get to the Bluebird Tea Room, operated by one Mrs. Gussie Travis. From 1948 to 1967, that red brick house, reborn as Doc's Tea Room, was still the place to hang out.
First came Doc's Grill, a six-seater opened circa 1946 by Harold "Doc" and Viola Loewner on East Market Street. Norman Dean recalls, "The college kids would come around Fridays and line up around the bank building." Two years later, the Loewners moved to the ex-Bluebird.
Their "Doc's Tea Room" was dry, of course, like all of Harrisonburg. Yet Dean, who worked there and became owner in 1963, recalls, "Every night we had crowds till 10:30 or so when we closed." Fortuitously, in that strict era, "It was considered 'on campus.'" The jukebox played six tunes for a quarter. By the '60s, a hamburger cost 30 cents. The ceiling sported about a hundred college pennants, many donated by customers. "They'd say 'you don't have our pennant,' and then in a couple of weeks we'd get one in the mail."
The site at 1007 South Main Street that replaced both Doc's and the adjoining Esso has hosted a progression of bars and eateries, including JM's and the current Buffalo Wild Wings.
In bygone years, says Leona Armentrout, downtown merchants recognized students because "they dressed in suits and hose." Armentrout, now 87, once worked at The Famous Restaurant, which was in business for more than 50 years. (Its site on North Main would later house Joker's and currently a Mexican restaurant.) Nearby, the old Kavanaugh Hotel's restaurant was "where the bluebloods of Harrisonburg would go on Sunday after church" - and students on Parents' Days and graduations.
Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year is Kline's Dairy Bar, where lines of parched Madisonians still wend around the building and across the parking lot for a cone or cup of its famous old-style ice cream.
On Main Street east of the courthouse, students frequented Julias' (named for owner Gus Julias), beside the Virginia Theater, and Friddle's. "You'd go to a movie, then to Julias' for a Coke," Dean recalls.
The Top Hats, like Doc's Tea Room, had a name not quite in sync with their style. Band members chose "Top Hats" to ease parents' jitters about links of rock to delinquency. Then they got too well known to change it, explains electric bass-player Charles Mathias. For a decade starting in 1958, they played Top 40 rock, rhythm-and-blues, Righteous Brothers, Kingsmen and Rolling Stones sounds. Mathias (who later owned Charles Mathias Menswear) and electric guitarist Bill Hunter (later of Ace Electronics) attended Madison in the early '60s. Singers were the late Larry May and Eddie Clatterbuck. Hunter's current band, Blue Suede, resurrects the sound.
The Top Hats were the lead act in a faux log roadhouse at Crafton's Park near Staunton. Madison students often drove U.S. 11 to Staunton, which preceded Harrisonburg for brew on-premises. Another jumping Staunton joint was the Rocket Room, a former fallout shelter.
In the 'Burg, the Top Hats played Doc's on Tuesdays. "That's where we met all our girlfriends," Mathias says. To allow serving space, they only played 15 minutes per hour. Gigs also included Rivenrock Park graduation fests and backing visiting celebs J. Frank Wilson and Tex Ritter. If a fight broke out at a dance, the band kept playing. That was rare, Mathias adds: "It was a completely different era." Men wore sports coats and ties. Almost everyone came with dates.
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Here is Gene Wells' band, The Weekenders:
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