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November 7, 1999
Music Hall of Fame dedicatedHall of Fame finds new home informer city libraryBy SARA SYVERSON Journal Staff Writer NEW ULM -- Grand opening festivities attracted music lovers Saturday to the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame at its new location at 1st North and Broadway Streets. The all day event featured a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:30 a.m. and various music entertainers throughout the day. "We had a very good turnout for the ribbon cutting -- we had 50 plus people were out there," said Executive Director of the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Dodie Wendinger, "It's been continuous people coming through. I'm sure the largest concentration was in the first hour. It's an event that people are coming and going." The festivities were kicked off with the 11th annual Minnesota Music Hall of Fame Induction ceremony and banquet Friday evening at the Holiday Inn. The 1999 Inductees this year include the Minnesota Orchestra, Dominic Argento, Lamont Cranston, Harvey Heffron, Tony and Betty Wolf, and Bill Hinkley. The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame is located in the old museum basement by the New Ulm Public Library. The space is leased by the City of New Ulm for a five year period beginning June 1, 1999. Entertainment was from 10:30 to 4 p.m. with the sounds of various performers filling the air such as Slivers and Jeannie Dewanz, the Concord Singers, Michael's Minstrels, Syl Liebl & Friends, Elmer Scheid with the Kahle Brothers, Bill Hinkley, and the Schell's Hobo Band. The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame's early beginnings dates three years prior to its incorporation in 1988 with a group of people in the New Ulm area who wanted to see a preservation of music history in Minnesota. There is presently 14 members on the board of the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame. "Both my husband and I are historian-type people who love history," said Wendinger, "And we saw a music history dying...big time...because we knew these people the (people like) Fezz Fritsche...and all of these greats, but the children to come aren't going to know who these people are and they are not going to understand and appreciate them. We need document these things and we need to keep that music alive." All kinds of music are represented in the Minnesota Hall of Fame and for a musician to be inducted, he or she must first be nominated. The displays in the Hall of Fame feature photographs and other memorabilia of musical artists. Musicians such as Bill Hinkley, Syl Liebl, Slivers and Jeannie Dewanz, the Kahle Brothers, Elmer Scheid, Judy Garland, Bob Dylan, Bobby Vee, Dennis Morgan, and others can be seen in the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame. "We like to induct somebody while they are still living," said Wendinger, "I have met the most wonderful inductees in my life. The people we've inducted are warm-hearted and the music spectrum is unbelievable. It also is a very humbling experience to meet these people...very humbling...I mean you're talking to the 'greats.' You're talking to people that 100 years from now my children will be talking about these people and I got to meet them and I got to share with them." Anyone can be nominated into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Wendinger said. The person nominating the individual must write a history of the person and the reasons why this person should be inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame. This information stays in their files forever, Wendinger said.
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