They All Took Requests

The type of music a person likes, in my opinion, is formulated from the time they are around 8 until they are 16. Once they start driving and dating, other interests take over. For me, those formidable music years were the 70's. At first, there was only one local radio station, KGMO and the FM thing wasn't universal yet. My radio just had AM so I went with the 1550 version. I discovered, around 1975, that you could pick up music from St. Louis on KXOK, AM 63 (apparently there weren't rules or standards for what a station claimed as their frequency, 63 was equivalent to 630). I also found that if you didn't mind the fade in and fade out too annoying, WLS in Chicago (AM 89) was a great pop/rock station. With my AM radio and TV showing American Bandstand, Soul Train, the Midnight Special and Don Kirschner's Rock Concert, I thought had all the tools to keep myself current with what was popular in the music world.

Four things happened when I started Jr. High that changed how I perceived music.
"First, for lunch we could go to Maxine's Drive In, and they had a jukebox loaded with current music courtesy of Lemon's Vending machines. Suddenly, and still for free because the older kids paid and selected, I could here what was new without a static filled radio.
"Second, Pizza Shack came to town. They had a back room sort of like the mafia would have, except in it there was the jukebox. An even better selection of songs were in there and suddenly I was in top 40 heaven.
"Third, I discovered the world of purchasing 45's at Kielhofner's. It never made much sense that the place we got blue jeans and shoes carried music but as I learned, because of the owner's tie in to the music world, he kept a better music selection than most stores have today. Ben Franklin also carried singles so it became a two-pronged attack when I wanted to buy a record, we could price shop for something costing only a dollar.
"Forth, and most importantly, as part of Jr. High, we got to go to High School dances and discover the magic of the Sock Hop DJ.

My world changed forever that first time I went into the old gym for a dance. It was after a football home game and it was my first sock hop. You could hardly hear the person asking you for $1.00 to enter because the music rocked the building. You could also see the flashes of light coming around the corner, beckoning you in to "boogie". When you passed the ticket counter and entered the gym, the world had changed. On the floor were dozens of people dancing. Lights flashed from what seemed every angle. You couldn't hear yourself speak, let along your friends. And then you looked up on stage to see the most fascinating conglomeration of electronics you had never even thought was possible. The DJ!

During the 70's, Chaffee High Schools sock hops and school dances such as homecoming or Mogul, were musically catered by one of three major players.
"David Pepple had the Manassa Sound System. Not sure where Manassa was, except perhaps during the Civil War the South had some Rebel Dance after victories. General Sherman apparently stopped all the dances but failed to prevent the 1863 DJ from selling the naming rights. Manassa was good and seemed to get a small but regular portion of the gigs.
"Rodney Phegley had his own system somewhere around 1976. I can't recall any special name but I remember he did have power. He also was self sufficient, meaning he could DJ a show by himself. The lights ran off some automatic system so there was a pattern.
"Finally, the big dog, Eddie Martin. He cleverly named his show the American Sound System, my guess was to have controversial initials. Eddie got the bulk of the CHS dance gigs, and for good reason. He was the biggest and the best. It took a sizeable trailer to get all that he had to the dance. It took 4 hours set up. It also took a couple of "roadies" to haul around. He also had one person dedicated to taking the requests from attendees. But the key difference was that Eddie had 2 performers. Big Ed was the DJ of course. He did the announcing, music selection, put the records on the turntable, cueing them up to start on his command, and be the overall producer of the spectacle. His other performer is what made him stand out. He had a "light man". No computerized lights, no auto flashers, Eddie had his light man, which was almost always Mitchell Glency, flipping 5 light switches each connected to a certain color flood light, completely in time to the music. The light man had to move fast, switching on then off, each switch in flow with whatever was playing. He had to know each song. He went so fast he had to put athletic tape on his fingers just to prevent blistering from the light show. And between the light man and Eddie, you had such precision, that they always knew exactly when the lights would go out and the strobe would come on. This was especially pointed out during Bachman Turner Overdrives "Takin' Care of Business". When the band stopped playing instruments and just sang an extended chorus, you knew the regular lights were going out and the dance floor was going to be flooded in strobe. They also knew that when the slow song came on, only blue light, solid through the song was appropriate so guys could try to be romantic on the only song they would dance to. Eddie also had a massive mirror ball suspended above the dance floor (OSHA would have a field day today) and he timed its use to perfection. For many of us, our first time to make out with a girl occurred with Eddie looking down from his perch onto the dance floor. He was our musical wingman.

I am sure that after the old gym was torn down, Eddie still played some gigs in the new gym, but they couldn't have been as good. Even though it was built in the 1920's, the old gym seemed to be constructed just for Eddie Martin to play at the dances. I recall basketball games where a guy would inbound a ball under the goal and have to turn his feet sideways not to step over the line. I recall that during the 2nd game, players from the first game (JV) would run across the court in a towel just to get to the showers (can you imagine the trouble you would get for that today?). I remember shaking the backboard from the balcony when Otto Porter attempted a free throw. I even remember donkey basketball and a pro wrestling event. But my fondest memory, without a doubt, of the Old Gym, will always be any one of the dozens of sock hops spent in awe of the American Sound System. Anyone can hum a tune to the radio. But the high school dance provided that first challenge we all needed in life to take a bit of a risk and ask a girl to dance. Whether they said "yes" or "no" didn't matter. You had worked up the courage and that boldness would stay with you forever. Having Eddie Martin blasting Led Zepplin just made the experience more enjoyable. Now you just had to gracefully get off the dance floor before "Stairway to Heaven" transitioned from slow to a fast song.