The “Dick Rodgers Orchestra” dates from 1945, when Dick was a senior in high school in Pulaski, Wisconsin, just northwest of Green Bay. His father, Joe Rodziczak, played drums and violin, and Dick learned piano, drums and concertina. The Orchestra played engagements throughout the Midwest including Wisconsin, Upper & Lower Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. In 1949, Dick recorded for the Pastel Label in Chicago, and later for Pfau, Decca, Jay-Jay, Gold Star and Polkaland. The “Dick Rodgers Show,” featuring the “Dick Rodgers TV Recording Orchestra,” was broadcast from 1955 to 1978 on WLUK-TV and WBAY-TV.
Dick and Joan (Birr) Rodgers were married in 1951, and had four children, all of whom became musicians. Dick’s day job was in the insurance business that his father, Joe, had started in 1937 and Dick took over in 1953 (which Dick’s son, Steve, in turn, took over in 1988). A local paper reported that Dick said “he always made more from his insurance agency in Pulaski than he did from his income as a national polka star.” The insurance office was located at 131 West Pulaski Street, next door to the “Stop-Inn” Patio Ballroom at 133 West Pulaski Street, known as “Dick Rodgers’ Stop-Inn” from 1969 through 1973. Advertised as “the action spot of Pulaski,” the “Stop-Inn” hosted musical entertainment three nights a week and Sunday afternoons, and, in addition to “sandwiches and mixed drinks,” featured a Friday night “trout boil.”
In 1976, Dick retired from the band to care for his ailing parents and attend to his insurance agency. Band member and multi-instrumentalist Fredolin “Fritz” Willfahrt took over Dick’s orchestra, which became the “Fritz Willfahrt TV Recording Orchestra.” After leaving the orchestra, Dick continued to play music (even reviving the orchestra in 1988) until he had a stroke in 1995. Dick Rodgers passed away in Pulaski on January 22, 2004. Joan Birr Rodgers passed away in her native Green Bay the following year, on July 2, 2005.
[The “Stop-Inn” appears very briefly at the 11-second mark of a video of downtown Pulaski from 1981: • Downtown Pulaski in around 1980. Video tap... ]
https://www.polkamart.com/Biographies...
https://concertinamusic.com/dick-rodg...
[Woodland Polka, Dick Rodgers & his Orchestra, Polkaland 639, recorded 1960, matrix L70W-3846]
The flip side of this disk is Bill's Waltz: • WISCONSIN POLKA: Dick Rodgers & His Orches...
Polka Playlist: • Polka Time
Accordiana Playlist: • Accordiana
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