Earl Hunt led many bands and made much music

Published 12:00 am Saturday, June 29, 2002

For over five decades various combinations of musicians under the leadership of Albert Lea’s Earl Hunt provided the popular dancing and listening melodies for people in north Iowa and south Minnesota.

This popular band leader of another era was born on Feb. 25, 1893, in Davenport, Iowa, and grew up in Belle Plaine, Iowa, where he attended school.

Hunt, a percussionist or drum player, started his musical career at the age of 14 in a theater orchestra, or what was then also called a &uot;pit band.&uot; These musicians provided sound effects and mood music for silent films. He later played with several traveling circus bands and vaudeville musical groups.

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During World War I. Hunt served with the U.S. Army and became a drummer in a military band.

After his discharge from military service in 1919, Hunt organized the first of several musical groups which traveled the Midwest from Canada to Mexico for at least two decades.

In the early 1920s the saxophone became a very popular instrument. As a result, there were soon saxophone quartets, quintets and sextets. A 1920 photo in the files of the Freeborn County Historical Museum shows six musicians in clown costumes who were playing as Hunt’s Saxophone Band.

Then there was a trend to small orchestras playing ragtime, dixieland and popular melodies. This trend resulted in the organization of Hunt’s Novelty Band in the mid-1920s.

The first indication of Earl Hunt becoming an Albert Lea resident can be found in the 1930 city directory. His occupation is listed as that of orchestra.

A listing of musical groups at the Freeborn County Historical Museum says he was the leader of Hunt’s Golden Dragon Orchestra from 1926 to 1932. This somewhat larger ballroom-type orchestra was what was once called a &uot;territory band.&uot; And in that era these traveling musical groups were based in centrally located towns such as Albert Lea and managing to play nearly night at ballrooms, fraternal halls and various clubs all over the Midwest. A later group was Earl Hunt’s Band.

In 1933 Hunt moved to Glenville and lived there for a few years. This was followed by residence in Mason City, Iowa. In 1949 Hunt moved to Russellville, Ark., where he owned and operated a Maid Rite Cafe for several years.

By the time Earl Hunt and his family moved back to Albert Lea in the early 1950s, the orchestra business was in decline and many area musicians were becoming part time participants. Thus, he went to work as a full time employee in the furniture department of Skinner Chamberlain and Co.

During the years he was associated

with the city’s premier department store, Earl Hunt was the organizer and leader of Skinner’s Clown Band.

One of the members of this band was Bob Hershey of Albert Lea. He said Earl played the &uot;traps&uot; (set of bass and snare drums with cymbals). Earl’s son, Howard Hunt, played the bass horn, and two trombones and three trumpets comprised the rest of the band. They played circus type marches and galops.

Bob said the band members wore clown suits, make up and pointed hats. They road on floats or flatbed trucks and participated in parades and played at the Freeborn County Fair.

&uot;The clown band was good p.r. (public relations) for Skinners,&uot; Bob commented.

Hunt was a lifetime member of the American Federation of Musicians. During the years he lived in Albert Lea, he was affiliated with Local 567. This resulted in Hunt organizing still another musical group in the mid-1960s. This was the ALMA Band. Those initials are based on the Albert Lea Musicians Association.

The players were members of area combos and both old time and new time bands. Earl would name the next tune to be played and set the tempo with a downbeat on his drums.

Hershey said the ALMA Band played two or three times a year in parks and on the Fourth of July.

Earl L. Hunt died on Nov. 5, 1974, and is buried in Glenville’s Greenwood Cemetery. However, his musical legacy lives on with the official name of the Earl Hunt ALMA Band. And the next concert by this group of area musicians is scheduled to take place on the afternoon of Aug. 4

at Edgewater Park Bandshell as part of the city’s summer live music program