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Essentials in
History
Founding of SPEBSQSA plaque restored to Hotel Muehlebach in Kansas City
Founding of SPEBSQSA Plaque resumes its original position.
Updated: 5/14/2003 2:14:00 PM
Above, the Founding of SPEBSQSA plaque, from an original 1963 photo.
In March of 1938, Tulsa businessmen O.C. Cash and Rupert Hall were stranded in Kansas City due to weather. The two, who knew each other slightly, were staying at the Hotel Muehlebach and met in the lobby. The conversation turned to barbershop singing, for which they shared a fondness. They rounded up two other men and spent the evening harmonizing.
A month later, on April 11, Cash, Hall and 26 friends met to sing on the roof garden of the Tulsa Club. The idea for our Society was born that night.
In April 1963, on the Society’s 25th anniversary, the Kansas City Chapter and the Society placed a plaque in the lobby of the Hotel Muehlebach to commemorate that fateful initial meeting between Cash and Hall.
Years later, the Muehlebach was scheduled for major remodeling, and much of the lobby was torn out. Kansas City Chapter member and 1985 Society President Gil Lefholz contacted the management and recovered the plaque, thus saving it from oblivion. In the final stages of remodeling, the management decided to restore the lobby to much of its original configuration, and plans were made to re-hang the plaque in the same position that it had previously occupied.
On April 4, 1998, a number of Society dignitaries gathered at the Hotel Muehlebach for the re-opening ceremony and unveiling of the plaque. Included in the activities was the singing of “I Had A Dream, Dear,” the first song that Cash and Hall harmonized on, and “Down Mobile,” the first song sung on the Tulsa Club roof garden.
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