Bill OBoyle: Oh what a Hall of Fame Night it was
Oct. 15—Even though the Frankie Valli concert at the F.M. Kirby Center on Saturday night was canceled because of the awful water main break, it was a Four Seasons song that kept playing in my ear.
The song I was hearing constantly was: "Oh What a Night (December 1963)," but I was singing these (adjusted) lyrics:
"Oh, what a night
Mid-October here in 23
What a very special time for all
As we remember, what a night!"
The night we all were experiencing and would be remembering for years and generations to come was the inaugural Luzerne County Arts & Entertainment Hall of Fame Induction Dinner at Mohegan Pennsylvania.
And oh, what a night it was.
It was beyond anyone's expectations, and it accomplished all that the organizing committee had hoped for and much more.
More than 450 attended the event and they arrived on time and they stayed until the end. They listened as each inductee and/or their representative delivered a short acceptance speech and they listened to the narratives of each inductee that detailed why, exactly, they were in the inaugural class.
And the crowd also partied — they got up to dance to The Buoys and The Badlees and Eddie Day and Joe Nardone & the All Stars. A few even dared to dance a few polkas.
It was four hours filled with fun, fun, fun, emotion and joy.
The organizing committee that I was proud to serve on with Joe Nardone, Constance Wynn, Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown, Tony Brooks, Alan K. Stout, Jody Busch and Lindsay Griffin-Boylan worked together to plan and implement our first induction ceremony/dinner.
And Gina Malsky, our stage manager, managed to bring it all together and the entire program went off without a major hitch.
And we thank "Jumpin" Jeff Walker of KRZ and Chelsey Strub of WNEP for injecting glitz and energy into the entire evening.
And it was successful because of the support of our sponsors and our attendees — all of them made this a night to remember.
In case you missed it, the Luzerne County Arts & Entertainment Hall of Fame inaugural inductees are as follows:
Arts category:
—Adrian Pearsall, architect and furniture designer — designed hundreds of distinctive furniture designs between 1952 and the mid 1970s. His furniture was the epitome of classic American mid-century modern design.
—Barbara Weisberger, founder of the Pennsylvania Ballet in 1961.
—C. Edgar Patience, coal artist — took the ordinary piece of coal and sculpted it into something extraordinary.
—George Catlin, the world famous Native American painter is the first American to have a large scale exhibition at the Louvre in Paris. His collection is now at the Smithsonian.
—Hammond Edward "Ham" Fisher, comic strip writer and cartoonist — was an American comic strip writer best known for the popular newspaper comic strip, Joe Palooka.
—Sue Hand, artist — is best known for her artworks in watercolor and her hexagon-shaped historical illustrations of mining, "The Anthracite Miners and Their Hollowed Ground."
—Jack Palance, actor — was an American actor known for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominated for three Academy Awards and won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in City Slickers.
—Santo Loquasto, is a Tony-award winning production designer, scenic designer, and costume designer for stage, film, and dance.
Entertainment category
—Lee Vincent — formed the Lee Vincent Orchestra after returning from World War II and rose to prominence shortly after playing locally and nationally.
—Joe Nardone & The All Stars — Joe Nardone Sr. has devoted his entire professional life to music. As the leader of Joe Nardone & The All-Stars, as a concert promoter, and as a retailer, he has brought music to the region for six decades.
—Eddie Day Pashinski — spent 35 years as a music instructor at the Greater Nanticoke Area School District, was the band leader of the highly successful regional acts, Eddie Day & TNT and Eddie Day & The Starfires for decades.
—Breaking Benjamin — This explosive modern-rock band has sold over 19 million albums in the United States and have earned three platinum albums and two gold albums.
—Bobby Baird — took his first trumpet lesson 88 years ago and his career has spanned nine decades. The well-known area entertainer — best known for Bobby Baird and the Dixieland Band.
—Brunon Kryger/The Kryger Brothers — played polka music from 1937 until 1996 locally and nationally. They were inducted into the International Polka Association Hall of Fame and had both records and radio and TV shows locally.
—The Buoys — known for their impeccable harmonies, the band signed with Scepter Records in 1971 and scored a Top-20 hit with the song "Timothy."
—Mel Wynn & the Rhythm Aces — perhaps the most impactful band on the local music scene in the 1960s and 1970s. Melvin Samuel Wynn, the front man for the Rhythm Aces, was known for his electrifying on-stage presence.
—The Badlees — this critically-acclaimed roots-rock band was signed to two national recording contracts and scored national hits with the songs "Angeline Is Coming Home" and "Fear of Falling."
—Jimmy Harnen — a native of Plymouth and, with the song "Where Are you Now," he is the only artist from Luzerne County to score a Top-10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Following his own career as a recording artist, Harnen began a successful career in the music business and is credited with the development and signing of dozens of gold and platinum artists and considered to be one of the most respected and influential people in the music industry.
Harnen made a key point when he refuted an old saying that states it's not where the journey begins, but where it ends.
Harnen reversed that idea.
He said for him, it's where his journey began — in Plymouth, Luzerne County. He said it began with how he and his sister, Beverly, were raised and taught to be respectful, polite, sincere, genuine and caring.
Right on point. Exactly why the Luzerne County Art & Entertainment Hall of Fame was established — to honor those who achieved so much and who learned all those same critical lessons.
Harnen and each of the other inductees fill that bill.
Oh what a night it was!
Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.
