The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1937-06-24
Bob Peterson's Blind Band
Making Good on Dance I our
WELL KNOWN PIANO ACE
is MEMBER OF ODD
MUSIC GROUP

nlaver at the Mint Cafe in Red
wood Falls, was one of the sub
iects of an article which appeared
in $50 What" column by Paul
Light, in the st. Paul Daily News
recently.
Bob is one of five boys who
have formed a dance band called
the Arions All-blind orchestra.
MIR. Light quotes one of the mem
beers who tells of their work and
life with the orchestra which IN
cludes Maynard Nordquist, Al
Peterson, Dick Gustafson, Albert
Erickson and Bob.
"There are five Of us in the
orchestra. All of us are totally
blind except Dick who has LIZ
normal vision in one eye only.
This is just enough to see out.
lines of large objects. The rest OF
us depend entirely on our sense OF
touch and memory to guide us.
an May we played 20 one
night stands and drove $500
miles. In June we have % one
night stands scheduled. We own
our own car and a trailer Tor
sleeping on the road. 1t is equip
ped with good mattresses, water
for shaving, stove etc. 1t also mas
commandments for our musical
instruments.
1--WE hire our driver who acts
as ticket-taker. We take In an
average of $75 night and we
average about $35 a week per
person above our expenses.
"Our driver is uniformed. We
wear a costume of black palm
beach trousers, black silk shirts
with white color, white four IN
hand tie, white silk suspenders,
patent leather shoes. We have
our own public address system.
Microphones are placed conven-
iently for each of us as 1t is
difficult to &c around.
1--WE have more than $4,000 in
vested in musical instruments.
Two of us are solo singers and
we have various novelties.
1.-TWO of us are married. We
own the band as a partnership.
Many people tell us they are sur
prised to find us happy. l really
feel that we are as happy and
content as the average person.
eve all write Brailfe and all
use the typewriter. We play our
own arrangements which are
made up by our leader, Maynard.
He gets most of the tunes from
records. The records belong to
the orchestra. We own more
than a thousand and they are
indexed in Braille. When May
nard hears a tune, he memories
it and makes an arrangement in
his head. Then he plays the parts
for us on the piano and we put
them all together. We can add a
new piece in about the same time
that a seeing orchestra does.
eve all tune pianos, However,
we make no particular effort to
get tuning jobs as we have all
the work we can handle. What
ever money we get from tuning
goes to our road fund.
'Dick and Al can write as they
haven't always been blind. The
rest of us write only with the
typewriter or Braille.
1--WE all play horse-shoes quite
well. When we play we 60 by
the sound of one hitting the post
We also have our own game of
kittenball which we have adapted
ourselves to playing with blind
people.
"We finish our present tour
December / and will then gel
some place to play during the
winter until we can take to the
road again. Our average crowd is
about 400 and we have never
played at any place without be-
ing offered return engagement
eve are not asking anything.
But l just thought that you, might
be interested in five blind men
who are trying to make an honest
living without holding out the
familiar blind mans tin cup"