After 5: Art Review: 'Ready-Set-Play! Music & the Media'

What: A historical collection of pictures and newspaper clippings about Springfield’s music business

Where: 830 Boonville Ave. (third floor of old City Hall)

When: 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday through Sept. 29

Cost: None (donations encouraged)

More info: Call (417) 864-1976

More people than ever are listening to music via increasingly new methods.

This sea change makes the exhibit, “Ready-Set-Play! Music & the Media,” showing through Sept. 29 at The History Museum for Springfield-Greene County, all the more pertinent and interesting.

A treasure trove of pictures and newspaper clippings from the 1800s through the 1960s covers the music business in and around Springfield.

Depending on age, each visitor will be drawn more to one era than another. Younger visitors will no doubt see the entire exhibit as ancient history. Longtime Springfieldians will initially gravitate to a time they remember best: the brass bands of the 1920s, the early radio/TV days, the jazz years or the onslaught of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1960s.

Grassroots sounds

The exhibit is displayed on the museum’s main hallway walls, starting with the 1800s. When John Polk Campbell and his family settled in Springfield, there was no radio, TV, Internet, iPods, iTunes or iPhones. There wasn’t even sheet music.

Pictures show that these folks had a more active role in music than most people do today. They had to actually play music if they wanted to hear it.

What a concept.

At the dawn of the 20th century, things around town became more organized. There were brass bands, the “world’s largest” Boy Scout Band, a symphony and the Mansfield Opera House.

Vaudeville took hold, and the exhibit has pictures of the Springfield theaters that featured live entertainment in addition to film.

Other live venues are given nods as well. Be-Bop Brown’s club, north of town, was a haven for jazz and blues. Half-a-Hill, which stood at Lone Pine and Battlefield from 1918 until the late 1970s, was the premiere club for local bands playing country, swing, big band and eventually rock. In its heyday, it wasn’t unusual to see the place packed with upwards of 600 people.

Radio and TV

Springfield’s involvement with radio is well known. Ralph Foster, Si Siman, Lester Cox and John Mahaffey are legendary figures. The Carter family lived in Springfield when they performed regularly on KWTO. Fledgling guitarist Chester Atkins (who got the nickname “Chet” from Siman) played on that station as well. People such as Slim Wilson, Speedy Halworth and “Goo Goo” Rutledge became regional stars.

KWTO’s story is well known, but I was surprised by the fact that the KGBX building – 605 Boonville, now an office for The Forrester Group – was the first structure west of the Mississippi specifically designed to house a radio station.

When TV came along, Springfield was famous for “The Ozark Jubilee,” the nationally televised show hosted by Red Foley. The museum features a permanent display devoted to the show and it’s a great adjunct to this exhibit, as is Wayne Glenn’s book (also on hand at the museum) “The Ozarks’ Greatest Hits.”

Springfield also has spawned its share of nationally known musical figures. Dallas Bartley and Charlie Hayden are well-respected jazz bassists. Wayne Carson wrote chart-topping hits (“The Letter,” “You Were Always on My Mind”) and Ms. Dottie Dillard – who was on hand for the exhibit’s opening ceremonies – was a member of The Anita Kerr Singers. As a vocal group, they won a few Grammys and sang on records that have sold in the hundreds of millions of copies.

The 1960s display – the final decade covered – is the one likely to strike a chord with most patrons. If you lived in Springfield at the time, names like Dave Bedell, Rocky Helwig, The Lavender Hill Mob, Lewie and the 7 Days, and The Esquires will all be familiar.

There are too many notes covered by the exhibition to mention here. Maybe it’s time that local patrons of the arts got together and founded a permanent Springfield-area musical hall of fame.