CARDS FOR HARRY: Jarkey to Hit Century Mark Aug. 11--Let Him Know, Fans
Let's Show Him Bay City's Still Wild for Harry
July 16, 2013
By: Dave Rogers
Jarkey showbiz poster from the old days.
The inimitable Harry Jarkey, an icon of Bay City entertainment at the old Wenona Beach Casino, will celebrate his 100th birthday Aug. 11, 2013.
His many fans sent him more than 200 cards last year at 99, and this year his pal Jerry Jopke is urging that kind of expression, or perhaps even greater, this year.
Jopke, a retired General Motors sales executive, has placed ads in The Bay City Times giving Jarkey's address, 41542 Jupiter Hills Court, Palm Desert, CA 92211-9241.
"Everybody loves Harry and this is the time of year we get a chance to show it," says Jopke. "By entertaining us for 30 years at the Casino, Harry gave us something to laugh about every summer. There'll never be another beloved character like him in the hearts of Bay Cityans and area folks.
"The blaring horn of Harry Jarkey, a park regular from 1935 until its closing, can almost be heard still," one fan recalled a few years ago.
"Dancing across the waves are the melodious strains of famous orchestras that performed at Wenona Beach: Guy Lombardo, Ted Weems,Woody Herman, Red Nichols and his Five Pennies, Bob Crosby, the Dorsey Brothers, Isham Jones . . .
"How about the comedians and variety acts? Jack Benny, Ozzie and Harriet, singers like Perry Como and popular local band leaders like Dick Jessup, who teamed with Jarkey in his popular comedy-singing-horn playing act.
"I'll never forget Bay City; it was my best home and best years," he said on his 93rd birthday in an interview with mybaycity.com.
Jarkey and his family lived in the middle cabin of three cabins in the Wenona Beach complex, he recalled. He would work the Elmwood Casino in Detroit during the week, drive up to Bay City for Friday night, back to Detroit for a Saturday kid's show and back again to Bay City for a Saturday night show at Wenona Beach.
"The Wenona Beach had a roller coaster that was put together with Scotch tape," Jarkey quipped.
"I remember the Wenonah Hotel, the Mill End Store and working as a guest sports writer for the Bay City Times for a short while," Jarkey reminisced. It seems he was willing to try anything in a quest for fame.
Harry rattled off the names of many Bay City friends, including the Suraths, Pat and the late Al Singer, the late Bill and Audrey Walker, social icons of the 1950s through 1970s, Doctors Howard Knoblauch and Mike Dardas, Joe and Margie Carland, musician partner Dick and Mary Jessup, Wenona Beach owner Frank Cliff, the Rosengard family that owned a grocery, Violet Norgan of Essexville and business entrepreneur Jerry Jopke.
"I would sing 'Margie' and Margie Carland would joke that I must have dedicated it to her," he recalled.
Harry went to Palm Desert to be with his pal, Amos Jacobs of Detroit, better known as the comedian and actor Danny Thomas. His last appearances were on behalf of Danny's favorite charity, St. Jude Hospital for Children.
Classic Television Showbiz posted a new interview with Harry this year. It went like this:
Kliph Nesteroff: Your uncle worked with Singer's Midgets?
Harry Jarkey: That's right. Nate Eagle owned the Singer's Midgets. He was with a carnival and they worked in the movies. My uncle was their personal manager.
Kliph Nesteroff: I've heard that Singer was an autocrat and the midgets hated him.
Harry Jarkey: Yes, that's right and Nate Eagle was the one who kind of kept them together. They were quite famous. Yes, that was my uncle and he had some famous people.
Kliph Nesteroff: Did it have any bearing on your own entry into show business?
Harry Jarkey: No. We were kind of a spread out type of family. My sister lives in New York and she's ninety-two years old. She was in show business. I was fourteen and she was seven.
My fame happened before God! There was no television when I started in Bay City, Michigan. In the wintertime they had nothing to do and they would look forward to me coming up there every year. I didn't care where I was. I would quit what I was doing and go up there, work up there, and then go back to my other show business. I did it every winter.
In the day my closest friends were Red Skelton, Danny Thomas, Milton Berle and Frankie Laine.