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Growing up in the Romanian enclave of Pigeon Hill in Aurora, Illinois, Bob Olah
learned to love the soulful gypsy music his father played on the violin. Music
was an important part of their home, and his parents, John and Valeria Denney
Olah, saw to it that Bob had violin lessons, first with Tom Kish and then, at
the age of 13, with Dr. Frederick Toeniges of DeKalb. While a student at St.
Michaels' Grade School, he played his violin in the church choir. At the
unheard-of age of 16, he was accepted into the Blackhawk Symphony (Aurora) and
the DeKalb Symphony. At home, he experimented with his brother Albert's
saxophone, and he quickly became a proficient on that instrument, too.
Six months after graduating from East Aurora High school (Class of 1942) Bob
enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was playing the saxophone with the 580th
Army Air Force Band. Just 18 years old, he soon entered a life of nonstop
performances that developed his talents quickly. "Boy, I was the luckiest kid
alive," Mr. Olah recalled. "I couldn't believe I was up there with all these
established musicians. The fellow I bunked with was from the Guy Lombardo
Orchestra, and all around me there were real professionals from bands like
Benny Goodman's and Vaughn Monroe's. I watched them like a hawk and worked my
head off practicing." He also learned to play the clarinet. Soon he was
promoted to sergeant and put at the head of a 10-piece dance band that played
at officers' clubs, service clubs and USO shows around the country. He never
thought to tell anyone about his violin training until the day that a shipment
of violins arrived on base in Meridian, Mississippi, by mistake. Bob unpacked
one and started playing. Within minutes he was in the warrant officer's office,
getting chewed out. "He was mad because I had never mentioned I could play the
violin," Bob said. "He said to me 'Kid, don't you realize that a
violin/saxophone combination is what every band leader wants?'" From then on he
played violin also, and even became the favorite of the colonel's wife, who
requested him and his violin every Sunday afternoon for her tea parties.
When he left the Army in 1946, he returned to Aurora and played at the Carousel
Room in the Aurora Hotel and the Sky Club in the Leland Hotel six nights a
week. Then came a call from the highly-regarded Dick Jurgens Orchestra in
Chicago. "All of Dick Jurgen's arrrangements called for a
saxophone/clarinet/violin player," according to Bob. "That warrant officer was
right. And let me tell you, that was my big break." It didn't hurt that he
played baseball player, too. It was an era when inter-band sports rivalries
were intense, and the fact that he was a left fielder clinched the job for him.
Just 22 years old, Bob traveled coast to coast playing in the most famous
theatres and ballrooms in America and doing live national radio broadcasts, and
having the time of his life. "That was heaven on earth," he said. "A $125 a
week guaranteed, seeing the country, pretty girls at every job. And the guys
were the best. You get really close to people when you travel like that and we
were a wonderful family."
In 1951 Bob, then 26, was recruited by another band leader, who saw an
opportunity to bring a big band show to that new invention, television. The
leader was Lawrence Welk and the next thing he knew, Bob was smiling for the
camera in California, performing violin solos, and playing lead alto saxophone
and clarinet. "Mr. Welk knew exactly what he wanted and he used to tell
everybody else what they were going to perform," he recalled. "But he always
let me pick my own violin solos. I used to rib the other guys about that." He
chuckled over one incident on The Lawrence Welk Show. Mr. Welk introduced him
and said, "Bob, tell us a little bit about yourself." "Well, Mr. Welk," came
the answer, "I'm from a small town in Illinois, Aurora." "Boy, was that the
wrong thing to say!" Bob said. "I heard about it for years afterward. People
from Aurora would say 'What do you mean, small town!'"
After the death of his mother, and with the popularity of big bands on the wane,
Bob returned to Aurora to juggle his love of music with a career as a design
draftsman. He worked for companies like Thor Power Tool, Fermilab, Lyon Metal
and All-Steel by day, and played with his own band, Bob Olah and His Orchestra
by night. They played every Saturday night at the Phoenix Club in Aurora, as
well as hotels and ballrooms around the entire Chicago area. In the mid-1970s
he toured with Wayne King, as concert master and first violinist, playing the
Willowbrook Ballroom and one-night stands around the country. About that time
he began to compose music and started his own recording company, named
Chardian, after his
daughters Charmaine and Diane. He also performed as a duo with Aurora pianist
Jeane Weiss, and began yet another career as a strolling violinist.
Bob resided in North Aurora, Illinois, until the time of his death. He continued
to challenge his creativity by arranging his own compositions, Broadway show
tunes, and popular music. He recorded both the orchestra parts and the violin
solos. He also made special appearances at big band and orchestra concerts
throughout the U.S., playing his 150-year-old French violin and imparting that
sense of Romanian gypsy soul, which he learned as a boy, to his delighted
listeners.
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