(jazz music) - [John] I'm singin', "I overlooked an orchid, I overlooked an orchid."

I opened my mouth up wide, I guess.

A moth, a moth flew into my mouth, and he's in my throat and he has that, he has that powder on it, and he's choking me to death.

I was turnin' blue, I was turning blue.

I didn't know what to do.

I thought I was gonna die.

I put the accordion down, everybody's lookin'.

"What's wrong with him?"

I'm going like this, and I'm gaggin'.

So they gave me water.

I drank it, and when I drank the water, I could feel his wings.

He flapped all the way down, flapped right down into my stomach, and then after that I had shot.

I killed him with a shot, and that was it.

(polka music) ♪ We travel in a black Dodge van ♪ ♪ We are a family, not just a band ♪ ♪ Livin' for the weekends, giving it our all ♪ ♪ Travelin' the country the whole year long ♪ I started a band in 1945.

I had two guys.

And I had that for about five or six years, and then in 1951 I started the Tip Top Orchestra, called it John Stanky and the Tip Toppers, and then in '60, '61, we started Stanky and the Pennsylvania Coal Miners, and that's what we've been since.

We've been Stanky and the Coal Miners since 1961, and we started making albums in '61, all the way up until the present time.

I recorded seven albums on Stella Records with Bernie Witkowski from Hillside, New Jersey.

And he was a good friend of mine, and he also had a little stuttering problem, which I have, and he used to call me on the telephone many times, but this one time he called me on the phone.

We had a recording session coming up, and he's calling me from Jersey, and I picked up the phone, and he's going, "Stanks, S-S-S-Stank, Stank," and I'm going, "Bernie, Bernie, Bernie."

He's going, "Stank, Stank."

We're on a phone for five minutes.

I said, "Bernie."

He said, "I'll write ya'."

So (laughs) he hung up the phone, and he called me up a month later.

He said our bill come to $15 for the phone call, and that's what happened there.

(laughs) We never stopped from that point.

When we first came out, we were playing six nights a week.

The only day we had off was Monday, and as we were doing this, we all had jobs.

The guys worked in the mines, I was a rag man.

- Well, it got to the point where, you know, when we first got married, you know, he did his sports.

He played his softball with his local fellas and basketball and was on the road junking and, you know, the rag band, and I worked in a factory, and then our children came, and I stayed home with the children, and I went on the road with him for a while, and we had fabulous babysitters.

Mrs.

Watanitzi, his grandmother, Momo, Mrs.

Synonus and all them, and they used to watch the children while I went on the road with him, but as the girls got older and they started going to school, I just made my mind up, I'm staying home, and I'm going to, you know, really spend my time with my children.

He just kept working and working and working, and it was good, it was wonderful.

He's a great provider.

He wanted to provide for his daughters and for myself.

We just sat down and thought, and I says, "You know, your children don't know who you are, you know?

You work 12 hours a day and you're gone to work while they're in school and, you know, you're gone to play while they're sleeping."

- Growing up, my dad always worked two jobs when we were younger, and my mom was always there to send us on the bus, and was there waiting to pick us up from the bus.

I always ate at home with the family, if my dad was home or not, but my dad was always a musician as far as I could remember, so we hardly seen him, you know, when we were younger, when he was working his two jobs and stuff like that.

- I come home from one job.

It was about six in the morning, and I was pooped out.

I walked up to the steps real slow, so I don't wake nobody up.

I walked up on top of the steps, and who gets up is Kim.

She's about two years ago.

And she runs up to me and she says, she starts screamin', "Mommy, mommy, there's a man in the house.

There's a man in the house."

I says, "Kim, cool it, it's only me."

She said, "Never mind, it's only Dad."

Then I had to make a decision.

I was working maybe, gee, we counted 50 hours a week, so I was getting pretty well pooped out, and I had to make a decision.

Either work or play.

So Dottie, we had a good talk.

She said play, so that's what I've been doin' ever since, since 1982 I believe.

- I think he'll do it until the day he's gone.

(laughs) (polka music) - I played semi-pro baseball about for 15 years, and I played basketball, which I loved very much, and what we did after the games, I'd go out and play with the accordion and with the band.

Okay, so we're doing at that time, we're doin' five, six nights a week playing, and I was also okay with the sports.

I thought I could make it in baseball.

Okay, my father said I was good, but not good enough, and he come from the old country and he said, "You'll have to learn about eight good songs.

You'll never starve."

Okay, so I learned about nine.

- Nine.

(laughs) - And it actually took us all over the world.

My mom used to teach me how to sing the songs, but my dad worked in the mines, and when he would come home from work, he would make me practice one hour a day.

Okay, so he would stay right in his work clothes, and he would sit there, and he would just make me practice, maybe from four to five or whatever, and then after I got finished practicing, he used to throw the glove at me, okay baseball glove.

He'd throw the basketball glove at me, and he says, "Go play."

Okay, so that's what I loved to do.

He says, "Now, you're gonna have to go for lessons," because he taught me how to play from the beginning like a little bit, he knew a couple songs.

Okay, and then went to Joe Gorka from Nanticoke, Pennsylvania.

He was my teacher about for four or five years in the early '40s, and then in 1945, I start playing weddings.

I was, okay, I used to play house weddings, and I would play the neighbor's, I'd play over at Chorny's.

I played the Sagans family, and all the families in Hanover.

I had a wedding every Saturday, and at the reception, it was held at the house, so the way I got my money is when the people are coming through the door, there was a little basket there, and they used to put a dime in, they'd put a quarter in.

Okay, some people put a dollar in then, so I actually was making more than I am now, to tell you the truth.

(laughs) - Jackie and I grew up with Johnny and, of course, our families were very friendly.

We lived in a small community that, that pretty much dictated friendships and we played baseball and football, basketball together.

We went to church together.

Coincidentally, Jackie went to the same church that Johnny did, as well as I, and we were altar boys together.

- I used to serve all the Masses with the priest, but I was bigger than the priest was.

The priest was about 5'10".

I was about six foot, so I was the head of the altar boys.

- You're not gonna tell them that story.

- Yeah, I'm the head of the altar boys.

I'm breakin' in this new kid.

(Dottie laughs) Okay, so this priest is givin' a sermon.

That's our priest.

15 minutes, 20 minutes, 25 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes he's still talkin'.

So this new kid that I had, Davy Stabellus.

How long ago this, maybe 60 years ago.

I says, "Dave," I says, "look at that priest.

He's getting tired, he's talking.

Take this chair and say, 'Here, Father, sit down,'" so he took it from the (mumbles).

He went by the priest, and he said, "Father, sit down."

- Well, the priest didn't need a chair.

It was just a joke, but Johnny just, you know.

This was his way of doin' things.

(polka music) - [John] The first time I seen Dottie, we just played up the street from my house at the United Citizen Club, and it was a Halloween party.

So she was dressed up as an Indian girl.

And I'm up there playin', I had a couple things going on, and we're playing these nice songs.

Here comes the time we have to pick the winners, so it was up to the band leader to pick out third, second, and first.

- And he says to me, "Jack, look at that girl sittin' over in the corner."

He says, "She looks like Pocahontas."

(laughs) And from that time on... You know he was not very good with girls.

- No.

- He was very shy.

He wouldn't even, you know, approach a girl in those days.

- I picked the Indian girl, and I called her Pokie, and she won the first prize, and then that's how I met her.

That's how it's been, Dot?

- Well, that was in October.

And then the following January, we went back to the same club for Russian New Years, and it was so packed.

I only met him casually on the stage for Halloween, but Russian New Years, it was, the club was completely packed.

So I'm standing there, and this little old lady comes up to me.

She says, "What's your name, and I'd like to get you a drink," and here it happened to be his grandmother, Momo, and she said, "I have a beautiful, beautiful man for you to meet," and here was John, and that's how we met for the second time.

So he said, "I'll take you home."

- [John] But I didn't have a car.

- [Dottie] I know you didn't have a car, so you loaned a car and it took us like, I don't know, forever to get home.

And we start going out together ever since then.

- [John] We got married in 1962.

- [Dottie] '62.

- [John] This year, it'll be 44 years.

And we sent to all of our relatives, we sent 'em invitations, and I think about 150 of the 200, and then I had the friends with baseball and basketball.

We put an ad in the paper, "Whoever wants to come, come."

so we had 800 people at our wedding, and it was held at the Hall here in Hanover.

- Holy Transfiguration Hall.

- [John] You tell 'em about the food that we had-- - [Dottie] We had two breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners, and the beer truck was parked in the back.

- We went through 29 halves of beer in one night.

- We can't even remember.

Our bartenders we had picked never made the first draft.

- I picked my buddies four bartenders.

- They never made it.

- We're supposed to start at five o' clock, and I had to get new bartenders because our bartenders had it already, so I had to get four more guys from the audience to help out, but we had the truck there from Stegmeier, with 28 halves went that day.

- It was an old-fashioned wedding, believe me.

They were setting up picnic tables and benches and regular chairs on the stage, and it was just one good time.

- [John] We had a good band there also.

(mumbles) played, Frankie Kozak, and also Jerry Gillis, and it was just fantastic, and at that time, you didn't pay the bands.

Okay, whatever they collected at the door.

Okay, so they made more money then-- - [Dottie] They would play (mumbles) at the door.

Give them a beer tray, put a napkin on it.

♪ Dimely, dimely (laughs) - So that was a great day.

- And we had our bridal dance, and who danced with me, Mister... - Mr.

Suckle.

- Mr.

Suckle, what, 29 times he danced?

- He danced with her 29 times.

So when you dance with the bride, you put a quarter, a dollar in.

Okay so, (mumbles) 800 people, $800.

- [Dottie] Yeah, $800, and our wedding cost us, what?

- [John] Our wedding cost us for 800 people was $1,800 then.

- [Dottie] Exactly.

- [John] $1,800, and that included a breakfast, a lunch he served, and a dinner, Frankie Bollack.

He did it for (mumbles).

- [Dottie] And when we got done paying our bills, we ended up with three dollars, three dollars to our name.

- [John] Even Steven.

- [Dottie] Even Steven.

But we made it.

- Yeah, we made it good.

If that was today's prices, probably, that would be maybe went $50,000 to get this, if you had that many people.

- Are you gonna ask me to marry you again?

- In about six years.

- Okay.

(laughs) - [Kim] Our house is really hectic.

There was no structure, you know, meaning that, you know, oh, everyone gets home at five, and we eat at six, and homework is done, and kids are in bed at seven.

There was none of that.

- John's band is fun, fun.

Many bands are serious.

When they're playing, reading the sheet music, it's a very serious look on the face, but very often the Coal Miners have no sheet music in front of them.

John will yell a song out to the band.

That wasn't the next song that they were gonna play, and all of a sudden, he'd go into it, and the band leaders would quickly have to follow him.

Many times when the band takes a break, I love this one, the band takes a break, the guys are at the bar, they're going to the bathroom, they're talking with friends.

It's time to come back from the break.

He goes up on stage by himself.

He sits down, straps on the accordion, and starts playing.

So the guys out in the audience say, "Oh my God, he's started."

So they would run up to the stage, quickly grab their instruments, and play along with him.

I love that story.

Sometimes the band gets carried away.

They're on a... One time, they were on a makeshift stage, which is built out of light plywood, and Charlie the fiddle player's jumpin' up and down.

There was a woman at the time that was with John on stage, jumping up and down, and the floor crashed.

They both came through the floor, and Stanky's playing.

He's still playing, he's still playing.

Keep the job goin', keep the band goin'.

Don't stop at all.

(laughs) It was just the fact that, and it was part of the show, he told the people.

"This is part of our show," and that's how much fun he was all the time.

- My dad is, he finds good in everyone.

There's not a bad bone in his body.

He likes to, um, he finds people wonderful.

I think he loves food, and he loves people, I think, even more, just the way he just enjoys all walks of life.

- [John] Well, when I first start to take Dottie out, I love to eat, so the first really date that we had, I took her to five restaurants.

(laughs) And I had, in each restaurant, I had their special.

If it was a steak in one, and the next one, I had spaghetti and meatballs, but at the final restaurant, we went in there.

I finished my meal, and she's, "What is this guy doing?"

She had something small like desserts.

And on the final restaurant was the Embassy Restaurant?

- [Dottie] Yes, (mumbles).

- [John] In Wilkes-Barre, and I had all these meals already, but I'm lookin' at this ketchup bottle that was there, and I was lookin' at it.

- Looked too appetizing.

- It looked appetizing, and it was drippin'.

And, which I shouldn't have done it, I grabbed the bottle and I sucked the ketchup all the way around, and she said she was leavin' for some reason, when she seen that.

So that was our first date.

- And I couldn't go anywhere because the buses stopped running.

(laughs) I couldn't get home, so I was stuck with him ever since then.

- [Kim] My mother's a very hard-working individual, very family-oriented.

Always stood behind my father, but in the same respect, my dad was always behind my mother as well, because she went off and did her own thing, and he was behind her 100% as well.

- We come from a family with, I wouldn't want to say strict, but stern aspects of the home, where things had to be done and chores had to be taken care of.

As far as the values, they were deep values, and... We have Catholic background, and at that point, we carried those values through the things that we do, and treat each other as you would want to be treated as yourself, and traditions, we carry on the Polish tradition and the Ukrainian tradition, and we try to put that through through, you know, the Easter celebration, the Christmas celebrations, - [Kim] We did, you know, we did the regular things that other kids did, but it was like we were either home, there was musicians at the house sleeping over, you know, 10 musicians on the floor, you know, party over there or we were going off to a fair somewhere, packed away in the back of the van, going off somewhere.

So it was really hectic.

It was fun.

It was never boring, but it wasn't, you know, a structured thing.

- I took them Halloween singing when they're about four or five.

I took them to each bar.

I'd go in a bar first.

I'd have them by the door.

I'd go in a bar first and sit on the side, and they would come in and play like, I didn't even knew who they were, and I'd be, when they got finished, I'd be pulling all the dollar and we'd, here, throw them at them and get the other guys would line up and throw them another dollar.

- Kimberly was the one for that.

She was a tickler, I'll tell you.

- Okay, then they would go out.

We'd make a plan, they'd go out.

Okay, wait about two minutes, and so I'd wait about until I'd finished my beer or whatever.

- My father'd finish his beer.

I'd wait on the stoop outside for him, and then he would come back out.

He'd take his dollar out of my bag, and we would go to the next bar.

(laughs) So we would, you know, work three towns for Halloween.

(laughs) I thought that was great, you know.

He took me out all the time, so it was great.

I think when I was like 14, I think we decided to quit that.

(laughs) (polka music) - One of his very good friends, a man by the name of Steve Okowchick, came into my office and suggested that I see this polka band because it would be a great thing to take this band on a cruise.

- About 1970, we're playing at the Knights of Columbus in Lucerne.

It was a snowy night.

I had on my... Six men in our band at that time.

I'd never met these people before, so we're playing.

I said we have to play, if there's a thousand people, you play hard.

If there's five people, you play hard.

- When I walked in, Stanky was playing, and the motion, it was like the place was literally rocking, with the smoke and the dancing and the music, and it was really exciting, and I thought this can work.

- And then we took an intermission, and he'd come over, Barry, and he said, "How would you guys like to go on cruises?"

I said, "We'd love it."

So that's when we start taking these trips, like in 1970, '71.

Okay, Barry, at the time, was with Jewel Core, then from Jewel Core, he went on his own, so we've been with him ever since, I'd say, about 36 years.

So we start taking about four cruises a year.

We've been on 142 cruises.

I don't know one from the other one.

It's like one big cruise.

Okay, there's some good stories there, but I think I forgot most of them.

- [Debbie] Well, we would go on cruises.

We would be away for a week to 10 days.

Sometimes we would go for longer than that.

We'd do a seven-day cruise, and then stay on the ship and do a Panama Canal cruise for 10 days, so it was like 28 days we were away from home.

So you would have to take all your schoolbooks with you, because we were all in school then, and study, and the teachers would grant your leave, and things like that.

And then I would bring home food in Hawaii.

I'd bring them home Hawaiian leis, and they'd be like, "Okay, you're good to go.

Just hand in your work."

- [John] Okay, we were on one.

It was a hurricane, and actually Dottie went into the port hole window.

It was comin' up to the 10th floor.

They asked all the passengers to go in their room and lay on the floor, but me and Eddie Beezwol's playing accordion, we actually were goin' around the ship playing it, as these people were on the floor, so we just went around the ship and we just kept on playing, going with the waves.

- The two of us went on a cruise, the first time with John and Dottie.

Well, we bet on a horse, a little wooden horse.

We lost, but we had one of the best parties you ever thought about having.

- Amazing party.

(laughs) - Second cruise, we took our children with us, our daughters, our four daughters, and we had another great time.

It was just, it's always something different, always something different, just, and you never got bored.

It was always something.

You laughed, you joked, you enjoyed everybody's company, and we just had an excellent time with them.

- One year I took a big group on a cruise ship.

We docked in Hamilton, Bermuda.

There were two ships that docked together, and we got on the island.

We're walking around the island, and I looked over, and I saw someone who looked just like John Stanky, and I said that can't be, well maybe it is.

He looked at me, I looked at him.

Right away, we yelled at each other, and there we were.

And didn't plan it.

I didn't know he was going there.

He didn't know I was going there, so we had a lot of fun together on the island until the ships disembarked later on, yep.

- Never had a sad band.

The reason why, I tell everyone that's what was in my band, I told them that you live your own life.

If there's anything that they had to do, okay, you do it.

You don't have to worry about me getting guys.

I actually got stunned when I went and I looked at my book on the cruises and all the jobs I played.

I went through over 500 musicians, and they asked me why.

One guy said, "You must have trouble with these guys.

You must be firing them like crazy."

But I never fired one person, and all these people that were in my band, if I call them up the next day, and if I'm stuck, they say, "Stank, we'll be right there."

And the reason that I went through all those musicians was because we went on cruises after a while.

I take my family.

When we first started, I would take my whole group that I had, but then after when things start get a little slow, I was using the musicians on the ships.

So every time we went on a cruise, I would use four or five guys that I knew on the ship.

I would teach them the music and I would do the shows with those fellas.

So after 142 cruises, I must have had about 400 guys right there.

- One good story, and there's a lot of them, but one good one, it was about, I was probably about 16 years old, and we were playing a wedding in New Jersey, and back then I think there was 750 people invited to this wedding, and it was a Polish wedding, and weddings back then started two o' clock in the afternoon and maybe play until seven or eight at night.

They didn't start like they do now, seven to 10 at night.

The guys, John was driving, and he's drinkin', and everybody else was in the band.

All those guys were, and I didn't understand all that then, but I mean we had a guy, Piano Joe, he was drunk, you know?

So we were lost.

We had like 15 minutes to get to this place, and we knew how many people were packed, so we're on the New Jersey parkway, and back at that time in the middle of the aisle, they had like roses and tulips planted in the beautiful grass.

Stank says, "I think we passed the exit, it's back there," so we turned around right in the tulips.

As he's turning around and driving out, the tulips and the roses are flying in the back.

They're going all over the road.

Well (mumbles) here comes a state cop, Jersey state cop.

Pulls him over.

These guys are screaming and hollering.

Comes up to the van and he says, "Sir, what the heck?"

He says, "All I see was flowers flying out of the thing.

You can't do that."

And he goes, "Sir, we're playing a big wedding here, 750 people," he says.

"My name's John Stanky," he says, and the cop, he couldn't finish his name, and he said, "And the Coal Miners."

He said, "I'm going to that wedding.

I get out at three o'clock."

He says, "Follow me, I'll take you there."

So that was the end of the flowers and the tulips.

Nothing ever happened.

We got to the place, they carried our stuff in, and we played, and we played about a six-hour wedding.

They went crazy.

They went crazy there, but back then in those days, it was always big crowds, 700, 800 people just waiting.

- From when I get in the van to when I get out of the van, I end up with a sore throat.

He is so funny.

(laughs) He's the funniest man in the world, really.

Like every place we go, we stopped at this one place I'll never forget.

I don't know if he told you this story, to get fuel, to get back from (mumbles), and we're sitting in there and sitting there for probably 10 minutes.

We wonder why is it taking him so long to get the fuel in?

Here, he was putting diesel fuel in the gasoline nozzle, and it wouldn't fit in there.

(laughs) It was squirting all over his legs and his pants.

So we finally yelled, "John, what're you doing?"

And he said, "Holy cow, I have the wrong nozzle."

Then another time we were out in Jersey, and he stopped for fuel.

Something always seems to happen to him.

A fella comes up and he's trying to sell him a real expensive camera, you know?

John's trying to put fuel in the van at that point, but there's always a story.

He's just a great guy.

I love him.

(polka music) - Not only is he the leader of the band, but John is the businessman, the one who books the work for the band.

He and Dottie both set up the lodging for the band, should they have to stay overnight.

They make arrangements for the band's lodging and meals and all, but they do that very professionally.

There's no problem.

Every time I've worked with him, we'd sit down and talk, it's just kind of a gentleman's agreement.

He says I'll do this, and he does it.

I said I'll do this, and I do that.

So it's never really a lot of red tape, papers to sign, although there are a few, but never anything complicated, but John is a regular guy.

He conducts his business, not just the band bookings and the arrangements, but all the record sales.

- There's about 400 polka stations, from East Coast to West Coast, so as soon as I come out with a new album, okay, the first 400 go to them, and then after that we see if we could make something.

- [Charlie] John's music, I would say, after playing with other bands, it's not very difficult to play with John.

He likes everything simple, note for note.

Doesn't like anything fancy, and he says, "You don't play for musicians.

Musicians don't hire you.

You play for the public, the people.

They're the ones that enjoy it.

They're the ones that are out there dancing, and they're the ones that pay you, so you gotta play for them.

What they want, that's what you give them," and he sure gives it them.

(polka music) - [John] Well actually, when I put the accordion on, I hardly ever stutter, because what happens when I think I'm gonna stutter, like I hit a note to cover it up-like, you know?

But for about 25 years, I was afraid to go out and play even, and I used to get so nervous, I'd be... I'd go to the sink, I'd be throwing up, and the only way that I could go out to play is I would ask Dottie to come over, and I used to ask her to slap me in the face a couple times, bang-bang deal, you know, bang-bang, then I said... She's, "How you feel?"

and I said, "I feel good."

(laughs) Actually I'm going to play, she's, "Get over here."

Boom, boom, boom, then I go out and play.

- We have a great band to start things off with.

- Oh, I know that.

- I think you know these fellows, don't you?

- I think I know them very vaguely.

- Okay, well we'd like to introduce one of the bands that was my all-time favorite bands.

I've been in this business for close to 20 years, and I've always liked the band that you're gonna hear tonight for the next hour, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the sounds of Stanky and the Pennsylvania Coal Miners, here they are.

(polka music) ♪ Hats off to Pennsylvania ♪ Hats off to our good state ♪ We're proud to entertain ya' ♪ In Pennsylvania, the Keystone state ♪ ♪ Hats off - Probably without Dottie, John doesn't really care about too much.

He doesn't care if he has six cents in his pocket or six dollars, he doesn't care.

Without Dottie being the businesswoman that she is, he probably wouldn't have much, and he probably wouldn't care, do you know what I mean?

That doesn't bother him, and my wife's sort of the same way.

She doesn't care either.

She could walk around with a dollar for two weeks, it doesn't bother her.

But without Dottie, he'd probably wouldn't be, he wouldn't have what he had today, because she was a hard worker and behind him that said, "John, you have to get this amount of money, or you have to get that amount of money.

You can't be playing for free or for five bucks and for drinks and hot dogs."

So that's probably, on his end, what's really helped him.

- A lot of people wonder how I keep John and a lot of his musicians in hand.

There was one time when we were playing at a job in this big convention center.

I mean, there was hundreds of people there, and we had this one fabulous, fabulous, fabulous musician, keyboard, Piano Joe Vincheski.

We called him Hoyda-Hoyda, because everything was, "Hoyda-Hoyda, Hoyda-Hoyda."

He was absolutely super.

A matter of fact, that was my handle at that time, long time ago when were used to have CBs in the van.

My handle was Hoyda-Hoyda, and that's how much we loved him.

He was the best chord man in the world, best piano player.

He would do anything for you.

At the end of the job, he'd get wild, so I said the only way I'm gonna handle this boy in the van is I had this old fur raccoon coat.

Took the lining out of it, and we used to put it on him like a straitjacket, and that's how we contained him.

This one time, we're coming home, and we stopped at the Effriter Restaurant to eat, and we left him in the van.

Well, of course, Stank goes in, and he wants yesterday's soup to eat.

So we're sitting in there, and all of a sudden, I look over and there's like two state policemen over there.

Another state policeman on that side in the restaurant, and they're for diner eating, and all of a sudden, Piano Joe walks in.

He broke loose.

Picture this man in a raccoon fur coat, like three or four sheets to the wind, at four o'clock in the morning.

"Hoyda-Hoyda-Hoyda, where is Stanky?"

And these state police just turned around and looked, and they said, "Stank, we know it's you.

Go, go, just go.

Take your little boy and go."

(laughs) But this is the fun that we used to have with our guys.

- How about this fella back here, okay?

This is the infamous Piano Joe.

Now we've known Joe a long, long time, and he's a real party guy.

You're not married, are you Joe?

- No.

- No, he's also a world-renowned non-teller of truth.

Okay, Piano Joe, nice to see you there.

Okay, Stanky, heard you were in China, and of course we're gonna be talking about that a little bit later, showing some pictures.

How did you find China?

Did you enjoy yourself over there?

- I enjoyed myself very much, and what happened, we went over there and start playin'.

All you have to do is get on the street corner and just pull our the accordion, and just start playin', and you get a crowd instantaneously, one million people.

(audience laughs) They just show up.

It was great.

- Yeah, I was wondering how Chinese people would respond to polka, so maybe we get a polka show on the air over there.

Who knows, right?

- Right, it just might happen.

- Well, traveling with the band, really, we didn't have life outside of school and playing.

I mean we did.

Like I played basketball.

I had horses and stuff like that, but really, our social life was on the road, and so our band musicians, who were our friends, and the people on the road were our friends, so that's what it was like growing up on the road.

It's like the people were just great.

We would stay in houses, you know, in Connecticut and Maryland or, you know, we would just stay over at people's houses, and that was great, traveling to different countries.

I had an opportunity of a lifetime to go to so many places in which I did, playing with the band.

Like I said, I started going overseas when I was 10.

That was good, like Germany, there's a story about Germany.

We went over, like 10 years old, and this is when there was the good and the bad side of Germany.

We're going across the line, and it was my dad's first trip too, and the bus got pulled over, and they confiscated all of his equipment, and they said, "All right, go ahead."

He's like, "Where's all my equipment?"

They said, "Oh yeah, they'll catch up to you, later on down the road," type of thing.

And days later, all of his amplifiers and equipment arrived at the hotel, but it was all torn apart, like they ripped all the wires apart, and all the speakers apart and everything like that, and he was like, "Oh my God."

So he rented things to play.

The first time he learned a valuable lesson, never take all your stuff with you, and especially to that part of where we were.

He made do, but it was a life lesson that he would never do that again.

- [John] As soon as I leave the house, I know something's gonna happen.

I'm going on the job or I'm going to New Jersey, and I make sure everybody has our instruments.

I watched, you got the violins here, you got the pianos here, the drums are here.

We're going to New Jersey, and I got the polkas on.

They were on 24 hours a day, one time, the polka's on.

The Jim Ward show, he had them on for 48 hours straight, Saturday and Sunday, he had polkas for 48 hours.

So I'm listening to the radio, we're going to Jersey.

Who comes on the radio, was Dottie.

She's on the radio, what the hell's she doing on the radio?

She says, "Turn around and come home for your accordion."

So I turned around, I turned around, and I went back for the accordion.

That was the only-- Everybody else's stuff was on there.

And then about a week later, I pulled it off again, but it was a local job.

She left it at an exit on Route 81.

She left it at the exit.

I had to go from Old Forge to pick it up.

She says, "It's at the exit sign."

I got to the exit sign, it's on the road.

I picked it up, threw it in the truck, and went to play.

And I was at Max Cafe that night, I'm singing "I overlooked an Orchid, I overlooked an orchid."

I opened my mouth up wide, I guess.

A moth, a moth flew into my mouth, and he's in my throat and he has that, he has that powder on it, and he's choking me to death.

I was turnin' blue, I was turning blue.

I didn't know what to do.

I thought I was gonna die.

I put the accordion down, everybody's lookin'.

"What's wrong with him?"

I'm going like this, and I'm gaggin'.

So they gave me water.

I drank it, and when I drank the water, I could feel his wings, he flapped all the way down, he flapped right down into my stomach.

Then after that, I had a shot.

I killed him with a shot, and that was it.

(polka music) As we were in China, okay, we got on the plane in China.

Ready for the takeoff.

What you do is you hold your head up against the next seat, and you put your arm around it, and boom, that's the way you take off.

- [Dottie] They don't believe in seat belts.

- [John] Well, okay, on that plane maybe.

- [Dottie] They didn't have them.

- [John] No, just on that plane, probably.

So after we got up there, we waited about 10, 15 minutes, so we start playin' around the plane.

I asked the captain.

He's, "Yeah."

He said, "We'd love it."

So we're playin' around the whole airplane.

There's about 300 on a plan.

And we're playin' around the whole thing, and they're clappin' and they're having a good time.

- [Barry] So during the flight, the captain gets on the intercom, and announces, "Ladies and gentlemen," in a Japanese accent, "We have a very famous American singing star."

- He says, "Stanky and the Coal Miners," and they all start clappin.

So we're goin' around the plane.

I bump into Christie Brinkley, with her... - [Dottie] Her baby.

- Yeah, it was her baby, one year old.

I bump into Christie, and who comes from the seat, is Billy Joel.

He said, "You're Stank?"

I said, "Yeah."

He said, "I thought they were talking about me," he says.

(Dottie laughs) So I put the accordion down, I grab the baby for a little while, and I walked around.

I talked to Christie, I talked to him for a while.

We put our stuff back on, and we just kept goin' around playin'.

So as we got finished with the whole plane, I put the accordion down.

I didn't think nothin' of it.

I went and I sat.

These Chinese people on the plane was sayin', I don't know what they were sayin'.

I had to sign autographs for over 200 of them.

They made one complete line around-- - [Dottie] Right around the plane.

- [John] Whole plane, and they would come by me, and I had a marking pencil, and they would bend over, and I would sign every one of their tees.

I said, "I'm gonna ruin your t-shirt."

"No, no, no, no, just sign."

So for about an hour and a half, that's all I did.

- [Dottie] We went to China twice.

- [John] We went to China twice, and actually we were gonna go back for the third time to China, with Channel 44.

We were gonna do, okay, we're gonna play on the Great Wall.

We had the musicians all set to go.

We had the cameramen all ready to go.

- [Dottie] Everything was all set.

- [John] Okay, then they had the incident there on Tiananmen Square with the tank.

That's the first trip we ever had to cancel.

But that was great.

- We played at the Russ Fair in Spain.

- Spain, and also Vancouver.

- [Dottie] Australia.

- [John] And Australia.

- [Dottie] We went to Australia twice, and then we did a USO tour to Korea, which was, this is the story now.

Take a polka band, and the band go to South Korea.

- [John] To play a German Fest.

- [Dottie] A German Fest for the USO, come home, go to the Bloomsburg Fair and play the next day.

- [John] One job.

- [Dottie] One job, come home, pick up the suitcases, and the next day we're playing-- - We played in Switzerland.

- In Switzerland.

(laughs) We had our suitcases lined up, but it's fun.

- About 9,000 miles on in three days.

- Then the one time we were coming home from China, that was, I believe, 1989.

I'm trying to think, in that area.

And my daughters kept calling us.

That's the first time we went.

"Where are you, Mom?

Where are you?"

"Well, we just got off the airport."

"Where are you, where are you?"

We kept telling.

We pulled around the corner, and I thought something happened.

I mean it was like cars all over the place.

They had a surprise 25th wedding anniversary for us.

I mean there had to be-- - About 300 people there.

- At least 300 and some people in our yard.

It was unbelievable.

They had my wedding gown out.

They had his tux out.

- We put them on.

- We put it on.

We put them on, it still fit us, and we're doin' the polka on (mumbles) street.

(laughs) We do crazy things.

We were in Aruba last year, we were in Aruba, and we're out on the beach, and he's walking out into the ocean with the accordion playing, right?

- I'm walking out there, dancing.

- And the waves are gonna take you away, and all of a sudden one of our fans says, "You gotta come around here, there's a wedding."

He goes around the complex, and there's the bride and the groom, and he ends up playing at their wedding.

He got paid with a big block of cheese.

(laughs) - 15-pound block of cheese.

She said-- - We don't have no money.

She says, "But here, take this cheese."

Now what am I gonna do with cheese?

- We eat it.

- So we went on the beach, everyone took slices.

We went and got our beer, our balochi, and we had our cheese and beer.

(polka music) - Before a big show or the Bloomburg Fair, or anything like that, my pop-pop makes us practice.

The whole band does it for like maybe one or two hours, and we practice it until we get it right.

- Polka is a two-beat piece that all polka music has the same beat, but it just has different speeds.

Often like people that don't like polkas or are not introduced to polkas, or are just here for the first time, oh, they all sound alike, which it is true.

It all has the same beat, and the thing that is different is the melody and the notes behind it.

There's different, there's simple polkas, like you just want, the melody is so easygoing, and there's like the high-speed Eastern-style polka, where there's a billion notes, and it's very technical, very technical piece to perform on an instrument, but like my dad, he's stuck with Eastern, he actually has a style sort of his own.

It's not true Eastern and it's not Chicago at all.

It's not that kind of music.

He held to his own style.

He has his own style, and he's true to himself, even though other influences came and that were more popular and it's like, "Okay Dad, you should be playing this.

Why don't you play that?

Why don't you do this?

Why don't you get a concertina in there?"

He's like, "No."

It's like this is what Stanky and the Coal Miners is all about, and he did hold true to himself.

- All these white keys, these are-- (plays accordion) Okay, these are major chords.

These are all major chords.

(plays accordion) So actually when we go on a job, I play mostly all the white keys.

Okay, now all these black keys, they're sharps and flats.

So if they ask me what, "Hey Stank, how about your key?

What key are you in?"

So I told him C, but every once in a while just to have some fun, I'll say, "We're in Stanky."

And I was brought up like I would play polkas, and then after that I was gettin' lessons for Tico-Tico, Dizzy Fingers, and I had all fantastic music, and I had, my fingers would go from the white to the black like crazy, and then when I got into the polkas, you don't have to do that.

It's almost like a simple, it's almost like a simple thing.

I could play the piano, and the only way that I could play it, I have to go by the piano, and I have to kneel, and I have to look at the keys this way.

I have to look at the keys this way, because if the keys are here, boom, I don't know what they're doing.

So I kneel down on the floor, and I look at them this way, and I could play it that way.

(laughs) - People like the snappy beat of the polkas.

It's a happy music, if you have many problems, or if you're sad, the day you show up at a polka dance, as soon as that band, within 10 minutes, I believe you're in a different mood.

It's just, you have a friend every dance you go to, because everybody just, somebody knows somebody, and if you don't know them, you're already somebody's new friend.

- Well, a lot of people like it.

My grandfather, I think my grandfather makes people happy, when he plays music for them, and my parents, and everybody.

- Well, with WVIA, they were running the fundraisers, you know, the pledging and everything, and they had John Stanky and the Coal Miners play, and they played a couple shows.

And then this one time, my first host with one of the Pennsylvania polka shows is Mr.

Bill Kelly, and the people really enjoyed it, and it did very well for WVIA.

It really helps to produce a very worthwhile station.

It's a public service station that makes a lot of people happy, and we enjoy doing it.

We used to bring our own round tables here and set it up like a cocktail area.

We used to bring the local round tables from the Mayfair's Opera Club and the tablecloths and do a more like a cafe style.

We used to blow balloons up and have arches of balloons and then we used to have special Sea Day at the beach.

We had dress-up day, we had clown day, circus day.

Everyone came dressed as coal miners, and it was a lot of fun and it generated a lot of interest with the people, but most of all, it really entertained people that were at home, that were bedridden and couldn't get out of their homes and that really wanted to enjoy something.

Those are the people who make this program, and they make Pennsylvania polka, and they not only do that, but they made John and I and all the other bands that are in the entertainment business.

While we try to do whatever we want, a lot of times they call us or John goes to the nursing homes and he plays for the people.

I'll go with him.

They're excited to see you.

They want you to dance with them and talk to them.

We're actually, John and I actually aren't anyone, but to those people, it's important, because they see us all the time, so we like to give a little bit back to them.

And we enjoy it.

- [John] And then we also do things for the Lions Club.

I belong to the Lions Club, and during the holidays I go to the rest homes and play, and we take our Lions Club members, and they sing.

Then they also went to Rotary Club.

Okay, I do that every Christmas.

Then I belong to the firemen here, too.

I do a lot of volunteer work for them.

- And he was the fire chief at one time.

- Yeah, for one year, and then I got fired.

(laughs) I'm only kiddin' you.

- They couldn't afford the size boots for him.

- They couldn't get the right boots for me, so I had to go.

I had a size 14, they only had 13s.

- But you still belong, and you're still... - I'm the oldest member there.

I'm there 52 years as a fireman, and we have a meeting every first Wednesday of the month, and it's fantastic.

- I've never met anybody who works harder than John Stanky and Dottie.

They compliment one another very very well.

Dottie's meticulous, and John has amazing stamina and energy, and just can go and go and go and go.

They are probably the most authentic and original of all polka bands, and one day they will be in the Polka Hall of Fame.

(polka music) - I love to cook, clean.

Oh, John always says I just sterilize the house.

(laughs) But we're not gonna count that.

I love to cook, I love to clean, I love to decorate.

I love to arrange things.

I used to have an arts and crafts shop at one time, years ago down (mumbles) avenue, along with my sister-in-law Geri.

Tie-dye arts and crafts.

I was more or less like the art director for the county before I got my present job.

I used to go throughout the whole county, teaching the children on Tuesdays, and teaching the adults on Thursdays, and did that for many years.

I also worked with the recreation for Luzerne County, with (mumbles) with the mentally-challenged children.

(polka music) - I have a lot of awards for being in a business this long, like 61 years.

I actually don't look for awards.

Our award is when I go to a job, and they ask us to come back.

We got a lot of plaques at home, and maybe things like that, but actually don't look for anything like that.

- Not only did he enjoy himself in earning a living, but he passed along a lot of good feelings, a lot of fun to people around him, so I admire the guy.

He's always been a friend of mine, probably my best friend over the years, and I'm very happy to see that he made it big.

- Just a regular guy.

I enjoy working with him so much, so much, and I wish him nothing but the best, and he and Dottie both have to be so proud, as any entertainer or any business owner would be to struggle and work hard and build their band to this crescendo, and then have the kids come right in and be a part of it.

That, to me, is so important.

Many times in the industry of music, a lot of the family doesn't want any part of it.

The parents may think well, we're gonna retire from the store, and the kids will take over, but they say we don't want to do this, but it would make anyone proud to see that the kids are following in their family's footsteps, and when you look at Stanky and the Coal Miners today on the stage with John and Dottie and Debbie and Kim, Vinnie the son-in-law, the grandchildren, I mean they've gotta be proud as can be to see the three generations on stage together.

You don't see that an awful lot when you see bands perform, but when you see Stanky and the Coal Miners today in many events, you'll see the three generations all having a good time, something him and Dottie started.

- What we'd like to do right now, one's called, it's (mumbles).

It's featuring Alex and Ashley.

That's my two granddaughters.

(mumbles) polka, let's get some of those (mumbles) out there, Dot, ready, (mumbles).

(polka music) ♪ Hello (mumbles), how's everybody ♪ ♪ Hello (mumbles), how's everybody ♪ ♪ Everyone's feeling fine ♪ Dancing all night long ♪ One by one, two by two ♪ Round and round we go ♪ Everyone's feeling fine ♪ Dancing all night long ♪ One by one, two by two ♪ Round and round we go ♪ Hello (mumbles) how's everybody ♪ ♪ Hello (mumbles) how's everybody ♪ ♪ Everyone's feeling fine ♪ Dancing all night long ♪ One by one, two by two ♪ Round and round we go ♪ Everyone's feeling fine ♪ Dancing all night long ♪ One by one, two by two ♪ Round and round we go ♪ Hello (mumbles), how's everybody ♪ ♪ Hello (mumbles), how's everybody ♪ ♪ Everyone's feeling fine ♪ Dancing all night long ♪ One by one, two by two ♪ Round and round we go ♪ Everyone's feeling fine ♪ Dancing all night long ♪ One by one, two by two ♪ Round and round we go Let's hear it for Alex and Ashley, fantastic.

That's my two granddaughters, they go for voice lessons.

(polka music) ♪ We are a travelin' polka band ♪ ♪ Making a living on one-night-stands ♪ ♪ We travel from PA, Alaska too ♪ ♪ Making you happy the whole night through ♪ ♪ We play our polkas just for you ♪ ♪ To make you happy, not feeling blue ♪ ♪ We say (mumbles) ♪ We come to see you, how do you do ♪ (upbeat music) - [Announcer] This has been another locally-produced program by your Public Broadcasting Studios, VIA.