A chance meeting in 1938 at Kansas City’s historic Muehlebach Hotel planted the seed for a worldwide harmony movement, and eighty years later, Barbershopppers throughout the area are celebrated.
Mayor Sly James and the Kansas City Common Council issued a Proclamation recognizing National Barbershop Quartet Day.
Festivities on Wednesday, April 11, the official birth date of the Society, included featured performances and FREE singing downtown. Society CEO Marty Monson will be on hand to meet with local barbershoppers and take part in the festivities.
A nice story on KCTV5 kicked off the coverage. BoomTown qaurtet sang the national anthem at a Kansas City Royals day game on April 11,and later in the day a free Massed Sing on Barney Allis Plaza, and a concert in the Old Lobby of the Muehlebach rounded out he celebration.
The idea for the Barbershop Harmony Society was born in March 1938 in the lobby of the Muehlebach Hotel. Bad weather had stranded Tulsa businessman O.C Cash at the Muehlebach, where he bumped into fellow Tulsan Rupert Hall. Striking up a conversation, then a few songs, the men discovered a mutual delight in barbershop quartet singing, and resolved to gather some friends to sing together when they returned home. That first meeting at the Tulsa Club on April 11, 1938, launched a global phenomenon that today encompasses more than 80,000 men and women in more than 60 countries.