Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
A115654-2B
Date(s)
- 1958-07-16 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
On a hot night in July 1958, the Bluenotes were raising the roof at the Little J.E.M. Dining & Dancing Cafe located on Highway 99, just past the Puyallup River bridge. The Bluenotes formed in 1956, after a chance meeting between middle schoolers Bill Engelhart and Frank Dutra with Buck Ormsby and Lassie Aanes at the Sunset Movie Theater, on the corner of Sixth and Prospect. The subject of rock music came up and a band was formed - one of the first rock bands in the area. In that original group were (l to r): Buck Ormsby on bass, Lassie Aanes on drums, Bill Engelhart (only partially visible) on guitar, Robin Roberts on featured vocals and Frank Dutra on tenor sax. Buck Ormsby left to become part of the Wailers and Robin Roberts became "Rockin' Robin" and recorded on his own as well as with the Wailers. In 1959 the Bluenotes, released "I Love An Angel," as Little Bill and the Bluenotes, and the teens basked in six weeks of fame on the national charts. (Little Bill Engelhart "Next Stop, Bakersfield"; www.havemusic.com/littlebill)
Teenagers; Rock & roll dancing; Rock groups--Tacoma--1950-1960; Ormsby, Buck; Aanes, Lassie; Engelhart, Bill; Roberts, Robin; Dutra, Frank; Little J.E.M. Cafe (Tacoma);