Keeping a musician’s legacy alive

The legacy of a local Paramount records musician from the early 1900s continues to shine bright as his family and their community pays homage to his achievements.

The recent induction of Joe Gumin into the Paramount Walk of Fame in Grafton’s downtown stands as a testament to his impact on not only southeastern Wisconsin, but also the whole world.

While history often fades into the recesses of memory, his granddaughter, Melissa Gumina of Grafton, is persistent in her quest to keep his history alive.

It started in 2005 when Gumina’s good friend, Angie Mack, a blues educator and musical director, got a postcard in the mail from a record collector.

“It read ‘Meet me at the local hotel if you have any records that were pressed or recorded here in Grafton.’ It was kind of creepy, but it opened our eyes to a world we didn’t know too well at the time,” Gumina said.

Over the next year, Gumina and Mack began to extensively research the history of Paramount Records — a now defunct recording studio run on the grounds of the Wisconsin Chair Co. in Grafton.

“We learned that every blues music fan knows about Grafton, but most Grafton residents don’t know the famed history of their own town,” Gumina said.

More importantly, though, the two found some records by Gumin that were pressed in Grafton.

Additionally, they learned that Gumin had a long standing relationship with both WTMJ-TV and radio stations in Milwaukee.

“WTMJ really took him under its wing.  (The radio station) still plays his rendition of Jingle Bells every single year during Christmas time,” Gumina said.

The record ended up selling more than a million copies worldwide. The song includes Jingle Bells being sung in multiple languages, including Pig Latin, Chinese and Sicilian.

However, Gumina explained, while the song is actually sung in English and Pig Latin, the verses in Chinese and Sicilian are just random words over the Jingle Bells melody.

“Charlie Toy (a Chinese immigrant and business owner who lived in Milwaukee) taught him how to sing something in Chinese, but it wasn’t Jingle Bells,” Gumina said while laughing “And the verse in Sicilian is actually just my Grandpa shouting out his cousin.”

The two  also discovered that Gumin, in addition to performing all over Wisconsin and Texas, traveled with John Ringling’s circus and performed with him in Sarasota, Fla.

After they gathered all this information in 2006, Gumina and Mack orchestrated a summit that ultimately turned into an induction ceremony for the Walk of Fame.

However, to Gumina’s confusion, her grandfather wasn’t inducted until this August.

“He was supposed to be on the list years ago, but the board that picks the musicians said he wasn’t a blues singer so he shouldn’t be included,” she said. “They skipped over him and Lawrence Welk (another renowned Paramount recording artist) until we explained that they both had their records pressed in Grafton. Those records also featured music from an Oostburg band, local orchestras and local church choirs.”

After years of waiting, Gumina and her family finally got the celebration they had wanted — the event, however, came four days too late.

“My Aunt Marilyn (Gumin’s daughter) passed away on the Sunday. The event was on the Thursday. She had a plane ticket and everything to be there,” she said.

Regardless of the “devastation,” Gumina said, the event still turned out beautifully.

“While my Aunt Marilyn couldn’t make it, my other aunt, Rosemary, was able to make it. She was able to switch things up a little and wrote not just a beautiful dedication for my grandfather, but also paid homage to Marilyn.

“I just kind of took it like my aunt just wanted balcony seats for the event,” she said.

Five other Guminas were able to attend, and each reveled at the Gumin name forever enshrined in the Paramount Walk of Fame, she said.

The piano key is emblazoned with Gumin’s name and “WI Dance Band Leader & Drummer” written underneath. Complementing etchings of a record and Gumin’s face with a WTMJ Radio microphone are on either side of the writing.

With the event in the past, Gumina said she is still doing everything to keep her grandfather’s name and history alive.

“We still have my grandpa’s drum set at my cousin’s and he still plays it. I still have a conductor stick my grandpa used too. I also have a bunch of old tapes that, I think, have both his music on them and some TV interviews,” she said.

Gumina said she is still lacking the correct equipment to watch, or at least listen to, the tapes.

Outside of the physical mementos helping keep Gumin’s memory alive, Gumina said, her family is full of musicians who all carry the, almost, same name. Gumin removed the “a” from his name when he immigrated to the United States to avoid being oppressed because of his nationality, Gumina said.

“My grandfather had four kids, three of which were musicians at different levels. And now, my daughter is a music teacher,” she said.