Win Stracke
Encyclopedia
Winfred “Win” J. Stracke (February 20, 1908 — June 29, 1991) was an American
Folk
Musician and Co-Founder of the Old Town School of Folk Music
in Chicago, Illinois
. Stracke was a Chicago fixture in music, theater, and television in the 1940s and was known for his booming bass voice. Nationally he was known as Uncle Win to viewers of his nationally syndicated children's television show on NBC
until it was canceled in the wake of the 1950s blacklist
.
but grew up in Chicago's Old Town
neighborhood, and had ties to the area his entire life. He was the son of German immigrants and his father was a preacher. He discovered his singing talent while still in high school school. Stracke had some operatic training but his interests in the labor movement and American Frontier history would draw him towards American Folk Music. Stracke began his folk singing career in Chicago in 1931, when WLS
hired him as a bass singer on their National Barn Dance
program. He appeared with the Cumberland Ridge Runners and Smoky Mountain Singers.
working with his soon to be life-long friend Studs Terkel
. Stracke and Terkel shared common ideas about the way music could be used to promote and assist the labor movement of the mid-twentieth century. During the 1940s Win left to serve in Europe and Africa during World War II
; drafted towards the end of the war, he served in an anti-aircraft division.
through Pete Seeger's
labor songs organization, People's Songs. Drawing from these areas and along with fellow musician Lawrence Lane (A classicly trained singer who later sang the National Anthem before Chicago Blackhawks games) the group formed "I Come for to Sing
," a touring folk review. I Come for to Sing, a touring program, played at colleges around the country in the late 1940s and 1950s. The program was setup around a theme with Terkel narrating and Stracke and the other performers singing songs to support that narration.
and Time For Uncle Win. It was notable as one of the first children's programs that treated children's programming as an educational opportunity and not merely entertainment. This program also toured local schools.
Animal Playtime was canceled from NBC, but was revived on local Chicago television after several parents protested its cancellation. Stracke was sympathetic to labor and progressive causes throughout his life, but was never a member of the Communist Party
. He described himself as a progressive, but did not identify with the organized party. At the time, however, any empathy to these causes was enough to get a performer blacklisted. Stracke would find work in this period in commercial work that wasn't scrutinized as heavily. He lent his voice in commercials for products like Pie Oh-My, Dean's Milk, and Carpets.
met Win Stracke at the Gate of Horn
nightclub in Chicago
. Together they founded the Old Town School and developed a teaching method with an emphasis on group learning. The school attempted to teach students popular folk songs of the day, songs by performers like Big Bill Broonzy
, Josh White
, and Odetta
and introduce students to the wealth of songs from other countries and less well known American folk songs. The school began as a series of lessons at a friend's apartment and later moved into a building on North Avenue in Chicago. Stracke wanted the classes to end with a jam session called Second Half so all levels of players could have fun playing together. Stracke served as the first director of the School.
Hamilton and Stracke would be musical partners for decades putting on several shows in Chicago and beyond. A program entitled From Bull Run to Birmingham tried to encompass several songs of struggle from history and tie these to the civil rights movement
happening in the American south at the time.
Win continued to perform and be involved with Chicago music and the Old Town School until his death in 1991.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
Musician and Co-Founder of the Old Town School of Folk Music
Old Town School of Folk Music
The Old Town School of Folk Music is a Chicago teaching and performing institution that launched the careers of many notable folk music artists...
in Chicago, Illinois
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Stracke was a Chicago fixture in music, theater, and television in the 1940s and was known for his booming bass voice. Nationally he was known as Uncle Win to viewers of his nationally syndicated children's television show on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
until it was canceled in the wake of the 1950s blacklist
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...
.
Early life
Win Stracke was born in Lorraine, KansasLorraine, Kansas
Lorraine is a city in Ellsworth County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 138.-Geography:Lorraine is located at . According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land.-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 136...
but grew up in Chicago's Old Town
Old Town, Chicago
Old Town is a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, bounded by the Ogden Ave. right-of-way on the northwest, Larrabee Street on the west, Clybourn Avenue on the southwest and Division Street on the south and Clark Street on the east and northeast. It spans across eastern parts of the community areas...
neighborhood, and had ties to the area his entire life. He was the son of German immigrants and his father was a preacher. He discovered his singing talent while still in high school school. Stracke had some operatic training but his interests in the labor movement and American Frontier history would draw him towards American Folk Music. Stracke began his folk singing career in Chicago in 1931, when WLS
WLS (AM)
WLS is a Chicago clear-channel AM station on 890 kHz. It uses C-QUAM AM stereo and transmits with 50,000 watts from transmitter and towers on the south edge of Tinley Park, Illinois....
hired him as a bass singer on their National Barn Dance
National Barn Dance
National Barn Dance, broadcast by WLS-AM in Chicago, Illinois starting in 1924, was one of the first American country music radio programs and a direct precursor of the Grand Ole Opry...
program. He appeared with the Cumberland Ridge Runners and Smoky Mountain Singers.
Thespian
In 1938 as a member of the Chicago Repertory Theater, a topically progressive theater group in Chicago (they regularly put on plays of pro-union and anti-war topics), Stracke met and beganworking with his soon to be life-long friend Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
. Stracke and Terkel shared common ideas about the way music could be used to promote and assist the labor movement of the mid-twentieth century. During the 1940s Win left to serve in Europe and Africa during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
; drafted towards the end of the war, he served in an anti-aircraft division.
I Come For to Sing
After returning to Chicago he again joined up with Studs Terkel. As well as an interest in American folk music and the labor movement the two also shared an appreciation for music of different cultures, Stracke was particularly fond of the German folk songs of his heritage. Terkel and Stracke had met the blues singer Big Bill BroonzyBig Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences...
through Pete Seeger's
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
labor songs organization, People's Songs. Drawing from these areas and along with fellow musician Lawrence Lane (A classicly trained singer who later sang the National Anthem before Chicago Blackhawks games) the group formed "I Come for to Sing
I Come for to Sing
I Come For to Sing was a folk music review performed by Chicago musicians and singers, Win Stracke, Big Bill Broonzy and Larry Lane. The program was narrated by Studs Terkel. I Come For to Sing ran successfully for more than ten years, touring colleges and clubs throughout the United States, with...
," a touring folk review. I Come for to Sing, a touring program, played at colleges around the country in the late 1940s and 1950s. The program was setup around a theme with Terkel narrating and Stracke and the other performers singing songs to support that narration.
Songs You Can See
Another touring show, Songs You Can See, consisted of Stracke and artist Peggy Lipschutz. Win would sing songs and ballads and Peggy would draw along with them on a large paper canvas as the songs were being sung. The drawings would correspond topically with the song being sung and be complete at the end of the song. The program toured the country mostly in the Midwest, several of their programs dealt with the civil rights movement of the 1960s.Television
Win was a figure in the Chicago School of Television, a style of early TV shows in the 1950s characterized by improvisational dialog and a variety show-like atmosphere. Along with Studs Terkel, Stracke was a cast member on Studs' Place. Stracke also played on one of the first sitcoms, Hawkins Falls. Stracke gained national fame as Uncle Win on his children's program Animal Playtime on NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and Time For Uncle Win. It was notable as one of the first children's programs that treated children's programming as an educational opportunity and not merely entertainment. This program also toured local schools.
Blacklist Era
Caught up in the Hollywood blacklistHollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...
Animal Playtime was canceled from NBC, but was revived on local Chicago television after several parents protested its cancellation. Stracke was sympathetic to labor and progressive causes throughout his life, but was never a member of the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
. He described himself as a progressive, but did not identify with the organized party. At the time, however, any empathy to these causes was enough to get a performer blacklisted. Stracke would find work in this period in commercial work that wasn't scrutinized as heavily. He lent his voice in commercials for products like Pie Oh-My, Dean's Milk, and Carpets.
Old Town School of Folk Music
In 1956 musician Frank HamiltonFrank Hamilton (musician)
Frank Hamilton is an American folk musician and co-founder of the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, Illinois. As a performer, he has recorded for Folkways Records and, as a member of the folk group The Weavers, for Vanguard Records, as well as for Philips and several other labels and...
met Win Stracke at the Gate of Horn
Gate of Horn
For writings, including the Greek myth involving a "Gate of horn", see Gates of horn and ivory.The Gate of Horn was a 100-seatfolk music club, located in the basement of the Rice Hotel on the southeast corner of Chicago Avenue and Dearborn Street, on the near north side of Chicago, Illinois, in the...
nightclub in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Together they founded the Old Town School and developed a teaching method with an emphasis on group learning. The school attempted to teach students popular folk songs of the day, songs by performers like Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences...
, Josh White
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White , better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names "Pinewood Tom" and "Tippy Barton" in the 1930s....
, and Odetta
Odetta
Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...
and introduce students to the wealth of songs from other countries and less well known American folk songs. The school began as a series of lessons at a friend's apartment and later moved into a building on North Avenue in Chicago. Stracke wanted the classes to end with a jam session called Second Half so all levels of players could have fun playing together. Stracke served as the first director of the School.
Hamilton and Stracke would be musical partners for decades putting on several shows in Chicago and beyond. A program entitled From Bull Run to Birmingham tried to encompass several songs of struggle from history and tie these to the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
happening in the American south at the time.
Win continued to perform and be involved with Chicago music and the Old Town School until his death in 1991.
Discography
- Uncle Win's Song Kit vol 1 & 2, 1955
- A Golden Treasury of Songs America Sings, Golden Records 1958
- Folk Songs for the Young, Golden Records. 1962
- Songs of the Civil War, Golden Records. 1965
- Freedom Country, Win Stracke and Norman Luboff, Walton Records. 1967
- Songs of Old Town, Flair Records. 1968
- Americana, Bally Records
External links
- Dink's Song - A recording of Win singing "Dink's SongDink's Song"Dink's Song" is an American folk song played by many folk revival musicians such as Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk, as well as more recent musicians like Jeff Buckley...
" - Big Rock Candy Mountain - A recording of Win singing "Big Rock Candy Mountain"
- Studs Place - Video of Win on an early Studs TerkelStuds TerkelLouis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
TV show - Early Days at The Old Town - audio interview with Jane Stracke, Win's daughter about the early days of the Old Town School and her Father
- Video Interview - A video interview of Studs Terkel discussing Win.
- Win Stracke Is Dead; Folk Singer Was 83 - New York Times Obituary