Starring Silent/Talkie Film Star Dorothy Janis????, born 1912.

 

Potential scenes to build the script and story of America's Waltz King:

 

2005: Story begins with the beautiful 93-year-old Silent Film Star Dorothy Janis (Jones) King listening to her great grandson who is fourteen talk about the "kind" of music he likes.   Nothing gets past this spry, Dallas born lady as she recognizes the same qualities in her great grandson that she saw in the young Wayne King who she met in Hollywood more than 75 years ago in 1930....She's discovered that her great grandson possesses ambition to be a musician and actor.   Mrs. King and her great grandson are in the restaurant at the Drake Hotel during a visit by much of the King family to their suburban home... and to the Michigan Avenue address of what once known as the King Building....

 

1901 Life of Harold Wayne King begins in the bustling Mississippi River and railroad town of Savanna, Illinois... with the father, uncles and grandfather of Wayne King as railroad men... Wayne's father is called home for the birth of his fourth son.

 

1905 discussion at the King dinner table and the attentive listening and observation of young Harold Wayne King... the four-year-old boy is most interested in the discussion of music, graphophones, and aeroplanes... quietly commenting... surprising the adults with maturity and sureness of opinion beyond his four years of age.

 

1907 Wayne's father moves the family to Dubuque, Iowa where Harvey King begins work at the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul locomotive shops...

 

1908 Dubuque, Iowa, Harold Wayne King's mother, Ida Smith King, dies after a short illness... nearly destroying the young family... splitting the father, who must work, from his sons for 18 months... leading to the three younger boys living in the Masonic Orphanage in Davenport, Iowa... leaving an inprint (variety of education, friends and loyalty to the Masons) on the life of young Harold Wayne King.  King meets his life-long friend ??? Sleezer who later advises (as young men) Wayne not to pursue a career in music.

 

1912 Eleven year-old Harold Wayne King returns from El Paso, Texas with brother Chester to stay the summer with his Uncle Charles and Aunt Minnie Seitzburg and their son at 23 Diagnal Street in Savanna.  Wayne, Chester and oldest brother Lyle join the Savanna Band with Uncle Charles.  Older brother Lyle is made the band director.  Lyle, age 19, takes to teaching young Wayne everything he knows about the developing popular danceband music of the day.

 

1917 Fun loving, adventurous teenager Wayne King is caught in the apple tree of Mrs Riddle... a neighbor lady who shoos him out with her broom...  but when she recognizes him from a church recital, she consoles him after he slips in getting away from the broom.  Wayne's real and natural love, wit and charm win her over forever.  Wayne was on his way to a see a friend (Glenn Law) and decides to show Mrs. Riddle his new clarinet given to him by his father (Harvey) for his 16th birthday.  Wayne picks a tune and plays it.  Mrs. Riddle's 5-year-old son Frank "Bud" witnesses this event and later becomes a local Savanna danceband leader, forming The Super-six Synchopators in 1936, telling the story at local dances where everyone knew and listened to the music of the now famous Wayne King and His Orchesta.

 

1917 Wayne King and Glenn Law play their first house dance on Oakton Road on the eastern limits of Savanna.

 

1917 Emil Flindt sends word to Wayne King, whom he'd not yet met, that if he can reach Elizabeth, Illinois by 4:00 p.m. Saturday, he has a job for him at Bishop's Hotel.  Sixteen year-old Wayne King walks 19 miles along the Ridge Road (dirt) with his clarinet to play with Emil Flindt.

 

1918 Wayne King returns to Savanna once again from El Paso and is soon sought after by local dance bands, playing numerous engagements with The Tim Sheehan Orchestra and Emil Flindt's Rag-O-Maniacs from Clinton, Iowa and The Weber Orchestra of Galena, Illinois.

 

1919 January Emil Flindt's Rag-O-Maniacs traveling from Clinton to Bellevue, Iowa on dirt roads experience an automobile break down near Sabula, Iowa where they were to meet Wayne King at the Milwaukee Road depot near the Mississippi River (Wayne, with his horn in hand, walked from Savanna along the Milwaukee Road tracks to Sabula),  Emil Flindt instructs his Rag-O-Maniacs to walk the remaining mile to the depot to meet Wayne and then try to catch a passenger train to Bellevue.  Emil stays behind with his automobile and says he'll meet them in Bellevue to as soon as possible.  He tells his sidemen to give Wayne a message:  Get the band to Bellevue without fail and to start the dance on time without him if necessary.  Upon receiving this message and consulting the passenger train schedule, King learns there aren't any passenger trains coming in time.  So King, familiar with many of the workers on the Milwaukee Road, walks to the operator's shantee on the Sabula Drawbridge, explaining his predicament.  The operator knows Wayne's family and that freight train 252 will be departing Savanna on-time and is scheduled to arrive in Bellevue by 5:00 p.m., in time for the Rag-O-Maniacs to make the dance.  With a quick telegraph to the wire chief in Savanna, the crew is given a last minute instruction to stop the caboose at the Sabula depot to let on board some very important riders.  Upon the band getting on board, King not missing a beat, introduces the band to the puzzled conductor and brakemen as The Rag-O-Maniacs, minus our leader. 

 

1920, spring, Wayne King is professionally photographed with his school chum Harold Homedew.  They would soon win a trophy at the Carroll County Track Meet along with several other Savanna boys listing all of their names.  Wayne King  received the highest individual points of the track meet.  Wayne was organizing many dances by 1920 in the Savanna area and his teammate and friend Harold Homedew was an outstanding dancer who helped showcase many of the latest dance steps at Wayne's dances.

 

1921, May, Harold " Wayne" King is photopgraphed playing trumpet in the Savanna Marching Band with A.J. (Alosias) Rheiner of Savanna, leader of a local danceband known as The Ridgerunners.

 

 

1925 Wayne King give Lawrence Welk a break by interceding with Bandmaster Dell Lampe to allow a young accordian player to come on stage and play with the orchestra at the Trianon... Lampe initially declined Welk, commenting that he didn't have a place for an accordian player... later during a break, Lampe asks King his thoughts about letting a young accordian player join the band on stage... King favors the idea... saying the worst thing that can happen is will have to ask him down...  It works-out swell with the audience giving Welk much applause and standing ovations.  This is one instance that builds upon King's solid decisions that catches the attention of Dell Lampe's father.

 

1930 xxx xxx .... who became the composer and Country Hall of Famer Pee Wee King.  xxx... historical detail to this entree to be entered soon... last updated January 22, 2006.

 

1930 Silent Film Starlet Dorothy Janis, future wife of Wayne King, shoots publicity photos with silent/talkie film actor Karl Dane... more details here to link to meeting of Wayne King, the Waltz King in Hollywood or location where photos were taken for MGM.  Publicity photos found by Author Laura Inbalogh in the Wisconsin Film Archives in 2006.

 

1931 Mayor of Chicago asks the now popular Radio Bandmaster Wayne King to perform on the streets (address under research) downtown Chicago to calm and uplift the spirits of so many in the downtown district who are distraught as the Great Depression grips the business district with no immediate outlook for improvement.

 

1932:  After 3 weeks of captivity, Wayne King quietly pays $50,000 (a some equal to about $1,000,000 in today's U.S. dollar) in ransom monies for the release of the president of the Chicago Federation of Musicians from his captors.