Dancers at Gay Mill in the winter of 1925-26 certainly weren’t bereft of opportunity. Dancing music in February on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday evenings was provided by the “house orchestra” directed by Virgil Moore: “Nine Snappy, Peppy, Singing Musicians.” There were Charleston dance lessons, private parties and a popular Chicago act of young girls: “Juvenile Follies” - the “Sensation of the Season.” (Footnote: Advertisement, Hammond Times, Feb 5, 1926, page 8. ) When spring finally came the entertainment at Gay Mill were glowingly reported in a column in Hammond Times by Theodora Wentz:

Gay Mill made her formal bow to spring and the 1926 dancing season in a whirl of new finery, gorgeous lighting effects, lilting syncopation, and the joyous laughter of the boys and girls of the surrounding country-side. The weather man had even polished up a brand new moon to give the necessary touch of romance to the occasion.

For a number of years, Gay Mill has been the ‘playtime place’ for young and old, but never before has she been so altogether lovely as at this season. There is a distinct atmosphere of clean, beautiful spaciousness from the moment you step through the door of the smart lobby, until you have your farewell ‘sip and bite’ in the Gay Mill Coffee Shoppe.

And whose shining personality radiates the whole lobby full of happiness from the striking painting of oil, hung in its golden frame to greet us as we enter? None other than our own Frances Kennedy, whose famous smile has made her beloved from coast to coast and border to border. True, the portrait is but a thing of oil, pigment and wood, but so magnetic is the personality of this charming woman, you feel the clasp of her hand in yours, extended with the warmest of personal welcomes. You see, she cannot be with us all the while, for the public is a very selfish thing, and clamors for the attention of its favorites. Miss Kennedy has been described throughout our country as “America’s Cheeriest Comedienne,” and it is indeed an apt description, for where Frances is, is love, and fun, and laughter, which are things she stands for.

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It seems that the dainty dancing figures which adorn the massive beams, have just gathered all the gorgeous coloring out of a Dunes sunset, and scattered it over the heads of the whirling dancers below.

And those Gay Mill Funmakers - they have your heart all squeezed up in a knot of syncopation one moment, in shouts of laughter at their funny antics the next, and your feet – well, your feet just simply do things you never thought possible, to the strains of melody these master musicians evoke from their favorite instruments.

The hostesses this year have been carefully selected from hundreds of girls for their grace, dancing ability and personal charm. Here the boy who is lonely in a strange town, may be formally introduced to a lovely girl, exactly as he would be in his own home, enjoy a good dance to real music in the environment every mother wants for her boy.

Lester, Ltd., of Chicago, have designed, specially for the Gay Mill hostesses, quite the prettiest French dancing frocks we have seen in a long, long time. Quaint bodices of shimmering grey satin with fresh fluffy looking organdie collars, and the skirts are rows and rows of the sheerest grey gorgette crepe over net, with handmade roses and silver loops scattered here and there. Opera length hose and dancing bloomers to match, complete this delightful ensemble.

I must say another word for the cozy Coffee Shoppe. It is decorated to surpass many of our foremost metropolitan luncheon places, and the cooks certainly know the truth of the old saying ‘the way to a person’s heart is through the tummy.’ The sandwiches are particularly good, being made of delicious golden brown toast, with many new combinations for fillings, as well as the old.

Mr. Johnson has also supplied us with the finest and most up-to-date soda grille that thought and money and effort can purchase. Here you get any of your favorite thirst quenchers, from the lemon, orangeade and pop of circus days, to the most elaborate of sodas and iced drinks, to say nothing of the snowing mounds of ice cream, heaped high with fruits and nuts from every corner of the globe, and, always, throughout courteous, attentive service, which is a really big feature in itself.

Both Miss Kennedy, and her husband, Mr. Thomas J. Johnson, whose unceasing effort has made Gay Mill what it is today, have been a tremendous factor in building up the moral fibre of the youth of their particular territory, in providing them with a playground where they come in contact with only the finer elements of mirth and music.

The Gay Mill creed has always been to offer an environment where we may safely send our boys and girls to play in their leisure moments, and they have, indeed, succeeded.

Long may they be with us.

May 20th was the scene of a “delightful” party given by the Gary and Northern Indiana Hairdressers and Cosmetologists with much entertainment, and proceeds given for a uniform for the girls’ band of Emerson High School. But things really kicked off with the arrival for two nights of the Coon-Sanders and his Night Hawkes, a popular radio orchestra that broadcast from Chicago radio stations and toured extensively in the Midwest. (Footnote: Wikipedia article on Coon-Sanders in a new tab or window. ) Coon-Sanders and his Night Hawkes, originally from Kansas City, was the first dance orchestra in America to radio broadcast nightly. (Footnote: Walker, Leo. 1990. The Wonderful Era of the Great Dance Bands. New York, NY: Da Capo Press., page 164. ) Coon-Sanders would return several times, including the second weekend in June when he provided some of the music for the first Catholic Mass held at Gay Mill on Sunday, June 13th. Fr. Donnelly, the pastor of St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Gary, made arrangements to celebrate mass at 8 a.m. and the Johnson’s, “…always willing to cooperate in any movement for the betterment and uplifting of the morals of the community…will donate the use of their ball room to any recognized religious organization on Sunday morning for church or religious services.” Mass was held every Sunday morning throughout the summer months. (Footnote: “Will Hold Mass For Miller,” Hammond Times, June 8, 1926, page 5. ) This was the beginnings of the St. Mary of the Lake congregation, and although not formally erected as a parish church for three more years, the article says that “…before long a suitable church will be erected upon the property owned by the Johnsons, but the exact location of same has not been definitely decided upon.” There is no reason to suppose that the congregation did not continue to hold services at Gay Mill, in fact the 1930 Gary City Directory lists “St. Mary’s R C Church" at 540 N. Lake St. – Gay Mill. The next year saw St.Mary in a new building on Miller Ave. (Footnote: The Johnson’s had been married at Holy Name cathedral in Chicago in 1905, and Frances had sung from an early age in the choir of her parish church. -(“Attorney To Wed Actress,” The Inter Ocean (Chicago), June 20, 1905, page 2.) )

If you’ve ever tuned into the Christian talk radio station WIND, AM 560 in Chicago, you’ve tuned into the direct descendant of the Calumet region's first radio station, WJKS, which operated at Gay Mill, 540 N. Lake Street in Miller from 1927 to 1932. It then moved the studios to 504 Broadway and the transmitter to the west side of Gary, changing the call letters to become WIND in 1933. Tom Johnson started the Johnson-Kennedy Radio Corporation in 1926, which company retained the license until Westinghouse Broadcasting Company became the license holder in the 1950s.

Thanks to the Johnsons, “Gary at last is to have an honest to goodness radio broadcasting station.” So read the article in the Hammond Times on November 26, 1926. Arrangements for installing the station at Gay Mill were complete and workmen were installing wiring and preparing to erect the 100 foot tall tower for the station which would broadcast as WJKS. Hammond Times reported on February 4, 1927 that “GARY’S FIRST AND ONLY broadcasting station located at Gay Mill will be ‘on the air’ within a short time.”

The whole story of WJKS (now WIND) and some notes about WJOB (originally WWAE) now is at its own webpage on this site. It is at
“Miller – The Site of the Region’s First Radio Station”

Dancing continued in 1927 along with church services in the summer, and the 500 watt radio station broadcasting from Gay Mill, but the visiting dance bands began to diminish, replaced by the “house orchestra” of the Gay Mill Orchestra, directed by various people, and no doubt with various musicians. Ads appeared weekly, sometimes daily on the weekends, throughout the year advertising dancing on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. But perhaps the biggest event of 1927 was the very first (Footnote: The Wikipedia article on Miss Indiana says Wanda Marie Sobczak from Michigan City was crowned "Miss Indiana" at Gay Mill in 1926, but I find no evidence of that; there are various "Miss Indiana"s in the papers from different cities, including a Muncie girl, Miss Lova Henderson, age 16, who was to go to Atlantic City. The Miss Indiana website history says that the first Miss Indiana to compete in the 1927 Atlantic City pageant was a girl from South Bend, and that there were actually four entrants from Indiana that year. Miss Hammond, Anne Howe, finished in the top five. It was the infancy of the pageant; state and national procedures were not yet in place. There were 73 entrants in Atlantic City that year. ) “Miss Indiana” pageant which drew “The largest crowds that ever attended the affairs at Gay Mill Gardens…” on Saturday and Sunday nights, July 30 and 31st. (Footnote: “The Largest Crowd…” and “South Bend Girl Wins State Title,” Hammond Times, August 1, 1927, page 9. ) It was big doings: Frances and Tom entertained the contestants at a buffet luncheon Sunday, and Anna May Owens was crowned “Miss Gary” Sunday night. Four women went to Atlantic City in 1927 as "Miss Indiana."

It is difficult to know how much dancing went on in 1928 and 1929 at Gay Mill, although there is no reason not to suppose it was an active place with WJKS broadcasting still from 504 N. Lake Street. In the winter of 1928-1929 the owners opened the Gay Mill Winter Ballroom in the Knights of Columbus Hotel at 5th and Madison, but held a big New Year’s Eve dancing party in the Miller ballroom at the end of the year, with the dancing continuing the New Year day of 1929 at the K. of C. In 1929 the owners leased the Elk’s Ball Room for the Winter Ballroom to open October 7th. (Footnote: “The Owners of Gay Mill Have Leased the K. C. Ballroom” Advertisement in the Hammond Times, December 14, 1928. A formal opening December 16th with music by The Gold Dragons, “New York’s Latest Sensational Dance Orchestra.” (It is, after all, an ad.)
"Gay Mill Leases Elk's Ball Room," Hammond Times, September 28, 1929, page 13. )

While the ads are still few and far between, dancing went on. In April Jack Chapman, a popular Chicago recording artist was secured to play. The big news of the year happened at the end of the year though, when on October 3^rd eighty couples showed up to begin a dance marathon that would last for months competing for a thousand dollar prize. The dancers, who were allowed eleven minutes of rest an hour, (Footnote: Dance marathons around the country had different rules which is why any claim to the "longest" needs to take that into account. ) moved to the Elks Club in Gary on December 9^th with 13 couples left in their 1634^th hour of dancing. By late January shorter rest periods were put in to try and bring the marathon to a close, but on January 30^th it had entered it’s 2,850^th hour. Some five non-stop dancing contests were held on the same floor in conjunction with the marathon. By February 9^th there were only two couples left, dancing with only four minutes an hour rest; an ad in the Gary Post-Tribune urged people to be there that night as it would finally end, which we can only assume it did.

Strangely enough, with all the press it had gotten over the months, with ads totaling the hours, a dancer coming down with an attack of appendicitis, the Mayor of Gary showing up to perform a marriage between one of the couples, there is no resolution in the papers! I’ve not found out who won! (Footnote: Details of the marathon were gleaned from many advertisements and notes that appear in the Hammond Times between October, 1930 and February, 1931. I’ve looked in vain through the February Gary Post-Tribune for results. )

It has been written that Gay Mill burned down in 1930. It didn’t. Archibald McKinlay maintained that Gay Mill had become a liability for Tom Johnson and “For all its fame, however, Gay Mill’s future in the crash of 1929 looked anything but gay.” (Footnote: McKinlay, Archibald, “Sid Rice’s roots go deep,” Hammond Times, Jan 27, 1985, page 39. ) While that’s hard to refute, I would maintain that the opening of Madura’s Danceland, a stone’s throw from the popular Phil Smidt’s restaurant in Hammond in October of 1929 probably did more to diminish Gay Mill attendance. That large, new, lavish ballroom capable of handling the big bands that would become popular in the 30s and 40s was closer to the market for dancers. Another huge rival for entertainment dollars came at that time as well: talking pictures.

Mary and her Platinum Blondes

“Gay Mill Plans Opening” read the headline of a brief note in Hammond Times on April 8, 1931. On July 11th there were reportedly 2,000 dancers jammed into Gay Mill for the “first annual movie relief ball” sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Police to raise money for needy families in the city. (Footnote: “Gay Mill Plans Opening,” Hammond Times, April 8, 1931, page 13: “Spring in Miller, Gary and the Calumet Region, means the annual reopening of that institution of terpischore, the Gay Mill amusement center at Miller, in existence for almost twelve years, giving joy and amusement to two generations of dance lovers. An enormous crowd is expected at the Gay Mill next Sunday and Saturday to justly celebrate the occasion…”
“Many Attend Gary Movie Ball,” Hammond Times, July 13, 1931, page 11. )

Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon

      In the summer of 1931 the Johnsons leased Gay Mill to Alex Ganovich and Sidney Rice for $7,500. They were sued by the Johnson’s for violating the terms of the lease, lost, and the management was back in the hands of the Johnsons. (Footnote: “Norton Rules Clause Voids Garden Lease,” Hammond Times, October 31, 1931, page 1. ) They tried to compete. “It will not be the fault of Thomas J. Johnson, the well known owner of Gay Mill Gardens, if the popular recreation center at Miller does not record the gayest season of winter months in the history of the amusement place, according to present plans” read the note in Hammond Times in late August.
(Footnote: “Gay Mill Looks For Gay Season,” Hammond Times, Aug 27, 1931, page 11. )       There are scattered reports in the papers of dances being held at Gay Mill in 1932; there were benefits, one for the Fraternal Order of Police, one for Municipal League, and then a “Repeal Dance” in June which featured the short-lived all girl orchestra of “Mary and Her Platinum Blondes,” followed the next weekend by Half-Pint Jaxon, the 5’2” widely popular entertainer. (Footnote: “Gay Mill Will Hold Repeal Dance Saturday,” Gary Post-Tribune, June 10, 1932, page 11. Frankie “Half-Pint” Jaxon has his own Wikipedia article and there are several YouTube videos that feature his recordings. )

On July 15, 1933 the Valparaiso Vidette-Messenger reported Gay Mill would reopen under new management with Joe Morris the general manager and Ted Nering and his eleven piece orchestra playing dance music. One can only speculate that after the summer of 1933 Gay Mill was abandoned; in August of 1934 it was burgled, a suspect caught in September who was charged with sacking “…the place of all furniture, equipment and lighting apparatus.” (Footnote: “Sheriff Nabs Man Wanted for Robbery,” Hammond Times, September 11, 1934, page 7. ) The 1935 City Directory lists 540 N. Lake Street as “vacant” and on October 16th, by order of the State fire marshal in a petition in the Gary superior court, the building was ordered to be dismantled within 30 days or there would be severe fines to the holding company, a trustee of the Johnsons. (Footnote: “Gay-Mill, Miller Dance Hall Must Be Razed, Is Order,” Gary Post-Tribune, October 15, page 4. The article falsely states that “The dance hall has not been in use since 1930.” )
      So ended an era. Thomas J. Johnson, Sr. out-lived his wife Frances by nine years, dying in 1958. Frances, who had a vibrant and entertaining career in show business, died in 1949 noted only in a short seven line death notice in the Chicago Tribune. She will be the subject of companion web page. Their son, Thomas Junior would become an assistant Chicago city attorney while daughter Frances, after a brief period in radio and theater, pursued a career in retailing, dying in California in 1996.

There are several recorded memories of Gay Mill both in the Calumet Archives and in Linda Simon and Jane Ammeson's book Miller Beach (page 91.) These are delightful and instructive. The only caveat I have to them are references to some of the performers mentioned, Jack Benny and Paul Whitehead's orchestra, for example: I've never found specific mention of them being at Gay Mill in the newspapers of the time, but that doesn't mean they weren't at Gay Mill. I do know that Frances toured with Jack Benny to the west coast and that he, and the other performers mentioned, toured in Indiana and further afield in the time frame.

Be that as it may, I've provided two such remembrances here. The first is from Esther Pearson, a school teacher who lived on East Sixth Place and wrote a history of Miller in 1972. The second is in the Calumet Archives, but the date and author are unknown to me at this time.

Esther Pearson:

In the early l920's Gay Mill was built. Thomas Johnson an attorney from Chicago with his wife Frances Kennedy, who was a vaudeville performer, opened a dance and recreation hall on the west side of Lake Street just south of the Grand Calumet. They called this dance hall Gay Mill Gardens and they had name bands from all over the country. Among them were Paul Whiteman, Ted Weems, and Wayne King to name a few. Then in February l927 with the help of Judge Gary they received o a license to operate Gary’s first Radio Station which they named W.J.K.S. W the call letter and J.K.S. was Johnson, Kennedy, and Son, but they called it "Where Joy Kills Sorrow”.
   In August 1927 there was a formal grand opening and dedication when Johnson turned over this Radio Station to the City of Gary. At this formal opening some of the speakers were Mr. Gleason, Norton, Mayor Williams, Reverend Backmeyer, Rabbi August, and Reverend Deville. Some performers at W.J.K.S. were D.M. Ward, and you probably know these people, Ray ([not readable]), D.S. Davies who had a beautiful baritone voice, the Indiana Male Quartette, Alberto Duetterez from Argentina who played the guitar, Bonanova the Spanish baritone, Fredricka Pickart Grand Opera, W.J. Funky Jr, the Slag Pocket Four which was four Open Hearth employees, the Strom Sisters, and Bessie Franson was Staff Accompanist. The place was policed by two Detectives Gus Youngheim and Clyde Dennison and they kept things OK.
   At this time Streetcars from Gary went as far as Lake Street just south of the Baltimore and Ohio tracks in Miller, that is they went from 5th and Broadway in Gary to just south of the Baltimore and Ohio tracks in Miller. Then from there a Jitney went to Gay Mill or a Jitney could be taken from 5th and Broadway to Gay Mill for 25¢. Gay Mill was forced to close at the beginning of the Depression and the building burned down in 1930.

Unknown:

Back in the 20’s Miller used to be the town for entertainment. Our town drew people (a lot of rich people) from as far away as Chicago. Before there were cars people would come by horse and wagon along the shores of Lake Michigan, on the harder sand. Miller was an all day trip from Chicago by wagon. Later on there was the train, and a bus service from the depot. Most people came to Gay Mill a dance type social hall, every Saturday and Sunday.
   I was on the staff at Gay Mill and there were five other girls. Our job was to be a hostess and take tickets for each dance. We girls were not supposed to accept any dances while on the job but it became very hard sometimes to stick to the rules.
   Our uniforms were not at all like you would see your modern day hostess in. All six of us girls were outfitted in white satin dresses and white felt tams. I guess you could say we looked like the “Cat’s Meow”.
   I don’t want to forget to tell you about our boss or the host at Gay Mill. He was then what is now known as a bouncer. The thing that was watched closely in our place, was that couples didn’t dance too close together. The forbidden dance then was the “Shimmy”. I suppose it did look a little immoral but it sure was fun to get out there and really wiggle.
   I will end my story here because after the 30’s Miller was no longer at her finest. Like everyone else I prefer to mention happy times.