From the Unknown Chicago Blog of John R. Schmidt which now appears to be offline: Dingbat’s Funeral (Chicago Tribune, March 12, 1930)
In Washington today, the big story was the funeral of William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States. In Chicago, the big story was also a funeral. The city was saying good-bye to the Dingbat.
The Dingbat was John Oberta, his nickname derived from a comic strip. He was 27 at the time of his death. Like Taft he was a Republican politician, the 13th Ward Committeeman. Unlike Taft, he was a gangster.
Oberta was a protege of Big Tim Murphy, bootlegger and labor racketeer in the Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood. One morning Big Tim opened his front door and had his head blown off by a shotgun blast. A few months later, Dingbat married Big Tim’s widow.
Now Dingbat was gone, too. He had been found shot dead in his car, along with his chauffeur, on a deserted road near Willow Springs.
By 1930 the garish gangster funeral had become a familiar Chicago custom. Dingbat’s friends would not scrimp. “I’m giving him the same I gave Tim,” Mrs. Murphy Oberta told reporters.
Dingbat was waked in his home on South Richmond Avenue. He lay in a $15,000 mahogany coffin with silver handles, under a blanket of orchids. Joe Saltis, Bugs Moran, Spike O’Donnell, and all of Dingbat’s pals were present. So were assorted politicians.
Two priests of the Polish National Catholic Church conducted a brief service. Then the pall bearers prepared to carry the coffin to the waiting hearse. Out on the street, a crowd of 20,000 people had gathered. (In Washington, half as many were reported at Taft’s funeral.)
“Carry my Johnny out the back way,” Dingbat’s mother wailed. “Don’t let them see him! They didn’t care about him!” The pall bearers ignored her and brought Dingbat out the front door.
The coffin was loaded, then the hearse moved away. Following it were four carloads of flowers and a procession two miles long. When the funeral cortege arrived at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, hundreds more curiosity seekers were there to greet it.
Dingbat was laid to rest a few feet from Big Tim Murphy. There was just enough space between them for another grave. Presumably that spot was reserved for their mutual wife.
The murder of Dingbat Oberta was never officially solved. And with the Great Depression fast descending on the country, the gaudy gangland funeral went out of fashion.
In a press release issued by the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame last week, Ron Urbanczyk of the New Direction Band was named to its class of 2011 inductees. Renowned Western New York Polka musician Ron Urbanczyk is a veteran band leader, musician, promoter and author who works as the concertina player with the New Direction Band. Urbanczyk will be honored along with his fellow inductees at the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame Gala, to be held on October 6th at the Tralf Music Hall.
The Buffalo Music Hall of Fame Class of 2011, will be introduced to the public in downtown Buffalo on Wednesday, July 27th in front of the M&T Plaza at noon.
Ron is only the fifth “polka musician” to be honored by the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. His nomination was presented to the selection committee in March and after their review and scoring process, Ron was selected.
The BMHOF selection committee judges nominee’s based on their musical talents and tenure, community service activities, professional achievements, career highlights and the performers public visibility on the local and national levels.
Amongst Ron’s musical talents of playing the accordion, bass guitar, concertina and keyboard, his dinner theatre brainchild, Stas and Stella’s Mostly Traditional Polish Wedding, and his song writing abilities, six new originals will be featured on the New Direction’s first CD which they hope to record late this summer, were recognized.
He has played polkas for almost 50 years with the Jolly Jesters, Pole Cats, Steel City Brass, Buffalo Concertina All-Stars, Honky Hoppers, Bedrock Boys and City Side prior to forming the New Direction Band in 2009 with Jim Raczkowski, Bob Krupka, Frank Zeczak and Bill Barnas.
Ron put a trip together after receiving an invitation by the Chemnitz Mueseum of Art & Culture for the Buffalo Concertina Club in 2001. They traveled and performed in Chemnitz and Gruna, Germany, and Krakow and Rzeszow, Poland and visited Prague in the Czech Republic. He found sponsorship from the Deutsche Bank, PUA and Buffalo-Rzeszow Sister Cities Organization to cover the bands expenses.
In conjunction with WXRL 1300, a children’s clothing drive and cash donations for the Children’s Orphanage in Rzeszow was held. Boxes of clothing and $2,000 were collected and given to the Orphanage.
When little Timmy Gusevich was diagnosed with leukemia and Ron found out Greg Gusevich, Tim’s Father had lost his job and health insurance, Ron rounded up fellow Buffalo Polka Musicians at the Potts Banquet Hall to run a benefit dance for Tim, that event earned over $4000.
Ron also brought polka music into venues that were once thought off limits, the New York State Fair, Hamburg Casino, Batavia Casino, Miss Buffalo, town concerts in East Aurora, West Seneca, Orchard Park, Lackawanna and even to Club Lorelei an exclusive German club to name a few.
Ron is an active member of the Buffalo Polka Boosters, United States Polka Association, International Polka Association, Concertina USA, and is responsible for airing It’s Polka Time a one hour polka show on Time Warner Cable outlets in the Suburbs of Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Lockport. Ron and his wife Kathy have also escorted, polka fans from Buffalo on four Caribbean Cruises and to all inclusive vacations at resorts on several Caribbean islands.
Most recently, Ron started as an IJ on the Polka Legacy Network on Tuesday nights from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Listen in. Ron’s format features Buffalo Bands and Musicians.
So Ron is well deserving of his induction into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame and we look forward to the October induction ceremony.
God, full of mercy, who dwells in the heights, provide a sure rest upon the Divine Pressence’s wings, within the range of the holy, pure and glorious, whose shining resemble the sky’s, to the soul of Leiby Kletzky son of Nachman Kletzky, for a charity was given to the memory of his soul. Therefore, the Master of Mercy will protect him forever, from behind the hiding of his wings, and will tie his soul with the rope of life. The Everlasting is his heritage, and he shall rest peacefully upon his lying place, and let us say: Amen.
