Related by Marriage: "The Baby Doll Polka"

Live polka music was a staple of Chicago's postwar entertainment scene. In the 1950s, radio and television polka programs flourished. Many European ethnic groups shared a love of polka music. Polka was a vehicle for lively social exchanges among the newly arrived Displaced Persons in Chicago—and their first- and second-generation neighbors. Polish-American musicians in postwar Chicago dominated the city's polka style, playing distinctive up-tempo original compositions and arrangements that featured the accordion, clarinet, saxophone, guitar, and drums.

Eddie Korosa, born in Chicago in 1918 to Polish and Slovenian parents, was a leading polka button accordionist, composer, and bandleader. In 1951, Korosa wrote his signature hit, "The Baby Doll Polka" and recorded it with his band, the "Merry Makers." Listen to the original Balkan label recording here.

This is the sheet cover for the piano accordion arrangement for the song, published in 1954, the same year Eddie Korosa opened the "Baby Doll Club" on Western Avenue at 73rd Street. Located on the southeastern edge of Marquette Park, the "Baby Doll Club" was a favorite Saturday night destination for Mr. Irene's Parents before they moved to the suburbs. This tune made it into Mr. Irene's accordion repertoire in about 1968. Mr. Irene still uses the original sheet music.

Eddie Korosa's widow remembered that the "Baby Doll Club" accommodated 500 people, with a long bar that seated 100 patrons. Live music played six nights a week. Korosa hosted his weekly radio polka program live from the club, too. He was known for leaping onto the club's bar, playing and singing. The "Baby Doll Club" closed its Marquette Park venue in 1980, but it soon reopened in new digs near Midway Airport. It lasted more than twenty years at that location.

Eddie Korosa was an acquaintance of Mr. Irene's Father: they were fellow legionnaires in the Don Varnas American Legion Post, headquartered some 8 blocks north of the "Baby Doll Club." Eddie helped sponsor many local polka bands, like the Lithuanian-American group that formed at the Don Varnas Post and played at Mr. Irene's Parents' wedding celebration.

ADDED: Here's a photo of the Baby Doll Polka Club's interior.