Meet Michael Hauer, Dayton’s ‘Music Man’ of the 1930s, whose legacy lives on at Hauer Music Co.
In a career that took him from a German oompah band to the big band sound to teaching thousands of kids, Michael Hauer blended his musical talent with sharp business skills.
From learning how to play instruments and performing at an early age to founding the Hauer Music Co., Hauer’s influence on the Dayton Music scene is felt today.
Hauer Music Co. started from a small basement studio and grew to become a supplier of musical instru- ments to more than 120 school districts and many groups, plus a place for a wide variety of instruments and lessons.
Here is a look at the morethan 75-year career of “Dayton’s Music Man.”
Early life
Hauer’s family moved to Dayton from Austria when he was 5. He attended St. Paul School, which was on the corner of Fifth Street and Wayne Avenue.
He became a musician in his teens, playing the accordion before moving on to the clarinet and saxophone.
“My father was a toolmaker and Dayton was an opportunity for employment. When I was a teen- ager, I served a four-year toolmaker apprenticeship at the old Delco Light (Plant), but my mind was on music. After they caught me more than once writing music on company time, they fired me,” Hauer once told the Dayton Daily News.
Michael Hauer’s School of Modern Music
In 1927, Hauer leased a suite of studios on the fifth floor of the Wurlitzer building, 126 S. Ludlow St., and was conducting a “mod- ern School of Music” where “every popular orchestra instrument will be taught by artists who have had years of professional experience.”
The school specialized in teaching the saxophone, trumpet, xylophones and drums, piano and banjo. Michael Hauer taught sax- ophone.
A Dayton Daily News story at the time described the school, saying: “The rooms making up the studio have been elaborately decorated. The studio is cut off from its neighbors with sound- proof floors and walls and there is no interference of any kind.”
Big band era
As a child, Hauer started playing alto horn and by 1911 was playing with a local German band. He later took up woodwinds and joined the Dayton Municipal Band, which regularly performed at Island Park.
Hauer had formed his own band by age 20, and before long became the area’s top band leader.
The band played all over the country at leading hotels, but always returned to Dayton. They started at the Canton Tea Garden and the Seville Tavern. They had extended summer season engagements at a resort out- side Cleveland called Men- tor-on-the-Lake.
They became the house band at Castle Farms in the central Cincinnati suburbs, which was considered the top dance spot in the Midwest. They would often fill in between nationally known acts.
On the radio
Radio was the goal of per- formers in the 1920s and ’30s, so Hauer organized a 10-piece band that played on a weekly basis on WSAI and later on WLW’s Hap- piness Hour for more than five years.
“We would all pile in a big Cadillac I had with a trailer on the back for the instru- ments for the trip to Cincin- nati. We put a board across the jump seats in the back of the car so all the guys could fit,” Hauer once said.
In Dayton, his band played at the Van Cleve Hotel for two years and at the Bilt- more Hotel for many years.
Hauer’s popularity peaked in the 1930s when he and his dance band were regu- lars at the Biltmore. During performances there, they played continuous music from 5 p.m.-1 a.m. It was at the Biltmore that his band was broadcast across the nation on the CBS network of radio stations.
The announcer would say, “And here now, ladies and gentlemen, from the Kitty Hawk room of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Dayton, Ohio, is Michael Hauer and his Music of the Hour.” The announcer was usually Don Wayne, who would later become a newscaster at WHIO-TV.
“Time on My Hands” was the band’s theme song on “Hauer on the Hour,” and one review of the band said, “The Michael Hauer orchestra is known best for its ‘danceable music’ and ‘songs that are easy to remember but hard to forget.”
During this time, Hauer’s talents became nationally recognized. He was receiving 2,000 letters a month, on average, from his radio fans.
“That was always a thrill when it happened and I still play the recordings of some of those shows, and the memories just flow over me,” Hauer said in a 1985 interview.
World War II took a toll on dance band music. Many musicians were called to serve in the armed forces, and Hauer disbanded his orchestra around that time to again focus on music education.
Hauer’s Music House
In 1937, Hauer founded Hauer’s Music House at 34 E. First St. Originally a small basement studio, the store became the leading sup- plier of musical instruments across the region.
The business also offered a staff of instructors for music lessons on a variety of instruments.
Retirement
After heading the business for 45 years, Hauer decided to retire as president in 1981 and give the reigns to his son Jerry.
In retirement, Hauer taught kids until he was 90, free of charge.
Seeing a need for more music in Dayton’s parochial schools, Hauer founded the Dayton Catholic School Band program. For more than 30 years, almost every Catholic school in the Dayton area had a regular band program.
“I suppose when I look back on my music career, I am proudest of that,” Hauer once said.
“In music there are listeners and there are performers,” he said in 1986. “But the greatest reward is the sound, the music you make yourself. It’s a pity more people don’t do that instead of turning a knob, flipping a switch or playing a record.”
Hauer died Aug. 7, 1995, and was inducted to the Dayton Region Walk of Fame in 2014.
Hauer Music Co.
Under the leadership of his son, Jerry, Hauer Music grew to be one of the largest music stores in the region. The business moved to 120 South Patterson Blvd. in 1989, the former site of Sach and Pruden Ale Co. brewery, which was also a warehouse for NCR during World War II.
Jerry Hauer transformed it into “a major store and a musical wonderland” by gradually expanding lessons and inventory. He also opened a satellite location in Kettering in 1958, and it closed in 1993.
In 2014, Hauer Music relocated again, this time to a new store at 528 Miamisburg Centerville Rd. in Centerville, where it continues to operate.