The “Bunny” Berigan

Fox Lake Knew

For 35 years Fox Lake, Wisconsin, has been having a celebration to honor Bunny Berigan, the greatest white trumpet player of the century. This year, 2008, is the 100^th anniversary of Bunny’s Birthday and there are still residents of Fox Lake that remember Bunny and his family, but only written materials about Bunny have been used to tell this story of “the Bunny Berigan that Fox Lake knew”.

Bernard “Bunny” Berigan was born at Hilbert, Wisconsin, but his parents came from ancestors that immigrated to the Fox Lake area in the 1840’s. It was only because of the job his father had with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad as Express Agent in Hilbert, that Bunny was born there. His family had rented a home in Hilbert but when Bunny was one year old his father, Wm. Berigan, landed a job as a candy salesman and the little family of Bunny, his brother Don, and his parents, Will and Mayme, moved back to Fox Lake where they had grown up. Their families and the whole community welcomed the young family back to Fox Lake. Again it was the railroad that influenced this move because as a candy salesman, Bunny’s father could use the train to visit his customers and Fox Lake lay in the middle of his territory.

When the young Berigan family moved back to Fox Lake they lived above Mayme’s parents, the John Schlitzberg’s. Bunny was a sickly, weak, baby but Grandmother Julia saw that baby Bernard got plenty of fresh air and lots of attention to help make him strong. In the beginning Bernard was not called Bunny, but his first nick name was Diddles. According to his brother Don, Bunny was small and he couldn’t say what he wanted. He would always point at something and say “diddle, diddle, diddle” and so his name became “Diddles”. The name of Bunny wasn’t given to him until he started with the Merrill Owen and his Pennsylvanians Band.

Bunny and his brother Don, who later became the town barber, had childhoods that were just like those of children growning up in small towns. Whatever the family interests were, that’s what the children knew and saw and in this case it was music. Mayme, Bunny’s mother, had been a piano student at Downer College and when quite young she had made many public appearances. She became the organist at St. Mary’s Church, a position she held for forty years. Bunny’s Dad displayed no musical talent, but his mother and her family abounded in it and music became the love of Bunny’s life. The Schlitzbergs all played something and Bunny’s Grandfather led the Schlitzberg Band and even started a youth band that Bunny played with, but that is a another whole story.

Mayme began teaching the love of music to her boys before they were old enough to go to school. Don did not have the patience for it, but Bunny did and he and his mother became real musical pals. The violin was the first instrument Bunny learned to play, beginning at age 6. His Grandfather gave him his first lessons and then he took lessons in “Professor” Wagner’s Musical College in Beaver where he would go after school. Later he continued his studies at Wayland Academy. He made very good progress with his studies there and was in demand at local entertainment nights. Bunny actually doubled on the violin up until 1927 or 1928.

Bunny’s Grandfather played a large part in Bunny’s musical training and had him playing the alto horn before he gave him a trumpet. One night while Bunny and Don were fooling around at home he picked up his Grandfather’s cornet and tried to imitate his lip vibrato. This was a trick since Grandpa had false teeth and Bunny had to really work to get some of the same sound to come out. At first all Bunny could get out of the horn was a “pfft, pfft” sound, but later he developed a sound of his own. Bunny was 11 years old when he chose the trumpet, for whatever reason a musician chooses to play what he does.

It was not unusual for musical notes to be coming from the Berigan residence at any time of the day or night, but when it got to be midnight and Mayme was playing cards with her girl friends the phone would ring at the card party and the request would be that she call the boys and tell them the neighbors wanted to sleep.`

Bunny and his brother were crazy little boys. They roamed the streets of Fox Lake back in the days when children were free to travel wherever their little legs could take them. They even trained their pet dog to pull the coaster wagon so they could ride around town. They had cousins the same age and as they grew up fishing, hunting, and later the pool hall and dance hall held great attraction for both boys. When Bunny was 10 years old he could beat any grown-up at pool, including his Dad who was a good player.

In school Bunny was a joker, something he never grew out of. At one of the school picnics out on the Island (now where the road Chief Kuno Trail runs) he stole the ribbon from a classmate’s hair and wore it as he went to bat during the baseball team. He never really wanted to study hard unless it was something to do with music, but was well known for having a “big heart.”

Bunny might have been a sickly child, but he made up for it early in his teens. He was close to six-feet tall and well-built. He had a light complexion, blue eyes and hair that was a light brown, almost blond. From the time he could he wore a mustache. The mustache served two purposes, it made him look mature and it strengthened his lip.

When Bunny became High School age he was really not interested in school. This greatly distressed his parents and they thought that if he went to Madison to live with his Grandmother, that maybe he would like the bigger High School. Of course Bunny found the guys who loved music like he did and formed a band. He became very popular at the University Dances and thus his career in music was launched.

Bunny never left his roots of Fox Lake. Even after he was married he would try to come home as much as he could. He was signed for a long engagement one time and actually sent his wife, Donna, and daughter, Patsy, home to Fox Lake where he felt they would be safe while he was traveling. If the band was playing as close as Chicago, Bunny was on the road back to Fox Lake for the day off, to include some golf at the local Fox Lake County Club.

The whole community felt it when Bunny died at the young age of 33 from internal bleeding due to alcoholism. His body was brought back to Fox Lake and he was buried in an unmarked grave near his father in the St. Mary’s Cemetery on Breezy Point Road. His grave has since been marked with a headstone.

Again this year, the Bunny Berigan Jazz Jubilee will take place in Fox Lake on May 16-18, 2008. The three day event will feature five bands in two locations. Included in the event will be a special Birthday Breakfast Brunch to celebrate Bunny’s 100^th Birthday Anniversary, a Dixieland Parade, and some of the best Big Band music and Dixieland Jazz in the nation. For more information on the event one can call Julie Flemming at 920-928-6094, or view the web page at www.bunnyberiganjazzjubilee.com