SpringfieldNewsSun.com

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — In 1947, Bob Roller and Bob Meiser had a ball selling tickets for a Policeman's Ball featuring the biggest of Big Bands.

At 83, Roller's still energetic eyes smile at the memory of it.

Springfielder Curly Martin's band had handled the music for the 1946 event in the City Building's police auditorium.

Curly didn't do a bad job. In fact, for local talent — his dad owned a grocery on West Main Street — he did quite well.

But when Frank Costello became president of the Fraternal Order of Police, he started thinking big.

"Frank came up with the idea of having a big name band and building up some money in the fund," Roller said.

With the memory of Glenn Miller still strong following his disappearance in 1944, few bands were bigger than the Miller Band featuring the sax playing and smooth-as-silk vocals of Tex Beneke.

Such talent did not come cheap.

"At the time, you had to come up with $1,500 front money even to get him to come," Roller recalled. "Then the band also got a percentage of the gate."

From the top down, everyone on the force knew getting the front money would be a stretch.

"At that time, Walter Sweet was chief, and Bob Meiser and I were relieved of duty to spend a month going out and contacting all the business, selling tickets," Roller said.

Taxpayers feeling taken advantage at this point can take comfort from the fact that the partners weren't riding in style.

A picture shows the two of them pointing to rust spots in their cruiser as part of a city campaign to get a 1 percent sales tax increase passed for repairs.

"It was so bad, all the seats were broken down. You had to go get a piece of cardboard to put on the floor on rainy days," Roller recalled.

That was not all.

At a time before cars had alternators, the patrolmen had to decide after dark whether to use what limited electricity they had for their headlights or powering their radios.

"If you turned the headlights on, an hour, say, you were dead in the water," Roller said. "They couldn't hear you (at headquarters) on the radio."

All the big industries — Crowell-Collier, International Harvester, Bauer Brothers and National Supply Co. — donated $100 each for the ball. Smaller businesses pitched in with smaller amounts. Everyone helped.

"It was great," Roller said, and on Nov. 1, 1947, the crowds rolled in to Memorial Hall.

At $2 a head, "it was wall-to-wall people," Roller said.

"It was such a success that Tex Beneke's man at the gate (said) halfway through the evening, 'We've got enough money.' "

Roller can't recall how much was raised, but he does remember it was successful enough that the FOP brought Frankie Carle to Hodges Roller Rink the next year.

By 1950, when the Woody Herman Band headlined, "We had two nights," Roller said.

With the help of Sgt. Charles Scott's radio program and Alice Bahman on WIZE, "that was as good a turnout as ever at Memorial Hall," Roller said.

Pee Wee Hunt also appeared at a ball at the Clark County Fairgrounds. But by then, perhaps 1952, Meiser and Roller had left the police force.

"Bob moved to Florida, and I went into construction," Roller said. And after that, "I lost track of the Policeman's Ball."

Roller eventually moved to California, where he spent 25 years working with developers on projects including the Mission Hills Country Club, which hosted the Dinah Shore Classic.

He moved back to Springfield 11 years ago, now regularly exercises at the Springfield Athletic Club and enjoys telling the story of how he had a ball selling tickets for Tex Beneke's appearance at the 1947 Springfield Policeman's Ball.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.

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