Michael VanGene
The Pembroke Years
In 1919, twenty four year old Michael VanGene who, after a stint serving in France in the first world war, arrived here, stayed a few years and then left. In that time he was a young man on the move, a go-getter and self promoter that during those few years seemed to be everywhere that involved music, dancing and good times.
He first came to the attention of the town when in mid July of that year he placed a small ad in the Observer offering his services as a piano tuner. This was quickly followed by a larger ad offering piano tuning, cleaning, repairing and the buying and selling of used pianos. Then, in partnership with a Mr. Harrison, there was a store, The Song Shop, and an orchestra, the Song Shop Orchestra. The partnership quickly ended but Michael carried on. The store was in the Heenan Block, that row of stores on the north side of Pembroke Street running east from Prince Street and ending at Delahey’s Department Store, now Bob’s Music Store, and was a weekly presence in the advertisements sections and in the Local News column.
So why did I find this young man a rather interesting and a topic write about? Well contrary to the usual practice when opening a new business, of placing one or two ads and then relying on word of mouth to create a clientele, Michael was a constant presence in the Pembroke Observer. Even before the store opened the orchestra provided the entertainment one evening for a euchre and dance with a write up the following week saying it was a grand affair. He seemed to be everywhere, providing the music for many if not most of the frequent dances held in those years.
To create a clientele he began offering dancing lessons “under the personal supervision of Prof. F.H. Sinclair of Ottawa, The Canadian authority on Modern Dancing.” If it had been a while since you last slipped on your dancing pumps he held pre-dance refreshers where you could fine tune your moves.
The store also seemed to be a hive of activity. He was the agent for a variety of musical instruments. He had complete selection of both popular and classical sheet music and you were invited to drop in any day or evening to hear the latest music played and sung for you. All with the hope you would decide on a piece or two to take home. If you were an frequent purchaser of sheet music there was a club just for you. For 25¢ per week you could have seven copies of the latest Popular music mailed to your home. He also asked “Have you enquired about our Violin Class?.”
In these first frantic months in town as he was establishing himself, his store and his band he also had time to meet, woo and marry Miss Minnie Platt. The wedding was held in late September
and afterwards the couple departed “on the Soo Train for points east”. But it must have been a short honeymoon as a week later he was back in the store having a big sale of both music and a variety of stringed instruments.
For Halloween of 1919 he put on a Grand Masquerade Dance at the Town Hall with, of course, The Song Shop Orchestra providing the music, refreshments would be served and prizes awarded for the best costumes. All this for two dollars a couple, extra ladies, seventy-five cents.
But who was this young man? He was from England, of Dutch parents who had emigrated there before Michael’s birth. One of five children he received a good education and must have received musical training as well. By age fifteen he had left school and was working as a clerk for the London United Electric Tramways. He followed an older brother to Canada changing his name from the Dutch VanGuens to the more user friendly VanGene. He moved to the United States returning to Canada in 1916 to enlist in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. He fought in France, was injured at some point and returned to England. Then somehow wound up in Pembroke, now a married man, business man and leader of a popular four piece dance band.
He was busy throughout the autumn with the store, dancing lessons and with the orchestra but as the year drew to a close Michael VanGene and the Song Shop dropped out of sight.
The song shop Orchestra didn’t play at a dance until early February of 1920 and then at the end of the month tragedy struck in the form of yet another fire on the main street. This time it was the Heenan Block that burnt, the fire beginning in the rear of the Song Shop. Michael was on the train to Ottawa when he was informed of the fire and he immediately returned home. However all was lost and the entire row of stores was gone. There as an investigation as the fire was deemed suspicious. It was not unknown for a owner of a failing business to be told of a fire in his establishment as he was on an outbound train but nothing ever came of the investigation and months later Michael was back in a new store located at the block at the bridge where Jana & Kerry’s Grill is today.
It seemingly no sooner opened than again Michael dropped out of sight and there was a new owner of the Song Shop, now called Bruck’s Music. A few moths later there was a notice that the VanGenes were back in Pembroke after visiting his parents in England and perhaps enjoys a long delayed honeymoon. He re-established the orchestra, played a few dances around town ending the year with a big New Year’s Dance at Victoria Hall.
Meanwhile Mr. Bruck and his music store were declaring bankruptcy. Then in a surprise move, Michael re-purchased his old store, re-named it The Song Shop and began his routine of weekly advertising. This was not to last however and by April of 1921 we heard the last of the Song Shop.
Now there was a new venture. On May 24th the old McLeans Hotel near Petawawa Point beach reopened as the Do-Drop-Inn. He had opened a dinner and dancing club when guests could dine indoors or out on the lawn while being entertained by VanGene’s Orchestra. At nine in the evening the action moved indoors for an evening of dance. There were also rooms to let by the week for vacationers.
In that era Petawawa Point and the islands of the Ottawa River were the domain of the who’s who of Pembroke. On the first of July each year there would be a mass exodus from Pembroke homes to Petawawa cottages and there they would stay for the summer. The inn became popular enough that these cottagers asked for Wednesday nights be reserved for them alone and this lasted until the closing of the season in September.
He then teamed up with another musician and the two of them had a rather grandiose plans to put on musical reviews throughout eastern Ontario but weeks after announcing this he was back in town playing for a dance. Not much was heard of him over the winter and in the summer of 1922 the Do-Drop-Inn was reopened but almost immediately dropped out of any notices in the advertising columns of the newspapers. That notice of the inn opening for the season was the last time Michael VanGene placed an ad in the :Pembroke papers
It appears the Michael and Minnie moved to Toronto as the next time he was mentioned in the paper was a note in the social column that the VanGenes were in town visiting her parents.
According to family I spoke with he went out west after this to try his luck but eventually returned to England without his wife. Their marriage was in trouble and she followed him to try and save the relationship but in the end it was to no avail.
He apparently lived a long and successful life. He remarried and had a child who remembered him as a loving father who was always the life of the party and would light up a room when he walked in.
For a couple of years he was this enthusiastic young man who I am sure made the social life of Pembroke just a bit more interesting by his presence. Even a century later he would impart a certain Joie de vivre in reading of him in the news columns of the day. The town, I am sure, was the better for having him here if even for such a short time.
He died in 1985 at the ripe old age of ninety.
These are notes for a talk given to the Upper Ottawa Valley Genealogical Group. Mar. 16, 2024.
