By Dustin Hays
There was a period years back, while digging through old newspapers and microfilm for local music lore, that I kept seeing mention of groups led by someone named Surry.
Documents throughout the 1920s refer to “Surry’s Eaglonian Band,” “Surry’s Band,” “Surry’s Orchestra,” and “Surry and his Orchestra.” This was a decade of big band dances, late-night frolics, dance marathons, and the occasional “battle of bands” (how two band shows were advertised locally, a century back).
After enough searching, I was able to piece together the lost lore of one of the scene’s earliest upperclassmen, one of the main players around town during those days, a violinist named Loris Surry.
Surry was born in Saint Leonards, England in 1898, and his family moved to Wenatchee in 1901. For more than a decade, his father Vincent operated Surry’s Studio, an early photography business. Surry first started performing with local orchestras at the age of 12, and graduated from Wenatchee High School in 1916.
By the end of the next decade he’d been married and divorced once (marriage lasted 3 years… jealousy cited in the newspaper... young musician married to a clerk… I can imagine it was a whole thing), became a homeowner (oh, the joys of being in your 20s and owning a home), and was working as a jeweler.
Undated poster, advertising an Oct 17th performance at the Auditorium. Credit: Wenatchee Valley Museum Cultural Center, 010-63-2
He had also been leading a local orchestra for years. I found mentions of Surry’s Orchestra performing all across Chelan County. At the Cashmere American Legion in ‘22. At Wenatchee’s Commercial Club in May of ‘24. In the summer of ‘27 at the Cashmere Grange Hall, and all through 1929 at the Auditorium on North Wenatchee Avenue.
The latter was one of the main rooms in town to see live music back then. It seems their main “competitors” were Edgewater Grove in Monitor, and the Lake Chelan Pavillion. The Auditorium sat on the east side of North Wenatchee Avenue, across from current day Lemolo Cafe. Wenatchee music scene veteran Bob Godfrey booked shows there in the 1940s and remembered the room as “about 100 feet or so on each end. It had a stage with curtains on the eastern end of the room. They’d have dances and rent it out for dinners.”
The fall of ‘29 looked like a busy season for Surry. The band was playing at the Auditorium every Thursday and Saturday, with occasional weeknight shows, whenever boxing and pro wrestling weren’t being booked in that room. Their month was slated to end with a four hour performance at the Auditorium’s 2nd Annual Masquerade Ball on Halloween night.
On October 19th, Surry and his Band performed at the Auditorium, reportedly until midnight. It was the 7th performance the group had given that month, and… *cue the dramatic “dun dun dun” sound effect* the final for their 31-year-old bandleader.
After the show, Surry drove Kay Gush (a presumed, though never confirmed, “romantic interest”) back to her home in Sultan, WA.
In the early hours of October 20th, Surry’s car was struck by a taxi cab about 100 feet from the Peshastin bridge. The two occupants of Surry’s vehicle, and taxi driver Ray Weisenstein, were rushed to Leavenworth for medical care at the Cascade Sanitarium.
Gush and Weisenstein both sustained serious injuries from the collision. Surry never regained consciousness after the crash, and was pronounced dead at 8:55 a.m.
While being held on manslaughter charges, Weisenstein stated that Surry’s car approached him at a fast speed and without headlights on, the latter a detail that Gush denied, who insisted that Weisenstein was driving in the middle of the road.
Tragedy almost struck twice for the Surry family, when his mother and sister-in-law were in an accident while driving from Seattle to Wenatchee for the funeral service. Their car reportedly fell over an embankment, flipping three times. Surry’s mother sustained a few cuts and bruises and his sister-in-law was surprisingly uninjured.
Surry’s funeral was held on October 23, 1929 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (still located at 428 King Street in Wenatchee). The seven members of the Surry Orchestra and Auditorium manager Dan Taylor acted as pallbearers.
On the 26th the Wenatchee World reported that trombonist Wells Smith, the senior-most member of the orchestra, would take over direction of the group. Rather than changing the group’s name, it was decided to make the small change from “Surry And His Band” to “Surry’s Band.” Smith was quoted, saying “I know I’ll never be able to take the place of Loris, to instigate the life and pep into the dances that he did, which made his band known throughout the valley for when he took the stand to sing at a dance, pep and vigor seemed to appear from nowhere. However, I am proud to have the opportunity to carry on the work of Loris and am here to do my level best.”
The Auditorium, from the 1929 Wenatchee City Directory. The Surry’s Band music stands sit on an empty stage.
Credit: Dustin Hays
Weisenstein went to trial on the manslaughter charges on January 17th, and was ultimately found not responsible for Surry’s death.
Back in 2017, when I worked with Kasey Koski to put together the Apple Capital Records exhibit at the Wenatchee Museum, she found the Harvest Ball poster in their archives.
If it weren’t for my propensity to burn hours of my life wanting to reminisce about eras of the local scene that I wasn’t even alive for… and a friend gifting me a few boxes of 80-100+ year old editions of the Wenatchee World (Thanks Bruce. Love you, buddy) - Surry’s name would’ve continued to carry no significance to us modern day rock n’ rollers… maybe the earliest regional example of a musician at the top of their game, dying way too young, while driving a gal back over the pass after making her watch your three-hour set.
If we could learn anything from Surry’s time playing around town, it’s probably to play as many gigs as you can, and make sure your headlights are on if you’re planning to drive over Stevens at three in the morning…
Know anything about The Auditorium, Edgewater Grove, or any other local groups or venues from the 1920s? Reach out at Dstnhays@gmail.com!