Dick Ruedebusch
1924 – 1968
Dick Ruedebusch was born in Mayville, Wisconsin, on August 18, 1925, as Richard Rudolph Ruedebusch. Dick attended Mayville High School, where he participated in music and sports. At age 18, after graduating from high school, he entered the Army, performing in service bands. During this time, he had the opportunity to sit in on trumpet with big bands led by Gene Krupa, the Dorsey Brothers, and Woody Herman performing in New York City. After discharge in May of 1946, he returned to small-town living, working as a mechanic at his family's Ford dealership in Mayville. However, his desire to play music soon led him to move to Milwaukee, where he worked with drummer Joe Gumin before becoming the leader of his own group.
The Tunnel Inn (779 Front Street), now the site of the spy-themed bar and restaurant, the Safe House, opened in 1959, and Dick Ruedebusch and the Underprivileged Five worked there five nights a week for years. The instrumentation of his traditional New Orleans jazz-style group featured trumpet, clarinet, trombone, piano, bass, and drums, with Sammy Armato on clarinet, later replaced by Chuck Hedges. Thoroughly impressed after hearing the group there in 1961, Woody Herman made arrangements for them to perform at the Metropole Cafe jazz club in New York City for several weeks on the same bill as his big band. Another boost came with a performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, playing the tune "Panama," followed by Sid Caesar briefly interviewing Dick in January of 1962. The group toured around the country, returning to Milwaukee later that year, and resumed performing regularly at the Tunnel Inn until it was sold in 1965. The band then took up residency at the Schroeder Hotel (now the Hilton Milwaukee City Center) through the remainder of the year.
Dick spent the following year on tour with Woody Herman's big band, including a three-week tour of England. After returning to Milwaukee in 1967, he played with a quartet at Tumblebrook Country Club (now Western Lakes Golf Club) in Pewaukee. Tragically, in 1968, Dick suffered a heart attack, and just two days before he was to undergo open heart surgery, he died from another heart attack on May 5, 1968, at age 42.
Watch Dick Ruedebusch and the Underprivileged Five—with Chuck Hedges on clarinet, Sonny Sievert on trombone, Ron Martinson on piano, Lee Burrows on bass, and Al Praefke on drums—perform “Panama” on The Ed Sullivan Show, January 28, 1962. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVq2jQNC_bY
Check out this footage of Dick Ruedebusch playing “The Very Thought of You” and “I Can’t Get Started” with the Woody Herman Big Band in Vienna in 1967.
