Male Barbershop Quartet from IN

Lead: Max “Junior” Cripe. Tenor: H.H. “Jumbo” Smith. Baritone: Elton “Butch” Hummel. Bass: Lee “Reverend” Kidder.

When the Elkhart, Indiana chapter of SPEBSQSA was formed in September 1943, Ron Younce, lead; Lee "Reverend" Kidder, bass; and Elton "Butch" Hummel, bari were already looking for a tenor they could push around. They found H.H. "Jumbo" Smith, standing five feet tall in his socks and weighing 125 pounds.

Kidder and Hummel had sung together in a high school quartet; Smith had sung as a baritone with two professional quartets and had been an acrobatic performer on the vaudeville stage. Younce went into the Navy and was replaced by Max "Junior" Cripe in the spring of 1944.

A Cappella.  

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1947 - Barbershop Quartet Champions