Elmer scheid biography channel

Perhaps the best concertina player New Ulm ever had – Elmer Scheid – died at age 90 on Friday, May 4, in St. Paul.

Scheid, whose polka band performed for 50 years, learned to play the concertina as a youngster, watching his father play the instrument.

Scheid performed his first professional dance job at age 13 with the John Fritsche Band.

He later played with the Six Fat Dutchmen and the Babe Wagner Band.

Scheid managed the Wagner Band from 1949 to 1951 before creating his own band in 1951.

The Elmer Scheid Band won the popularity contest at the Marigold Ballroom in Minneapolis in 1958.

At the height of their popularity, Scheid and his band played for nearly all of the dances at George’s Ballroom in New Ulm.

During the 1950s, more than 50 New Ulm area polka bands including Elmer Scheid and his band were actively booked.

Many of the bands toured nationally and recorded for major record labels. At the time, New Ulm was known as the “Polka Capital of the N