1945 Champs – The Misfits

Misfits is an appropriate name for this championship quartet who were first formed in 1941 while riding a train bound for the third international in St. Louis.

It was during that ride that Joe Murrin, Art Bielan and Cy Perkins – friends since their high school days – met Peter Buckley while woodshedding on the train. They liked their sound and decided to enter the contest! The problem was that they didn’t have costumes or a name. But they quickly realized that Perkins and Buckley were very slender and weighed much less than “Moose” Murrin, so they traded suit jackets and both the costume and name problems were solved! The quartet placed seventh in 1941 then fifth in 1942. They had to drop out of the 1943 competition because of war postings and then placed second in 1944.

They won in Detroit in 1945 singing a medley about Indiana and “My Little Grass Shack”. What followed was a 46-weekend tour of the country as champs including chapter shows and radio/tv appearances. The highlight was an appearance at the Chicagoland Music Festival in front of 90,000 people!

The quartet, which retired in 1952 after the sudden death of Art Bielan, was known for their “full-voiced, robust sound” and their ambition to “always have fun”.