Was it Oktoberfest or New Year’s Eve…54 years ago?

For the third year of La Crosse’s Oktoberfest in 1963, bandleader Guy Lombardo brought his Royal Canadians to the Sawyer Auditorium where 7000 people listened to the band best known for playing “Auld Lang Syne” at New Year’s shows.  Lombardo and his musicians had to travel all day to get from New York to La Crosse after continuing a tradition of playing the national anthem for the Yankees at the World Series. 

A crowd of 17,000 gathered for the tapping of the Golden Keg by ’63 Festmaster Ray Ping.  Meanwhile, students at La Crosse State college celebrated the opening of Oktoberfest with a German dinner that also marked the fourth anniversary of the student union, Cartwright Center, which was just replaced as the campus union in early 2017. 

Nearly 3000 people attended the Ladies’ Day Luncheon, featuring the country comedy team of Homer and Jethro.  Many women were invited onstage to play games, and others won door prizes…for having the most children, for example.  Prizes included a pumpkin pie and nylons.

Somebody apparently tried to free the bears from their cage at the Myrick Park Zoo, by sticking a long plank through the fence.  The bears didn’t get out…maybe, smarter than the average intruder, in 1963, yesterday in La Crosse.