Whoopee john biography

He went by the moniker "Whoopee John." He was inducted into the International Polka Association's Hall of Fame in 1976.
John Anthony Wilfahrt, the eldest son of John Wilfahrt and Barbara Portner, was a professional polka musician who recorded with Vocalion and from 1934, Decca.
“Whoopee John” is considered the founder of the New Ulm school of old time music.

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Hennepin County Library

“Whoopee John” Wilfahrt and Minnesota Polka

Born outside of New Ulm in 1893, John Wilfahrt became one of the nation’s most famous and most beloved polka musicians. Legend has it he earned his “Whoopee John” nickname from the “Whoopee!” and “Yoo-hoo!” interjections he added to his songs. An accordion player, Wilfahrt began playing for weddings in southern Minnesota as a boy. By the late 1920s, he had moved to the Twin Cities and soon became a regular feature on WTCN radio. A 1940s newspaper poll hailed Whoopee John as the third-most popular Twin Cities celebrity. Whoopee John’s popularity went far beyond the local radio. When the new Decca record label formed, Whoopee John was the second act they signed. (Bing Crosby was first.) Whoopee John and his band recorded around 1,000 songs for Decca, including his hallmark “Mariechen Waltz.”

Whoopee John passed away in 1961. In 1974, St. Louis Park musician Vern Steffel bought Whoopee John’s music library from his son and restarted th

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Whoopee John Band Book

The Whoopee John Band Book folio contains “16 well-known dance numbers for band and orchestra featured and made popular by ‘Whoopee’ John Wilfahrt and his band.” A consistent best-seller for the Vitak-Elsnic Company over the years, it represents a collaboration between our company and one of the country’s most highly-regarded polka band leaders of all time, Whoopee John Wilfahrt. Contents include polkas, waltzes, and even a schottische, providing every musical form a polka band would need. The folio bears a 1943 copyright when Whoopee John was a national celebrity, and the music has stood the test of time.

Whoopee John playing a Vitak-Elsnic Pearl Queen Concertina. Photo is part of the Hennepin County Library Collection (MN)

To understand the significance of his collaboration with Vitak-Elsnic that led to the folio, it’s necessary to know who Whoopee John was. Born in New Ulm, Minnesota to Bohemian-German parents, music was his life. His 11-piece band began touring through the upper Midwest in the 1920s. In 1934, he was the second entertainer s

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IPA Hall of Fame Biography

John Anthony Wilfahrt, better known as "Whoopee John" Wilfahrt, was born in 1893 on a farm near New Ulm, Minnesota. His grandparents, Joseph Wilfahrt and Franzeska Hauser, migrated to America in March, 1867, with three of their children and settled on a farm in Sigel Township, a few miles from New Ulm. The family came from the small village of Swarzach located in the Bohemian Forest of western Bohemia., then part of Austria. Whoopee's father was born in 1871 in Sigel, eventually marrying Barbara Portner, whose family also originated in the Böhmerwald, for whom Whoopee named his well known "Barbara Polka." It was his mother who taught him the folksong that later became his famous theme song, the "Mariechen Waltz."

Whoopee was born on the farm in Sigel, just as his father before him, in 1893. When he was 10 years old, his mother purchased a small accordion for Christmas at a cost of $1.50 and he began practicing his music in the family's grain bin. His first job was solo performed for a party, after which he played for we