Violinist and bandleader Earl Gresh was a versatile man of many careers: WSUN radio's first announcer, a boat builder, a fisherman, an editor, whereas during the Great Depression of the 1930's, it was his talent for woodworking that pulled him through. Gresh took up the violin when he attended Borden Military Academy prep school in New Jersey and soon became leader of the school dance band. For a while learning the cigar business at his father’s El Cremo Cigar Factory. It was here working with the aromatic cedar used to make cigar boxes that he developed his lifelong love for wood. Shortly after the cigar business went under Earl moved with his parents to St. Petersburg (Florida) in 1921. Gresh’s professional music career began in 1923 when he met a band of musicians called the Kentucky Kernels. The six boys from the University of Kentucky were playing a local dance hall known as the Gold Dragon. They were looking for a fiddle player and were impressed by Gresh’s playing. He joined the band and they continued a tour that ended in Philadelphia a few months later. Gresh chose to stay in Philadelphia and started his own orchestra. It is reported that he Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey asked him for a job but he turned tham down. Earl Gresh and His Gangplank Orchestra signed a recording contract with Columbia Records. The group has 200 plus recordings. Gresh named the Orchestra after the venue that his regularly played, St. Petersburg’s Gangplank restaurant. The band was active in the 1920’s but by the 30s had disbanded. Gresh realized that a traveling orchestra was not compatible with family life. After this, Gresh turned his wood-working hobby into a business. In 1931, working out of a small shop behind his house at 12th Avenue Northeast in Saint Petersburg (Florida), he began making a living fashioning wooden buttons, lures, purses, and tackleboxes and selling them to locals and tourists alike. His products caught on, enabling him to move to a larger gift shop at 4th Street North in 1937. All of Gresh's lures are collectable and were made in the 1950's through the 1970's. Earl Gresh also made wooden purses and pictures with inlaid woods. He is considered one of the greatest lure makers in American history. It was here that, in 1940, he built his Wood Parade, a museum of wood featuring samples of woods from around the world. A large cypress tree stump formed the centerpiece of his museum, but his crowning work was the sixteen half-size marquetry murals that depicted the life of Christ. With the Sunshine Skyway diverting cars to 34th Street and reduced tourist traffic, the Wood Parade closed in 1959. In his later years Earl devoted himself to fishing, founding the St. Petersburg Rod and Gun Club. He died in 1977 at the age of 81. This catchy tune was recorded in 1926. Lovely vocal by Frank Wilson.
