BMHOF Class of 2009

Long before professional football came to Buffalo, New York, another group of men formed what can be considered to be the original Buffalo Bills, the legendary barbershop quartet. Forming in 1945, Barber Shop Four had an inauspicious beginning in international competition, placing 16th at Oklahoma City in 1948. In Omaha in 1950 the international gold medals were hung around their necks and a new era of barbershop harmony began. Their big sound, combined with the work of Phil Embry and other talented arrangers, kept them busy signing on barbershop shows and gave them a popularity no other Society quartet had achieved. In 1957 Meredith Willson wrote a stage musical and, after meeting the group, decided to include a barbershop quartet in his new Broadway play, “The Music Man”. When the final curtain rang down on the Buffalo Bills, they left behind an unbeatable legacy - 1,510 performances on Broadway, 728 concerts, 675 radio shows, 672 nightclub and hotel appearances, 626 conventions, 216 television shows, 137 state fair performances, and a major motion picture. The Buffalo Bills sang their last show at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on May 24, 1967.