BARBERSHOP QUARTET SINGERS RETURN TO PLACE OF THEIR BIRTH

Muehlebach site of founding in 1938

Kansas City is the perfect place for a barbershop convention -- after all, without the Muehlebach Hotel, there may well never have been a Barbershop Harmony Society.

It was at the Muehlebach, in April 1938, that a chance meeting between two Tulsa businessman led to the formation of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), which this week brings 9,500 singers and guests to Kansas City.

While on a layover that closed the local airport, O.C. Cash, a tax attorney from Tulsa, ran into business acquaintance Rupert Hall, an investment banker also of Tulsa. Meeting by accident in the lobby of the Muehlebach, they whiled away the evening singing barbershop harmony. Such fun they had, they determined to bring together some friends back home to enjoy the same.

From an initial meeting of 26 stout singers, the organization they founded on a whim has grown to become the world's largest all-male singing organization, with more than 34,000 members in the USA and Canada.

A plaque hangs in the preserved lobby of the Muehlebach, today part of the Marriott Downtown complex. And while it may fall short of being a holy shrine, it certainly is an object of some deep nostalgia and pride for Barbershoppers. Throughout the week, convention guests will be winding their way down to see it, to imagine that moment when two regular guys took into their heads an idea that would inspire millions. And, of course, to sing one in honor of O.C. and Rupe.