If the Baby Boomers among us, or our children or grandchildren, have any vinyl 45s or albums in their possession, it’s likely some of those records may have been purchased at one of those Fort Dodge record stores.

“Record stores in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s were the Starbucks of their time,” recalled Keith Brown, long a part of the city’s music scene. “It was the gathering place for finding and purchasing new music. It’s where everyone hung out.

“Places like House of Hits allowed you to bring the 45 or album into a tiny booth with a small record player and listen to a bit of the song before purchasing. The smell of vinyl was strong when you entered the store. I still recall that smell to this day.”

Music long has been part of the city’s DNA – the home of the Karl King Municipal Band, garage bands, the Laramar and nationally known artists it attracted, numerous Iowa Rock and Roll Music Association Hall of Famers including Brown and the most recent inductee – Melanie Rosales, studios like West Minst’r Sound that recorded top artists, vibrant high school musicals, musical director Larry Mitchell…and more.

None of the record stores that once attracted generations of Fort Dodgers has survived, but their memories shine brightly.

Six decades removed, vinyl is fresh in the mind of Fort Dodge native Steve Dapper, who recalls the House of Hits listening booths as if only yesterday:

“I was mainly into 45s and could remember the color of the labels,” he said. “A green one was ‘La Bamba,’ flip side ‘Oh Donna’ by Ritchie Valens. Also, had a Ricky Nelson album with him in a yellow sweater. Tragically they both died on plane crashes.”

After the first record players were introduced, recorded music was sold primarily through department stores, electronics stores and mail-order catalogs, but as its popularity grew, dedicated record stores began to emerge. Music came primarily in two formats: one was the 12-inch, 33-rpm record, while the other was the 45-rpm, 7-inch single.

Art and Veronica Christensen opened House of Hits at 1108 Central Ave. and had ready-made help in the form of their 14 children, who all worked there during their high school years, said one of their sons, Terry Christensen of Hinton, near Sioux City.

“In the 1940s and early ’50s, my dad’s business was in jukeboxes, pinball machines, pool tables and other entertainment machines,” he said. “People started buying record players, but no one sold records and so people came to my dad for records. He started with just one counter containing records. He hired my older sister Teresa to sell records and before long she couldn’t keep up with the number of customers and supply of new records. From there the record business grew until he was making more money selling records than his jukebox and entertainment machines were making. He added record players, stereos, TV and radios. At one time there was an article written that he had the largest record store in the state of Iowa.

“He let people listen to the record before they bought it,” he added. “The House of Hits became a high school hangout. He should have started selling hamburgers and milkshakes with the kids listening to records. He had my mom come into the business as a secretary and sales clerk. My dad always said she was the best free help he ever had.”

During the 1960s, Kirk Van Gundy was one of the record store’s best customers.

“When I was 8, I bought my first record from House of Hits,” he said. “It was a 45, ‘Stood Up’ by Ricky Nelson. On the flip side, ‘Waiting in School.'”

He was such a regular customer that he could make special record orders without the normally required deposit. He also bought records at Luke’s variety store and S.S. Kresges.

Today, Van Gundy’s home in Adel is a repository for thousands of records, CDs and cassette tapes, with most of his collection in 45s. Kirk Van Gundy and his brother, Scott, owned Martin’s Flag Co. in Fort Dodge, succeeding their father in 1975 and operating it until they sold the business in 2013. The new owner moved it to Valley Junction. Scott Van Gundy still lives in Fort Dodge.

Speaking of collectors, Fort Dodge native Mark Mittelstadt, now of Tucson, owns an instrument that was the predecessor to vinyl records.

“We inherited an antique Edison Home Phonograph that apparently my grandfather received as payment for repairing someone’s TV or radio in the Fort Dodge area,” he said. “It came with approximately 30 cylinders (most of which by the time we got them had deteriorated, broken, disintegrated) but I’m guessing someone back then could buy them in the Fort Dodge area. Apparently, you can still order cylinders online.”

House of Hits went out of business in the early 1970s and today, the location at 1108 Central Ave. is home to Mary Kay’s Gifts & Home Décor-Merle Norman Cosmetics, operated by Mary Kay Daniel whose father, John, operates Daniel Pharmacy two doors away.

Back in the day, you could buy a 45-rpm record for less than a dollar and an album for $4 to $6, said Paul Dreasler, who worked at Musicland at the Mall and Sound World. Brown said record stores blossomed with many more types of releases and playback formats (cassettes, 8-track tapes, reel to reel tapes) and used records could be a more affordable option to the price of a new release.

“In Fort Dodge by the early ’70s there were several places to buy records,” Dreasler said. “Mall stores like Penneys, Younkers, Sears, Woolworth all sold some 45s and albums. By the mid-70’s we also had Co-Op Tapes and Records. Musicland had the better selection, but we got beat sometimes on price. We had most genres, a good rock section, country, religious, orchestra/vocal groups, classical and jazz. We sold mostly rock. Jazz and classical got a bit dusty.”

Katherine Etzel was an employee of Co-Op Tapes and Records, working for owner Mike Cotant, now deceased. Today she is an artist herself, living in New York City where she is a recording engineer, producer and songwriter who in 2008 launched a band called Bobtown – named after the Fort Dodge neighborhood by that name.

“It was the early ’80s,” she recalled, “and at 18 years old, with my polite manners and Top 40 pedigree, I was seemingly not a good fit for our edgy music hub and head shop, located on First Avenue North near Eighth Street.

“I was a fish out of water when it came to the bongs, one-hits, and feather-adorned roach clips in the display cases, but I was a natural when it came to the records and tapes,” she said. “Customers wandering into the store would find me singing along unabashedly to whatever I was spinning on the turntable at the moment. Little did I know at the time that later music would become my life.

“These were the days before the digital era, and, at least while I worked there, before the trend of featuring every release at listening stations. Instead, Mike would sift through new content on ‘Release Day’–a big day for both staff and customers when new music would arrive–curating albums for us to play in-store. We received a few promotional copies, but Mike would also open artists that he was simply curious about, and he’d graciously accommodate most anyone who asked to hear a record that had not been opened for in-store play, even though the practice likely ate into his profits. Like me, Mike was all about the music.”

Brown said the record stores were a special place for him and fellow musicians.

“There was a huge feeling of satisfaction when you could walk into a record store and either hear your record being played or see it displayed on the wall with maybe a poster of your band,” he said. “It was an achievement that had been realized after long hours of practice, performance and travel.

“If you were lucky enough to have your record played on the radio, your engagements became more financially successful,” he added. “Your crowds would be bigger, and your image promoted as ‘having made it.'”

In the summer of 1970, Dave Hearn was co-manager with Dave Cottrell of Next Door, a music store that was a branch of the head shop Purple Peddler located on Central Avenue. Both were owned by Steve Farr.

“We got to pick the albums we sold,” Hearn said. “We were both song writers and had a rather developed taste in rock music. We didn’t have huge stock but enough to be open. Albums like The James Gang Rides Again (led by Joe Walsh before he joined the Eagles); the Beach Boys’ Surf’s Up. The Pretty Things’ Parachute. These would be called alternative rock today.”

Hearn played keyboard in a band called the Hawks, which signed with Columbia Records, and was inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Music Association Hall of Fame. He kept his music passion alive while working as an optician for 32 years for Dr. Jeff Foreman. Retired for five years, the Fort Dodge resident still plays the keyboard and records music – with nine solo albums released.

The ending was cast for record stores with the Internet bringing forth Amazon and iTunes – with their two-day delivery and usually cheaper prices. Many independent record stores went out of business. Large chains like Musicland, Record Town and Camelot closed stores or simply did not renew leases.

Today, Fort Dodge has a Central Avenue music store – Rieman Music, one of six Iowa stores owned by the Des Moines-based company. It is located on a site previously occupied by Mid-Bell Music Co. Its education consultant, Jon Merritt, said the store sells musical instruments – anything band- or orchestra-related to about 30 school districts in northwest Iowa but does not sell records or consumer electronics.

“We sell guitars, sound systems, amplifiers, keyboards, pianos – 95 percent of the pianos we sell are digital, not acoustic,” he said.

Vinyl has made a comeback with vintage record stores popping up in larger cities and some new artists once again releasing their product on a vinyl format. Many of these vintage stores sell both new releases and used records as well.

Zzz Records on Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines was opened in 2000 by Nate Niceswanger, who has two local ties: he is a native of Somers who graduated from Prairie Valley High School in Gowrie and he is a cousin to the late Gail Niceswanger, longtime speech and drama teacher at Fort Dodge Senior High School for whom its theater is named.

Niceswanger admits to having no musical talent but from a young age has been a music fan who got a “steady dose of music” from rock stations KKEZ in Fort Dodge and KKRL in Carroll – he grew up between the two cities.

“Ours is an old-fashioned record store, vinyl records – new, used and collectibles – account for 80 percent of our sales,” he said. “Vinyl albums are very popular. What’s collectible now has changed. When I started out, people were going crazy for Elvis and Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis but as that crowd got older, it changed – an Elvis album I once sold for $15 now goes for $4. A lot of artists from the ’50s and ’60s used to be very collectible, but have fallen out of favor and now those from the ’70s and ’80s are very big. The biggest surprise to me – I never thought the younger crowd – those in their 30s and 20s and even junior high – would be interested in records. But they’re buying record players and vinyl.”

Record stores in cities the size of Des Moines have a much greater chance of survival, he said. “I’m in an area of a half million people. But I get people coming here from all over the area. Record buyers are a very dedicated group. They’re not afraid to travel.”

Keith Brown believes there’s room for both vinyl and digital.

“I love the smell of vinyl,” he said. “I love the size of album jackets and their wonderful art. I like to listen to vinyl. But the convenience of digital formats makes it so easy to play, send, copy, share, maintain and archive. I’ll continue to embrace both formats – analog (for the past) and digital (for the future.)

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