Above: The Delaware Rock and Roll Society hopes to host a variety of events at its new home in the historic Smyrna Opera House. Photo by Colleen D. Gjefle.
By Larry Nagengast
When the Delaware Rock and Roll Society hosts its annual induction ceremony this September, celebrating the achievement of its new honorees won’t be the only cause for jubilation. The event will be the society’s first big activity in its new home — the Smyrna Opera House.
Details for the Sept. 8 event honoring this year’s inductees to the society’s Hall of Fame are still in the planning stage, and Brian Hill, the opera house’s managing director, says the program just might grow into a two-day affair.
George and Paula Wolkind, the society’s founder and executive director, haven’t gotten that far along in their thinking. They’re just ecstatic that they’ve found a place to honor Delaware’s rock history, display memorabilia and hold events throughout the year.
Even better, it’s pretty much a low-cost deal for the society no rent, just paying a share of the utility bills and some of the other costs incidental to running a museum.
“They’re going to move walls, to move mountains for us,” Paula Wolkind says.
Well, maybe not mountains, but definitely walls, Hill says.
The Wolkinds had been looking for a permanent home since they created what was originally known as the Delaware Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nearly six years ago. (The national Rock & Roll Hall of Fame made some noise about branding and trademark infringement, hence the name change.) A quest for sites in Wilmington and Newark came up empty, and then …
Construction of a new regional library in Smyrna began and Ken Boulden, the part-time singer best known as New Castle County’s clerk of the peace from 1997 to 2021, stepped up to broker the deal between the opera house and the society.
With the new library slated to open at the end of this year, the current Smyrna library will depart its space on the first floor of the opera house, a 154-year-old structure that has served as a community, government, entertainment and social hub throughout its history.
Delaware Rock and Roll Society founders George and Paula Wolkind. Photo by Larry Nagengast.
Last summer Hill invited Boulden to join the opera house’s board after hearing Boulden’s group, the Del-Vikings, which reprises the 1950s and 1960s doo-wop hits of the similarly named Dell Vikings, perform at the opera house. Soon Boulden was telling Hill and his new fellow board members about the rock society’s search for a home, and both organizations quickly recognized some mutual benefits.
While the rock society’s needs were obvious, the benefits for the opera house are more subtle. Hill and his board want the opera house to become not only central Delaware’s arts and entertainment hub, but also a venue that can attract audiences from throughout the state. Putting the rock society under its roof not only adds another musical genre to the opera house’s broadening portfolio of visual and performing arts, but it also provides some statewide cachet. That combination, Hill and Boulden say, should pay off when the society seeks grants from governments and nonprofits to underwrite its programming.
“It’s a win-win situation,” Boulden says.
“We want to do it all, to be a place for all the arts,” Hill adds. “This will make us more of a destination.”
Most of the details of the arrangement were settled in December when the opera house board invited the rock society to take over the first-floor space. Now society leaders and opera house officials are working on how to renovate the area that the library will be vacating. Hill says the opera house has retained its own architect to draw up the plans.
While the blueprints aren’t ready yet, Hill and the rock society have a pretty good idea of what they want the space to look like.
A wall in the current library area will be torn down to create more room for visitors. The south wall will become the primary display area — a place to mount posters or plaques recognizing the society’s honorees. There will be ample room for exhibiting memorabilia — the instruments used and outfits worn by the rock stars of Delaware’s past, and possibly some push-button audio and touch-screen displays so visitors can hear and see those performers as they were in their prime.
The work can’t start until the library moves out, most likely in October or early November, but everyone is hoping the society’s new space will be fitted out by the end of the year.
When it’s ready, Hill says, the area will double as an entrance for guests heading upstairs to the opera house’s 300-seat auditorium. For that reason, the rock society’s area will also have a small, raised stage for pre-show performers and a niche where beverages and snacks can be served.
And, even before the renovations begin, the society will have access to all the facilities within the opera house — thus making the auditorium available for the induction ceremony and possibly for some smaller events this summer and in future years.
“It’s amazing what they’re going to do,” says Tim Cleary, a veteran Delaware musician and rock society board member who will serve as the society’s liaison for the renovations.
Having the space in Smyrna will also be a blessing for the Wolkinds. They were close to giving up hope that their apartment in Bear would forever “be filled with Delaware Rock stuff,” Paula says.
Michael Davis and The Bullets will join the Hall of Fame this September. Photo by Butch Comegys.
The Rock Society’s 2024 Honorees
When the Delaware Rock and Roll Society holds its annual induction ceremony for its Hall of Fame on September 8 at the Smyrna Opera House it will recognize nine individuals (and their associated organizations or groups) for their contributions to the state’s musical heritage.
Musician Paul Janocha of Ken-Del Studios, who has provided audio and video for so many Delaware musicians as well as Dionne Warwick, Jimmy Buffet, The Temptations, Weird Al and Johnny Neel.
Joey Fulkerson, with 30 years in the business, plays guitar at a gig almost every night of the week all over Delaware.
Brothers Dale and Dean Teat run the Dover and Delmar locations of Earl Teat Music. They’re the second generation of a musical family tradition, as their parents welcomed Johnny Cash and other country celebrities to Dover in the ’50s.
Ken Boulden, who played with the Coasters, completes the current version of the Del-Vikings, singing doo-wop, 1957 style.
The Bullets, still performing regularly, feature the guitar antics of rockabilly great Michael “Kid” Davis and the impressive occasional yodeling of Bobby Bloomingdale with his upright bass.
Gayle Dillman, owner and operator of Gable Music, created the Ladybug Festival, showcasing female talent countrywide.
Steve Nardo is the creator of Magical Mystery, a popular Beatles’ tribute band.
Gene Cooke, both playing guitar and encouraging other performers, has helped establish a strong community of downstate musicians.
