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<< Back to Legends The Rhode Island Reds (un)Official
Song
 The Beer Barrel Polka was The Song of the Rhode Island
Reds, played at every home game when the Reds hit the ice for each period of
play.
The tradition began sometime around World War II.
The music was originally composed by the Czech Jarom?r
Vejvoda in 1927. At that time, it was played without lyrics as Modřansk?
polka. Its first text was written by V?clav Zeman in 1934 ? ?koda l?sky.
The polka went to the world very soon. In 1938, Will Glah?
sold one million copies of its German version Rosamunde and got a Gold Album for
it. Shapiro Bernstein published the song under the name of Beer Barrel Polka a
year later. The song was recorded by the Andrews Sisters, Glenn Miller
Orchestra, Benny Goodman or Billie Holiday.
With its subject ? beer ? and energetic, happy beat,
the ?Beer Barrel Polka,? was a natural to accompany the Allies on their
march toward Berlin at the end of World War II.
The song that had accompanied the troops through Europe
came home with them in 1945, becoming an unofficial victory song in the United
States, and it was played everywhere ? clubs, concerts and sports events.
At the Rhode Island Auditorium, the new organist
? ?Miss Vivian? Porter ? began to perform the song began to
perform the song to celebrate the entrance of the Reds on the ice at the
beginning of each and every period. The crowd loved it, and she continued to play ? at every Reds
hockey game at the auditorium from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s.
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