Guido Deiro

The Breitenbush March

by the World famous piano-accordion player of the 20th century,

Now arranged for the harp.

Breitenbush March booklet print copy or pdf $10. Shipping $5.

Email me at harps@thorharp.com to make an order.

You're probably wondering why I have this on my website. It is definitely a thing to wonder about.

Dave and I spend a lot of our retreat/vacation time at Breitenbush Hot Springs. We try to go there once a month, and while we are there, we do a couple of concerts, eat fabulous vegetarian/organic meals and soak in the healing hot mineral waters. There is no internet or phone connection capabilities at Breitenbush. People sometimes do puzzles, yoga, meditative coloring (to which Dave and I often play music for) talk to other guests and read.

The history of Breitenbush Hot Springs goes way back to "time immemorial," where the Native Indians from the Warm Springs tribes to the east and the Grand Ronde tribes from the west side of the Cascade mountains came to bathe in rare hot water, hunt, fish and trade goods. In the late 1880s the Mansfield family petitioned President Roosevelt to homestead the land. They were granted permission and they camped out with their horses during the summer months and healed their son of polio in the healing waters. When Clyde Mansfield died, Hattie married a childhood sweetheart Mr. Bruckman (who invented the ice cream waffle cone maker). In the late 1920s and early 1930s, their son, Merle, used much of the ice cream cone fortune to build the Breitenbush lodge, cabins, dance hall and out buildings. The flood of 1964 wiped out much of the infrastucture and the resort was abandoned with only a caretaker, a dog and a gun. In 1977, Alex Beamer purchased the land for $250,000 with the intent of turning it into a cooperative, self sufficient, organic/vegetarian retreat center. Miraculously this has carried on for nearly 50 years and most miraculously it made it through Covid and the 2020 Lionshead fire.

Peter Moore, at 74 years old, has been there since he was 28, having answered the call from Alex to come and help make this retreat center a reality. He gives an informative and entertaining history talk every Wednesday evening at Breitenbush. Dave and I have always been interested in the history of Breitenbush so we always attend. During one of his talks, he mentioned there was a tune written in the early 20th century called the BREITENBUSH MARCH. I knew right away that I would be researching this tune.

I found it on YouTube and after listening to it a few times, I put it on slow speed so I could try to transcribe it. Finding it difficult to transcribe, I purchased the Complete Works of Guido Deiro by Henry Doktorski. Besides the music, the book had a lot of information about Guido, even a picture of him along with other guests at Breitenbush Hot Springs (see photo at right). He would play in the dance hall here at Breitenbush, although it no longer exists.

In order to get permission to make an arrangement of The Breitenbush March for harp and rhythm guitar, I called Henry Doktorski, and he graciously gave me permission to use the music and any of the information in his books. My arrangement maintains the essence of the tune while making it playable for me and for other instruments.

I asked Mr. Doktorski (photo at right) about Guido and Breitenbush and he suggested I get Guido’s son, Robert Deiro’s (1938-2019) book called  Mae West and the Count where he talks more about Breitenbush. I thought the book, as a novel, took many liberties on what Breitenbush looked like back then with mercantile stores and a sawmill with hundreds of Italians working there, but Peter said it probably was that way, across the river, where the staff housing is now. We suppose that if there were Italians in the Detroit area, this might have been Guido’s connection to Breitenbush.

You can find Henry playing this tune on YouTube. Just search Breitenbush March

If you'd like a pdf copy of the booklet with my arrangement of the music, email me: harps@thorharp.com with your address. You can pay $10 using Venmo @Sharon-Thormahlen or Paypal at harps@thorharp.com. Or you can send a check or use a credit card. All proceeds will go to the rebuilding of the Breitenbush Sanctuary that burned in the 2020 Lionshead fire. For more information about the rebuilding of the Sancturary go to dayafoundation.org/bhs.html

Breitenbush March booklet print copy or pdf $10. Shipping $5.

Email me at harps@thorharp.com to make an order.

Here is the first page of the music:

About Guido Deiro

Guido Deiro was a famous vaudeville star, international recording artist, composer and teacher who visited Breitenbush in the earliest days of the 1900s. He was the first piano-accordionist to appear on big-time vaudeville, records, radio and screen; and he played his accordion in the Dance Hall that once existed at Breitenbush Hot Springs.

Guido Deiro was born on September 1, 1886, in the village of Salto Canavese near Turin, Italy. The family, of rural Italian nobility, raised cattle, grew grapes, tended orchards, and operated general stores to sell their produce. As a young boy, Deiro learned to play the ocarina, and when his uncle Fred noticed his unusual musical ability, he got him a diatonic button accordion. Guido started to play the accordion in the street outside his family’s stores, where he drew a crowd and attracted potential customers. Guido then became a student of the famous Italian accordionist-composer Giovanni Gagliardi.

Guido left his home to avoid an arranged marriage, and defy his father's wishes that he manage the family business. He played his music in Germany and France saving up enough money to join his uncle Fred and brother Pietro in Cle Elum, Washington where they worked in the coal mines.
Pietro was becoming a talented piano-accordion player in his own right, but Guido was a vaudeville sensation, traveling from town to town entertaining the residents earning $600 a week. He captivated audiences with his smile, his handsome features, his stage presence and his artistic, virtuosic musical abilities. On the vaudeville circuit he closed the shows with the most brilliant performances.

In his book, Mae West and the Count, Deiro’s son, Robert, writes that in 1914 Deiro married Mae West who would later become a film sensation, sex symbol and highest paid women in America. They traveled together appearing in vaudeville shows all over the country.

In 1920, Guido and Mae were up at Breitenbush Hot Springs when West found a country doctor to abort Deiro's child on the advice of her mother. The procedure nearly killed her and left her infertile. Deiro was devastated when he learned what she had done, thus ending the relationship. Deiro was married 3 more times.

The Great Depression, with the stock market crash of 1929 along with the advent of radio and the beginning of talking movies, caused vaudeville theatres to close and go out of business. This put hundreds of musicians, actors, singers, dancers, comedians and jugglers out of work.

Guido tried teaching accordion in San Francisco, opening a teaching studio, while his brother did the same in New York City. Guido’s heart wasn’t in teaching but Pietro made a fantastic business out of teaching studios across the nation, including one in Greenwich Village. Recognizing that the students needed sheet music, he established a music publishing business becoming a millionaire while Guido died a pauper in 1950.

Deiro's substantial musical contributions were forgotten in part due to his brother's promotional claims and the passage of time. However, in 2001 there was a revival of interest primarily due to the efforts of his son, Count Guido Roberto Deiro, and his collaboration with American concert accordionist, historian and author Henry Doktorski. The two have worked together creating a website dedicated to Deiro,recording the complete works of Deiro entitled Vaudeville Accordion Classics, and releasing a book of sheet music called The Complete Recorded Works of Guido Deiro. You can also find recordings of this tune on YouTube.

The brothers, Guido and Pietro, ushered in a Golden Age of the Accordion (ca. 1910-1960) and brought the instrument both respectability and class. They hold a unique position in the history of the accordion.