Glacier Valley Gazetta
A Glimpse into the Past
By Marc Donadieu
Glacier City Gazette
The pages of Glacier Valley Gazetta are a fascinating look into Girdwood and the Turnagain Arm region 52 years ago.
GCG revisited the 8/28/17 interview with Dan Zantek to learn how Glacier Valley Gazetta was named.
“I said, ‘We’re going to do this paper, Glacier Valley Gazetta, because there was a lot of Polacks there; Jerry Bernis, Eddy Genswell [and Polka Dan, Gazetta is Polish for Gazette.]. Hugh was the writer, and he was always talking about writing. I thought it would be nice if Hugh were the editor of the paper and take control of it and do some writing and we’d contribute to it.
I said, “Ok Hugh, I’ll sell you the paper for a dollar. Of course, he never paid me the dollar, but he took the paper and ran with it. As you can tell, he did a really good job on it.”
Courtesy photo / Polka Dan Zantek
Polka Dan Zantek sent the following undated photo and caption to Glacier City Gazette on 8/30/17.
“Polka Dan and Rudy Berus performing at the Double Musky in front of “Ye Old Swing’n Box.” Julian [Maule, original Musky owner] had hung this jukebox from the ceiling (note the chains) to prevent the records from ‘skipping’ when the people danced/stomped with their ski boots on.”