User:Skiplandt

Dan "Skip" Landt

Dan "Skip" Landt (May 12, 1937 - )was born in New York City, where his dad was a popular radio performer. Skip (originally "Skippy") received his nickname from a 1931 motion picture with that title featuring Jackie Cooper -- one of the first to films to be nominated for Academy Award as Best Picture.

Skip's father was Dan Beckwith Landt, the oldest member of a pioneering brothers trio with programs on CBS and NBC network radio between 1927 and 1948. The Landt Trio was best known for its "Sing Along with the Landt Trio" on CBS, a program concept later picked up by Mitch Miller. Skip's mother was Lois Landt (nee Alice Benson). She became the family breadwinner when Sing Along was not renewed. At that time the Landts lived in Pound Ridge, New York, a town of about 1,500 people about 45 miles from Manhattan. Lois Landt managed to buy a small mailing list of local families, which she developed into a comprehensive town list. She developed a popular mailing list service, printed and sent out mailings, and talked herself into becoming the Pound Ridge correspondent for the Patent Trader, a newspaper based in nearby Mount Kisco. She also served as Superintendent of the Sunday School for the Pound Ridge Community Church, and the perennial organizer of Rummage Sales for the church's benefit. After Dan's death in 1960, Lois Landt was elected Town Clerk, a position in which she served until her death in 1972. She was the first recipient of the town's Good Neighbor Award, a recognition conferred posthumously upon Dan Landt.

Skip received his B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University and his M.A. from the University of Chicago, where he also studied for a year in the Divinity School. He subsequently became Assistant Director and then Director of Student Activities/Asst. Dean of University Students, and a teaching fellow in the Department of English. During that time, he published his only scholarly article: The Literary Ancestry of Sir John Falstaff, published in the Shakespeare Quarterly in 1964. Also during this time Skip was one of the founding members of the Nonesuch Coffee Shop, located in a lounge down the hall from the Department of English. Among the achievements of his tenure in student activities were the creation of a bakery outlet in Ida Noyes Hall, a program called Summer on the Quadrangles, and the establishment of The Pub in the basement of Ida Noyes. The Pub was the first such establishment in Illinois. It became possible when the drinking age was (temporarily) changed to 18; the legislature was persuaded by a group of fraternity men organized by assistant dean James Vice. Their premise: permitting beer and wine drinking might discourage students from turning to marijuana and drug use.

While at the University, his personal life included becoming the inadvertent President of the Natty Bumppo Society -- his name was forged on an application to become a recognized student organization. Among the many activities of that group were annual displays at the University's Activities Night and, in 1976, a national convocation of its members in Huron, Ohio, to celebrate the nation's bicentennial. He also coordinated a 16 inch intramural softball team called "The Fat City Nine." The middle part of that name was derived from graffiti on a building in Woodlawn; the latter part referred to the difficulties of filling all 10 positions. In the mid-60s, Skip met Judy Goldstone, a bright, interesting undergraduate; they married in 1968. Neither at that time wanted children and the two lacked any common interests. The marriage was amicably dissolved after several years.

Leaving the University in 1976, Skip (now known as Dan) became the Administrative Director of the Center for Psychosocial Studies, a not-for-profit institute founded to encourage collaboration between social scientists and clinical psychologists. In 1979 he became an administrator at Chicago City-Wide College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago. He served under Salvatore G. Rotella, the college's first president. Landt's various titles including Executive Dean and Vice President. When Rotella became Chancellor, Dan Landt became Director of Planning. After Rotella's departure, he served as executive assistant to the next three chief officer: Nelvia Brady, Homer Franklin, and Ronald J. Temple. When Wayne Watson became chancellor in 1998, Landt was invited by President Ted Martinez of Daley College to become Dean of Instruction, where Landt served until retiring in 2003. During his tenure at Daley College, Landt worked closely with faculty, with the college winning numerous awards for faculty achievements and innovative programs to which he brought statewide and national attention. Among the most impressive achievements during this period was the successful nomination by faculty during one summer of 23 Daley students as interns at Argonne National Laboratories -- the most of any community college in the nation. This achievement was recognized at a college dinner with speeches by the head of educational programs at Argonne and a visitor from the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.

During his initial years at the City Colleges of Chicago, Dan Landt was a confirmed bachelor. He continued to play softball with in the University's intramural team, took up bicycling, and began attending classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Then, after years of enjoyable but lonely bachelorhood, in 1985 Skip met the love of his life: Fran Wishinsky. That story is told in detail elsewhere, but -- in short -- Skip and Fran met at a folk organization's pot luck. They sang together each week for several months -- during which Skip realized that he had met an extraordinary woman: attractive, creative, fun to be with, and who loved singing. As there was a 15 year age gap, Fran was more cautions about involvement. But she ultimately came around. The two performed as Sasparilla for the next few years, with Fran on autoharp and Skip on guitar or banjo. Fran and Skip were married in July 1986, had their daughter Ginny in 1988 and Matt (Matthias) in 1991.

Upon retiring from the City Colleges in 2003, "Dan" became "Skip' again. This was wonderful; after working long days and often weekends, he now had time at home while Matt and Ginny were still in grade school and high school. There was also more time for music. He had been teaching harmonica at the Old Town School of Folk Music since 1985 (following six years as a student there). During the next few years he expanded his harmonica offerings from two to eight, and created a mid-day jam on Wednesdays. With support from a student, he persuaded the School to revive a "First Friday" blues jam, which became "The Back Porch Jam." Both jams developed a following and,as with all jams at the School, a reputation for being open to all levels of players. Skip also became writing and distributing or emailing Hot Times at Old Town, a newsletter combining information on classes and School programs with human interest information on teachers and students. When the Schools directorship changed in the 90's and mid-2000s, Skip organized campaigns to have Michael Miles, the School's previous educational director, named Executive Director; these were unsuccessful. Subsequently, to address the lack of available health coverage for teachers and staff, Skip subsequently organized a petition drive requesting that the School provide options for such coverage; this received a positive response from Bau Graves, the new Executive Director. A year late, after staff surveys and research the School began offering moderate cost/moderate benefit health care packages for part-time employees. Fran and Skip became reviewers for Sing Out Magazine, first for children's music, then for jug band and other eclectic music. Skip also became an active member of the Caxton Club, an organization dedicated to the printed word; he became co-chair of the Membership Committee in 2006 and Chairman the following year. For several years in the late 90's and early 2000's, Skip played harmonica with a band called Patent Medicine; they played annually for several years at the summertime Outsiders Art Fair in Harbert, Michigan. The band issued a CD around 2006, and recorded one song for the Old Town School Songbook project. (Their song was not included on the CD set, but was on the digital version sold on line). When that band broke up, Skip joined Fran in the School's jug band class/band called the Hump Night Thumpers and led by teacher Arlo Leach. Under his leadership, the band competed in the 2009 Minneapolis Battle of the Jug Bands -- and won. Arlo then created the Chicago Battle of the Jug Bands, held first in 2008. Skip recruited members of the Hump NIght Thumpers along with musicians who had played for his harmonica classes and formed Strictly Jug Nuts, which won the battles in 2009-10 and 2011-12. With Arlo's move with his wife Sally to Portand,Oregon, Skip then assumed responsibility for coordinating the 2011, 2012, and 2013 battles as benefits for the Old Town School of Folk Music, delegating out the balloting and accounting tasks.

"The Old Town School of Folk Music is an amazing creation. It should be thought about not as its existence as an organization or structure: that structure enables what takes place, but should not be mistaken for the School. Management and facilities are of course essential. But they are not at the School's core. The Old Town School is an ongoing experience: a friendly, open, inviting, relaxed, supportive experience for people who are learning to play music or to dance and/or developing their skills. That said, there are implications to those words. That experience can be muted by distractions: by over-expansion, micro management, mission creep.  An example: the Musicology television program is excellent promotion for the School, but should be kept in the perspective of promotion for the musical mission, not a distraction of time and staff for creation of public entertainment. In the same way, concerts are a public service and source of promotion. But they should also be closely tied in with the instructional program, as by – whenever possible – offering workshops and non-concert activities with the performers. Otherwise, the Old Town School is simply one more concert venue, albeit with appeal to a different demographic. (“But that isn’t normally done; performers won’t be interested” – maybe so, but it’s a way of communicating to the performers, too, that we are not just another venue). Another example of a threat is the theater or art offerings -- theater and art are fascinating and valuable areas for creativity and learning. These could easily be expanded, and with good intentions by well meaning people. But such people often are blinded by their own interests, and do not understand the importance of focus. Non-musical program necesarily take time and resources. Every minute addressing such areas is time taken away from our musical mission. This distract attention from what the School is all about: people learning music and dance, developing skills, and making music with others." -  Skip Landt