Bruce Vincent Schmalz, Sr.

Schmalz, Bruce Vincent, Sr. 1934-2012 of Central City, went home to be with our Lord, Sunday, April 29th surrounded by his family. Bruce was born in Delta, CO on July 26, 1934. He graduated from Pueblo Catholic HS in 1952. He attended Regis College and transferred to University of Denver to pursue his passion in music. He and brother, Ted, started the Vincent Bros. Trio and played at many popular venues in the metro area after producing two albums. They opened the Satin Doll in Denver, but after 18 months they joined their parents in the rock business; Bruce up in Central City. His kind, smiling face will be missed by everyone who knew him. Preceded in death by his parents, Philip and Ruth; brother, Richard; and daughters, Lorraine and Ruth. He is survived by his wife Sandra, brother Ted (Mary), daughters CinDee (Mark), Christy (Mark), and Lisa (Steve), son Buddy (Gwen), grandchildren Valerie, Megan, Joe, Samantha, Tyrus, Rachel, Chase, Austin, and Blake, niece Jeanine (Stephanie), and nephew Matt. Mass will be held Friday, May 11th at 10:30am at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Central City. A celebration of his life will follow at the Elks Lodge #557. The life of Bruce Schmalz. Bruce Vincent Schmalz was born on July 26, 1934 in Delta, Colorado on his Uncle Joe's farm (some have said that he was born in a barn). He was the middle child of Ruth and Phil (Richard was two years older; Ted was two years younger). Brother Ted tells about Bruce's growing up in Delta and Pueblo: Our older brother was always coming up with experiments that used Bruce and me as crash test dummies. One example: He used one of Mother's flower boxes for a boat, put Bruce in it, and launched it down the irrigation ditch. It did float for a bit but as it was sinking, Bruce desperately grabbed at the grass along the ditch bank and hung on until he could be rescued. A few years later, Richard had read in The Book of Knowledge how a helicopter worked and planed to modify one of our bicycles into one. The plan was that Bruce or I would be pushed off of the roof of the house and fly. Fortunately, he never got it built. During the winters when we lived on the farm, Dad took a job in the steel mill in Pueblo with the idea that he would come back to the farm in the spring. But he wound up working there until he retired. During the war, the mill was producing as much steel as possible. Dad would work a lot of overtime, sometimes two full shifts in a row, so he was gone a lot. At that time, mother was being treated for a heart condition that required her to be bedfast. With dad working so much and our mother in bed, the housework was divided among the three of us. Richard cleaned the house and did laundry, Bruce cooked and I did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. At first, Bruce mostly opened cans of food and heated them. Later, he came to enjoy cooking and got to be very good at it. He went go through mother's magazines and found recipes. He turned out some really good dishes—and because he didn't have to clean up the kitchen afterwards he could dirty every pot and pan we had. I dreaded every time a new magazine came. Ted reports on Bruce's early days as a musician: We were given music lessons when we each started the first or second grade. Richard played the accordion, Bruce first took lessons on the marimba, and I took piano lessons. When we reached high school we each wanted to be in the band, but we obviously couldn't play the marimba and piano, so he studied the percussion instruments and I learned to play the trumpet and tuba. The folks bought Bruce a trap drum set which he would play in dance bands. He became an excellent drummer and I was very lucky to work with him from high school until after he and Sandy moved to Central, about 35 years in all. Ted tells about Bruce's education and his career in music: After he graduated from Pueblo Catholic High School in 1952, Bruce went to Regis College for a year. He took typical liberal arts courses, but Regis didn't offer a degree in music so he moved back to Pueblo and enrolled at Pueblo Junior College. At that time, got serious about playing in bands and making money. Despite our ages, we played all around Pueblo in nightclubs. Some were owned by ""the families"" where some very colorful characters hung out. One club we played in usually always had a parking lot full of cars when we came to work but there would be only a dozen or so people in the lounge. People would come there from all over the state to play poker and gamble in the back rooms. It was illegal, of course. While we were working there, the chief of police was killed in a plane crash. An uncashed check was found in his office for $5, 000 from our employer. Our boss was so brazen that he paid off the police chief with checks! Needless to say, our place of employment was shut down by the Feds. We also had the good fortune to be work for the new local TV station as house musicians for a year and a half. We accompanied singers and dancers—different performers every week. I really envied Bruce because, as a drummer, he didn't have to read the music for all these performers. One time the sponsor brought in a violin player from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I had about an hour to learn the classical piece before airtime and was scared to death. Bruce just looked at me and said, ""You should have been a drummer."" Bruce and I went to Pueblo Junior College where Bruce got an associate's degree in music in 1955. He then moved to Denver and enrolled at DU as a music major. For the next three years, he was a full-time student and played drums around Denver doing casual jobs with various musicians. Finally, we decided to form our own group, a trio, and play the music we wanted to play. But before we could to do it, Bruce was drafted into the army. The night before he was to be sent to basic training, we had a going-away party and all of his friends said goodbye. When he got to the induction center, the guy in charge found out that the Pueblo Draft Board had sent one recruit too many. After cursing the idiots in Pueblo, he figured that the only solution was to give each one another physical and the guy in the worst shape would be sent home and classified 4-F, not to be called up again. Bruce and I were renting an apartment on South Colorado Blvd. at the time and several of our friends were still sacked out there when Bruce came waltzing back in with a big smile on his face. The doctor has said that Bruce's back was out of alignment a little bit; I think it was because of all those hours slumped over the drum set on that tiny little stool he sat on. In 1958, Bruce and I got our first job as The Vincent Brothers Trio in the Keyboard Lounge on West Colfax Ave. Our fist bass player was Eddie Duncan. Drinking was not discouraged on the job. We played there several years. It was at The Keyboard Lounge that Bruce started going out with Sandy. One of the owners, Morrie Bernstein, had a record company and so we went to California in 1959 to record the first Vincent Bros. album. I think that we enjoyed playing music those years so much because a lot of the popular music at that time was instrumental music and there is no doubt that we were much better musicians than singers! We did vocals because the owners wanted us to, but Bruce liked to sing and he did it very well. In fact, he would sing quietly to just about every song that we played, whether it had lyrics or not, he just made up his own words. Many nights we had to play the same song two or three times and Bruce would start making up new words to keep himself entertained. He came up with some pretty wild and funny lyrics. The Vincent Brothers Trio worked at pretty nice clubs. From the Keyboard, we went to Henritze's Supper Club, then to Embers, back to the Keyboard and then to the Cloud Nine and back to the Keyboard again in 1966. We recorded our second album and it got quit a bit of airtime on KHOW, a popular radio station at the time. The manager at the Hyatt House Hotel downtown heard our music and offered us a very interesting job. The Playboy club was on the top floor and the DJs from KHOW hung out there so we were exposed to a lot of well-known entertainers who came through in town. After that, we decided to open our own bar, The Satin Doll, on 17th and Grant. Big mistake. (Daughter Christy's comment: ""I remember my dad saying that he never worked so hard for so little in his whole life""). By then, we were pretty burned out working six nights a week and we wanted to go into the rock and mineral business with the folks. Bruce and Sandy and Central City: In 1972, Bruce and Sandy (they'd married in 1960) and their four kids moved to Central City where his mom and dad were operating the Rock Shop. After a few years, Bruce and Sandy bought the store and expanded it by buying the building next door on the corner of Main and Gregory which they turned into the T-Shirt Corner. But being business operators was only the beginning for the Schmalz family. Here's how the Colorado Gambler once described what happened: ""Sandy and Bruce had barely finished unpacking after their move to 'The Richest Square Mile on Earth' before they became involved in every volunteer organization and movement in the town."" Bruce joined the Elks and along with other positions, became an Exalted Ruler. He was a volunteer firefighter. He loved serving on the board of the Central City Jazz Festival, of course. He also worked for the Central City Business Association and the Wintershire Festival. As an Honorary Dandy Dan for Lou Bunch Day, he was an official timer for the infamous bed races for many years. Many of these activities wound up with beers at the Elks Bar, and Bruce enjoyed these events. Sometimes, he and his pals weren't done enjoying when two o'clock came, so… Let's let daughter CinDee tell what happened: ""During the 70s and 80s, Dad would bring folks home to 110 Spring St. for whiskey eggs after the gang closed the bars. I'm sure the first few times, as we kids lay sleeping in our bed, all the noise and 'racket' (one of Daddy's favorite words) startled us, but after that, it just became a familiar noise."" Bruce began serving the city as a member of City Council in 1975. He ended Bill Russell's 24-year reign as mayor when the SOB (Sweet Ole Bruce, Gail Sheftel's affectionate name for him) was elected to that post in 1986. It was five years later when gambling came that he—as a casino owner—had to step down. While he was mayor, Bruce was appointed by the governor to the Colorado Tourism Board. Most significantly, of course, was Mayor Schmalz's involvement in bringing gambling to the three mountain towns to make them year-around attractions. He was one of the three key men in Central City who not only had the idea (as many had before), but weren't deterred by the difficulty of making it happen. The constitution of the State of Colorado had to be changed. Working with Lary Brown and Rand Anderson, they actually made it happen. Bruce's role: He held everything together from a financial and political standpoint—and often served as spokesman for the press. When gambling came, changes came to the building at Main and Gregory. First, the lower level became a bar and casino (which opened on October 12, 1991, eleven days late due to the city flooding the new casino). In the late 1980s, gambling took over the Rock Shop and T-Shirt Corner, too, and the result was Dostal Alley with 64 slots and bars upstairs and down. After Bruce's son, Buddy, opened a brewery in the back of the building, Bruce accompanied Buddy to six years of brewing conventions. He enjoyed them all, but he especially loved the one that took them to Cleveland because of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The last few years were not kind to Bruce. He suffered from Parkinson's and Parkinson's-induced dementia and was diagnosed with bladder cancer in February. He died at the age of 77 on April 29. He was at home, surrounded by family. The family: Bruce and Sandy's four children (and nine grandchildren): CinDee (Cynthia Maureen) who is married to Mark Spellman. Their children are Valerie and Megan. Buddy (Bruce Vincent Jr.) who is married to Gwen. Their children are Tyrus and Rachel. Christy (Christine Michelle), who is married to Mark Yacano. Their children are Joe and Samantha. Lisa Ann, who is married to Steve Boulter. Their children are Chase, Austin, and Blake. Brother Richard died of leukemia in 1975. It is his photo that is prominently displayed on the wall at Dostal Alley. Brother Ted retired from operating the Rock Shop in Georgetown. Please share your memories of Bruce and condolences with his family by clicking on the ""Sign Guestbook"" link below. The family has also provided the following link for condolences: https://www.facebook.com/groups/416331501723988/