During the 1940 and '50 the neon strip of West Division road between Ashland and Western was known as "Polish Broadway.

During the 1940 and '50 the neon strip of West Division road between Ashland and Western was known as "Polish Broadway." The public way consisted of 50 polka sets filled with people dancing until dawn. Hardscrabble writer Nelson Algren took it in from his tiny apartment above a Division public way hardware store. And the night beat was stake by Walter E. Jagiello, a k a "Lil' Wally the Polka King."

Mr Jagiello died Thursday of heart failure at a Miami Beach, Fla., hospice. He was 76

Mr Jagiello, a 5-foot-6 drummer-singer who was born in Chicago, released more than 110 albums as "Lil' Wally," and he performed onward West Division Street between 1944 and 1965 His hits included "I Like Her Golabka," "No Beer in Heaven" and "Polish Polka Twist," which charted in Billboard magazine in 1960 He was the first inductee into the Polka Hall of Fame in Chicago and made several visitor appearances on the Lawrence Welk point out

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unless Mr. Jagiello said his finest twinkling of an eye was in 1984 when he was invited to play for bishop of rome John Paul II in the Vatican. He performed his hymn "God Bless Our Polish Pope" as part of a two-hour contrive

Today, Chicago White Sox fans hear Lil' Wally at each home game. In 1959, he co-wrote the "Let's walk Go Go White Sox" fight lay recorded by Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers with the Lil' Wally Orchestra. The descant was resurrected just last year. Lil' Wally was invited to this year's dwelling opener but was too ill to make the trip.

Lil' Wally was to Chicago polka what Junior Wells was to Chicago downcasts

He was a full-tilt innovator.

Mr Jagiello was the pulsar behind Chicago-style polka, a slower polka he introduced in the 1940 in succession "Polish Broadway." Chicago style carries a more deliberate beat (think Charlie Watts in a polka setting) from one side a smaller five- or six-piece band that could easily fit into narrow Chicago taverns. reciprocally the Slovenian style popularized on Frankie Yankovic featured two accordions and sometimes a banjo with a dash of brass.

"I'm original," Mr Jagiello told me in a 1987 interview. "My music is exceedingly simple to comprehend, whether it is la-la-la-la-la or ooh-la-la. And I sing in Polish fluently and I sing in English fluently Chicago used to be the polka capital of the world. When I was playing regularly there, each place on Polish Broadway was packed. Now there are something like brace polka lodges left simply because polka has been too Americanized."

In 1999 the Polkaholics polka-rock band brought Lil' Wally up from Florida and became his backing band for a point out to at the Zakopane Lounge, common of the last two Polish bars forward West Division Street.

"Wally was single in kind of the great 20th hundred American musicians," said Polkaholics guitarist-vocalist Don Hedeker. "He was upon par with Johnny Cash in region and Charlie Parker in jazz. In resurgent nation a lot of those artists linked up with Cash and Hank Williams. That's what we did with Lil' Wally and bands like the Ampol-Aires. When Wally began, united of his basic rules was to have no music stands forward stage and no notes. They played from the inside to the commonalty He was a consummate showman. When we brought him to Chicago in the late '90 those were the greatest of indicates We had the old-time Wally fans as well as young Wicker Park hipsters. It was a celebration of Wally."

BEGAN SINGING POLKA AT 8

The other polka cottage left on West Division road is Phyllis's Musical Inn, now an alternative region and rock club. On Sunday night when word filtered down of Mr Jagiello's passing, the company held a moment of silence. When Phyllis Jaskot spreaded her club in 1954, Lil' Wally was headlining across the road at the Lucky Stop.

Mr Jagiello began singing polka music at the age of 8 forward Chicago's Northwest Side. He appeared at Polish picnics and weddings. Besides playing tympanums he was self-taught on concertina. He began sneaking into Division road bars at the age of 11 He would wear a sharp white shirt and stick an unlit cigarette in his jaws He was a smooth operator.

ACCOMPLISHED ENTREPRENEUR

Mr Jagiello recorded for Columbia Records in 1949 and in 1951 he started his have Jay Jay Records ("Be Happy Night and Day with Jay Jay"). He picked the name "Jay Jay" because he wrote his melodies after listening to birds sing. Mr Jagiello didn't record his first sonnet in English until 1954, when he cracked Billboard's top 40 with "I Wish I Was Single Again."

Mr Jagiello was as accomplished an entrepreneur as he was a musician. He first attempted a polka radio show in 1950 forward WCRW in Chicago. He later had exhibit tos on WLS and WTAQ and frequently would feature live feeds from gigs at the favorable Stop and the Pulaski Ballroom. In February 1955 Lil' Wally was worked on an off night between the big bands at the Aragon Ballroom. The Aragon had in no degree presented polka music. Lil' Wally and his band drew 4000 population

Mr Jagiello was also a lifetime member of the National Academy Recording Arts & Sciences' Chicago chapter, having been with the dispose since it was formed in 1961

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