The Vandaliers were a major live act in the northern Ohio region between Toledo and Cleveland. Although the band did not release any records at the time, they did record on three separate occasions. Their guitarist Whitey Gwinup later joined the Turfits, who recorded one song, “If It’s Love You Want”, that was originally a Vandaliers demo. Drummer Wayne Van Doren and second bassist Harry Kerr eventually formed Mail Order and recorded two more excellent demo songs. The following history, photos and recordings of the Vandaliers come from Wayne Van Doren, who was with the group from start to finish:

In August of 1962, The Vandaliers came together as a four piece garage band. The name Vandaliers came from the name VAN that was painted on Wayne’s base drum head. The original band members were Whitey Gwinup of Fremont, lead guitar, Walt Harkness of Fremont, bass guitar, Herman Cesniros of Hessville, saxophone and Wayne Van Doren of Clyde, drums. We spent many months practicing in Whitey’s one-car garage. The band played teen dances and at one dance in Tiffin, Ghoulardi (Ernie Anderson) was also there to entertain. Ernie was a very popular late night movie host from Cleveland.

On February 2, 1964, the band made a demo record at Courier studios in Fremont. The band was one of the first to record for Bob Brown at the new studio. On the record were two songs: “She’s Mine” written by Whitey Gwinup and “Office Party”, an instrumental written by Herman Cesniros.

The Vandaliers – Office Party
The Vandaliers – She’s Mine

In May of 1964, Herman left the band to travel with a road band. Garry Coleman of Fremont took Herman’s place on saxophone. In June of 1964, Walt also left the band and was replaced by Harry Kerr of Bowling Green on electric bass. The band continued to play as a four piece for a short time but wanted to add more fill to the sound. In late July of 1964, Tony Kowalski of Sandusky, B-3 organ, was asked to become the fifth Vandalier. With the addition of Tony, the band started playing much larger clubs.

We played ten weeks at Club 224 in Tiffin to large college crowds and fans from the area. We played 12 week shows at Friendly Corners in Norwalk and had fans from Toledo, Cleveland and Columbus coming to Norwalk to see the show. The band also played 6 week shows at the Peppermint Club in Toledo and 8 week shows at The Circus Club in Bowling Green. The band played that four club circuit for over 2 years, playing 3, 4 and 5 nights a week plus other 1 night shows, and because Whitey, Harry, Garry and Wayne had families; they also worked 40 hour weekly day jobs.

On May 20, 1965, The Vandaliers opened a show for the Beach Boys at the Sports Arena in Toledo. They also played back-up for Glen Campbell who came on after our show and sang a few of his own songs. At that time, Glen was an up-and-coming star on the TV show, Shindig and was traveling with the Beach Boys to get more public exposure. Over 6,000 teenagers were there to enjoy the show.

In June of 1965, Bob Brown took the band to Audio Recording in Cleveland to back up 2 songs for Sandy Chapin, a young girl singer he was trying to promote. That same night, The Vandaliers recorded 4 demo songs of their own for Bob, with Don White engineering. The first 2 songs “Need Your Lovin” and “You Talk Too Much” were copy songs. The last 2 songs were originals “True Love I Found” by Whitey Gwinup and “If It’s Love You Want” by Whitey Gwinup and Harry Kerr.

The Vandaliers – I Need Your Lovin’
The Vandaliers – You Talk Too Much
The Vandaliers – If It’s Love You Want (1st version)
The Vandaliers – True Love I’ve Found (1st version)

The 4 songs were put on two 45 demo disks. The band did not receive copies of the two 45’s and after re-recording in September, the songs were forgotten about. On February 24, 2007, (42 years later), one of the demo disks was found in Issaquah, Washington. It was given to a collector of Ohio bands by a friend who bought it from a dealer in New York City who had bought it from Bob Brown in the late 1970’s. Also, in June of 2007, the second demo disk was found in Toledo, Ohio but it is now in San Clemente, California.

On September 2, 1965, Al Tolan, a businessman from Cleveland who was trying to become a promoter took the band to Cleveland Recording to cut another demo record. This time, the band recorded three songs, an instrumental, and then re-recorded “True Love I Found” and “If’ It’s Love You Want”, with new arrangements. Record companies were not interested in Cleveland music until the Outsiders hit with “Time Won’t Let Me”. By that time, the band had started to change and Al had given up the idea of being a band and record promoter.

The Vandaliers – If It’s Love You Want (2nd version)
The Vandaliers – True Love I’ve Found (2nd version)

On July 9, 1966, Whitey Gwinup left the band to go on the road with a band called The Other Ones (later changing their name to The Turfits – see their entry). Whitey was replaced with J.J. Reinhart from Toledo.

On September 16, 1966, the band played the grand opening of a new teen club in Bucyrus, Ohio. It was called “The Mixer” and was billed as Ohio’s Largest Young Adult Nite Spot, and had an 11,000 square foot dance floor. The band was advertised on WKYC, Cleveland and WCOL, Columbus. The band returned to The Mixer for several lengthy engagements.

In March, 1967, Tony Kowalski left the band to enlist in the Coast Guard. Tony was replaced by George “Butch” Kelly, an organ player from Toledo. In May of 1967, Garry Coleman also had to leave the band. Garry was replaced by Larry Mann, a sax player from Toledo. Larry only stayed a short time, he had been playing on the road for over five years and was burned out.

On June 30, 1967, The Vandaliers, now back to a four piece band, played the grand opening for a new teen dance center in Danbury, Ohio. It was called “Harbor Lites” and would accommodate 2,000 people. With the loss of Whitey, Tony and Garry, the band lost that great sound that made it so popular. In October of 1967, The Vandaliers, one of northern Ohio’s best known bands through the 1960’s broke up.

A month later, Wayne and Harry put together a four piece band called Male Order. However, the band thought it would be too controversial and changed the spelling to Mail Order. For the full story on Mail Order click here.

Whitey went on to play with The Other Ones and other bands in the Fremont area. As of July, 2007, Whitey owns “Whitey’s Custom and Collision” (an auto body shop) in Clyde. He also plays dobro in a church band called “In Spirit”, and is working on recording a CD of gospel music.

After the Vandaliers, Wayne played in Mail Order, Mod Country Trio, The Sleek Brothers Band and Last Shot Country Rock Band. As of July, 2007 he owns a painting business in Clyde. He also works stage crew at The Ritz Theatre in Tiffin and The State Theatre in Sandusky. He still plays a few shows each year with musician friends.

Garry Coleman went on to play with Mixed Company and Night Watch. He also played in a band from Fremont called Robbie and the Ramblers. That band went on to play The Peppermint Lounge in New York City. On September 6, 2003, Garry was inducted into The Music Hall of Fame in Fremont, Ohio. As of July, 2007, he lives in Titusville, Florida and is a development manager for Allstate Insurance.

Harry Herr played in Mail Order and then put his electric bass in storage. He was promoted to sales manager for Brush Wellman and transferred to California. As of July 2007, he lives in San Clemente, California and is retired from Brush. He owns a DJ mobile music service called Music Ala Cart, and has started playing the electric keyboard.

After his discharge from the Coast Guard, Tony Kowalski taught music at the high school in Sandusky. He also played in We Three, New Pastels and other area show bands. As of July 2007, he lives in Sandusky and has retired from teaching. He is writing and recording his own songs and hopes to be published soon. The band stays in touch with each other and whenever possible they will meet, go to dinner and talk about the music.

At the Vandaliers June ’65 session, they also backed Sandy Chapin on two songs for a 45 that was released on the Empire label. Wayne writes, “Sandy Chapin lived in Fremont at the time and asked Bob Brown to produce this cut for her. Side 2 was guitar and voice only. Breath Taking Guy got air play in Toledo, Cleveland and Columbus, and also on a few out of state stations. Shortly after doing this recording, Sandy moved and Bob lost track of her, so we do not know how far her singing career went.”

Sandy Chapin (with the Vandaliers) – Breath Taking Guy

Interview with Wayne Van Doren

I asked Wayne a few questions to expand on his history of the band:

Q. The Vandaliers were performing live before the Beatles hit in the U.S., and by the time you formed Mail Order, popular music was totally different. How did you adapt with the times?

Wayne: For the most part we were a copy band. Each week we would pick up a Top 10 list from the record shop and make sure we could play at least the top 6 or 7 songs. I don’t remember thinking the music was changing or we were adapting, we were just keeping up with the Top 10. I enjoyed playing pop music more than Motown, although the band played both. I was more aware of the big change in clothes. I liked the bellbottoms but could not find them in our area. I would buy oversized bib overalls and have them tailored into hip hugging bellbottoms.

Q: Who were the other bands you were in competition with?

Wayne: In 1962 there were not that many bands in the Fremont area. The band explosion happened after the British invasion but even then there were enough clubs in and around Fremont to accommodate all the good bands.

I never felt we were in competition with other bands for jobs. After our first year, we didn’t even have to audition. We were always working and most of the time the club owners came looking for us. We had a reputation of being on time, not drinking on the job, no smoking on stage and taking short breaks. The club owner got his money’s worth and he knew it. Besides, we just loved to play the music. The owner didn’t know this but we probably would have done it for free. When the five of us played together we were all in the same pocket or groove, it felt good.

Q. Were you friends with any other bands?

Wayne: We were playing every weekend and sometimes during the week so we didn’t have much time to make friends with other bands. Although when we were practicing in Whitey’s garage, Robbie Missler of Robbie and the Ramblers would stop by to visit. His band had played the Peppermint Lounge in New York City. Sometimes we would switch clubs with his band.

Q: What effect did the Beatles and other British Invasion acts have on your sound?

Wayne: I don’t think the British bands influenced our sound because we were copying so many different bands on the top 10. I always did play a heavy 2-4 rim shot with matched grip and would get looks from other drummers but when I saw the Brits playing the same thing, all was right with the world.

Q: It’s interesting to compare the June, ’65 recordings and the ones you made in September. The second version of If It’s Love You Want is at least as good as the Turfits version. I’d also say the Cleveland Recording studio did a better job of recording you in September than Audio Recording did in June. There’s better balance between the instruments and vocals, and crisper sound.

Wayne: Whitey would agree, he thinks the 2nd version is much better. Audio Recording was in the basement of WKYC radio station. It closed in the early 70’s. The head engineer was Don White. Cleveland Recording was on the 4th. floor of an office building on Euclid Ave. The owner was Ken Hammond, he invented the first version of Surround Sound in that studio. He called in Quadra Phonic Sound. He left Cleveland Recording and he and his son started Suma Recording outside Cleveland.

Q: What is the strange echo effect on the early version of True Love I’ve Found?

Wayne: That was a bark note Garry did on his sax and the engineer put the echo on it. Today we do not know why we did that. We did not play it that way in public.

Q: How was working with Ghoulardi?

Wayne: I watched Ghoulardi on a regular basis. He was a character. The night we worked with Ghoulardi he was about one hour late, so we had to keep playing. The crowd was all teenagers and after awhile they were getting restless and we were about out of songs. When he arrived he came on stage dressed in a long white meat-cutter’s coat with a rag hanging out of one pocket, a goofie looking hat, sun glasses with one lens missing and one red shoe and one yellow shoe. He had Max the Wonder Dog with him. Poor Max was terrified of the screeming kids and sat in the middle of the stage and wet himself each time Ghoulardi would point to him and scream “look kids, Max is going to do a trick”. He also had a squirt gun and knew how to use it. His favorite target was the back of my head. After the show we shook hands and I said “good show Ernie” he looked at me as if he should know me but quickly dismissed that and moved on. As fast as he arrived, he was gone. It was a fun night !!

Q. How did audiences change over the years?

Wayne: When we played the Beach Boys concert the crowd remained seated and did not rush the stage for the entire show. The kids were very reserved and polite, that all changed in a very short time.

Q: How did the band react when Whitey left?

Wayne: When Whitey announced he was leaving, our first reaction was,”yea right”, but after awhile we knew he meant it. We were all very disappointed but he wanted to go on the road, so we parted as friends. I feel that was the beginning of the end.

Q: As a drummer, how did you come to start writing songs?

Wayne: I didn’t start writing till close to the end of the Vandaliers. As a drummer it was difficult to write. I didn’t play any guitar or piano so I kept a small tape recorder with me and if I had an idea I would either sing, hum, or whistle it into the recorder. “The Things Before Me” [one of Wayne’s songs with the Mail Order] came to me one evening while riding to a club job. I was staring out the window watching the sun go down and the words and music came to me in about 15 minutes. I didn’t have my recorder with me and was surprised that after the show I still had that song in my head. Nothing was changed and no words were added. The more I went over it, the more a voice filter made sense and the wine glass and wind chimes made the fade out. The Beatles had one song with a wine glass ending. I can’t remember what it was or if it came out after I sent the tape to Apple.

The guitar player that helped me most was Jerry Pynckel. We wrote several songs together but after the Mail Order broke up he moved away and I stopped playing for several years. Jerry and I have reconnected by email. He is still doing some studio work and has talked me into getting a handheld recorder again. We’ll see what happens.

For more photos and memorabilia of the Vandaliers see their entry on Buckeye Beat.

Update: I am sorry to report that Garry Coleman, sax player for the Vandaliers, died on July 1, 2021. All my condolences to his family and friends.