The Old Finn Hall Variety Show
Parts I & II

From the late 1800s through the 1950s, Finn Halls created a thriving social network for Finnish-American immigrants. This uplifting two-part Variety Show (recorded before a live audience in 1997) celebrates the Finn Hall tradition by displaying the richly diverse entertainment these Halls provided. Fiddles and accordions, guitars and mandolin, a brass band, a kantele ensemble, folkdances, couples dances, a children’s dance group, dramatic recitations of poetry, and of course, songs of many sorts—a lively array of well-paced performances, all ably MCed by Oren Tikkanen. You don’t have to be Finnish or Finnish-American to enjoy, and learn from, the Old Finn Hall Variety Show!

Directed by Eric Peltoniemi
Produced by Ralph Tuttila
Master of Ceremonies - Oren Tikkanen
Detailed list of performers
VHS (120 minutes)

See also the Finn Hall CD of Finnish & Finnish-American Dance Tunes in our Music Section.

The Polka Mass
Presented by Father Frank Perkovich

An opportunity to view two of Father Frank Perkovich’s Polka Masses in their entirety—one filmed in 1984 at Resurrection Church in Eveleth, Minnesota (where the first Polka Mass was celebrated on May 5, 1973), and the other filmed in 1993, at the International Polkafest in Chisholm, Minnesota.

During an interview opening this video, Father Perk describes his inspiration for using traditional Slovenian and Croatian folkmusic in Catholic liturgy. And his sermons for the two taped Masses include his thoughts about this liturgical experiment eleven, and twenty, years after his first Polka Mass.

Though time and the environment have degraded this tape’s audio and video quality, its historical relevance and power to inspire justify continuing to make it available.

VHS (120 minutes)

This archival Polka Mass video collection also available on a
DVD entitled More Songs & Hymns from the Polka Mass.

The biographical DVD described below and the related items in our Music and Additional Titles sections are excellent supplements to the Polka Mass video collection.

The Life & Times of Father Frank Perkovich

This “montage of meaningful memories” created at the time of Father Frank Perkovich’s 2004 retirement from active ministry draws upon family photo albums, videotapes, and mementos, as well as upon interviews, media coverage, and the memories of friends, to present a lovingly detailed account of Father Perk’s background and a tribute to the fifty-year ministry of the man inspired by the Second Vatican Council to develop and popularize a Polka Mass.

Produced by Tom Moeller
DVD (60 minutes)

A VHS of the Polka Mass in its entirety is described above. Other related items are described in our Music and Additional Titles sections.

The Survivors: North American Finns in Stalin’s Russia

The producer, Anita Hokkanen Middleton of Minneapolis, interviewed Karelian Fever veterans, including her own parents.

She even travelled to the White Sea region right after the end of the Cold War in her quest to find out the truth of this 1930s migration to the Soviet Union—which attracted many from the Lake Superior basin.

Produced byAnita Hokkanen Middleton
Edited by Glenn C. Maxham
Jacket Designed by Karl & Cindy Laun
VHS (57 minutes)