MILWAUKEE — It's a sad day in Milwaukee. The famous 'Polka Escalator' inside of the Baird Center is going silent.
The 'Polka Escalator' is part of an art exhibit inside the downtown Milwaukee convention center called 'Polka Time'. Push a button called 'Push to Play Polka' and 1 of 200 polka songs starts playing. As you ride what is known as the 'Polka-lator' you see 20 pictures of people enjoying and playing polka music. Most of the photos were taken at a 1976 party in Milwaukee marking the 200-year anniversary of United States independence.
“Well as an artist it's been a thrill to have - to offer to produce so much pleasure for so many people for so many years," Dick Blau, who created 'Polka Time' back in 1998 said. You can watch a video Blau made the day it opened.
Polka is fun, dance-able, and is kind of whimsical - and for 25 years this art installation has preserved and promoted polka perfectly. That's why Blau doesn't want this to be a somber occasion.
“It’s like a New Orleans funeral something actually really happened but let’s give it a good send-off," Blau said.
People from far and wide, including royalty, came to pay their respects to the Polka Escalator.
“I’m going to miss really the spirit behind it and the history that we have here," Lisa Hare, the Wisconsin Polka Boosters Queen, said.
Plus DJ Shotski, a polka radio DJ for WVMO in Monona (next to Madison), couldn’t miss the opportunity to ride the polka-later for the first and last time.
“I love polka because it’s such a quintessential Wisconsin sound, and I really love that it’s a happy positive kind of music," Stacy Harbaugh, also known as DJ Shotski, said.
You can tell how popular the polka escalator has been by seeing how much the paint has rubbed off of the ‘Push to Play Polka' sign. One fan pushed that button the first day it was installed and the last.
“It’s kind of a unique Milwaukee experience. It’s as kind of fun to see and take one last ride on the polka escalator," Jeff Blau, a Polka Escalator fan said.
There’s no relation between Jeff and Dick. They said it was just a coincidence.
Blaue says the Polka-later is coming down because of a discrepancy over one picture. He said the Wisconsin Center District wanted him to take it down because of the protruding tongue in the photo. He refused. Now, Blau said his art is coming down. The Wisconsin Center District said the polka escalator is ending as the convention center modernizes with a $456 million expansion project that is scheduled to be finished by March 2024.
"We're going to see an improvement of 100,000+ [additional people] a year coming to Milwaukee because of the convention center expansion, and what it's going to do to Westown and drive people into the Deer District could be a people magnet,” Marty Brooks, President and CEO of the Wisconsin Center District, told Charles Benson back in March 2023.
Funding for the construction comes from a county hotel sales tax and a food and beverage tax at restaurants. The new convention center will partially host the 2024 Republican National Convention.
The upgraded convention center will be called the Baird Center as part of adeal with the Milwaukee-based financial services company. The naming rights last 15 years.
Regardless of the reason, the polka escalator is going quiet after 25 years of polka-dancing fun. But this may not be the end entirely.
“I applied to the Metropolitan Transit Authority public art program in New York City. They have a new subway line," Blau said.
He hopes his art can live on in New York City, but ideally, he'd like it to be somewhere in Wisconsin.
For now, though, the Polka Escalator is going quiet until it finds a new home.
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