Area dance venues, of course, competed for the strongest dance bands for holidays.  For Labor Day 1928 Fern Brook ran an unusual black-draped ad for Don Voorhees, a Columbia recording artist (and a fox-trot contest).  Other popular dance halls of the time included Sandy Beach, Sans Souci, and Wilkes-Barre’s Cinderella, Orondo, and Alhambria.

By the early 1930's Fern Brook had some of America’s most famous bands.  This survey will only note some of the artists who appeared at Fern Brook.  On July 4, 1931, Eubie Blake (1883-1983) was at the park.  He headed the nation’s most famous African-American band of his time.  An exceptional pianist he was the Baltimore-born son of former slave parents - the only one of 11 children who survived into adulthood.  He had his own Broadway musical in 1921.  In later years he performed for the USO during World War II and made a come-back to music in 1972 at age 89.

The famous white-suited Cab Calloway (1907-1994) appeared at Fern Brook on August 9, 1932, and again on July 30, 1934 (the rainy night of the American Tragedy Murder at the Lake).  The athletic Calloway and the Cotton Club Orchestra were well-known Chicago and Harlem players - a rival to Duke Ellington.  He appeared in film productions between his Fern Brook appearances and broke the color barrier in 1930 with mainstream radio shows from the Cotton Club in New York City.