Many years ago, like back in the mid 60's four of the five guys above formed a band called the Elites since most of the members were from the Ellet, Ohio area. They added a bass player later on, Don Anderson, who played an old time stand-up type. Later on they added a singer, Jon E. Hopkins who attended East High School. Anderson, (Dieter), left the band, and Hopkins went out and bought a Fender electric bass and learned how to play it, and sing at the same time.  Above is the finished product. From L-R we have Jon E. Hop, Bass guitar and Lead vocals, Ronnie Helfrich, Drums, Dale Beckett, Lead guitar and background vocals, Rodney Mishler, sax, and background vocals, and Joe Buz, Keyboard, and rhythm guitar. Ronnie, Rodney, and Dale went to Ellet High School. Joe Buz lived in Ellet, but went to Hoban, and Jon E. Hop was from East High as we stated earlier..
They began playing in the rec rooms of students who requested them for parties after football games. They also played for a number of Ellet functions, and in several band contests around the area.
Their big break came when they auditioned for a popular student hang out in Kent called the Fifth Quarter. Joe Buz graduated from Hoban with John Shannon, one of the owners. They passed the audition with flying colors, and the rest is history. They packed the place every night, and eventually shared the nights with a popular local band called the Counterpoints.
After playing at the Fifth Quarter for close to a year they broke up, and parted ways. Some of the members joined other bands, and some of us are still playing now, and then.
Due to a family emergency Jon E. Hop had to come back to the area from California where he had a successful run as the District Attorney of Lake County, Lakeport, CA. The guys had not been together for around 20 years or so when they surprised Rodney for a special occasion. Tuesday night, February 22, Jon, Buz, Ron, and Rod got together again at Casa Del Rio, a Mexican restaurant in Wadsworth. Dale is down in Florida, and he had a successful career performing on cruise ships in the Miami area. We hear that he now has a real job down there somewhere.
Below are a few pics taken that evening to give you and idea of what we look like now. I will hopefully be adding more pics as they become available.
    
L-R are RON HELFRICH, JON E. HOP, and RODNEY MISHLER NOW. RODNEY again, JON, JOE BUZ, and RONNIE.Here we have the trio from the first picture posing with SUJATA. She was kind enough to take a picture of all of us. So we asked her to take a pic WITH us. She thought that we were Wild 'N Crazy guys! Right!This is the Famous FIFTH QUARTER T-SHIRT that RONNIE, JON, and I (J.Buz) still have after 45 years. RODNEY doesn't remember getting one, and he thought we were pulling his leg! Yuck!This is a montage of the ELITES taken back in JULY of 1966, and provided by CHERYL, RONNIE'S wife.The ELITES (Not the Beach Boys) at one of their gigs for an AKRON U political party. L-R are RODNEY, JOE BUZ, RONNIE (Kneeling on stage) JON E. HOP, and DALE. I (Joe Buz) had an Army Buzz (No pun intended) cut. I was on leave from the Army.The next three photos were taken by the Akron Beacon Journal for an article that they were writing about the Kent State night life, and the FIFTH QUARTER. None fo them were used in the article, but they used one for a Fifth Quarter add in the newspaper. Pics provided by ROD MISHLER!This is the FUN PART of playing in a band. Of course back in 1965 we didn't care! This is a montage of pics evidently taken by ME (J.Buz), and proabaly CHERYL for a gig we played back in March of 1965. We have no idea where it was at. If anyone who sees these pics knows what it was for, please let us know.Looks like one of the fraternities performing a skit on the stage during one of our breaks!More of the MARCH of 1965 gig. Where was it? What was it for?
Click on Pics to Enlarge
The ELITES
More Pics to Come!
This page was last updated: February 5, 2015