STEALING THE SHOW ENTERTAINER'S ACCORDION PURLOINED.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - For 60 years, Ernest Batz has been playing the accordion - mostly as a one-man band - and tap dancing as he played and doing the limbo with his instrument strapped to his chest.

Lately he's been playing for senior citizens from Santa Clarita to Victorville.

But a thief broke into his pickup truck and stole his German-made Horner Vox 4P accordion, the microphone he uses to lead sing-alongs, his tap shoes and even the whistles he blows when he plays ``Wabash Cannonball.''

``You know how things are today,'' said Batz, 65, who has been playing the accordion professionally since he was a young man, though he had side jobs as well. ``They don't know the value. They just want to sell something and get some money. An accordion is not too well known anymore. To me it could be very hard to sell.''

Sheriff's detectives are checking Antelope Valley pawn shops for Batz's gear, although he fears it may wind up at a swap meet, where it would be snatched up by someone unaware it was stolen.

The theft occurred the night after Batz had played for senior citizens in Apple Valley. Tired from the 60-mile drive back, Batz left his accordion and other gear locked inside the camper shell of his pickup truck.

But the next morning, when his wife went outside to shake out some rugs, she saw the tailgate open to the truck, which was parked at the curb. A thief had jimmied open the camper door and opened the tailgate.

Butz reported the theft to the Sheriff's Department. He is using a backup accordion to keep up his performances at senior citizen centers, convalescent hospitals and retirement homes, playing polkas, waltzes and leading sing-alongs to old standards like ``My Wild Irish Rose'' and ``Coming Round the Mountain.''

``They really enjoy it,'' Batz said of his elderly audiences. ``They get up and dance. It changes their mood. It gives them a whole different attitude. The people in wheelchairs and convalescent hospitals, you can see them moving their feet, trying to move their hands.''

The management at Merrill Gardens, a retirement apartment complex in Lancaster, has signed him up to perform every two months.

``He's very sweet, a sweet man,'' said activities director Christine Ellis. ``He's very cute. He's just got that personality ... he seems to do well with them.''

Batz started playing the accordion as a 5-year-old boy growing up on a farm outside the small Pennsylvania town of Bethel.

As a young man, he played at churches, family picnics, fairs and square dances, where he learned to tap dance while playing the accordion.

``It's something that comes natural to you. It took awhile,'' Batz said of dancing. ``I guess they call it the jig too but I just call it tap dance. You keep rhythm with the accordion.''

Batz recorded three 45s and an album in the 1960s that he sold at his performances, traveling around Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Ohio and upstate New York, even making appearances on a Philadelphia television show.

Playing at a convention of steam engine enthusiasts, he got the idea of incorporating a low-toned whistle into the act. When he plays ``The Wabash Cannonball,'' he blows the whistle to make a sound like a locomotive.

At one time he accompanied himself on drum and cymbals, working pedals with his feet, but the accordion that was stolen has an electronic box called a generator that creates the rhythm itself.

During winters, when bookings were few in the 1960s, he worked at a camper trailer factory and at a factory that made septic tanks.

``In springtime I'd go back on the road,'' Batz said.

Batz moved to California 13 years ago. He lived in Rosamond, then moved to a Castaic mobile home park, where he and his wife were assistant managers. Eight years ago they moved in with her son at his Palmdale home and Batz went to work as a maintenance supervisor at a Lancaster hotel.

He started his local shows at the Rosamond Senior Center.

``I just went to see the center and asked if they would like entertainment. I played for one of their dinners. I played music, then I did a little show,'' Batz said.

Batz isn't letting the theft halt his shows.

``I'll do it as long as I can,'' he said.

Anyone with information on the stolen items, call call Palmdale sheriff's station, [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Ernest Batz, 65, is still carrying on his one-man show despite the theft of his accordion.

(2 -- color) Ernest Batz is pictured with his accordion that was stolen.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer