The Hennessy Five-Star Orchestra of Squirrel Island celebrated its 100th anniversary Aug. 12. The occasion called for pressed white ties and tails, tuxedos, bamboo canes, silk stockings and knotted nylons. Happy Hour ran from 5 to 7 p.m. and was followed by a sirloin tip dinner and a champagne toast to the band’s centennial.

The self-proclaimed oldest concurrently performing jazz band in America held this year’s ball in the town hall. The lineup included band leader Ken Steiner on bass, John Wells on guitar and banjo, Ben Russell on drums, Ron L’Herault on cornet and trombone, Rik Razdan on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Peter Wells on soprano and alto sax, Howland Bickerstaff on guitars, Chris Willis on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Nick Ribush on piano.

Carol Wells, wife of John, said the 100th celebration was technically the 101st as gathering was put off due to the pandemic. “But we decided this was the year. This had to be the year.”

The band started in 1921 with 15-year-old Wilder Hobson in the lineup on trombone. Hobson went on to become editor of Time, Fortune, Harper’s Bazaar and Newsweek magazines. He and second wife Verna Harrison continued to summer on Squirrel Island and play with Hennessy, Verna on tuba, until his death in 1964. Boothbay Register records showed Verna had been working as Robert Oppenheimer’s secretary before moving on to London in 1966 to work for the American Association of University Women. She retired in Maine to New Gloucester, worked for New Gloucester News and then the Lewiston Sun, all the while having continued her visits to Squirrel Island, playing for Hennessy occasionally, and revamping Squirrel Island Squid, the island’s summertime newspaper.

Notable past members of Hennessy include the Hobsons; the late Larry Pratt and his father Lawrence Southwick Pratt before him; famed cartoonist Arnold Roth and sons Charlie, solo artist, and the late Adam of The Del Fuegos.

Boothbay Register graphic designer Steve Edwards, alumnus of the band, attended the celebration. Edwards played baritone sax for Hennessy in the 1990s.