Wendling, Pete

Pete Wendling Composer New York City, June 6, 1888; Maspeth, New York, April 8, 1974. Wendling was a self-taught pianist who learned to play from watching and listening to his idol, Mike Bernard, a Ragtime champ who performed at Tony Pastor ’s Music Hall. When he was eighteen, Wendling won a national ragtime piano contest sponsored by The Police Gazette. He was proud of the gold medal he won, and even prouder when Frederick A. Mills took him on as a staff pianist. He joined piano-roll producer…