This Chicago quartet also competed in the 1941 and 1942 national contests of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), now known as the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS).
Original members of the quartet were Charles Schwab, tenor; Leo Ives, lead; Ed Young, baritone; and Fred Stein, bass.
Thinking fast, Ives reached in his other pocket for the souvenir harmonica, blew the pitch a step too low, and the quartet continued on with the song.
Sinclair was furious when they walked off stage, and immediately announced that he quit the quartet.
Instead, they improvised the harmonies as they sang, an art known as "woodshedding," a common practice among early Society quartets.