The Montana Logging and Ballet Company got its start in Billings, MT by four Rocky Mountain College alumni. Bob FitzGerald and Rusty Harper organized the musical group, The People Tree, while attending Rocky Mountain College in the 1960s. After 10 years of performing in Hollywood, the two decided to return to Montana where they began working in the admissions department at their alma matter. In 1975 they put together a "Rocky Road Show", enlisting the brothers Steve and Tim Holmes. The group toured schools across Montana, encouraging high school seniors to attend college, pitching Rocky as a prime option.
The show originally consisted of some popular songs with comedy bits thrown in. Most of the material was left-over stuff from The People Tree. The group was so successful with their recruitment efforts, the school requested they continue the road show.
After a few years of performing the show, the four decided to go their separate ways. Bob worked as Max Baucus' campaign manager when he ran for US Senate in 1978. When Baucus won the election the four men decided to perform again as a thank you for his staff. This would be the first time they took a popular song and rewrote the lyrics to make it political satire. Eric Feaver, president of the teacher's union, Montana Educators Association, encouraged them to write more satire, focusing on Montana education. Their material got shared nationwide and eventually Steve began writing original music to go along with the lyrics. The men debated if they should formally unite as a musical group, something they had not been up to this point. Although they had no desire at the time to record and tour, they decided to name the group The Montana Logging and Ballet Company. The name derived from a major Montana resource, timber, adding ballet because no one would know what it meant. This allowed them to be as creative as they wanted.
The group mainly performed for more liberal, progressive groups primarily in politics, education, and the arts, performing mainly at organization conventions or fund raisers. Songs and comedy skits would focus on the particular group in the audience, making no two shows the same. Often material was not written until right before the show. Some jokes would be made up by individual members while on stage.
In 1987 the group met Archbishop Desmond Tutu after presenting him with a sculpture and performing an original piece, "Take the Barriers Down" written for him at a global gathering put on by the United Methodist Church Women's Division. Afterwards, Fitz held a fundraiser to assist in Tutu's work in South Africa to end Apartheid. Tutu was so appreciative when asked by the group if he'd come to Montana, he agreed. In 1990, at a time of great political unrest in his home country,
Tutu came to Helena to make an appearance for one night alongside the MLBC. That same year they formed Upstream Records to produce their first recorded album,
They released their second album
They served as the resident political satirists on NPR's Weekend Edition, Sunday during President
Bill Clinton's second term. According to the group, their material was always meant to "nudge" people to try and work together to make the world a better place.
The albums
Although the group did not write much of their music down in the early years, they made it a point to record their shows on cassette tape. Set lists were created for many shows showing the order of songs and comedy sketches, often abbreviating the song titles to just one or two words. Steve often added small jokes to the set list for the other members' amusement.
Each member brought their own unique skill set to the group, but none of them ever competed for solos or a lead role. Besides equal roles on stage, they also wrote as a group. They pride themselves on the fact they stayed together for 37 years.
The Montana Logging and Ballet Company records consist of audio recording, photographs, and papers created and documenting the performances and related
activities of the group throughout the decades. The bulk of the collection is the audio cassette recordings capturing live performances at various events
both within the state and nationwide from the 1980s through 90s. Paper records include a number of set lists and scripts from various shows and appearances,
material produced by the group to promote the themselves and their shows, images highlighting performances as well as considerable amounts of images
documenting Archbishop Desmond Tutu's visit to Helena in 1991 for a special performance from the group. VHS recordings in the collection capture live performances and
interviews of group members mainly during the 1990s. Finally, commerically produced recordings include all the records produced by the group as well as from
one record from The People Tree. The Montana PBS produced
This collection is arranged into ten series:
Series I: Live Performance Audio Recordings
Series II: Notes
Series III: Scrapbooks
Series IV: Minutes
Series V: Correspondence
Series VI: Images
Series VII: Promotional Photos
Series VIII: Video Recordings
Series IX: Oral Histories
Series X: Commercially Produced Recordings
Cassette, VHS tapes, and commercially produced albums are described at the item level, everything else is described at the folder level.
Description titles for the audio recordings were taken either from the cassette tape case, the cassette tape, or both. Parenthesized descriptions were provided by MLBC member Tim Holmes. A number of tapes include the set list on the sleeve inserts. All negatives and some print images are sleeved for protection. Additional description can be found on some negative sleeves or the original sleeves housed with the negatives and prints. A number of contact sheets came to the archives with post-in notes attached. In order to preserve the item, photocopies of the sheets showing the size and location of the post-it notes were made prior to removing them from the original. A large amount of newspaper clippings were transferred to the Library in 2024 for their vertical file. Copies of commercially produced albums were transferred to the Library in 2025. Folder titles for the paper records are original to the collection and original order was maintained for the folder contents. Please note, some of the cassette and VHS recordings housed in the collection may be subject to copyright restrictions not held by the Montana Historical Society. See the container list below for specific titles.
Collection open for research. Copyrighted material cannot be duplicated and must be accessed in-house only. Some material may be inaccessible until digitized.
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical Society Library & Archives. The Library & Archives does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collection. In some cases permission for use may require additional authorization from the copyright owners. For more information contact an archivist.
Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Library & Archives, Helena, Montana.
Acquisition information available upon request.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the Montana Historical Society Research Center catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search under these terms.
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