sam
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Posts posted by sam
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"Best": My vote for the World Open. In 1964 and 65 it was at "Home" Bridgeport Conn, the inaugural was in Jersey City NJ at the old Roosevelt Stadium. The Mass shows were well within travel distance from Conn. Have many of the albums, and marched in the 1963, 65 and 66 Finals, and the 1964 Prelims myself.
SAM
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On 4/6/2008 at 5:32 PM, parrotpaul said:
I never played in the USAF Drum and Bugle Corps, but I did play soprano horn in the Lackland AFB, Drum and Bugle Corps October, November, and part of December 1963.
We played retreat ceremonies and did some local parades. In addition we played at the basic training graduation ceremonies. Most of our music was traditional military marches, but one of our snare drummers, ex Cambridge Caballero DM, John Tyree, got the drum line to use the Hawthorne Cabbies street beat. We had a semi-cool instructor, SSGT Lykens who let us smoke and drink sodas when we were in the band room rehearsing. We were required to get set back three weeks in basic training in order to march in the corps. It was fun, and it was a helluva way to go through basic.
Was anyone else in the Lackland corps? I remember we had a Chicago Cavy french horn player and another horn player from the Belleville Black Knights...I believe his name was Mike Hartwell. Most of the other members played brass in bands. We used chrome g bugles with a piston and a ring slide.
I just stumbled upon this old topic. VERY interesting info about many DC personalities who served in the Bolling Corps, the USAFA Corps, or both. I was Non Commissioned Officer in Charge and Musical Supervisor of the Lowry AFB "Golden Eagles" corps, 1969-1973. We performed pretty well as much as you did at Lackland, with invites to off base jobs including field shows for the 1971 and 1972 Drums Along the Rockies shows in Colorado and Wyoming. TSgt Keith Markey and MSgt Greg Lykens provided some charts for us as well as Dick Burns (Blessed Sacrament) and Fred Cartwright (Conn Hurricanes and Stratford Yankees). Our membership was guys going through USAF Technical Schools at the base and they rotated out when they completed training. This led to a constant turnover and recruitment of replacements arriving from basic training. We had quite a few drum corps vets (Fortunatly) from units that included the Conn Hurricanes, Casper Troopers, Madison Scouts, Racine Kilties, Skokie Vanguards, Rochester Crusaders, Santa Clara Vanguard, Chicago Cavaliers, and St Josephs of Batavia to name a few. I managed to squeeze enough money out of the base for a set of Olds Ultratone horns and Ludwig marching drums. The base and the corps are long gone, with the installation closed years ago and their mission transfered to other training bases. I rotated back to my USAF job late in 1973, and retired from the USAF in 1989.
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I actually have copies of REALLY OLD DCW's from back in the 1950's. Before it was DCW it was called MidWest Drum Corps News. I have a few of them also.
Quite revealing in the names of the movers and shakers of that era (St Vincents Cadets, Blessed Sacrament, Holy Name Cadets, .St Joseps of Newark, Audubon Bon Bons, Most Precious Blood (Boston) Crusaders, , Chicago Cavaliers, Madison Scouts, Norwood Park Imperials, Archer Epler Musketeers, Reilly Raiders, Hawthorne Caballeros, Norman Prince, Skokie Indians, Stratford (Conn) Yankees among many more) and the instructors of that era including Truman Crawford (USAF Bolling AFB Corps) Jim Donnelly, Mickey Petrone, Sal Ferrara, Frank Bergdoll, , Earl Sturtz, Frank Kubinak, Hy Dreitzer, and Jim Costello.
Great history lesson.
SAM
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Jim Jones Casper Troopers. Founded a junior corps in the "Middle of Nowhere" and groomrd them into a National Champion.
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Connecticut: St Raphaels Buccaneers, Marionettes & Musketeers, Bridgeport PAL Cadets, St Anns Loyalaires, Conn Royal Lancers, Milfors Shoreliners, Trumbull Troubadors, NDettes All Girl, Colonades All Girl, New Britian Grenidiers, Oxford Explorers, Stateliners, Hot Shots, Bengal Lancers, Fireettes All Girl, Golden Crusaders, Conn Classics, New London Surfers, and on and on and on..........☹️
Seniors: Stratford Connecticut Yankees, Bridgeport Troopers, & Torrington Vagabonds.
Alumni Corps: Park City Pride
SAM
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I remember Charlie from my time in the Yankee Rebels Alumni corps, I was privledged to have marched in the 1994 recreation of the 1969 "Requiem" show.
RIP Charlie, you did a fantastic job.
SAM
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On 12/9/2020 at 7:46 AM, KeithHall said:
MAYBE (and I'm not sure it was an ego thing.
DCI starts up and we lose how many corps? I know St. Joe's of Batavia folded and probably because most of the members aged out (my guess). What about others?
My best guess is that it would be a "Money Thing" Almost all of the pre DCI corps were "Mom & Pop" volenteer units. As time wore on the cash flow dried up due to the crushing costs of touring and just maintaing the corps (Uniforms, instruments, busses, equipment trucks, etc) and they closed their doors.
Also a decline in competitve success may have had an effect as recruiting fell off and the lack of memberships drove the units out of business.
SAM
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On 2/25/2020 at 12:43 PM, ironlips said:
Bill Fulson and I marched together in St. Catherine's Queensmen. He posted this photo of their All-Girls sister corps, the Marianettes, with some personal comments. It's from 1955, their first year. Eventually, these NYC girls gave the Bon Bons a good run.
Remember them from the old Greater New York Circuit 1960 and 1961. They had a very good corps. Our parish, St Raphaels of Bridgeport Conn started an ll girls unit in 1962. They were named the "Marionettes".
SAM
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1 hour ago, ajlisko said:
As far as I know, Carman Cluna was opposed to the concept of DCI and rallied against it ... St Rita's packed it in after the 73 season with a VERY good corps ... BS was a shell of itself by 1972 ... I saw them at a show in Rutgers and was stunned ... not sure when they packed it in that year ... Some members went over to the Polish Falcons and then BS formed a Sr corps in 75 ... that lasted one season ... They now have a thriving Alumni Corps ...
The Boston Crusaders were one of the original DCI corps. They were struggling competitivly in 1972 and passed on the innugural championship.
SAM
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18 hours ago, ironlips said:
In their prime, the Blades were the hippest drum corps on the field.
As Fran mentioned sometime ago, many CGB alums marched with the Sunrisers after their corps folded, among them, Gene Bennett, as Guard Captain and drill instructor, lead soprano Bob "Soupy" Cephus, first baritone Ronnie Isom, and the most incredible rifle master of his era, Duke Jordan, spinning and tossing his 11-pound Springfield like it was Fred Astaire's walking stick.
And Carver's music matched their aura perfectly. Besides the trademark "Sweets" (which they virtually owned, to the degree that nobody else ever played it, as far as I know) they put indelible stamps on "To The Ends of the Earth", "Temptation", "Laura" and "Miserlou".
As Tower of Power later put it, "Hip just is, what it is".
Frank:
I believe that Carver's ace rifleman, Ray Dandridge went to the New York Skyliners after Carver folded.
SAM
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On 11/25/2020 at 5:33 PM, Greg Frech said:
You may not realize it but Hugo Everelli also ported much of the Carver Gay Blade music to the Lakeland Goldenaires, VFW P0st 2906. They won the Garden State Circuit championship in 1967. Google on youtube and you may find the whole show. if you dont find it email me and I will send it: I am gfrech1995@gmail.com BTW, Hugo was my horn instructor in the Lakeland Goldenaires.
Hugo Evarelli also taught the Cambridge Caballeros. That had to be a heck of a commute from New Jersey to Massachusettes....
SAM
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I liked all of them
St Ritas Brassmen
CMCC Warriors
St Josephs of Batavia
Racine Scouts
SAM
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Junior Corps: 1965 World Open Prelims, 1966 World Open Finals. St Raphaels Buccaneers.
Senior Corps: 1991 DCA Finals. Hawthorne Caballeros.
Alumni Corps: 1995 Caballeros Alumni Corps, first performance at 199. We have arrived.
SAM
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1 hour ago, gunther said:
Actually, what happened was the result of a decision made by the Council of Bishops in 1960 that reflected the Church became contractors with the various states for sizeable fees for social services. True, drum corps did have costs related to them but those were mostly one-time expenses incurred in the early start-up phase. Instruments & uniforms had a very long life and did not require frequent replacement.
The small dues paid by members were only to keep people honest.
Many parishes never paid the instructors. I know of at least 2 good Brooklyn corps that owed the instructor/director over $3,000 and that was from a weekly fee of $15. That model may have been repeated elsewhere.
Corps were mostly self-sustaining financially from parade work and contest prize money plus other inventive fund-raising. Many corps sponsored contests/stage shows where the Church took the money. All those corps did unpaid parade works for the parish street feasts.
I was in Loretto (originally Our Lady of Loretto) and each kid bought the uniforms 2 times. (Did I just give my identity away?) We also had to turn them in when we left or the corps was disbanded. The parish sold everything for a good amount and kept the money forgetting that they never owned the uniforms and did not sponsor the corps for 2 years. Instruments were fully depreciated.
Disbanding was the final step in a financial decision that brought a lot of income to poorly managed parish finances at a time when there was enormous growth in attendance and contributions. The Church was not shy about making a buck whenever it could.
It was a calculated and conscious decision by the bishops to get out of youth activities, including sports to the detriment of the kids and the greater parish. Costs of operation did not change much until the '70's so the churches were not subject to rising price pressures. The various parishes and the overall Church benefitted enormously from the positive exposure brought to them by the drum corps. The corps were great public exposure and no-cost promotion. Contests/performances were mostly within 50 miles of home with occasional distant trips and many of those were subsidized or paid fully by the county veterans associations.
My junior corps survived until 1968 at which time it was disbanded due to massive ageouts and the Viet Nam draft calls. The parish did pretty much as described above, with a complete loss of all the trophies and flags that the corps had won. Almost all of the memorabilia was thrown away. The unit was reserected in 1970 as the "Golden Buccaneers" with no "Church" affiliation and was, in 1975 merged with the New Haven bases St Aedens Cadets another "Church" unit.
The merger survived for one season as the "Emerald Buccaneers"
SAM
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On 11/15/2020 at 1:19 PM, ironlips said:
My colleague, John Smith, mentioned several church corps that I taught in the late '60s and early '70s, including St. Joachim & Anne, St. Aloysius, St. Fidelis, and the Miraculous Medal Orbits. I'd add the St. Mary Gate of Heaven Ambassadors, where I had the good fortune to work with the great Cal Meyers.
In my opinion, the primary reason for the disappearance of these corps and others like them was economic. Church revenues were dropping dramatically as attendance dwindled. The Sunday collection wasn't what it used to be.
In addition, religious vocations declined, forcing parishes to hire more salaried lay teachers to replace the nuns, priests and brothers who were disappearing.
Drum corps really didn't pay for themselves in those days. The dues for the St. Aloysius Blue Eagles came to 50 cents/wk for each member when I taught there. Instructors were paid at rehearsal, with a roll of quarters. There were three of us.
Even the corps who didn't compete had to travel to parades, ergo, bus costs.
In hindsight, it was extremely short-sighted of the pastors and church administrators to de-fund the corps, particularly at a time when city infrastructure and societal norms were crumbling.
Current conditions suggest that neighborhood corps could provide a real service again. It's possible. And maybe the Marlins will win the Series.
P.S. My favorite church corps name of all time originates in John's very neighborhood, the "Immaculate Conception Hellgaters", named for the bridge, of course.
Frank:
Modesty must have prevented you from letting the board know you marched wit the St Catherines of Sienna Queensmen, along with some drum corps icons as John Sasso, Ted Sasso and Billy Hightower,
SAM
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Bridgeport Conn sported several "Church" corps. St Raphaels Parish fielded three units: The Buccaneers (Of which I was a member 59-67), the Musketeers (The "Cadets" corps for the Buccs,) and the all girls corps the Marionettes.
St Ann's Parish fielded the Loyalaires.
SAM
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The recaps are up on Facebook. One of the Buccaneers Alums had the records in his long term storage. Great memories.
SAM
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On 10/26/2020 at 12:45 PM, traverbanking said:
Riverside Amusement Park (now Six Flags New England) in Agawam, Massachusetts hosted drum corps competitions which took place on the infield of their auto racetrack.
Marched there in 1960. Horrible field.
SAM
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Horlick Field Racine WI.
Marched there with St Raphaels Buccaneers in 1962. Al Karls did a drum corps book about that storied drum corps stadium.
Hinchcliffe Stadium, Patterson NJ. Home to countless drum corps competitions in the 1960s.
SAM
RIP Glen Johnson
in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions
Posted
RIP. Drum Corps is diminished by your passing.
SAM