royal-air canada

Only marched in the Dream once in 1966 with the Chicago Royal-Airs. Will never forget the tension felt on the starting line looking out over that enormous crowd. Couldn't hardly hear ourselves playing "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines" in our company front to the fifty. But what was really magnificent to a young kid who travelled from Stockton, Calif. each summer back in the 60's to march with the Royal-Airs was that thunderous roar of the crowd. Thanks for being part of making those memories happen Father. R.I.P.

NOBODY,BUT NOBODY can wear a cadet uniform with black riding boots like the Anaheim Kingsmen guard. ORIGINAL or ALUMNI! HANDS DOWN! Always liked a lady in uniform.

I guess when you get into your senior citizen years sometimes recollection of some details might seem to get blurred in one's memory over the years. So in retrospect I can say we (The Chicago Royal-Airs) did surely make it to the American Legion Nationals in Boston after that grueling road trip from the VFW Nationals in New Orleans with the full intention of competing, and we did sit in the stands in full uniform in silent protest of the American Legion's imposed head tax on each performer, and we did march in the CYO Nationals a few days later in Boston. I'll leave the part on whether we marched in the prelims or not in the American Legion National contest in Boston to others with possibly more accuracy on that detail. As to the other person who mentioned our placement and the score we received in the VFW finals in New Orleans maybe he would please be willing to list how very close the score's were between the first to the fourth position and how close the scores in each caption were and which corp managed to win each caption. 1967 was a very competitive year with all the top western and midwestern corps exchanging the winning positions against each other in each contest back and forth as the season progressed. All in all as the title of our closing number in 1968, our final and last year of competition put it, "It was a very good year".

When I was marching with the 2nd Signals (Sigs) out of Toronto, Canada we participated in many Military Tatoo's in Canada as well as one down in Jamestown, New York every year. There were always many Bagpipe unit's, Irish dancers etc. Our traditional, old style, type of exhibition drum and bugle corp field show was always a highlight of the show and always very well received.

I marched with the Chicago Royal-Airs in the 1967 VFW Nationals in New Orleans and recall quite vividly how we then made the long no stopping except for gas (We ate and drank whatever we could roust up and used OTHER means for the non existent toilets in the busses) bus trek to Boston to be able to make it in time for the prelims for the American Legion Nationals which we did march in. Unfortunately when we were lined up in uniform with our equipment in hand at the gate ready to march onto the starting line for the finals there was a man from the American Legion that would not let us in unless each kid payed up a dollar to him for the PRIVILEGE to march and perform in the American Legions Nationals. Sie Lurye our president and director and quite a high official in the Illinois American Legion was livid with rage at them. He could not believe that THIS was how the American Legion was treating, as only he could put it, the "yout of America" by collecting money FROM them. So much for the Legions bragging of how much THEY were helping out and supporting the youth in America and he would be no part of it. So he told us to go back to our busses and put away our horns, drums, flags, rifles etc. and come back to the starting gate. When we did he was standing there and pealing off single dollar bills very slowly one at a time from his usual large wad of cash to the toll gate collector and with each slap into his hand stating QUITE loudly for all and anyone within shouting distance to hear as we went through the gate "one more dollar being payed by the "yout of America" TO the American Legion for the privilege of being able to march and perform in THEIR show. Then instead of marching over to the starting line we entered the stands and sat down as a corp in full uniform in silent protest of our treatment by the American Legion. As he put it if the "Yout of America" has to pay money TOO the American Legion to enter into THEIR shows it will be as spectators not performers. If it made an impression on anyone or if anyone ever really noticed us in the stands sitting silently in full uniform and might have wondered why we did not compete I don't know. But I do think it goes a lot to show the integrity of Sie Lurye and why the Chicago Royal-Airs not only had, but lived by our corp motto of "Faith, Honor, and Humility. We did though go on a few days later to march in the CYO Nationals in Boston where THEY did not charge a head tax on the kids performing.

For us in the Chicago Royal-Airs the season always ended down at the bottom of the state with a show in Murphysboro. Illinois in the middle of September. The 15th in 1966 and the 16th in 1967. We always had members from our sister corp the Chicago Vanguards who might be interested join us to fill in the holes for people who could not still make it for various reasons that late in the season.

Depending on how far one wants to go back how about Chris Ferreira and Tommy Devitt from the Chicago Royal-Airs playing the duet in "Do you know what it means to miss now Orleans" in concert at the 1967 VFW Nationals in New Orleans? Then finishing off the second part of concert playing the duet in "Casino Royal". And then doing it all again at the 1967 CYO Nationals in Boston.

Not sure who was last DCI corp to perform with marching timps on the field but I believe we, the Chicago Royal-Airs were the first out on the field with them in early 1968.

Maybe not top ten DCI but the Anaheim Kingsmen Alumni Corp (KAC) had 5 marching temps in our performance at the DCI Championships in the "Rose Bowl" in 2007 as well as 15 Snares, 10 tenors, 10 base drums, 10 cymbals, two marching bells as well as a full pit. Go to our website xkingsmen.com to purchase a copy of OUR DVD of the performance. Much better than DCI's attempt, more cameras and angles as well as many extras such as a video highlighting the color guard only section on the field showing the Nationals section during Color Pre-, the working flags doing their headchoppers (not shown by DCI) and the precision work done by the 21 ladies in the "Blue Steel" rifle section. Also a video of the 150 member horn line with 23 contras, standing in a company front before the crowd in the stands at our Kingsmen show in Long Beach Calif. performing our warm up number and last but not least a video on how the Kingsmen Alumni Corp came about. All proceeds going to promote the Kingsmen Winter guard, the Kingsmen Winter drum line, the Kingsmen DCI junior corp to hopefully be out in 2010 as well as the Kingsmen Senior Corp and the Kingsmen Alumni Corp (KAC). A great value for a good cause.

In Santa Maria, Calif. we had the same problem as last year, very low sound level. I can see why not as many kids showed up as last year and why unless someone who controls the sound levels decides to change the low volume probably fewer will show up next year. Two years of shouts of up the volume has probably doomed it here. Tis a pity. Other than that the Anaheim Kingsmen (KAC) Alumni Corp contingent enjoyed the show.

The Anaheim Kingsmen Alumni Corp (KAC) have a HD video of their performance at the DCI Championships in the "Rose Bowl". When viewed all one can say is WOW!

First of all let me thank all for remembering us and at least recognizing us for the glide style of marching and the company fronts we did off the line to the fifty EVERY year. Also I know there were a lot of other corps with simular type of names over the years but in just trying to keep things right the correct spelling in the case of our name is the Chicago Royal-Airs, not donnymusic (Royalairs), Puppet Royaliares), and Cavie 74 (Royal Airs). Sorry if I seem to be knit picking. I know what's in a name but to us it does mean a lot to see our name spelled correctly. Again thank you one and all for remembering. P.S. Puppet at what show did you see us in 1965? You must have been very, very young.

The seventeen year old soloist in 1968 for the Chicago Royal-Airs in "It was a very good year" was little Tommy Devitt.

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How about hearing those great hornlines of the Chicago Royal-Airs, the Chicago Cavaliers, the Chicago Vanguard and the Norwood Park (Chicago) Imperials (all who placed within the top ten of the corps in the country in 1965 at the Chicago, VFW Nationals in McCormick Place) playing each others music. (Chicago Royal-Airs were first, Chicago Cavaliers were second, Chicago Vanguard were fifth, two tenths behind the Casper Troopers fourth, the Racine Kilties third, and the Norwood Park (Chicago) Imperials were 10th). Four of the top ten corps in the country all from Chicago ("My kind of town") the same city!

How about those great hornlines of the Chicago Royal-Airs, the Chicago Cavaliers, the Chicago Vanguard and the Norwood Park (Chicago) Imperials (all who placed within the top ten of the corps in the country in 1965 at the Chicago, VFW Nationals in McCormick Place) playing each others music. (Chicago Royal-Airs were first, Chicago Cavaliers were second, Chicago Vanguard were fifth,two tenths behind the Casper Troopers fourth, the Racine kilties who were third and the Norwood (Chicago) Park Imperials were 10th).

How about the Chicago Royal-Airs and the Chicago Cavaliers, Chicago Vanguard and the Norwood Park (Chicago) Imperials (all who placed within the top ten of the corps in the country in 1965 at the Chicago, VFW Nationals in McCormick Place) playing each others music. (Chicago Royal-Airs were first, Chicago Cavaliers were second, Chicago Vanguard were fifth, two tenths behind the Racine Kilties third and the Casper Troopers fourth, and the Norwood (Chicago) Park Imperials were 10th).

The Chicago Royal-Airs playing any of their great Trueman Crawford, song arrangements!

How about those great Chicago Royal-Airs Soloist Michael Ramelli, on Baritone, Louie Klozik, and Jeff Helgeson on Mellophone, "Ceasar" , Jimmy Angorola, Chris Ferrera, Tommy Divitt on Soprano just to name a few?

How about the Chicago Royal-Airs after finishing the season with a ninteen contest winning streak in 1965 and winning it all, American Legion Nationals, (in Portland, Oregon) VFW Nationals, (in Chicago) and CYO Nationals, (in Boston) to having less than a dozen returning horn players and maybe a couple of members returning in the drum section, (because of age outs and Uncle Sam and the Vietnam war draft) in the 1966 rebuilding year placing sixth at the VFW Nationals (in New york City), fifth at the American Legion Nationals (in Washington D.C.) and second (Just a little over a point out of first place) at the CYO Nationals (in Boston), to placing fourth in 1967 (again just a little over a point out of first place) at the VFW Nationals (in New Orleans), sitting silently in the stands in protest at the American Legion Nationals (in Boston) when the Legionnaires demanded a dollar a head at the entrance gate to the field from each marching member for the privilege of being allowed to march in their show, (Sie Lurye, their founder and director, payed the dollar per member charge than told each member once inside the gate to instead of marching straight ahead and going onto the starting line to turn right and go up into the stadium and sit down and watch the show, in full uniform!) and then placing fourth I believe it was that year at the CYO Nationals (in Boston, again close in score to the top), to 1968 with I believe it was a two month 13 contest winning streak going into the VFW Nationals (in Detroit) and except for a penalty going off the field and over the finish line, winning first place again. Then taking a thirty four year hiatus and coming back in 2002 to march at the DCI (in Madison, Wisconsin) Championships, (for the inauguration of Sie Lurye into DCI's "Legends of Drum Corp Hall of Fame") and the DCA (in Scranton, Pennsylvania) Championships (Alumni Corp Spectacular), in their exact replica cadet uniforms, with the largest (a hundred and seventy five member strong) and best (marching a full field show) Re-union Corp (eighty percent Royal-Air alumni) in the country for four years. (Marching aprox. eleven field shows a year)

That all sounds great. Will any financial or any other kind of assistance be expected to be forth coming as well to the corp from the city of Tempe? At least a City flag maybe to be carried.

The Chicago Royal- Airs always did great full company fronts off the line to the fifty (long before the Troopers) every year except 68. Even the Chicago Royal-Airs Alumni Corp did great full company fronts at DCI in 2002 and DCA each of the years of (except 2004), 2002, 2003, and 2005. But then what would you expect of an alumni corp a hundred and seventy marching members strong with over three thousand years of drum corp experience and a average age of 58 years old, anything less than the best of old drum corp style performances?.

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On the topic of "WOMEN IN MUSIC"...drum corp wise I would like to make mention of a young lady named Mickey (Marian) Vogt who at the age of thirteen joined the color guard of the Ardennes Post of the American Legions "Windy City Cadets" Drum and Bugle Corp in Chicago in 1949 carrying the American Flag. Because she did not like the attitude of the color guard sergeant she went and asked if she could watch the snare drummers practicing and then went home and started practicing and taught herself how to play the snare drum. She marched with "Windy City Cadets" up until 1952. At the same time while in Chicago's "St. Gregory's High School" she discovered that they had a set of old drum and bugles in a back storage area that were used only by the students to march in the Columbus day parade in Chicago. Since she didn't care for sports to much, to get out of the physical education class she asked for and was granted permission to use the instruments to start a drum and bugle corp in the school which she did and they played at the schools basketball games and in various parades and other functions for the school. She wrote the drills, taught the drums as well as the bugles (her years of instruction and playing on the piano helped there with the music she said) and made herself the drum major. In 1953 she was approached by Rick Maas and asked if she would like to come over and join the "Norwood Park (Chicago) Imperials" Drum and Bugle Corp. She did and she brought about a dozen or so of her "St. Gregory's" High School Drum and Bugle Corp members with her to the "Norwood Park Imperials" . As a side note a couple of the drummers who she had started out and taught how to play the drums at "St. Gregory's" were Frank Pamper who later became famous in his own right on the staff of the "Chicago Vanguard" Drum and Bugle Corp and then as the first treasurer of DCI and a young fellow by the name of Tony De Marco who later became two time national snare drum champion with the "Norwood Park Imperials" and went on to teach many other drum corp drum lines. Under the tutelage of the national champion drum instructor Mr Frank Arsennault she became the lead snare drummer in the "Norwood Park Imperials" drumline. In 1956 the "Norwood Park Imperials" took the American Legion state title over the "Chicago Cavaliers" and placed second over them at the VFW Nationals in Dallas, Texas losing only to the "St. Vincent's Cadets" of Bayonne, New Jersey. It was at this drum corp "Finale" in Dallas that the drum judges made a point of coming over to her and stating that they had never seen a woman before who could play the snare drums so well! In 1957 she married Bill Graeber who played Baritone Bugle in the "Norwood Park Imperials" and then that year after aging out she took over teaching the of "Norwood Park Imperials" "B" Corp drum line for a number of years. She then went back to college and after receiving her masters degree became a Kindergarden and first grade school teacher for thirty years. Over a period of twelve years of this time she was then involved with her three sons who played in the the Marian Catholic High School Marching Band program in Chicago Heights, Illinois. Marian Catholic was/is a power house in BOA winning first place championships 8 times during it's first twenty five years. Of her three sons, one has now been a high school band instructor for over twenty years in Texas, the second received his degree from Berkley Music School in Boston and now resides in Phoenix, and the third is a professional musician in Los Angeles. It was in 2004 after losing her husband Bill to cancer in 2002 and after much coaxing from some of her ex drum students from her "Norwood Park Imperials" days she attended a rehearsal of the "Chicago Royal-Airs Senior Exhibition Corp". The weight of the modern day drum harnesses being to much for her to carry, after 47 years of not marching in drum corp, she decided to march again going back to where she started by carrying the American Flag in the "Chicago Royal-Airs" Nationals Section. She marched with the "Chicago Royal-Airs" Senior Exhibition Corp until they retired from marching field shows in 2006 then moved out to Calif. where she joined the "Anaheim Kingsmen" (KAC) Alumni Drum and Bugle Corp carrying flag in their "National Section". Since 2006 she has marched with the "Anaheim Kingsmen"in their field show performance at the DCI Championships in the "Rose Bowl" in 2007, marched with them in the Anaheim Halloween Parade in 2006,2007,2008, appeared with them when they performed at the NAMM (North American Music Merchants) Convention in Anaheim in 2007, 2008, appeared with them when they played with the "Pacific Symphony Orchestra" in Irvine, Calif on July 4th in 2007, marched with them when they marched and performed in Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif in Jan. 2008. She marched with the "San Francisco Renegades" Drum and Bugle Corp in the Chinese News Year Parade in San Francisco in 2008. (She missed the 2009 parade because of prior commitments). And she's still going strong now retired and living in Santa Maria, Calif. When asked recently why she still continues in drum corp, she turned and said, just remember the old saying "We don't stop playing (marching) because we get old! We get old because we stop playing (Marching)"! Knowing her as well as I do I think that fits our "Mickey" as in mouse, as she likes to say (because of the high pitched tone of her voice) to a T. I hope maybe this story might be of some help to you on your topic.

From an original marching member, and sorry if this seems picky and I'm sure no one means any harm, but in the future could people get it correct when spelling the name of the Chicago Royal-Airs Drum and Bugle Corp. Royal-Airs. Not Royalaires. Two words with a hyphen. Thank you. P.S. And THANK YOU for even remembering us.