Northern Thunder

Is that you, George??

Hi Mike! I used to do an annual active North American junior corps census for Drum Corps World....probably did them for 20 years. The index of corps that appears in the Drum Corps World book A History of Drum & Bugle Corps, was done by me. It turns out that with more digital sources available today there were MANY more active junior corps than were ever published. I have recently found corps that literally nobody ever heard of, that did parades, exhibitions, etc. I meticulously researched the corps that were performing. In that final pre-DCI season of 1971, the numbers would have been close to 1,000 in the U.S. and Canada.

Yes...definitely 1980: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7GttwLodlE

Plans for next year?

Poignant opening bugle scene from The Party, starring Peter Sellers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGkg5ytaXlA

I haven't listened to that show in about 10 years.

I wrote in my Drum Corps World about one of the 1960s Macy's parades, hosted on NBC by Lorne Greene and Betty White. (Looks like Lorne and Betty hosted 1962-1970, so it would have been within that time frame.) Lorne made a rather derogatory comment about drum and bugle corps in general, and the NBC phone lines were immediately lit up by irate viewers. In those days calls were actually answered, and the message was sent out to the TV hosts that viewers didn't appreciate Lorne's comment. Wouldn't you know it, within a few minutes a drum & bugle corps came into view, and Greene sheepishly said, "Well, here's one of the GOOD drum & bugle corps....."

Speaking of Captain Kangaroo....do you remember the photo of Mr. Green Jeans (circa mid-1970s that appeared in Drum Corps News and Drum Corps World) holding a "newfangled" 2-piston bugle??

Up until the mid-1970s you could always count on seeing a half-dozen corps in Macy's, three or four in the Philadelphia Gimbel's parade and another four or five in the Toronto Santa parade. CBS was the only network that showed excerpts from all three parades.

Hamm's Indians-- St. Paul, MN-- 65 Rose Parade 1st Canadian Regiment--Edmonton, ALB--82 Rose Parade Casper Troopers--85 Rose Parade Santa Clara Vanguard--2004 Rose Parade

I was wondering if the Blue Devils were coming to Pittsburgh.🙂

Funny I never noticed that. I'll have to give it a close listen.

I got to watch drum corps evolve right in front of my eyes in early August of 1976. The Blue Devils came into Stillwater, Minnesota several days ahead of their back-to-back shows there. Those of us who closely followed drum corps had read and heard about the Concord juggernaut, and the Devils more than lived up to the hype. I spent literally 10 hours a day for 3 days watching them polish their show. You must remember than prior to 1976 Madison had won with basically a blow 'em off the field presentation (one of the 1975 DCI finals brass judges personally told me he couldn't even hear what Madison was doing, due to the volume level they were performing at).....but what the Blue Devils came up with was the first true melding of finesse, power, musicianship and showmanship. When we watched Blue Devils do a complete run through of their entire show in an empty stadium, we knew we were seeing the future of drum corps! And, for the people who claim Madison would have won DCI had they started out the year with the same show they ended up with....NO WAY! Blue Devils were head-and-shoulders above anything the Scouts could put on the field in '76. We also have to mention that some corps were gun-shy about showing up in Philadelphia for that 1976 DCI Championship, due to the Legionnaires Disease outbreak that hit Philly a few weeks earlier. Andrew Hornak, a 47-year-old bus driver for Pennsylvania's Keystone Kadets junior corps, died of the disease after bringing the corps to the state American Legion parade in Philadelphia the first week of August, so you can appreciate how corps directors felt about exposing their kids to a disease that at that time was a complete mystery.

The drum corps mention comes at the 5:10 mark.

Contestant Hila Saxer mentioned on today's episode of Jeopardy that her family members are huge drum corps fans, and stated that a California corps, the Santa Clara Vanguard won this year's championship.