The Infamous "Cross"

[tommytimp]

I have to say I'm not the biggest fan of this show on paper. Extremely well-played and marched, and I love the janiculum section with all the marching bells, but the crosses have always seemed a little frenetic to me, in that self-fulfilling Garfield way. (ie "It moves fast because it has to move fast there.")

[GMKuzma]

Does anyone know how that cross move was created and taught exactly? I had heard stories of lore that told of the members creating their own "subsets" to make that move move continuously. Just looking for anyone who may have been there to share. Thx!

-=GM=-

[Medeabrass]

Does anyone know how that cross move was created and taught exactly? I had heard stories of lore that told of the members creating their own "subsets" to make that move move continuously. Just looking for anyone who may have been there to share. Thx!

-=GM=-

Paging General Blunt...

This probably isn't as much detail as you want but here's a little from Bill Cook's "recollections" :

As sick as he was, he was the backbone and spirit of the corps. He was driven by desire that few will ever understand and his will went out to touch us all. On August 4th, Star arrived in Boston. With the help of his care giver, George arrived at the stadium to meet his corps. Something happened to him that afternoon--he seemed transformed, energized. His strength had returned--it was the "old" George on the field that day--"You've got to be shittin me!" "That's wonderful!" "Cupcake, you were terrible!"

Late in the afternoon, he told Jim--"the new closer is not right." A few minutes later, he left the stadium. None of us knew where he had gone or if he would be back.. About eight o'clock, George returned and said: "we are going to have two crosses at the finish instead of one." The next five hours were unbelievable. He ran from one section to another telling members where they should be at the end of the final cross. He wanted them to count measures--"count and run around until time to make your final set." Hour after hour, the corps tried and failed but finally, at 2 a.m. the next morning, the cross was seen. The next night in Lynn, Star put in the new move; needless to say, there were more than a few wrecks at the end but we won over SCV by 1.9 points.

[Hulka]

I seem to remember seeing a photo of Star during a rehearsal in Bloomington where there were straight lines tapes all over the field in various angles and you can make out both crosses among the lines. To me it looked like it was a quick way to learn where the diagonal subsets were in between the two cross sets.

[SACMellos2010]

Recalling back to a practice day at Boston U in 1991.

George had designed what was going to be the ending for 1991 and we spent all morning putting it in. In the afternoon it was worked harder then after dinner with ensemble and a run through. It was pretty cool with the final set being the Crown set from 1990 prior to the closer but just did not seem like George was totally satisfied.

After the run through we took a short break and then were working something when George came down on the field and ask us to all get in the cross set. He then began pealing different groups of out of the cross and saying follow me. He would walk you through certain moves and then would tell you to stop. Ask how many counts you had to do it and tell you that was what he wanted to happen. He did this with the entire cross tore it apart would make set to set moves on the field and then started working towards the mirror image of the cross.

After a couple of hours he then asked how many counts do I have left. We told him what I believe was either 8 or 16 and he said OK lets get to this set. He had said he wanted to mirror the cross and wanted more to be happening and thus created it all on the fly. I am not sure that it was ever charted but only fitting that his last DCI drill maneuver seemed to be a work of magic and one that was created on the field and not on a piece of paper.

I remember that night and after we got finished and he asked to run through the whole closing moves he and the whole staff which had not seen the creation went absolutely nuts.

The first show we did it and for the rest of the year the crowd went nuts for it.

I know that is not the full details as I can still close my eyes and relive the evening but it was too cool to experience and be a part of it. Hope that was enough to give for an explanation.

[tommytimp]

Recalling back to a practice day at Boston U in 1991.

George had designed what was going to be the ending for 1991 and we spent all morning putting it in. In the afternoon it was worked harder then after dinner with ensemble and a run through. It was pretty cool with the final set being the Crown set from 1990 prior to the closer but just did not seem like George was totally satisfied.

After the run through we took a short break and then were working something when George came down on the field and ask us to all get in the cross set. He then began pealing different groups of out of the cross and saying follow me. He would walk you through certain moves and then would tell you to stop. Ask how many counts you had to do it and tell you that was what he wanted to happen. He did this with the entire cross tore it apart would make set to set moves on the field and then started working towards the mirror image of the cross.

After a couple of hours he then asked how many counts do I have left. We told him what I believe was either 8 or 16 and he said OK lets get to this set. He had said he wanted to mirror the cross and wanted more to be happening and thus created it all on the fly. I am not sure that it was ever charted but only fitting that his last DCI drill maneuver seemed to be a work of magic and one that was created on the field and not on a piece of paper.

I remember that night and after we got finished and he asked to run through the whole closing moves he and the whole staff which had not seen the creation went absolutely nuts.

The first show we did it and for the rest of the year the crowd went nuts for it.

I know that is not the full details as I can still close my eyes and relive the evening but it was too cool to experience and be a part of it. Hope that was enough to give for an explanation.

That's awesome. I love the image of his last set and hot move being basically conjured out of thin air. He must have been something to work with.

[LancerLegend]

That's awesome. I love the image of his last set and hot move being basically conjured out of thin air. He must have been something to work with.

God bless George. I marched with him in 27th, and I taught 27th with him. He was as much fun, bursting with energy and enthusiasm outside of drum corps as he was inside of drum corps.

That was a beautiful story - and certainly only those kids on that practice field will know precisely how his genius worked. He could have done anything in life, luckily he chose the pagentry of drum corps.