danieltenor Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 A guy form Beatrix' with many old drumcorps stories once told me that the Bridgemen were once formed to keep kids with 'criminal' backgrounds from the streets and learn them new social aspects in drumcorps which will change the rest of their lives. Can anyone tell some stories about this? I want to write about it in a assignment for school about the social aspects of marching music. Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny Drum Corps Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 That was not only the Bridgemen, but all of the CYO and Catholic Parish drum corps. Back in the golden years, there were drum corps from mostly every parish that could sponsor one. The Bridgemen were only one of many. Look at some of the names: St. Lucy's Cadets, Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights, St. Kevin's WEmerald Knights. St. Joseph's, St. Vincent's, St. Mary's Cardinals etc.... Many of the corps that werent sponsored by the church were sponsored by YMCA or Boy Scout TRoop. Some were even sponsored by the local PAL...Police Athletic League...(Bluecoats were started that way). There is a story about a pretty famous corps personality that was sent to New Jersey from Brooklyn to be in corps sponsored by the town police department. They were called the Police Cadets! This was the norm back in those great days of drum corps. Donny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob H Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 A guy form Beatrix' with many old drumcorps stories once told me that the Bridgemen were once formed to keep kids with 'criminal' backgrounds from the streets and learn them new social aspects in drumcorps which will change the rest of their lives.Can anyone tell some stories about this? I want to write about it in a assignment for school about the social aspects of marching music. Thanks in advance! Not True.... Bridgemen History Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overthehillDM Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Not True....Bridgemen History Yes... but Madonna was definitely in our rifle line! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danieltenor Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 There is a story about a pretty famous corps personality that was sent to New Jersey from Brooklyn to be in corps sponsored Donny Is there a place where I can find that story? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john2780 Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Yes...but Madonna was definitely in our rifle line! I think I saw her at the Venice one night :P I remeber in 1975 or '76, Rita Moreno was the host of the PBS channel's presentation of DCI Nationals and she stated (while 27th was on) that it kept kids off the streets and not stealing hubcaps. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A27Lancer Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I remeber in 1975 or '76, Rita Moreno was the host of the PBS channel's presentation of DCI Nationals and she stated (while 27th was on) that it kept kids off the streets and not stealing hubcaps. B) Gene Rayburn (of The Match Game) is the guilty party who stated that. False statement, as most cars in Revere at the time didn't have hub caps. Imagine, dissed by the man who kept Charles Nelson Reilly and Joanne Whorley off of welfare! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russellrks Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 The Stockton "Police" Commodores director, Gene Castles, was a policeman in the Stockton P.D. He worked out an arrangement with the courts to give certain kids, bad but not completely incorrigible, who got into trouble the option of joining the Commodores instead of going to Juvenile detention or CYA (California Youth Authority). It had a profound effect on many disadvantaged, troubled youth in the area. Can you imagine? You get in trouble with the law and your punishment is that you have to go and learn how to play a bugle from Jim Ott. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindap Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I was in drum corps in 1970’s. There were many organizations that helped many drum corps in many places. Toronto, Ontario, Canada had a ‘baby boom’ in the 1950’s. I lived on a street where next door had 9 children, across the street had 5 children and a few houses from me had 12 children. We could go to the Kiwanis Club after school where we could dance, sing, play sports, watch a movie or learn a craft. Later we could be in the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival. This was where youth had music, hard work and competition. In 1969, I joined a drum corps that was then sponsored by Local 626 of the Scarborough Professional Firefighters Association. Scarborough is now part of Toronto. This was where youth had music (and they taught us how to play and march), hard work, competition, discipline, friendship and travel to other cities for drum corps shows. Drum corps made us very busy in the 1970’s, usually with no time for crime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorpsBuff Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 Many Drum Corps in the early days were a great place for kids to go. many were located in cities where there were very few oppurtunities for youth so you often had the choice of playing sports, playing in a drum corps, or getting into trouble. The corps that I think could have epitomized this sentiment was the CMCC Warriors where there were a lot of at risk kids in the corps. I don't think there's a better way to help kids than to have them invovled in an activity that builds teamwork, personal responsibility and passion such as drum corps does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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