Historical Corps that quietly survive

[Northern Thunder]

Another corps that is part of the SDCA, as well as being a parade corps is the Ishpeming, MI Blue Notes.

The Blue Notes were active as a junior corps for many years.

They took top brass score at the 1975 American Legion Nationals finals.

[HornsUp]

The Blue Notes were active as a junior corps for many years.

The Ishpeming Blue Notes were established on Halloween night 1957, and competed as a junior corps through the 1976 season. They also had a feeder corps.

The Blue Notes Senior corps was established in 1984, following a no-girls-allowed reunion party. They have been active as an alumni corps ever since, and did compete in exactly ONE field contest.

Edited September 10, 2010 by HornsUp

[tradition]

You can add Spectrum to that list. After being a successful Class A(Open Class) corps for about 10 years they are no longer a drumcorps but have a very successful winterguard program.

[ajlisko]

So a newly updated list:

To sum-up so far:

PAL Cadets (See this little group of youngsters each year in Bridgeport, Conn)

Any more????

A bit of clarity ... the resurrected Jr. in Bridgeport, CT is a combination of the Bpt. PAL Cadets and the St. Raphael's Godlen Buccaneers ... they are now called the PAL Buccaneers and are sponsored by the PAL Youth Organization ... Pat Rouse, their Director and Mike Marella who was in the Buc's and has been the head of the PAL Organization for eons are the driving force (along with a whole lotta volunteers) in bringing back a "neighborhood" corps to the greater Bridgeport area ...

:-)

[NEWMA]

My sources say, they will not make it to their 75th. Their hall was sold, Alumni will not step up, or do anything. Horns and drums will most likely be sold to pay off the remaining debt. Most are concerned about the mess that maybe left, people who have been involved for quite sometime seem to have walked away as well. Will we hear anything about this, No, have we heard anything from them in the last 7 years.

I do know that there is talk of a possible new organization in the works.Independent group made up of alumni from different area corps. There is alot of interest in the area, people feel that the fox valley area would be a gold mine for an arts organization.

The Americanos has a tarnished reputation with alot of people. I forsee if things were to remain active they would have alot of trouble finding funding. Many want nothing to do with the organization. Things may have been different if promises were kept and people actually worked to make things better.

Controll over the organization will be given up, I feel its going to be too late.

New artical on the plan for the hall

Congrats Madison, your are now the third oldest corps in the nation.

I have absolutely no authority to speak for Americanos, Inc. but…..don’t give up on the Americanos yet.

In the midst of the Alumni Association trying to decide what their purpose was going to be (social only, booster club, Senior corps, all-age corps, SDCA, etc.) they were informed by the corps’ BOD Pres. of his and the business manager’s pending resignations. This was about 3 weeks ago. Obviously the alumni association has a completely different decision to make now – will they step in and take over the corps – or let it go? The management changeover will finally offer members of the alumni association the opportunity to actually be involved in setting the future of the corps.

These members have had family, work, DCA performance commitments, and, well…..life, to deal with in the past few weeks. There has been little time to get together and see what, if anything, they can do to “save” their corps. This is not a decision that can, or should, be made quickly. They have one shot – I’d rather it be well thought out than a knee-jerk reaction.

I expect that some activity will start to take place now. It would be nice if there would be FaceBook and/or web site updates – but I hope they spend more time working on the problems than posting about them. Any new management will have a lot to deal with – and they will need positive, constructive assistance.

As for the possible new organization – it is still in the exploratory stage and the participants I have spoken to in the past few days fully intend to respect and support the work of the Americanos Alumni to restore their corps. The goal of the new organization is to put a youth group together and get a corps back on the field. If the Americanos could not do that – then this group (made up of alumni from many corps – including Americanos) would try.

Expect this group to stay quietly in the background and give the Americanos Alumni room to try to work some magic. I believe they will offer help to the Americanos when and where appropriate. Should Americanos survive there may be no need for the new group.

NEWMA members are asked to commit that they will do nothing to undermine (through words or actions) any actions that the Americanos Alumni take at this time. We ask that you work with the Americanos and help them through this critical stage.

I do believe (hope) you will see the Americanos celebrate their 75th anniversary by marching in the Flag Day parade and maybe in some other activities in 2011. Madison shouldn’t start working on their “We’re number 3” (oldest corps) chant yet.

NEWMA

[67madplaid71]

Wynn Center Toppers (NY) were a popular junior corps back in the 1960s and early 1970s. They have had a parade corps now for the past decade or so. The Northernaires (MI) and Americanos are part of the indoor circuit, and both had long histories as jr. corps.

Up until a few years ago the Long Island Blue Jays and Queens Village Queens were both junior parade corps that had been field competition corps decades back. I think both have gone inactive. New Day (Racine, WI) was also active as a junior parade corps until a few years ago. They were on the field quite a few years back a couple decades.

Racine's New Day has been reorganized and is active again as a parade corps. I believe this past summer was their second summer back, maybe their third. I talked to their corps director two summers ago and she stated that they have no desire to become involved in competing again except for Winter Guard. Also the Racine Junior Scouts still exist as a parade corps. I think they're now known as the Troop 205 (I might have the troop number wrong) Drum and Bugle Corps. I also heard that there was some sort of reorganization of the Boys/Spirit of 76 Drum and Bugle Corps going on this past winter/spring. I think their goal was to become active in the SCDA. If that's the case, Racine (Population 70,000) has five active drum and bugle corps right now including the Kilties and the Racine Scouts.

I don't know if Milwaukee's Midwest Legends are still active as a senior/all-age drum and bugle corps. I didn't see them in any parades this year but I did see them last summer in a parade in Elkhorn along with a couple of American Legion Bands which ironically are still doing fine after about 90 years in existence. I know that the Midwest Legends never competed but they were quite active as a parade corps around SE Wisconsin for many years. Composed mainly of drum corps alumni from the Milwaukee area.

[67madplaid71]

I think the Blue Stars use the tax status of the Blue Star Cadets. Officially, for tax purposes they (Blue Stars) are the Blue Star Cadets. The "official" name of the Blue Stars is LBS Cadets, Inc. I assume LBS stands for "Lacrosse Blue Stars"?

I agree. I too believe that the Blue Stars folded after the 1982 season and that the current Blue Stars are an out growth of the Blue Star Cadets. If this was the case, it was very smart on their part in my opinion. This has been much discussed among Kiltie Alumni because our organization was in a very similar situation at the exact same time, buy the late 1970s the Kiltie Kadets were still a very viable and stable organization while the Kilts as a DCI Corps was pretty much destroyed financially. (Kilties 1969 budget was $29,500. Kilties 1973 budget, their first season in DCI, just 4 years later was over $150,000.) After the Kilties folded for the first time in the spring of 1980 the Kiltie Kadets went on to have a very successful year in 1980 including winning the CCI Championship. The discussion always centers on what would have happened had the Kiltie Kadets continued on without the Kilts being reorganized in 1981. For the record, the Kiltie Kadets folded after the 1981 season and the Kilties were reorgainzed for the 1981 season but folded for good after the 1982 season. The resources and members taken from the Kiltie Kadets in the fall of 1981 and used to reorganize the Kilts caused the demise of the Kiltie Kadets and wasn't enough to ensure the continued existence of a the Kilts as a DCI Division 1 touring drum corps.

1982, the tenth anniversary season for DCI, was not very kind to the activity. Some very popular DCI drum corps folded after that season including the Blue Stars, Kilties and Memphis Blues Brass Band. I would have to say that today's discussions are about 30 years too late about how the DCI business/touring model doesn't work. We knew that back in the 1970s already that it wouldn't work for the vast majority of drum corps. By 1983, Brian Tolzman can help me here, probably close to 75% of the actively competing junior corps which were alive when DCI began in 1972 were gone by then along with almost all drum corps circuits too. It didn't take very long, just 10 years, but the activity was pretty much "toast" by 1983.

If I as a prospective franchise/business purchaser was looking to buy a franchise/business today, I certainly would not buy one in a business sector that saw 90% of its franchises/businesses fail over the past 38 years and the business sector now had little to no prospects for growth. A business sector which also saw the vast majority of its past repeat customers leave in droves due to the franchises/businesses in this business sector's inability/refusal to meet their customer's expectations. We don't hear from them because these "lost" fans are long gone and could care less about posting comments on DCP.

[Northern Thunder]

By 1983, Brian Tolzman can help me here, probably close to 75% of the actively competing junior corps which were alive when DCI began in 1972 were gone by then along with almost all drum corps circuits too. It didn't take very long, just 10 years, but the activity was pretty much "toast" by 1983.

During the 1972 season, there were 489 North American juniors (of which 446 made it to the field). Of that 489, just 86 survived to the 1983 season or beyond. That's just a 17.58% survival rate from 1972 to 1983.

[BigW]

Weren't the Blue Eagles from Wind Gap BITD?

Bangor and Wind Gap are in the same geographic area for all intents and purposes. Blue Eagles became Rennaissance in the early '80's not sure what happened after that....

[BigDale]

Well technically that is different organization using the name Velvet Knights.

Velevt Knights, Inc. no longer exists.

Whatever it may be, they are our corps now, made finals at Nationals this year, and should not be on this list!