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Mergers, What was the story?


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Oh, I'll contact Chris. Did not know that.

Yeah I check for history there evey now and then and just sticks in my mind cuz so wierd... the DIGs??? :huh2:

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The Dukes of Imperial Guardsmen were created by a 1972 merger of the Dukes of Old Bridge, NJ and the Imperial Guardsmen of Belleville, NJ.

The DIGs were active through the '73 season.

The Dukes of Old Bridge were hit by the single worst tragedy in drum corps history in 1970, when 6 of its members were killed in a car accident on the way to practice.

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"Mergers"

While not exactly a "Merger" the 1966 New York Kingsmen had absorbed a HUGE chunk of the membership from the disbanded Selden Cadets (Including their horn arranger Bobby Bunce, who wrote an entirely new program for them) changed their uniforms, and came out completely revamped (And quite excellently) for the 1966 season.

Elphaba

WWW

Elphie ... you may remember this ... the most famous merger never to materialize ... after the 62 season the Queensmen, Loretto and Selden tried to merge into the "original" Brassmen ... they even wore jackets to the Staten Island I&E that winter ... according to Frank Bucemi (RIP), they couldn't get any parents to run the corps ... so they folded ... and Selden went to Sky and Cabs, Loretto went to Sky and Cabs and the Queensmen went to Sun ... a lot of the Selden guys came back to the Golden Lancers for a very successful 64 season ...

:-)

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The most successful merger was/is Crossmen

I'll disagree (we seem to be doing that here and there) I think the most successful merger was 27th Lancers.

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My files show 189 junior corps being involved in mergers just between 1972-1979.

There was a recession in Ontario 1975. I remember sending 47 resumes, 2 job interviews and got 1 job drying dishes at a catering firm summer of 75. I quit the job > maggots in the dishes, punch time clock and the whistle blew at lunch time (like the Simpsons). I marched drum corps that summer, taught guard and learned to write M&M. The summer of 1976 had 2-3 week tours. It wasn't weekends only anymore. Since I couldn't find a full time summer job for university tuition, I marched, got paid to teach 2 guards and judged to try to make ends meet.

In retrospect 1972 was the birth of DCI. There was an economic recession shortly thereafter. Mergers seemed like a good business case to pool resources and survive as opposed to divide and conquer but the ecomony at the time caused people to count their dollars for survival. There was little left to give to not for profit organizations. With respect to touring, there may have also been a hike in gas prices during that time compounded with more contests. How will my corps get there? How will we feed them? Some couldn't so they didn't!

An aspect may be the mind set of youth in the 1980's when economics settled down. I remember Atari games and I still have my Commodore 64. As a volunteer for winter guard in the 80's, they wanted to move; we couldn't stop them from dancing. The 1970's continued the regimentation of the 1960's but the 1980's explored new ideas in movement and music with a downsized, post recession, mind set (imo)

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Here's some others from my memory bank:

1966 - SI Lawmen and SI Thunderbirds form the Statenaires

1973 - St. Pat's Imperials and ??? form The Thing

1965 - Skokie Vanguard - not exactly a merger, but they grew VERY large due to several IL corps folding

1962 - St. Ann's of Bridgeport "splits" into the Loyalaires and the CT Royal Lancers

1963 - The Scarlet Knights of Bridgeport fold with 1/2 the members going to the PAL and the other half St. Raphael's

1980 - Fantasia III is formed in NJ - can't remember what corps merged to form them

1974 - The Emerald Buccaneers are formed by the St. Aeden's Emerald Cadets and the St. Raphael's Buccaneers

1980 - Fantasia (CT) - formed by the merger of the Fire-ettes and ???

... some Sr mergers/happenings:

1959 - The Pittsfield Marauders and the Empire State Grenadiers form the Interstatesmen

1963 - The Ballentine Brewers (NJ) are formed out of the demise of the Amboy Dukes, St. Vinnie's and the Woodsiders

1965 - The Rochester Crusaders and The Grey Knights form the Grey Knight Post Crusaders

1975 - Phoenix "rises from the ashes" due to a split within the Rochester Crusaders

C'mon people add s'more!

:-)

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