Mergers, What was the story?

[Northern Thunder]

27th always throws me when I look at old scores and see both IC Reveries and 27th the same year. Wasn't that Reverie corps ye olde feeder (aka Jr Jr ) to the "Sit Down" Reveries?

The Reveries went to class 'C' in '68, moved to class 'B' in '69 & '70. In '71 they moved up to class 'A', and went head-to-head with 27th (usually finishing about 25 points behind them). They stayed class 'A' the rest of their life until their merger with the Blue Angels for the '75 season.

[rayfallon]

The Reveries went to class 'C' in '68, moved to class 'B' in '69 & '70. In '71 they moved up to class 'A', and went head-to-head with 27th (usually finishing about 25 points behind them). They stayed class 'A' the rest of their life until their merger with the Blue Angels for the '75 season.

I think the merger with the Blue Angels is what caused my shorted out memory to think of 27 as a merger.

Good stuff.

Don't forget the Blue Angels' "feeder" corps the Chuting Stars.

My old pal Mike Hart, from the 82nd Airborne and the Sunrisers (significant difference there) hailed from there before he hit his own "chutes"

[Northern Thunder]

I always got a kick out of the fact that the Blue Angels had BAD (Blue Angels Danvers) emblazoned on their flags.

[Bsader]

Why was it that Corps like the I.C. Reveries moved up to Class A only to be demolished by the likes of the 27th Lancer's. Why didn't they stay in Class B so that they would be performing with Corps that they could contend with? In 1972 I was with the Princemen of Melrose, Ma. That year we just barely won the Class B championship. Heading into the 1973 season we left the V.F.W. Post and moved up the street to the American Legion Post and became the Legion Vanguard. Along with the move came the decision for us to move up to Class A.

I remember at the beginning of the season we traveled down to New Jersey for a competition that included the Bayonne Bridgeman. Prior to the show my fellow Vanguardian's and I decided to listen in on their Brass rehearsal. As I said this was 1973 so can anyone guess what they were working on? If your guess was the triple tonguing feature that had everyone buzzing that year then you are correct. I was thirteen years old and didn't even know what triple tonguing was. I'm also doubt any of the members of our brass section had a clue as to what was coming out of the bells of their horns. We just knew that it sounded impossible. This was not a competition. I think we lost by over 30 points. I was far from scarred from the experience as I had a clue that we were going to get smoked but some of our more naive members were pretty demoralized. The next year I joined Boston and the Vanguard went on to be absorbed by the Wilmington Cardinals which eventually, along with a few other Corps, became the North Star

What was it that would motivate a Corps management and parents to offer their kids up to the likes of the Bayonne Bridgeman, 27th Lancer's and SCV when they had no right competing against them? Was it part of those off-season delusion's that can take hold of Corp. Was it about managerial and parental egos that kept them from being patient? Is this why so many kids were leaving their class A Corp to join one of the big Corps despite the fact they were in the same class together? Is this why these Corps would give up their identity to merge with another Corp?

I would also think that this jump to Class A came at a price with the necessity and/or the desire to spend the big bucks like the big Corps. This would of course include touring or at least a definite increase in travel. Do you think that the cost of this decision caught these Corps off guard and overwhelmed them as they did not have the necessary business acumen or infrastructure to handle these new costs. Was it because managerial and parental egos caused them to outstrip their pocketbooks? I suppose these are, for the most part, leading questions but I really shouldn't be assuming I have a clue as I was not part of any Corp in a managerial or parental way during this time in Drum Corp history.

[Ghost]

What was it that would motivate a Corps management and parents to offer their kids up to the likes of the Bayonne Bridgeman, 27th Lancer's and SCV when they had no right competing against them? Was it part of those off-season delusion's that can take hold of Corp. Was it about managerial and parental egos that kept them from being patient? Is this why so many kids were leaving their class A Corp to join one of the big Corps despite the fact they were in the same class together? Is this why these Corps would give up their identity to merge with another Corp?

Now a days, some college football and basketball teams, will play teams who usually clobber them. But they do it for the better pay day, exposure, and hopefully improve recruiting. It's easy now to question what corps management was thinking in the examples you mentioned, but when it happened, I'm guessing they just wanted the corps to march in contests no matter who was marching. Edited September 23, 2014 by Ghost

[Bsader]

Now a days, some college football and basketball teams, will play teams who usually clobber them. But they do it for the better pay day, exposure, and hopefully improve recruiting. It's easy now to question what corps management was thinking in the examples you mentioned, but when it happened, I'm guessing they just wanted the corps to march in contests no matter who was marching.

Thanks, that experience I had with the Bridgeman introducing me to triple tonguing left such an impression that at the end of the '74 season I pretty much locked myself in my bedroom for hours of ta-ta-ka-ta's over and over, trying to string more and more together. The way I remember it took me a full 2 weeks before I was really burning along with some consistently tight sequences. I ended up learning that Bridgemen feature and then I somehow ended up with a recording from a Skyliner's open house that featured a Soprano player performing the piece "The Fox Hunter" that predominately features triple tonguing. I had a Crusader friend of mine and fellow lead sop player, Larry Lacey, write it out for me. I was goaded into entering into an individual show that year and performed that piece. I actually enter the stage with 2 young woman from the Crusader's rifle line who, after I was introduced, did a flourish of spins and turns that was like a second more grandiose introduction and we had it timed so that when the butt of their rifles made contact with the stage I would begin my performance. We were playing it for laughs. Sometime after the performance I was warned by another fellow Crusader, in this case it was Billy Solari, who told me that he knew the judge and that she had me in second place. After giving me the news I could tell that he had more to say but seemed reluctant to finish. Well he eventually gave me the news that the judge was a member of the Lancer's and the performer that won was being recruited by the Lancer's. I talked to Billy briefly about this a while back but he didn't remember it. Anyways, I couldn't have cared less as I had a lot of fun that night. My favorite moment was when my score was announced for second place their was a lot of booing as to the fact I was second. The only part of the night that bothered me was when I talked with the judge later in the evening and she told me that she thought my double tonguing was excellent.I didn't mention that I was in fact triple tonguing because I really didn't care and was actually more concerned with my cooler of beer in the parking lot.What I would like to get a hold of is the sheet music for the 2014 Blue Devils opening articulation feature.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Bsader

[JimF-LowBari]

No idea on the Jr classes but when Westshoremen were rebuilding and trying to work into DCA we did DCA shows for two main reasons.

DCA judges comments were better in helping staff to clean the show.

$$$$$$$... Or as Larry Hershman put it one night "We can make more coming in last at a DCA show than we can coming in first at an RCA show".

[cixelsyd]

Why was it that Corps like the I.C. Reveries moved up to Class A only to be demolished by the likes of the 27th Lancer's.

Because it was not "only" about 27th. In fact, 27th Lancers had left the local circuits by then, so a corps moving up to class A could be competing against their true peers. I.C. Reveries are a fair example of this, as when they moved into class A in 1971, by June 6 they had already won a contest, and they finished the season in third place in the Eastern Mass class A field.

[KeithHall]

I love these stories and where this post is going, thanks everyone! Keep it going....anymore corps out there?

[Bsader]

I would like to add, only because I don't know how to detract, to my above post in regards to my individual show experience as it is rather obnoxious being that it could easily cause the reader to think that I should have won that night which is again rather obnoxious. The fact is I never heard the winner of that night's festivities perform and so it could be that he mopped the floor with me. It's definitely one of those posts one would want to take back, at least some of it. It was the only individual show I ever participated in and it was a great time walking out there with the two member's of the Boston Crusader rifle line with the big Waldo emblazoned on their uniform.