ffernbus3 Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 (edited) Interestingly, Misters Don Clark and Will Polacek of SoCal, were the only two male percussionists in the latin section of the all-girl Senoritas out of Monterey Park and San Gabe...I know Don played timbales in the early 60s and was referred to in programs as "Senor" Don Clark. There might have been one more. Credit where credit is due...... RON HOUSLEY Edited October 26, 2004 by ffernbus3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAV Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 Good morning: First - good luck with this piece! And please post it if you can. I know I'd love to see all the history you collected into one area. I could actually contribute a lot to this article as I actually tried to audition for Vanguard cymbals back in the fall of 1980. It was a hard blow because I had actually already moved from So Cal to Nor Cal to do the auditions. It never dawned on me that I could not audition based on my gender! It seemed archaic and so out of tune (pardon the pun) with how I was raised. Even being granted permission to talk to "the guy in charge" (Gail Royer) did not help my case. So, even though I was offered an opportunity to march in the guard, I turned it down in favor of marching with Blue Devils. At the time I had no confidence in my ability to be coordinated - although I watch some of the flag work and marching now and in hindsight realize I might have given it a try. Moving on... I wrote the Vanguard article in Steve Vickers' A History of Drum & Bugle Corps (see Drum Corps World for how to get this 'must have' book). Here are a few items about females in the corps. 1. 1983 - First year women were allowed in the musical instruction sections of the corps. That year, three women made the front ensemble: Carol Everett, Kimela Hilleary, and Peggy Watson. 2. 1984 - Four women performed in the hornline for the first time. First time a woman in the battery - Gigi Cuthbert, a snare 1984-1985. 3. 1985 - In I&E arena, Maria Petrini (one of the first SCV brass players) tied for first in on French horn and Martha Leeson became the first female timpanist to win. In just three years, the pioneer SCV women quickly proved they had what it took to be part of the 'tradition.' 4. On a different note, Santa Clara had an all male rifle line in 1988 and then dropped all the men in 1989 (Phantom of the Opera both years). It wasn't until 1997 when David Garcia marched as a lone male guard member that SCV began to fully integrate the guard once more. Hope this helped! MAV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffernbus3 Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 (edited) Mav, that was a great informative post. Q: Martha Leeson, was that Deb Leeson's (scv rifle late 60s (?) early 70s...Jeff Leeson's sister? Old SCV (probably) charter family or pretty near it. Names from when I lived up there in 72 (I, too, moved from SoCal to get some "learning" from Mr. Royer) w/a buncha SCV brass players...some quite famous as it all turned out. You mentioned SoCal....who were you associated with down there? Just curious as to how your history fits into the tapestry. Let me add that from the beginning I have had the greatest of respect for the women of The Santa Clara Vanguard. Back in the late 60s and early 70s there were more than a few flights from Orange County to San Jose by the boys from The Anaheim Kingsmen. Drop a PM if you want...... RON HOUSLEY 67 Anaheim Kingsmen 71 Lynwood Diplomats 72 Redwood City Guardsmen ( 1/2 year) ...and some other corps..... Edited October 26, 2004 by ffernbus3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byline Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 (edited) 4. On a different note, Santa Clara had an all male rifle line in 1988 and then dropped all the men in 1989 (Phantom of the Opera both years). It wasn't until 1997 when David Garcia marched as a lone male guard member that SCV began to fully integrate the guard once more. Weren't there guys in the 1987 rifle line, as well? Seems to me there were. This was the "Russian Christmas Music"/"Pictures at an Exhibition" show; I loved Garfield too that year, but that's one year when I could've lived with a first-place tie. Both '87 and '88 are among my all-time favorite Santa Clara shows. I preferred their 1988 "Phantom" show over '89. I felt the guard needed to have the men there to help tell the story, and I really missed them when they weren't there the following year. Just my opinion, though. . . . Edited October 26, 2004 by byline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visualjellyfish Posted October 27, 2004 Author Share Posted October 27, 2004 All of this is great. I'm thinking of designing a series of questions to help further direct the info all of you lovely alum can give me. I'll have it up in a few days! Thanks for everything so far! -MY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
susantaylor40 Posted October 28, 2004 Share Posted October 28, 2004 Actually, I NEVER had a problem on marching as a female on a mostly male drum line in the 70s. The only concern when I started marching tymp was if I could handle carrying a tymp as they were very heavy and required a certain amount of upper body strength, but I managed for several years and had a riot doing so. Byline, do you remember the name of the snare drummer in Oaklands in 75? I think alot of the allowance of females marching on sections other than the guard in alot of corps had to do with the amount of males trying out for the musical sections. Sure, I was seen as an oddity as a female tymp player but I broke alot of barriers ( I also travelled on tours on the drum bus... a taboo with me being a female, again). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Posted October 28, 2004 Share Posted October 28, 2004 Actually, I NEVER had a problem on marching as a female on a mostly male drum line in the 70s. The only concern when I started marching tymp was if I could handle carrying a tymp as they were very heavy and required a certain amount of upper body strength, but I managed for several years and had a riot doing so. Byline, do you remember the name of the snare drummer in Oaklands in 75? I think alot of the allowance of females marching on sections other than the guard in alot of corps had to do with the amount of males trying out for the musical sections. Sure, I was seen as an oddity as a female tymp player but I broke alot of barriers ( I also travelled on tours on the drum bus... a taboo with me being a female, again). <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hey Sue, I never told anybody this but I had a lot of respect for you for carrying that frigging tymp for all those years!!! As for being an oddity, I would say you were just as odd as anybody else in the Northstars drum lines in '77 & '78 and there was a lot of odd balls in those lines but I was honoured to march with each and every one of them!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAV Posted October 28, 2004 Share Posted October 28, 2004 Good morning, Ron: I just wrote Martha and asked about her family... but I'm pretty sure I remember her saying that her family was VERY involved with Vanguard from the beginning. (Her dad was on the board...and I think at one time he was president.) As for me and Southern California...I marched Granada Hills HS, LA All-City Band (see avatar), and finally Royal Cavaliers Youth Band where I got so nuts over drum corps, I began writing for Drum Corps News. If you knew Granada back then, you'd know why I wanted to be in Vanguard. Our show included "Toccata & Fugue" and "The Bottle Dance." (OK so we also did "Legend of the One-Eyed Sailor", but that's another story.) MAV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byline Posted October 28, 2004 Share Posted October 28, 2004 (edited) Byline, do you remember the name of the snare drummer in Oaklands in 75? You mean a female snare drummer? I didn't march in '75, so I have no way of knowing. John Swartz is way better qualified to answer this question than I am. It seems to me, though I'm not absolutely sure about this, that we had a female snare drummer in '80, a blonde gal. But if I'm remembering that correctly, I have no recollection of her name. Is the gal you're talking about shown in this corpsreps.com picture from '75? The snare shown on our right sure looks like a female to me: Edited October 28, 2004 by byline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marthonius J. Gleason Posted October 28, 2004 Share Posted October 28, 2004 Hidleeho Mavaroo!!! Geez, it was less painful giving birth than it was setting up an account and getting logged on to DCP!!! First of all, to set the record straight, I am in NO WAY related to the SCV Leeson family (Jeff, Debbie or Ed). My family is very much into geneology and I can assure you that those Leesons are not in my lineage. Leeson is a very uncommon name too, so it's quite surprising and interesting that we're not related. It's simply a bizarre coinkydink that there have been as many Leesons as there have been in the SCV family over the years! Mav, that IL air is doing something to your purty head, because my parents couldn't have cared less about drum corps when I was in. On the SCV board? Ha...maybe they were bored by SCV. They were and still are symphony musician snobs. My saving grace was that I didn't join BD...that "lowly jazz music" would have had me eliminated from their will for sure. :blah: BTW, Mav definitely forgot our all-male rifle line in 1987. The ten of them collectively won the Rookie of the Year award that year. All of them were awesome guys, and they endured a lot of homophobic crap from the guys in the drumline at first. They really proved themselves fast and shut up their critics even faster. TTFN! Martha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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