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Midshipmen DBC -show me your drum corps knowledge!


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Can anyone on here help me? I'm looking for info about the Midshipmen Drum & Bugle Corps..

any info at all you can provide on them would help.

I just met a woman while checking out at the grocery store, who saw my Fusion shirt, which I happened to be wearing.. she asked me If I had heard of the Bandettes, also from Canada, and said she marched in some shows with them back in the 70's when she was doing Midshipmen.

She asked me to email her any info I could find on her corps and the Bandettes (Bndettes is easy to find info for, but this other one...???)

That's where you guys come in. I know we have almost a vault of knowledge on here between everyone.. especially the older folks.. :) Thanks in advance for any replies!

Edited by Canadacorps
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Can anyone on here help me? I'm looking for info about the Midshipmen Drum & Bugle Corps..

any info at all you can provide on them would help.

I just met a woman while checking out at the grocery store, who saw my Fusion shirt, which I happened to be wearing.. she asked me If I had heard of the Bandettes, also from Canada, and said she marched in some shows with them back in the 70's when she was doing Midshipmen.

She asked me to email her any info I could find on her corps and the Bandettes (Bndettes is easy to find info for, but this other one...???)

That's where you guys come in. I know we have almost a vault of knowledge on here between everyone.. especially the older folks.. :) Thanks in advance for any replies!

They were from Petosky, Michigan. Fairly strong in the 70s. Uniforms = nautical theme similar to Mariners and Commodores. Membership in the 70 to 90 people range. Had two guys on soprano that must have been 7 feet tall. They competed in the Great Lakes circuit and DCM.

Over the years I've seen some pics on the web of them, but I can't recall on which sites. Try the Blue Notes website there might be some there, or links to other sites that may have some.

Regards,

John Swartz

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Can anyone on here help me? I'm looking for info about the Midshipmen Drum & Bugle Corps..

any info at all you can provide on them would help.

I just met a woman while checking out at the grocery store, who saw my Fusion shirt, which I happened to be wearing.. she asked me If I had heard of the Bandettes, also from Canada, and said she marched in some shows with them back in the 70's when she was doing Midshipmen.

She asked me to email her any info I could find on her corps and the Bandettes (Bndettes is easy to find info for, but this other one...???)

That's where you guys come in. I know we have almost a vault of knowledge on here between everyone.. especially the older folks.. :) Thanks in advance for any replies!

There was a Midshipmen D & B Corps from the BRONX, NY during the late 60's early 70's

midshppin.jpg

Edited by Marching Mallets
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There was a corps named the Midshipment from the Metropolitan NY area in the late '60s (and I assume early '70s) (I lose track because I was overseas for most of the early '70s). I believe that they were run by the (then) famous Harvey Berish, whom many of us read regularly in DCNews (my DC publication of choice) They, like many other NY/LI/CT area corps, competed in both the LI circuit, and the Greater NY circuit. I'm drawing a blank on details such as instructors, repertoires, etc. but I believe that they started out as the Knickerbockers before they became the Midshipmen.

Probably the wrong corps, and hence, useless trivia. (sigh)

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They were from Petosky, Michigan. Fairly strong in the 70s. Uniforms = nautical theme similar to Mariners and Commodores. Membership in the 70 to 90 people range. Had two guys on soprano that must have been 7 feet tall. They competed in the Great Lakes circuit and DCM.

Over the years I've seen some pics on the web of them, but I can't recall on which sites. Try the Blue Notes website there might be some there, or links to other sites that may have some.

Regards,

John Swartz

Thank you much!! That's the corps I was looking for :blink: :)

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Did you happen to Know her name?

You could e-mail it to me if you would like.

If you did not want to post it on here.

I know alot of our alumini and i'm curious.Thanks.

......She's not alumni of the Bandettes.. She marched in the Midshipmen at some shows that the Bandettes were also at, and said she liked the girls' corps, and wanted me to send her some info on the bandettes.. which of course, I did.

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  • 8 years later...

Hi: Found this while looking up info on my old corps, Midshipmen Jr. Drum and Bugle Corps, Petoskey Michigan. This thread is ancient now , but I wanted to throw in my 2cents. The responders were right-- pretty tight group, medium size, best mid-late 70's.

We were fortunate to have acess to talented seamstresses who created most of our brilliantly colored nautical unifoms; Horn section wore red satin middy blouses with wide white collars, white pants and black shoes, colorguard had the same satin middy in royal blue, with red pleated skirts with "flash" white pleats, and black brimmed hats,short white bots w/anchors. Drum line wore a red striped french saliors shirt, white pants and berets. Drum Major Mike W. was styled as a naval commander from the Napolionic era; white breeches, tall black boots, white ruffled shirt, blue cutaway tailcoat w/ heavy gold braid and black felt bicorn hat with rosettes and gold trim. Commands were given during at least one performance year with a bosun's pipe. Colorguard sergent Karen S. wore tall black boots, white skirt w/ red flash pleats, short blue jacket with gold braid and a smaller bicorn hat.

Musical director was John Deitz, son of famous Central Michigan University Bands director Norman C. Deitz. John was probably all of 24 when he started the Corps. I was founding member in 1973 and belonged through 1975. We were noted for excellence in music and marching and distinctive for our large colorguard of 24 huge flags: red w/white anchor, 3'x5', on 7' pikes-- tough to whip around but amazing to see in action, especially in the "Anaheim" drill!

The two " 7 sopranos" that are remembered were Doug R., (6' 4") and Curt Z., (6'6"). During at least one performance season, they were grouped with the shortest 12 year old soprano we could find for contrast! They did look 7' tall! We also had a kicking drum line, especially the timbalis on "Wipeout"

As we were from northern Michigan,we met the Bandettes quite a few time and exchanged flags with them, so that we carried a US and Canadian Flag during parades. They were a fun group. We also enjoyed friendships with the Blue Notes from Ishpeming.

My experience in Corps has certainly stayed with me-- I insisted both my sons learn music and play in band and marching band. One sousaphone/tuba, one mellophone/french horn--so far, so good!

The Midshipmen occassionally regroup and play at class reunions in Petoskey, I think the last was in 2000. I still have my white boots and red coat!

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