Milford Spartans 1962

Drum Corps News Aug. 29, 1962 issue

SOLOIST John Webster of the Milford (N.H.) Spartans is shown here wailing out his crowd-pleasing solo during the unit's "Caravan" concert. The Spartans, rated by many this year as Northern New England's top corps, will co-sponsor an eight-corps competition, Saturday evening, September 1, in Nashua, N.H. (Bob Hunter photo)

Indians Retake State Title
DCN Aug. 29, 1962 issue

Coming back after a year's retirement, the Skokie Indians recaptured a title which has been theirs for years. Featuring a corps which is much smaller than the years when they were the National Champs, the Indians are definitely on their way back.

Taking the number two spot were the last year's State Champs, the Kewanee Black Knights. The Knights have come a long way in the past few months, as earlier in the winter they had officially disbanded.

Following in third place were the Maywood Rebels. Unfortunately, a rash of flag penalties stopped them from finishing any higher. In the Senior Open division, the winners were the Kankakee Black Hawks.

Senior Closed
Skokie Indians .................... 60.81
Kewanee Black Knights .. 60.70
Maywood Rebels ............... 51.35

Hawks Best Cathay

By John Bouteiller
DCN August 29, 1962 issue

STOCKTON, Calif., July 29 - The Richmond Hawks, featuring a G.E. packed drill, defeated San Francisco's Cathay Corps, by a narrow margin here today.

In the senior division, the Stockton YMI Joaquin Caballeros defeated Sacramento's small, but scrappy, Manhart Capitolaires.

In the color guard contest that preceeded the corps, Cathay was the winner, followed by the Hawks and Delta Thunderbirds. Watch out for the Thunderbirds, this was their first contest and they only trailed the Hawks by two-tenths.

The scores:
Junior color guards
Cathay .................. 93.10
Hawks ................... 90.80
Delta Thunderbirds .. 90.55

Junior Drum and bugle corps
Hawks ........... 78.3
Cathay .......... 76.4

Senior corps
Caballeros ....... 80.2
Capitalaires ..... 69.4

Starting next issue I will do a thumnail sketch of one California corps each column, so I would appreciate any of the business managers dropping me a line and giving me some information about their corps. Now that I'm here in the West, let's hear from all of you corps people and fans regarding our poll. Just jot down ten favorite seniors and juniors and send them to me.

Yankee Rebels Best Reilly
By Joe Price
DCN Aug. 29, 1962

WAVERLY, N.Y., Aug. 4 - The High Flying YANKEE-REBELS from Baltimore continued to let everyone know how really good they are this year by capturing the 10th Annual Legion Tournament of Drums with a powerful 84.51. This was one of the best and closest contests of the year, as is evidenced by the following scores:

YANKEE REBELS, Baltimore, Md. - 84.51
REILLY RAIDERS, Philadelphia, Pa. - 82.84
SKYLINERS, New York - 81.87
ROYALAIRES, Guelph, Ont. - 81.00
MATADORS, Cortland, N.Y. - 72.50

You can't get much closer or better, so once again John Cocco, Contest Director can be proud of his fine record here at Waverly.

For REILLY the second place finish was definitely a moral victory, especially when you look at the third and fourth place groups. Both the SKYLINERS and the ROYALAIRES were fabulous but this was a tight show.

A lot of credit must be given to the great MATADORS of Cortland, N.Y. This is only their third year but they have been traveling in fast company all season. Despite all the top corps they have faced, they have come out of each big contest with a lot of praise heaped on them, and victories over the big units in some of the individual categories.

Once again the Waverly contest was strictly first class as amplified by the "standing room only" crowd.

Mass. C.Y.O. Music Circuit
DCN Aug. 29, 1962 issue

In the Prep Circuit the Holy Family "Defenders" of Rockland still remain undefeated with seven first places. Rumor has it that Holy Family is thinking of moving up to class "A" next year.

In St. Anthony's of Allston's contest; the Holy Family "Defenders" of Rockland took first place with a score of 89.3. In second place was St. John's "Missilemen" of Winthrop with a score of 84.25. In third place was Our Lady of Lourdes of Jamica Plain with a score of 83.4 (this is the first time Our Lady of Lourdes has not taken second place).

The Holy Family "Defenders" of Rockland took first again in St. John's of Winthrop's contest with a score of 82.5. Second was Our Lady of Lourdes of Jamica Plain with 76.25. Third was St. Francis "Sancians" of Weymouth with a score of 69.9.

In St. Anthony's of Everett's contest, the Holy Family "Defenders" of Rockland were first with a score of 86.15 and second was Our Lady of Lourdes of Jamaica Plain with a score of 83.35. Third was St. Anthony's "Blue Diamonds" of Allston with a score of 82.05.

The Holy Family "Defenders" play a real swinging concert number called "Brazil", and Our Lady of Lourdes play the exact opposite, a very sootheing concert number called "Twilight" and "Manhattan Serenade." Some other concerts played by other corps are: St. Anthony's "Blue Diamonds" of Allston - "Continental". St. John's "missilemen" of Winthrop - "Stepping Out"; St. Francis "Sancians" - "Maria".

The 31st C.Y.O. Archdiocean World Series of Music Festivals will be held September 8 and 9 with 3 COMPLETE CONTESTS.

The Junior Circuit Finals will be held on Sept. 8 at 9 A.M.

The Prep Circuit Finals will be held on Sept. 8 at 2 P.M.

The Senior Circuit Finals will be held on Sept. 9 at 12 noon.

Come to the C.Y.O. Finals at White Stadium in Dorchester, Mass., Boston. 75 units will be competing for the C.Y.O. Championships.

Pittsfield Imperials 1962

DCN Aug. 29, 1962 issue

IMPERIALS JR. CORPS of Pittsfield, Mass. was organized in 1960 as a parade corps and this year have entered the Hudson-Berkshire Circuit as an M&M unit. They will host the circuit championships Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. at Wahconah Park, Pittsfield. Officials of the corps include Mark Roulier, drum major; Peggy Lavalle and Mary E. Kelly, color guard captains; Dick Gilardi, Bill Hendricks and Fred Baker, directors; Art Houghtaling, quartermaster and Dick Gilardi, business manager. Instructors, all members of the Interstatesmen, are Edward Cwalinski, bugles; Bill Travis, drums; and Gary Griswold, drill.

Lourdes Wins At Smithtown
By Ed and Les Dahlstedt
DCN Aug. 29, 1962

SMITHTOWN, L.I., N.Y., July 28 - Our Lady of Lourdes scored a decisive victory here today in the annual contest sponsored by the Smithtown Freelancers.

The Wanderers presented the exhibition. They are a real threat to the Northeastern Circuit Championship this year or next.

A few highlights of the contest were: The Kingsmen's LARGE drum line, snare-tenor really gret idea. O.L.P.H. Ridgemen's concert sounding a bit like Audubon's. Smithtown in exhibition looking best so far this year.....keep up the good work. Jersey Cyclones being sponsored by Chemical Co.

The Scores:
1. Lourdes ......................... 79.266
2. Dumont ......................... 70.783
3. Grenadiers .................... 68.750
4. Marianettes .................. 67.833
5. Jersey Cyclones ............ 67.283
6. Kingsmen ..................... 63.550
7. Ridgemen ..................... 60.200
8. Barringer-Walker ......... 37.516

SKYLINERS, LORETTO COP HONORS At Soggy N.Y. Legion Show
Queensmen, Sunrisers Disqualified

By Rosemary Feliney
DCN Aug. 29, 1962 issue

BRONX, N.Y., Aug. 10 - The New York Skyliners sloshed through the rain at Gaelic Park here tonight before less than 500 hardy fans to capture the New York American Legion Convention Senior Championship from an abbreviated field.

Earlier in the afternoon, Our Lady of Loretto topped a field of 10 to take junior honors and the Smithtown Freelancers won the color guard contest.

Thursday night's parade set the tone for the entire championship as 11 junior corps and four senior units were forced to march down Fifth Ave. in a torrential rain.

Because of the downpour, the senior Sunrisers and the defending junior champion St. Catherine's Queensmen marched in street clothes rather than in uniform and were disqualified from the corps contest.

Judging the Jr. Corps were: M&M Larry Scott and Ted Locker; Bugles, Bill Moran and Bill Mafuse; Drums, Bob Redigan and Art Muer; GE Drumming, Joe Holtan and ; GE Bugling Joe Retlan; GE M&M, George Ray and chief judge, C.R. Naber.

The Magnificent Yankees of Utica, N.Y was the first corps on the field. Garbed in black, red, white and grey they put on a great show. Love your concert. The Waving Flag's resembling a sea gulls wings to "Ebb Tide" were very impressive. And the drum section has got what it takes as far as sticking is concerned.

The Kingsmen from the Bronx were next off the line. Gaelic Park is old home to them, it's their practice spot. "Zing Went the Strings" and "Pappa Won't You Dance With Me" went over very well. But, what happened to the alignment?

After hearing much about St. Rocco's of Brooklyn, N.Y. I finally got to see them. "Lets Fall In Love" and we did with your black, turquoise and white uniforms. Other selections included "If I Love You", "Heartaches", "My Foolish Heart", "The Way You Look Tonight", and "Thou Swell".

OLPH Ridgemen were much improved over the Smithtown Contest a couple of weeks ago."I Hear Music", "Fools Rush In" and "Moon River" were great.

Another first---first time I've seen the Lawmen, PAL corps from Staten Island. "I Feel A Song Coming On" and selections from "Victory At Sea" were done nicely.

What can we say about Floyd Bennett, the Marianettes and Our Lady of Loretto except g-r-e-a-t. Their names speak for themselves.

The Starlighters from Frankfort, N.Y. - came off the line with "Love Is A Many Splended Thing", "Hello My Baby", "The Man I Love" and the "Dark Town Strutters Ball". So help me I'd swear those rifle bearers in the color guard are smaller than the rifles-- but they can really handle those things.

Selden sounded as excellent as they do on Fleetwood's "Brass By Night". And they looked great too, despite the gold on their uniforms running on the white shirts. Hope it comes out. Selden was ruined by a three point penalty caused because the line at the end of the field was not there. What was there were two flags. Hardly a finish line to be seen.

The Scores:
1st Our Lady of Loretto .. 84.416
2nd Selden ..................... 81.750
3rd Floyd Bennett ........... 75.933
4th Starlighters ................ 75.550
5th St. Roccos ................ 73.800
6th Utica ........................ 73.333
7th Kingsmen ................. 72.350
8th OLPH ...................... 69.233
9th Marianettes ............... 68.983
10th Lawmen ................. 62.500

No retreat was held because the stadium had to be cleared for the Sr. Competition.

Only three Sr. Corps competed. Well it was a Friday night and how did the Legion expect corps from up-state New York to could qualify to compete on a Friday night. If the parade had been held on Friday and competition on Saturday I'm sure we would have seen a lot more action as far as senior corps were concerned.

As I mentioned before the Sunrisers were disqualified, so that left the Wanderers of New Rochelle, the Interstatesmen, and the Skyliners.All were great.

The Wanderers "Miss America", the Interstatesmen's "Heatwave", and the Skyliners "I'll Walk With God" are my favorites.

Even though the Sunrisers and the 1961 State Champion Jr. Corps, the Queensmen, were disqualified, they put on an exhibition in the ensuing downpour.

The Scores:
1st Skyliners ............ 86.783
2nd Interstatesmen ... 84.483
3rd Wanderers ......... 68.616
Again no retreat was held, due to the weather, but the Skyliners did start their own parade through the streets.

The Color Guard Scores:
1 - Smithtown Free Lancers ..... 94.85
2 - Pequa Squaws ................... 94.20
3 - Edmenton ......................... 93.15
4 - Emerald Cadets ................. 92.60
5 - Starlighters, Frankfort, N.Y. 90.45
6 - Yankees, Utica, N.Y. ......... 89.85
7 - Albertines .......................... 86.75
8 - Phoenix Cadets .................. 82.85
9 - Blue Angels ....................... 75.20

Pioneers Sponsor "Mohawk Drums"

DCN Aug. 29, 1962 issue

ORANGE, Mass. - The Pioneer Drum & Bugle Corps of Orange, Mass. will present the first annual "Mohawk Drums" Junior Drum & Bugle Corps competition on Sept. 1, 1962 under lights. The program will start promptly at 8:00 P.M., and in case of rain will be presented September 3 at the same time.

This event marks the first time a competition has been held in this area for many years. Under close surveillance of circuit judges, the corps will perform a pageantry of music while playing their exciting repertoire for spectators.

The competition will feature the best and most widely known Corps of the East Coast. These will include: Cambridge Caballeros of Cambridge, Mass., I.C. Reveries of Revere, Mass., Debonnaires All Girl Drum Corps of Norwood, Mass., Golden Eagles of Portsmouth, N.H., St. Kevin's Emerald Knights of Dorchester, Mass., and the Majestic Knights of Charlestown, Mass.

An exhibition by the Jumptown Twirlers Western Square Dance Club of Orange will highlight the half-time intermission.

The "Mohawk Drums" competition will be held on a newly constructed field which is now nearing completion. The competition field is at Red Brook Park, located on East River Street in Orange, Mass.

The competition committee consists of the following Pioneer Drum Corps members: Miles Eastman, chairman; Ed Oxley, secratary; Rodney Freeman, publicity; Gordon Bundy, tickets; Charles Zelck, concessions; and Bert Dugan and Robert Brackett, advertising.

Proceeds of the competition will supplement on equipment fund and originate the first area high school scholarship fund to be given by the Pioneers.

The Vagabonds 1962

DCN Aug. 29, 1962 issue

THE VAGABONDS of Haddon Heights, N.J. were among the hundreds of well-wishers in the ceremonies for Philadelphia area Naval Reservists returning from active duty July 16 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. (Official U.S. Navy photo)

Reveries Become First N.E. Corps To Defeat Cabs
Drum Corps News Aug.29, 1962

On Sunday, July 22nd, the Immaculate Conception "Reveries" of Revere, Mass. did what no other New England Drum Corps has done this season; that is, defeated the Cambridge Caballeros.

Though the scores were indeed close, the margin of victory for the "Reveries" a scant thirty five hundredths of a point, the victory could not have been more convincing or timely.

In this contest, held under the sponsorship of the Norwood "Debonnaires", the "Reveries" took top marks in inspection, bugles, and general effect. Ironically, it also marked the first time this season the "Reveries" failed to capture or tie for first in the marching and maneuvering caption. But their full point advantage in general effect more than compensated for the "Cabs" edge in marching and maneuvering and drumming.

Placing third were the Boston Crusaders who, though nearly three points behind, showed the type of spirit and drive that, if continued, will surely lift this unit to it's former height of greatness.

The final scores:
I.C. Reveries ............ 86.45
Camb. Cabs .............. 86.10
Boston Crusaders .... 83.25

15,000 See Hawthorne Win 'Cavalcade Of Champions'

DCN Aug. 29, 1962 issue

LEWISBURG, Pa., Aug. 11 - The Hawthorne Caballeros captured their third straight Cavalcade of Champions crown before a crowd of nearly 15,000 here this evening in a contest marred by improper placing of the end line markers.

It was not until after an exhibition corps and the first two competing units, the Pittsburgh Rockets and Baltimore Yankee Rebels, had competed that officials discovered that the end line flags had been placed on the line that marks the end of the football field instead of on the goal line, as is customary.

After much discussion the contest was resumed, but at retreat it was announced that the Rockets and Yankee Rebels would be considered exhibition corps and their scores would not be announced.

The Reading Buccaneers were runner-ups, closely followed by the Archer-Epler Musketeers and the Reilly Raiders.

It marked the fifth time that Hawthorne has won the Cavalcade, sponsored annually by the Milton Keystoners.

The winning trophy was presented by Miss Pennsylvania, Crystale Leigh Martin of Milton.

Serving as runners during the evening were members of the Comancheros, junior corps sponsored by the Keystoners.

The Keystoners' special guests for the evening were the Belles of St. Mary's. The Belles' guard is well-integrated into their drill. Two of the rigle-bearers are featured during "Avalon" as they execute headchoppers, spins, etc. At the end of this number the girls have a bit of a bugle manual followed by a bombshell-type portion of drill. This is another corps that has adopted "Bill Bailey" as part of their show.

Also they're featuring the tom-tom effect with one bass drum during concert, another trick that has proved so effective! For a few moments it appears that their cymbalist has lost one cymbal during "Time Waits For No One" while actually it is being put to good use by one of the drummers. At retreat, their majorette, Roberta Schmidt, accepted a trophy for the corps.

Pittsburgh Rockets have abandoned "King of Kings" as an opening fanfare in favor of their 1958 original fanfare which was known as "Hooten's Hideaway". Just about the only music remembered from last season is "Two Different Worlds", & "Right Out Of This World". As in the past this year's guard is an important part of the drill which, incidentally, was written by one of the corps members, Guy Carricato.

This is the third consecutive year that Will Hooten drum majored at this contest. And each year with a different corps! Of course, this time he shared honors with Don Connors from Yankee Rebels. The Rebels have really found a show-stopper in "The Stripper". By the way, their "stripper" is Nick Rizzi who is from their French Horn section. For those who have been asking----Skip Groff's buddy featured in the bugle duo during "Return To Me" is Paul Tragesser (from St. James Cadets).

Recently Reading Buccaneers added a new member to their staff. His title is production co-ordinator. You'll readily recognize the name---Frank McCormick. In the short time that Frank has been with the corps they've made some changes in drill and particularly in that accompanier "You Make Me Feel So Young". (The buglers used to be spread apart now they are closer together.) "Doodles" Rorbach's color guard is one of the few to carry 4 riflemen and it and it really adds to the effectiveness of a guard.

For the fifth time and the third consecutive year, Hawthorne presented one of their usual shows with the usual results -- they won! The smallest Caballero, Dickie Silverbrand, joined his famous papa for retreat ceremonies. A side-lite that not everyone may have noticed: After Archie's Bud Johnson shook hands with Ralph Silverbrand, he repeated the gesture with each of Hawthorne's mascots. In return he received a smart salute from each which he promptly returned!

From some of the rumors that were circulated over the Winter months, one could expect that Reilly would have little to offer for '62. This is far from what they were able to show the Lewisburg crowd. It's shades of the past with a little of the '57 music featured along with some numbers that are completely new. Then there's typical Reilly gimicks in drill, too plus a spot where two riflemen shine!

If Archie looked larger than usual it's because of 6 snares and 3 tenors being used in drum line plus a larger bugle section. Everytime we tried to count, we lost track but there were some who claimed there were 52 buglers. Oh yes, Archie's another corps to adopt the tom-tom effect for concert. You may not believe it but that "Camelot" concert just grows on you every time you hear it!

The scores:
Hawthorne ............ 88.02
Reading ................ 84.95
Archie ................... 84.55
Reilly .................... 83.73