September 12, 1962 issue

DRUM CORPS QUOTES

By Jerry Dreva
DCN Sept. 12, 1962 issue

Despite the recent strong showing of the midwestern corps at Nationals, the contest only served to emphasize the point that the East still is the leader of the Drum Corps World. As things turned out, the Midwest placed seven corps in the finals as compared to the East's five. But looking a little closer we see that the Midwest had completely exhausted its supply of possible finalists. There is not one corps in the entire Midwest that could possibly have made finals and was not at Minneapolis.

Looking to the East, we see the absence of several corps who, had they been present, could have made finals. Most noticeable in their absence, and almost certain finalists, were the Queensmen and the I.C. Reveries. Their presence would have, almost certainly, given the East the better end of a 7-5 split. Add the possibility of Vasella, the Majestic Knights, and Selden to the lineup, and you can easily see that, had there been a larger representation from the East, the Midwest could have found themselves with only two or three corps in the finals. So even though both National titles could well end up in the hands of midwest juniors, it can still be said in all truth that the East still reigns supreme in both junior and senior corps.

While still on the subject of Nationals, I'd like to voice the annual plea to Tony Schlecta and the VFW Contest Committee - Please abolish the cadence penalties at your contests! To some corps - the ones who normally drill at your prescribed cadence - the ten points allotted for cadence is merely a gift. To the corps whose drill has been designed to function better at either a faster or slower cadence, the rule is an unnecessary burden and costs them precious points either in the cadence caption, if they are independent enough to use their normal cadence; or in the M&M caption, if they feel forced to depart from their normal style to conform to your rules. This is a silly rule and one that is certainly outmoded. Perhaps the near future will see its departure.

We are now reaching the end of the M&M season here in the Midwest. It has been a very successful season for most of us. 1962 has seen the Cavaliers keep the VFW National Title in the Midwest. It has also seen the rise to power of the Royal Airs, who battled the Cavies all year (and won a few times), and their great second place finish at Minneapolis. It has also seen the re-entrance of Norwood Park to the upper bracket of drum corps; and the "new" Madison; an improved Kiltie corps; a Racine Scout Corps that surprised many; and the emergence of several corps as tomorrow's champions - the Phantom Regiment, Purple Knights, Cougars, and Chi-Angels. As this season ends, we all have lots to be thankful for and also lots to look forward to in '63.

SHORT SHORTS:
New junior corps in the Milwaukee area progressing very nicely under Doc Patin.... Racine Scouts to change ALL their music for '63???..... St. Mary's (Beverly) new assistant DM doing a very, very nice job for them... Royal Airs bombarded by play money during a recent parade.... The Troopers participated in two midwest contests the weekend after Nat'ls. And such a long way from home (Casper, Wyo.) ... Millions of eastern corps folk present at Drum Beauty . . . Ed Rooney busy keeping an eye on his Kevin's Kids.... Ray Samora and his Fleetwood crew finally made the scene in the midwest - visiting Skokie and Momence previous to Nat'ls.... Somebody in Wisconsin planning to carry an Australian flag? .... Jan Kruegger (St. Matt's) so proud of his Kiddie's M&M mark at VFW prelims .... three guesses who's got Smithy's markeshift scoreboard from Minny - that's right, the Racine Scouts!

Bill Price's Drum Corps Diary

DCN Sept. 12, 1962 issue

After quite a sustained absence from this corner, yours truly is back on the job. My truancy, however, was a legal one due to many factors: National Guard Summer Camp for two weeks, moving into our new home, and all the varied and seemingly never ending jobs that come with fixing up a new home.

My absence was probably a soothing balm to my critics, but it was a sincere pleasure to receive correspondence from those who wondered what happened to the column.

Down to work.... From Bill Freeman of Westernport, Md. (home of the Blue Angels Sr. Corps), comes news that the City of Frostburg, Md. is interested in starting a senior corps. Any persons or organizations having good used equipment for sale are asked to contact Robert Goldsworthy, Frostburg D & B Corps, Frostburg American Legion, Frostburg, Md. Bill explains that the Legion is not sponsoring the corps, but that the corps is using the post as a temporary meeting place. Bill promises to keep us posted on the corps' development.

Fellow drum corps scribe Gene Monterastelli from out Ottawa, Ill. way sends news of some of the behind-the-scenes activities in the midwest. Gene, for those few of you who may not know, writes a fine column for another corps paper.

Ol' buddy Maureen Mulhern of Portland, Maine forwards news of the fine show put on by the Sabres at the Lions' International Convention in Nice, France. Maureen sends a picture of the Sabres' fine young feeder outfit, the Andrews Sabres Jets. The unit, organized in '59, has been highly successful in their three years, and is trained by members of the Andrew Sabres.

Locally, on the Maryland scene, St. Mary's Jr. Corps and the Hamilton Yankee Rebels, both of Baltimore, again reign as Maryland junior and senior champs, respectively. Hamilton, on the national scene, is enjoying its greatest season in years, perhaps its greatest.

Marked improvement has been shown by the reorganized Little Flower Corps. Successful seasons also are being enjoyed by the Zorro Raiders, Hurricanes All Girls and Dundalk. Outside of Baltimore, while several corps have done outstanding jobs in '62, perhaps the most striking example would be the improvement shown by the Westminster Starlighters.

News briefs.... Fleetwood's Carnegie Hall Album fantastic - a must for all serious corps fans..... several letters from Sarnia, Ontario boosting the new all-girl corps, the Marching Saints..... another successful Drum Beauty staged by the Stillwater, Minn. Jaycees.

Not much this time - hope to do better next article.

Pageant Of Kings

Drum Corps News Sept. 12, 1962 issue

Admission:
Adults $1.25
Children .50

Wandering With The Waters
By Betty and Joe Waters
DCN Sept. 12, 1962 issue

BROCKPORT, N.Y., Aug. 1 - In size, this firemen's parade is beginning to rival the extravaganza in Greece, N.Y., reported on a few weeks ago. Due to the size, we will list the outstanding units of this parade. The Blue Angels of Greece, N.Y. - best junior firemen's drum corps. The Holley Hawks of Holley, N.Y. - the best senior non-firemen's band. Father Kelley's Boys of Batavia, N.Y. - best junior non-firemen's corps. The Grenadiers from Albion, N.Y. (that-a-way to go Bob Janus) best senior non-fiermen's drum corps. Barnard Band from Greece, N.Y. - best firemen's band. Interesting to note the Holley Hawks and Albion Grenadiers tied for color guard honors. Lake Shore Wavettes lost color guard by a mere 1/2 point.

Since the New York - Canadian Championships, Betty has been entertaining one of the cocci family - strepti by name, so we have been on our leash so to speak and had to miss some of the events that we had planned to take in in this area. This is where your friends come in handy.

From Bobby Blonowicz, we got the scores from a contest held at the county fair at Caledonia, N.Y. The Statesmen, Irondequoit, N.Y., came in first with a score of 84. The Alpine Girls were second with 79 and the Dutchtown Lancers of Rochester, N.Y. with 73.

The Crusaders were in exhibition and we understand that they outscored themselves quite a bit above the New York - Canadian Championships.

Remember, triumph is just "umph" added to "try". Hang in there.

Funeral Services Held For Mat Foy
DCN Sept. 12, 1962 issue

BURLINGTON, N.J., Aug. 27 - Funeral services for Mat Foy, past commander of Post 79, American Legion of Burlington were held here today.

Burial was in Beverly, N.J. National Cemetery. The MacFarland Cadets played at the funeral services.

Midwest Circuit Plans Dues Hike
DCN Sept. 12, 1962 issue

A motion to increase annual dues from $3 to $5 will be considered at the September meeting of the Midwest Color Guard Circuit Sunday afternoon, Sept. 16 at 2 o'clock at the Des Plaines V.F.W. Hall, 2067 Miner St., Des Plaines, Ill.

Also to be discussed are Saturday and Sunday dates and Invitational and open contests.

Plans are being made for a basic color guard school to begin Sept. 23 in Des Plaines. An advanced school would start on the same day, with a session on tabulating. The tentative plan is to hold both schools simultaneously for approximately four weeks.

DRUM CORPS HIGHLIGHTS

By Jim Gallagher and John Tully
DCN Sept. 12, 1962 issue

Some people think the PENNSY STATES were unfair, some sort of obvious discrepancies in the score sheets. Well, I saw the saw the score sheets involved and I didn't notice any discrepancies. Maybe the writer involved forgot completely about execution in the drum line of Archer-Epler, which put them way ahead of the Rockets. Plus the fact that the Epler corps and Pittsburgh tied for first in horns, and Epler also had a large lead in M&M. As far as the contest being fixed because of it being in Philadelphia, it seems to me that this is the same judging group that judged at Hershey, where Archie took third. Another fact that has sort of been misinterpreted is the fact that VASELLA had already beaten BRACKEN before the latter was disqualified.

And the rumors are that BRACKEN has disbanded shortly after the states. But the Bristol boys are thinking of putting out 39 horns next year. They've already learned two new numbers... VASELLA is also figuring on a larger corps next year and they use 36 horns already.... ARCHIE plans on using a six-man snare line again next year, and why not with the execution scores they have been getting..... While on the subject of drumming, congratulations to John Dowlan for sticking his neck out and writing his column "Drummers Service". You're in for a lot of criticism, John, but keep up the great work.

What can be said about this year's DREAM? The Dream is a dream again. The crowd was larger than ever,-seems as if it gets bigger every year. Every corps was greeted with a thunder of applause, and when the crowd saw something they liked, they showed their approval with wild enthusiasm. By far, the most exciting contest we've seen this year. GARFIELD looked great and it was swell seeing them back in the Dream again.... AUDUBON GIRLS gave the appearance of the Audubon corps of old, as they did the best job we've seen them do this year, and the crowd roared at the end of their performance..... ST. KEVINS had the crowd standing on their heads with their GE show, and BLESSED SACRAMENT was great. They are by far the top execution corps around. They were smooth, smooth and smoother.

CONN. HURRICANES proved that they are a corps to be reckoned with, and ARCHIE knocked the stands over with their large, powerful horn line. And what a drum line! Six snares - and their clean, clean, clean.... HAMILTON YANKEE REBELS, marching at the Dream for the first time in quite a few years, brought the house down with their concert of "The Stripper". SKYLINERS wild music was greeted with wild enthusiasm. And REILLY RAIDERS, accompanied by ABE LINCOLN, put on a fine performance. The scores are in another section of the paper, so we won't go into detail. The SKYLINERS were wild about the results, which put them eight tenths behind HAWTHORNE, but there were quite a few who didn't share their enthusiasm.

HAMILTON used four snares and four tenors, which brings up a subject in John Dowlan's column last issue, "Are Bigger Drum Sections Really Worth The Effort?" ARCHIE was credited as the first corps to come out with the big horn line way back when, and other corps followed suit. And now they're out with six snares and getting top execution scores. Could be other corps will follow suit. The funny part of it is, Archie uses six snares, three tenors, two bass and one cymbal. There is no overbalance in the sound of their line, they are playing difficult parts, and they receive good execution scores. Well, with all this, how come the low GE scores? They were low at the Dream, low at Lewisburg in GE drums, but high in execution drums. EXPLAIN THAT ONE.

The judge at Lewisburg swore up and down that he gave them top GE drum score, only to discover that he had put them in third position in this category. At the Dream, one horn judge, who gave them top horn mark, put the comment, "Concert could be more difficult", on their score sheet. Afterwards, Lee Wolf, (who writes their music)asked him why he thought the concert of "Camelot" was not difficult. His reply was, "It's the most difficult number played on that field today, but I know that they could play more difficult stuff." You tell me which is more difficult? Four bongos playing four different parts, as with Hawthorne; three bass and three cymbals playing uniform parts, as with Reading Buccaneers; or six snares, playing difficult uniform parts, as with Epler. And now more difficult music in the horn line. Both Hawthorne and Reading were over Archie in GE drums at Lewisburg. Why the low GE scores when the execution scores are so high, the repertoire is good, and the uniformity of the drum line is good? Well, the answer Archie gave to the judge who asked them why they didn't make the concert more difficult when he admitted it was the hardest number played on the field that day was, "WE'LL MAKE THEM MORE DIFFICULT WHEN WE GET CREDIT FOR THE DIFFICULT STUFF THAT'S BEING DONE NOW." I'm glad to hear that they will keep that six-man snare line, without credit in the GE score, because to me it's the tops.
See you next issue.

Pennsylvania Report

DCN Sept. 12, 1962 issue
By Fay & Francis O'Donnell

Western Penna's Labor Day week-end contest schedule was opened by a four corps show at East Hills Shopping Center near Pittsburgh the evening of August 31st.

Vern Acklin Cavaliers from Verona, Pa. returned to the contest scene after an absence of several years. The Cavaliers present some new music plus some from the past. This coupled with the familiar maroon and white uniforms brought back many memories to the fans.

The corps kicks off to "Who", then go into "Calypso Melody" and "Are You From Dixie?". Their concert of "I Don't Know Why" and "I Get a Kick Out of You" follow "Italian Street Song". From memory lane, there's "Jamaica Rhumba". This years' color presentation is "America The Beautiful" then it's toward the finish line to "Good Night". And might we say that the Cavaliers have had a good night as they have returned to the contest field. The corps scored a 62.3 for a fourth place.

The remaining corps; Sharpsburg Cadets - 72.9, Latrobe Colonials - 73.5, and Pittsburgh Rockets - 85.1 have appeared frequently in area competition. Their shows have been discussed. by various reporters throughout the season.

The following evening Sept. 1 the Pittsburgh Rockets were scheduled to be the first appearing corps at the Edensburg, Pa. Legion Airs contest. The announcer said that the Rockets would be late. The show started with the Westshoremen Bonnie Scots at their appointed kick-off time. They were followed by Rockets and Latrobe Colonials. The rain started during Latrobe's time on the field. Even though the contest was delayed for a half-an-hour the rain did not cease. It was necessary to declare it no contest.

We understand that a penalty was to be assesed corps that appeared late. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the contest could have continued.

Westshore drum section is looking normal again. Yes, Rockey is back on a bass drum! 'N speaking of the drummers ---- Dickie Admas will be returning Sept. 15th then things will really be back to normal..... Normie Warfle and his quartet of "friends" pleased the people during that "Alabama Jubilee" concert. Also they seemed to like the "look Ma, no hands" bit and the Westshore bombshell. Say, Jim Botts' color guard is looking better every trip out.

Seems that a lot of the people were looking for "Big Sam" Wiegand from Rockets but he was among the missing.

This is the first time this season that Latrobe Colonials were caught in the rain. Guess that they've been lucky. If the corps did not sound as good as usual, it's because they've lost a few of their members to the service and to school. Although Jeff Loux, who's one of Latrobe's drum majors, was absent this night look for him with University of Pittsburgh marching band as he is their drum major.

The rain that started at Edensburg put a very wet cover on the Allegheny County Fair show at South Park, sunday afternoon, Sept 2nd. With the rain continuing until close to contest time the corps presented a standstill exhibition. Due to the unfavorable weather conditions, the corps appeared in their practice clothes rather than uniforms. As the field was dotted with pools of water, the corps utilized a stage which is along the edge of the field. They appeared as they arrived at thr field. Blessed Sacrament followed by Madison Scouts, Optimists, St. Catherine's, Garfield Cadets, and Cavaliers from Chicago. The final corps of the afternoon was Pittsburgh Rockets who originally were scheduled to be the exhibition corps. Daniel Cook, contest chairman, introduced each of the corps and at the completion of the exhibition he also introduced each corps' business manager. At this time the County Commissioners presented the checks, which were of equal amounts, to managers of the corps which were to have competed. Dan Cook expressed the hope that the Junior corps would be able to return in the future.