Anaheim Kingsmen rise and fall 1970-1972
Keith Wilbur
in the title (Anaheim Kingsmen rise and fall 19XX). If there are multiple
posts for a year then add on to the thread for that year in order to
maintain some sense of flow. I have a feeling this could become quite
interesting.
Following my post recently regarding the status of the Anaheim Kingsmen
uniforms, I have received a number of requests to tell the story of the rise
and fall of the Kingsmen. It is kind of an interesting request because I do
not believe anyone knows all the pieces, but perhaps all of us out there
cumulatively can put the puzzle together.
I received Email espousing the positives and negatives of Rocco and also
surprisingly Don Porter too. Over the years there have been many individuals
who have commented both ways and perhaps it is time to make a concerted
effort to air it out and set the record straight.
As additional leverage to this exercise, just maybe it will prevent some
other corp from meeting the same fate someday. For those of you who are
fairly new to this activity, it is worth mentioning that in the 60's there
were more than 1000 Open Class Drum and Bugle Corps in the US and Canada.
Today, there are less than 50.
I can list the chronology of events from 1970-1972 and will depend on others
to fill in the blanks. I encourage others but only if you have useful and
factual information to share.
First however, is a partial repost from a several weeks ago regarding the
Anaheim Kingsmen. The section below gives all of you an idea of what it was
like to be a member of the corp during the time I was involved.
Being a member of the Anaheim Kingsmen required a level of military
precision and bearing that was far above other corps.
Some of the simple things like no smoking in uniform, no eating in uniform,
short haircuts, no profane language, no jewelery.
Never appearing in the stadium after a performance in uniform except as a
group. I remember in 1971 after we had completed our show in Wisconsin
somewhere, the entire corp slowly filing into the end of the stadium single
file and standing in front of our seats until the very last corp member was
in place and then all 120 or so of us sitting down at once in unison. At
that moment the crowd grew silent.
Five minute drills that lasted for well over an hour because someone moved
their eyes or looked around. Leg lift not high enough, feet are not together
at a 45 at a halt.
So fanatical were the Anaheim Kingsmen that they actually practiced lining
up the horn cases in a single straight row starting with sopranos and
graduating up to the contras using a piece of string as a guide. The cases
were always lined up in this manner when they would possibly be seen by the
public.
I can vividly recall practice at Los Alamitos Naval Air Station when all
corp members would remain silent every evening as the American flag was
taken down at dusk during presentation of colors. Not one night but every
night. You could literally here a pin drop.
Marching the parking lot at Anaheim Stadium every Sunday during the
offseason for the quest of perfection. Not just the rookies, but everyone.
The best rifle line to ever take the field, period from the standpoint of
raw precision. Remember the slap of leather on the gun bodies?
The Anaheim Kingsmen had an aura and mystique about them that made you want
to be a part of it. You knew that you were the best the activity had to
offer win or lose.
Those of you that saw the Anaheim Kingsmen in the early 70's recall that it
seemed to take forever for the Anaheim Kingsmen to get on the field. It was
slow and deliberate, all a part of that Kingsmen image.
The end result was a drum corp that all of you still talk about today. If
you never saw them in their prime, you really do not understand.
In addition, unlike today, nearly all the members of the corp were from the
Los Angeles basin. The trend towards traveling corp members "imports" had
not yet begun.
With that said here goes;
Following the 1970 season Don Porter after practice one Wednesday night held
a meeting with the corp members to outline the strategy for the coming
season. Under the tick system the Kingsmen did fairly well in execution, but
were not able to garner enough points in the GE categories to really be a
contender. For the 1971 season as Don Porter put it "we are going to put a
show together that will really please the crowd."
As an example, the 1970 concert number "The yards went on forever" which was
a real sleeper would be replaced with "Ritual Fire Dance" that would work
the crowd to a frenzy. In addition, "yards" was a very exposed piece of
music that was ripe for both phasing and intonation ticks. In addition he
went on to say that since we were from Anaheim and Disneyland was one of our
sponsors, we were going to play the Mickey Mouse Club March. Some of the
Corp members thought it was extreme but cool, and others rolled their eyes.
In the winter of 1970 Mike Duffy was brought in to write the brass book for
the upcoming 1971 season. Don Hertel wrote the drill, and Donnie Porter Jr.
I believe did most of the percussion. The percussion line was bursting with
talent. Ralph Hardimon, Tom Float, Terry Walker, and Mike Ellerby to name a
few. They all contributed to an awesome drum book complete with the snares
tossing sticks in mid air to each other during the drum solo.
The budget for the tour was in the neighborhood of $30,000 which is
miniscule by todays standards. Each corp member contributed $200 and the
rest was raised through bake sales, and gigs. And we did alot of gigs. We
opened shopping malls, Angel Baseball games, Ram Football Games, Disneyland
and Knott's Berry Farm parades. This became a point of friction between
Rocco and Don Porter, Rocco thinking it was a waste of time and a
distraction. He viewed the Kingsmen as a field performing unit, and the
Kingsmen did not have time for such things. Don Porter insisted they were
required in order to remain fiscally sound. The Kingsmen were also very
heavily involved in the parade and standstill circuit in Southern
California.
One of the cool things the color guard did at parades was to have all the
flags in a single company front and turn corners along the parade route on
the center pivot. Thirty or so girls in one front would turn 90 degrees in
about sixteen counts. The front was straight as an arrow, and it would
absolutely blow the crowd away, and to be honest it blew the brass and
percussion members away too because it seemed they never screwed it up.
During the spring parade season somewhere which I cannot remember, the horn
line pulled up too close to the guard so they could not navigate a corner.
Rocco was standing to the side of the horn line screaming at us until a
member of the law enforcement community came over and detained him thinking
he was an intoxicated bystander. To describe it he had mid shoulder length
black hair, dressed like he came from a commune, and reeked of patchuli oil.
Some of the parents referred to him as Jesus Christ, and others called him
Charles Manson. With the military bearing and professionalism that was
drilled into us, you can be sure that none of the corp members broke ranks
to claim him as ours, and we marched on down the street leaving him standing
there. Within a day or so every corp member and staff member was issued a
blue Kingsmen ID card in order to prevent any future confusion.
In 1971 the Kingsmen did two tours. On the first tour we spent a few days
near Racine Wisconsin, and many of the corp members came down with the flu.
It spread very fast and before anyone realized there was a problem, about a
fourth of the corp was sick. The housing we had was not large enough for a
quarantine area which contributed to the problem.
Later on the first tour we were housed in what I believe was Harlem at a
building that was condemmed. We arrived at night and there was no where else
for us to go. After much discussion and contemplating sleeping on the buses,
we were allowed to stay for one night only.
As the corp director, Don Porter was held personally accountable for both of
these blunders.
The Kingsmen did very well on the 1971 tour defeating every other corp in
competition at least once.
The second tour was short, and consisted of only two shows, the Mid America
Open in Overland Park, Kansas, and the VFW Nationals at the Cotton Bowl in
Dallas. The Kingsmen won the Mid-America Open by a comfortable margin and we
traveled on to Dallas, Texas for the VFW National Championship feeling as
though we were a shoo-in for the National title. As a side note the VFW
Nationals was the National Championship prior to DCI.
In Dallas we stayed at a Military Installation that I believe was Navy or
Air Force. The females were housed in Quonset huts without Air Conditioning,
and the males slept on the floor of a huge aircraft hangar in the open
exposed to the elements and the bugs. The temperature during the five day
period was well over 100 degrees in the daytime and did not seem to cool off
much at night. The practice area was a field that was hilly, and had grass
18 to 24 inches tall. We could not practice inside the aircraft hangar
because the echo was so bad. On top of it all, our solo soprano Milton Buice
was stung on the lip by a bee the night before finals and could not blow a
note.
The following night the Kingsmen placed fifth and were creamed by a wide
margin. It would be later said that everyone was on autopilot, we were
physically exhausted, and there was nothing left to give. Being in the heat
night and day for a week took it's toll on all of us. To say that everyone
was devastated would be putting it lightly.
The following weekend was the American Legion Nationals in Houston. I awoke
the morning after VFW to the guard marching up and down the street out front
chanting "Houston Houston Houston." Don Porter attempted to calm everyone
down, and relayed that the budget did not include an extra week in Houston.
Most of us really wanted to go, but it would have been a hollow victory
because almost all the other corps went home and decided to pass on the
Houston show.
Don Wells who was a step father(?) to one of the members came forward in
front of the corp and offered to loan the corp the two or three thousand
dollars for the Houston trip. Don Porter declined and we went back to
Anaheim and called it a season. At this point Don Porter had turned the
Instructors and a good number of the corp members against him.
A review of the 1971 show brought the conclusion that with a new drill,
some modifications of the color presentation music, and a new version of the
exit number "Exodus-King of Kings" we would be a tough show to beat. As a
footnote, the only number in the 1971 show that was not written by Mike
Duffy was Exodus/King of Kings. It was arranged by Greg Isabell for reasons
I still do not know.
In addition, with the national title now being the newly formed DCI show,
the rules were relaxed slightly which everyone beleived would work to our
favor given the style of our show.
After the debacle in Dallas, nearly everyone who did not age out returned
for the 1972 season. In 1972 we had very few rookies and all of us were
hungry for the DCI title. We were not going to let history repeat itself at
any cost.
During the off season the friction increased between the instructors and Don
Porter.One night in the spring of 1972 after practice, Rocco had a gathering
at the Oakwood Apartments in Anaheim where he lived. Several of the female
guard members were at the party apparently consuming alcohol that were
underage. Some were as young as 15. All hell broke loose and Don Porter
stepped up the pressure to have Rocco removed from the staff. Several weeks
later it came to a head when Don Porter aligned the majority of the parents
behind him and made his move to fire Rocco. A meeting of the parents was
held midweek, and Rocco was asked to resign. Rocco refused and in
frustration Don Porter laid out an ultimatum...He goes or I go. After
running the corp from 1958, bringing the corp to where they were, and taking
the Kingsmen through the tumultuous split with the Velvet Knights, Don
Porter quit that night, and officially resigned as the corp director the
following day. I am sure there was a whole lot else going on behind the
scenes that the corp members were never aware of.
Chaos insued with many of the parents pulling there kids out of the corp,
and the corp members really just wanting to tour. Don Wells stepped in and
appointed himself and Don Linscott as the interim corp directors. He assured
everyone that the tour could still be done, and that he could put the the
corp back together and make peace with all parties. Don Wells, who was in
the car leasing business offered a new powder blue Lincoln Continental
Towncar to the corp to use as an advance car for the tour. This would allow
someone to go ahead of the corp and check out practice sites and housing.
This would eliminate the problems of the past season with substandard
housing and practice locations.
As usual the Kingsmen traveled to San Jose's Spartan Stadium for the Pacific
Procession. The Santa Clara Vanguard took the show 83.35 to the Kingsmen's
78.65. The following weekend was the Kingsmen's "Festival of Music" show at
La Palma Stadium in Anaheim. With all the turmoil we still had not completed
the drill for the closer and were clobbered by the La Crosse Blue Stars
85.40 to 83.5. These were both huge margins under the tick system. Self
doubt set in and many members wanted to quit. Some did.
The instructor staff held a chat session the day after the Kingsmen
Invitational at which all of us that were left took a long hard look at each
other, and drew the same conclusion. We were a contender for the DCI title,
and all we really had do was get out of Southern California, get on tour,
and bust our asses because we had a lot of catching up to do.For all of us
who toured the 71 season, we had come too far to let the quest for the DCI
Championship slip between our fingers. A few days later with exactly 23 days
until DCI finals, we packed up and left for Boston four days early, along
with several standbys to fill in the holes, if for nothing else to get out
of town so we could focus.
The 1972 Kingsmen tour started on the East Coast in Massachusetts, New York,
Pennsylvania, into Ohio and the Midwest, and culminated in Whitewater,
Wisconsin at the DCI finals. Unlike 1971 and some prior years, it was all
done in one tour, with no break.
We left Anaheim, the buses rolled day and night, and we made Boston in four
days. When we arrived in Boston, we had nearly a week to practice before the
CYO Nationals. During that time we practiced all day long and quit way past
ten every night. Away from the politics of home, and the ability to finish
the show, and do some cleaning, we walked away winning the CYO Nationals. We
stunned the crowd and ourselves by defeating the home town favorite 27th
Lancers who were the eastern powerhouse at the time by a comfortable margin
83.40 to the 27th Lancers 80.30. Something else happened that night in
Boston, it rained.
The win at CYO was a tremendous moral boost for us, and a much needed shot
of adrenaline. We had several other shows in the New York, New Jersey area
winning all of them by at least a point.
The Kingsmen opted to bow out of the World Open and Danny Thomas
Invitational in order to focus on rebuilding the exit. We inserted a new
arrangement of Exodus/King of Kings by Mike Duffy, which also required a new
drill. The new exit drill was the third one of the season. One of the things
that was inserted was the now famous rifle wedge.
We stayed several days in Garfield, New Jersey. I must say that in all my
experiences in drum corp, nowhere were we treated better than Garfield. We
stayed at Garfield High School?. The neighbors across the street allowed us
to use their lawns for sectional practices, and provided refreshments. One
of the town proprietors treated the corp to Pizza at his restaurant, and to
thank all the citizens and the Garfield Cadets, we gave a free show the
night before our depature at Garfield High School. The crowd on their feet
would not stop yelling, applauding, and screaming, so we went back to the
starting line and did the show a second time for them. Even then we were
mobbed by well wishers and of all things autograph seekers.
We traveled on to to Marion Ohio and won the US Open handily over the 27th
Lancers by over three points. In Lima, Ohio we scored a 90.15 the highest
score ever recorded up to that point under the tick system. After the Marion
show we replaced the out of concert drill with a new one. This was due to
the number of ticks, and also to increase the effect, because the drill took
to long to build.
We went on to stay in Columbus and Waterton, Wisconsin the week of DCI
Finals. We had a great housing setup with a practice field nearby at a
school with no residential neighborhoods for miles. This allowed us to
practice without complaints from neighbors. We even practiced our drill in
the dark late into the evening with car headlights illuminating the field.
All along the tour we always believed we could win the DCI title. Practice
days were 12 to 15 hours long and we often practiced following shows till
late in the evening. Rocco would yell something to us when we were at the
point of exhaustion like "You can bet Santa Clara is not sitting around
right now." Even though we grew tired of his compulsive and relentless quest
for perfection we pressed on. I can recall numerous times thinking to myself
"it is clean," and then we would break down eight or so counts of the brass
book and work on it for two or three hours in the morning practice just to
remove one or two ticks. It was incredible the difference it made. In the
end it truly was clean.
By the time we arrived in Wisconsin we were a well oiled machine and
confident we could pull it off. Don Porter once said that "each and every
one of you need to have the endurance to do a one hour show, unfortunately
you only have ten minutes to entertain the crowd". From a conditioning
standpoint he was right. It is pretty amazing even now thinking about how
far we had come in such a short period of time.
Our prelim time at DCI was in the middle of the afternoon in the blazing
heat. Prelims were never a strong suit for the Kingsmen. We placed behind
Santa Clara and the Blue Stars whom we had not seen on tour since the
drubbing we took in California.
After we did our prelim show we checked in to a motel(a first), and went
back and practiced that evening till around two in the morning on the areas
the judges hit us on. The idea behind the motel which was Rocco's idea, was
to avoid a reoccurance of what happened in Dallas the previous year.
The day of finals we had a light practice in the afternoon, and then got
ready for the show.
I can still vividly remember our typical slow and deliberate entrance into
the stadium and the setup on the starting line. When the gun went off we
just clicked. Everything went right for us, you could just feel it. All the
areas of the show that we had fought problems with all season just seemed to
flow.
We received four standing ovations and the crowd was still on their feet
screaming long after we left the stadium. Afterwards everyone felt that it
was by far our best show and most were blown away by how well we did.
A few years ago I ran into Dave Luciani of Santa Clara who shared with me
that the night of DCI finals after Gayle Royer had watched the Kingsmen, he
reported back to the Vanguard and said, "all of you need to be your absolute
best tonight, because Anaheim just did the show of their lives."
At retreat we took our position on the field and they began announcing the
scores. It seems at about the 10th place point it began to rain. As the
announcer worked his way down to 9th, 8th, all the other corps began to run
off the field as the rain became a torrential downpour. With the intense
discipline that had been drilled into us, the Kingsmen stood firm until we
were told to run for the buses. As I was running I remember hearing 4th,
3rd, and by the time they got to second I was too far away to hear who won.
I remember thinking that we seemed to always prevail when it rained.
I learned the results of the first DCI while sitting on the bus soaking wet
from the rainstorm. Corp members from the other corps were coming by the bus
congratulating us. After the rain stopped I got off the bus to take a look
around and try to grasp what had just transpired. All of us tried to
maintain a sense of composure, it had been drilled into us. A lot of us I
think were in a state of shock. Several of the veterans who marched in 1971
openly cried.
I believe there is a lesson here for all....with drive, guts, and raw
determination, and despite all odds, any goal is attainable.
I learned more about myself that year than any other year in my life. The
drive and determination that I discovered within my inner self are still of
tremendous value to me today. All of us have lessons that we learned from
drum corp and I certainly learned my share.
Following the 1972 season the Anaheim Kingsmen lost a ton of people. Many
were age outs, and many decided to move on with their lives. I was among
them deciding to retire from drum corp, an activity that I was first exposed
to at the age of six, and an activity that had totally consumed me for much
of my teenage life. I also had two sisters, a brother, and a step sister who
marched with the Anaheim Kingsmen from 1969 to 1974.
At the close of the 1972 season there was one other significant
change...without the gigs for income, and staying in a motel the night
before finals, and everything else that had changed since Don Porter left,
for the first time in the history of the Kingsmen, they were no longer
financially stable.
As a footnote to the story, no corp has ever been on the verge of folding,
"ala" the 1972 Anaheim Kingsmen, and come back to win a DCI Championship.
Keith Wilbur Anaheim Kingsmen 1970, 1971, 1972
Merry Wilbur Anaheim Kingsmen 1971, 1972, 1973
Mark Wilbur Anaheim Kingsmen 1974
Karen Wilbur Anaheim Kingsmen 1972
Sherry Miller Anaheim Kingsmen 1969
Remove "nospam" from email to respond
PaNors77
>From: "Keith Wilbur" nospamd...@hotmail.com
>Date: 6/20/00 10:49 PM EST
>Message-id: <SWW35.5491$h4.4...@typhoon.tampabay.rr.com>
Wow. What an amazing story Keith. Thank you so much for your insight. I
always wondered what the deal was between Rocco and Don Porter,etc. I did hear
though, that some of those hotel/motel bills too, still never got paid because
of Rocco,etc. Enlighten me if you know anything on that.
Phil Norris
78 Anaheim Kingsmen
upper lead sop
AJLisko
>In the winter of 1970 Mike Duffy was brought in to write the brass book for
>the upcoming 1971 season. Don Hertel wrote the drill,
Was Bobby Hoffman part of the drill staff in 71? He was teaching the Skyliners
at the time and I seem to remember an amusing story he told about a Kingsmen
banquet he attended where he came out dressed as a clown - only to find
everyone else in tuxedos. Any recollection of this?
BTW - great post!
Andy Lisko
St. Raphael's/Bpt. PAL 58-68
NY Skyliners 69-81
michael davis
>
>Was Bobby Hoffman part of the drill staff in 71? He was
teaching the Skyliners
>at the time and I seem to remember an amusing story he told
about a Kingsmen
>banquet he attended where he came out dressed as a clown - only
to find
>everyone else in tuxedos. Any recollection of this?
>
>BTW - great post!
>
>
If true, too bad there were no frequent flyer miles in those
days! He was also the Cadets primary visual instructor in 71,
along with Ray Capacelli (talk about your odd couples!).
Mike
Got questions? Get answers over the phone at Keen.com.
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Keith Wilbur
would not have known him from Adam. Someone was brought in from the east to
analyze some drill manuevers and it very well could have been him. It is
also possible that he came along in 73 or later. I will check with my
brother and sister and find out for sure...
I believe Ken Norman showed up at a couple of practices during the 71 season
when we were in the Wisconsin area to listen to the brass line.
"AJLisko" <ajl...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20000621083559...@ng-cg1.aol.com...
> >"Keith Wilbur" wrote:
>
> >In the winter of 1970 Mike Duffy was brought in to write the brass book
for
> >the upcoming 1971 season. Don Hertel wrote the drill,
>
> Was Bobby Hoffman part of the drill staff in 71? He was teaching the
Skyliners
> at the time and I seem to remember an amusing story he told about a
Kingsmen
> banquet he attended where he came out dressed as a clown - only to find
> everyone else in tuxedos. Any recollection of this?
>
> BTW - great post!
>
>
James Copeland, Jr.
school (GBV 80'-81'), I can respect the disipline of the time. Alot
of that is lost in todays DCI.
J. Copeland
James C. Nevermann
for your efforts.
--
Jim Nevermann [usual disclaimers]
"The Internet is an elite organization. Most
of the world has never even made a phone call."
Paula Beard
Just to add my congrats on your beautiful post. Even though I was there
'70 - ;74 you reminded me of so much. There is little to add, except that I
vividly recall the snappy salute given each car at the Los Alamitos NAS gate
by the officer on duty - all we had to do was approach the gate, say
"Kingsmen", and the salute came, and the entry gate opened. That was so
impressive.
I was one of those parents that stood on the building at the GE side of the
practice area. I remember those 12-15 hour days. We sometimes brought our
laundry and left to do it during rehearsal. There was NO time at home - got
home from work about 5:20 and had to leave by 5:30 to be on time for those
evening rehearsals, and the long, long weekend days.
Being as my daughter (rifle Paula Popp) was only 15 and didn't yet drive, we
had to board her out with a friend part of the time because of our work. My
God, we were all so close, weren't we?
Remember the recreation building where we occasionally broke for sodas and
shade? I also recall the Air Force color guard guys watching to learn "how
it was done".
I recall, after she learned to drive,how "waiting for Paula to get home"
became a way of life - she had my car. Standing on the porch at midnight -
staring down the street for car lights. Two instances - my car was a big,
wide Dodge - down the street car two little lights and she was deposited
from someone's VW at about 1 a.m., and another where the Dodge pulled into
the driveway, the kid got out and pulled a tire from the back seat, rolled
it up and said HI. These are two other stories of no interest here.
I most remember on tour the talk of the people around us - who had seen the
gym floor laid out with such precision and couldn't believe it, or just
watched the corps enter the field. Riding in the buses - an experience all
its own. On the drum bus, for instance, all the drummers played their
parts - together - as they sang the show. Hit all the intros, etc. It was
a constant practice.
I recall the clothes the kids had to wear in public. Remember the blazers.
Girls in skirts.
I very much miss the military bearing, so long a huge part of the activity.
It led to such incredible discipline, but the kids had to buy in. I find it
doubtful that the kids today would want to, if any staff could even envision
it.
Keep the memories coming Keith. I am 65 years old now, and there still has
been no better time in my life than what we describe here. All you
youngsters, appreciate what you are going thru, while you are doing it. It
not only makes a pretty great person out of you but someone you will
remember with fondness very much later.
Jodeen Popp
"Keith Wilbur" <nospamd...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:pC445.6131$h4.4...@typhoon.tampabay.rr.com...
> I do not recall him being there. Bobby was not a legend back then, so I
> would not have known him from Adam. Someone was brought in from the east
to
> analyze some drill maneuvers and it very well could have been him. It is
> also possible that he came along in 73 or later. I will check with my
> brother and sister and find out for sure...
>
> I believe Ken Norman showed up at a couple of practices during the 71
season
> when we were in the Wisconsin area to listen to the brass line.
>
>
> "AJLisko" <ajl...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20000621083559...@ng-cg1.aol.com...
> > >"Keith Wilbur" wrote:
> >
> > >In the winter of 1970 Mike Duffy was brought in to write the brass book
> for
> > >the upcoming 1971 season. Don Hertel wrote the drill,
> >
reggae ron
the instructional staff was Rocco, Fred Sanford and Pete Emmons, I
remember well the on- and off-field rituals we went through, i.e., the
shaved back of the neck, dressing in suits and ties to attend a gig,
etc. What was seen by some as arrogance was in reality an
esprit-de-corps and motivation builder that worked! I learned a lot
marching that year and some of those things held over in life even more
than 30 years later. I appreciated greatly marching with Anaheim in
the l967 corps. If I hadn't got drafted I could've even marched my
first Nationals before age-ing out but life is what happens to you when
your're making different plans! Thanks, Keith, for the information,
and, by the way, Dave Luciani of SCV was one of my housemates, along
with Gary Moyer, Stanley Knaub, Kevin Walters, and Don Quigley, all
SCV, when I moved to NoCal in '72. (We were "The Bogart Brothers!")
Nice job of reportage here! Thanks, Ron C. Housley, '67 KMEN
(performer), '71 Lynwood Diplomats, brass instructor/arranger, and
arranger for '72 Mandarin, '72 Redwood City Guardsmen, and lots of
other corps in both NoCal and SoCal as well. (Currently inactive but
still interested in drum corps in general. Email: Ron Housley @
hotmail.com)
In article <SWW35.5491$h4.4...@typhoon.tampabay.rr.com>, "Keith
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Paula Beard
Just a little more detail - about the lengthy stay in Garfield mentioned
herein: I recall that the mayor of the city of Garfield arrived each
morning with a load of bagels for the whole corps. He earned the affection
of the corps and the parents. What a great thing to do. The corps retained
a great affection for the Cadets, and they were alike in many ways.
Also, that incredible summer of '72 - my husband and I took a few days to do
Boston and environs while the corps went to U.S. Open. As we sat in the New
Lenox Hotel on Boylston, all we could think about was how did the corps do
in Marion.
Finally, I could take it no longer and picked up the phone - probably after
1:00 a.m. in Boston. Having no contact there, all I could think of was
calling the Police Department in Marion, Ohio.
A rather raucous sounding cop answered the phone - laughing, noisy office,
and said "howdy there". It took me back a bit, but I said I needed some
information about the U.S.Open Drum and Bugle Corps contest, very recently
concluded there in Marion. He yelled "my corps won! Anaheim!"
We talked for about 5 minutes, and you'd have sworn that cop had a kid in
the horn line, he was so happy.
Turns out he had been on duty at the show, and fallen totally in love with
the Kingsmen. Bless his heart - it made my week.
A few days later we met the corps in Union for the Sac show - that was the
one with the multi-mentioned "sitting sightings". It was about 2 days after
the Kingsmen had also won CYO. At that particular contest, the Color Guard
was in ultra-grand condition and performed extraordinarily sharp in regards
to the CG response to the announcement of each placement - you know, the
20-30 count maneuver performed to salute each corps as their scores were
announced. The audience applauded for the guard after each
mini-performance. What a crowd.
What a year.
Jodeen Popp
"reggae ron" <charlottem...@msn.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:1c31fd54...@usw-ex0106-048.remarq.com...
> Most informative detail here. As a member of the `1967 Kingsmen, when
> the instructional staff was Rocco, Fred Sanford and Pete Emmons, I
> remember well the on- and off-field rituals we went through, i.e., the
> shaved back of the neck, dressing in suits and ties to attend a gig,
> etc. What was seen by some as arrogance was in reality an
> esprit-de-corps and motivation builder that worked! I learned a lot
> marching that year and some of those things held over in life even more
> than 30 years later. I appreciated greatly marching with Anaheim in
> the l967 corps. If I hadn't got drafted I could've even marched my
> first Nationals before age-ing out but life is what happens to you when
> you're making different plans! Thanks, Keith, for the information,
> > short haircuts, no profane language, no jewelry.
> > building that was condemned. We arrived at night and there was no
> > the rules were relaxed slightly which everyone believed would work
Matthew "Brian" Bailie
the same trying to bring the championship back to Anaheim. It was kinda
eerie when I read these posts and it brought back the memories of that year.
The year from hell as I remember it.
T. D.
Kingsmen Colorguard
Paula Beard wrote in message ...
>"WHERE HYPE BEGAN". Amen.
>
PaNors77
>From: reggae ron charlottem...@msn.com.invalid
>Date: 6/22/00 2:48 PM EST
>Message-id: <1c31fd54...@usw-ex0106-048.remarq.com>
>
>Most informative detail here. As a member of the `1967 Kingsmen, when
>the instructional staff was Rocco, Fred Sanford and Pete Emmons, I
So Rocco was really there in 67?? Was he still playing at Disney at the same
time?? Bob Valle was in the Alice In Wonderland band with Rocco(you should see
the pics) around that time. Maybe it was 66,not sure. Rocco had a big
mustache then. Looked like an itailian barber or something,lol. Anyway, Bob
doesn't remember anything about drum corps or Kingsmen while hanging with Rocco
then. He did tell me of certain "escapades" with the girls in the pics at
Rocco's apartment after the gig,lol.
Phil Norris
Kingsmen-78