June 24, 2025 • 49 mins
Harold Barber- Archive Historian/Carter Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps Brooklyn New York.
Edward Dalton - Alumni VIP Drum & Bugle Corps Washington D.C.
Richard Dawson - Board Member Metropolis Drum & Bugle Corps Brooklyn N.Y.
Blake Scribner - CEO of Scribner Media Fla/LA
Elmo James - Wynn Center Toppers Drum & Bugle Corps Alumni.
Ron Wyatt - His photos have appeared in various publications such as: USA Today, Black Enterprise Magazine, Time Magazine, Newsweek, TV Guide, ESPN, and others.
Movie Reviews and More is broadcast live Tuesdays at 5PM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Movie Reviews and More TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Movie Reviews and More Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Edward Dalton - Alumni VIP Drum & Bugle Corps Washington D.C.
Richard Dawson - Board Member Metropolis Drum & Bugle Corps Brooklyn N.Y.
Blake Scribner - CEO of Scribner Media Fla/LA
Elmo James - Wynn Center Toppers Drum & Bugle Corps Alumni.
Ron Wyatt - His photos have appeared in various publications such as: USA Today, Black Enterprise Magazine, Time Magazine, Newsweek, TV Guide, ESPN, and others.
Movie Reviews and More is broadcast live Tuesdays at 5PM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Movie Reviews and More TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Movie Reviews and More Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors or station
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
(00:22):
the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
suggested ideas.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And there it's Brian Sebastian movie reviews and more.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
And if it's Tuesday, always give to your favorite charities.
For one we leave our artists ranch. Always describe to
the arts the world, the drumming vigacors, those people that
made things happen. This is Brian Sebashian movie Byvie's and more.
And we're streaming out over one other outlets right now
around the world. This is show number one hundred and
fifty eight Live in a row in keeping our streak
(01:28):
going and obviously streaming on it two four seven out
of Franklin, Tennessee Women on TV dot TV and the
Woman's Broadcasting Channel which is now www.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
World TV Network.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And a good thing about this, I've been waiting for
this show for a long time and I pushed it
once because I wanted to make sure that everybody could
get on.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
For one, I wanted to make sure it was close
to drum Core season.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
For two, I wanted to make sure that I got
a chance to briefly talk to everybody. For three, I
had to make sure I could get rid of all
of my hosts minus Carrol, because they don't miss show.
Now you can see how credit we are on this.
For one, now, if we had our regular host on,
four more people, there'd be no room. So I said,
take the night off. They go, why because they hate
(02:11):
missing shows. I said, it's all about drum Corps. They go, Okay,
do we have to? Can't we come on like there's
no room. So the whole thing about this we got
to think a man Moe Clark, because Moe put me
in contact with Alma and a couple other people. We
got to thank all of these people. And I want
to start first with Carol. Carol introduced yourself because Carol
(02:32):
didn't have to be on a show. She wanted to
be on a show, and she knows how much I
love the world of drum corep activities and the world
drum Corps.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Dad.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Carol telling who you are.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
That's right. I'm Carol Register.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
I'm the creator of the Neurowealth Method, and I take
women from six to seven figures. I am absolutely passionate
about what I do. This is a time and history
where we particularly love you guys who love us women
and are holding us high and impowering us at this
time in history because great women deserve great wealth in
(03:06):
order to make great impact, just like you guys. So
I also co host, in addition to movie reviews and more,
the Unleashed and Unstoppable podcast. We talk about the neuroscience
of leadership, health and wealth. And I'm super excited to
be here with you guys. I'm super excited to know
(03:27):
about drum Corps the passion. I was a long time
gymnastics judge, high level judge and clinician in my family history,
so I can definitely relate to all of the athleticism
and the discipline and you know the camaraderie that you
guys have applied in what you do.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
So I'm super excited to hear about it.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
And then so because I came from radio, we got
to start off with the radio guys. So I Almo,
you put everybody together. We got to start with. You
tell them who you marsh with, what state you're in,
and what you're doing. Now go for it, you know
all of us. Yep, the cont Oh.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
He's freezing, he's lagging. Yeah, dragon again.
Speaker 7 (04:14):
I sent them the link where get in contact with
Mo clock and sent them the link where he can
watch this as well. But yeah, Melmo James. I've been
in the media for maybe about too many years account.
I've been in drum corps, you know, pretty much all
my life, off and on. I love the activity. I
don't like where the activity is now. And that's what
we're here to talk about.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Edward Darton go ahead.
Speaker 7 (04:36):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (04:36):
I were VPS Drumm and bople Call Washington d C.
I started with, uh the Boys Club Washington d C.
Uh Boys Club number two. Uh get the book, y'all please.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
It.
Speaker 6 (04:55):
Uh my my.
Speaker 9 (04:56):
My involvement in drum Calls happened through uh.
Speaker 8 (05:00):
Uh you know the fact that I joined the band
in junior high school and boys Club was right down
the street from us, you know, and they like to
they like to show off their group and attracted some
of the musicians from the band.
Speaker 9 (05:14):
I was one of them.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So what's the age that you and what did you play.
Speaker 8 (05:18):
Let's see, I was junior high school, so seventh grade.
How old are you in the seventh grade. I don't
know anymore. Seventy yeah, something like that. I'm seventy three now,
so it was that been many years ago. And uh,
you know, and and I should add to that, my
(05:39):
my neighborhood didn't offer much to me. Uh when I
went to school. Uh, you know, I opened my doors
in the morning, and it was almost an effort for
me to uh make that distance from six and M
Street to First in Tims. But when I latched on
to the Boys Club, Boys Club Drumming Bugle Corps.
Speaker 9 (06:02):
You know, a whole nother world open up to me.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's what that's about.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
That's Pireld Barber, not Carol Careld Barber.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (06:14):
I started out nine years old at the church Glockenshville
Junk Corps. I played symbols, and then my junior high
school teacher he started the Catie Cadets and we had
the Carta Cadet. German Bugle Corp members came in toward US.
I transitioned. I met rutched with them from one year
(06:34):
sixty nine and they folded, and then I joined Saint
Meets Brassman, Drumman Bugle Corps, and I finished out my
jump core career the New York Skyliners.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
How many years did you? How many years?
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (06:47):
My god, a long time, bro, give us a number.
This is important, right, So we're talking on the field
from nineteen sixty nine, last on the fields two thousand
and one.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I believe. How many years is that?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Harold?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
How many years?
Speaker 11 (07:07):
Long time?
Speaker 6 (07:07):
You know?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Two? Two? Last? Long time?
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And the reason I'm saying is Carol ten years. I
think how many years? Roughly about fifteen?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I believe Steve March longer than that. What are you
talking about? Six sixty nine to oh one? No, how
much some years off in between, it doesn't matter all that.
Speaker 12 (07:29):
It doesn't matter some years off between.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Uh huh yeah, but you're still going to drump shows worship.
Speaker 10 (07:37):
No, not really until the beginning of the eighties.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Okay, yeah, all right, Richard Dawson, who's your marche Where
are you coming from?
Speaker 13 (07:49):
I'm marched with uh Winstons and Junior Core from sixty
six to seventy two, March with Elmo James.
Speaker 9 (07:57):
So that's my that's my partner. From Winds Center went
like horow I was in Skyliner.
Speaker 13 (08:03):
So I marched in Skylines in seventy two, which was
one of mega cors for nineteen seventy two. And currently
I'm a legal consultant and didn't spend that many years
in drum courts, probably actively marching about eight to ten years.
Speaker 9 (08:23):
But it had a big, big impact on me.
Speaker 14 (08:27):
Well, I was hanging around with the wrong people in
my town. And my father was a bus driver and
he took the Cranford Patriots to Wildwood to do Elks
Parade or American leach In Parade, and he happened to
blab that his son played the drums, and they said, well,
(08:47):
bring him along and we'll teach him.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
How to do drum courts.
Speaker 14 (08:50):
So my father comes home, he tells me and my
sister were going to do drum court.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
I don't want to do no coiny drumming bugle court. Well,
I'm not asking you, I'm telling you.
Speaker 14 (09:01):
So he forced me to go to my first show,
which was in nineteen sixty nine July at Memorial Field
in Cranford, and I was so rebellious that they sat
like on the fifty yard line.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
I sat in the end zone up on the hill and.
Speaker 14 (09:17):
The reason why I reacted to Saint Rita's Brassmith because
that was one.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Of the first chorus I heard.
Speaker 14 (09:24):
And when they played the three B tap going off
the field and I could do it, I was hooked.
And to this day, I'm still following Drum Corps.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
I shoot for Drum Corps.
Speaker 14 (09:34):
World and right now I'll be getting on the plane
at the last weekend in July to do Nashville, et cetera,
et cetera.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
And I this weekend Saturday, I just celebrated.
Speaker 14 (09:46):
My fiftieth year of doing photography and my seventieth birthday.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
And there was only.
Speaker 14 (09:52):
One other guy in my town that made it out
that wasn't either on drugs, in jail or dead. And
we're the only two that made it out of Woodbridge,
New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
And it was because of Drum Corps.
Speaker 15 (10:06):
Uh.
Speaker 14 (10:07):
It saved my life, you know. So that's my story
and I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 16 (10:11):
Out of d cut, out of d C I I've
only missed four finals since DC I started, okay, and
two was because I was covering the Olympics one year
I was the gymnastics team photographer and then another year
I went to.
Speaker 14 (10:30):
My son started college. So that's it. I'm sorry for
hogging the show.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
No, no, this is what it's all about.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
People need to hold they need to know the back history,
how old we were when we were taking off the
streets and everything like that. Let's talk about this photo
and Blake, we're gonna get to you, all right, Someone
talk about this photo.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I took that shot. Ron, you took that shot, Yes,
that I.
Speaker 10 (10:52):
Was following up. I heard he was going to parade.
I had my trusty little codat and I just lined
that up and DC Elmo there on the end. They
came through and the top of it came through that
the community.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Okay, so see that that small timpany.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
I carried that small timpany and I was very very small,
and I just remember in a parade like this, because Carol,
we had the marching parades, we were forced to marching parades.
I was so tiny that my mother was running to
the right d side of me, thinking I was gonna
topple over. But I made it through the five miles
of that parade, and I kept looking once my mom
(11:31):
embarrassing me, I'm gonna make it.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And then when I made it.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I went ooh, and everybody clapped because they didn't think
I was gonna make it.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
That's amazing. And did you guys all start around nineteen
sixty nine?
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Sorry, go ahead, Elmo, say.
Speaker 12 (11:47):
Richard Dawson, you were in that right, in that timpany line.
Speaker 9 (11:49):
Right, Yeah, I'm right next to you. Yeah, I thought so, Yeah, yeah,
I'm right next to.
Speaker 13 (11:57):
Wow.
Speaker 9 (11:58):
Yeah, it's Elmo, Me, Laddie and Plumber. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Hey, Blake, before we get to the next vent, before
we get to this shuttle, tell us who you are
and what you're doing and why you're here.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Sure.
Speaker 15 (12:13):
My name is Blake Scribner with Scribner Media, and I've
had my company for thirty five years. I've been making
films since I was eleven years old, So telling stories
has been a passion.
Speaker 11 (12:25):
Fast forward about a year ago.
Speaker 15 (12:28):
Got a call from Elmo and say, hey, I've got
an idea, and so he started introducing me to Drum Corps.
And like any good onion, the more you feel it
more interesting it becomes. And it started out as you know,
let's do a documentary, you know, a short story documentary,
(12:48):
then an hour, then let's do a feature document and
as we were going through this. As we were exploring
more and more, Uh, it ends up that it looks
like it's going to be an an eight part docuseries
is what we're looking at at this point. And I'm
humbled by the stories and that this the whole Drum Corps.
(13:12):
I'm a musician myself, but I had no idea that
Drum Corps even existed. I didn't understand the history of
it until I started to, you know, look of its
origins and the fact that I was able to converse
with these gentlemen and this and even though they all
they unified around Drum Corps, they all come at it
(13:33):
from a different perspective, which is amazing in different communities.
And so you know, this is one thing where the
music truly unified the community. So I'm humbled and honored
and I'm just here to listen, and anytime you'd like
me to expand on what we're doing, I'll feel free
to share that with you. But thank you for inviting me,
and again, thank you. I am super super humble.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Now the reason why this is important and again I
got that Will Clark is mo. We've never met in person,
but he marched in two seven twenty seven lancels from
a rear mass. Half of our corps went to twenty
seventh and everybody from the scott Standard well he marched
for Mary Man. A lot of great people. I think
I think forty members of the New London Surfers. When
(14:17):
I started, was called the New London Whalers, and my
mother quit me in the cores. The three things my
mother did for me, and I'm thankful to this day.
She made me joined the Drum and Vigo Corps because
my uncles went in it. I wanted to you, but
I was too shy to say, can I do this?
So thank you Mom for making me do that, because
until this day I'm a Drum Corps nut. And the
(14:38):
reason why I have the drum corn Nut Instagram because
I saw a badge way way back in the seventies.
I said I'm gonna use that one day, and that
one day I grabbed it.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The black guy grabbed it. What does that tell you?
Nobody else does that? And then the band director Don
mc tavish.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I went to mixed school, all white High School when
I joined the New London them Surfers from nineteen seventy four,
and that which was their best year, and it was
one of those things where certain people from around were
joined in and it was great. Then he goes, Brian,
you came with no recommendation from school. We didn't even
know you were coming to an all white school. And
I told them what to do. The drums were tilted.
(15:18):
Now we're straightening these things up. We're gonna play Santa
Clair Vanguard. We're gonna do a little bit of Bridgeman,
we're gonna do a little bit of twenty seven Planters.
And at that point, and then since their colors were
maroon and gold ron the Cadets colors, we looked like
the Cadets. So after my band director let me the
black guy in all white high school.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Do my thing.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
The second thing my mom did move us to the
mixed school, to an all white school to.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Have that better education. And at that one point we
started winning.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Now, if I had known what these guys, these kids
were thinking, I wouldn't have done it. They were like,
who's this black guy coming in telling us white kids
what to do? But the band director knew. I drunk ward,
he goes, Brian, make us better. We need to win.
They were good, but they weren't good enough and by
the time I graduated and only two years we won States.
We won everything, and to this day there's.
Speaker 9 (16:11):
A lot of rest.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
That's right, we're still doing it. And you know what,
and Harold knows this. That's our street beat was from
Bobby Craig. Bobby Craig.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Bless it's sad when he was teaching Polish Facon Cadets
in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
He was also teaching New London surfers.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
So at the moment's in it, Bobby's there, Oh, we
got a parade to deal.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
We don't have a street beat. Street beat, not a cadence.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I still call it a street beat, and Bobby gave
us the Polish Falcon Cadets. I used that street beat
right up until nineteen eighty two. They started the calling
at BS for Brian Sebastian. I said, no, I didn't
do this, Bobby ChRI did it. I said, but they
all liked it. So imagine this. We all saw if
you had a good street like the CMCC Warrior had
(17:00):
a great drum beat, and people were dancing on the street,
Black people because they have to feel the rhythm, and
white people like nod in their heads like this.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
They knew it was good.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Now, well you do have rhythm, that's why I like you.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Can. I tell you a quick story about Bobby Craig.
So I was in the Cranford Patriots.
Speaker 14 (17:24):
Then I went to the Polish Falcon Cadets, and Bobby
Craig was our instructor, and boy, oh boy, was he
the toughest person to try to teach you to be
the best drum line. And we were really, really a
good drum line. But I couldn't stand him. It was
never good enough. So every year I would quit, and
then around around March April, i'd come and see the
(17:46):
core of practice. All right, what's open? I want to
come back. And and I couldn't stand Bobby so much
that I named one of my kids after him. One
of my kids is Nicholas b alexanderder Wyatt, all right,
just because because he taught me out of perfect and
has a photographer to this day. The same technique of
(18:10):
wanting to make it the best it possibly could be was.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
What I learned from Bobby Craig.
Speaker 14 (18:16):
And like I said, every year I could, I couldn't
take him anymore. But then I had to name one
of my kids after him.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
So that's my so, so here's my Bobby Craig story.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Remember Bobby used to hit us in the knuckles back
in the day, Remember getting hit So my knuckles these
are from Bobby Craig.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
That in martial arts.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
So you know I got I gotta but Bobby started
before I got into martial arts. But till this day,
I think Bobby Craig for being in Carroll. He was
a black instructor. We didn't we didn't have black constructor.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
He came from New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
And you know, anybody remember Thomas Brown who Mary.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
I marched with Tom Brown.
Speaker 14 (18:58):
Yeah, I marched with them Tom exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
My favorite number is number seven? Where did I get it?
Speaker 4 (19:06):
From?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Santa Clair Van Guard?
Speaker 13 (19:08):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Hey, Brian, you know I was looking.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
Harold wrote an article for Black History Month as a
historian and a school teacher.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
That was a great article.
Speaker 6 (19:19):
And you mentioned some of these drum corps, you know, groups,
the names of them, and you were referring to some
really prominent people back in the day. Do you remember
some of those guys that you mentioned in that article
you wrote.
Speaker 10 (19:35):
Yes, we were talking about that earlier this evening. I
wrote the one for junk Core World in two thousand
and six.
Speaker 11 (19:43):
And then Mike Boob I think he.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Marched in and Kevilz he reached out to me.
Speaker 10 (19:48):
He wanted me to do something for a Black History
Month for DCI, the their website and everything. But most
of my earlier instructors were from Prodecadet's one guy. His
name was Waynaem Allen. They called him Chicken. Uh, I
guess we feel like chicken. And he taught us and
(20:10):
I remember him when.
Speaker 11 (20:12):
We fooled around.
Speaker 10 (20:14):
He would just have us play a drum roll until
he looked at the clock and said, okay, we're gonna
drum this role for the next forty five minutes, you know,
yeah okay, And there was no stopping.
Speaker 11 (20:27):
If anybody broke during the.
Speaker 10 (20:29):
Role, we would have to start all over again. Then
Danny Jones, another UH African American snare drum for cards
and he took me to another level.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Wow wow, yeah it was. It was a great article, Brian.
Speaker 6 (20:45):
I I thought that was really cool for bringing out
the history, you know, and highlighting that talk.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
About monox Oh yeah, the Great Knocks.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
That's when again that's win Center, I think in nineteen
sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
And Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I mean when you look at this, you just you
just those heavy drums, and you know, any anybody who
had timpany with no legs on it, your backs start
turning automatically. And those symbols you had to flip those sindals,
you had to twist them because that was the big thing.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
But man, those were the days.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
And for them people the audience that doesn't know, drumm
at Bigle Corps came out of the military BFW, everything
like that, going way way back to the Civil War
for people that don't know. And then Rob, we've got
some photos of you that we showed. I thought that
I grabbed a bunch of them up to the day.
Now that thought was cool. I thought this was cool
because this is what you see today. Why did you
(21:46):
take this photocause I thought it was great?
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 14 (21:48):
No, I like to do behind the scenes when I'm
covering DCI and I would go before shows or go
to their camp or go to practice field. And this
gentleman was one of the instructors and he's bringing some equipment.
I'm pretty sure he was from the Blue Coats and
(22:10):
the Blue Coats drum line. When they warm up the
drum instructor puts a drum set up and he practices
and rehearse and warms up the drum line while playing
playing the drum set. And that's an assistant instructor that's
rolling this to their spot where they're gonna do their
warm ups. I believe that was in Philadelphia. There was
(22:35):
like a soccer field that they dc I would run
a show.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
I remember, and this is yes, this is Blue Devils
for you know.
Speaker 14 (22:46):
I have maybe one or two negative stories about drum Corps,
and one of the negative stories that I don't really
like a certain person that leads the field when it
comes to photography. I've shot uh NFL, Major League Baseball,
two Summer Olympic games, and this particular gentleman always gives
(23:09):
me a hard time when I come to photograph for show.
So I like to go sit in the stands and
photograph from the stands. I don't want to be on
the field if I can help it. So a lot
of times I'm doing these type of shots from from
the field with long lenses and uh and it's a
different perspective to see drum corps.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
And I love this beat right here. This is the
Cavaliers Carol, this is all all male drum cord. There's
only two left.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
No, there's only one.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah, there are the only ones now yeah, yeah they're
the last one.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
So yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
This beat that they walk off to is always a
bait speed and they call it Iowa uh and I
believe the story when they were an Iowa they.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Came up to this beat.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
They've been playing this one base beat, which is great
that everybody in the drum corps will knows of that
to I think nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, they're the only ones that walk off with this.
Beside Santa Clair. They've got their beat that goes going
back to seventy three.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
And so the horn Doctor, the horn Doctor was on
a show and I saw this. I'm like, oh, I
gotta use this because he was on a show.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
What he does he repairs.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
He started with the Boston Crusaders from Boston, Massachusetts, and
he started to repair horns and he got so good
they started calling him the horn Doctor, and other chorus
was start to use them. He's in Kansas City, but
he goes around with the drum course and repairs all.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
The horns because it's hard to find someone to repair instruments.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Right right, yeah, And this one is interesting.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Because these two people were playing for the xylophone and
they were they were taking turns, jumping back and forth
on it, and they were spinning them in a circle,
and I thought.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
That phone was great.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Yeah, yeah, that's Cavaliers.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
So the reason why I put this one up because
you guys know, we naver got any food when we want,
we either brought your lunch or the New London Servers
held the record for thirty seven stops to McDonald's. No,
imagine this, hey, rebel, you can take that off for
a minute. Now, imagine this, thirty seven stops going to McDonald's.
(25:24):
Imagine you're at a McDonald's employee and you see this
old bus, five buses coming up where there's almost one
hundred some kids rushing in.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
And they're calling people. I saw this.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
They're calling people because they're not prepared for this. We disappeared.
That's how we eat now. If you were twenty seven lancers,
my friend Mary will tell you they didn't have any money.
They were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwich or one
sided peanut butter. You don't talk about these great things
back in the day but Yelmo, Harold and I'm sure Richard,
(26:00):
you guys, these are the stories that that happened.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
That's how we ate, that's how we lived.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Brian, you guys, who is your tea?
Speaker 7 (26:10):
Yeah, A lot of these a lot of those photos
are wonderful. Uh where they have taken their activity to
that level. But you know, I would like to hold
you know, hone in personally. How did them doing that
effect from and bugle corps in the black community? Where
(26:33):
are there? You know where are there now? We couldn't
afford the fees to do d c I. That's why
during our research there was so we found out so
much information in the amount of course African American drum
corps that were spread out throughout the United States.
Speaker 12 (26:50):
Trust me, when you get this in the series that
we do, you're not gonna believe it.
Speaker 7 (26:54):
But what happened? Where did they go? It couldn't it
couldn't afford the feed. They couldn't afford the fee to
be a part of d c I. It affected the
communities in general, and then it affected them into it
affected the kids individually because they couldn't afford to feed.
Speaker 12 (27:12):
To get into a d c I drump of Google Corps.
Speaker 7 (27:15):
The the traveling was the local and number exact. Can
just give you New York for example. You know where
we would travel from New York to Brooklyn, to Queens
to Long Island. The travel was minimal. We might go
to to d C or the or VIPs for example.
They might come into Brooklyn, so the kids would be
(27:38):
home that next night or that next day they come
come in, then that morning, by the afternoon time and
evening they're back home sleeping in their beds. And right now,
the kids in the community, especially in the inner city communities.
Speaker 12 (27:53):
Don't have that luxury anymore. And that's why you know,
we're doing this documentary. Now, what the hell, what the
hell happened?
Speaker 7 (28:03):
Yeah? Did this activity just totally get taken out of
the black communities where it belonged, where it started, where
it started to prosper. And if you can find one,
how I think we didn't find one, didn't we know?
Speaker 8 (28:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
It was it was all a wrap for New York
City rs.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
Yeah, in the seventies on, anyone that lasted long was uh,
you get had the lasses New York lasses.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
Uh.
Speaker 10 (28:33):
They made it into the eighties and worries made it
into the eighties. I think by nineties early nineties it
was a rap.
Speaker 9 (28:40):
Yeah, when you look at a city like New York.
Speaker 13 (28:42):
Just in Brooklyn you had once to carda Cadets, riversiders
you had and and smaller car course that may not
have been on a competitive level. But now there's nothing
because of its course prohibited. You certainly can't do in
DCI because, as almost said, the kids can't afford the
fees that you have to pay, which I believe runs
(29:04):
into the thousands of dollars.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
To last year, I talked to some family for the
Blue Coats and Blue Devils.
Speaker 14 (29:14):
It's costing between five thousand and seven thousand dollars a
year to march. And then if you want to if
you live in New York and you want to be
in the Blue Devils, then you got to fly out
once a month for practice.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Okay. And so it is really, really, really bad.
Speaker 14 (29:33):
And I just started, you know, I'm not really making
it a race issue, but I just started watching some
of the corps is starting to put things on YouTube
now and I'm not seeing a lot of black musicians
and a lot of the drum corps right now, and
I you know, it's like for me. I hear older
people complain that drum Corps isn't the way it was
(29:55):
in the seventies, but that's not how I look at
drum Corps. I look at drum Corps because it saved
my life. It made me the person in space. So
I don't care about the new way they play in
that they don't do the march like we used to,
and they do all the things they do now. But
I just wish more people in my situation from the
city could join because it is a life change and
(30:17):
experience and and and it's maybe who I am today.
And that's the one part I regret.
Speaker 7 (30:24):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
And I think even DCI.
Speaker 14 (30:27):
Is in trouble now because it's so expensive, you know,
to pay for insurance to travel for the drum Court
is astronomical to the figures.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
And that's the sad part about it, you know, d C,
d C I.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Drum Corps International.
Speaker 6 (30:45):
Is that what?
Speaker 13 (30:45):
Yes, yes, yes, but I think has to get back
to the ground level, back to starting parade corpse. And
if you want to set up a circuit like we
had when we were in drum Corps in the local
cities and the local.
Speaker 9 (31:02):
Communities, every court does not have to be d c I.
Speaker 13 (31:06):
It is quite inhibitive, and I actually think that I
appreciate d CI chors, but it could be a waste
of money. The money could have been could be spent
wisely and have more of impact and have the impact
that Ron is talking about.
Speaker 8 (31:22):
Well, Richard, this begs the question for me is who's talking?
This begs the question for me, Richard? Just feeding off
of what you just said, Uh is we had bf W,
we had American Legion, we had we had I just
(31:45):
I just pointed this book out to you. Here the
the the Boys Club of America.
Speaker 9 (31:51):
Where did they go? What happened to them?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I can tell you what happened.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
It's the same thing when I was asked joined the
Beverly Hills Friars Club in the early nineties. They had
no minorities. Anybody remember friend the Hammer Williamson. He was
the first one in a guy, a black guy who
in real estate.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
And I was just I was just you think of
this Butch from.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
The Original Little Rascals, Tommy Witchbond and everybody remember, oh God,
my good friend he was in It's a mad, mad,
mad mad world. Oh he had a show in the fifties.
I can't believe. I can't remember his name. Who not Rochester, No, no, no,
(32:35):
it'll it'll come to me.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
But he brought him in. Knew that, and they the reason,
he said, Brian, the reason we want you to come.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
In because our members are older, whiter, and they're aging
and they're dying off. We don't have anybody to replace
them with. And this is in nineteen ninety one or
ninety two. They said that to me and I said.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Oh, I'll join in.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
And when I got in there, I was like, oh,
this is interesting. They didn't have anybody to replace the
aging members, and.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Then they didn't know how to do that. And the
reason why DCI is in trouble, it's the same thing.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
And so for me being in Hollywood, I see this
in the movie where why people aren't going to the
theaters or why things aren't being replaced. I talked to
Carol about these things at a film festival, and I
say film festivals are dead because they're not getting it.
When I'm the only person there who's a movie critic
or the person of color. They're covering a white film festival.
Even though I don't look at it like that, that's
(33:28):
not good. Great for me, more access for me, but
that's not what I want. I want to be able
to share this with other people.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
That's why.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
And Carol knows when I'm putting up the content, it's
all the content that I had. That's what happened because
CYO in Boston was one of the best shows there.
You know Americans, you know VFW, I love going to AI.
It was something American Allegian or something in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
I think it was.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
That's why we got a chance to travel to all
their shows and I remember those things like that is important.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Can it be done?
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Richard? I believe it can.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
On what you're talking about, Albert, are you on the
right track? I believe you are when you're talking about
that Blake. I think it's a great thing that you're
doing these things.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Harold. My hat goes off to you from marching and
teaching all those years.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Ron, I really celebrate you because I didn't know you
were a black photographer out there shooting. We met by
accident on a zoom call with one of our friends.
We had no idea and then my friend said, uh,
he goes, did you know that?
Speaker 4 (34:31):
You know?
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Ron Marsha. I'm like, no, what are you talking about?
He marching a drunk ward? Yeah, you just photographer? What No,
we didn't know we met by accident, means it wasn't
an accident. Let's show this photo. Let's show this photo.
Look at this line, another monox.
Speaker 12 (34:46):
Look at that line right there, buddy.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (34:56):
Yeah, I'm third from the left, and Dawson is.
Speaker 9 (35:00):
I think I'm somewhere they had, I think standing right there.
Speaker 7 (35:05):
I'm standing right next I'm third from the left, and
then I think right next to me was Dawson.
Speaker 12 (35:11):
Yeah, we were playing tennis.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Well, when when you're when you're thinking those things like that,
it brings back memories of everything. Hey, Blake, let me
ask you this, the stories that you've heard so far,
where are you on filming things and where are what
are you thinking sharing some of these stories?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
I mean, look at this. They used to take photos
like this.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
I don't have any photos of me marching. And the
reason for that is we had a we had a
flood in nineteen seventy eight. Anything that my mother or
father took photos of was destoryed and lost.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I have nothing of me marching. So when I see.
Speaker 9 (35:52):
Yeah, that's called of cadets.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
I'm in the back holding the five.
Speaker 12 (35:56):
That's another story.
Speaker 11 (35:58):
Well, you know, and uh, that's that's David.
Speaker 15 (36:08):
You know, there's there's only so many stories that are
original and can be told. And when I've pitched this story,
they they it's like I'm bringing them something that is
under a rock somewhere that they are just surprised that
they don't even know about it, or that it's been
exploited right from we'll call it from a Hollywood perspective.
(36:30):
So the good news is is that what they look
for is not just a story about a subject matter,
but the depth of it.
Speaker 11 (36:40):
And that's what hooked me is that.
Speaker 15 (36:42):
Trust me, I get pitched weekly on projects from feature film,
TV to streaming media, and I you know, like I said,
I'm very humbled in the position on that in my life.
But this story has so much depth that it had
me to go back and to tons of research as well.
And of course, every you know, I wake up the
(37:04):
next day and these guys are bombarding me with you know,
link to this and a link to that, and hey,
I found it. And the beauty of it is is
that where we're at is that where we now have
several parties that are looking to do what's called co
pros financing, and it's just a matter of, uh, you know,
not taking just any money, because then then you have different,
(37:26):
uh you know, demands on the project. And the idea
is to keep the story, which is really the essence
of this is what's and I'm trying to preserve that
at the same time. And again, I'm just I'm just
I feel like I'm just kind of a beacon that
is going into the lions Den that is trying to
say this is worthy enough. And this is one of
those projects. It's not so much that it's going to
(37:48):
be making millions of dollars. That's that's we wanted to
make money. But the more important thing, if I were
to leave you with one idea is that if we
could truly within an eight parts eight hours worth, and
there's way more than that from each of these gentlemen,
that we leave a legacy and you breached, and I'll
(38:09):
leave with this thought is that you said what happened?
And that is the number one question I get when
I'm down there. It's like, well, okay, you know, oh, well,
must be doing strong nowadays? You know, and it's and
they want to know what the catalyst was. Right, you
think of all the pressures on the community at that time,
through the sixties into the early seventies, and that is
(38:30):
what we want to explore. And we and all of
these men, I know, it's changed all their lives. It was,
you know, something that was bigger than them selves that
they can attach themselves to. And that to me is magical.
You don't run into those kind of stories. Those are
almost like what fairy tales are made of. And I'm
(38:50):
like I said, is that we have to the people
that are interested in this is we want to make
sure that they're interested for the right reason and that
they will leverage this and get this out there, because
not only is it just telling a story, it's also
educating the next series of kids that come up that
are playing that they don't just go into one type
(39:12):
of music or or rap or or bands or or
maybe just listening to music. But now they've got a
way out and that that to me is what's And
again it's these communities. If we can just ignite that
that spark and say this is the way to do it,
and it is it does take money, right I mean,
everyone says, you know, it takes thousands of dollars to
(39:34):
do this, but if we can get the right partners
behind this, which I believe we are so far that
we can bring this to fruition. So we'll have offices
in New York, we'll have offices in LA and then
we're just going to open the floodgates and I'm sure
you know we'll have lots and lots of stories and
people and then I won't go into so much how
we're going to organize it, but it will be from
a historical perspective as we hit each decade and each
(39:57):
of those we're gonna go and peel each of those audiences.
So the good news is there are interested parties, that
people are interested in this, and that they see that
there's a lot of depth.
Speaker 11 (40:09):
And the number one thing is it goes they didn't
even know it existed.
Speaker 15 (40:12):
I didn't even know it existed, and that is the
rarity of this. So I just feel super blessed.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
All right, everybody, we got a couple of minutes left, Carol,
I know you got one question, and then we're going
to have any Everybody end up with the social media,
like some people do reach out to everybody.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Go ahead, Carol.
Speaker 5 (40:29):
Yeah. So you know, when you look at the history
of this and what Blake was just saying, I would
love to know, like you know, where each of you
are perhaps have the potential to stretch even further in
your involvement, and that may be asking a lot, but
(40:49):
I look at the writing that you've done now, the
storytelling through film that's being done, the photography and the radio.
Speaker 6 (40:59):
You know, are there ways that you're able to volunteer
to help ignite this passion, this fire under these young
men and women who are you know, dis available to them,
this available to support their lives and to bring a
benefit that you guys have described today.
Speaker 8 (41:21):
Carol, I have a relatable I have a relatable story
if uh I if I made uh John Brazzally uh
was inducted into the d c A Hall of Fame, Okay,
and uh he did it with uh Darren. I can't
(41:41):
what's the name of the group with the guys with
the fifth Helmets we talked about the other day, Blake.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Uh, but Phantom Regiment, Fantom Richmond.
Speaker 9 (41:49):
Thank you, thank you?
Speaker 8 (41:51):
Uh he uh was the instructor or the the the
color Guard instructor for for them. But he's spent years
with the v P women, the the group uh uh
that won three state title, you know. And but he
(42:14):
when he went up to Wisconsin, the girls kind of
followed him, h as you know, they they went to
schools that was around where John's did his thing.
Speaker 4 (42:26):
Uh, And.
Speaker 9 (42:28):
It just seemed it just seemed that I'm sorry, I
don't lost my darn point.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
I kind of I kind of get what you're coming from.
Speaker 11 (42:41):
Told me that he didn't acknowledge y'all.
Speaker 8 (42:45):
Thanks Harrol, durned boy, did I lose that point? I'm
getting old, y'all. I'm sorry. Uh, there was no acknowledgement
of our women and what they did that related to
John's entering that d CI Hall of Fame. And uh
that's another reason for correcting, you know, or or or
(43:07):
uh you know, we have a legacy here, guys that
we didn't want to let die.
Speaker 9 (43:13):
When I read Harold's his article when he put it out,
I went there, there it is, that's what we need
to do.
Speaker 8 (43:23):
And it set me off on a on a tangent
that you know, gave me uh a uh a short
trailer that you know, if you go to my site
watch the trailer for thetis UH.
Speaker 9 (43:37):
And UH, you know, it gave us all of that.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
It gave me history.
Speaker 8 (43:42):
It gave me, uh the ability to go and research
the other eleven drum course in washingtonc that I'm trying
to get into the UH African American Museum. So you
know that all of this is so helpful. I mean,
Blake come along was a blessing, you know, in my eyes.
And to get this story out. Man, this this is
(44:03):
our legacy. We can't let it die.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
Let me ask you this, because we got to have
about three minutes, would you guys like to do part
two at the end of the summer because we're always
worked four months in advance, because I want to keep
this going and I want to see what Blake is
now because I can imagine what all the stuff that
he's doing, and Blake, I'm willing to help everybody on
this end.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
And again, I gotta give credit to mo Clark.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
One of the reasons why we're one of the world's
best of what we do is because of the world
of drum Corps, because of the discipline of what you
see there when I walk in to do all this stuff,
and Carol knows this because we talk almost every day.
The reason I can be all of these places because
I'm marched a drum Corps. If I didn't march the
drum Court, There's no way I could be going.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
All over the place doing all of these things. I'm
retired basically at sixty five. You guys are older than me,
but you know what.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
We learn.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
This except for Carol, But do you guys know? And
then here the other thing. It was Milton Borough. Milton Borough.
Guys remember milton Borough. Milton Borole and.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
Tommy Brisbond, the original books from the Little Rascals are
the two that brought me into the Beverly Hills Friars Club.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Imagine that. Wow, this is in the early nineties. And
then so the other thing, really quickly, did you guys
know about Ron? Did anybody know about Ron Wyatt? And
That's why I wanted That's what I wanted going on.
Speaker 9 (45:29):
Because I like that.
Speaker 13 (45:32):
I like to also say that we're not an organization
that Elmo was critical in finding, which is New York
Metropolis trying to bring back drum Corps into Brooklyn and
where New York Metropolis dot org and we're bringing it back.
Were We just had a raffle for a cruise for
(45:53):
funding and we're bringing Junior Drum Corps back to Brooklyn,
bringing it back in a way that it is not
the c I.
Speaker 9 (46:02):
It's going to be old.
Speaker 13 (46:03):
School drum Cord just having a parade court initially, but
it's going to bring back and give all the values
that everybody on this program has been talking about.
Speaker 9 (46:13):
And that's what's important to me. So we'll be doing that.
Speaker 13 (46:17):
And kudos to to Elma once again because Elma was
critical in bringing that together.
Speaker 14 (46:23):
Yes, if you need a photographer, just give me a holler,
real quick.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
Written about African American jonk.
Speaker 5 (46:35):
Course, right, and Brian. Elma was trying to tell us
something as well.
Speaker 7 (46:46):
That if you had a time to what there was
a woman girl aspect to this thing which is called
the color Guard, which we even tap on to the
Winter Guard.
Speaker 12 (46:57):
I guess we could do that.
Speaker 7 (46:59):
Yeah, the Winter Guard and color Guard that competed on
you know, on the field and an individual and also
competitive Winter Guard.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
So I just wanted to tie that in. Also, Yeah,
that's a great book. I love that book.
Speaker 12 (47:16):
Book Winston the Toppers, Right. It is available on Amazon Books.
Speaker 7 (47:22):
You can pick it up page, and I mean that
has a lot of historical value as far as in
one of the major innocenty Druman Bugil course, in the
I would say in the United States, all right, everybody there.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
I gotta thank everybody.
Speaker 3 (47:37):
I will do a part two if you guys are
opened sometime near the end of October.
Speaker 4 (47:42):
And the reason is.
Speaker 3 (47:43):
October is that's where we are. I only got thirteen
shows to book for the rest of the year and
that's it. So I gotta thank everybody from coming on
because it's about history.
Speaker 4 (47:55):
This one.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
It's about history and think and Blake, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
Carol, thank you for being the non member. But you
know what it's like in the world of gymnastics. Ron
thank you for those great photos that you took because
they didn't know you. Harold, I'm probably started some zoom,
you know, interviews back with everybody else.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
Richard Plotter, pleasure, you know, honor and pleasure to meet you,
Edward and Elmo. I'll be listening.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
And as I always say, I have a good night tonight,
I better day tomorrow. You see someone out a smile,
please give them one of yours, because the world needs it.
This is Brian Sebastian movie reviews and more, and march
forward and we will see you next week.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
Amen.
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors or station
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
(00:22):
the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
suggested ideas.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And there it's Brian Sebastian movie reviews and more.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
And if it's Tuesday, always give to your favorite charities.
For one we leave our artists ranch. Always describe to
the arts the world, the drumming vigacors, those people that
made things happen. This is Brian Sebashian movie Byvie's and more.
And we're streaming out over one other outlets right now
around the world. This is show number one hundred and
fifty eight Live in a row in keeping our streak
(01:28):
going and obviously streaming on it two four seven out
of Franklin, Tennessee Women on TV dot TV and the
Woman's Broadcasting Channel which is now www.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
World TV Network.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And a good thing about this, I've been waiting for
this show for a long time and I pushed it
once because I wanted to make sure that everybody could
get on.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
For one, I wanted to make sure it was close
to drum Core season.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
For two, I wanted to make sure that I got
a chance to briefly talk to everybody. For three, I
had to make sure I could get rid of all
of my hosts minus Carrol, because they don't miss show.
Now you can see how credit we are on this.
For one, now, if we had our regular host on,
four more people, there'd be no room. So I said,
take the night off. They go, why because they hate
(02:11):
missing shows. I said, it's all about drum Corps. They go, Okay,
do we have to? Can't we come on like there's
no room. So the whole thing about this we got
to think a man Moe Clark, because Moe put me
in contact with Alma and a couple other people. We
got to thank all of these people. And I want
to start first with Carol. Carol introduced yourself because Carol
(02:32):
didn't have to be on a show. She wanted to
be on a show, and she knows how much I
love the world of drum corep activities and the world
drum Corps.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Dad.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Carol telling who you are.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
That's right. I'm Carol Register.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
I'm the creator of the Neurowealth Method, and I take
women from six to seven figures. I am absolutely passionate
about what I do. This is a time and history
where we particularly love you guys who love us women
and are holding us high and impowering us at this
time in history because great women deserve great wealth in
(03:06):
order to make great impact, just like you guys. So
I also co host, in addition to movie reviews and more,
the Unleashed and Unstoppable podcast. We talk about the neuroscience
of leadership, health and wealth. And I'm super excited to
be here with you guys. I'm super excited to know
(03:27):
about drum Corps the passion. I was a long time
gymnastics judge, high level judge and clinician in my family history,
so I can definitely relate to all of the athleticism
and the discipline and you know the camaraderie that you
guys have applied in what you do.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
So I'm super excited to hear about it.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
And then so because I came from radio, we got
to start off with the radio guys. So I Almo,
you put everybody together. We got to start with. You
tell them who you marsh with, what state you're in,
and what you're doing. Now go for it, you know
all of us. Yep, the cont Oh.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
He's freezing, he's lagging. Yeah, dragon again.
Speaker 7 (04:14):
I sent them the link where get in contact with
Mo clock and sent them the link where he can
watch this as well. But yeah, Melmo James. I've been
in the media for maybe about too many years account.
I've been in drum corps, you know, pretty much all
my life, off and on. I love the activity. I
don't like where the activity is now. And that's what
we're here to talk about.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Edward Darton go ahead.
Speaker 7 (04:36):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (04:36):
I were VPS Drumm and bople Call Washington d C.
I started with, uh the Boys Club Washington d C.
Uh Boys Club number two. Uh get the book, y'all please.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
It.
Speaker 6 (04:55):
Uh my my.
Speaker 9 (04:56):
My involvement in drum Calls happened through uh.
Speaker 8 (05:00):
Uh you know the fact that I joined the band
in junior high school and boys Club was right down
the street from us, you know, and they like to
they like to show off their group and attracted some
of the musicians from the band.
Speaker 9 (05:14):
I was one of them.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So what's the age that you and what did you play.
Speaker 8 (05:18):
Let's see, I was junior high school, so seventh grade.
How old are you in the seventh grade. I don't
know anymore. Seventy yeah, something like that. I'm seventy three now,
so it was that been many years ago. And uh,
you know, and and I should add to that, my
(05:39):
my neighborhood didn't offer much to me. Uh when I
went to school. Uh, you know, I opened my doors
in the morning, and it was almost an effort for
me to uh make that distance from six and M
Street to First in Tims. But when I latched on
to the Boys Club, Boys Club Drumming Bugle Corps.
Speaker 9 (06:02):
You know, a whole nother world open up to me.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's what that's about.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
That's Pireld Barber, not Carol Careld Barber.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (06:14):
I started out nine years old at the church Glockenshville
Junk Corps. I played symbols, and then my junior high
school teacher he started the Catie Cadets and we had
the Carta Cadet. German Bugle Corp members came in toward US.
I transitioned. I met rutched with them from one year
(06:34):
sixty nine and they folded, and then I joined Saint
Meets Brassman, Drumman Bugle Corps, and I finished out my
jump core career the New York Skyliners.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
How many years did you? How many years?
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (06:47):
My god, a long time, bro, give us a number.
This is important, right, So we're talking on the field
from nineteen sixty nine, last on the fields two thousand
and one.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I believe. How many years is that?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Harold?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
How many years?
Speaker 11 (07:07):
Long time?
Speaker 6 (07:07):
You know?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Two? Two? Last? Long time?
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And the reason I'm saying is Carol ten years. I
think how many years? Roughly about fifteen?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I believe Steve March longer than that. What are you
talking about? Six sixty nine to oh one? No, how
much some years off in between, it doesn't matter all that.
Speaker 12 (07:29):
It doesn't matter some years off between.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Uh huh yeah, but you're still going to drump shows worship.
Speaker 10 (07:37):
No, not really until the beginning of the eighties.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Okay, yeah, all right, Richard Dawson, who's your marche Where
are you coming from?
Speaker 13 (07:49):
I'm marched with uh Winstons and Junior Core from sixty
six to seventy two, March with Elmo James.
Speaker 9 (07:57):
So that's my that's my partner. From Winds Center went
like horow I was in Skyliner.
Speaker 13 (08:03):
So I marched in Skylines in seventy two, which was
one of mega cors for nineteen seventy two. And currently
I'm a legal consultant and didn't spend that many years
in drum courts, probably actively marching about eight to ten years.
Speaker 9 (08:23):
But it had a big, big impact on me.
Speaker 14 (08:27):
Well, I was hanging around with the wrong people in
my town. And my father was a bus driver and
he took the Cranford Patriots to Wildwood to do Elks
Parade or American leach In Parade, and he happened to
blab that his son played the drums, and they said, well,
(08:47):
bring him along and we'll teach him.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
How to do drum courts.
Speaker 14 (08:50):
So my father comes home, he tells me and my
sister were going to do drum court.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
I don't want to do no coiny drumming bugle court. Well,
I'm not asking you, I'm telling you.
Speaker 14 (09:01):
So he forced me to go to my first show,
which was in nineteen sixty nine July at Memorial Field
in Cranford, and I was so rebellious that they sat
like on the fifty yard line.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
I sat in the end zone up on the hill and.
Speaker 14 (09:17):
The reason why I reacted to Saint Rita's Brassmith because
that was one.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Of the first chorus I heard.
Speaker 14 (09:24):
And when they played the three B tap going off
the field and I could do it, I was hooked.
And to this day, I'm still following Drum Corps.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
I shoot for Drum Corps.
Speaker 14 (09:34):
World and right now I'll be getting on the plane
at the last weekend in July to do Nashville, et cetera,
et cetera.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
And I this weekend Saturday, I just celebrated.
Speaker 14 (09:46):
My fiftieth year of doing photography and my seventieth birthday.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
And there was only.
Speaker 14 (09:52):
One other guy in my town that made it out
that wasn't either on drugs, in jail or dead. And
we're the only two that made it out of Woodbridge,
New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
And it was because of Drum Corps.
Speaker 15 (10:06):
Uh.
Speaker 14 (10:07):
It saved my life, you know. So that's my story
and I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 16 (10:11):
Out of d cut, out of d C I I've
only missed four finals since DC I started, okay, and
two was because I was covering the Olympics one year
I was the gymnastics team photographer and then another year
I went to.
Speaker 14 (10:30):
My son started college. So that's it. I'm sorry for
hogging the show.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
No, no, this is what it's all about.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
People need to hold they need to know the back history,
how old we were when we were taking off the
streets and everything like that. Let's talk about this photo
and Blake, we're gonna get to you, all right, Someone
talk about this photo.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I took that shot. Ron, you took that shot, Yes,
that I.
Speaker 10 (10:52):
Was following up. I heard he was going to parade.
I had my trusty little codat and I just lined
that up and DC Elmo there on the end. They
came through and the top of it came through that
the community.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Okay, so see that that small timpany.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
I carried that small timpany and I was very very small,
and I just remember in a parade like this, because Carol,
we had the marching parades, we were forced to marching parades.
I was so tiny that my mother was running to
the right d side of me, thinking I was gonna
topple over. But I made it through the five miles
of that parade, and I kept looking once my mom
(11:31):
embarrassing me, I'm gonna make it.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And then when I made it.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I went ooh, and everybody clapped because they didn't think
I was gonna make it.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
That's amazing. And did you guys all start around nineteen
sixty nine?
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Sorry, go ahead, Elmo, say.
Speaker 12 (11:47):
Richard Dawson, you were in that right, in that timpany line.
Speaker 9 (11:49):
Right, Yeah, I'm right next to you. Yeah, I thought so, Yeah, yeah,
I'm right next to.
Speaker 13 (11:57):
Wow.
Speaker 9 (11:58):
Yeah, it's Elmo, Me, Laddie and Plumber. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Hey, Blake, before we get to the next vent, before
we get to this shuttle, tell us who you are
and what you're doing and why you're here.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Sure.
Speaker 15 (12:13):
My name is Blake Scribner with Scribner Media, and I've
had my company for thirty five years. I've been making
films since I was eleven years old, So telling stories
has been a passion.
Speaker 11 (12:25):
Fast forward about a year ago.
Speaker 15 (12:28):
Got a call from Elmo and say, hey, I've got
an idea, and so he started introducing me to Drum Corps.
And like any good onion, the more you feel it
more interesting it becomes. And it started out as you know,
let's do a documentary, you know, a short story documentary,
(12:48):
then an hour, then let's do a feature document and
as we were going through this. As we were exploring
more and more, Uh, it ends up that it looks
like it's going to be an an eight part docuseries
is what we're looking at at this point. And I'm
humbled by the stories and that this the whole Drum Corps.
(13:12):
I'm a musician myself, but I had no idea that
Drum Corps even existed. I didn't understand the history of
it until I started to, you know, look of its
origins and the fact that I was able to converse
with these gentlemen and this and even though they all
they unified around Drum Corps, they all come at it
(13:33):
from a different perspective, which is amazing in different communities.
And so you know, this is one thing where the
music truly unified the community. So I'm humbled and honored
and I'm just here to listen, and anytime you'd like
me to expand on what we're doing, I'll feel free
to share that with you. But thank you for inviting me,
and again, thank you. I am super super humble.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Now the reason why this is important and again I
got that Will Clark is mo. We've never met in person,
but he marched in two seven twenty seven lancels from
a rear mass. Half of our corps went to twenty
seventh and everybody from the scott Standard well he marched
for Mary Man. A lot of great people. I think
I think forty members of the New London Surfers. When
(14:17):
I started, was called the New London Whalers, and my
mother quit me in the cores. The three things my
mother did for me, and I'm thankful to this day.
She made me joined the Drum and Vigo Corps because
my uncles went in it. I wanted to you, but
I was too shy to say, can I do this?
So thank you Mom for making me do that, because
until this day I'm a Drum Corps nut. And the
(14:38):
reason why I have the drum corn Nut Instagram because
I saw a badge way way back in the seventies.
I said I'm gonna use that one day, and that
one day I grabbed it.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The black guy grabbed it. What does that tell you?
Nobody else does that? And then the band director Don
mc tavish.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I went to mixed school, all white High School when
I joined the New London them Surfers from nineteen seventy four,
and that which was their best year, and it was
one of those things where certain people from around were
joined in and it was great. Then he goes, Brian,
you came with no recommendation from school. We didn't even
know you were coming to an all white school. And
I told them what to do. The drums were tilted.
(15:18):
Now we're straightening these things up. We're gonna play Santa
Clair Vanguard. We're gonna do a little bit of Bridgeman,
we're gonna do a little bit of twenty seven Planters.
And at that point, and then since their colors were
maroon and gold ron the Cadets colors, we looked like
the Cadets. So after my band director let me the
black guy in all white high school.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Do my thing.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
The second thing my mom did move us to the
mixed school, to an all white school to.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Have that better education. And at that one point we
started winning.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Now, if I had known what these guys, these kids
were thinking, I wouldn't have done it. They were like,
who's this black guy coming in telling us white kids
what to do? But the band director knew. I drunk ward,
he goes, Brian, make us better. We need to win.
They were good, but they weren't good enough and by
the time I graduated and only two years we won States.
We won everything, and to this day there's.
Speaker 9 (16:11):
A lot of rest.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
That's right, we're still doing it. And you know what,
and Harold knows this. That's our street beat was from
Bobby Craig. Bobby Craig.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Bless it's sad when he was teaching Polish Facon Cadets
in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
He was also teaching New London surfers.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
So at the moment's in it, Bobby's there, Oh, we
got a parade to deal.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
We don't have a street beat. Street beat, not a cadence.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I still call it a street beat, and Bobby gave
us the Polish Falcon Cadets. I used that street beat
right up until nineteen eighty two. They started the calling
at BS for Brian Sebastian. I said, no, I didn't
do this, Bobby ChRI did it. I said, but they
all liked it. So imagine this. We all saw if
you had a good street like the CMCC Warrior had
(17:00):
a great drum beat, and people were dancing on the street,
Black people because they have to feel the rhythm, and
white people like nod in their heads like this.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
They knew it was good.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Now, well you do have rhythm, that's why I like you.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Can. I tell you a quick story about Bobby Craig.
So I was in the Cranford Patriots.
Speaker 14 (17:24):
Then I went to the Polish Falcon Cadets, and Bobby
Craig was our instructor, and boy, oh boy, was he
the toughest person to try to teach you to be
the best drum line. And we were really, really a
good drum line. But I couldn't stand him. It was
never good enough. So every year I would quit, and
then around around March April, i'd come and see the
(17:46):
core of practice. All right, what's open? I want to
come back. And and I couldn't stand Bobby so much
that I named one of my kids after him. One
of my kids is Nicholas b alexanderder Wyatt, all right,
just because because he taught me out of perfect and
has a photographer to this day. The same technique of
(18:10):
wanting to make it the best it possibly could be was.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
What I learned from Bobby Craig.
Speaker 14 (18:16):
And like I said, every year I could, I couldn't
take him anymore. But then I had to name one
of my kids after him.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
So that's my so, so here's my Bobby Craig story.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Remember Bobby used to hit us in the knuckles back
in the day, Remember getting hit So my knuckles these
are from Bobby Craig.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
That in martial arts.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
So you know I got I gotta but Bobby started
before I got into martial arts. But till this day,
I think Bobby Craig for being in Carroll. He was
a black instructor. We didn't we didn't have black constructor.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
He came from New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
And you know, anybody remember Thomas Brown who Mary.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
I marched with Tom Brown.
Speaker 14 (18:58):
Yeah, I marched with them Tom exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
My favorite number is number seven? Where did I get it?
Speaker 4 (19:06):
From?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Santa Clair Van Guard?
Speaker 13 (19:08):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Hey, Brian, you know I was looking.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
Harold wrote an article for Black History Month as a
historian and a school teacher.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
That was a great article.
Speaker 6 (19:19):
And you mentioned some of these drum corps, you know, groups,
the names of them, and you were referring to some
really prominent people back in the day. Do you remember
some of those guys that you mentioned in that article
you wrote.
Speaker 10 (19:35):
Yes, we were talking about that earlier this evening. I
wrote the one for junk Core World in two thousand
and six.
Speaker 11 (19:43):
And then Mike Boob I think he.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Marched in and Kevilz he reached out to me.
Speaker 10 (19:48):
He wanted me to do something for a Black History
Month for DCI, the their website and everything. But most
of my earlier instructors were from Prodecadet's one guy. His
name was Waynaem Allen. They called him Chicken. Uh, I
guess we feel like chicken. And he taught us and
(20:10):
I remember him when.
Speaker 11 (20:12):
We fooled around.
Speaker 10 (20:14):
He would just have us play a drum roll until
he looked at the clock and said, okay, we're gonna
drum this role for the next forty five minutes, you know,
yeah okay, And there was no stopping.
Speaker 11 (20:27):
If anybody broke during the.
Speaker 10 (20:29):
Role, we would have to start all over again. Then
Danny Jones, another UH African American snare drum for cards
and he took me to another level.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Wow wow, yeah it was. It was a great article, Brian.
Speaker 6 (20:45):
I I thought that was really cool for bringing out
the history, you know, and highlighting that talk.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
About monox Oh yeah, the Great Knocks.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
That's when again that's win Center, I think in nineteen
sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
And Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I mean when you look at this, you just you
just those heavy drums, and you know, any anybody who
had timpany with no legs on it, your backs start
turning automatically. And those symbols you had to flip those sindals,
you had to twist them because that was the big thing.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
But man, those were the days.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
And for them people the audience that doesn't know, drumm
at Bigle Corps came out of the military BFW, everything
like that, going way way back to the Civil War
for people that don't know. And then Rob, we've got
some photos of you that we showed. I thought that
I grabbed a bunch of them up to the day.
Now that thought was cool. I thought this was cool
because this is what you see today. Why did you
(21:46):
take this photocause I thought it was great?
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 14 (21:48):
No, I like to do behind the scenes when I'm
covering DCI and I would go before shows or go
to their camp or go to practice field. And this
gentleman was one of the instructors and he's bringing some equipment.
I'm pretty sure he was from the Blue Coats and
(22:10):
the Blue Coats drum line. When they warm up the
drum instructor puts a drum set up and he practices
and rehearse and warms up the drum line while playing
playing the drum set. And that's an assistant instructor that's
rolling this to their spot where they're gonna do their
warm ups. I believe that was in Philadelphia. There was
(22:35):
like a soccer field that they dc I would run
a show.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
I remember, and this is yes, this is Blue Devils
for you know.
Speaker 14 (22:46):
I have maybe one or two negative stories about drum Corps,
and one of the negative stories that I don't really
like a certain person that leads the field when it
comes to photography. I've shot uh NFL, Major League Baseball,
two Summer Olympic games, and this particular gentleman always gives
(23:09):
me a hard time when I come to photograph for show.
So I like to go sit in the stands and
photograph from the stands. I don't want to be on
the field if I can help it. So a lot
of times I'm doing these type of shots from from
the field with long lenses and uh and it's a
different perspective to see drum corps.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
And I love this beat right here. This is the
Cavaliers Carol, this is all all male drum cord. There's
only two left.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
No, there's only one.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah, there are the only ones now yeah, yeah they're
the last one.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
So yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
This beat that they walk off to is always a
bait speed and they call it Iowa uh and I
believe the story when they were an Iowa they.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Came up to this beat.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
They've been playing this one base beat, which is great
that everybody in the drum corps will knows of that
to I think nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, they're the only ones that walk off with this.
Beside Santa Clair. They've got their beat that goes going
back to seventy three.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
And so the horn Doctor, the horn Doctor was on
a show and I saw this. I'm like, oh, I
gotta use this because he was on a show.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
What he does he repairs.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
He started with the Boston Crusaders from Boston, Massachusetts, and
he started to repair horns and he got so good
they started calling him the horn Doctor, and other chorus
was start to use them. He's in Kansas City, but
he goes around with the drum course and repairs all.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
The horns because it's hard to find someone to repair instruments.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Right right, yeah, And this one is interesting.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Because these two people were playing for the xylophone and
they were they were taking turns, jumping back and forth
on it, and they were spinning them in a circle,
and I thought.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
That phone was great.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Yeah, yeah, that's Cavaliers.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
So the reason why I put this one up because
you guys know, we naver got any food when we want,
we either brought your lunch or the New London Servers
held the record for thirty seven stops to McDonald's. No,
imagine this, hey, rebel, you can take that off for
a minute. Now, imagine this, thirty seven stops going to McDonald's.
(25:24):
Imagine you're at a McDonald's employee and you see this
old bus, five buses coming up where there's almost one
hundred some kids rushing in.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
And they're calling people. I saw this.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
They're calling people because they're not prepared for this. We disappeared.
That's how we eat now. If you were twenty seven lancers,
my friend Mary will tell you they didn't have any money.
They were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwich or one
sided peanut butter. You don't talk about these great things
back in the day but Yelmo, Harold and I'm sure Richard,
(26:00):
you guys, these are the stories that that happened.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
That's how we ate, that's how we lived.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Brian, you guys, who is your tea?
Speaker 7 (26:10):
Yeah, A lot of these a lot of those photos
are wonderful. Uh where they have taken their activity to
that level. But you know, I would like to hold
you know, hone in personally. How did them doing that
effect from and bugle corps in the black community? Where
(26:33):
are there? You know where are there now? We couldn't
afford the fees to do d c I. That's why
during our research there was so we found out so
much information in the amount of course African American drum
corps that were spread out throughout the United States.
Speaker 12 (26:50):
Trust me, when you get this in the series that
we do, you're not gonna believe it.
Speaker 7 (26:54):
But what happened? Where did they go? It couldn't it
couldn't afford the feed. They couldn't afford the fee to
be a part of d c I. It affected the
communities in general, and then it affected them into it
affected the kids individually because they couldn't afford to feed.
Speaker 12 (27:12):
To get into a d c I drump of Google Corps.
Speaker 7 (27:15):
The the traveling was the local and number exact. Can
just give you New York for example. You know where
we would travel from New York to Brooklyn, to Queens
to Long Island. The travel was minimal. We might go
to to d C or the or VIPs for example.
They might come into Brooklyn, so the kids would be
(27:38):
home that next night or that next day they come
come in, then that morning, by the afternoon time and
evening they're back home sleeping in their beds. And right now,
the kids in the community, especially in the inner city communities.
Speaker 12 (27:53):
Don't have that luxury anymore. And that's why you know,
we're doing this documentary. Now, what the hell, what the
hell happened?
Speaker 7 (28:03):
Yeah? Did this activity just totally get taken out of
the black communities where it belonged, where it started, where
it started to prosper. And if you can find one,
how I think we didn't find one, didn't we know?
Speaker 8 (28:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
It was it was all a wrap for New York
City rs.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
Yeah, in the seventies on, anyone that lasted long was uh,
you get had the lasses New York lasses.
Speaker 6 (28:32):
Uh.
Speaker 10 (28:33):
They made it into the eighties and worries made it
into the eighties. I think by nineties early nineties it
was a rap.
Speaker 9 (28:40):
Yeah, when you look at a city like New York.
Speaker 13 (28:42):
Just in Brooklyn you had once to carda Cadets, riversiders
you had and and smaller car course that may not
have been on a competitive level. But now there's nothing
because of its course prohibited. You certainly can't do in
DCI because, as almost said, the kids can't afford the
fees that you have to pay, which I believe runs
(29:04):
into the thousands of dollars.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
To last year, I talked to some family for the
Blue Coats and Blue Devils.
Speaker 14 (29:14):
It's costing between five thousand and seven thousand dollars a
year to march. And then if you want to if
you live in New York and you want to be
in the Blue Devils, then you got to fly out
once a month for practice.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Okay. And so it is really, really, really bad.
Speaker 14 (29:33):
And I just started, you know, I'm not really making
it a race issue, but I just started watching some
of the corps is starting to put things on YouTube
now and I'm not seeing a lot of black musicians
and a lot of the drum corps right now, and
I you know, it's like for me. I hear older
people complain that drum Corps isn't the way it was
(29:55):
in the seventies, but that's not how I look at
drum Corps. I look at drum Corps because it saved
my life. It made me the person in space. So
I don't care about the new way they play in
that they don't do the march like we used to,
and they do all the things they do now. But
I just wish more people in my situation from the
city could join because it is a life change and
(30:17):
experience and and and it's maybe who I am today.
And that's the one part I regret.
Speaker 7 (30:24):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
And I think even DCI.
Speaker 14 (30:27):
Is in trouble now because it's so expensive, you know,
to pay for insurance to travel for the drum Court
is astronomical to the figures.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
And that's the sad part about it, you know, d C,
d C I.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Drum Corps International.
Speaker 6 (30:45):
Is that what?
Speaker 13 (30:45):
Yes, yes, yes, but I think has to get back
to the ground level, back to starting parade corpse. And
if you want to set up a circuit like we
had when we were in drum Corps in the local
cities and the local.
Speaker 9 (31:02):
Communities, every court does not have to be d c I.
Speaker 13 (31:06):
It is quite inhibitive, and I actually think that I
appreciate d CI chors, but it could be a waste
of money. The money could have been could be spent
wisely and have more of impact and have the impact
that Ron is talking about.
Speaker 8 (31:22):
Well, Richard, this begs the question for me is who's talking?
This begs the question for me, Richard? Just feeding off
of what you just said, Uh is we had bf W,
we had American Legion, we had we had I just
(31:45):
I just pointed this book out to you. Here the
the the Boys Club of America.
Speaker 9 (31:51):
Where did they go? What happened to them?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I can tell you what happened.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
It's the same thing when I was asked joined the
Beverly Hills Friars Club in the early nineties. They had
no minorities. Anybody remember friend the Hammer Williamson. He was
the first one in a guy, a black guy who
in real estate.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
And I was just I was just you think of
this Butch from.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
The Original Little Rascals, Tommy Witchbond and everybody remember, oh God,
my good friend he was in It's a mad, mad,
mad mad world. Oh he had a show in the fifties.
I can't believe. I can't remember his name. Who not Rochester, No, no, no,
(32:35):
it'll it'll come to me.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
But he brought him in. Knew that, and they the reason,
he said, Brian, the reason we want you to come.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
In because our members are older, whiter, and they're aging
and they're dying off. We don't have anybody to replace
them with. And this is in nineteen ninety one or
ninety two. They said that to me and I said.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Oh, I'll join in.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
And when I got in there, I was like, oh,
this is interesting. They didn't have anybody to replace the
aging members, and.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Then they didn't know how to do that. And the
reason why DCI is in trouble, it's the same thing.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
And so for me being in Hollywood, I see this
in the movie where why people aren't going to the
theaters or why things aren't being replaced. I talked to
Carol about these things at a film festival, and I
say film festivals are dead because they're not getting it.
When I'm the only person there who's a movie critic
or the person of color. They're covering a white film festival.
Even though I don't look at it like that, that's
(33:28):
not good. Great for me, more access for me, but
that's not what I want. I want to be able
to share this with other people.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
That's why.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
And Carol knows when I'm putting up the content, it's
all the content that I had. That's what happened because
CYO in Boston was one of the best shows there.
You know Americans, you know VFW, I love going to AI.
It was something American Allegian or something in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
I think it was.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
That's why we got a chance to travel to all
their shows and I remember those things like that is important.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Can it be done?
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Richard? I believe it can.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
On what you're talking about, Albert, are you on the
right track? I believe you are when you're talking about
that Blake. I think it's a great thing that you're
doing these things.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Harold. My hat goes off to you from marching and
teaching all those years.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Ron, I really celebrate you because I didn't know you
were a black photographer out there shooting. We met by
accident on a zoom call with one of our friends.
We had no idea and then my friend said, uh,
he goes, did you know that?
Speaker 4 (34:31):
You know?
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Ron Marsha. I'm like, no, what are you talking about?
He marching a drunk ward? Yeah, you just photographer? What No,
we didn't know we met by accident, means it wasn't
an accident. Let's show this photo. Let's show this photo.
Look at this line, another monox.
Speaker 12 (34:46):
Look at that line right there, buddy.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (34:56):
Yeah, I'm third from the left, and Dawson is.
Speaker 9 (35:00):
I think I'm somewhere they had, I think standing right there.
Speaker 7 (35:05):
I'm standing right next I'm third from the left, and
then I think right next to me was Dawson.
Speaker 12 (35:11):
Yeah, we were playing tennis.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Well, when when you're when you're thinking those things like that,
it brings back memories of everything. Hey, Blake, let me
ask you this, the stories that you've heard so far,
where are you on filming things and where are what
are you thinking sharing some of these stories?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
I mean, look at this. They used to take photos
like this.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
I don't have any photos of me marching. And the
reason for that is we had a we had a
flood in nineteen seventy eight. Anything that my mother or
father took photos of was destoryed and lost.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I have nothing of me marching. So when I see.
Speaker 9 (35:52):
Yeah, that's called of cadets.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
I'm in the back holding the five.
Speaker 12 (35:56):
That's another story.
Speaker 11 (35:58):
Well, you know, and uh, that's that's David.
Speaker 15 (36:08):
You know, there's there's only so many stories that are
original and can be told. And when I've pitched this story,
they they it's like I'm bringing them something that is
under a rock somewhere that they are just surprised that
they don't even know about it, or that it's been
exploited right from we'll call it from a Hollywood perspective.
(36:30):
So the good news is is that what they look
for is not just a story about a subject matter,
but the depth of it.
Speaker 11 (36:40):
And that's what hooked me is that.
Speaker 15 (36:42):
Trust me, I get pitched weekly on projects from feature film,
TV to streaming media, and I you know, like I said,
I'm very humbled in the position on that in my life.
But this story has so much depth that it had
me to go back and to tons of research as well.
And of course, every you know, I wake up the
(37:04):
next day and these guys are bombarding me with you know,
link to this and a link to that, and hey,
I found it. And the beauty of it is is
that where we're at is that where we now have
several parties that are looking to do what's called co
pros financing, and it's just a matter of, uh, you know,
not taking just any money, because then then you have different,
(37:26):
uh you know, demands on the project. And the idea
is to keep the story, which is really the essence
of this is what's and I'm trying to preserve that
at the same time. And again, I'm just I'm just
I feel like I'm just kind of a beacon that
is going into the lions Den that is trying to
say this is worthy enough. And this is one of
those projects. It's not so much that it's going to
(37:48):
be making millions of dollars. That's that's we wanted to
make money. But the more important thing, if I were
to leave you with one idea is that if we
could truly within an eight parts eight hours worth, and
there's way more than that from each of these gentlemen,
that we leave a legacy and you breached, and I'll
(38:09):
leave with this thought is that you said what happened?
And that is the number one question I get when
I'm down there. It's like, well, okay, you know, oh, well,
must be doing strong nowadays? You know, and it's and
they want to know what the catalyst was. Right, you
think of all the pressures on the community at that time,
through the sixties into the early seventies, and that is
(38:30):
what we want to explore. And we and all of
these men, I know, it's changed all their lives. It was,
you know, something that was bigger than them selves that
they can attach themselves to. And that to me is magical.
You don't run into those kind of stories. Those are
almost like what fairy tales are made of. And I'm
(38:50):
like I said, is that we have to the people
that are interested in this is we want to make
sure that they're interested for the right reason and that
they will leverage this and get this out there, because
not only is it just telling a story, it's also
educating the next series of kids that come up that
are playing that they don't just go into one type
(39:12):
of music or or rap or or bands or or
maybe just listening to music. But now they've got a
way out and that that to me is what's And
again it's these communities. If we can just ignite that
that spark and say this is the way to do it,
and it is it does take money, right I mean,
everyone says, you know, it takes thousands of dollars to
(39:34):
do this, but if we can get the right partners
behind this, which I believe we are so far that
we can bring this to fruition. So we'll have offices
in New York, we'll have offices in LA and then
we're just going to open the floodgates and I'm sure
you know we'll have lots and lots of stories and
people and then I won't go into so much how
we're going to organize it, but it will be from
a historical perspective as we hit each decade and each
(39:57):
of those we're gonna go and peel each of those audiences.
So the good news is there are interested parties, that
people are interested in this, and that they see that
there's a lot of depth.
Speaker 11 (40:09):
And the number one thing is it goes they didn't
even know it existed.
Speaker 15 (40:12):
I didn't even know it existed, and that is the
rarity of this. So I just feel super blessed.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
All right, everybody, we got a couple of minutes left, Carol,
I know you got one question, and then we're going
to have any Everybody end up with the social media,
like some people do reach out to everybody.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Go ahead, Carol.
Speaker 5 (40:29):
Yeah. So you know, when you look at the history
of this and what Blake was just saying, I would
love to know, like you know, where each of you
are perhaps have the potential to stretch even further in
your involvement, and that may be asking a lot, but
(40:49):
I look at the writing that you've done now, the
storytelling through film that's being done, the photography and the radio.
Speaker 6 (40:59):
You know, are there ways that you're able to volunteer
to help ignite this passion, this fire under these young
men and women who are you know, dis available to them,
this available to support their lives and to bring a
benefit that you guys have described today.
Speaker 8 (41:21):
Carol, I have a relatable I have a relatable story
if uh I if I made uh John Brazzally uh
was inducted into the d c A Hall of Fame, Okay,
and uh he did it with uh Darren. I can't
(41:41):
what's the name of the group with the guys with
the fifth Helmets we talked about the other day, Blake.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Uh, but Phantom Regiment, Fantom Richmond.
Speaker 9 (41:49):
Thank you, thank you?
Speaker 8 (41:51):
Uh he uh was the instructor or the the the
color Guard instructor for for them. But he's spent years
with the v P women, the the group uh uh
that won three state title, you know. And but he
(42:14):
when he went up to Wisconsin, the girls kind of
followed him, h as you know, they they went to
schools that was around where John's did his thing.
Speaker 4 (42:26):
Uh, And.
Speaker 9 (42:28):
It just seemed it just seemed that I'm sorry, I
don't lost my darn point.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
I kind of I kind of get what you're coming from.
Speaker 11 (42:41):
Told me that he didn't acknowledge y'all.
Speaker 8 (42:45):
Thanks Harrol, durned boy, did I lose that point? I'm
getting old, y'all. I'm sorry. Uh, there was no acknowledgement
of our women and what they did that related to
John's entering that d CI Hall of Fame. And uh
that's another reason for correcting, you know, or or or
(43:07):
uh you know, we have a legacy here, guys that
we didn't want to let die.
Speaker 9 (43:13):
When I read Harold's his article when he put it out,
I went there, there it is, that's what we need
to do.
Speaker 8 (43:23):
And it set me off on a on a tangent
that you know, gave me uh a uh a short
trailer that you know, if you go to my site
watch the trailer for thetis UH.
Speaker 9 (43:37):
And UH, you know, it gave us all of that.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
It gave me history.
Speaker 8 (43:42):
It gave me, uh the ability to go and research
the other eleven drum course in washingtonc that I'm trying
to get into the UH African American Museum. So you
know that all of this is so helpful. I mean,
Blake come along was a blessing, you know, in my eyes.
And to get this story out. Man, this this is
(44:03):
our legacy. We can't let it die.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
Let me ask you this, because we got to have
about three minutes, would you guys like to do part
two at the end of the summer because we're always
worked four months in advance, because I want to keep
this going and I want to see what Blake is
now because I can imagine what all the stuff that
he's doing, and Blake, I'm willing to help everybody on
this end.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
And again, I gotta give credit to mo Clark.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
One of the reasons why we're one of the world's
best of what we do is because of the world
of drum Corps, because of the discipline of what you
see there when I walk in to do all this stuff,
and Carol knows this because we talk almost every day.
The reason I can be all of these places because
I'm marched a drum Corps. If I didn't march the
drum Court, There's no way I could be going.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
All over the place doing all of these things. I'm
retired basically at sixty five. You guys are older than me,
but you know what.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
We learn.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
This except for Carol, But do you guys know? And
then here the other thing. It was Milton Borough. Milton Borough.
Guys remember milton Borough. Milton Borole and.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
Tommy Brisbond, the original books from the Little Rascals are
the two that brought me into the Beverly Hills Friars Club.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Imagine that. Wow, this is in the early nineties. And
then so the other thing, really quickly, did you guys
know about Ron? Did anybody know about Ron Wyatt? And
That's why I wanted That's what I wanted going on.
Speaker 9 (45:29):
Because I like that.
Speaker 13 (45:32):
I like to also say that we're not an organization
that Elmo was critical in finding, which is New York
Metropolis trying to bring back drum Corps into Brooklyn and
where New York Metropolis dot org and we're bringing it back.
Were We just had a raffle for a cruise for
(45:53):
funding and we're bringing Junior Drum Corps back to Brooklyn,
bringing it back in a way that it is not
the c I.
Speaker 9 (46:02):
It's going to be old.
Speaker 13 (46:03):
School drum Cord just having a parade court initially, but
it's going to bring back and give all the values
that everybody on this program has been talking about.
Speaker 9 (46:13):
And that's what's important to me. So we'll be doing that.
Speaker 13 (46:17):
And kudos to to Elma once again because Elma was
critical in bringing that together.
Speaker 14 (46:23):
Yes, if you need a photographer, just give me a holler,
real quick.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
Written about African American jonk.
Speaker 5 (46:35):
Course, right, and Brian. Elma was trying to tell us
something as well.
Speaker 7 (46:46):
That if you had a time to what there was
a woman girl aspect to this thing which is called
the color Guard, which we even tap on to the
Winter Guard.
Speaker 12 (46:57):
I guess we could do that.
Speaker 7 (46:59):
Yeah, the Winter Guard and color Guard that competed on
you know, on the field and an individual and also
competitive Winter Guard.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
So I just wanted to tie that in. Also, Yeah,
that's a great book. I love that book.
Speaker 12 (47:16):
Book Winston the Toppers, Right. It is available on Amazon Books.
Speaker 7 (47:22):
You can pick it up page, and I mean that
has a lot of historical value as far as in
one of the major innocenty Druman Bugil course, in the
I would say in the United States, all right, everybody there.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
I gotta thank everybody.
Speaker 3 (47:37):
I will do a part two if you guys are
opened sometime near the end of October.
Speaker 4 (47:42):
And the reason is.
Speaker 3 (47:43):
October is that's where we are. I only got thirteen
shows to book for the rest of the year and
that's it. So I gotta thank everybody from coming on
because it's about history.
Speaker 4 (47:55):
This one.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
It's about history and think and Blake, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
Carol, thank you for being the non member. But you
know what it's like in the world of gymnastics. Ron
thank you for those great photos that you took because
they didn't know you. Harold, I'm probably started some zoom,
you know, interviews back with everybody else.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
Richard Plotter, pleasure, you know, honor and pleasure to meet you,
Edward and Elmo. I'll be listening.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
And as I always say, I have a good night tonight,
I better day tomorrow. You see someone out a smile,
please give them one of yours, because the world needs it.
This is Brian Sebastian movie reviews and more, and march
forward and we will see you next week.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
Amen.
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