By Jove What A Band!

BY JOVE WHAT A BAND THE STORY

VANCOUVER KITSILANO BOYS BAND

Christopher Best

BY JOVE WHAT A BAND

BY JOVE WHAT A BAND

The Story of the Kitsilano Boys’ Band

WARFLEET PRESS

Copyright @ Warfleet Press 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the copyright holder.

Publishers Note: Every effort has been made to properly identify and date each photo. If any mistakes have been made we apologize and would appreciate being informed.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Best, Christopher

By Jove What A Band, The Story ISBN 978-0-9812574-4-0

Printed and bound in Canada www.warfleetpress.com

Warfleet Press 1038 East 63rd Avenue Vancouver BC V5X 2L1 Canada

CONTENTS Foreword.................................................

11

Introduction.........................................

13

1. Moose Jaw 1914...................................

19

2. The Territorial Staff Band.......

23

3. The Empress Of Ireland................

28

4. THE FLOWER OF THE ARMY LOST.... 32 5. A WEDDING 1920................................... 36 6. VAUDEVILLE.......................................... 43 7. A BOY’S BAND....................................... 48 8. PERCY WILLIAMS 1928........................ 57 9. TORONTO 1931....................................... 69 10. CHICAGO 1933...................................... 80 11. WEST OF ENGLAND 1934................... 89 12. THE CRYSTAL PALACE 1936.............. 96 13. SAN FRANCISCO 1937......................... 107 14. NEW YORK/ENGLAND 1939.............. 110 15. THE WAR YEARS 1940-45................... 126 16. GOOD CITIZEN AWARD 1946............. 135 17. HOLLAND 1950.................................... 139 18. ENGLAND 1953.................................... 145

19. ENGLAND/ JERSEY 1955........................153 20. BRUSSELS WORLD’S FAIR 1958...........162 21. DASHING, PROUD & HAPPY 1959.........169 22. TRIUMPH & TRAGEDY 1962..................173 23. KERKRADE HOLLAND 1966..................188 24. MONTREAL 1967......................................193 25. VANCOUVER 1968....................................199 26. DARTMOUTH 1970...................................205 27. SCANDINAVIA 1972.................................209 28. RUSSIA 1974..............................................212 29. AN OLD BOYS TOUR 1979......................216 30. THE ORDER OF CANADA 1980..............219 31. AN EXIT WITH FANFARE 1982...............222 32. APPENDIX..................................................234

FOREWORD Arthur Delamont, who founded the Vancouver Kitsilano Boys’ Band in 1928, was a pioneer in the field of music education of our youth. He was the first to travel extensively with youth bands and to show that young people between the ages of eleven and nineteen could develop into a first-class musical organization. He did this by taking first place in virtually every festival he entered, starting with the Victoria Provincial Championship in 1931. He went on to win the National Junior Band Championship title in Toronto that same year and then in 1933, the World’s Junior Band Championship title in Chicago. His wins were not marginal wins but without hesitation, as one adjudicator remarked in Chicago. ‘By Jove what a band’ and ‘there was little doubt that they outclassed their nearest competition’ were other adjudicators remarks.

In 1934, he began taking his band to England, where he took first place in the West of England Music Festival and again in 1936 at the Crystal Palace where his boys beat out thirty-four adult bands to receive the coveted Cassells Challenge Shield.

With the success of his Kitsie Boys, politicians and educators began to call for the formation of more youth bands, but they had not expected Arthur to do it all single-handedly. By the late 1930s, he directed no less than six school bands, from which he selected the best for his Kitsilano Band. They were the West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Grandview, Point Grey Junior High School, Royal City, and General Gordon school bands. As more and more groups began to develop in the school system, more

groups began to develop in the school system, he eventually relinquished control of all but his Kitsilano Boys’ Band.

Over fifty years his band won over two hundred championships, made fourteen European tours and attended five world fairs. The trips lasted from two to five months, and three concerts a day were a routine. While most bands would travel and perform only a handful of shows on the tour, his boys were hired out to perform engagements like professionals at seaside resorts throughout Britain, often booked well in advance for their next visit.

His success story is full of humor, excitement, tragedy, and love. In 1914 he was a member of the Territorial Staff Band of the Salvation Army, on board the Empress of Ireland, which sank in the St. Lawrence, with a loss of over one thousand. In 1939 he was in England with his boys when war was declared and had to sneak out under cover of searchlights and balloons, zigzagging home down the coast of Africa and across the Atlantic, trying to avoid German U-boats.

His legacy is the hundreds of boys who passed through his organization and the lessons they learned. Often their sons went on to play with him as well. And over the years they became the who’s who of the Canadian musical establishment filling the first chairs in symphony orchestras and jazz bands across the continent.

Arthur Delamont collapsed and died in front of his beloved audience while giving a speech in Vancouver in 1982 at age ninety.

Afterward, at home, his daughter discovered all his bills paid and the music set out for his funeral. He had finished his work here on earth; now it was time to meet his maker.

Introduction

Hung Out to Dry in Europe for Two and a Half Months on Arthur Sullivan’s Missing Clothesline* *Our Director’s fond reference to the‘Lost Chord,’ one of our signature pieces.

My first trip to Europe with Arthur was in the summer of 1966. I was sixteen. Many fond memories of that trip still linger in my mind. I remember lying awake my first night in Europe in a youth hostel in the working class district of Woolwich in London listening to the pirate radio station Caroline. For the first time in my life, I was doing something illegal, and I loved it. I recall going with my best friend to a dingy working-class pub right out of a DH Lawrence novel and ordering my first pint of thick black stout.

I loved it (not the stout). I remember taking a picture of a unique doorway and stone wall, only to walk through the door and find I had just taken a photo of the back entrance to Westminster Abbey. I remember taking pictures of every statue in London also every sculpture in Paris and every icon in Amsterdam, come to think of it. I remember the music of The Beatles,

12 ~ Southend-on-Sea

She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to hold your hand, which most of us tried to do whenever we saw a pretty girl, except in Spain where we could not even see the girls’ faces, let alone hold their hands because of the black veils they wore. I remember Carnaby Street, the mods and rockers, fish and chips, Southend-On-Sea, the Kursaal Ballroom and the “Longest Pier in the World,” which, when I returned home, a family friend remarked to her husband: “Hey, John, they’re talking about you.” I remember a jukebox in a community hall where we stayed in Dartmouth, England, that mysteriously played The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine every morning at six a.m. I remember having a pocketful of marks, kroners, pesetas, and shillings and thinking about opening a Swiss bank account, but when I added them all up, I had less than a dollar. I remember the little guy on the sousaphone, being loaded down by people throwing coppers into his sousaphone on the parade route and the back two rows of the band marching off on their own when they got bored with the parade. I remember sitting in a pub in Hamburg when the British were playing the Germans in the soccer club finals and rooting for the British. I remember running out of the pub real fast when the British won.

I remember seeing my first ever topless show at the Lido in Paris and thinking how great the band was. I remember marching along the banks of the Rhine in Cologne, on a road which was below and slightly under the main street, and the people above us not being able to see us, were unable to tell from where the music was coming. I remember an Italian band at the Kerkrade music festival which came from somewhere high in the hills of

INTRODUCTION ~ 13

northern Italy with bass saxophones and bassoons, out of step and out of time, marching to Handel’s, Death March or some similarily appropriate tune.

My second trip with Arthur was in 1968. In 1968 the Beatles’ music Magical Mystery Tour and Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band accompanied us everywhere we went, and we discovered our own Penny Lanes and Strawberry Fields, which I am sure, will stay with us forever. It was the summer of free love, flower power and hippies and everyone was in Europe; in fact, you were more likely to meet your next-door neighbor under the Eiffel Tower than you were a European. The youth hostels were full, the parks were full and the airports filled with backpackers wearing jeans, sneakers, and a flag of their country of origin. No one knew where they were going, where they had come from or why they were there, but they were all having the best time of their lives. Europe was a very controversial place in the summer of ‘68. The British were not playing the Germans in the soccer final, but the Russians were invading the Czechs, and everyone was afraid they were not going to stop there.

When we arrived at our youth hostel on the Boulevard St. Michel in Paris, there were gendarmes and police wagons, and when we got off the plane in Madrid, the airport was full of armed guards carrying machine guns. But things were going on, on the theatrical stage that matched those on the political stage. In London, I saw my first grand musical, Fiddler on the Roof, but the only seat I could get was behind a pillar. I saw Hair in Plymouth and came out of the theatre, unable to hum a single tune. I remember seeing the movie Darling in London, starring

16 ~ The French Riviera

Julie Christie, which ended with a flower lady selling flowers on the street in London, and out on the street after the show was the same flower lady selling flowers. And we still played our three concerts a day. One of the pieces we used to play at every concert was Arthur Sullivan’s Lost Chord, which Arthur used to refer to affectionately as Arthur Sullivan’s missing clothesline. Many of us on this tour were seasoned troopers, having already been hung out on the clothesline a previous time. When you are more confident, you are willing to take more chances, and consequently, you often have more fun. There was a piece we played called A Hunting Scene, which depicted the call to the hunt played on a solo trumpet followed by an echo played by a muted trumpet, or a trumpet placed strategically somewhere away from the stage.

Usually, this worked quite well, but not always. Sometimes the trumpeter who played the echo would get too far away and would be indistinguishable, or sometimes you wouldn’t hear him at all. On one occasion he climbed up a tree and got stuck, and had to remain there until the end of the concert.

I remember a concert in Zurich, Switzerland, where I had a solo. I didn’t feel like standing up, so I coerced the little fellow next to me into standing up and pretending to play (it didn’t take much urging). When we got to the high point in the music, where I held a note just before the end of the solo, the little fellow took his saxophone out of his mouth and with a long draw of his sleeve, wiped his mouth. He made it evident to all watching he was not playing, or if he was, he was doing it in some mysterious manner. I looked over at Arthur

INTRODUCTION ~ 17

to see if I was going to lose my position of seniority on the “clothesline,” only to find him snickering to himself, his head buried deep in his music so that the audience could not see.

I made a third trip to Europe with Arthur in 1970, which had to be the zaniest of all, or maybe it was because I had been hung out on the clothesline one time too many, I don’t know. The Beatles were still there with Hey Jude and Let It Be, but that was about it. The summer of love was over; the hippies had gone home. I didn’t even bring my camera, and I tried to avoid monuments and museums as though they were the plague. It was a very laid back, philosophical summer that not only signaled the end of a decade but also signaled the end of the glory days of love, protest, causes and of my youth.

After that summer I knew I would not return to Europe with the band, the Russians would again invade the Czechs but only in the hockey arena, and The Beatles would break up, my God, we thought The Beatles would go on forever.

But until the end of that summer, I was still secured tightly to that clothesline blowing in the breeze as proud as the red, white and blue, with the world at my feet, literally at my feet, on this trip we went to a new place, The French Riviera— Hallelujah!—scenery, water, sunshine, Princess Caroline and... motor scooters! Our second day in Nice, we all headed down to the motor scooter rental shop—fifty of us. They only had about twenty bikes so we had to double up and the man at the desk got so frustrated that he threw all the keys and registration papers into a big pile and we all had to grapple for a key which we tried to match up to one of the scooters.

18 ~ Battle of the Flowers Parade

Finally we were off, like Peter Fonda in the movie Easy Rider, cruising down the Cote d’Azur towards Monte Carlo, two by two, throttles grasped firmly in our hands, at 20 mph, putt, putt, putt. Nothing could stop us, we were born to be wild, or at least, so we thought until we reached Monte Carlo when a gendarme pulled us all over to the side. When he tried to match up to our registration papers with our scooters, none of them matched, as we had all grabbed the nearest papers not thinking we needed to have the article that belonged to the bike we took. After two hours of trying to explain that we were naive tourists on our first trip to Europe, he let us go, and we putted back to Nice, feeling more like Peter Rabbit than Peter Fonda.

But there was another side to our adventures which I have not mentioned. We did so much marching that summer and we were so good at it that we entered the biggest parade in Europe, the Battle of the Flowers Parade in Nice and took first prize, and didn’t even know it was a contest. I didn’t mention that four years earlier we took first place in marching at the Kerkrade festival and the second place in concert performance.

Over fifty years, Arthur made fourteen trips to Europe and hung out many boys to dry on his clothesline. As those boys got older, often their sons would get hung out on that same clothesline. The band won over two hundred awards in solo, quartet, and band competition during that time. Arthur passed away in 1982 at the ripe old age of ninety, and whenever I go to Europe I still see him marching a band down the Champs Elysee or peering at me from behind a statue—at least in my memories!

CHAPTER 1

MOOSE JAW 1914 When Father Was a Bouncer for General Booth Moose Jaw in 1914 was not your bustling metropolis, just a small town of fifteen hundred with its fair share of roads, houses, picket fences and boys and girls playing in the streets. It was about what one would expect to find on the Canadian prairies before the 1920s. There was something though that did distinguish Moose Jaw from other towns on the prairies. Something which was the object of much pride throughout the town: the Salvation Army Band. Salvation Army bands in Canada had only been in existence for ten years but were quickly growing in popularity and quality, bolstered by the immigration of high-caliber bandsmen from England. That is how the Delamont family came to be in Moose Jaw. John Delamont, a seasoned baritone player, having emigrated to Canada six years earlier, brought with him his entire family, which included his wife, four daughters and five sons. It could well have been called the ‘Delamont Family Band,’ as all five boys played brass instruments, a formi-

20 ~ Territorial Staff Band

dable addition to any band and especially for a Salvation Army band whose members usually only counted fifteen to twenty strong. The boys’ names were Walter, Frank, Herbert, Leonard, and Arthur.

John Delamont was a big burly man who never learned to read or write, but he was a very intuitive and intelligent man. He was a leather tanner by trade, having learned his occupation in Hereford, England before answering an ad in the Salvation Army paper, War Cry, for bandsmen to come to Canada. There was much commotion and excitement in the Delamont household on the evening of April 12, 1914, as a very significant letter had just arrived in the morning mail. John Delamont would not disclose the contents of the message to his five sons who had been waiting all afternoon patiently for him to come home until after he had finished his evening paper.

Every three years the Salvation Army headquarters in Toronto sent out a call for bandsmen who were interested in joining the Territorial Staff Band to participate in a world congress of Salvationists in London, England. The third world congress was coming up in June, and all the boys had been too young to participate in the first two, but this year it was different. All of them had sent in their application months ago, and now, all that was left was for their father to get around to opening the letter so they could see if any of them were lucky enough to have been chosen. It was highly unlikely they would all get to go, and the boys knew it, so there had been much competition amongst them to prac-

MOOSE JAW ~ 21

tice and keep on the right side of their mother and father.

Finally, their father got around to opening the letter, but he went about it very slowly, building the suspense, something that prompted one of the boys to say, “If you played that slow you wouldn’t get to go to England.” Father grunted and shoved the letter to his wife. “Only two of you get to come along, I’m afraid,” his wife replied, “Leonard, you’re one, and Arthur, you’re the other.” “Did I ever tell you about the time I was a bouncer for General Booth,” father added, and soon their disappointment had passed away, and they were all rallying together behind Leonard and Arthur, glad that at least two of them were going and determined not to lose out on the joy and happiness which they felt for their brothers.

For Leonard was the eldest, and conductor of the Moose Jaw Salvation Army Band and Arthur was second eldest, so they guessed it was only appropriate; anyway, their time would come, and there would be other world congresses for them to participate in another time. Along with the letter came an itinerary and a list of items which they were to bring. Besides Leonard and Arthur, there would be their father, mother and sister Elizabeth who, while not in the band, was a Captain in the Salvation Army. They had to be in Toronto on the evening of May 26, where they would be performing their first concert of the trip, but there was much preparation before then.

They were only going for two weeks, but John had to let the townspeople know he would not be open during that

22 ~ S.S. Empress of Ireland

time, so they could get their repairs to him before he left.

There were arrangements to be made, such as having friends look after the younger children and letters had to be written to the old country, letting the relatives know they were coming, and much, much more. They would be traveling to Toronto by train, something that excited the boys, but what excited them, even more, was the boat they would be going on across the Atlantic. Like all boys, they were interested in things that moved: trains, boats, airplanes, and a new invention, the automobile. But for now, it was the boat that held their attention, as she was the biggest in the CPR fleet with two smokestacks. As their father handed them their tickets, they looked at each other, smiled, and read out loud the name on the cards: the SS Empress of Ireland.

ABOVE: John and Seraphin Delamont

CHAPTER 2

THE TERRITORIAL STAFF BAND A Concert in Toronto and a Train Ride to Quebec City The first leg of the journey was a happy one for Leonard and Arthur. They had been on a train before when they had first come to Moose Jaw, but this time it was different. Now they were older and about to embark on a significant adventure of their lives. They spent their time on the train reading and studying their music and even managed to steal into the baggage car where they got out their instruments and kept up on their practicing. They were determined to be the two best players in the band, and no one was going to call them second-rate because they came from a small town on the prairies. No one was going to show them up. The other bandsmen would know from the first note why they were here—yes sir or their name wasn’t Delamont. Every hour the boys would go for a walk through the train, telling their parents they were making sure everything was working correctly, but their sister knew the real reason was they were seeing what the girls were doing in the other cars. Boys will be boys, she thought. The train ride took days and they

24 ~ Adjutant Hanagan

were all glad when they could see the outskirts of Toronto through the window. It was a wondrous sight: there were trolley cars and tall buildings, horses-and-buggies and people everywhere. Arthur remarked, “Look at all those people; someone should put on a concert for them.”

“Spoken like a true musician,” replied his father.

“Why don’t you put on a concert for them?” kidded Leonard, to which Arthur replied, “Maybe I will someday, maybe I will.”

It wasn’t long before the train was pulling into Union Station and they were getting their bags off and heading for the hotel where the rest of the band was staying. Their father had attended the last international congress, and he knew many of the bandsmen: George Falstead and James Myers to mention two, but Leonard and Arthur, of course, didn’t know anyone. Once they were in their hotel, Mr. and Mrs. Delamont went out to socialize and renew old acquaintances while the boys went about their business. Tomorrow morning was their first rehearsal, so they decided to stay in their rooms and practice, as they wanted to be good and ready for their first music encounter.

The next morning the rehearsal went off without a hitch and the band director, Adjutant Hanagan, even complimented them on their exceptional sound. This compliment seemed to act as an introduction for them to the other bandsmen. After the rehearsal was over the other bandsmen came over to Arthur and Leonard, and congratulated the two youngsters on their excellent performance. Arthur had hoped that his sound might have been impressive enough to warrant him being given a solo

INTRODUCTION ~ 25

to play in one of the pieces. He was young, however, he was not so naive to know he had to be a senior member of the band before rightfully asking to play a solo, so he forgot about it and played his parts as though they were all solos.

The concert was an overwhelming success. Leonard and Arthur had not quite gotten used to their new uniforms which they received after the rehearsal, but they looked dashing and handsome in their Stetson hats and scarlet tunics, standing beside their mother and father after the concert. Neither of them had ever played in such a big band before, as their group had united with the temple band in Toronto. Colonel Maidment and Commander Rees walked by with their wives and congratulated John, Leonard, and Arthur on their excellent performance. Seeing his chance, Arthur asked the two men, whose idea had it been to have the two bands play together? “Why it was mine,” replied Commander Rees, a little taken back by Arthur’s boldness.

“Didn’t you like the big sound?”

“Not particularly, sir,” Arthur replied, “It was too cluttered. With a smaller band, the sound is much clearer.”

Arthur’s father tried to tell him to hold his tongue, but the Commander replied, “It’s all right, John. The boy has spunk. I like that in fact, he is quite right as well. He’s going to go far. I’m sure the music world needs leaders who are not afraid to stand up for what they believe.

“That’s Arthur,” Leonard piped up, afterward looking

26 ~ Quebec City

slightly embarrassed by his boldness.

As the two officers left, the Commander leaned back towards Arthur and said, “Actually it was the leader of the Temple band who wanted to combine the two. I think he thought his band would sound better if we did, and you know, I think he was right.” In each of the band’s concerts, there was always an inspirational piece, and Arthur’s father wasn’t sure if that was what had inspired his boldness or not, but of the five boys, Arthur had always been the singleminded one, the most individualistic. He seemed to have strong convictions, and no matter how hard his mother or father tried to tell him to be more like his brothers, the more he seemed to go his own way. His father knew that people with that type of personality often rose to great heights, but he also knew they often found it hard to find personal happiness. He hoped Arthur would not have that problem.

The next morning everyone was up early and at Union Station by eight a.m. for the train ride to Quebec City, the second leg of the journey. Leonard and Arthur wondered what it would be like to be on board the ship and whether or not they would be playing many concerts on board, and they hoped they would not get too seasick. Their first concert an overwhelming success, they were now ready to take London by storm.

INTRODUCTION ~ 27

1910 SA Band Moose Jaw

CHAPTER 3

THE EMPRESS OF IRELAND Salvation Army Band Plays “God Be With You ’Til We Meet Again” on Board the Empress of Ireland It was not long before the Delamont family arrived at Station Centrale in Quebec City and were on their way to the dockyards for their first glimpse of the Empress of Ireland.

When their buggy pulled up to the dockside, they all sat and stared in awe at what they saw before them: the Empress, over two football fields long and more than six stories high, her two smokestacks puffing curly black smoke into the clear blue sky. The boys could feel the excitement growing inside them, and they could hardly wait to get on board. The other bandsmen were now arriving in their buggies, as they had been just behind the Delamonts when they had left the train station. Shortly, Adjutant Hanagan and Commissioner Rees arrived with their wives and then Colonel Maidment shortly after them. The gangplank was down, and people were coming and going, on and off the ship, carrying all descriptions of parcels and suitcases of every shape and size.

Further, along the dock could be seenanother gangplank,

THE EMPRESS OF IRELAND ~ 29

and then another way off in the distance. There was activity everywhere, and it reminded the boys when they had arrived in Canada.

The ship left within the hour, so they had to get on board quickly, and then hurry back to the open deck on the bow of the boat where they were to entertain the other passengers with their music while the ship departed. Their program was a familiar one to the boys, and it began with O Canada, followed by several well-known tunes. As the boat finally pulled away from the dock, the adjutant instructed the band to play God Be With You ’Til We Meet Again. The excitement of the day must have been too much for poor Arthur because, at the end of the hymn he played a few other notes of a well-known ending, à la Pop Goes the Weasel—to which the adjutant took exception.

“Delamont, Arthur, see me after dismissal,” he bellowed in a stern voice. Arthur thought it was the end. He didn’t know what had gotten into him; he had just felt so good that he couldn’t stop himself. After the concert, Arthur came up to where the adjutant was standing, ready for the worst. But instead, the adjutant said, “Delamont, I like you; you’ve got spunk. But always remember, there is a time and a place for tom-foolery.” The adjutant paused and then said, “And that was as good a time as any, but don’t do it again.”

“Yes sir, I mean, no sir, I’ll remember that always.”

When Arthur’s father heard what the adjutant had said to Arthur, it came as no surprise. From his earliest recollec-

30 ~ Rimouski

tion, Arthur had been able to push people to their limits, and usually, he was able to get away with it. People seemed to seesomething in him, a twinkle in his eye—something— his father didn’t know just what it was. It was as if God touched him, he often thought. He was gifted musically, but he also had that something extra that made people believe in him and themselves as well.

The band was in full dress uniform for dinner and sang grace to the old hundredth: Be present at our table, Lord Be here and everywhere adored These mercies bless and grace that we May live and fight to die for thee.

From their table, Leonard and Arthur could see the Captain’s table with those seated around it all dressed in the most beautiful clothing. They must be famous people, they thought.

The other bandsmen told them that one of the men was Sir Henry Seton Kerr, a former British parliamentary member and another was Lawrence Irving, the actor. They learned that the Captain was famous as well and that on an earlier voyage he had apprehended the notorious Doctor Crippen on the ship and had turned him over to authorities in Rimouski.

After dinner, an announcement said that the ship would be stopping in Rimouski to take on mail and drop off postcards.

Arthur had written some letters to his brothers and sisters in Moose Jaw, and he kidded Leonard for not writing any, say-

THE EMPRESS OF IRELAND ~ 31

ing it was good luck to send postcards and you never know what might happen if you don’t. But Leonard was too busy exploring the ship to be bothered with letters. The Commissioner ended by saying: “I learned that you love to be called the Commissioner’s band. Why not come back to Canada branded God’s band?”

Just before the ship landed at Rimouski, the male voice choir from the Army sang a few lively songs on the deck as well as some well-known hymns. It had been a long day, what with the train ride from Toronto, and by 11:30 Leonard and Arthur were sound asleep in their beds, as were most of the other passengers. There would be many days at sea and many more concerts for the boys, and they wanted to be in the best shape possible for this the greatest adventure of their lives.

Above: The Empress Of Ireland

CHAPTER 4

THE FLOWER OF THE ARMY LOST The Sinking of the Ship and Arthur Saves His Mother, but Loses His Brother Leonard The trip up the St. Lawrence is usually a safe one, but not this time. There was another ship on the river that night.

The Norwegian tanker Storstad, her vision impaired by thick fog and smoke from massive forest fires near Rimouski, crashed into the side of the Empress at about 2:00 a.m.

The damage was swift and devastating. As the Empress almost immediately tilted to one side, the Delamont family who had been asleep on the second floor, made their way up to the main deck. The scene on top was one of chaos, as people were throwing themselves left and right into the icy St. Lawrence, landing about 100 yards from the ship. The sea was calm, and the night was eerily quiet, save for the chaos on board. Once in the water, Arthur searched for the rest of his family. After spotting his mother and father and sister, he swam over to them and helped them into a nearby lifeboat. Pulling himself into the boat, he peered back at the Empress. He could see what looked like Commissioner Rees standing on the deck singing a hymn with several of the

THE FLOWER OF THE ARMY LOST ~ 33

other passengers. In a matter of moments, the ship had disappeared. All that was left were a few survivors in the water, attempting to make it to the nearest lifeboat.

The air was full of the shrieks and cries of the survivors as they tried to find their loved ones. Arthur asked where Leonard was and his father, not wanting to alarm his mother, replied, “I think he is in one of the other lifeboats.”

As the lifeboats reached the shore, the one carrying the Delamonts was one of the first. They then stood on the dock watching for a sight of Leonard, the number of boats remaining becoming fewer and fewer. Finally, when the last lifeboat had reached the shore, Arthur’s mother could not stay silent any longer and shouted: “Leonard my poor Leonard.”

Leonard’s father hoped he had been picked up by the crew of the Storstad or perhaps by members of one of the two rescue ships, but he had not.

If there is truth to the saying that the enormous suffering of others can lessen one’s sorrow, I am sure that it would have applied on that Friday morning in 1914, which went down in the annals of Salvation Army history as Black Friday. For on that night, out of 1,475 people on board the Empress, only 397 survived. Out of 37 members in the Territorial Staff Band, only nine survived. Commissioner Rees, Colonel Maidment, and Band Director Adjutant Hanagan, all perished, along with their wives. Captain Kendall, who had sustained a head wound and had been knocked unconscious for much of the incident, upon hearing of the extent

34 ~ Toronto Arena

of the disaster, wept like a baby.

Sometime after, at a hearing into the disaster, it was determined that so many perished because of how swiftly the ship went down. Many of the passengers were trapped below deck, asleep at the time. The other determining factor in the high loss of life was the temperature of the water, 38ºF., and many of those who plunged into the icy water never made it to the lifeboats.

Even some, who did, died shortly after exposure. It took only fourteen minutes from the point of impact until the Empress disappeared. The second worst sea disaster in history, only behind the Titanic, its wreck still lies virtually untouched on the bottom of the St. Lawrence, just off Rimouski, a silent memorial to all those who died. Only one of the Salvationists went on to England, and he reported there were 37 seats left empty at the conference throughout the entire Congress. The 37 seats were where the Territorial Staff Band was to have sat.

When the conference ended, the Salvationists from other parts of Canada returned on their ships (the Empress having been only one of the three ships on which the Salvationists from all parts of Canada traveled to the Congress). When they reached the spot where the Empress had gone down, they sang a hymn and recited a prayer in their memory. Even to this day, there is a remembrance service on the Sunday closest to the day at Salvation Army headquarters in Toronto.

The survivors and the caskets containing the bodies of those recovered (most were not) returned to Toronto a short time after. There was a memorial service held in the Toronto Arena.

The caskets lay in the center of the arena, and it was a sight to

THE FLOWER OF THE ARMY LOST ~ 35

behold, each draped with the flags of the Salvation Army. A huge cross made of floral arrangements lay in front of them. In the seats directly in front of the caskets sat the nine surviving members of the Territorial Staff Band, the other 28 seats empty, the survivors wearing scarlet tunics and Stetson hats. Rising beside them, tier after tier, were the massed Salvationist bands of Toronto, Guelph, Oshawa, Hamilton, and Chatham. Facing them on the other side were the groups provided by the Toronto Musicians Protective Society. At either end were the public bleachers filled.

The arena was as eerily silent as that fateful night on the St. Lawrence. And then in an emotional moment which had everyone in tears, Arthur stood up and played the solo he never got to play on the trip. The music he played was Arthur Sullivan’s Lost Chord, a piece that he would play time and time again, music that was one of his signature tunes throughout his professional life.

Funeral Service

CHAPTER 5

A WEDDING 1920 Arthur Marries His One True Love After the excitement and sorrow of the disaster, Arthur was content to return to Moose Jaw but only for a while. When the Delamont family departed for Toronto to meet the band, Arthur hadn’t been thinking much past the moment at hand, but he knew there were still great things in store for him and he wasn’t going to let the sadness and sorrow of the recent past get the better of him. But, for now at least, after the loss of Leonard, he felt his parents could use him close by, at least until their grief had subsided somewhat. So for the time being, Arthur began to build a life for himself in Moose Jaw. In Moose Jaw in 1914, there was not all that much to do for a young man of 22, with Arthur’s potential and temperament.

The commerce of the town consisted of only a few stores, but he made the best of things. What he wanted to be was a professional musician, and somehow he felt he had outgrown the local Salvation Army Band which certainly was not a fulltime job in any case. He did play trumpet with a little band of musicians for silent movies at the Capitol Theatre, which only served to whet his appetite for bigger things to come. If it had not been for a girl by the name of Lillie Elizabeth

A WEDDING 1920 ~ 37

Krantz, Arthur probably would have departed sooner than he did to discover his fame and fortune.

While doing the rounds of the local merchants in town one bright sunny day in August he happened to enter the Robinson-McBean store, and there she was, the girl of his dreams, right there standing on a ladder putting some boxes of shoes away on the top shelf. When she saw him, it was love at first sight, but she didn’t let on. Instead, she asked, “Are you looking for someone?” to which he replied: “Yes, Mr. Jenkins, the manager. I’ve come to see if he needs a new salesman.” Getting down off the ladder, Arthur watching her every step, she said, “I know you. You’re the boy who plays the trumpet in the band.”

“That’s right, one of them anyway,” he replied.

“I enjoyed your solo last week in church,” she added.

“You did? Gee, I don’t remember seeing you there.”

“I also used to walk past your house when I was younger, and I could hear you and your brothers practicing. I’ve been away at school for the past two years, but I remember you well, our house is just around the corner from yours. Sometimes I could hear you and your brothers practicing even as late as 10 p.m.”

“Oh, I’m sorry if we kept you awake.”

“Oh no, quite the contrary, I enjoyed it. I love music.”

“You do? We’re giving a concert on the bandstand in the park on Sunday. Would you like to come?”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be there. I’ve been looking forward to it for a week, and now I have even more reason to look

38 ~ Arthur Gordon Delamont

forward to it since I met you.”

“Arthur was so awed over this young lady that for the first time in his life, he was speechless. As he started to move back toward the door, not wanting to lose sight of her for a minute, the only thing he could think of to say was, “Well that’s just fine then, we’ll see you on Sunday. Or I mean, I’ll see you on Sunday,” completely forgetting why he had come to the store in the first place.

The young lady, seeing his unease, explained, “The manager is out right now, but I’ll tell him you were here. I’m sure you can have a job. I’ll talk to him—” She added: “—and stop by your house on my way home.”

“Oh, that would be just fine,” Arthur replied, grateful for her quick mindfulness, but the job was the last thing on his mind at the moment. With that previous brave utterance from a boy in rapture, he fell backward over some boxes near the door, landing on his seat on the floor. Quickly getting up and brushing off his pants, he said, “Well thanks again, I’ll see you later,” after which he made a hasty departure, trying to appear in control of his faculties but not fooling her for an instant. As he made his way along the porch, he passed Mrs. Hathaway on her way to do her afternoon shopping, to whom he remarked in a loud voice: “That’s the girl I’m going to marry.”

“That’s nice, Mr. Delamont,” she said, not batting an eye or losing a step. Arthur gave a jump in the air, clicking his heels together and quickly departed for home.

A WEDDING 1920 ~ 39

True to his word, Arthur and Lillie married in Moose Jaw in April 1917. There wasn’t a happier couple in all of Saskatchewan; they loved each other dearly from the first moment they had seen each other. Lillie loved music as well, which was something Arthur needed: someone to share in his dreams and plans, and she would be a major stabilizing force in his life in the years to come.

The next few years in Moose Jaw were happy ones, and Arthur and Lillie’s first child was born. It was a boy, his name was Arthur Gordon Delamont, and there wasn’t a happier family in all Moose Jaw. Arthur and his family always knew that he would be leaving Moose Jaw someday, but they didn’t know when.

Finally, his mother and father back into a routine after the loss of Leonard, and with a new wife in hand, Arthur decided it was time to set out for greener pastures. He had discussed his ideas with his family and Lillie almost every evening for a month or two before he finally made his decision, sometimes on the front porch under the moonlight, or in the family room by his father’s favorite comfortable chair, or on the swing in the backyard. It was going to be hard to leave his family, but he knew it was probably going to be the hardest on his mother. After losing her eldest son, now for her second to leave would be difficult for anyone. But she was an energetic Englishwoman, and he knew she would be all right. Besides, she still had the others to occupy her time, and he had a wife and family now to consider. He had to start building a future for him, and Lillie and Moose

40 ~ Moose Jaw Train Station

Jaw was just not big enough to fit into his plans, whatever they turned out to be. They all discussed the possibilities of where to go often. The United States, perhaps California, was a possibility. The climate was, and it was supposed to be the land of opportunity. He probably would have decided on California had it not been for the strong ties he felt for his adopted homeland Canada. Somehow he couldn’t bring himself to leave. When he had come to Canada from England as a young boy, a strong bond had developed, replacing those he had broken when he left the old country. There was also something about this country he liked. He liked the people and the cities, both the big ones like Toronto and Montreal and the small towns like Moose Jaw and Saskatoon and Brandon. He loved the way of life and the sense of a developing nation, and he wanted to do his part and make his contribution to this young country, still not out of its teens. Besides, Canada reminded him more of England than the United States, and he never wanted to lose those ties with his boyhood. England meant a lot to him, and it would play a big part in his future profession as we are about to see.

After much deliberation, they decided that out west was the way to go, and that meant British Columbia. The largest city in British Columbia was Vancouver, and Arthur thought there should be lots of opportunities to ply his trade as a trumpet player out there, so Vancouver it was!

It was a tearful good-bye at the Moose Jaw train station on the morning of September 11, 1922. Arthur had become

A WEDDING 1920 ~ 41

quite a fixture in the town, what with his friendly smile, good looks, and sharp wit. Many of the townspeople came out to say farewell to him, and even the Salvation Army Band came out to play him and Lillie and Gordon off. The last thing they could see, standing on the back of the Pullman car at the end of the train as they departed, was Arthur’s three younger brothers in the front row of the Salvation Army Band. The crowd was waving ferociously, while his mother and father were trying to hold back the tears as they lifted their arms to join in the farewell adieu!

1918 Arthur with motorcycle at far right

42 ~ 7th & Maple

Not Yet Available www.warfleetpress.com

CHAPTER 6

VAUDEVILLE Vaudeville Meets Arthur Delamont Arthur had never been to Vancouver before, but at first sight of it, he knew they had made the right choice. It was probably the most beautiful city in all of Canada, he thought, with the mountains and the ocean and the harbor.

There was Stanley Park, a natural preserved forest right in the center of the port, and gently rolling hills leading down to any number of parks and beaches every which way you turned. Vancouver was a seaport and therefore had many large docks for ocean-going vessels similar to Montreal but not plagued by cold winter weather and a waterway that was frozen four months of the year. With all the parks it was a perfect spot to have band concerts he thought, and he would do just that many times over in the years to come.

Vancouver in 1922 was a thriving, bustling city. Much growth was taking place in all walks of life, and it was the perfect place for a young, energetic individual such as Arthur to make his mark and rise to fame. But Arthur’s rise to fame would have to wait for six months, as the Musicians’ Union at the time had a strict policy of six months’ residency before anyone could join in Vancouver. So Arthur and Lillie bought a grocery store at 7th and Maple and worked in the store

44 ~ Roland Tibbs

for their first six months in town.

Vancouver had trolley cars at the time so after spending his first six months in the grocery business, Arthur, with his trumpet in hand, would leave their rooms above the grocery store and catch a trolley car down Granville Street to the local Musicians’ Union office. There, he kept a watchful eye on the bulletin board for any jobs that might come up for a trumpet player. For the first few weeks, he managed to get a few gigs filling in for a sick musician in a band concert in the parks but nothing too substantial until one morning when a new poster caught his eye. It read:

VAUDEVILLE “VAUDEVILLE!” What was that, he thought? He was not familiar with that term, so he asked another musician who was also standing looking at the board: “Excuse me, what is this vaudeville?”

“You don’t know what vaudeville is? What kind of musician are you? My name is Roland Tibbs, but everyone calls me Tibby.”

“Hello, glad to meet you. I’m Arthur Delamont. I’ve played mostly with the Salvation Army Band back east and in England.”

“I thought you might be new in town. Come on; I’ll show you what vaudeville is.”

VAUDEVILLE ~ 45

When they arrived at the Pantages Theatre, the show had already begun. There was a man on stage on a one-wheel bicycle and a band in front of the stage, playing what Arthur thought sounded like circus music. It was all very lively and happy and gay, and everyone appeared to be having a lot of fun, so he was more than willing to join in. “Arthur Delamont, meet vaudeville,” said Tibby with a grin on his face. “Come on, I’ll take you down and introduce you to the band leader,” he said after the number was over.

“Ah, two more musicians,” announced the band leader with a definite accent when he spied them coming down the center aisle.

“Hi, Tibby, how you doin’? How’s the missus?”

“Fine, Jackie.”

“Who’s that you got wit’ ya?”

“This is Arthur Delamont, Jackie. He says he played trumpet in the Salvation Army back east and he’s looking for work.”

“Oh, he does, does he!” Picking up a piece of music, the bandleader handed it to Arthur and said, “Here, do you think you can handle that, young man?”

Arthur, not taking a real look at it, replied in his usual fashion, “There hasn’t been anything written that I can’t play.”

“Oh, is that so?” replied the conductor. “Well just sit over there, and we’ll see.”

When Arthur sat down and took a look at the music, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He had never seen anything like

46 ~ Pantages Theatre

this before. Jagged lines were crisscrossing the page, with words written sometimes upside-down indicating delete, add, cut, and so on. And it was all written by hand, by the conductor, he presumed. He thought, I know I can play it! If only I can read it.

During the piece, he noticed the other musicians and the conductor glancing over at him. He couldn’t understand why. He thought he was playing the part properly, it seemed to sound okay to him, but then thought, this is Vaudeville, not a Sunday church service, and what did he know?

When it was all over, Tibby came over to him and said, “Vaudeville meets Arthur Delamont. Where’d you learn to play like that, kid? You should have stayed back east and gone to Carnegie Hall, but we’re glad you’re here anyway.”

The others all crowded around Arthur and praised him for his excellent sound, but what pleased him the most was when the bandleader came over to him and said, “Young man, I have never heard my music played like that before. It was bu-ti-ful, just bu-ti-ful.”

“Did you write that, sir?” Arthur asked.

“I sure did son.”

“Oh, well, I’m proud to know you, sir. That was mighty fine, I thought, mighty fine.” But true to his old fashion ways, he added, “But your penmanship could use a little work.”

“A little messy, was it? Well now that I have someone who can play the darn stuff, I’ll take the time to copy it out neatly for you. Glad to have you with us son.”

VAUDEVILLE ~ 47

“Thanks, sir, glad to be with you.”

So Arthur Delamont met Vaudeville or Vaudeville met Arthur Delamont as Tibby so aptly phrased it. But the union was not to be a long one as Arthur didn’t feel Vaudeville was going to last long with the advent of talking pictures. He enjoyed the fun and excitement, and it paid the bills, but he needed a more profound commitment to something that would be steady for a long time to come.

Preferably something of his own, perhaps a music store or his own band to play in the parks, he just wasn’t sure yet where he was to fit in, but he kept on looking.

ABOVE: The Panatages Theatre, 1920s, Vancouver. Arthur is seated front row between the bass player and the trombone.

CHAPTER 7

A BOYS’ BAND It Can’t Be Done, Boys that Age Can’t Sit Still Long Enough to Play Anything Decent, You’re Wasting Your Time

Arthur’s home life was a happy one in 1928. Gordon was now ten years old. In 1923 they had had a second child, a baby girl named Vera. Arthur felt it was about time that Gordon started to play a musical instrument. It was no surprise to him that he was a natural on the trumpet after all his name was Delamont.

Arthur continued playing in Vaudeville at the Pantages and the Orpheum and the Capitol theatres for the next few years. He managed to make enough money between his music and the store to sell the store and move his family into a more middle-class and up-and-coming district on the lower west side of town called Kitsilano. With his savings, Arthur bought three lots and had three houses built. He decided that he would live in one and sell the other two—a smart move, what with all the people moving to Vancouver, Arthur reasoned, they would all need to live somewhere so that he couldn’t lose!

A BOYS’ BAND ~ 49

By 1928 Arthur was well known at the local Musicians Office on Hastings Street, due to his many visits there to check the board and to talk to the people in the office. He reasoned that if people didn’t know he was around, how would they know to call him if a job came along? He viewed himself sort of like a traveling salesperson selling his trumpet-playing, but without lowering himself to some of the cheap tricks long associated with people of that profession.

In this respect, he began to see himself as a showman. He couldn’t understand why so many musicians just sat back and were unenthusiastic, or seemed to be, about what they were doing. He always felt he enjoyed playing his trumpet, and he enjoyed making people happy, which meant to him sharing in their joy, putting on a smiling face, talking to the people, the audience. It worked for him because the audience soon became his audience, and through his formidable personality and good looks he promptly stole the show at outdoor band concerts and at ship farewell concerts to mention a few.

Vancouver was growing by leaps and bounds. New people were coming in from everywhere, and they enjoyed having someone like Arthur around to welcome them to their new home. And this is the role Arthur began to see himself in more and more, an emissary of goodwill to everyone and a position that would soon launch him on his lifelong career which would include being an ambassador of goodwill for the city of Vancouver all over the world.

It all started one day at the Pantages Theatre when a

50 ~ Mr. Woodcock

young boy of about ten sitting in the front row became mesmerized with what Arthur was doing on his trumpet. After the show was over the boy came over to Arthur and asked him how he he played the trumpet. In his friendly fashion, he wiped off the mouthpiece and put it to the boy’s lips showing him how to blow. To the boy’s surprise, he made a sound. When Arthur told him to do something else, the boy did and got another sound, which was quite decent.

“That was quite good,” Arthur said, “because the trumpet is a hard instrument to blow.” He then added, “If you want to learn to play the trumpet, have your mother bring you over to my house about 8:00 tomorrow evening.” He jotted down his address on a piece of paper, giving it to the boy.

“Gee thanks mister,” the boy said with a smile from ear to ear. “I’ll be there, don’t you worry.”

Arthur was only too glad to help the young lad. He was off tomorrow night and didn’t have anything special to do and besides if it had anything to do with the trumpet he knew he would enjoy it. Arthur didn’t expect to see the boy again as he knew how youngsters of that age were. Probably he would see something else of interest on the way home, and he would want to do that tomorrow instead. He seemed like a likable lad though so he forgot about the incident. The next evening Arthur was sitting in his comfortable chair in the living room of his house in Kitsilano reading the musician’s paper and didn’t hear someone knock on the front door. In a moment, Lillie entered and said, “There’s a Mr. Woodcock and a Mrs. Woodcock at the door for you.”

A BOYS’ BAND ~ 51

“Who?” exclaimed Arthur as he didn’t recall knowing anyone by that name? “Show them in,” he said, thinking he must know them but not by name. It was the boy and his mother, come for the trumpet lesson Arthur had promised.

“Oh Mr. Delamont,” the woman declared, “it’s so nice to meet you. I’ve seen you playing in the park on numerous occasions, and I think you’re superb.”

Well if there was anything that made Arthur humble at any time it was flattery, and he didn’t know at first what to say.

She continued, “I think it is so nice of you to give my little Freddie lessons on your trumpet. Since his father passed away he’s been hanging around downtown, you know, places where it isn’t good for a boy of his age to be.

He needs something to occupy himself.”

At this point, the boy piped up: “Oh Mom, I met Mr. Delamont, didn’t I, from hanging around downtown.”

“Yes, I guess you did, dear,” she said, a bit taken aback.

“It’s all right, Mrs. Woodcock, I understand completely.

Why don’t you come back at nine and pick him up? We should be through by then.”

“All right,” she said as he showed her to the door.

Back inside, Arthur said to the boy, “There are a few things that we’re going to have to straighten out here. First, I didn’t say I would give you lessons. I said a lesson and second, no one plays my trumpet but me. That’s a rule of every musician; why our instruments are almost sacred.”

Upon seeing a distressed and sorrowful look develop

52 ~ Lillie Delamont

on the boy’s face, he broke down his crusty attitude and declared: “No one plays my trumpet but me, at least not for any long period. We’ll have to see if we can’t find you a used trumpet in someone’s attic perhaps.”

With that, the boy’s hopes lit up his face, and his smile reappeared. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down, Mr. Delamont, I just knew it.” He gave a wink with his left eye to which Arthur quickly gave one back to him.

Diligently the boy appeared at Arthur’s home every Thursday evening at 8:00 and Arthur went about the task of teaching him to play the trumpet. It wasn’t long before the boy could play a few short tunes, nothing fancy mind you: Mary Had a Little Lamb, Old MacDonald’s Farm, but they were recognizable which was saying something for a boy of his age, he thought. He didn’t know if it was because he was a good teacher or because the boy had a natural talent, but he suspected it was probably a little of both.

Encouraged by Freddie’s progress, he continued to give lessons to him gaining more and more pleasure from the progress the boy was making. The news of what Arthur was doing with the boy soon spread around the neighbourhood, first by word of mouth and also by little Freddie who could be seen walking home from school in the afternoon playing the tunes he knew on his trumpet, the other neighborhood kids following along behind him like the Pied Piper with his entourage. It was not that music lessons were uncommon in those days. There were many piano teachers and voice

A BOYS’ BAND ~ 53

teachers who would gladly take your money, but it was often through much persuasion and difficulty that their parents managed to get their children to see these teachers. So, to have a boy going on his own for a trumpet lesson was quite extraordinary because he enjoyed it. There were teachers of brass instruments in Vancouver at this time, and even a youth band called the Vancouver Juvenile Band but the general feeling, especially among professionals, was that kids of an early age couldn’t sit still long enough to produce anything worthwhile so it would just be an exercise infutility to try to teach them anything. It wasn’t long before another neighborhood boy came to Arthur’s door wanting to play the trumpet. Arthur couldn’t say no to his youthful exuberance, and the anticipated sad look which he felt would develop if he declined, so he had him come Monday nights at 7:00, which was another evening Arthur had free.

One evening about 6:00 there was another knock on the door, this time two more neighborhood boys wanted to know if they could take lessons. But they didn’t want to play the trumpet, one wanted to learn to play the trombone, and the other wanted to learn the saxophone. Arthur took their names and addresses and said he would see what he could do and he would get back to them.

When Arthur and Lillie went back into the living room and sat down, Lillie said, “These boys are getting a little out of hand. Pretty soon you won’t have any evenings free at all.”

“Yes, I know what you mean,” he said. “I’ve been thinking the same thing. But I can’t turn them away. Something

54 ~ Percy Williams

inside of me won’t let me do it when they want to learn so badly. You know, when I went over to Mrs. Pearson’s house to pick up that old trumpet in her attic for Freddie, I saw an old trombone.”

“I thought so,” declared Lillie. “But what do you know about the saxophone and the trombone?”

“The principle is the same, dear, with all the instruments. It’s all the energy and enthusiasm you bring to it and the will to want to learn that is important. Anyone can memorize the basic fingerings and learn to hold his lips in a particular position. I can teach them; I know I can.”

Picking up the evening paper, Arthur said, “This is interesting. It looks like Percy Williams is going into the Olympics. He should show them how to do it. I’ll bet he brings back a gold medal.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Lillie said with a smile.

Arthur continued. “You know, if he does, and I only say if, there will probably be a big parade for him and lots of people shouting and crowds everywhere.”Lillie could tell Arthur had something on his mind. “All right, spit it out.

What is going through your musical head now?”

“Well, I just thought when there’s a celebration there has to be music, band music.”

“So? There are plenty of bands here in Vancouver. I have no doubt they will be there if there is a parade.”

“Yes, but there should also be something special on occasions like this, it’s not every day that a member of one’s community brings home a gold medal.”

A BOYS’ BAND ~ 55

“Special?”

“Yes, like perhaps a boy’s band or something.”

“A boy’s band? Now I know this has gone too far. Arthur, you’re just teaching a few neighborhood boys to blow into a musical instrument. They’re a long way from being a band.

Besides, a band has to be bigger and have more instruments, and what about the music and uniforms? It must have uniforms.”

“I’m sure there are other boys around who would like to learn to play. Why I see lots of them across the street every day at the school, remember, I haven’t been going to them, they’ve been coming to me.”

“That’s true.”

“Besides, it would be good for Gordon to play with some boys his age. It would help them all along to see what their friends are doing. The music I could write out myself.

I know enough band leaders around town who I am sure would loan me a piece or two. As for the uniforms, well, maybe you could get some of the neighborhood ladies together and sew something up. You’re pretty good at that.”

Like Arthur, flattery was the key to his wife’s personality, and he knew she was not totally against his idea sometime back.

“But when and where would you teach this, this band?”

“I’ve been thinking about that too. You know there is no reason I should have to teach the boys all here in my spare time when there is a perfectly good school just across the way. And what are schools for?” he asked.

56 ~ General Gordon School Band

“Teaching?” replied Lillie.

Exactly, and I think it’s about time band music should become something it teaches. I’m going to go down and talk to the principal and tell him what I have in mind. I’m sure he won’t refuse.”

“You are always so sure of yourself, Arthur. But I guess that is one of the things I love about you. I hope you’re never disappointed.”

“Oh, I won’t be about this. Mr. Williams, it looks like you’re going to have Vancouver’s first ever boy’s band to greet you when you bring that gold medal home. Who knows, maybe it will be Canada’s first boy’s band or maybe even the world’s first boy’s band,” he declared with a hearty laugh, slapping a rolled-up newspaper across his knee.

“What will you call the band, dear?”

“Well, I hadn’t given it much thought. It’s the music that’s important. This band is going to sound almost as good as any adult band, or my name isn’t Delamont.”

“I’m sure it will, dear. I think the name of the school is the General Gordon Elementary School.”

“Well, then we’ll call it the General Gordon School Band. Yes, that sounds pretty good. What do you think?”

“It sounds good to me, the General Gordon School Band.”

CHAPTER 8

PERCY WILLIAMS 1928 The General Gordon School Band Performs for the Homecoming of the Fastest Man in the World The next morning Arthur went down to see Captain Steeves, the principal of General Gordon School and explained his idea to him. Captain Steeves thought it was an exciting idea and immediately gave his approval for the use of a school building for Arthur’s rehearsals. Unfortunately, though, he would have to continue teaching them in his spare time because the school calendar was already well-filled up for the year, something Arthur didn’t think about in all his enthusiasm. Well at least he had a place to rehearse, and with the principal behind him, that was a start, he thought.

That evening at the Pantages he told his friend Tibby about his idea who, at intermission, promptly exclaimed to the rest of the band, “Hey fellas, Arthur’s going to start a boys’ band that will be as good as any professional band.”

One fellow in the first row turned around and scoffed. And so it is with great people whose single-mindfulness is seen as stepping on people by those not as brilliant or dedicated.

58 ~ The Fastest Man in the World

“Let me give you a piece of advice. There are no good boy’s bands for a reason. Young boys can’t sit still long enough to play anything decent.”

Another turned around and said, “Why waste your time? You’re a good trumpet player, what do you wanna spend your time with a bunch of juvenile delinquents for?”

With that, Arthur knew it was time for his association with Vaudeville to come to an end, so he began to put his trumpet away.

Upon seeing this, the band leader declared, “Here, what are you doing? We have more music to play!” To which Arthur replied, “I’m through! So long, fellows, I hope you have a good life. I’m off to start a boys’ band.”

“Who does he think he is anyway?” one chap declared. “If you ask me, he’s gotten too big for his britches, thinks he can do whatever he pleases.” With that, Tibby stood up and said, “He’s Arthur Delamont, that’s who he is, and don’t you forget it!”

Well, they didn’t forget it, and for all his good intentions and enthusiasm, Arthur also seemed to have a knack for riling people when they didn’t agree with him. Maybe this goes hand in hand with the temperament of a genius, who knows, but it was a part of Arthur’s personality that he was not always the proudest. As one fellow musician once said, “You’ve got to either love the man or you gotta hate him, there’s no room in between!” And so it was to be all through his life. He was a man on the move with ideas and goals to achieve, and he either did something or he didn’t do it.

There were no two ways about it; he was a man true to his word.

People either loved his single-minded determination and individualism, or they envied him and therefore grew to hate him for it.

PERCY WILLIAMS 1928 ~59

as they.

When news that Arthur was going to start a boy’s band spread around Kitsilano, boys flocked to him by the dozens. It wasn’t long before he was holding his first rehearsal at General Gordon School.

They would arrive on his doorstep and telephone him as one young lad did who played the saxophone. Arthur told him to come on over and bring his horn. When he arrived, Arthur ushered him into his kitchen, sat him down, and showed him a piece of music.

To Arthur’s surprise, the young boy declared, “My name is Clifton Bryson. Do you want me to play it as is or to transpose it up a minor 3?”

“What does a young boy like you know about transposition?” replied Arthur. “You shouldn’t even be thinking about it at your age.”

The boy was aware of the need to transpose on his saxophone when playing with a piano or a violin, but he didn’t know that he didn’t have to transpose band music which already comes transposed.

One night at home, while Arthur was resting and reading the paper, Lillie asked him, “How’re the rehearsals going dear?” to which he replied true to his fashion, “We’re right on schedule. Let’s hope Percy is, as well!”

Well, Arthur was right on schedule and so was Percy. One morning in July 1928 Percy returned to Vancouver, billed as The Fastest Man in the World. As the glittering parade moved up Granville Street and wheeled right at Georgia, to a thunder of cheers, a sea of flags, and a bunting of confetti, right behind Percy Williams was Arthur and the General Gordon School Band. There were fifteen boys in all, marching behind their leader with white shirts and dark blue pants and round military-style pillbox hats.

60 ~ 200 Championship Awards

Mrs. Delamont had done well with the uniforms, the boys had done well learning their music, Percy had done well winning his medal, and Vancouver did well in cheering them all on. It was a new beginning for Arthur and Vancouver. The people who attended the parade that day didn’t know it, but they were witnessing the birth of a musical legacy. It would span fifty years and take Arthur and his band around the world and bring back over 200 championship awards for excellence all because of one man’s determination to do something which others scoffed at and said could not be done.

1930 School Band Concert Tonight

PERCY WILLIAMS 1928 ~61

1895 High Town, Hereford

1902 Arthur with bicycle in front of Green Dragon Hotel, Hereford

62 ~ Moose Jaw Salvation Army Band

1910 Moose Jaw Fire Brigade, John Delamont standing

1895, The Delamont Family, (Arthur on bench)

PERCY WILLIAMS 1928 ~63

1908, Walter, Arthur, John, Herb, Leonard and Frank

1910 Moose Jaw Salvation Army Band, Arthur standing at left

64 ~ Salvation Army Band

ABOVE: 1910 Arthur

PERCY WILLIAMS 1928 ~65

ABOVE:1931, Arthur

1931, Lillie and Arthur in Victoria

ABOVE: 1931, Gordon

66 ~ Jackie Souders Orchestra

1922, Arthur at the Pantages

PERCY WILLIAMS 1928 ~67

ABOVE: 1920 Arthur & Gordon

1929 Jackie Souders Orchestra

68 ~ National Champions

1928 General Gordon School Band

1928 General Gordon School Band

CHAPTER 9

TORONTO 1931 First Time a Vancouver Band Ever Became National Champions After the band’s success at the Percy Williams parade, Arthur set about the task of further building up the group, which didn’t prove to be too hard when word got around that it was going to be a travelin’ band! Arthur knew if he were going to gain any credibility for his boys, it would have to be through competition. The professional musicians around town had gotten his dander up with their negative attitude. So for this reason, just playing well wasn’t good enough. They had to be the best. They had to win!

It would take Arthur two years before he felt his boys were ready to enter the provincial competitions. During that time, an event occurred that made Arthur even more convinced he needed to succeed with his plans.

The world’s economy collapsed. Everywhere men were out of work. Hundreds in every city were queued up in soup lines. Many left their homes looking for a job in the country.

Traveling on foot or in boxcars or on top of them, hoping to make whatever they could as farm laborers, they traveled from one end of the country to the other.

70 ~ National Juvenile Band

Money was scarce, and those who still had jobs hung onto them. The future looked dim, and no end seemed to be in sight. Musicians, however, appeared to be a little better off. With all the problems of everyday life, people turned to the filmmakers and music makers for comfort and for the hope of better times to come. Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Cab Calloway were the names on the marquees of the movie houses and concert halls. In Vancouver there were local dance band leaders Calvin Winters, Earle Hill, Sandi de Santos, and a new young man, quickly making a name for himself, Arthur Delamont.

Boys began flocking to Arthur’s doorstep by the dozens.

Even the local music teachers got into the act. One afternoon in the spring of 1929, a local trumpet teacher, Mickey Hunt, said to one of his best pupils, “You should look into this new boy’s band that just started in Kitsilano. I hear they’re going to Victoria for the music festival.”

Well, the boy gave Arthur a call and arranged to come down to General Gordon the next Monday at 7:00. Catching the bus, he made it to the school just in time to warm up his trumpet before Arthur arrived. Arthur had been given a building in the corner of the school grounds to rehearse in, adjacent to his home. He would come over and unlock the door ahead of the boys so they could, and then he would return to his house until 7:00. Inside the building were several benches for the boys to sit on. Adequate, at the best of

TORONTO 1931 ~71

times, if several boys were present, it was enough to sit six on a bench, unless you were unfortunate enough to be a saxophone or French horn player, which was awkward because those had to be placed by your side and on a bench, there are no sides.

When Arthur came in, he sat the boy on the end of the bench nearest to where he usually stood, and he sat next to him.

“What is your name?” he asked.

“Roy Johnston, sir,” the boy replied.

“How long have you been playing and what other bands do you play in?”

“About two years, sir. I also play in the National Juvenile Band.”

The National Juvenile Band was a reputable organization in Vancouver in 1929, run by two English gentlemen, William Hoskins Sara, and Jack Parle. Arthur had heard a recent concert played by them where they had not been up to their usual distinctiveness, so he asked the boy what he had thought of the show.

“Well, I thought we sounded like the devil, sir,” replied the boy. Arthur saw an opportunity to teach the boy a lesson.

He yelled, “Don’t you ever talk like that in here! No one talks like that in this place!”

Arthur felt it was his job to teach the boys what was right and wrong as well as to play music, and there were strict rules which the boys had to abide by if they were to be in his

72 ~ William Hoskins Sara

band.

The boy could only attend one rehearsal a week, and he always sat on the corner of the bench nearest Arthur where he sat that first night. Next to him, always sat another boy who had also come on that same night. His name was Don Endicott. In the weeks that followed, the boys all became good friends, and their interest in anything musical grew contagious. One evening, Don and the other fellows told Roy he should try to get out to Thursday’s practice and hear this terrific clarinet player, who could only come on Thursday. But Roy had to work on Thursday evenings, and he couldn’t get down, but they soon did eventually manage to meet. Roy’s music teacher was also the leader of the local Seaforth Band and one day he asked Roy if he would come out on Saturday and help him out with a church parade. Only too glad to oblige, Roy showed up at the Seaforth Armory on Beatty Street downtown and marched with the band to Christ Church Cathedral about a mile away and then back again to the Armory.

At a reception which followed, Roy met a young clarinet player in the Seaforth Band. His name was Jack Allen.

When Jack heard Roy’s name, he said, “Oh, you must be that new hotshot trumpet player that just joined the Kits band.” Roy asked, “How do you know that?”

“Well, I just joined the Kits band.”

“Are you that terrific clarinet player that everyone’s been talking about?” asked Roy.

TORONTO 1931 ~73

“I guess so,” he replied, and so the two finally met.

Arthur was managing to attract the best youth band players available, but boys will still be boys!

At the reception, beer was available, and although Roy and Jack were old enough to drink neither of them did. Instead, they sat in a corner by themselves. As the reception got louder, finally, Jack couldn’t take it any longer and said to Roy, “Well, I don’t care if you tell Mr. Delamont or not, I’m going to have a drink.”

“You son of a gun,” replied Roy, “You mean I’ve been sitting here drooling because I wanted a beer like you wouldn’t believe. I was afraid you would tell Mr. Delamont.”

That boys were flocking to Arthur in droves pleased him to no end as it at least proved the cynics were partially wrong, that boys would not willingly learn a musical instrument. But he also knew that playing “O Canada” on the street corner was a far cry from developing a first-class band that could win music festivals. At first, there were many hours of ups and downs, but on May 6, 1930, Arthur had his chance to prove the cynics wrong, when he entered the boys in the Pacific Northwest Music Festival in Victoria.

One evening at the Delamont home Lillie asked, “Do you think they’re ready yet, dear? You’ll be competing against William Hoskins Sara, you know, and his National Juvenile Band is pretty good.”

“I know, but we have to test ourselves sooner or later.”

74 ~ Canadian National Exhibition

On May 7, 1930, Arthur and his boys boarded the ferry at the CPR terminal on Cordova Street for the overnight trip to Victoria. The next day when the adjudicators announced the results after the contest, the National Juvenile Band had garnered 89 points and the Kitsilano Boys’ Band 86. The National Juvenile Band was victorious. On the trip back and all the next day, Lillie tried to console Arthur as best she could.

“It’s all right, dear, you did very well, I think.”

“I don’t know, Lillie, maybe the fellows were right. Maybe I’m trying for too much for the boys.”

“What’s this? That’s not the Arthur Delamont I know.

Don’t you ever let me hear you talk like that again! Mr. William Hoskins Sara has been around for some time. Don’t forget; you’re just starting. You need a little more time. You need a few more boys. Some better instruments. You’ll see, it will all come together.”

A letter had arrived that morning for Arthur, and he just noticed it on the dining room table.

“What’s this?” he said, picking it up.

“Oh, that’s the answer I presume to a letter I sent off to the Canadian National Exhibition executive in Toronto on your behalf. It seems they’re having a band contest there next summer and I thought you might be interested.” After opening the letter and reading it through Arthur exclaimed, “Why the nerve of them, listen to this,” ‘Yes we do have a class for junior bands, but we are surprised to hear that there is a band of such high quality on the west coast that

TORONTO 1931 ~75

would be interested in competing in our festival. If you want to come, the test piece is Haute Monde.”

“Why, I’ll show them. Surprised indeed! We’ll see how surprised they can get.”

And Arthur was off again.

Arthur was so eager that he put on his hat and coat and rushed immediately down to Ward Music and put in an order for Haute Monde, saying to the clerk, “Put a rush on it, we’ve no time to lose. We’re going to the Toronto Exposition next year, and that’s the piece we’re going to play, to win the National Championship. Why we’re going to make them eat their hats.”

“Yes sir, Mr. Delamont, I just bet you will, I just bet you will.” exclaimed the clerk, beaming with enthusiasm just like Arthur.

Arthur formed a band parents association about this time, bringing in an old friend of his Garfield White to be his Publicity Agent. Garfield worked for the CPR and would prove indispensable to Arthur in arranging train schedules and promoting the band across Canada.

The biggest problem now facing Arthur and Lillie was getting the money to get them to Toronto. He knew that first, they would have to win the Pacific Northwest contest in Victoria before they could go, but there were no doubts in his mind that they would. “Maybe I shouldn’t have been in such a big hurry to say we would go,” declared Arthur as he and Lillie sat trying to work out the finances one night at the kitchen table.

76 ~ Victoria Boys’ Band

“Don’t worry, we’ll raise the money,” Lillie replied.

“I think the best thing to do is establish a fund for the parents of each boy going on the trip.”

“And I’ll go down in the morning to see the Daily Province. Maybe they will help us raise the rest,” added Arthur.

Arthur rehearsed the boys hard for the next ten months, keeping them busier than most professional bands. They played a luncheon for the Kiwanis in the Hotel Vancouver for $200. Special guests of the occasion were Captain E.J. Spooner and officers of HMS Dragon, who were visiting Vancouver.

Finally, a special invitation was received for the boys to play a twilight program in Winnipeg’s largest park before30,000 auditors on August 26 en route to Toronto, a request which was gladly accepted. The boys performed other concerts in Vancouver, foremost in conjunction with the feature picture Men in the Sky starring Jack Whiting and Irene del Roy. Even so, by the time they were ready to depart, all the money needed still had not been raised, but they decided to go anyway. Arthur knew he would be praying all the way that the boys’ parents would find a miracle, and they would be able to get home when it was all over, but first, he needed to take care of some unfinished business.

At a band rehearsal one evening in early May 1931, Arthur said to his boys, “Now, let’s see if we can do better this time in Victoria before we leave for Toronto.”

This time in Victoria, when the adjudicator announced the results, he said:

TORONTO 1931 ~77

“The Kitsilano Boys’ Band, 89 points, the Victoria Boys’ Band, 86. The Kitsilano Boys’ Band is the winner!”

They had done it! Arthur was disappointed that William Hoskins Sara had not entered that year but only for a moment because they still would have won, and now he had to turn his energies toward Toronto.

When their train arrived in Winnipeg, they met members of the Winnipeg Tribune who had sponsored them for the evening concert. Arthur wanted his boys to play as much as possible before arriving in Toronto, so he was only too eager to play in Winnipeg. Traveling turned out to be pretty easy for Arthur and Lillie and the boys. They had two train cars which they lived in and whenever they wantedto stay somewhere overnight, their cars were unhitched from the train and put on a side track. They slept and lived together on the train like one big happy family. Food had been stored on board in Vancouver by Safeway Stores, one of the band’s sponsors. The boys prepared their meals and made their beds under Lillie’s watchful eyes, Lillie soon became known as the mother of 40 to all the boys, and what with Gordon playing in the band and Vera along as mascot, it indeed was a family affair.

In Hamilton, the boy’s sponsor was another newspaper company. This time it was Southam Publishing Co., and they took them out on an afternoon trip to Niagara Falls.

Along the way, one of the boys managed to sell 650 postcards, which Arthur had brought, with a picture of the band

78 ~ Major H.B. King

on it, to help defray costs. Finally, they reached Toronto, and the big day was at hand. In Toronto, they were met on Saturday afternoon by civic officials who took them to the steps of city hall for a reception in their honor and then later that evening they were guests at a banquet in Arcadian Court. Arthur and his committee managed to put on a right enjoyable tour for his boys regardless of the outcome of the festival.

The next day, when the big moment arrived, and the contest was at hand, the officials of the festival couldn’t believe their ears. The adjudicators who had been seated behind a screen, in a tent and were unaware of the identity of the contestants feared there was a mistake when the announcer said that juveniles from the west were competing and their number appeared on the top of all their scorecards. Arthur wasted no time in wiring home an announcement to the Daily Province newspaper in Vancouver. It read: “KITSILANO BAND TAKES FIRST PLACE IN ITS CLASS AT CANADIAN NATIONAL EXHIBITION BAND CONTEST.” Besides winning the band contest, Arthur had entered several of his boys in solo competition and four in a brass quartet category. After it was all over, the boys gathered around Arthur and declared that they had won all their solo competitions and the brass quartet had taken first place as well. One of the adjudicators approached Arthur after it was all over and said:

TORONTO 1931 ~79

“Congratulations, Mr. Delamont. I’m James Oliver of the St. Hilda’s Band of London, England. That was an easy win. You completely outclassed those other Ontario bands in your category. And that brass quartet, they astonished the judges.

It was an enviable victory for all your boys.”

The boys wasted no time in writing home to their parents their joy and enthusiasm over the victory. One boy stated, “We won without hesitation.”

The officials of the festival were so upset by this upstart band from the west that they refused to give each boy their medal which was customary for each winning participant to receive at the presentation. Instead, they indicated they would mail them to them in Vancouver.

On the Monday following the concert, CNE officials granted Arthur special permission to perform a one hour concert in Exhibition City where they delighted and dazzled fairgoers with their music. By 1931 the band’s uniform had changed and clad in blue pants, white shirts, and capes with brilliant crimson silk lining showing underneath thrown over their shoulders, the lads thrilled a vast audience and brought great honor to Vancouver. Arthur’s idea when he took a band to a festival was to keep his boys as busy as possible, which he would always manage to do. With his unique brand of showmanship, producing first-class music but having fun at the same time, Arthur and his boys proved real winners wherever they played. On their departure from Toronto, Arthur was asked to comment on the competition,

78 ~ Major H.B. King

and true to fashion he replied: “I’m somewhat disappointed with the treatment accorded the boys here. Even the newspapers have ignored us. The members of the band worked hard to raise the necessary funds to bring us the long distance to Toronto, and we had hoped to raise part of the expense while here. But it doesn’t matter,” he added with a smile, “we won the prize, and that’s what we came for!”

On the way back the boys played again in Winnipeg and Edmonton and stopped in Jasper for two days to enjoy the scenery as special guests of the Canadian National Railway. Once back in Vancouver, the boys were given a stirring tribute by civic and provincial leaders at a public banquet held in the Hotel Vancouver. Major H.B. King, principal of Kitsilano High School, expressed his hopes: “I am sure the boys feel proud of the city’s recognition of the band’s success as is evident by this splendid gathering.

We hope that the achievement of your boys will lead to the formation of other youth bands in the city and that your achievement will forward the music movement here in the west.”

TORONTO 1931 ~79

CHAPTER 10

CHICAGO 1933 Kits Boys Beat The World!

Arthur started rehearsing his boys immediately for their next conquest which he decided would be Chicago, or more precisely the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933. This contest would be no piece of cake. Toronto would seem like merely a rehearsal after his boys got a taste of Chicago. This contest was in the United States where band music in the school system was well established for some time, and they didn’t take their music lightly, no sir! No, if they were going to pull this one off, the boys would have to be lickety-split perfect in every way but he knew they could do it and do it they did!

But first, there was another Victoria Music Festival in which Arthur again entered his boys. The thrillingly-spirited and musician-like performance by the boys drew from adjudicator York Bowen, one of the most conservative adjudicators ever sent to the festival from England, enthusiastic praise and the highest marks given by any of the judges during the present festival.

CHICAGO 1933 ~81

“When I heard the New Westminster band, I sat up,” said Mr. Bowen. “It was a fine performance. I gave them 88 marks. I thought it was that good. But this second band from Kitsilano is marvelous. It is amazing that from within such a short distance there can be two boys’ bands doing such magnificent playing. The New Westminster boys had good balance, excellent attack, good choice of tempo and proved themselves excellent players in every department—an accomplished set of young musicians. But these other boys from Kitsilano, wherever that is, By Jove what a band. I gladly give them the top marks of the whole week—94. They deserve it, for they had splendid basses, accompanied with better balance, had a finer body of tone and their precision was electric. I don’t see that one could expect anything better from a band of young players for less than 18 years.”

Mr. Cornfield, leader of the New Westminster band and Arthur, were old sparring partners and too often poor old Mr. Cornfield found himself in competition with Arthur’s group, on the short end of the stick.

After the festival, Arthur and his boys continued their task of fundraising for the trip to Chicago. On April 27 the Kitsilano Boys’ Band and Radio News Ensemble played a

82 ~ Dr. Clem Davies

concert at the Kerrisdale Theatre. The highlight of the evening was a letter written by Dr. P. Stanton, another of the adjudicators at the Victoria festival, which read: “The standard of accomplishment attained by the Kitsilano Boys’ Band has not yet been reached in Great Britain.”

The cost of the trip to Chicago would be as much as $4,000 to $5,000, and the task of sending the boys was taken on by three organizations in Vancouver: the Rotary, Safeway Stores, and the Chamber of Commerce.

The boys played everywhere they could to help raise the money. On Sunday, May 7, they played four concerts at the City Temple in Victoria. Admission was 25 cents, 35 cents reserved. The music was sacred, classical, and operatic.

Hundreds were turned away at the door. The boys were in such demand that they were asked to return in June. Dr. Clem Davies, Minister of the Victoria City Temple, made all the arrangements through billeting.

Not all of their concerts raised money for the tour. The boys always found time to play at Essondale, a government hospital up the valley. Some 2,000 patients and doctors and staff crowded out on the lawn for the boys’ first open-air concert of the season on June 11, 1933. Dr. Campbell and his team thanked the boys and Arthur at intermission and, when it was all over the boys were treated to sandwiches and cakes as was the custom.

Back in Vancouver, the boys continued to crowd in as

CHICAGO 1933 ~83

many engagements as possible before their August 10 departure for Chicago. They played at the Hotel Vancouver for members of the Fifth Pacific Science Congress, at the Arena at Georgia and Denman for what was billed “A Pageant of Nations” on July 4th, and at a garden party given by the North Shore troops of Boy Scouts in the garden of Mr. and Mrs. M.B. Stoke, 2801 Lonsdale Avenue. One evening at his home in Kitsilano, Arthur received a call from an official of the Chicago World’s Fair to see how his fundraising efforts were going. When Arthur got off the telephone, he came into Lillie in the other room and told her about the call.

“That was one of the officials of the fair, dear. He offered me a week’s engagements to perform at the fair to help defray the costs.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I thanked him and said no, I couldn’t accept because it would be taking jobs away from the professionals in town who need the work.”

“You’re a good man, Arthur, another reason I married you.”

To say the whole community got behind the band to help send them to Chicago would not be an exaggeration. Even the Kitsilano Meat Market advertised their support for the group, urging its customers to SUPPORT THE CHAMPS. On to Chicago was the slogan adopted by the town for the band. Service clubs got behind the boys. Safeway even announced in the Sun and Province that a percentage of their sales on June 30th would go towards the band. And so it

84 ~ Lexington Hotel

was on August 10th, 1933, the boys left by train for Chicago to compete for the junior band championship of the world.

Along the way, the boys played at several towns. The first was Revelstoke where Mr. David Orr, bandmaster of the Revelstoke Band introduced them. They opened their concert with Sousa’s King Cotton and continued with thirteen numbers plus encores. The large crowd could easily judge that the boys would represent Canada well in Chicago. In Kamloops, the boys spent a morning swimming, boating, and horseback riding. In the afternoon they performed an outdoor concert at the Kamloops Athletic Club. After the evening concert, six members of the band played dance music for everyone. In Banff, 500 persons sat spellbound from the beauty of their music. The show given on August 5th by the 43 strong contingents began with The World is Waiting for the Sunrise and continued with Shuffle Off to Buffalo and The Bohemian Girl. The next morning at 6:00 a.m. the boys’ train passed through the capital of Saskatchewan, Regina, unbeknownst to the boys who were all sound asleep, dreaming of the big event to come. On August 16th the boys arrived in Winnipeg in plenty of time to reach Chicago for the contest.

Upon their arrival in Chicago, the boys went immediately to their lodgings in the Lexington Hotel. In the lobby of the hotel, two of the boys struck up a conversation with a bellboy who gave them a taste of life, Chicago-style.

“So you boys are from Canada, are you?”

“Yes, we are.”

CHICAGO 1933 ~85

“I guess you don’t know that Al Capone once owned this hotel?”

“No, we didn’t.”

“Well it was—and on the top floor, there is a shooting range where dummy cops pop out from behind pillars. I’ll show it to you sometime,” the bellboy said. Finally the big day arrived and was it ever big: “KITSILANO BOYS BAND ATTAINS WORLD TITLE AT CHICAGO FAIR: SCORE 225 OF POSSIBLE 240” Smashing all competition, the Kitsilano Boys’ Band under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont proved themselves champions of the world in Class D (juvenile bands, less than 40 pieces) division at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. They obtained 225 points out of a possible 240 and were 23 ½ points ahead of their nearest competitors. This success culminated in the band’s march through the provincial and dominion championships to world fame in a highly contested field.

From the time the red and blue-uniformed lads from the far Canadian west stepped on the concert stage, there was little doubt that they completely outclassed their seven competitors. The nearest rival, the Chicago Boys’ Band, had 201 ½ and the Forreston School Band from Forreston, Illinois was third. That night the boys shared the spotlight with the winners of the Class C competition, the St. Mary’s Training

86 ~ South Vancouver Juvenile Band

School Band, on the evening festival program at Soldier’s Field before 100,000. For the remainder of the week in Chicago, the boys played at the Canadian Exhibit, the Court of the Hall of Science, the Floating Theatre, at a luncheon for 500 Rotarians, before 1,800 employees of the Swift Co., for the Premier of New Zealand, and wound up their engagement at the General Motors Building. They also found time to take a special bus tour of the city and to see the Chicago White Sox play the Philadelphia Athletics at Comisky Baseball Park.

Having conquered Chicago, the boys began preparing for a series of one-night stands on their return trip to Vancouver. Their first engagement was in Minneapolis.

The next was in Winnipeg where Arthur spoke briefly to a reporter about the tour: “The contest was a keen one, and it was a distinct honor to win in such a company. There seemed as well to be an interest on the part of the Chicagoans for Vancouver. “ He went on to say, “The opinion of Americans whom I met, is that Canada has come through the period of business dislocation in much better shape than the US, but they all seem to pin great faith on Roosevelt’s recovery plan and feel that it will be a success.”

While the boys played their one-night stands back across Canada, the band executive, led by Mr. Barlow, were busily

CHICAGO 1933 ~87

arranging a welcoming home for the boys like Vancouver had never before witnessed. Shortly after 7:00 a.m. on the morning of September 5th, the vanguard of the crowd began to arrive at the CPR Station on Cordova. By 9:30 a.m., three large musical bands had gathered and started to play concert programs for the crowd of wellwishers. In the central rotunda was a group of 75 members of the Musicians’ Union led by local professional band leader Calvin Winters.

Where the boys’ train was to arrive, on the platform were the South Vancouver Juvenile Band led by J. Olson, The Daily Province, South Burnaby and West Vancouver bands conducted by A. W. Jordan and the Vancouver Girls’ band, led by W. Haywood. By 9:30, a crowd of nearly ten thousand had gathered inside and around the station. The whistle of an approaching locomotive through the long waiting crowd into excitement, but it was the wrong train. Finally at 10:20 the train carrying the victorious Kitsilano marchers arrived on No. 4 track while the bands on the platform sounded their tribute with rousing selections. Wild cheering greeted the appearance of smiling faces of the championship instrumentalists as the car occupied by the band came to a stop. Admiring parents fondly embraced their happy but tired sons through opened windows while police struggled to keep the enthusiastic crowds in place. A welcoming committee made up of Mayor Louis D. Taylor, Captain R. Steeves representing the Federation, and officials of the band executive boarded the train. In a moment, Arthur appeared, and the crowd went into a cheering frenzy. Escorted

88 ~ Only a Matter of Whoopee!

by the police and the band executive, Arthur, Lillie, and the boys marched along the platform.

“The whole town’s down to meet you, Arthur,” shouted a friend, to which Arthur gave a smile of satisfaction.

As Arthur passed each band, he received the customary salute and congratulatory handshakes from their conductors. When the party reached the station rotunda, the music of Calvin Winter’s Band greeted them and again they received a hearty ovation from the crowd which packed into the building. After a brief speech over the radio, introduced by Frank C. Anders, the band was taken outside to a row of automobiles and whisked off quickly to their homes.

At 1:00 p.m. a large reception for about 3,500 in the Horse Show Building at the Exhibition was put on for the band. The band members marched to their places on the platform to loud cheers by the spectators. They carried at their head the big silver trophy won at Chicago. After welcomes from the Mayor and other city officials, Arthur said of the contest: “I don’t want you to think we ran away with the trophy.” He pointed to the silver cup at his feet. “Ten junior bands were competing, and in my opinion, the first, second, and third were very close. When the marks were given out, and we learned we were 24 ½ points ahead; it was only a matter of whoopee!”

CHAPTER 11

WEST OF ENGLAND Vancouver Boys Charm Britons

With another first place award pocketed, this time at an international festival, Arthur was going to be hard-pressed to outdo himself the next time around or was he? There was no stopping some people, as they say, and this was certainly the case with Arthur. What could be more significant than Chicago? What could be more important? To find the answer, Arthur had to return to his roots, England! What could be more triumphant than to return to the land of his birth? If the boys thought Chicago was tough, wait until they got a glimpse of the European festival style!

Wheels were set quickly in motion, and Arthur found the festival he was looking for at Bugle, in the west of England, but it took place next year in 1934. He would have to work the boys real fast and hard if they wanted to be ready for this one, he knew.

One evening in the basement of General Gordon School, he proposed his idea to the boys.

90 ~ Swift Current Prairie Chickens

“So if you want to go, it will mean lots of hard work, and only those who work the hardest will be able to come because this will be a tough contest. Why there could be as many as fifteen bands there.”

“Do we get to visit Buckingham Palace?” one of the boys piped up. “Oh yes, you’ll have lots of time for that stuff. But remember, what we’re going for is to play music and to be the best ambassadors for Vancouver that we can be.”

“We’re behind you, Delly.”

“We can do it.”

The enthusiasm was evident, and with the boys behind him 100 percent, he had high hopes for this festival. The excitement was so rampant that one of the boys said, “What are we wasting all this time talking for, let’s get practicing.”

So with that, Arthur pulled out a new piece which he had bought for the trip, already knowing full well the boys would be behind him. With a firm downbeat the band burst into song, playing Land of Hope and Glory, which for Arthur and his boys hoped England would turn out to be.

After the rehearsal, Arthur overheard two parents in the back discussing the trip.

“I don’t know, England’s a long ways away, do you think he’s biting off more than he can chew?”

“I sure hope not. If anything happened that far away, it could be a real concern.”

To which Arthur, leaving the rehearsal, trumpet case in one hand and music bag in the other, strolled by and said

WEST OF ENGLAND ~91

with a wink, “Don’t worry; I’ll bring them back safe and sound.”

The rehearsals were many and tedious for this trip and egos were stepped on and tears shed, but the boys showed their pluck, and before long they were getting into tip-top shape.

They were never in good enough shape for Arthur of course for, being the perfectionist he was, he could always find a way to improve on performance. Perfection was one of the reasons for his success.

Arthur had a firm belief that practice in the rehearsal hall was necessary, but he also knew there was nothing like the real thing to whip his boys into shape. So, before any important festival or big concert, he always tried to prepare by getting the boys to perform before an audience as much as possible. Because they had to cross Canada to get them to the ship that would take them to England, Arthur decided that an across-Canada tour would do the trick and it did. By the time the boys reached England they had already played ten concerts and marched through 5 cities. To many of them it was like a tour in itself—a tour which challenged more than their musical skills; swimming in Banff, horseback riding in Calgary, and a 25-14 victory over the Swift Current Prairie Chickens girl’s softball team by the victorious Kitsilano Red Shirts. When they arrived in England, they were like seasoned troopers, in shape, relaxed, thoroughly familiar with the music, and full of anticipation for this new and exciting land which lay before them. Upon arrival at Liverpool, the boys left immediately for Manchester where their

92 ~ Mr. WA MacAdam

lodging was in a row of rooming houses. After the boys had taken their luggage upstairs, they all gathered downstairs for further instruction. The landlady was there as well, and through her, they had their first taste of the cultural differences between the two countries.

The landlady asked of Arthur, “Mr. Delamont, what time do you want to be knocked up in the morning?” If that wasn’t enough, she continued: “The knocker-up man will be around at 8.”

Of course, she was referring to being woken up in the morning! The boys took England by storm. They were welcomed to London by a large and distinguished gathering which assembled at Grosvenor House presided over by the Acting Agent General for B.C. Mr. W.A. MacAdam. The High Commissioner for Canada. An MP, Mr. Ferguson delivered a speech to the boys in which he referred to the boys as Canada’s cultural pioneers whose performance in the old country would, he felt, bring to the people here a new vision of the Dominion. In his opinion, Canada was no longer just a land of snow and ice, and they all learned from the boys that Canadians were not rough-and-ready backwoodsmen.

Before the reception was over the boys were rushed off to the BBC studios to make a record. The boys reported home in their letters: “The broadcasting studios are the very latest in architecture and appointments. The building itself is cylindrical, and all the studios equipped with the most up-to-date apparatus. The “mikes”, for instance, are bullet-shaped.”

WEST OF ENGLAND ~93

After they had finished making their record, the staff played the tape for them on a nearby radio. It didn’t take long to notice several flaws in their performance to which the band gave a rousing Bronx cheer to those responsible.

After the session at the studio they were taken to the Tower of London where they performed a concert in the moat (sans water) which prompted one of the boys to write home: “We played a concert in the moat yesterday at the Tower of London—there was no water in it, but we sure wished there was. I’ve never spent a hotter hour in my life.”

As for the festival, Arthur had been wrong. There were not 15 bands in attendance but 21, and his boys again took first place in their class.

Back home, the newspaper headlines read: “Vancouver Boys Charm Britons” To help pay for his tour, with the capable legwork of their English agent Chris Stockwell, one step ahead of the band all the way, they were able to secure engagements at various summer events, carnivals, and regattas throughout England.

These engagements proved to be a primary source of income for the band when on tour in the old country. That the arrangements were usually only made a few days ahead of the band was for two reasons. It was challenging to secure such bookings from as far away as Vancouver and with the

94 ~ Dublin Horse Show

group only a town or two away, its reputation usually spilled over from one location to another, so impresarios knew when a good thing was at hand. That is not to say the band was so loud as to be heard in the next town! Arthur, over the years, developed a unique way of helping the boys out with money which they needed for meals and other things.

Each morning the boys would get up and march through whichever town they were staying. At several points or perhaps in a town square, he would motion for them to fall into concert formation, which they would do very quickly and then play what he referred to as junk music concerts.

These were made up of familiar pop tunes of the day, but I guess he felt they didn’t require much skill, so that was how he referred to them. At those concerts, two or three of the youngest boys would go amongst the audience with their caps collecting shillings and pennies and sixpences. After they had finished, they divided up the spoils, and usually, each boy got enough to cover his lunch and dinner. If you were lucky enough to be a sousaphone player you often got a little more because on the parade route people would throw coppers into the bells of the sousaphone. I’m sure they thought it was amusing, but for the boy under the sousaphone after about 20 minutes of this, his sousaphone would be so heavy, that he would have to turn it upsidedown and remove the coppers. But the boys usually didn’t mind. It was all done in the spirit of fun. Sousaphone players learned that this would happen, so it all became part of being a sousaphone player.

WEST OF ENGLAND ~95

The 1934 England tour was so successful that Arthur began to acquire bookings for his services two years down the road. One such acquired booking was to play at the Royal Dublin Horse Show in August of 1936, but for now, it was back to Vancouver.

At the train station in Vancouver, Arthur saw the parent who’d had misgivings at the rehearsal about his boy traveling to England. He borrowed a top hat from one of the boys, put it on his head, and strolled by with his trumpet in one hand and music in the other, and said to the man with a wink, ”Well, I brought them all back safe and sound.”

ABOVE: On board the Duchess of Atholl

CHAPTER 12

THE CRYSTAL PALACE 1936 The Cassells Challenge Shield The Delamont family was a very religious family, and maybe rewards do indeed come to those who believe. Arthur’s mother never really did get over the loss of Leonard, and on the anniversary of that fateful day, May 29, 1935, at ten to two in the morning she passed away from complications with sugar diabetes. Arthur made the trip back to be with her and the rest of the family in Toronto. Our time here on earth it is said is orchestrated, and we cannot choose our time to die, or can we? John Delamont told his family that he did not want to be around long without his beloved Seraphine. Two weeks to the day after she passed away, John died as well.

It was reported in the War Cry’ that when John Delamont’s gold pocket watch was found on the dresser by his bed, it had stopped at precisely ten to two!

One rainy Vancouver afternoon in October of 1935 at the Delamont household on West 7th, Arthur was relaxing reading some mail in his favorite comfortable chair. He had just become a member of the Freemasons at Zion Lodge #77, and he had some reading to catch up on regarding the lodge.

Lillie was in the kitchen doing some baking and Gordon,

THE CRYSTAL PALACE 1936 ~97

and Vera were busy with pursuits of their own in another room. A knock came on the door.

Standing at the door, Arthur saw a welcome sight. “Well hello, Freddie, come on in.”

It was Freddie Woodcock; the first boy Arthur had taught to play the trumpet back in 1928. He had come back to see “Delly,” as the boys called him, something many boys would do in the years to come.

“I haven’t seen you for a while around the neighborhood, Freddie.”

“No, I have been busy, what with work and all, and I’m getting married, Mr. Delamont, in the spring.”

“Oh, that’s just wonderful. I’m very happy for you.”

“So how are things with you?” Freddie asked Arthur.”

“Oh, just fine.”

“Have you been planning your next trip yet?”

“Well, I haven’t quite decided where to go yet. I was going over some letters here before you knocked. Here’s one inviting us to the Canadian Pacific Exhibition next year. I don’t know if we will go or not, it’s not really what I’m looking for.”

“Why don’t you go back to England, Mr. Delamont? That was a colossal trip last year.”

“Yes it was, Freddie, wasn’t it? I’d like to, but I don’t know, it costs a lot of money you know, maybe as much as $12,000.”

“Yes, I guess so,” replied Freddie, “but the boys can play at theatres and shows again just like we did.”

98 ~ Assiniboine Park

“Yes, that’s true. I’m thinking about it. I received a letter just the other day from London. It seems we’reeligible to compete at the Crystal Palace Band Festival. We couldn’t in 1934, you know. There are some drawbacks to winning three consecutive contests in a row.”

“Gee, that sounds wonderful, Mr. Delamont. I know the boys would love it.”

“Yes I guess they would, but it’s going to be something a lot different, not a mere twenty bands, but probably more like thirty and they will be adult bands to boot.”

“Oh my, I don’t know about that. It sounds pretty tough to me.”

“Oh, I’ve no doubt the boys can handle it. It’s just; I don’t know if I want to go back to England again this soon. Freddie, did I ever show you my pictures from the Salvation Army Band I played in, in Moose Jaw?” “No, Mr. Delamont, I don’t believe so.”

“Come on; I’ll show you. It’ll just take a moment.”

Lillie had been listening from the kitchen. Shortly Gordon came along looking for his father, to whom Lillie replied, “Don’t bother your father right now, he’s up to something with Freddie Woodcock.” Gordon knew when his father was talking bands not to interrupt him.

Later, after Freddie had left, Lillie came into the living room and asked Arthur, “What are you up to anyway? You know perfectly well you’re planning on going to the Crystal Palace next year.”

“I know dear, psychology. It’s a little technique I’ve had

THE CRYSTAL PALACE 1936 ~99

in mind to get the boys worked up for the trip. I have to get them enthused first. If they see I want to go; they may feel too secure. I want them to work for the tour, to feel it depends on their efforts and not just that I want to go.”

“Why you are such a crafty devil.”

“Don’t worry; I know what I’m doing. Freddie will spread the word, you wait and see. By the end of the week, they’ll be begging me to take them to the Crystal Palace.”

Sure enough, by the end of the week, the boys had met with Arthur and expressed their wishes to return to England with him in 1936. They were going to take the Crystal Palace by storm, one of them said, and Arthur believed they would!

On June 25th, 1936, Arthur and his Kitsilano Boys’ Band set out in Pullman train cars for Ottawa on the first leg of their second British tour. While Arthur’s mind was on the contest, the boys’ brains were on more youthful pursuits such as boxing. Max Schnelling was fighting Joe Louis, and the boys didn’t want to miss a minute of the live radio broadcast. After playing concerts in Kamloops, Revelstoke, Calgary for 14,000 people, Medicine Hat, Swift Current, Moose Jaw and Regina for 6,000, the boys arrived in Winnipeg. There, they put on their first big outdoor concert, playing before 40,000 people at Assiniboine Park. Then it was off to Sudbury, and finally Ottawa.

Strains of O Canada poured out from under the Peace Tower in Ottawa at 11:40 on the morning of June 26th, 1936, inaugurating the first concert by any band to play on

100 ~ Empress of Britain

that spot, the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. A representative of the Citizen newspaper in Ottawa later called on the boys at the train station, where he found them in their cars, cleaning up after breakfast, wiping the tables, washing and drying dishes. There was a spirit of play through it all as the boys talked and laughed and sang. Lillie said, “My boys are skillful and able to look after themselves.

Minor infractions of rules result in extra detail such as washing dishes and so on, but it’s all in good fun.” He could see it certainly was. Finally, they reached Quebec City, and the ship was at hand. It was the Empress of Britain. The next morning, “Half past seven, time to get up, breakfast at eight!” the porter bellowed in a strong British accent.

While the boys traveled in third class, they were not

1936 Waterloo Station, London

THE CRYSTAL PALACE 1936 ~101

above sneaking up to first class whenever the opportunity presented itself. One day in a hallway in first class, a rather large gentleman grabbed one of the younger boys who was running along a corridor and said, “I love to see young Canadian lads growing up.”

Then the gentleman began reciting a poetic verse from the First World War. When he was through, he said, “There, what do you think of that, lad?” The boy replied, “Well, it’s as good as any we’ve studied in school, sir.”

With that, the gentleman let go of his collar, and the boy scrambled off, leaving the gentleman rolling over in a fit of laughter. A friend of the boy said to him, “Don’t you know who that was? That was Canon Duncan Campbell Scott, the Great War poet. He was reciting his poetry.”

On August 5th, Arthur fulfilled his obligation to play at the Royal Dublin Horse Show, made two years previous.

They arrived in Dublin on August 5th, and the newspaper headlines read the next morning:

“Band Stops Dublin Traffic” The morning of their arrival they went to Dun Laoghaire where they played the Free State and Canadian National anthems outside Mansion House before leaving for the horse show grounds.

The local Mayor of Dublin greeted Mr. Delamont on the

102 ~ Shanklin

steps of the Mansion House with Alderman A. Byrne T. D. and the band’s manager, again Chris Stockwell of London.

Arthur said to the Mayor, “We are honored to be asked to play in Dublin, which is so famed for its musical talent.”

After the show, they went on and performed engagements in Southport, Morecambe, Dunfermline, Bath, Newberry, London, Shanklin and finally Eastbourne. Many of the boys kept diaries of their travels and letters home were the norm. One such letter was sent home from Shanklin and read: “Dear Mom and Dad, In Shanklin, a seaside resort on the Isle of Wight, we had a week of engagements in a bandstand at the end of the pier.

Also on the pier was a high dive platform, going up 70 feet in the air. One afternoon some of us dared another boy, who had done some diving, that he couldn’t dive off the platform. We passed around a hat and collected about one pound, which is a lot of money. The boy climbed up the pole to the platform.

When he reached the top, he realized he had to dive into the sea, which made it a little bit further. He made the dive, coming up under the pier, and he quickly climbed up a ladder and collected his one pound. He then made a couple of more dives off the platform just for fun. That evening while we were playing a concert in the bandstand, a short man with one leg, wearing a football helmet and covered in asbestos, came up on stage and began to rant and rave at Mr. Delamont. Mr.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE 1936 ~103

Delamont stopped the band, and the man continued, “You call yourselves professionals, one of your boys ruined my act by diving off the diving platform 3 or 4 times. I do it professionally, with a helmet,” he said. Well if there was anything Mr. Delamont will not stand for, it is anyone berating any of his boys! He let the man have it with both barrels, and the man quickly hurried off stage. We, of course, had not known that the diving platform was part of someone’s stage act, or we would never have coaxed the boy to go up the pole. We did not do it again.

Oh, the boy’s name was Dallas Richards.

Your son” When they arrived in London, Arthur began the last phase of rehearsals for the Crystal Palace. The class they had entered was Junior, but what it meant was bands of no more than 25 members including the conductor. As it was also only for brass players, Arthur, after choosing the brass play

1936, Crystal Palace during break

104 ~ Wembley Bicycle Races

ers he wanted, let the rest of the boys go off on their own to explore whatever interested them. Some had relatives in little towns which they visited, and three boys traveled to Paris.

The prize of the event was the famed Cassell’s, Challenge Shield.

Again Arthur had been wrong. There were not thirty bands entered, but no less than 35. The trophy was verysought-after and the competition was extremely tough.

When the Kitsie boys walked out on to the stage at the Crystal Palace whispers and commotion could be heard in the audience. Arthur knew what they must have been saying: “What’s a band of youngsters doing up on the stage?

Don’t they know this is for adult bands, the nerve?”

The tension in the hall was beyond compare. Just as Arthur was about to begin, a gentleman approached from the adjudicator’s box. “Four o’clock, time for tea!” The boys couldn’t believe their ears. After a brief intermission out on the lawn behind the theatre, the boys gritted their teeth and attempted to regain their composure for the test piece, Gems of Tchaikovsky. When they returned, again, they met with whispers from the audience. Arthur thought we’ll show them, tea time or no tea time!

Well, when the boys began to play, there wasn’t a whisper to be heard as the audience sat in wonderment at what was before them. After they had finished, one Lancastrian remarked to another,

THE CRYSTAL PALACE 1936 ~105

“By goom, these lads wit’ trombones show up the men, as have been playing in t’ contest,” and he was right. When it was all over, the boys had to rush off to the Wembley Bicycle Races where they were engaged to perform. It would not be till later that day, that the adjudicators would decide on a winner. Chris Stockwell, or Stocky as he was known to all, had devised a way of letting the lads know the outcome of any contests, they entered by how he wore his bowler hat as he approached. In between numbers at Wembley, the boys waited eagerly for signs of Stocky. Finally, one of the boys spotted him, but he was too far away to see clearly. Soon Stocky’s familiar bowler hat could be seen tilted to one side, the sign that they had won! The boys let out a hearty yell!

“It is a magnificent band, brilliant in tone, color, technically first-rate and sensitive in response,” were the adjudicators’ remarks. Back home, the headlines read:

Crystal Palace Climax Our boys are winning again But the story doesn’t end there. The three boys, who had gone to Paris, had gotten themselves lost and were nearly out of money. They managed to find the train station and board a train for Dieppe where they were to catch a ferry back to England, but unfortunately, the train was late, and they didn’t arrive in Dieppe until after nightfall, thus missing the boat. Without money for a hotel and not knowing a soul, they decided they would go to the local police station and explain their predicament. Luckily

106 ~ Dallas Richards

one of the boys spoke French and the police chief, feeling sorry for them, lent them enough money for a room for the night. The next day back in London, exhausted and starving, the boys ran into Arthur who was still in rapture over the victory. Dallas Richards, the boy who had dived off the diving board in Shanklin, made the mistake of asking him: “Who won the contest?”

Turning white and getting very upset, Arthur declared, “What, you didn’t even try to find out who had won the contest? The most important contest we will ever compete in, and you were too busy to find out who won? Well, I never!”

And he stomped off in disgust.

Arthur hadn’t stopped to think that the boys couldn’t even find the train station, let alone find out who had won a British band festival in France, but that was Arthur!

WELCOME HOME!

CHAPTER 13

SAN FRANCISCO 1937 The Opening of the Golden Gate Bridge In and around Vancouver, Arthur was becoming quite a legend, both with the people of Vancouver and with the local musicians. Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold.

It was about this time that educators started to take notice of what he was doing and the success he was having, and began to think about putting music education (instrumental) into the schools. They were several years behind the Americans, but better late than never. So they asked Arthur if he would start bands in several Vancouver area schools.

Arthur was not a man to look backwards, but he did wonder from time to time what life might have been like for him and Lillie if they had gone to California instead of Vancouver. So it came as no surprise to Lillie when a letter arrived in the mail one October morning in 1936 from the San Francisco Fiesta Committee reading: “You are invited to play at the opening ceremonies of the Golden Gate Bridge next year. You will be the only Canadian band performing. Please forward your reply immediately.

Sincerely, Philip H. Shapiro.”

108 ~ Golden Gate Bridge

Well here was something different he thought, handing it to Lillie. “Maybe we’ll get a chance to see California after all.”

After their performance, Mr. Shapiro remarked, “Your band was by far the best visiting band in San Francisco, Mr. Delamont. All our musicians were greatly surprised that you have such a splendid band and I know if a prize were to be given for the best-playing band, yours would have received it.”

While in San Francisco, Arthur and Lillie and the boys were given another honour: they were the first Canadian organization to be entertained aboard a United States battleship. They participated as well in religious ceremonies on board the USS West Virginia and were dinner guests of the crew.

The headlines back home read: “History Made as Golden Gate Bridge is Opened” In a letter to the Vancouver Province Mr. Shapiro said, “The band is the finest and most competent boys’ band I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. The boys are excellent musicians and their director has cause to be proud of them.”

While in San Francisco, Arthur and Lillie had a chance to take a drive around the city where they stopped their car on a bluff overlooking San Francisco Bay. Below they could see the vast panorama of San Francisco and the harbour with the sea stretching out as far as the eye could see.

“I don’t know, maybe we should have moved here, Lillie.

SAN FRANCISCO 1937 ~109

It sure is beautiful,” said Arthur.

“Yes it is, but we’ve done all right for ourselves, haven’t we?”

“Yes, I guess we have.”

“Besides, think how much more money we would have to raise to get the boys to England from here,” she added.

“Yes, that’s true, I never thought of that,” he said with an impish smile on his face.

“I’ll just bet you didn’t. Arthur Delamont, I don’t know about you sometimes,” she continued playfully.

“I’m a real codger, aren’t I?” he said with a wink.

“You sure are, but that’s another reason why I love you.”

While the Delamonts were enjoying the view from the hill, the boys were off exploring San Francisco, probably all dreaming about what would be the next big conquest for the now world-famous Kitsilano Boys’ Band!

CHAPTER 14

NEW YORK / ENGLAND 1939 War is Declared and Their Boat has to Zig-Zag Back Across the Atlantic

The year 1938 went quite well for Arthur. He was kept busy getting the other bands which he had started around town off and running. Vera was 16 now and probably more of a concern to him than anything. She was at the age where girls become interested in boys, and he would often come home and find a new face sitting in his easy chair, in the living room.

His first question after taking off his hat and coat usually was, “Are you a musician?” to which the boys usually answered, “No sir, but I’m a fast learner.” I guess it’s the same with every father and their daughter, but at least for Vera having a father who was Arthur Delamont worked in her favor.

She was just dying to come on his next tour of England with him and be part of the band and not just tag along with Lillie and the chaperones, as she had done in the past. He had a strict rule though, no girls allowed. This was a boy’s band and that was that. Well, not to Vera it wasn’t. She wasn’t going to be left behind, so she set out to learn the drums and xylophone.

NEW YORK/ENGLAND 1939 ~111

One evening Arthur came home and was met by this terrible thumping coming from the basement, followed by what sounded like church chimes. When he went downstairs to investigate, he found Vera practicing drumming on an old fridge and tapping on some pop bottles to imitate a xylophone. He said to her, ”Vera, come upstairs immediately. I want to talk to you.”

Feeling as though life was over, she trod upstairs where Arthur was sitting in his easy chair.

“Sit down,” he said. Glancing at Lillie and winking, he paused for a few minutes to build the suspense, just as he had remembered his father doing with the letter, back in Moose Jaw so many years ago. Then he said to her, “So you want to learn the xylophone.”

Her face lit up immediately and she replied, “Oh can I dad, please? I’ll be good, you won’t even hear me.” Arthur looked puzzled, and then she added, “Except when you’re supposed to.”

“All right, I guess it will be all right. But no more of this banging on the fridge and using pop bottles. You’re coming with me to the rehearsal tomorrow night and learn like all the rest.”

Vera ran to her father and gave him a big hug. “I love you, Daddy!” to which he replied, “I know dear, I know. Besides, you have to be able to play those things if you’re going to come with me to England next year.”

“What?” she exclaimed. She had hoped that was what would happen, but she thought she would have to plead with him several times before he would let her.

“You’re the greatest dad a girl could have,” she said,

112 ~ Joe Brown

hugging him again. “Well, I can’t leave you here all alone, now can I? That wouldn’t be proper.”

“I never thought about that,” she said, pausing for a moment to mull the possibilities over in her mind.

“Now now,” he said, “no changing your mind.”

“No, this is what I wanted, thanks Daddy, thanks so much.”

“All right dear, you’re welcome, you’re welcome.”

Arthur had realized a long time ago that she would have to come along, but he still had to employ some psychology, even on his own daughter. Arthur was always looking for something big and better to test his boys, but he knew that there was nothing bigger in the sense of contests than the Crystal Palace. Besides, maybe the boys were getting too good, he wondered, in the fall of 1938 when a man by the name of Joe Brown paid him a visit. The RCMP had decided to set up its first official concert band and they wanted to recruit several of his Kitsie Boys, past and present. He left Vancouver with no less than fourteen of Arthur’s boys, including Clifton Bryson, the young saxophone player who had astonished Arthur with his knowledge of transposition.

Although Arthur was sad to see them go, he was happy for their success, because in the height of the depression, steady jobs were hard to come by. No, big and better would have to take a different form, he decided, and that would be the extent of the tours. As the next World’s Fair was coming up in New York in the summer of 1939, and he had received a letter asking them to play six concerts, he had decided the band should definitely attend. But he also felt, seeing as how they would be on the east coast and just a stone’s throw

NEW YORK/ENGLAND 1939 ~113

from England, perhaps he should go there as well and continue the tour—a World’s fair and a European tour, which is exactly what he set his sights on. One evening in April 1939, while he was sitting and reading the evening paper, he remarked to Lillie: “Things are looking pretty rough in the old country these days.”

“I know I’ve been thinking about that myself. Maybe we shouldn’t go over there after all. From what the papers says it looks like a crisis could develop at any moment.”

“I know, it does look rather bad. Says here that Hitler’s got everybody riled up so’s they don’t know if they’re comin’ or goin.’”

“Well, it’s your decision, but remember you have the boys to think about,” she said, returning to the kitchen.

“Did I tell you I received a letter from Chris Stockwell the other day?”

“No, but I saw it come.”

“Well, he says we should come, and if there’s any trouble he guarantees he can get us back safely.”

“Does Chris have contacts with the War Department, dear?”

“Who knows? He’s a pretty clever fellow. If he says he can do it, I tend to believe him. Well, we’ll have to discuss this with the parents in any case next week”.

At the parents meeting the following week: “Mr. Delamont, I feel it is too risky to take the boys overseas at this time.”

“My manager in London assures me that there will be no problems getting home if we need to in a hurry.”

114 ~ New York World’s Fair

Divided over the issue, Arthur finally exclaimed in frustration: “Well, I’ve made my decision and I’m going. Those of you who want to let your sons come, that’s fine. Those of you who don’t, let me know right away so I can get replacements,” and that was that.

On June 27, 1939, Arthur arrived in New York City and performed a series of six concerts at the World’s fair. Having a girl in with 49 boys made good type for the newspapers, another reason Arthur had decided it would be a good idea.

“Forty-Nine Boys and a Girl” read the New York Times newspaper.

Arthur had wanted Gordon to come along on the trip, but he was older now and had gotten married in 1938. He and his wife had decided that they would move to Toronto where Gordon wanted to start his own dance band. He was quite a fine trumpet player by now, and he could have started his own band in Vancouver, but Arthur was such a big name in Vancouver, that Gordon felt it would be easier to establish himself out of the shadow of his famous father. Arthur wasn’t too happy about it, but Gordon was headstrong like Arthur, so all Arthur could do was hope that he would change his mind and be back in Vancouver when he arrived home from England. After the six concerts were over, they headed for Britain with reports of ominous overtones of the situation there daily on the radio. On board the ship to England, the

NEW YORK/ENGLAND 1939 ~115

boys met a group of American girls who were heading to Paris for an art tour. They spent the next five days getting to know one another and exchanging addresses.

In England, the boys were scheduled to perform in fifteen towns in Britain and give two broadcasts, but unfortunately it never came to be. They were in Clacton-On-Sea on the first leg of their tour, when the crisis developed. One of the boys wrote home to his parents: “Everyone rushed for gas masks, air raid precautions, and wills.”

Apparently, the roar of three fire engines had been mistaken for enemy planes, and hysterical women screamed and fainted here and there. They had to leave England on September 2, and sailed from Southampton under a real wartime blackout. Above the ship was a balloon barrage of ten balloons. On the dock were six machine-gun nests banked with sandbags. Not a light was to be seen in any house or store as their boat quietly slipped away from its mooring. Arthur wondered if he would ever see England again, and if he

116 ~ New York World’s Fair

were to, what kind of shape would she be in, but for now, he had a greater worry, getting them all home safely!

On board the ship, the boys played for the other passengers, and one boy reported home in a letter, “We heard we were followed across the Atlantic by a submarine.” None of them were allowed to cable home from the ship for fear of giving away their position to enemy submarines. After a day at sea their boat started to zigzag, and every eight minutes it made a complete turn to avoid torpedoes. By the second day at sea, war had been officially declared, and there was a tender feeling of sorrow on board the ship when all heard the news on the radio.

It had been reported back home that the boys were on the Athenia, which had been torpedoed by a German U-boat.

They actually had been scheduled to board the Athenia in Liverpool, but at the last minute they had been rerouted to Southampton where they boarded another ship. The boys later learned that the girls they had met on the trip over had been on board the Athenia. Another report had the boys somewhere off South America, to which one parent remarked, trying to cheer everyone up: “I know Arthur wanted to take the band to other places, but this isn’t the time!”

Back on board the Empress of Britain, there were five hundred extra people on board, making it very crowded.

Beds were set up in the tennis courts and the nursery. Every class of society was represented—there were even some Germans fleeing from a concentration camp.

Their tour cut short by months, and having lost their friends, the boys were fighting mad. One of the boys said,

NEW YORK/ENGLAND 1939 ~117

“I’m so mad; I could join the army myself.” Another said, “There sure is no place like home.” Another said, “Darn Hitler anyway, I was enjoying myself.”

Although saddened, they were also feeling very lucky to have gotten out alive. Back in Vancouver, a reporter approached the youngest boy and asked him what he thought about what had happened. He remarked, “Today I am a man.”

118 ~ New York World’s Fair

1932 Canadian Tour Banff (On their way back to Toronto)

1934 Vancouver City Hall

NEW YORK/ENGLAND 1939 ~119

1933 Chicago World’s Fair

1936 Tea with the Lord Mayor of Southport

120 ~ Wally Oatway

1934 Freddie Woodcock

1934 Bognar Regis, England

1934 England

NEW YORK/ENGLAND 1939 ~121

1936 On Board

1936 Wally Oatway

1936 Marching down Cannon Street, London

122 ~ Dublin

1936 Dublin

1937 San Francisco

NEW YORK/ENGLAND 1939 ~123

1937 San Francisco

1937 San Francisco

1937 Championship Awards

124 ~ Coventry

1939 Vera

1939 Coventry

NEW YORK/ENGLAND 1939 ~125

1939 On Board

1939 Vera the Majorette

1939 Boys at New Hippodrome Theatre, Coventry.

CHAPTER 15

THE WAR YEARS 1940-45 Members in the Service

When Arthur arrived home, Gordon was not there as he had hoped. He had formed his own band in Toronto and seemed to be doing quite well. Arthur still wanted him to return to Vancouver and to one day take over from him, but he could only hope that in time Gordon might return.

A lot of the old boys still continued to drop in on Arthur and Lillie whenever they were around, just to say hello to the old man and to see what plans he had in store for his next trip. Not that he was old by any means, only fifty in 1939, but I guess because his hair had turned prematurely white around 1934, apparently some say from worrying about the boys while away on tour, he would say the boys referred to him as the old man. Then again, boys were boys, even in 1940, and if you were not of their generation you were automatically called an old man.

Arthur and Lillie did not just have two children, they had hundreds, and it was for this reason the war was particularly disturbing for them. Many of their boys returned to Europe and paid the supreme sacrifice for their country during the

THE WAR YEARS 1940-45 ~127

years 1939-45. Boys who only a few short years before had marched up and down the streets and country roads of Britain were now flying Lancasters and Spitfires in the clouds above.

During the war years the band was of course grounded from making any British tours, but they made many extensive trips around the province visiting army bases and playing for the troops. There was one boy in the band during this time that whenever there was an intermission during a concert or the band’s bus stopped at a rest stop on the way to a particular concert destination, he could be found in a telephone booth, making some business deal or another. Little did the other boys realize they were witnessing the birth of one of Canada’s greatest entrepreneurs. The boy’s name was Jimmy Pattison.

There were some special arrangements which Arthur had that really reached his audiences. One was a piece titled The Hunting Scene. In this piece, which depicted the fox hunt complete with Tally Ho, one trumpet player would be sent out in the audience somewhere, either behind a tree if it was an outdoor concert, or in the foyer of the theatre if indoors, and be an echo for the lead trumpet. Usually this worked very well, but sometimes it did not. One time in Europe the boy playing the echo got stuck in a tree and had to remain there for the rest of the concert. Another time, he went too far away and no one could hear him, leaving a few bars of dead silence after the solo. The audience of course didn’t know, but the band often died laughing after this piece and they weren’t the only ones who died, if you get my meaning.

Arthur danced with the ladies and brought the youngsters

128 ~ 125 of Arthur’s Boys in the Services

up to conduct the band, thus further endearing himself into the hearts and minds of his beloved audience. By 1940 Arthur had collected quite a band library, over 1500 arrangements. Most of these he bought with his own money as he never really had any commercial company promoting him.

If a company did offer their support it was usually on a onetime basis after much legwork and coercing by either his band parent organization or himself.

Actually he preferred not to be tied in too closely with any one company because then that left him free to run the show.

Right from the first day in 1928 when he marched down Granville Street with his General Gordon School Band it had been his band and no one else’s. This he made very clear to all associated, including his band parents who from time to time got carried away and began to think it was their band.

He soon straightened them out believe you me!

During a concert for the Red Cross in Kelowna he held a question period where he asked members of the audience if they had any questions for him or the boys. One woman asked: “Has the personnel of the band changed since you first started?” to which he replied, “None of the boys who visited England in 1936 are here today, and only eight are here today who travelled to England with me in 1939.” Another asked, “Where did you get your good looks and suntan?” to which he answered, “From my mother.” And then he promptly went over and kissed the lady, returning with a broad smile on his face.

He was a very handsome man, always very well-groomed and in good physical condition. Of the several uniforms he wore for his concerts his two most popular ones were navy

THE WAR YEARS 1940-45 ~129

blue with a white shirt, tie and army-style blue hat, and his white suit with a red tie and white hat. He always looked very dashing and definitely the part of a successful band conductor/trumpeter/showman. Other than superb musicianship, there were a few other things he expected of his boys, especially when away on tour. One was a neat and well-kept uniform, with black shoes and black socks. The black socks became a running gag and a Delamont trademark over the years, but his theory was that, “People pay good money to come and hear our music, and the last thing they want is to be distracted from the music by someone in the front row wearing white socks,” and he was of course right.

The rest of the boy’s uniform consisted of navy trousers with a red stripe down one leg, white shirt and a navy cape with a red satin lining that pinned back on each side. They were an excellent choice for a uniform because the cape, when pinned back, left one’s arms free and was quite cool in the summertime. Or if it started to rain, by letting the flaps down it completely surrounded you and you could keep your instrument underneath, unless of course you played a sousaphone. The uniform was practical in another way as well.

Young boys are always growing, and this type of uniform was not so easy to grow out of. By 1943 there were at least 125 of Arthur’s boys in the three armed services. Some were with the Canadian troops stationed in Britain and others were scattered across Canadian Army and Air Force training camps. One day in March of 1943 Arthur was interviewed by a reporter for the Province newspaper at his home in Kitsilano.

“How old are your present boys, Mr. Delamont?”

130 ~ A Wink and a Smile!

“My present group is the youngest I’ve ever trained,” he said. “The average age is thirteen, but their skill is comparable to that of their older predecessors.”

“We haven’t heard much of you around town lately.”

“No, that’s because we have been doing some extensive touring of the interior of the province. During the Easter holidays we will be on a tour of Vancouver Island to give special concerts to the troops, but don’t worry, you’ll be hearing from us again.”

“Well, we certainly hope so.” He added, “Tell me, Mr. Delamont, and is it true that you’re a real tyrant with the boys?”

“No, that’s not true, not true.”

“Well tell me then, it is true that yours is the only boy’s band in the world to capture such a large number of awards?”

“That’s true,” he said with a wink and a smile, “That’s true!”

THE WAR YEARS 1940-45 ~131

Above and next three pages: Posters from around Vancouver from the 1940s.

132 ~ Meany Hall

THE WAR YEARS 1940-45 ~133

134 ~ Mr. Street

CHAPTER 16

GOOD CITIZEN AWARD 1946 Music His Tool

Although the war was over in Europe in 1945, the devastation and destruction which had occurred made it impossible for Arthur to return to England again for some time afterwards but he continued to keep busy in and around Vancouver. The other bands he had started kept him busy throughout the 1940s.

On November 23, 1946, Mr. Victor C. Street, Chairman of the Good Citizens Selection Committee, announced to the province that A.W. Delamont was this year’s recipient of the Good Citizenship Award.

Mr. Delamont was at home when Mr. Street called, and invited him in cordially. After hearing the news, he replied to Mr. Street, “I am genuinely grateful, but I still don’t know why they picked me out.”

Well if he didn’t know, he soon found out, as he was told

by Mr. Street that there would be a banquet/reception for

136 ~ Grandview Band

him on Tuesday night in the Hotel Vancouver.

It was a splendid affair. Three hundred guests crowded into one of the banquet halls and the evening was presided over by Mayor J.W. Cornett who presented Arthur with the award. Mr. Cornett said: “It’s just a case of one old bandsman honouring another

Arthur, for your work as conductor and founder of the Kitsilano Boys’ Band, I give you this silver medal for outstanding citizenship. You have contributed immeasurably to the cultural and recreational life of the youth of Vancouver.”

Standing at the podium, Arthur said after receiving the award: “I am often asked, what becomes of the boys I train? First of all, they become better citizens. Because of the cultural and recreational value of this training, they are happier. In addition, it enables every boy who so wishes, to attain higher standards of appreciation. He is able to choose the good from the bad. Love of music is universal and pays the highest dividend to the community.”

On March 24, 1946 Arthur brought all his different bands together in the Pender Auditorium to perform a massed band concert. They were the West Vancouver Boys’and Girls’ Band, the North Vancouver Youth Band, the Royal City Junior Band, the Grandview Band, the Point Grey Junior High Band, the General Gordon School Band and of course, the Kitsilano Boys’ Band.

GOOD CITIZEN AWARD 1946 ~137

By the end of 1946 Arthur was just itching to get back to England, but it was not to happen again until 1950. So for the time being he had to take solace in his past accomplishments and review old newspaper clippings. When Arthur started the band back in 1928, Lillie began to keep a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and photographs. With the help of Garfield White, who wrote and collected press releases across Canada, by 1946, she had accumulated six scrapbooks and still had lots of clippings and other things packed away in drawers in the basement.

Arthur realized he had a problem that he had not thought about back in 1928 when he set out on his career. One day he was going through some things in his basement when he called for Lillie to come down. When she arrived he said, “What are we going to do with all these trophies? I can’t even turn around down here for fear I’ll step on one of them or a plaque or something.”

“Is that all you’re fuming about?” she said. “Don’t worry, we’ll find something to do with them.”

Sure enough, the next day when Arthur came downstairs to get something, to his astonishment everything was neat and tidy, and along one wall someone had built a trophy rack, where all his trophies were laid out year to year. In a moment Lillie came down.

“So what do you think?” she said.

“Who built the rack?” he asked.

“Don and Bill, I asked them if they’d come over after school and do it for me.”

Arthur went over and surveyed the wooden structure.

“Looks sturdy,” he said. “It’s certainly big enough. Who

138 ~ Don Radelet

did you say the boys were?”

“Don and Billy Radelet,” she repeated.

“Ah!“ he said. “That explains the plant in the big trophy.”

Lillie looked over to where the big cup was sitting and, sure enough, someone had planted a plant in it.

“Boys will be boys,” she said.

1946, Banquet at the Hotel Vancouver

CHAPTER 17

HOLLAND 1950 Boys Play at International Music Festival in Oosterbeek

In 1950 the band again travelled to England, Ireland, Scotland and Holland, this time for a record-breaking fivemonth tour. It had been a long time coming, what with the war and all. During their sabbatical they had managed to raise a lot of money, which accounted for the length of the trip. Each boy only had to pay $100 and bring his own spending money. They played their way across Canada as their predecessors had done. On the trip Mr. D brought along no less that sixteen different concert programs. They were all stored in an old trunk that accompanied the band whereever it went! There was one program just for the trip across Canada and one program for the return trip across Canada.

The other fourteen programs were for concerts in England, Ireland, Scotland and Holland.

Chris Stockwell/Stocky, returned as the band’s manager, and he had the boys booked solid into theatres, concerts, parks and VAUDEVILLE: The Winter Garden in Blackpool, Golders Green Hippodrome in London, the Palace Theatre,

140 ~ Oosterbeek

the Beach Pavilion, Wembley Speedway, the Parade Gardens, the Embassy, the Theatre Royal, the list seemed endless! Whether the boys were making up for lost time or just feeling their oats after the long war is hard to say, but they sure enjoyed themselves.

From their first night in Weymouth where one of them set off the fire alarm causing him to fear he might be deported, to the two boys who wore their black raincoats out in 80ºF weather in Bournemouth, loading the pockets down with stout and ale, wondering all the time why no one questioned the raincoats, they marched and played across England.

Keeping one step ahead of Mr. Delamont on this trip proved to be a difficult task but nevertheless the boys tried, and it was give and take on both sides, such as the time Mr. Delamont walked in on two boys smoking in their room.

One boy hid his cigarette. Mr. Delamont looked right at him and said, “You’re too late.”

Or the notorious sixteenth birthday party in Dublin, where the boys threw a party for their pal. They bought several doughnuts and put them on end to form a cake. They also bought sixteen bottles of stout, wine, and port. When the boy whose birthday it was finished consuming it all, he immediately threw up over the balcony of the local YMCA. Unfortunately a maid slipped in the mess the next morning.

In condemnation, Mr. Delamont said: “Hmm.... Well boys, something’s gone on here and you young fellows were involved in it. There were alcoholic beverages involved here, because the maid could smell it when she fell in it. Somebody’s got to own up to it. It’s terrible, this sort of thing. The lady injured herself, and she’s off work

HOLLAND 1950 ~141

for a period of time.”

But not everyone was sorry to see the maid go. The cook gave the boys all extra sausages. She had not liked the maid and was happy to see her off for two weeks.

And through it all, the strains of Sousa’s On the Quarterdeck and The Thin Red Line could be heard everywhere they went.

Glasgow was the scene of the “big fight” as it was called.

Mr. Delamont appointed one of the boys, Jack Hamilton, as the policeman. As the fight progressed, Jack could be heard saying, “For God’s sake, don’t do this, don’t do that!” All of a sudden the mattresses started sliding down the staircase as Mr. Delamont tried to make his way up. “Here comes D,“ one boy shouted when he spotted him. “I told you, I told you,” exclaimed Jack. As Mr. Delamont’s white head appeared in the doorway, everyone was in bed except Jack who was standing in the middle of the room looking very pleased.

Mr. Delamont said, “Jack, I never would have thought it of you.”

Also in Glasgow, two of the boys were locked out of their room in the hotel where they were staying. One of the boys, who was of Asian descent decided he would get up on the shoulders of the other boy and crawl in an open window above the doorway where there was a light. On the other side of the doorway a chamber maid was brushing her teeth.

As there were no ethnic nationalities in the town at the time, such as Asians, when she turned around and saw the face of the Asian lad it was almost too much for the young lass!

And the band played on, over to the continent, over to Holland and the International Band Festival at Oosterbeek.

142 ~ Koningen Emma

The boys were booked to play nine concerts in Holland in eight days. Their first stop was at the village of Hillegom.

When the boys arrived by train in Hillegom they were not in the best of spirits. Mr. D had told them all to carry their own luggage and instruments, on and off the British train that had taken them to Harwick and on and off the Dutch ferry Koningen Emma and on to the train at the Hook of Holland.

To make matters worse, the band’s gear was stacked in the aisles and between the seats, making for a very uncomfortable trip. Mr. D was concerned that the band’s gear might not be handled properly by those who worked on the boat and train. Looking out their windows in Hillegom, the boys saw a crowd of people at the train station. They assumed some important person must be arriving. Suddenly, a swarm of Boy Scouts flew into the cars, seized their entire luggage and sailed out to the streets. On the street, an “oom pah pah” band played welcoming music as the boys disembarked and the townspeople cheered - they were the VIPs! Preceded by a Dutch band and followed by the Boy Scouts, the boys were marched past applauding crowds and up to the front of the towns’ concert hall. Every seat was filled and more people clustered outside. The boys were expected to put on a concert. Quickly donning their uniforms, the stage seating was arranged and the concert was played.

At intermission, local people plied the boys with soft drinks and kind words. Mrs. Delamont was presented with an enormous bouquet of roses and every band member received a miniature pair of wooden shoes and a crochet/trimmed handkerchief, with a picture of a windmill. Next, came the presentation of a flag, hand crafted by local women, in the

HOLLAND 1950 ~143

town’s colors.

It seemed that Hillegom had been liberated by Canadian troops during the war but the soldiers had moved on to fight across Holland and to victory in Germany before the town could demonstrate its appreciation. So, the town had decided to show its appreciation to the Vancouver Boys’ Band.

The boys carried out their eight remaining concerts in Holland like troopers. At Oosterbeek near Arnhem, the boys played in the International Music Festival. The festival was held in a tent, set up on an airborne landing field. Against adult bands, they won four top Honour awards; two in the marching competition and two in the Harmonie Class. Years later, at the age of sixty-six, one of the boys, Norm Mullins recalled: “Nothing that ever happened in our lives again could match that “brief and shining moment” when we were Canadians, we were Canada and we helped seal bonds of friendship between our country and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.”

They had done it again!

Back in England the high jinks continued on the Flying Scotsman train that took the boys from Glasgow to London.

On board were a group of chorus girls. Barrie Gillmore was another boy that Mr. Delamont told the others to look up to.

As the train slowed down a voice said, “Janie, where are you?” and then came the response: “I’m here, I’m here. “ Mr. Delamont woke up and came out. Looking in Barrie’s bunk he exclaimed,

144 ~ Paris

“Barrie! I never would have believed it!”

Yes, it was a trip that not only the boys would remember; they’re probably still talking about it all over Europe. Many boys came of age on that trip, but some gave up their bad habits as quickly as they took them up.

In Peterborough on the trip home, one boy who had tried smoking on the trip gave it up because: it cost too much, it ruined his clothes, it made his eyes water, and besides he didn’t like it anyway. Too cheap to throw them away, he gave his last four cigarettes to four other boys. As they walked down the street, all going puff, puff, puff, Lillie came walking along towards them. When she reached them she said something which properly summed up the whole trip, “Well, I am surprised!”

On September 25, fifteen of the boys chartered a plane and flew to Paris for a few days, while the rest visited relatives around the British Isles. That the boys were so busy having fun in putting on their concerts can be attested to when thirty-four years later at a reunion, one boy said to another boy: “Do you realize that when we played in Glasgow and we thought we were always going to the same park, we actually played at a different park every day?”

And the band played on!

CHAPTER 18

ENGLAND 1953 175 Theatre, Stage and Concert Performances

By 1953, money was getting more and more difficult to come by for funding Arthur’s tours. More organizations had sprung up and all requested funding from city council and the major corporations around town.

Arthur still counted heavily on his band parents past and present to come through for him and they certainly did. In 1953, all the money each boy needed to take a long was again $100 for spending money. If he was having trouble raising money with his band’s reputation, he often wondered how other organizations were managing.

In April 1953 Arthur approached the city council of Vancouver asking for a mere $300 to help out on his tour that summer. He was told that city council had developed a “hold the line” policy on expenditures and turned him down. In the city council chambers Alderman Bert Shouter said, “It’s chicken feed.”

“We can’t break down our policy,” Alderman R.K. Gervin said, “How can we justify this grant when we are cutting down all departments?”

146 ~ ‘In Towne Tonight’

After the motion had been defeated 4-3, Mr. Shouter then said, “We should all pay the $300 out of our pockets.” Mayor Hume rushed over to shake his hand and say, “That’s a mighty fine gesture. I’ll go for that myself.”

So Arthur got his grant although officially it had been refused.

Arthur seemed always able to pull a rabbit out of a hat at the last moment, and with a wink and a smile he raised enough money to make it back to England, arriving in London on June 13, 1953. That night the boys performed their first engagement over the BBC on its ‘In Town Tonight’ series. During a rehearsal for the evening performance, Peter Duncan, a producer at BBC, said to the star of the show, Irene Dunne, who was standing watching the band get ready, “Cover your ears because the opening fanfare will be very brilliant.”

She did, but she took her hands off for a moment then quickly put them back. She looked over towards Peter in the control booth, who gave a thumbs-up signal to her.

“The effect had been electric,” she said to him afterwards.

While they were rehearsing, in walked Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis who were scheduled to be on the program as well. When the boys had finished, Jerry hammed it up with Dean for a few moments, especially for the boys, who had all gathered around them like bees to honey.

On June 15, the boys departed London for Sunderland, in the north. In. Sunderland they began the first, of what was to be a ten week engagement, playing different vaudeville

ENGLAND 1953 ~147

theatres across Britain. They were part of the Empire chain.

Two shows a night at six fifteen and at eight fifteen. This afforded the boys ample time for sightseeing and for other youthful pursuits. At each theatre, they played from Monday through Saturday. On Sundays they traveled to their next engagement. On June 21, when they returned to London, all of a sudden, they were drawing young people to their shows.

Kids were crowding around their stage door. The boys started to make friends with some of the local kids, all their own age.

The boys played at Charing Cross, two shows a day, in an open air amphitheater, across the Thames from British Empire Gardens. After their show, they would walk up to a place called the Lyceum. It was a dance hall. Oscar Rabin, probably England’s best known dance band was playing at the Lyceum. When they got there, the boys had their first encounter with Britain’s Teddy Boys. The Teddy Boys were there with their girlfriends and they invited the boys to sit with them.

“Ah, here’s the Can-i-dians. The boys are here. You dance with my bird,” they would say.

So, they listened to Oscar Rabin playing Night Train, which had just come out. The stage would revolve and a small band would give way to a bigger Rabin Band with Oscar playing bass saxophone. What an instrument! Unbelievable!

They went to the original productions of South Pacific, Guys and Dolls and Paint Your Wagon. Because they were part of the Empire chain and played at different Empire theatres, the Hackney, Shepherds Bush, Darby and Leicester, they got to know about all the shows.

148 ~ Rag Time Wedding

On July 4, they were asked to stand in for John Philip Sousa’s Band, at Ealing Studios, in a show called the Gay Parade. One of the performers on the bill was a young Petula Clark.

Before the band had left Vancouver, Arthur had been approached by the organizing committee for the British Empire Games, which was being held in Vancouver in 1954. He had given Arthur a box of stickers for the boys to paste on windows, buildings and lamp posts, when they were in the old country, thus promoting the games the following year.

Often on the trip, the boys could be seen sticking labels all over London or whatever town they happened to be staying, all doing their part to promote the games.

The boys played the Portsmouth Empire theatre, the Hippodrome theatre in Bristol, the Hippodrome theatre in Darby, the Hippodrome Theatre in Manchester, the Palace theatre in Leicester, and the Empire Theater Wood Green in London.

The boys even had their own little vaudeville act called, Rag Time Wedding. Arthur decided that four boys, Ken Douglas, Roy Griffiths, Mike Hadley and David Hughes, would all be a part of it. Ken had to dress up as a sailor. Mike dressed up as a bride. Ken used to put on a rubber nose and rubber ears over his own big ears. He could make his ears go back and forth. The people just ate it up. It was a shotgun wedding. Well, they did this at three shows each week. Don Atkins, another boy involved in the skit, decided to put some spice into the act. So, Don went down to a store and bought a revolver. It was a 45. He bought some blanks.

On cue, Don said, “Do you take this bride?”

ENGLAND 1953 ~149

“Wham! Wham!”

The gun went off. Arthur almost jumped out of his shoes.

The audience cheered and so it became a part of the act, but I tell you, when that 45 went off, it was a cracker. It was fantastic!

At Wembley Stadium they played before a crowd of 40,000. In Blackpool they drew 3,500 to a concert, while crooner Frank Sinatra sang for a few hundred spectators at a competing theatre. In all they performed 175 stage, radio and television appearances during their four and a half months in the old country. Their tour would take them as far north as Blackpool and as far south as Portsmouth.

The tour ended with a rather glorious four day side trip to Paris, just for the fun of it. Thirty-six boys went to Paris. The other three went to relatives in England. Four of the boys chartered a plane for them all. When Arthur heard about it, he talked two of the boys into letting him and Lillie buy their seats and they went off to Paris as well. A lot of the boys went to see the Follies Bergere. They were able to get first row seats which left nothing to the imagination, one boy hinted.

On the trip home Arthur and his boys posed in a number of pictures on board the SS Samaria and Arthur couldn’t help thinking about the time he had returned home in 1939.

England had survived but there had been much destruction everywhere. When they arrived they had just missed the coronation of the young Queen Elizabeth, but they were still able to revel in the aftermath of the Coronation as the streets were still adorned with the decorations which had been put up for the occasion. Arthur did not know it then but he and

150 ~ Theatre Royal

his boys would later have an opportunity to meet Her Majesty and to give her his best wishes for a long and healthy reign, which she would also convey to him. The newspaper headlines from England were ecstatic in their praise of the band and its leader:

The Sunderland Echo wrote: “Rarely does a Sunderland audience go completely overboard, but last night was an exception when they gave the Vancouver Boys’ Band an overwhelming ovation.”

In Portsmouth: “So disciplined was their behavior, so musically their work, that watching the Vancouver Boys’ Band at the Theatre Royal was a great experience.”

Blackpool, England: “The band stirs and fascinates. Their performance goes with military precision.”

ENGLAND 1953 ~151

Manchester, England: “The Vancouver Boys’ Band showed a high degree of technical skill in a program ranging from classical overtures to the latest swing.”

Derby, England: “The precise and talented Vancouver Boys’ Band deserved every bit of the thunderous applause they received for a well-presented program.”

Bristol, England: “The Vancouver Boys’ Band are undoubtedly a great attraction and well-deserved the tumultuous applause they received at the Bristol Hippodrome.”

Woodgreen, England: “The thrilling brass and plaintive melody of the woodwinds awakes a response in even the most unmusical breast.”

And the band played on!

152 ~ Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin

1953 Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin

1953 On BBC’s “In Towne Tonight”

CHAPTER 19

ENGLAND AND THE CHANNEL ISLANDS 1955 Trans-Continental Trains, Atlantic Liners and Far Away Places One Tuesday evening in General Gordon School, during band practice in the basement, prior to their sixth European tour, the labels on the cases told the story. Plain labels from the Grand Hotels at Derby, Blackpool, Manchester and Liverpool were stuck next to the fancy signs affixed by the Hotel St. James and the Wagram Tulliers in Paris.

As if these reminders of the vagrant life in the months to come were not enough, the boys who played overseas two years ago were telling the others of the delights of life on trans continental trains, Atlantic liners and far away places with strange sounding names.

Arthur’s now white hair stood up once again with the playing of a wrong note and quickly he ended the piece and swung the boys into Orpheus in the Underworld. Showing his pleasure, he said, “That’s it, much better!”

The boys grinned and snuck another look at the exciting

154 ~ Harold Fielding

labels on the packing cases. The 45 boys in the band would, in a few days, be off on their sixth European tour at a cost of $24,000 in 1955. Only eleven of the boys had gone on the 1953 trip. Before arriving in Montreal on May 17 to board the Ascania, they first played concerts in Revelstoke, Banff, Calgary, Medicine Hat, Swift Current, Brandon, Winnipeg, Kenora, Marathon, Sudbury, Toronto and Montreal. It was then on to England and Jersey and the Channel Islands, before returning to Canada on September 17.

Upon arriving in Liverpool on May 27, the boys were off to Blackpool where they were booked for a week’s engagement at the Palace Theatre. The boys again, played two twenty minute performances each night on the last remaining vaudeville circuit in England. They were part of a show put on by impresario Harold Fielding. In their free time, they went to shows on the North Pier, such as Lawrence Wright’s “On With The Show” and the Orchid Room on the Central Pier, where they saw “Lets Have Fun” starring Morecambe and Wise, and Kenny Baker, Europe’s top trumpet star. But the big attraction for the boys was at the Winter Garden, where many of them went each night to hear England’s top band, the famous ‘Ted Heath Orchestra.’

The boys returned three times to Blackpool on this trip and each night after they played the Palace Theatre, they would go down to the Winter Garden to see the fabulous Ted Heath band. By their third visit to Blackpool the boys were hanging out backstage with the Heath Band and they got to know many of them quite well. The following year the Heath band came to Vancouver on an exchange concert with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Donny Clark who was one of

CHANNEL ISLANDS 1955 ~155

156 ~ Jersey

the boys who got to know the Heath band backstage at the Winter Garden and who lived in Victoria, came over with two of his buddies for the concert and to renew old acquaintances.

After Blackpool the boys stopped in at Llandudno, Wales where they played the Pier Pavilion. From here, they went on to London. The boys did the usual round of tourist sites, took in the “King and I” at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and enjoyed themselves immensely. The restoration of London, after the war, had hardly begun. Westminster Cathedral was draped in scaffolding. Cardiff and Swansea, both coastal towns, were almost flattened. The subway in London, (the tube), still had a lot of graffiti telling the “YANKS, GO HOME.” In London, there was a rail strike, so upon departure, they had to bus down to Weymouth. Getting up at six in the morning to catch the SS Patrick, they traveled across the channel to their next stop, Jersey the largest of the Channel Islands, where they visited castles and abbeys and a German Occupation Museum. Twenty-five of the boys were booked into the Toc H Headquarters and the remaining fourteen stayed at the Seaton Youth Centre. The boys found the islanders extremely friendly and receptive. Of their stay, a reporter for the Evening Post wrote: “Although I only heard the Vancouver Boys’ Band at the Howard Davis Park for the first time this morning, I am certain that it is one of the finest musical combinations of its kind to come to the island and that it will have established itself as such with Jersey music lovers by the end of the week.

CHANNEL ISLANDS 1955 ~157

The playing of the boys, whose ages range from 12 to 18, is superb.”

The boys played concerts in the park for the entire week in Jersey and then they boarded the SS Patrick for the return voyage to London. One of the big events they played at in London was at Wembley Stadium. After London, they headed to Portsmouth.

“From Sousa to Boogie Woogie” read the marquee out front of the Theatre Royal in Portsmouth. Next, the Vancouver Boys’ Band set the Birmingham Hippodrome ringing with a programme so varied that they were sure to please everyone. Mr. Delamont was asked by a reporter how he kept up with the boys.

“These boys keep you young. They lark about - I should think there was something wrong if they didn’t but they are no bother.”

In Portsmouth, they managed to get in some more sightseeing with visits to Dickens’ House and a tour of Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory docked in Portsmouth’s harbour.

Their next stop was the Birmingham Hippodrome, in Birmingham, where they again played two shows nightly, which left them lots of time for after hour pursuits.

After Birmingham, the boys visited Swansea where they were booked to play at Moss’ Empire Theatre. The boys continued to play concerts twice nightly at six and at eight-fifteen. They really enjoyed Swansea. It was a great place for

158 ~ Cheltenham

swimming and sunbathing, especially during the summer of 1955, as England was experiencing a major heat wave. Five of the boys, dressed in bowler hats, tams and long striped scarf’s, looked the picture of British etiquette, as they strolled along the Promenade and down to the seaside.

Their next stop was Harrogate. The boys took the Royal Hall in Harrogate by storm. A band, a singer, a ventriloquist and an accordionist, they were all part of Harold Fielding’s “Music For The Millions.” The boys topped the bill! Overwhelming applause was given by members of the audience for their fine playing. There were two boys in the band who were brothers from Hong Kong but now lived in Vancouver.

They put on a little show for the audience. The youngest sang a delightful rendition of Let The Sunshine In, while his older brother thanked the audience in Chinese. The youngest brother’s name was Bing Thom!

CHANNEL ISLANDS 1955 ~159

In Cheltenham, the boys were booked in to play for a week’s engagement, three concerts each day, heavy by even theatrical accounts. To add to their woes, they were put up in bed and breakfasts, which meant they had to eat two meals: lunch and dinner; out each day. With long line ups and queues, this was not helpful when the boys had schedules to follow.

When Arthur heard that their agents were booking them in for another week’s engagement, he took matters into his own hands. Cheltenham was only one of a couple of places on the tour that the boys were booked to play outdoor concerts. In the middle of one of their concerts, Arthur stopped the band and explained the situation to the audience. By the end of the concert, enough people had come forward to Lillie and the chaperones, to billet all the boys for the following week.

To try to improve the situation, the following day, the mayor invited Arthur and the boys to a quiet informal reception at his house, or so he thought. When you have 39 enthusiastic youngsters each equipped with a band instrument and a bandmaster equally proud of his charges, it is hard to do things quietly and informally.

Assembling inconspicuously outside the municipal offices, as other groups of citizens invited to take coffee with the Mayor were accustomed, was too tame for Arthur. Instead, he and his band came thundering bravely into the promenade, heads up, instruments blazing, and scarlet cloaks flying in the breeze. By this time a crowd of one hundred had gathered and the bands entrance into the offices was now like a triumphal progress. The mayor, putting on a brave face, said to Arthur: “We’ve been delighted with your playing and we’re

160 ~ Basil and Ivor Kirchen Band

even more delighted that you are staying for another week.”

The boys heard the Basil and Ivor Kirchen Band from Scotland while they were in Cheltenham. One of the boys, Donny Clarke, was asked to sit in and play on one of their numbers. Afterwards, they asked him if he wanted to stay in England and play in their band, to which he replied, “No, I have to go back to Canada, I’m still in school and I have to finish grade 10.”

Bath was next! Again Arthur needed accommodation for the boys and again he asked the audience, whose response was again spontaneous.

In Tunbridge Wells, the band was the biggest hit of the season. During their first three days, they recorded numbers far exceeding other band concerts that year. One person asked, “What is the secret of their pulling power?” To which another answered, “Each day more and more people go to hear the boys and their conductor. A quarter of an hour before the concert begins, all nine hundred seats around the bandstand are taken; there are crowds of people standing near the Pavilion and even more on the bank behind. For almost an hour there is a steady stream of people going through the entrance to the grounds to join the crowd already listening to the band.”

It was a hot summer that year and people were no longer going out to vaudeville. Arthur switched to playing in the parks. Television was just beginning and the band would not play vaudeville again after the summer of 1955. On the final week of the tour, all the boys and Arthur went to Blackbush Airport in London, where where they boarded a plane for

CHANNEL ISLANDS 1955 ~161

Paris. The Folies Bergere, the Eiffel Tour, cafes and the Moulin Rouge, were now stickers the boys could fix to their instrument cases.

The boys departed Southampton for Quebec City September 9, on board RMS Scythia, a Cunard liner. On board, they played concerts for the other passengers in the main lounge and prepared themselves for concerts in Marathon, Fort William, Winnipeg and Moose Jaw. They arrived back in Vancouver on Sunday September 24, ending what was declared as one of the most successful trips the band ever made to the old country.

CHAPTER 20

BRUSSELS WORLD’S FAIR 1958 Woodwinds, Brass, and Glory Between 1955 and 1958, Arthur kept busy keeping his boys in tip top shape for their next tour, both musically and physically. At the ripe old age of 66 he not only continued to run his band, he often went out before rehearsals, still in his old black 1936 Dodge to bring in the boys who did not have rides to General Gordon School. During these years he had several boys who lived in North Vancouver and had no way of getting across the Lions Gate Bridge to Vancouver.

Arthur arranged with the boys to meet him on their side of the bridge and he would pick them up. He would come rolling across the bridge around 6:00 p.m., having told the boys to hitchhike in if they had to, which they often did from as far away as Horseshoe Bay. Often he would pick up as many as ten boys in his old Dodge, and the routine was always the same. He would wind down his window before starting off, clear his throat, and then head off across the bridge to Vancouver. Whenever he reached a hill, he would turn off the engine and coast down to save gas. “Old habits are hard to break,” he would say, referring to the hard times of the Hungry Thirties when gas was so expensive. Always very

BRUSSELS WORLD’S FAIR 1958 ~163

close with his money he would often arrange with gas stations to give him a deal on gas in exchange for a concert or mention in his publicity.

As the eve of the next tour approached, a problem occurred out of the ordinary. Several of his top players decided they needed to stay home and work the summer of 1958, so Arthur had to quickly look for last-minute replacements.

After scouring the best bands in Vancouver and Victoria, he managed to assemble the players which he needed, but he wasn’t satisfied entirely. “They’re no good to me unless they can play the first endings and repeats and turn the music at the same time,” he said, referring to the fact that the new recruits had not come up with him through the ranks and did not know his particular way of doing things. Nevertheless, after two weeks across Canada and another ten days aboard ship, he was confident he could whip them into shape and thus set out on his seventh European tour.

Accompanying Arthur and Lillie on this tour was Gordon and his wife Vina and Gordon’s two daughters, Susan and Debra. Between 1955 and 1958, Lillie had not been herself.

She would suffer from long spells of fatigue and would become very forgetful at times. Arthur felt that he needed some extra help for this trip, so Gordon consented to come along.

Gordon, by 1958, was a well respected professional composer and arranger still living in Toronto. Somewhat of a be-bop jazzer with a goatee, he would often start off such traditional war horses as Finlandia true to his instincts. “One-two-bebop-ba-bum,” and then the stoic, opening chords of Finlandia would bring all back to reality.

Upon arriving at their first seaside resort in England,

164 ~ Pittencrieff Park

Gordon took his beautiful Olds trumpet down to the water’s edge to play a few bars. When he came back his gold lacquer was pitted from the salt water, making him declare that he would never do that again!

In Brussels, Lillie became very sick and had to be taken to a local hospital where the doctors did not speak English.

Fortunately a boy who had been in the band on the 1953 trip, Michael Hadley, was living in Brussels at the time and he was a linguist. With his help, the doctors were able to help Lillie, finally prescribing a shot of brandy whenever such a problem recurred. Arthur replied, “I never thought I’d have to admit a shot of booze would do anyone any good.”

The concerts went off as usual with wonderful applause and attendance. In Dunfermline, Scotland, where the boys played at Pittencrieff Park, the officials declared, “The boys drew the largest audience in the history of the park.” Dunfermline, made a lasting impression in the hearts of the boys as they made several friends of the local townspeople.

On the continent the boys were preparing themselves for the Kerkrade Music Festival with their usual three concerts a day, and a marching practice. When the big day was at hand, the boy’s train stopped in Rotterdam on the way to Kerkrade, Holland, where they had to switch trains. As their train pulled away from the platform, one boy looked out the window and noticed a familiar sight on the platform. It was the band’s set of concert bells. Someone forgot to put them back on the train. Jumping back onto the platform one boy picked up the bells as the other boys cheered him on. By

BRUSSELS WORLD’S FAIR 1958 ~165

now the train was moving a little faster, so he had to run along the side of the train and hand the bells up to one of his mates, finally being pulled back on board as the train left the platform far in the distance.

Arriving in Kerkrade, the night of the opening of the festival, the boys were able to hear what they thought was a wonderful band, the Guard Republican Band, which they later learned was made up of teachers and professors from the Paris Conservatory. At one point, twenty-four clarinets stood up and played a Weber Concerto. The next day, Arthur criticized them for playing Tannhauser without strings.

In a pre-festival shop talk with the boys, Gordon explained the latter criticisms to the boys. He said, “When you go into a butcher’s shop and the butcher has a copy of a Mozart symphony on his chopping block and he is listening to the score on the radio, you don’t try and show him how to play his own music.”

Arthur knew this theory very well. He was a master at winning contests and he knew every trick in the book necessary to assure a first place, besides, of course, perfect playing. He knew that a test piece should be something new to the judges and therefore something that would leave a lasting impression. For his test piece he chose an American piece, European judges not being that familiar with American music in 1958. Unfortunately, though, he had not counted on a twist of fate that he learned the next morning. One of the judges was to be a man named Frank Wright. He had adjudicated Arthur in 1934 and had made a right ass out of himself in his comments. From that day on, Mr. Wright and Arthur had had a sore spot between them. To further Arthur’s anxiety, Mr.

166 ~ Ted Lazenby

Wright had been in attendance at a concert in England a week previous, which Arthur had given, and Arthur remarked when the boys in the front row got wet when it rained: “Who designed this confounded bandstand anyway?” It had been Mr. Wright. So on the day of the contest Arthur was not as sure of the outcome as he usually was.

But as the saying goes, fate twists in strange ways, and the boys’ superb performance that day, coupled with their youthful zeal and Arthur’s choice of music, won even the staid Mr. Wright over to their side. After the contest the two old war horses made up. Music had won the day.

The boys continued to have a marvelous summer in Europe and kept up the good-natured pranks that had been the custom on previous trips. One boy, who had met some girls in England, told them his name was Mike Romanoff and it wasn’t long before the girls started writing to him. One morning, while Arthur was calling out the names of the boys who had mail, he said, “Mike Romanoff, who’s Mike Romanoff?”

When the boy came up and introduced himself, Arthur looked at him very oddly. As the days went by and more letters arrived for Mike Romanoff, Arthur got so frustrated he would throw the letters at the boy from across the room and it soon became the running joke of the tour, leaving everyone in fits of laughter as mail time approached.

Back in England, in Cheltenham, the boys again crossed paths with the famous Ted Heath Orchestra. The Heath Orchestra was playing a dance, so Gordon and some of the boys went over to listen. When the Heath players saw the boys they invited Gordon and two others, Art Tusvik and

BRUSSELS WORLD’S FAIR 1958 ~167

Ted Lazenby to sit in with them. Gordon and Ted even got to play a solo but the story doesn’t end there. While touring Scotland, the boy’s bus was side swiped by a truck, causing a piece of glass to fall on Art Tusvik’s foot, cutting it badly.

A week later when they were back in the south of England, Art had to leave the band for a short time, to look after his foot. He was invited by one of the members of the Ted Heath band whom he had gotten to know, Jimmy Coombs, to stay at his house. Ted wound up returning to England the following year and marrying Kay Coombs, Jimmy’s daughter.

Meanwhile back in London, Ted Lazenby wanted to take trombone lessons from Don Lusher, who was the lead trombone player in the Ted Heath band. He called Mr. Lusher up and said, “Mr. Lusher, I am over here with a boy’s band from Canada and I want to take a couple of lessons from you.” Mr. Lusher replied in a thick English accent, “Boy’s band, I don’t give lessons to boys,” and hung up the telephone. Not to be disillusioned, Ted found his address, grabbed his trombone, put on his trench coat and headed out into the English countryside. He traveled on the tube and then caught a bus and finally wound up on Mr. Lusher’s door step somewhere just outside of London. He knocked on his door and a short, pipe smoking Englishman opened the door and said, “Yes, what can I do for you?” Ted replied, “Mr. Lusher, I am that Canadian boy who called about taking lessons.” By this time Ted had his foot in the door so that it could not be shut. He continued, “There is no one in England who can show me how to

168 ~ Wards Music

play a glissando like JJ Johnson except you.” With that he whipped open his trombone case, produced his trombone and played a glissando. Mr. Lusher replied in astonishment, “My boy, where did you learn to play like that? Come on inside!” So, Ted got his lessons!

As the tour came to an end, one of the last concerts the boys played was at the motorcycle races at Wembley Stadium. When the boys had finished marching out at halftime playing for the 80,000 people in attendance, their ears ringing from the applause, Arthur declared, “You have fifteen minutes and then it’s back to the bus.”

An hour later it was all the boys and the bus driver could do to pry Arthur away from the side of the arena. The motorcycle racing had begun and Arthur, being a big fan of motorcycle racing, just couldn’t bring himself to leave. As often occurred, the child in Arthur overruled the adult, to the consternation of the poor bus driver and any other adults who had forgotten what youthful enthusiasm was all about.

But the boys never forgot and they always identified with the child in Arthur as well as the man. In turn, Arthur often overlooked some of the older boys’ indiscretions, such as occurred the night of their last evening in England when Arthur walked in on three or four boys at 3:00 a.m. in a local pub.

To the boys’ surprise they declared, “It’s him!” to which Arthur said, “Yeah, it’s me,” shuffled his feet in a little dance he often did, turned around and walked out. The next morning the boys were up with everyone else at 7:00 a.m. and not a word was said of the incident.

CHAPTER 21

DASHING, PROUD AND HAPPY 1959 The Band Plays Before the Queen at a reception of only 160 By 1959, Vancouver had changed considerably from the days when Arthur used to catch the trolley car down to the Musicians Union office on Hastings Street. Gone were the trolley cars and the Model T’s. In their place were buses and round bullet-shaped cars, very streamlined Plymouths, Dodges, Chryslers, Edsels, and not all of them were destined to be around for long. Wards Music was still there, now catering to a new generation of musically minded Vancouverites and some of the old.

Arthur was still a familiar sight at Wards Music. All the clerks knew him of course, and who he was. Whenever he came in he was always waited on promptly with no fuss.

The Pantages Theatre was still there, but vaudeville had long since disappeared from the stage. No longer were there jugglers and dancing girls and animal acts which he had backed up with his music. Instead the silver screen had taken over, and most of the old vaudeville theatres had been converted into movie houses. Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Errol

170 ~ Arthur Delamont Concert Band

Flynn, these were the names adorning the marquees out front in 1959.

Arthur still made it down to the musicians office at least once a month, his visits less frequent now that he was an established man of means with a house on the westside of town but old habits are hard to break, and he knew the gang still, and he was treated rather well.

Besides, if there was anything he liked to do more than run his band it was to play his trumpet. Back in 1954, he started the Arthur Delamont Concert Band, made up mostly of his old boys. They played professional gigs around town, just to keep in shape, he would tell everyone but he wasn’t fooling anyone. He loved performing and it gave his old boys somewhere to play after they left the band.

So if he wasn’t doing something with the boys, Vancouver’s music man would be found, perhaps, playing for the arrival and departure of the P&O ships down at the dockside, or playing in the house band at the Lion’s football game, or playing in a park, or for the opening of a new store somewhere. Anywhere they needed music in Vancouver, Arthur was ready to come if asked. He always insisted on being paid though, because he knew by experience how tough it was to raise money for trips and music, and people were getting less inclined just to give it away, so if he was going to play he should get some remuneration. This pertained to his boys’ band as well. He always insisted on receiving something for their services if asked to perform somewhere around town. It was usually only a token, but that didn’t matter. His feelings were, if people got used to receiving something for nothing, he would be hard-pressed to change their ways when he

DASHING, PROUD AND HAPPY 1959 ~171

needed money.

Arthur still held his rehearsals at General Gordon School and would continue to do so to the end. There were still lots of boys around wanting to learn to play an instrument and go to Europe for the summer, and as long as he was healthy he had no qualms about taking them.

About this time he began taking Christmas vacations to Hawaii. He always had a naturally tanned complexion which looked even more tanned in contrast to his white hair. This made him always appear extremely healthy-looking which he always was, just by good fortune.

It was in 1959 that he finally got his chance to wish Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth a long and happy life.

One afternoon, at home, Arthur received a telephone call from the Lieutenant Governor of B.C., the Honorable Frank Ross. Upon answering the phone, Arthur was both grateful and delighted to receive the call. He was told by the Lieutenant Governor that the Queen was coming to Vancouver, and would he and the boys like to be the band of honour for her and a hundred guests at Beacon Hill Park? He told him that he wanted the Queen to hear the champions, as it would be a rare opportunity for the boys to attend such a function.

When he had finished, he could solicit no response from the other end: all was silent. He learned after that Arthur, upon hearing the news, in all his enthusiasm left the phone and rushed off down to Wards Music to order something special for the occasion, forgetting to give a response to the Lieutenant Governor.

Well, he and his boys made the engagement, and the boys were dashing, proud, and happy as they attended the

172 ~ Queen Elizabeth II

Queen, playing like troubadours before their sovereign.

The Queen was of course delighted by the occasion and remarked in a conversation with Arthur, “From what I have heard today I feel we should be sorry we lost you, but it is nice you have done so well. I thought the standard of your boys’ performance was excellent, and I congratulate you.”

Playing off the Cruise Ships

CHAPTER 22

TRAGEDY, TROUBLES AND TRIUMPH 1962 A World’s Fair and a European Tour In 1960, Gordon came out to Vancouver to visit his mother. He was sick, as well, with lung problems. While at a concert in Chinatown, he ran into Roy Johnston who said, “Good to see you, guess you will be coming out more often now?”

Gordon replied, “Not if I can help it. I just can’t bear to see her like this.” Lillie had Alzheimer’s disease.

One day at Arthur’s brother Frank’s home in New Westminster, Arthur and Lillie paid them a visit. Lillie remained in the car while Arthur went inside. Arthur’s niece Esther wanted to see Aunt Lillie. Arthur tried to persuade her that it would be better to remember her the way she used to be but Esther insisted. When she went down to the car with Arthur, Lillie had two different colored socks on, two different shoes and her hair was unkempt and disorderly. Arthur was sure she would not know Esther but when he asked her if she knew who this was, she replied, “It’s Esther,” but she thought Arthur was her brother. Lillie died soon after in 1962.

The family was worried about Uncle Arthur being all alone for the first time in his life but he surprised everyone by

174 ~ Seattles World’s Fair

marrying their longtime housekeeper. She was not at all like Lillie and the family thought that this might be good for Uncle Arthur. Maybe now he would take life a little easier and get involved in other things besides his music but it was not meant to be. Unlike Lillie she was not prepared to give up everything for the band and Arthur was too set in his ways to ever change. Arthur thought that with another trip to the Old Country planned for the summer of 1962, that she would change her mind when she went on tour with him and the band. She was all for the trip to Europe but for other reasons than Arthur.

The boys played the Seattle World’s Fair, when they returned to Vancouver they boarded the luxury liner Orsova and traveled down to San Francisco, Long Beach, Acapulco and Balboa. Once through the Panama Canal they played concerts in Kingston, Jamaica and Haiti before crossing the Atlantic for Europe. On board the Orsova, the boys kept up the good natured pranks of their predecessors but not everyone was impressed when they switched the red lights in the corridors indicating the gents for the green lights of the ladies and then stood back to watch the fun. The men came out with a smile but the ladies well they were not always so pleased. In Europe the bands engagements included the Lions International Convention at Nice, France on June 20, a commemorative service at Dunkerque and appearances in several British and Dutch cities, leading up to the Kerkrade Music Festival in August.

While doing the rounds of various European cities the boys encountered a bit of bad luck. In Paris, two boys were injured in an automobile accident and hospitalized and

TRAGEDY, TROUBLES AND TRIUMPH 1962 ~175

another boy slipped and fell in the shower, hitting his head and injuring himself fatally. Nothing like this had ever happened before and everyone was baffled by this spate of misfortune and sad for the family of the lad who died.

Not sure what to do, Arthur ushered the boys into his room in Paris one by one, and asked them if they wanted to continue the trip or return home. There was a definite consensus to continue on with the trip, but their bad luck was not over.

While the band went down to Nice to march in the Lion’s parade, Arthur remained in Paris to make arrangements for the boy’s funeral. He was buried shortly after in a cemetery in Paris, as the band played a hymn.

To get the boys ready for the Kerkrade Music Festival, Arthur took them to Cologne, Germany. While in Cologne, six boys contracted mononucleosis and had to be hospitalized.

Arthur debated about pulling out of the music festival but finally he decided to go regardless. Two of the hospitalized boys made it back before the festival but the other four had to remain in the hospital for six weeks, recuperating with lots of rest and blood transfusions.

One of the boys, who was hospitalized in Cologne, was a little worse off than the others and he wound up staying in the hospital for three weeks. There were two doctors at the hospital. One of the band’s chaperones, who came to visit, told the boy that the blond, blue eyed doctor had been a Nazi fighter pilot during the war. The other doctor, who was in his twenties and could speak English, was a jazz saxophone player.

As the boy was getting better, the jazz saxophone player would sneak him out of the hospital to hear the jazz bands

176 ~ Kerkrade, Holland

playing on the Rhine River. They went to one jazz club where the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band was playing. The boy bought one of their albums and the members of the band all signed it. He still has the album to this day.

While the boy was in the hospital, he wrote a piece for the band called, The Vancouver Suite, which was a three movement work for band that the band performed at their homecoming concert back in Vancouver. The boy’s name was Bob Buckley.

Their luck finally changed in Kerkrade and Arthur and the boys took top honours with 78 points in the concert division and won the marching competition with 98 points. Arthur said to one of the boys who played a solo in the test piece in Kerkrade, “That was very good.”

For Arthur to give praise was unusual but as the years went by he did become a little more mellow. The boy’s name was Bill Ingledew.

Back home at the home coming concert, Jim Hawthorne, one of the boys infected with mononucleosis said, “My biggest disappointment was not being there when the lads won the Kerkrade events.”

Bill Millerd, who was one of the boys injured in the car accident in Paris and played the Kerkrade festival with one arm in a cast said, “Broken arm or not, I wasn’t going to miss that show.”

And the Band played on!

TRAGEDY, TROUBLES AND TRIUMPH 1962 ~177

1948, North Vancouver Youth Band

1948, Calgary Stampede, Alberta

178~ Netherlands

1953 London

1950, Netherlands

TRAGEDY, TROUBLES AND TRIUMPH 1962 ~179

1950, Trumpet section on steps of Vancouver Law Courts.

1958, Vancouver Court House

180 ~ Netherlands

1958 Kerkrade, Holland

1962 Nice

TRAGEDY, TROUBLES AND TRIUMPH 1962 ~181

1940 Gordon

1958, Gordon in Vancouver

1958 England

182 ~ SS Samaria

1950 Lions Football Game

1959, General Gordon School

1942 Shriners Parade

TRAGEDY, TROUBLES AND TRIUMPH 1962 ~183

1953, SS Samaria

184 ~ SS Ascania

1955 On Board SS Ascania

1955 Cheltenham

TRAGEDY, TROUBLES AND TRIUMPH 1962 ~185

1958 Loch Lomond

1958 Loch Lomond, Dominion Day

186 ~ Southend-on-Sea

1958, Scotland

TRAGEDY, TROUBLES AND TRIUMPH 1962 ~187

1958, Southend-on-Sea

CHAPTER 23

KERKRADE, HOLLAND 1966 Gold and Silver all the Way

As the years passed by Arthur’s trips to Europe became more frequent, rather than less as one would expect of a man in his seventies. In the late 1960’s he made a recordbreaking trip every two years, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1972 and 1974, the trips were much more extensive than in the past, covering more countries. It was as if he knew he would not live forever and wanted to pack as much living into his time here on earth as he could, for which no one could blame him. That he would not live forever I am sure many might have wondered about over the years. At 70 he had the energy of a man half his age and to be able to keep up with forty fourteen to eighteen year-olds for two months in Europe was no small task in itself. But then he had been doing it all his life and thought nothing of it. Besides, he wasn’t going to miss dancing with the ladies on the seaside in Brighton or Blackpool because someone thought he was too old—no sir not him, or his name wasn’t Arthur Delamont.

KERKRADE, HOLLAND 1966 ~189

The manager for the 1966 trip was an old boy named David MacKenzie who had moved to New York to find fame and fortune, first as the food and beverage manager of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and later as the manager of the Metropolitan Opera Club. Arthur knew he was capable of keeping one step ahead of the band in order to find engagements and accommodation, and he certainly was.

Arthur was now 74 and there was some concern amongst parents that he was maybe getting too old for this sort of thing.

This didn’t faze him however, because parents had been saying that for his last three trips and he always showed them up. Besides, there was another festival to enter and another first place award to put on his trophy rack in the basement.

He had cleared a place at the end of one shelf specifically for it, and he hoped it wouldn’t be too big. If it was he would just put a plant in it and use it as a doorstop, he thought; an old trick he picked up from a wise person, remembering the plant he had found in the trophy back in 1946.

Preparations for this trip were begun early in 1963 as it was a big festival with bands from all over the world. Boys were not easy to come by now, either. There had gotten to be too many bands in high schools, he fumed to the boys at one rehearsal at General Gordon. And there was another influence that occurred in the 1960s that saw many boys choosing an instrument other than a band instrument to play: Rock and Roll, or maybe more to the point, the Beatles. The new instrument that everyone wanted to play was the guitar.

By 1970 Arthur would travel as far away as Victoria, Abbotsford and Chilliwack in order to get the full complement of musicians he needed. There were 39 boys on the 1966

190 ~ 150 Piece American Band

trip, and the tour cost each boy $600. How things had changed.

Another change occurred as well. No longer were they travelling by boat; on this trip they were going by airplane. For someone who had seen the advent of the automobile and the telephone this must have been a real thrill indeed.

So, one June morning, Arthur and his boys assembled at the Vancouver International Airport, thronged by loving parents and well-wishers.

One boy recalls during the flight to Amsterdam being awakened by Mr. Delamont playing taps on his trumpet somewhere over England, and I can just imagine him with his impish smile in the cockpit asking to fly the plane.

As the festival was only a week away the boys went immediately by bus to Hamburg, Germany, where for the next few days Arthur marched them up and down the banks of the Rhine River to prepare them for the competition.

From Hamburg they traveled to Cologne where they put on several concerts and continued to rehearse for the competition. Arthur’s zeal may have gotten the better of him for he kept the boys so busy there was little time for sightseeing.

They usually began their day with a march through some area of the city and then either had a concert or a rehearsal in the afternoon and then another concert in the evening. The boys took it all in their stride, they reasoned if he could do it, then they could too.

Well it paid off. Finally the boys arrived by bus in Kerkrade, Holland. After being billeted out they made their way to the oval track for the marching competition. One boy wrote home, “There must have been 40 bands there from Italy, France, Denmark and the USA It was a sight to

KERKRADE, HOLLAND 1966 ~191

behold.”

The boys looked very sharp and handsome in their black shoes and socks, white shirts and navy pants and capes.

The festival was new to the boys, but not to Arthur. He had marched around this same oval twice before, and both times won a first place. The boys knew this, and that placed even more pressure on them. Before long it was all over, and no one knew who had won. From the oval the boys quickly made it over to the concert hall where they were just in time to hear a 150-piece American band, with every instrument but the kitchen sink, perform. How could they match that sound, they thought, but like old troubadours they hustled up on stage and played their piece. Tired and exhausted, as their predecessors had been on previous trips, after competing, they returned to their billets for dinner. Later that evening they learned of the results back in the concert hall.

They had done it, a first place in the marching competition. They couldn’t believe it, and a second place in the concert division. At first they were disappointed over the second place but then Arthur explained something to them. The band which had won was the colossal American band, and he knew they couldn’t possibly win going into it. Why, they had bassoons and English horns and a couple he hadn’t even heard of. Whether he was being truthful or not didn’t matter, because it made the boys feel better, but he was right. Times had changed. Everyone was traveling now. Bands were on the move, with big organizations behind them and lots of money.

The days of the one-man band were fast disappearing, and no one could see the writing on the wall better than Arthur

192 ~ Expo 67

Delamont.

With gold and silver in their pockets and love in their hearts, Arthur and the boys traveled on to Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, France, and finally to England. They spent a month in England playing town after town. Arthur danced his way from resort to resort and they were hired out in Scotland for two weeks playing a different town every day. They had a marvelous time and everyone returned to Vancouver safe and sound in September, four days late for school. On the night of their arrival in Vancouver the boys were rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver and told they were to play a homecoming concert. Arthur told the committee that it was too much for the boys. They had played a concert the night before in Scotland and then traveled by bus all night to London and then caught the plane home.

But in his heart he knew they could do it, with woodwinds, brass, and glory!

CHAPTER 24

MONTREAL 1967 “You Can’t March Your Band Down the Centre of the Exposition, I Don’t Care Who You Are!”

Arthur found himself in a curious position from time to time, or maybe it is best to say his old boys were the ones who found themselves in a curious position. Many of his boys went into music as a profession, and it wasn’t odd to find them popping up in the RCMP Band or as a session musician in Toronto or playing in a symphony orchestra or opera house. Several went on to be well-known composers.

Bobby Gimby, who was in the band, wrote the theme music for the 1967 Exposition in Montreal entitled CA-NA-DA. Arthur still continued to play around Vancouver, and the situation he would find himself in was that the leader of the band, he was playing trumpet for, was often one of his old boys.

The new generation was taking the reins, so to speak, but here was this old guy still hanging around when others of his generation had long since retired or died. His longevity

194 ~ Dave Mackenzie

and stamina sure helped Arthur with the success which he experienced. Everyone just took him in stride, if he wanted to keep playing and could, why not? Who were they to say otherwise? “That was just Arthur for you,” one said, “a little older perhaps, but one of the boys.”

In 1966 Arthur was made District Deputy Grand Master of Lodge #20 and carried on with his lifelong dedication and association with the Freemasons. Also, he continued to play around Vancouver with his Arthur Delamont Concert Band. They played in parks and around town. There were a couple of other similar bands around Vancouver at the time, the Navy Reserve Band and the Firemen’s Band. There was never any problem getting players, as all the members interchanged from time to time. Besides, they were mostly all his old boys anyway, and he knew them all, and they knew him, even those who weren’t his boys knew him well, as he had long ago become a legend in Vancouver.

So many of his old boys went into music in Vancouver that a real clique developed and you really weren’t anybody unless you played with Mr. Delamont, or with the Old Man, as he was often affectionately referred.

In 1967 Arthur was 75, but he was as spry as ever. With Dave MacKenzie as his manager he set his sights on Montreal’s World Exposition. It was probably a good thing it fell in between the years he planned on going to Europe, or he might have missed that one. Gone were the days that he could go to both a World’s Fair and on to Europe. The cost was too high, he told one parent at a parents meeting at General Gordon School. “It’s not 1939 any more,” which in a way I’m sure he was glad it wasn’t, what with the war and all.

MONTREAL 1967 ~195

This trip was to be short by Arthur’s standards. It took three days to get to Montreal by train and three days to return, so if he went for two weeks that would give him a week in Montreal. That was plenty of time, he thought, after what he read out loud to his band parents one evening. It was a letter he had received from fair officials just the day before, confirming his application.

“It says we can only play in three band shells, three concerts and that’s it. Dang blast it! Don’t they know how much it costs to bring a band out from Vancouver?”

Arthur slouched back in his chair, wearing his favorite cardigan, with a scowl on his face that would have disappointed the most optimistic of individuals.

To say that Arthur took the changing times in his stride is an overstatement. Arthur was like a single-minded old dinosaur whose world had changed before his eyes and he alone was now the last of his kind, left on earth to carry on, a dinosaur whose stride and size often overwhelmed the new world, I might add.

A demonstration of this occurred in Montreal when they arrived for the World’s Fair.

Having finished playing one of the three concerts in the band shell they had been assigned, the boys began to put their instruments away, until they heard Arthur’s voice saying from behind: “What are you doing? Get them back and line up over here in march formation. We didn’t come all this way just to play in this old band shell.”

The reaction from the boys was, “Hey, all right, let’s go and play some real music!”

196 ~ Georgy Girl

The excitement they were used to on Arthur’s trips had just not been there up to that point. The reason was that Arthur couldn’t be Arthur. There was too much red tape, and the spontaneity which he and the boys needed to spark their fire had been thwarted.

By 1967 Arthur was using more of the boys who had been with him on the previous European tour because of the difficulty he was now finding attracting boys. The majority of the boys with him in Montreal had been with him in Europe in 1966 and they could really play. They also knew what to expect from Arthur, and he just hadn’t been himself.

Dave MacKenzie was several hundred yards away when Arthur gave the signal to march, and he could see what was happening. He knew what the old man was up to, and he also knew that the fair officials were not kidding when they had told him that if he didn’t abide by the rules, that they would be kicked off of the grounds.

So with the band on the march, the strains of the Raiders echoing between the pavilions, and Dave MacKenzie running behind trying to catch up to Arthur before the fair officials did, the stage was set for a very interesting afternoon, Delamont style. The crowd just ate it up. They thought it was great. They cheered him on every foot of the way. The boys were in seventh heaven; this was the King Arthur that they knew, the glory had returned to Camelot, at least for the moment.

Finally Arthur stopped and motioned for them to fall into concert position for one of his junk music concerts. Dave MacKenzie caught up with him halfway through a tune called Raunchy and fervently waved his arms at Arthur

MONTREAL 1967 ~197

trying to get him to stop, which Arthur just ignored. Dave, by now pulling his hair out, finally came over to him when the number was through and reminded him what the fair officials had said.

Arthur was still determined and gave the downbeat for the next number, Georgy Girl, but after a few bars he cut it off, having second thoughts. Stubbornly, he motioned them back into marching position and marched them back to where they had started, one of the boys playing the death march on his flute.

The boys completed the other two concerts without incident and enjoyed the joi de vivre of the fair and of Montreal for the remainder of the week before embarking on the train to return to Vancouver. Many were consoled with the thought that there would be another tour to Europe next summer, and many of the same boys intended on going. They knew that

1967 Expo 67

198 ~ Ron Collier

things would be back to normal—which they certainly were.

The highlight of Expo 67 for many of the boys however, came one night at the Fair when they heard that one of Arthur’s old boys, Ron Collier, who had been in the band from 1942 to 1950 and gone on to become one of Canada’s leading jazz musicians, was leading his own big band at the Plaza of Nations. Unfortunately the boys did not get a chance to hear his band in person, but just knowing that one of their own had become so successful was enough for most of the boys.

1967 Band shell/Kerrisdale Kiwanis Band

CHAPTER 25

VANCOUVER 1968 1500 Turn Out to Honour City’s Own Music Man “Why,” Arthur thundered, “did you, you silly ass, take a rest before that 2-4! Why, why, WHY?” The little kid squirmed and clutched his trumpet. Then another lad played only half a note.

“Stop! Stop this mess, you... what the... No wonder your parents send you to me! But even I can’t perform miracles.”

Further into Offenbach, another boy missed the beat, and Arthur exploded again.

“Oh my gosh, gosh! Gosh! Dash!! Why boy?”

“I was just blowing my nose....”

“Well next time,” he yelled, “let it run!”

And so the rehearsals continued, and Arthur’s bullying, raving, ranting, and tender loving care which had made the band one of the best of its kind in the world, carried on as well. He never used words unfit for children’s ears, but he always goshed and dashed to beat the band. When asked by a reporter one day if his pace was not a little hectic for a 76-year-old he replied,

200 ~ Queen Elizabeth Theatre

“Making music isn’t a bad way to go, now is it?” He added, “You know, I don’t know any kid who ever played with this band who ever got in trouble. I’d be unhappy if I knew. Working with them really is my reward. I like kids, all kids, all people.”

During 1968 there was a gala ceremony and benefit concert for the survivors of Aberfan, a Welsh mining town where a slag heap slid onto a schoolhouse and ten homes, killing more than 140. The benefit was held at Empire Stadium at halftime between a B.C. Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers football game. There were five bands in attendance offering their support free of charge. Lined up on the field side by side, right in the centre was Arthur and his band, in the place of honour. He was always willing to donate his services for a needy cause, and he did so often.

So in the spring of 1968, with another trip planned for the summer, Arthur kept looking for ways to raise the necessary money. For this trip he would need $50,000.

One such way occurred on a Sunday afternoon—and they did it on foot. Arthur and 65 of his boys, in uniform and playing all the way, marched 25 miles through the city in their own version of Miles for Millions. “Sponsorship of the march is expected to raise $1,000 toward the cost of the tour. The band has collected about $10,000 of the necessary $50,000.” said one of the boys when asked by a reporter on the street.

On January 23, 1968, 1,500 people turned out at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver to honour Arthur—the band and forty years of unparalleled success.

VANCOUVER 1968 ~201

It all began like a typical Arthur Delamont concert with the band on stage playing a familiar programme of marches, novelty numbers, classical pieces and hymns, but it soon developed into a musical extravaganza. The present band was joined by about a hundred old boys who had come from across Canada, the U.S. and around B.C. to play and pay tribute to Arthur. They proved that Arthur’s lessons last a lifetime. There was an old boy from Toronto, now a jazz musician, and Gordon came out from Toronto, where by this time he had developed a fair reputation of his own as a composer/arranger. Arthur’s brother Walter even came out to honour him from Toronto.

During a moment of carefully chosen words a visibly moved Arthur said to the audience, “My cup runneth over, especially tonight. I could never give this up. This is my life.”

Later, backstage with his boys, Arthur conceded, “It was a pretty fair performance.”

That amounted to an accolade. Arthur regarded perfection as the only thing acceptable. Walter added, turning to his brother, “If you weren’t satisfied with it, I was,” and they both laughed. The master of ceremonies for the evening was one of the old boys who had gone to Paris in 1936 and incurred Arthur’s wrath upon returning to England. He was now prominent in Vancouver circles as a dance band leader, Dal Richards.

The present band presented Arthur earlier with a gold baton as a token of their affection. After Arthur said a few words, he laid down his baton and picked up his trumpet,

202 ~ Tivoli Gardens

preparing to play a solo with the band.

“Mr. Delamont still practices a little each day,” Dal said, to which Arthur quipped, “You won’t be able to tell it from my playing.”

He proved otherwise with a splendid solo of Arthur Sullivan’s “Lost Chord” which proved to be the highlight of the evening when he was joined in a tear-jerking moment by about 30 trumpeters who lined up in a row beside him to play the familiar refrain, nearly blowing the roof off the theatre. It was a moment that none there would ever forget.

The band’s treasurer said a few words as well that evening: “It never ceases to amaze me how Mr. Delamont has sustained his enthusiasm for his band. He is still the heart and soul of the band.”

If the treasurer really didn’t know, the audience did and could probably best be summed up by a letter which was read that evening of someone’s encounter with Arthur and the band two previous summers in Scotland: “We have just spent a delightful holiday in Perthshire where the scenery was splendid. We toured most of the country but the highlight of our holiday was our last evening when we went to the town hall in Alberfeldy to hear the Vancouver Boys’ Band.

It was a heart lifting experience to hear such a first-class band in such humble surroundings. They have played with renowned success all over the world and their capacity audience showed their appreciation like only Scots can.

It was a very moving moment when a member of the audience told us he had three grandsons in the band. To see the

VANCOUVER 1968 ~203

boys marching through the town with their Canadian flag in front and the rousing sound of the band behind is something we will remember the rest of our lives.”

Arthur’s father had been right. His son certainly had the power to move people.

In the summer the band went back to Europe and had a marvelous trip. There were no championships to win, just a leisurely trip with time to enjoy attractions such as the Schumann Circus and Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. One day in Copenhagen, Arthur and about ten boys decided to go for a stroll on the streets near where they were staying. It was not long before they realized that they were lost. One of the boys spotted the American consulate and went inside to ask for directions. On both the 1966 and ‘68 trips, there was one young fellow that was always called upon whenever the band needed to speak to any foreign official. He was quite a learned chap and took his school work very seriously. While most of the boys were still trying to figure out what country they were in and what the currency was, this young fellow was busy telling those who were interested all about the countries political and/or economic system. It was not long before the young lad came out of the consulate and pointed the boys in the right direction. Little did the boys that day know that this young fellow would go on to become a Rhodes Scholar in 1970 and 25 years later, become Canada’s, ambassador to Cuba in 1997 and then Canada’s ambassador to Mexico in 2000. His name was Keith Christie!

The trip continued on with the boys eating cheese fondue in Switzerland, Russia invading Czechoslovakia and paddy

204 ~ Carnaby Street

wagons lining the Boulevard St. Michel in Paris during the student riots, while they made their their way to their youth hostel nearby. What a reception, what a band, what a trip!

Back in England there was the original production of “Hair” on stage, Julie Christie starring in ‘Darling,’ the mods and the rockers, Carnaby Street, and of course Dartmouth. What a way to end a wonderful summer, in Dartmouth. Remember the ‘Kitsie Boys’ Dance Band’ playing at the Boatel and Wayne Briscoe’s imitation of Tiny Tim? And the Band played on!

1968 Dartmouth Bandstand

CHAPTER 26

DARTMOUTH 1970 King Arthur and His Knights Return The 1968 tour of Europe was so successful that when Arthur returned to Vancouver, he immediately began readying plans to go back again in two years. In 1966 Arthur and his boys had begun a five summer love affair with the sleepy English seaport of Dartmouth. Dartmouth was like Glochamorra to Arthur and his boys. It was as though it came to life for two weeks, every two years in the summer when the band arrived. Whether it was because they were treated like celebrities each time they marched into town, or because of all the girlfriends the boys had there over the years or because it was like returning home to a welcoming family after touring on the continent, where they didn’t speak the languages, they didn’t know for sure but they loved it.

Dartmouth is a beautiful, historically significant seaport on the south coast of England in Devon. There are two ways to arrive in Dartmouth. One is by ferry from the Kingswear side of the Dart River. The other is from the main highway above the town and then down a winding road and along a

206 ~ Dartmouth

main road into the centre of town.

In 1970, Dave Mackenzie, had returned again as manager.

He and Arthur, decided they would make a triumphant entry into Dartmouth, like King Arthur returning to Camelot. They would park their bus above the town and march the band down through the centre of town to the band shell and park on the boat quay. This, they thought, would allow people to hear the band coming long before they saw them, thus instilling excitement and enthusiasm for their pending two week engagement. Over the past few trips to Europe, a pattern had developed whereby the band would book ahead to play the carnival for two weeks at the end of June in Dartmouth, then head to the continent for a whirlwind, “If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium” trip through six or seven European countries arriving back in the UK for the month of August where they were booked to play concerts throughout England and Scotland, ending up in Dartmouth the last week in August for the famous Dartmouth Royal Regatta.

It went off without a hitch! As the boys marched down the hill towards the center of town, people began coming out of their shops and homes to greet them back to Dartmouth. Right up at the front of the boys, of course, was King Arthur, reveling in the attention and excitement, marching along, playing his trumpet just like one of the boys. The boys learned afterwards that the whole town was abuzz at their return and didn’t really need any prompting but I guess it added to the excitement.

While in Dartmouth, the boys played their usual three concerts a day. In the morning an impromptu march and junk music concert, usually along the riverside, an afternoon

DARTMOUTH 1970 ~207

sit down concert in the park bandstand and then a more formal evening concert after dinner in the park bandstand.

Concerts in Dartmouth were always well received, fun and exciting. In between concerts the boys spent time walking out to Dartmouth Castle with their girlfriends, climbing the hills behind the town, where magnificent views of the Dart River and ocean lay before them, or some even took boat rides up the Dart River to the next town of Totnes. The boat ride took them past crime writer Agatha Christie’s house on the way to Totnes Castle (a very early Roman style circular fortification).

The hardest part of going to Dartmouth was having to leave. I am sure many of the boys would have just as soon stayed there the entire summer. However, once they were back on the road, the excitement of having practically the whole trip ahead of them, as well as visiting so many different countries, was contagious. Besides, they all knew they would be returning to Dartmouth at the end of the trip to renew acquaintances in Camelot one more time.

In each country they were booked in by Dave Mackenzie for three to four days and then it was off to the next destination: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Cologne, Zurich, Geneva, Nice, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, and so it went. It was no wonder the boys liked the peace and tranquility of Dartmouth after the whirlwind schedule they maintained on the continent.

When they arrived back in Dartmouth, this time they took the ferry over from Kingswear. The ferry was an old-fashioned rope ferry that pulled its way across the Dart River full of cars to the Dartmouth side.

208 ~ Mrs. Tucker’s Yellow Duck!

Once in Dartmouth the boys lined up in concert formation and again marched along the quay, as friends and well wishers came out once again to greet them.

Of all the friends the boys made during their trips to Dartmouth there were two sisters who were so keen on the boys and where they had come from, that after the 1970 trip, they came to Vancouver to see what it was like. Their names were Janet and Margaret Baillie. They worked as nannies for a year in Vancouver. Unfortunately, they were a little disappointed and returned to England because they had not realized that the boys on the trip were from towns all over the Lower Mainland of B.C. Some came from Chilliwack, Victoria, Nanaimo, and so on. The Baillie sisters returned to Dartmouth a little disappointed but hopefully more informed to the obstacles that Mr. Delamont was up against in putting together his bands.

Besides the Baillie sisters, there were Jane and Maria Baker, and Kay Tucker. Whenever Kay’s mother, Mrs. Tucker heard mention of a psychedelic rock band in Vancouver called Mrs. Tucker’s Yellow Duck, she broke into fits of laughter. The boys however always remembered Janet and Margaret every time the band played “Won’t you come home Bill Bailey,” which was also the name of their father.

CHAPTER 27

SCANDINAVIA 1972 For the first time bandsmen do not have to pay their own way In 1971, Arthur suffered a heart attack. He was living in White Rock, a retirement vacation town just outside Vancouver and driving in to practices every Monday and Thursdays at General Gordon School. After the heart attack, it was suggested that he conduct less vigorously, to which he replied, “And my music would sound like it too!”

White Rock was proud to have the director and founder of the world famous Kitsilano Boys’ Band living in their community on Prospect Drive. True to form, Arthur could not sit still for long and if he saw an opportunity to get involved in another band he often did, as was the case in White Rock.

Arthur took over the White Rock City Band around 1969 and nursed it along patiently, at 80 years young, as he had done in the past, with the West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Grandview, Point Grey Junior High School Band, Royal City, Richmond and General Gordon School Bands. From his White Rock Band five or six boys were selected to play in his Kitsilano Boys’ Band for their 1970 European Tour, including one girl, Wendy Loewen. For his 1972 trip, four members were selected from his White Rock Band.

210 ~ Mel Goodwin

How Arthur was able to raise enough money to pay for all the boys in 1972 was by raffling off a luxury custom GMC camper truck and an 8.5 foot Vanguard camper. The winner would be selected on January 22, 1972, at Arthur’s 44th Reunion concert, also his 80th birthday. Both Vera and Gordon made the trip to Vancouver, to honour their dad on his 80th birthday.

On June 20, Arthur and his boys were off again, this time on their 12th European tour. For eight weeks they put on an outdoor concert each day traveling throughout England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Scotland. A member of the Rotary Club, Mel Goodwin, acted as manager. He contacted his fellow Rotarians in each city and they, in turn, took the boys on interesting tours. In most cities the boys were billeted out with Rotarians giving them a taste of home life in different countries. When asked if there were any problems on the trip Arthur said, “Six cases of measles didn’t hinder the boys performance as each case was from a different section of the band. It would have been a disaster if they had all been trumpet players.”

The boys were received so well at a half time show during a soccer match in Malmo, Sweden that the audience wanted them to keep on playing instead of seeing the rest of the soccer match. Crowds in England were huge. Arthur had brought along some records that he had produced of the 1970 homecoming concert in Vancouver and they had to be rationed off per town, sales were so good.

At the end of the trip the boys were back in Dartmouth for the Regatta, enjoying themselves like their predecessors before them. Two boys who went rowing on the Dart River,

SCANDINAVIA 1972 ~211

somehow managed to overturn their boat but they both made it back to shore. Two other boys got left behind somehow on a boat tour of the river but the boat came back for them at the last minute.

And the band played on!

1972 Band playing at Dorking Hospital

CHAPTER 28

RUSSIA 1974 Heart attack and cataracts and yet another tour!

Arthur’s health was failing him and he almost hadn’t made the trip in 1972. In 1971, he had suffered a heart attack but it was business as usual. While still in the hospital after the attack, Roy Johnston called one day.

“You’ve got a boat concert coming up and a school concert. What are you going to do about it?” he said.

“Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you.” replied Arthur.

The next day when Roy returned, Arthur said to him, “You can do the boat concert.”

“I don’t care about the boat concert, what about the school concert?” Roy asked.

Arthur replied, “Well see what you can do about it.”

Roy had the school concert postponed until June. Arthur was always on the mind of his old boys, who always tried to help out as much as they could. Ken Sotvedt, who traveled to Europe with Arthur in 1953 and 1958 and was now a conductor, filled in for Arthur at the opening of the Whale Pool in Stanley Park and then he brought the boys around to the

RUSSIA 1974 ~213

hospital where they played, Can’t Help Falling In Love With You, one of Arthur’s favourite tunes, outside his window.

After getting out of the hospital, Arthur stayed with one of his band parents, Mrs. Borsa, who took good care of him and tried to make him toe the line as much as she could.

When it came time for the school concert, Arthur called Roy Johnston and said, “Come over and I’ll have the music set out for you. You get the guys together!”

When Roy came over to Mrs. Borsa’s, she wasn’t home.

Arthur had the music all laid out and was sitting there in his pajamas.

“Here’s the music for the boat concert,” he said.

“I don’t care about the boat concert,” Roy declared.

“Where’s the music for the school concert?”

“Don’t tell Mrs. Borsa,” Arthur replied, “But I’m going to do that one myself!”

On the day of the concert Roy arrived at the school. Arthur was sitting in a swivel chair borrowed from the library and all the seats were put out and the music on them. When the guys arrived, one of them declared, “What the hell are you doing here Arthur?”

Arthur said to him in a soft voice, “Oz, when I go, this is where I want to be!”

After a while Arthur’s energy seemed to return near to normal. He was still able to drive his car as one old boy could testify. After a boat concert at the CPR pier one evening, Glen Startup stayed behind to talk to Arthur about some PR work he was doing for the band. Arthur put his trumpet case on the roof of his car and insisted that Glen share a banana with him. When Arthur had finished his half he declared,

214 ~ Glen Sartup

“Well I have to go,” and jumped into his car. As he drove off, the trumpet case fell to the ground and Glen quickly retrieved it, jumped into his car and tried to catch up with Arthur. About half an hour later, after a madcap chase through the streets of Vancouver, down Oak Street and out on to the freeway, Glen gave up catching him about half way to White Rock.

Arthur felt strong enough to make one more trip to the old country in the summer of 1974. Still looking for new challenges for his boys, he decided to include a side trip to Russia. The band had never played in the USSR, so it would be another first for Arthur and a great finale to cap off a life full of successes and achievements.

The Rotary Club of Richmond organized the trip for Arthur and Mel Goodwyn, of the Rotary Club, again co-managed the trip with a fellow by the name of Glenn David. Arthur delighted in the fact that Glenn had a musical pedigree that went back to Felix Mendolssohn (Ferdinand David had been Felix Mendolssohn’s Concert Master). A descendent of Felix Mendolssohn’s Concert Master, playing and co-managing his band, became a lively topic of conversation with Arthur, as they traveled the back roads of England, during that magical last summer of 1974.

As it got nearer the time for the band to leave England for Russia, Arthur could be heard mumbling, “We’re going to Russia, we might not come back. We’re going to Russia, we might not come back.” Once in Russia, the band played in Leningrad and Moscow and then in Tallinn, Estonia. One morning in Moscow, Arthur called all his boys into one room for an impromptu rehearsal. It was not

RUSSIA 1974 ~215

long before someone began banging on their door. Whether Arthur heard the banging or chose to ignore it, we will never know. Finally, when the boys had finished playing the number, he had one of them open the door. Of course it was a member of the hotel staff, wanting him to cease and desist, which he did abruptly. Later, back home, when the topic came up, some of the boys began to wonder if maybe the room had been bugged and someone had really gotten an earful. I guess that we will never know either. And the band played on!

1974, Arthur at the Dartmouth Bandstand

CHAPTER 29

AN OLD BOYS’ TOUR 1979 We’re not kids anymore!

When Vera returned from California in the early 1970s, she was able to get Arthur to move back into Vancouver from White Rock and take an apartment in Kitsilano. Throughout the 70’s he continued to put on concerts with his professional band. No matter where they played he always rearranged the chairs and got mad if they were not set up properly. One time he even went to the wrong place. The band waited for him.

They weren’t mad but Arthur sure was, at himself. He would delight in talking with his audiences and one day at a boat concert, he told a story which he had never told before, “In the 1960’s, I used to go down to Disneyland at Christmas time, to hear the bands. One day I made an appointment to see the music director about bringing a band down to play.

He appeared very interested. Finally he said to me, ‘What did you say your name was?’ Delamont, I replied. ‘You’re not related to Gordon Delamont the composer/arranger are you?’ he said. He’s my son, I replied. From that moment on I could have asked for the world and he would have given it to me. You know I was so proud to think that my son was

RUSSIA 1974 ~ 217

so well known for his music texts on arranging and theory in U.S. schools and military bands and that I was his father and he didn’t know anything that I had done.”

Arthur felt he had to return to England with his band just one more time. In 1939, the band had been scheduled to play a concert in Great Yarmouth, England when war was declared. The concert had to be cancelled. Arthur wanted to fulfill that obligation. The newspaper headlines read:

Band Keeps Date — 40 Years Late

Twenty eight old boys accompanied Arthur on his 14th tour of the Old Country. They were not the Kitsilano Boys’ Band however, but the Arthur Delamont Concert Band. The trip got off to a rocky start when Arthur tried to treat his old boys as though they were still kids, ranting and raving and chewing them out when they couldn’t play as well as he wanted them to. Five of the boys, who were all accompanied

218 ~ Dartmouth Regatta

by their wives, met with Arthur and told him if he did not treat them as adults, they would pack up and go home. Arthur looked at them and said, “I guess you’re not kids anymore.” After that incident it was declared a wonderful trip by all.

They played 20 dates in 24 days all over England and were the official band for the Dartmouth Regatta at the end of August. Of the boys who had come to England with Arthur in 1939, three of them were with him on this trip. At one of their concerts Arthur said, “We left in a bit of a hurry in 1939, but we came back.”

1979 Playing in Great Yarmouth

CHAPTER 30

THE ORDER OF CANADA AND A PARK 1980/81 An Olympic Gold Medalist, a Musical Director, a Teacher, a Scientist and a Clown honoured It seems somewhat ironic that Arthur’s career with his band began in 1928 playing for the homecoming of Percy Williams and both would receive the Order of Canada in 1979, some 51 years later, but so it was! Percy Williams, Arthur Delamont, Evelyn Hinds, Robert Stewart and Oscar Smith (Woo Woo the clown) all became members of the Order of Canada and were presented the orders formally by Governor General Ed Schreyer in Ottawa in the spring of 1980.

When Arthur heard the news, Arthur did what Arthur did best. He saw an opportunity to put on another concert. So on March 16, 1980, the Order of Canada concert could be heard in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in downtown Vancouver. The remarkable Arthur Delamont, all 88 years of him, was hard at work again conducting his Kitsilano Boys’ Band alumni.

In April, Arthur traveled back to Ottawa with Vera, as proud as he could be. He had come a long way from when he had first he arrived in Moose Jaw back in 1910, as part of

220 ~ One of Kitsilano’s Best Loved Citizens

the Delamont family band. It had been 50 wonderful and successful years since he last saw Percy Williams. They had both changed a lot. He didn’t really know Percy Williams but he felt as though he did. While winning awards and prizes were not new to Arthur, the Order of Canada was something special. Coming after he had retired from his boy’s band after the 1974 tour, it was an award for the culmination of a life’s work. A life well spent and a life given to others. A life for which he had been repaid time and time again, by experiencing the joy and love he received from people all around the world but the Order of Canada seemed to more or less make it all official.

As if the Order of Canada wasn’t enough, in 1981 the Parks Board for the City of Vancouver declared that a new park

ORDER OF CANADA/PARK 1980/1 ~ 221

being created at 7th and Arbutus in Kitsilano was going to to be named Arthur Delamont Park. One of Kitsilano’s Best Known Best Loved Citizens, the newspaper headlines read and a photo of Arthur sitting on a park bench with a few of his old boys in the background playing a junk music concert seemed to sum it all up.

Arthur loved his park! He would go down from his apartment, a few blocks away, every afternoon and sit for a while in the fresh air, watch the children play on the swings and bask in the thought that the park had been named after him.

What an honour he would think. It didn’t matter that there were no signs indicating Delamont Park around. He was told they would come after the civic strike was over, and that was good enough for him, having always supported the little guy throughout his life. Vera remembered a few years later, that the park meant more to him than all the awards he had received combined. After all, he had spent his life performing concerts in parks. I guess it was only natural that he should feel most at home in his own neighbourhood park—and he certainly did!

The plaque at Delamont Park

CHAPTER 31

AN EXIT WITH FANFARE 1982 Arthur dies a legend at age 90

“Do not go gentle into that good night. Old age should burn and rage at end of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Dylan Thomas

Arthur had often said when he went, he wanted to go in front of his beloved audience, and so it would be. On Saturday, September 11, 1982 he was addressing a meeting of a new Masonic leader at Meridian Lodge in Vancouver. When he finished, he left the podium and started down the aisle collapsing into the arms of one of his fellow Masons. When Vera heard the news, and went into his apartment, while going through his things, she found that all his bills had been paid the day before and the music was laid out for his own funeral. He knew his time had come. He had put all his business in order.

No, Arthur had not gone graciously into that good night.

There had always been a little bit of anger, especially in the

AN EXIT WITH FANFARE 1982 ~ 223

later years, which gave him an edge. That summer he had wanted to play some concerts at the PNE in Vancouver and had approached the PNE Board saying, “Who has earned the Order of Canada? Who has done more for music in this city?

Who more deserves to play some concerts at the fair this summer?” He apparently got a verbal approval but when it came time to sorting out the budget, they realized they could not afford to pay him. The problem was who was going to tell Arthur. Someone finally did and he demanded to see the entire Board. He told the fellow if they didn’t pay him he would play outside the gates and sue later. He got his way and played a series of concerts for which he was paid.

Robert J. Ferris, POD GM Grand Historian for the Masons said of Arthur’s passing:

“Arthur was always a musician but by his own admission he was first and foremost a Free Mason. He dedicated his life to music and the craft and gave so much to the youth of Vancouver and to his brothers in Free Masonry. That he should exit from his life during the hour of twelve noon, when the sun was at the median at the time of having completed with perfection the address to the newly installed worshipful master of the lodge was only appropriate.”

224 ~ Roy Johnston

Arthur was given a musical farewell at Kitsilano United Church by an estimated crowd of over 400 people. Prior to the service his alumni band played his favorite tunes on the lawn in front of the church. The eulogy was given by Roy Johnston, one of the original members of the band, from 1928.

“Mr. Delamont came into this world, I am sure to keep every one of all his hundreds of boys and girls on as straight a line as possible,” he said. “I’m thoroughly convinced,” he continued “that the idea to start this band was programmed into his brain by the Supreme Architect of the Universe. How else could a man born in Hereford, England, finally end up at the General Gordon School principal’s office one day and present a plan that would change the lives of countless hundreds of boys and girls in Vancouver?” Gordon had passed away in 1981 from complications with a heart problem.

When Vera had entered Arthur’s apartment after his passing, she also discovered the bass drum beater set apart from the bass drum, something no drummer would ever do. So the rhythm of the drum beat that had kept Arthur going all those years had finally stopped for want of a drummer.

The service included the sort of flourishes that Arthur had employed during his long career. As Roy gave the eulogy, Arthur’s old baton and cornet rested on the coffin. When the band started playing the Lost Chord, Vancouver firefighter Brian Bolam (1943) picked up Arthur’s cornet and accompanied them. A dozen trumpet players emerged out of the congregation to join in. The service concluded with Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.

AN EXIT WITH FANFARE 1982 ~ 225

Arthur’s father had been right his son had had the power to move people and the Band Still Plays On, at least in our memories!

226 ~ Montreal

1966 Southend on Sea

1966 Kerkrade, Holland

AN EXIT WITH FANFARE 1982 ~ 227

1967, Montreal Expo

1968 Departing Vancouver Airport

228~ Nice

1968 Burnham On Sea

1968 Hereford

AN EXIT WITH FANFARE 1982 ~ 229

1970 Nice, France

1970, Playing in a Cider factory in Hereford

230~ The Butterwalk, Dartmouth

1972 In Gotenburg, Sweden

1972 Arthur in his house in White Rock

AN EXIT WITH FANFARE 1982 ~ 231

1974 Marching past the Butterwalk in Dartmouth

1974 Gretna Green, England

232~ Order of Canada Concert

1979 Arthur and Gordon

1980 Order of Canada Concert

AN EXIT WITH FANFARE 1982 ~ 233

1980 Rehearsal for Reunion Concert

1980 Arthur at his Park

234~ Stuart Ross

General Gordon School Band 1928 Personnel: Trombones:

Clarinets: Clifford Wood Charlie Lowe Jack Fairburn John Daniels

Van Dunfee Norman Pearson Gordon McCullough

E Flat Horns:

Trumpets: Gordon Delamont Stuart Ross Don Endacott James Brown Ross Armstrong Stanley Smith Saxophones: Clifton Bryson Herbert Melton Bon Randall

Arthur Butroid Douglas MacAdam Fred Woodcock Drums: George Reifel

Tuba:

Euphonium: Wallace Oatway Cecil Jenkins Donald Wright

Dorwin Baird

Under the direction of A.W. Delamont

BOYS IN THE BAND ~ 235

Kitsilano High School Band 1931 Toronto Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Bob Morrison Clifford Wood Charlie Lowe Jack Fairburn John Daniels

Trombones: Van Dunfee Norman Pearson Gordon McCullough Bob Davidson E Flat Horns:

Trumpets: Roy Johnston Gordon Delamont Stuart Ross Arden Steeves Douglas Harkness Don Endacott James Brown Bill Perkins Douglas Stewart Ralph Derrick Mackenzie Morrison Saxophones:

Clifton Bryson Herbert Melton

Arthur Butroid Douglas MacAdam Fred Woodcock Tom Martin Drums: Douglas Cooper Baritones: Wallace Oatway Cecil Jenkins Donald Wright Tuba: Jim Steele Robert Steele

Under the direction of A.W. Delamont

236 ~ Jack Allen

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1933 Chicago Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Jack Allen Harry Bigsby Bernard Temoin John Daniels Jimmy Findlay Dallas Richards Clifford Wood Jack Fairburn Douglas Barlow Jack Bensted Saxophones: Clifton Bryson Alan Newbury Herbert Melton Trumpets: Roy Johnston Donald Endicott Gordon Delamont Harvie Stewart Bob Reid Douglas Stewart Staurt Ross Mack Morrison Ralph Derrick Frank Brogen Douglas Harkness Arden Steeves Flute: Mickey Crawford

Horns: Arthur Butroid Douglas Macadam Fred Woodcock Ronald Atkinson Trombones: Van Dunfee Pete Watt Norman Pearson Bob Davidson Donovan Cromie Jack Read Baritones: Wally Oatway Cecil Jenkins Donald Wright Bassoon: Jack Habkirk Basses: John Hardy Walter Mottishaw Percussion: Douglas Cooper Gordon McCullough

BOYS IN THE BAND ~ 237

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1934 West of England Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Arnold Clark Jack Allen Harry Bigsby Jack Bensted Bernard Temoin Jimmy Findlay John Daniels Dallas Richards Clifford Wood Jack Fairburn Douglas Barlow Trumpets: Roy Johnston Donald Endacott Gordon Delamont Harvie Stewart Robert Reid Douglas Stewart Mack Morrison Ralph Derrick Douglas Harkness Arden Steeves Frank Brogen Trombones: Van Dunfee Pete Watt Bob Davidson Donovan Cromie Jack Read Norman Pearson

Horns: Arthur Butroid Doug MacAdam Fred Woodcock Ronald Atkinson Pat Armstrong Saxophones: Clifton Bryson Alan Newberry Herbert Melton Flute: Mickey Crawford Bassoon: Jack Habkirk Baritones: Wallace Oatway Cecil Jenkins Donald Wright Basses: John Hardy Walter Mottishaw Stuart Ross Percussion: Douglas Cooper Gordon McCullough

238 ~ Robert Trerise

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1936 Crystal Palace Tour Personnel: Clarinets: William Allen Bernard Temoin Jim Findlay John Daniels John Fairburn Reginald Jones Stan Patterson Douglas Barlow Charles Coupar Jack de Leen Trumpets: Gordon Delamont: Harvie Stewart Ross Armstrong Robert McCartney Robert Trerise John M. Morrison Thomas Martin Frank Brogan John Wright Teddy Reser Alan Johnstone Murray White Trombones: Pete Watt Donovan Cromie Edward Spencer Jim McCulloch Wallace Reid

Horns: Walter Parker Ronald Atkinson Hector McKay Harold Atkinson Euphoniums: Wallace Oatway Cecil Jenkins Flute: Mickey Crawford Oboe: Bill Barker Accordian: Adolf Bergklent Saxes: Dal Richards Junior Green Marvin Seis Basses: Walter Mottishaw John Hardy Pete Humphrys Stu Ross Percussion: George Birnie Russell Escott

BOYS IN THE BAND ~ 239

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1939 New York/ World’s Fair Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Reg Jones Paul Jagger Malcolm Fish Meade Sinclair Fred Gordon Charles Donnelly Dick Colcomb Phillip Daykin Ronald Ptolemy Paul Phillips Robert Vernon

Horns:

Trumpets:

Leo Crimeni Baritones: Garnet Marsh John Symons Donald Radelet

Alan Johnstone Fred Tossell Kenneth Buckoll Carson Manzer Ted Daley Howard Shirley Douglas Mowatt Steve Kennelly Ray Davies Fred Lipsett Ross Sturley Trombones: Wally Reid Bill Breaky Martin Goodwin John Carrothers Jack McDonald

Allan Pugsley Walter Marsh Harold Daykin Billy Radelet Saxophones: Marvin Seis Jack Ballantyne Quentin Robertson Accordian:

Basses: Pete Humphrys Tom Woodman Norman Goodwin Henry Ainsworth Percussion: Russell Escott John Hailstone Len Taylor Vera Delamont Flute/Piccolo: Allan Forster Richard Penn

240 ~ Bob Cave

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1950 Holland Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Robert Cave Laurie Groundwater David Hughes Richard Hall Gordon Laird Ronald Stewart Douglas Kilburn Robert Sherrin

Horns: Norman Mullins Ziba Fisher Eric Foster Michael Hadley

Trumpets:

Snare Drums:

Cyril Battistoni Richard brown Douglas Holbrook Thomas Hawes Glenn Startup Bryan Atkins Brian Bolam Arnold Emery Ronald Wood Trombones; Ronald Cologrosso Walter Goral Jack Hamilton

Tubas: Morris McDonald Thomas Pickett William Cave William Good Evan Mackinnon Barrie Gilmore Bass Drum: Howard Lee Saxophones: Brian Gurney Colin Lea Douglas Ross

Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont

BOYS IN THE BAND ~ 241

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1953 England /VaudevilleTour Personnel: Clarinets: Howie Pottinger David Hughes Ron(Zoot) Chandler Murry McAndrew Robert Sherrin Ken Sotvedt Ron Lockwood KimNichols Trumpets: Arnold Emery Douglas Holbrook Roy Griffiths Ron Wood Bruce Chadwick Gray Osborne Ed Silva-White Art Tusvik Gerry Deagle Trombones: Robin Scott Bill Trussell Owen Morse Alex McLeod Russell Robinson Stuart Scott

Saxophones: Gordie Brown - Alto Lorne Beauchamp- Tenor Accordian: Ron Pajala/Alto Sax Euphoniums: Bill Davenport Brian Atkin Horns: Kenny Douglas Michael Hadley Gary Ginther Ian Gregory Basses: Bill Cave Bob Nicholson Lorne Ginther Drums: Bill Good Eric Wood (xylophone) Jim McVicar (Bass drum) Don Atkins (Tympanies)

Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont

242 ~ Arnie Chycoski

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1955 England & Jersey Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Craig Campbell Don Charles Peter Gillett Earl Hobson Peter McConachie Kim Nichols Jack Reynolds Bing Thom Dennis Tupman Bill Wood

Trombones: Ian Gregory Charlie Henry Alex McCleod Russ Robinson Bill Trussell

Trumpets:

Baritones:

Bruce Chadwick Arnold Chycoski Don Clark Gerry Deagle John Davenport Don Kirkby Ed Silva-White Brian Todd Art Tusvik

Horns: John Auld Ron Loukes Dick McManus John Peterson Bill Davenport Ted Lazenby Percussion: Terry Grimmett Eric Wood Dave Turner Basses:

Saxophones: Gordon Brown Bart Reemeyer Gene Thom

George Dingle Gary Ginther Stuart Scott

Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont

BOYS IN THE BAND ~ 243

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1958 Kerkarade Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Ken Sotvedt Sandy Cameron George Ross Bing Thom David Arnott Chris Crane Bob Calder Trumpets: Arthur Tusvik Brian Parkinson Bill Rolfe Gordon Storey Bill Ingledew Don Sutherland Bill Pickett John Rands Bill Calderwood Basses: George Dingle Gordon Clarke Rob Williamson Trombones: Ted Lazenby Bob Fraser Fred Brown Barry Brown Charlie Bowman

Horns: Ned Easton Fred Hawes John Peterson Lockwood Gibbs Saxophones: Frank Millerd Peter Erwin Pat Aldous Baritones: Ken Fowler Gail Elder Jerry Boyle Flute: Andrew Brodie Percussion: Dick Todd Bill Millerd Rick Whitaker

Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont

244 ~ Bob Buckley

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1962 Kerkrade Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Horns: Bob Calder Bobbie Barry Ted Milbrandt John Hawthorne Chris Crane Earl Jergens Bob Buckley Barry Loucks Ken Clarke Mike Barbour Saxes: Graham Farsted Tenor: David Ptolemy Duane Lunden

Altos: Trumpets: Bob Craig Bill Ingledew Bruce Petersen Bill Calderwood John Rands Baritones: Jack Wright Jim Sotvedt Rod Grady Gale Elder John Sutherland Lynn Rycroft Bruce Calder Basses: David Fraser Roger Clarke Bill Rolfe Gene Ross

James Hawthorne Trombones: Chas Bowman Percussion: Barry Brown Dave Mackenzie Gary Rolfe Pete Minshull Terry Cromie Bill Millerd Earl Taber

Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont

BOYS IN THE BAND ~ 245

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1966 Kerkrade Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Keith Christie David Dumbrell Barry Kiernan Graeme Monteith Tony Negrin Dale Paterson

Oboe: Glen Tarling Trumpets: Rob Arseneau Richard Christie John Evans Barry Leinbach Bryon McKinnon Jim Pattison Jr. Iain Petrie Rob Trousdell Doug Tuck John Morrison

Trombones: George Bouwman Malcolm Brodie Dave Scoular Jim Taggart

Horns:

Saxes:

Mike Gregg Ray Punter Ken Teager Trevor Smith Barry Salt Chris Nelsen

Flute & Sax: Pat Powell Baritones: John Hawthorne Allan Lehtonen Wayne Pettie Basses: George Ellenton Charlie Forster Bob Griffiths Percussion: Don Luff Gord Robinson Wayne Tarling Mark Taylor

Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont

246 ~ Keith Christie

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1968 European Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Keith Christie Dean Wilson Don Meredith Wendy Loewen Barry Miller Jody Neville

Horns:

Saxes:

Bert Gibbons Don Griffiths Bill Inman Chris Nelsen Alan Petrie

Trumpets: Malcom Bunkowski Garry Wilson Derek Smith Wayne Pettie Larry Borsa Baritones: Chris Ketchum John Hawthorne Iain Petrie Allan Lehtonen

Kent Hansen Basses: Mike Bunkowski Deryk Petrie Richard Van Slyke Dennis Grey Ted Exley Don Brown Tim Kolosoff Gary Watkinson Percussion: Murray Wickam Bruce Ball Trombones: Don Luff George Pettie Wayne Briscoe Dave Jones Dave Calder Bruce Miller Gary Wilson Gerald Duick Jim Taggart Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont

BOYS IN THE BAND ~ 247

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1970 European Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Marek Norman Bruce Milne Wendy Loewen Dean Wilson Rob Walker Doug Makela Keith MacLachlan Trumpets: Iain Petrie Larry Borsa Gary Watkinson Ken Yeats Mike Bunkowski Gary Nickolai Brian Taylor Kent Hansen Dave McTaggart Mark Lane Graham Smith Saxophones: Chris Nelsen Al Petrie Gordon Stewart Rick Newcombe Mark Eklund

Euphoniums: Allan Lehtonen Greg Bonnell Trombones: Tom Walker Bill Johnson George Sutherland Jeff Sears Garry Wilson Horns: Bill Inman David Jones Sousaphones: Deryk Petrie Norman Black Bryce Patton Drums: Wayne Briscoe Bruce Miller Ken Bonnell Bill Gumbleton

Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont.

248 ~ Alan Petrie

Kitsilano Boys’ Band 1972 Scandinavian Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Keith MacLachlan Lionel Martin Mark Shepherd Howard Bashaw Sidney Schneider Trumpets: Ian Gordon Richard Barley Graham Smith Ed Nordholm Greg Hall Mark Lane Ian MacLean Terry Gregson Gary Watkinson Deryk Finlayson Herb Radke Mark Stofer Bill Walters Saxophones: Alan Petrie Graham Kita John Evans Brian MacDonald Ron Winters Greg King Richard Hewitt

Euphoniums: Greg Bonnell Jamie Robertson Trombones: Stuart Rogers Graham Thompson Bob Shaw Phillip Cummings Deryk Muir Les Ray Tubas: George Gidora Ian MacLean Ted Bashaw Drums: Bill Gumbleton Kerry Lewis Brad Goodwin

Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont

BOYS IN THE BAND ~ 249

The Kitsilano Boys’ Band Russia and Estonia Tour 1974 Personnel: Clarinets: Keith MacLachlin Howard Bashaw Richard Braybrook Kevin Hall Graham Kita Mart Peltier Trumpets: Stan Tessmer Ian Gordon Ed Nordholm Keith Petrie Greg Hall Ian MacLean Terry Gregson Martin Finlay Dave Irwin Brian Parkinson Graham Smith David Toop Saxophones: Dennet Kuan Glenn Smith John Evans Kirk Nagy Garth Ross Dan Gidora Glenn David

Euphoniums: Bill Maloney Brent Schellenberg Trombones: Greg Bonnell Richard Brent Garry Redlin John Wood Paul Cathie Horns: Geoff Hall Tubas Brad Clarke Stephen Braybrooke Stewart Young Drums George Gidora Doug Rodney George Fisher Jr.

Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont

250 ~ Jack Bensted

Arthur Delamont Concert Band 1979 Scotland-England Tour Personnel: Clarinets: Saxophones; Jack Bensted Doug Reid Ian Richards Ozzie McComb Paul Jagger Scott Langley Kevin Hall Lawrie Patterson Charlie Coupar

Baritones: Trumpets: Don Radelet George Fisher Ray Radke Frank Mills John Hawthorne Basses: Alex Kaminak Bob Nicholson Barry Butula Dave Barbour Phil Camparelli Keith Saari Percussion: Ed Nordholm Dave Coupland Sr.

Dave Coupland Jr. Trumbones: Robert Roy Greg Bonnell Geoff Cambell Rick Underwood Tim Knowles Bus Driver: Stephen Duke Dan Ferguson

Under the direction of Arthur W. Delamont

APPENDIX ~ 251

The Kitsilano Boys’ Band played in the following countries ENGLAND,FRANCE FRANCE, BELGIUM, ENGLAND BELGIUM SCOTLAND, GERMANY, SCOTLAND GERMANYHOLLAND, HOLLAND IRELAND SPAIN UNITED UNITED STATES IRELAND, SPAIN, STATES, WALES SWITZERLAND WALES,RUSSIA RUSSIA, SWITZERLAND, MEXICO DENMARK NORWAY, NORWAY MEXICO, DENMARK, SWEDEN JAMAICA SWEDEN, JAMAICA 209 Awards - 51 Years Unparalleled Success - Attended and Played 5 World Fairs - 1st Prize Winners Toronto 1931 - Chicago 1933 - West England 34 London 36 - Holland 1950, 58, 62, 66 - Nice 1970.

The Band Has Played in the Following Cities and Towns ENGLAND Bath Bolton Bristol Blackpool Brighton Bournemouth Birkenhead Burnham Billingham Basingstoke Chester Carlisle Coventry Cinderford Cambourne Cheltenham Cambridge Cleator Derby Dartmouth Dorking Exeter Eastbourne Farham Folkstone Gloucester Great Yarmouth Hawick

Hereford Southend Hartford Torquay Harrogate Truro Leeds Teignmouth Liverpool Tunbridge W. London Yarmouth Loughborough Worthing Luton Woolwich Leicester Wolverhampton Landsend Weston Super Newquay Yeovil Newcastle BBC Broadcast Northampton to Empire Preston Wembley Stad Plymouth Harring Hors S Penzance Six Day Cycle R Portsmouth Peterborough WALES Rhyl Barry Island Redding Cardiff Reditch Llandudno Recar Swansea Salisbury Seaton SCOTLAND Sidmouth Ayr Southport Aviemore Southampton Aberdeen Sunderland Aberfeldy

Anstruther RUSSIA 74 Burghead Moscow Dundee Lenningrad Dunbar Dunkied ESTONIA Dunfermline Tallin Elgin Edinburgh SPAIN Falkirk Madrid Glasgow Barcelona Inverness Leven NORWAY Montrose Oslo North Kristiansand Berwick Paisley SWEDEN Perth Goteborg Prestwick Larvik Channel Islds. Malmo Jersey Stockholm Shanklin Isleof Wight IRELAND Royal Dublin Dublin Horse Show FRANCE DENMARK Paris Copenhagen Versailles Nice

252 ~ Geneva GERMANY Hamburg Cologne BELGIUM Brussels HOLLAND Amsterdam Oosterbeek Amersfoort Arnhem Haarlem Hilversum Findhoven Scheveningen Texel

USA San Francisco Los Angeles Chicago New York JAMAICA Kingston MEXICO Acapulco PANAMA Panama City

SWITZERLAND Zurich Geneve Lucerne

APPENDIX ~ 253

254 ~ Christopher Best

About the Author: I was born on November 22, St Cecilia’s Day, the Patron Saint of Music in the Roman Catholic Church. For a long time I thought this was significant, until John Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. In grade three I started piano lessons and switched to the saxophone in grade five under Ron Pajala, band director at John Oliver High School in Vancouver, himself a former member of the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. From 1965 to 1970, I spent three wonderful summers marching through the towns and cities of England and the continent with Arthur and the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. After two years taking a General Arts education at a college in Vancouver (I became interested in languages, history, art, political science and geography, all topics I wanted to learn more about after my trips to Europe) I went to work for a few years to ponder my future. I eventually went back to university, earning a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of B.C. in 1979 and a Teaching Certification from SFU in 1980.

For the next five and half years I was a music educator in Eastern Canada, culminating in a year as band director at Bishops College School in Lennoxville, Quebec. That year I took the cadet band in to march in the Grey Cup Parade in Montreal and we won the year end school-day show with our marching routine against all the other school groups. Feeling restless, I left teaching and spent three years honing my writing skills on fiction novels and short stories, while living in an old farmhouse in Laval, a suburb of Montreal, Canada. In 1988, I returned to Vancouver and entered the publishing business, publishing guide books. I later published travel magazines on Vancouver, Whistler, Aruba and the Caribbean.

Other novels by the author include, ‘The Greek Barber’s Diary,’‘The House on Cote Des Neige Road,’ ‘The Warfleet Trilogy’ and ‘The Summer They Played The Duke of Earl.’

Other books on the Kitsilano Boys’ Band include ‘Woodwinds, Brass and Glory,’ the ‘Red Cape Boys,’ ‘Denton Park,’ ‘The Lost Chord,’ and ‘The Life & Times of the Legendary Mr.D.’ Books by the author can all be found on the web at warfleetpress.com.

THE RED CAPE BOYS Friends, Heroes and Legends CHRISTOPHER BEST

THE LEGACY OF ARTHUR DELAMONT Available as of May 2008 www.warfleetpress.com

-255-

256 ~ Dunfermline

APPENDIX ~ 257

THE VANCOUVER BOYS’ BAND READ WHAT THE PRESS AND ENTERTAINMENT MANAGERS SAY ABOUT THIS UNIQUE ATTRACTION! A. E. V. DENNIS, Esq., Entertainments Manager, Corporation of Eastbourne: “It gives me great pleasure to say that the residents and visitors of Eastbourne greatly enjoyed the band when it played here. The band was very popular and drew good audiences at every performance, as the programmes were always bright, tuneful and extremely well rendered....It gave every evidence of being a well-trained and balanced band, and a great credit to the youth of Canada.”

H. TERRY WOOD, Esq., The Pier, Shanklin, I.O.W. “I am pleased to hear that the Vancouver Boys’ Band, who played for me during their visit to this country in 1934, contemplate a return visit. They came here for a flying performance, and on the day of their arrival I was fortunate enough to hear that through unforseen circumstances they had the following week vacant. After hearing their brilliant performance, I wasted no time in negotiating to retain them for the whole of the following week....The smartness of the boys themselves and their uniforms combined with the excellence of their performance created a first class attraction and a big box office draw.”

DAVID LATTO, Esq., Concert Manager, Edinburgh: “It is a pleasure to comment upon the excellence of the Vancouver Boys’ Band. The tone quality they produced, and the excellence of their ensemble, were in every way delightful. The large audiences which congregated to hear the band on its last visit to Edinburgh and Dunfermline testified to the popularity of the boys and to the excellence of their performance....Their audiences in this country will look forward to their reappearance.”

PRESS COMMENTS: “Boys’ Band Has Great Success. 2,500 people Pack Parade Gardens.

The talented Band presented a programme last night which

258 ~ Manchester

will long be remembered.” Bristol Evening Times.

“The Band has been described as the nearest approach to a Sousa’s band ever heard.” Bristol Evening Times.

“Vancouver Boys’ Success. A feature of the festival was the success of the Vancouver Boys who won the “A” Contest Shield. This is the first time a National Festival prize has gone out of the country.”– Daily Telegraph.

“The Famous Vancouver Boys’ Band, which had attracted thousands of patrons from all parts of File and places further alield, played to an audience which was the largest in the history of Pittencrieff Park music.”– Edinburgh Evening Dispatch.

“Not a vacant seat at the afternoon concert and packed again for the evening for this most famous Boys’ Band in the world.”

– Southport Visitor.

“The finest musical combination heard on the Leas.”– Folkestone Express.

“Amid a welter of band music....these school or college boys have a thoroughly earned reputation as a first-rate Military Band.”

– Manchester Evening News.

“The excellence of their talent and training is shown by their splendid list of successes.”– Radio Tinies.

“Famous Band of Boys. The playing was the equal of any band in Kettering, both classical and novelty numbers being rendered with precision, liveliness and accuracy.”– Ketlering Leader.

“Brilliant playing! It was good to see so fine a house and to savour the general enjoyment of the musicianly performances of the young

APPENDIX ~ 259

“A record attendance, every seat was taken and hundreds had to be content with standing room only.” Bath Chronicle.

“The performance evoked such enthusiasm that at the end of the concert the Mayor had to make another speech expressing the thanks of the audience.”– Bath Chronicle.

“One of the most finished and versatile Bands ever heard in Luton....

An audience held by sheer artistry. It was above criticisim.“ – Bedford Evening Times “I marvel at the skill of these boys....I am more than ever mystified by this band for it is almost impossible to believe that the band contains none but boys.” The Gramophone.

“Boys’ Band Has Great Success. 2,500 people Pack Parade Gardens. The talented Band presented a programme Iast night which will long be remembered.” Bristol Evening Times.

The originals of the above, and many others, can be seen at the office of L.G. Sharpe.

“REGAL-ZONOPHONE” RECORDS.

260 ~ Warfleet Press

Our Musical Canadiana Series 1. By Jove What A Band 2. The Red Cape Boys 3. Deep Harmony 4. Denton Park 5.The Lost Chord

(Pictorial Record)

The Most Famous Boys Band in the World www.warfleetpress.com Besides documenting the story of Arthur Delamont and his Vancouver Kitsilano Boys’ Band, I have tried to offer a little insight into Arthur’s personality and perhaps why he did things the way he did.

The stories are all true. The dialogue and anecdotes are taken from old newspaper clippings, letters, and program notes and from first hand knowledge because you see; I too, was one of the boys in the band!

Christopher Best

CHAMPIONSHIP AWARDS VANCOUVER KITSILANO BOYS’ BAND Toronto Exposition 1931 British Columbia 1931-1952 Inclusive 1954-1961 Inclusive 1966 Chicago World’s Fair 1933 Pacific Northwest 1931-35 West of England 1934 First Place Winner for Deportment 21 Bands Competing Canada Pacific Exposition 1935 Junior-Open Sight Reading Championship Crystal Palace London, England 1936

Winners Class A Junior Shield 33 Senior bands Competing Opening of the Golden Gate Bridge 1937 New York 1939 International Music Festival Oosterbeek Holland 1950 First Place Kerkrade Holland 1958-1962-1966 Pacific National Exhibition Parade First Place 1952-1954-1959 Brussels 1958

200 awards have been won in solo, quartette and band competition during a period of 50 years of unparalleled success.

14 Tours Abroad 5 World’s Fairs

This book is a collection of short stories and humorous anecdotes, set in novel format, as told to the writer by the boys in the band... If you knew Arthur

“You certainly captured the youthful memories of anyone who has ever enjoyed being in a band. You brought back a lot of memories for me with references to the popular music of the sixties and the English influence on culture at that time.” Wendy Turnbull, Vancouver Librarian “By Jove What A Book” Marek Norman, Composer, Singer, Arranger - VKBB70

Delamont, then reading this book will be like revisiting an old acquaintance. If you did not know Arthur Delamont, then I invite you to meet Arthur Delamont for he truly was one of a kind!

Christopher Best “I take my hat off to you for doing the leg-work and preserving this important history while most of us were busy with more left/brain pursuits of our own!”

Bill Inman, Resort Developer, VKBB - 68/70

“The book is written clearly and is easy to read and filled in many of the gaps in Arthur’s story, of which I was unaware!”

Keith Christie, Ambassador, VKBB - 66/68