The Red Cape Boys

THE RED CAPE BOYS Friends, Heroes and Legends Christopher Best

THE LEGACY OF ARTHUR DELAMONT Book I

THE RED CAPE BOYS

DEDICATION This book has been made available to the libraries of the Vancouver School Board by a gift from Vancouver’s Bing Thom. Bing was a member of the Vancouver Kitsilano Boys’ Band in the mid 1950s and went on two European Tours with the band in 1955 and 1958. He still remembers the lessons he learned in the band and the influence the conductor and founder of the band, Arthur W. Delamont, had on his youth.

Many of the lessons he learned in the band have stayed with him throughout his professional career as one of Canada’s and the world’s most renowned architects.

THE RED CAPE BOYS Friends, Heroes and Legends THE LEGACY OF ARTHUR DELAMONT CHRISTOPHER BEST

Warfleet PRESS

4 ~ Table of Contents Copyright @ Warfleet Press 2008 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 The Red Cape Boys, Friends, Heroes & Legends, 2nd Edition, (2013) ISBN 978-0-9812574-9-5

Printed and bound in Canada www.warfleetpress.com

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Gordon McCullough..........................................................15 2. Clif Bryson...........................................................................25 3. Roy Johnston...............................................................35 4. Dal Richards................................................................61 5. Jim McCullock..............................................................79 6. Paul Jagger....................................................................9 Vera Delamont.......................................... ................107 Harold Atkinson...........................................................117 Hector McKay.............................................................120 Frank Hills..................................................................123 7. Don Radelet...............................................................129 8. Jimmy Pattison..........................................................139 9. Ray Smith..................................................................147 10. Ron Colograsso.......................................................159 11. Kenny Douglas.........................................................167 12. Brian Bolam.............................................................180 13. Ron Wood................................................................195 14. Donny Clark.............................................................213 15. Bing Thom................................................................229 16. Arnie Chycoski.........................................................245 17. Bill Ingeldew.............................................................261 18. Bob Calder...............................................................272

6 ~ The Best At What He Did!

19. Bill Millerd....................................................................283 20. Bob Buckley.................................................................297 21. Malcolm Brodie.............................................................321 22. Wayne Pettie................................................................331 23. Dave Calder.................................................................341 24. Richard van Slyke..............................................................351 25. Marek Norman.............................................................365 26. Bill Inman.....................................................................371 27. Tom Walker...................................................................385

PREFACE

Arthur Delamont was the best at what he did (directing youth bands).

Over the course of fifty years (1928 to 1978) his bands won over 200 championship awards and made 14 tours of the Old Country (Great Britain) and Europe. Over 3,000 boys and girls passed through his bands during this time (his Vancouver Girls’ Band only existed from 1931 to 1936). His boys went on to fill the first chairs in symphonies, jazz bands and studio bands across Canada.Those who did not go into music as a career became doctors, lawyers, entrepeneurs and teachers. The lessons they learned in his band stayed with his boys throughout their adult lives.

Arthur Delamont gave all his boys and girls the taste of success at an early age. He liked to start his boys around the age of eight before they got involved in other pursuits. They would usually stay with him until they were too old to fit into their uniforms (19). The life lessons they learned were many, responsibility, time management, focusing, being a part of a group, public speaking, getting along with others, discipline.

His discipline was long lasting. He often said, “I don’t know of any boy who came through this band that ever got into trouble. I would be disappointed if I did.”

During the course of writing my series of books on Arthur Delamont and his world famous Vancouver Kitsilano Boys’ band, I interviewed over 100 old boys from all decades of the bands existence (thirties, forties, fifties, sixties and seventies). I found their stories and

8 ~ The Red Cape Boys

recollections fascinating. Often the ones that I expected not to be interesting turned out to be the most interesting of all. The boys I interviewed could remember details that happened fifty years ago down to often the minute of details, street numbers, phrases used by the locals, locations and so on. That they could remember so much is testimony to the importance those days in Arthur’s band held for them all. Most viewed Arthur Delamont as one of the three most influential people in their lives, if not the most influential.

In the first two books I wrote on the band By Jove What A Band and Woodwinds, Brass & Glory, I included the classic anecdotes from each decade but there was so much more I could not use. I would have had to write several books in order to include all the stories I had collected.

I decided the best way to make all the material I had available to the public was to write a chapter on each of the boys I had interviewed and let them tell their stories in their own words and that is what I did.

I wanted each book to be on a different decade. The first book would be interviews on boys from the 1930s. The next would be boys from the 1950s (the war years kept the band at home) and the last one would be boys from the 1960s and 1970s. The only problem was many of the boys from the 1930s had passed away by the time I began my research.

There were not enough 1930s boys to fill a whole book. So, I decided the first book of interviews would be on the more famous personalities from each decade (with a few exceptions which I have duly noted in their chapter).

The Red Cape Boys is the first of my three books of interviews which I conducted over the course of twenty-five plus years. It includes the famous and sometimes the not so famous (I included all the boys from the 1930s who were still around). I enjoyed every one of my interviews and regard them as possibly the most rewarding part of my research on my books documenting and saving this important history of one of Vancouver’s and Canada’s leading pioneers in the field of music education.

MEMOIRS OF

THOSE FABULOUS KITSIE BOYS BOOK 1

10 ~ Jimmy Pattison

INTRODUCTION

Growing up in the band in the late 1960s (I was a member from 1965 through 1970) old boys would drop by rehearsals from time to time. We heard lots of stories about the legendary people who had passed through the band in the past and they were not all musical legends. Probably the most well known personality, was the car dealer turned billionaire philanthropist, Jimmy Pattison, still a staunch supporter of Arthur and the band, some fifty years after he ‘tooted’ his first notes. Then there was the old boy who became the President of MacMillan Bloedel, Ray Smith and the young boy who fell in love with the pavilions, at the 1958, Brussels World’s Fair, the now legendary architect Bing Thom. There was the boy wonder, who became a scientist and has lived his entire adult life in Houston, Texas, working as a research chemist for Shell Oil, that was Murray McAndrew. And the old boy who became a linguist in the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs in Brussels, he helped Arthur set up concert dates for his 1958 European tour, that was Michael Hadley.

Another was Bill Millerd, the legendary director of the Arts Club Theatre, here in Vancouver. And of course, there were

12 ~ Ted Lazenby

the musical legends.

Being young musicians, we all knew about the old boy whose band played at the Hotel Vancouver’s, Panorama Roof. He also conducted the Lion’s Football band for the half time shows and the band at the PNE. He often acted as the Master of Ceremonies for Arthur’s homecoming concerts, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. He is still going strong today at ninety years young. His name is Dal Richards. At Montreal’s Expo ‘67, we heard that one of Arthur’s old boys was leading the Expo big band at the Plaza of Nations. He became an arranger, collaborating with Duke Ellington. That was Ron Collier. And coming back from Europe in 1966, I had my first and only encounter with the old boy who would soon become known as Canada’s leading authority on Advanced Harmonic Technique, Gordon Delamont, the son of our conductor. “I was lying on my back, on his living room floor, in his house in Toronto, having just returned from Europe. The band was short a couple of beds, so Gordon let two of us sleep on his floor. I spent the night there with my best friend Keith Christie. We awoke that morning, to see Gordon towering above us - goatee and all.”

My earliest recollection, of legendary trumpet players in the band and there were many, was of the great Arnie Chycoski. He played lead trumpet in Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass for 35 years, and was a session musician with bands such as ‘Blood Sweat and Tears’ and ‘Lighthouse.’ There was a second amazing trumpet player, who reached legendary status amongst us kids, his name is Donny Clark. Then there was the legendary trombone player, Ted Lazenby, who could play the clarinet polka on his trombone. Ted became

INTRODUCTION ~ 13

the first instrumental, music graduate from the music department, at the University of BC in 1962. He then went to Germany to play 1st trombone in the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan. As well, there were two now legendary (in the music business) composer/arrangers that came through the band, Bob Buckley and Marek Norman.

The difference between legends and heroes might not be much. Perhaps heroes are a little more personal. I think we would all agree that firemen, policemen and soldiers are heroes. A few of the old boys I want to introduce to you in this book fall under the category of hero. Brian Bolam spent twenty-five years as a Vancouver firefighter. He was also personally asked by ‘Walt Disney’ to come and work for him as a big game guide- an offer which he turned down, not wanting to leave his job and life here in Vancouver. Gordon McCullough was another hero and an original member of the band. In World War II, Gordon was the bomb aimer of a bomber crew that completed thirty-five missions over occupied Europe and Germany and returned to tell the story. Don Radelet was another. Alain Johnstone commanded an infantry battalion in World War II. He was in the band from 1936 through 1939. Wally Oatway was also an original member of the band and the third boy to join. He flew in the Tiger Squadron during the war. Later, he became an instructor in the squadron. And then there were those who did not return.

Boys like Ross Sturley, Pete Humphrys, Johnny Hailstone, Meade Sinclair, Ralph Derrick and Hugh Steeves. All heroes!

My last category is friends. These are old boys from the band that I knew personally. Such as Bill Inman, who

14 ~ Band Of The 15th Field Regiment

became a resort developer with Intrawest Resorts, Wayne Pettie who taught high school band in North Vancouver for 25 years, Malcolm Brodie the Mayor of Richmond and President of Trans Link and Dave Calder who became a television producer. Others I knew in the band were Richard van Slyke who built the band of the 15th Field Regiment into Canada’s finest military band and Tom Walker who became an architect and built a bandstand in Maple Ridge just like the ones he played on all over Europe.

I have also included a couple of other fellows that I have just recently had the pleasure of meeting. Fellows I would like to think of as friends. One is Ron Wood, who is still playing his trumpet in his own Dixieland band and Kenny Douglas, who is always a breath of fresh air. Kenny led the Shriner’s band for twenty years. So now I will let the boys in the band tell you their stories. My friends, heroes and legends!

CHAPTER 1

Gordon McCullough Gordy was one of the original members of the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. He started on trombone in 1928 and then switched to drums. He was on all the early trips through 1934. “Boy was everyone surprised at how good we could play.” After the band he went to UBC and then joined the RCAF and flew 35 missions over occupied Europe during World War II. He never played again after age 20.

- Dave McCullough (son) Norman Pearson, Gordie called him Norie, was an excellent athlete. The only thing Gordie could beat him at was running. Gordie was a star runner, all the way through school. He said, “When we played mark, which is kicking the ball back and forth in football, Norie always won. When we took up golf, Norie was a way better player.” Norie was in Kitsilano High School. He went into woodworking and Gordie went more for academics, so they drifted apart. They didn’t hang out together in the band as much. They were best friends as kids. They went swimming together at Kitsilano Beach. Norie became a great cricket player. Norie is in the B.C. Hall of Fame. When Gordie was going to university, he heard that Norie was very sick. He was just fading away.

16 ~ Art Van Dunfee

He died of St.Vitus’ Dance.

Gordie talked about Art Van Dunfee a lot. Gordie was in a dance band with Art and played drums. Don Endicott played trumpet. That was at the end of high school, up until the age of twenty. They played at the Alma Academy at fourth and Alma. Gordie was born October 26th, 1915.

According to Gordie, Roy Johnston was the star of the band. He was a great trumpet player. Arden Steeves was also a childhood friend. His dad was a butcher. Ardie had a pretty good life. He was the youngest and he was spoiled. He became a pretty good trumpet player. He used to go to the picture shows all the time. In the 1930s that was something else. His mother had a little jar of coins. She used to let Ardie take some out and go to the picture show.

Gordie talked about the depression all his life. Doug MacAdam was from a wealthy family. His dad had some money in the stock market and got it out before the crash in 1929, so he had cash, over a million dollars! That was an enormous amount in those days. Dougie Cooper played with dad. Pete Watt, Gordie said was a really fine player. Don Endicott contracted polio in the 1950’s and ended up in a wheel chair. But he had been a really good trumpet player. Doug Harkness, was still alive at the time of writing this book. He became a psychology professor at Berkeley in California. He inspired Gordie to go to university. Gordy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1938 and a Bachelor of Commerce in 1939. There was another fellow named Harry Mordie. Then there was Dodie Baird or Dorwin Baird.

“Sounds like a lot of the fellows all lived around the same neighbourhood?”

GORDON McCULLOUGH ~ 17

“Yes, they sure did! When I drove around the neighbourhood with my dad, he would point and say, “Dodie Baird lived across the street from me. Norie Pearson lived next door. Ardie Steeves lived there. So and so lived down the street. Harkness lived over there.” I wish I had written it all down.

Dad passed away August 15, 2004. He had done fairly well in life, yet he was kind of down at the end. He was in the war. He had a tough time coming back into civilian life.

He separated from my mother in 1956, that was a disaster. I was born in 1953. He worked for himself in the 1950s, in accounting and construction. He had to close his construction company during the recession of 1958. Then he worked for the Department of Transport from 1958 until 1971. He was a cost accountant. We lived on Piggott Road in Richmond from 1958 until 1967. Then we moved into an apartment in Kerrisdale. Two years later, he sold the house in Richmond and bought an eight suite apartment block at forty-first and Vine, best thing he ever did. He was in the rental property business from 1969 until the end of his life.

During the war, in 1949, dad inherited $2500 from his grandfather, James McCullough. He and his mother built a house on 38th Avenue, sold it and split the money. Then he built one with his wife on Camosun in 1950. They sold that one in 1956, split it and then he bought the house on Piggott Road in Richmond. He was fifty-three, fifty-four when he got into rental properties, that was 1969. Brian Bolam’s (Kits band) son Mike, married my wife Marion’s daughter.

Whenever the families got together, they would sit and talk for hours about the Kits band.

18 ~ Nine Times Across Canada!

“How did your dad get into the band?”

I think Arthur sent flyers around the neighbourhood, saying that he was starting a boy’s band. All these kids lived in Kitsilano. One joined and then another. There wasn’t a lot to do. My dad was a really focused person. He went from a boy who hung around the beach, to hanging around the golf course trying to caddie, to playing with Norie Pearson, kicking the ball around. Then he played roller hockey and then he joined the band. He started on trombone but his embouchure was not just right. “It just doesn’t sound right,” he would say. So, he wanted to switch to drums. He used to hang around the Orpheum and Strand Theatres and watch the drummers doing all this fancy stuff. (Bang, bang, putt, putt) Then he took lessons from a fellow who played in vaudeville. He stayed with him until the guy said, “I can’t teach you anymore!” By about 1933-34, when the original members were all getting to be really good, due to Arthur Delamont’s strictness, Dad would say, “He was pretty strict.

The work ethic rubbed off on all of us. I told Arthur that I wanted to switch to drums or I would quit so he let me.”

When dad went to the World’s Fair in 1933 with the band, he said, “They couldn’t believe how good we were.” In 1934, when they went to England, the same thing. He said, “They just couldn’t believe how good we were and they had all adult bands over there.” Dad went across Canada nine times with the band. He never played again after age twenty. Only time I ever heard him was sometimes at the supper table he would turn over a plate and do a little ditty with two knives.

Later on, dad resented spending so much time in the band.

GORDON McCULLOUGH ~ 19

20 ~ A Bomb Aimer During The War He wished he had done some other things, maybe more sports. After the band, UBC was everything to him. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938 and a Bachelor of Commerce in 1939 but he loved music, always whistling.

Frank Sinatra was his favorite male singer. Doris Day his favorite female singer. He loved to go to clubs and hear the bands.

“Probably came from his days in the band.”

Oh, I think so.

“Your dad was a bomb aimer in the war?”

Yes, he had lots of stories from his war days. My dad trained in Winnipeg. It was around -30 degrees. They would march back and forth in these hangers. Sometimes they would waver a bit and the sergeant would say, “Steady men. You have to be steady if you’re going to fight the hun!”

One time when he was coming back from one of his bombing missions, the Germans jammed their radar box, England

GORDON MCCULLOUGH ~ 21

would be blacked right out. They didn’t know where they were going because their compass was broken. So, the rear gunner was really good at aligning stars. Davie says, “I got a fix!”

Turned out they were heading towards Greenland. They turned around and came back and landed at a smaller place called Ford, in the south of England. The mozzies as they called them, the Mosquito’s, small planes like Spitfires, would only land at this place. Lancaster’s like my dad flew, wouldn’t land there because the runway was too short. Keith Perry was his pilot, so he radioed this small airport and said, “I’m coming in!” They said, “No! No, you can’t come in!”

“I’M COMING IN!” he repeated. When it came in (boom), it hit hard and then down again (Boom), and finally it stopped at the end of the runway. When they stopped, there was only nine minutes of petrol left. Another time, my dad had the

22 ~ A Charmed Life!

flu and they got hit. He went to see the guy who had replaced him in the hospital. He was covered in gauze from head to toe.

My dad had a charmed life in many ways especially during the war. The survival rate for anyone in the RCAF was twenty-four percent and he did thirty-five trips. Many didn’t survive their first trip, let alone thirty-five. His squadron, traveled across Canada to Halifax; he had traveled across Canada with the band, now he was doing it again in the air force. When they arrived in Halifax, the squadron was split in to two boats. My dad’s boat went up to Greenland and over to England. His boat did not get hit by the German UBoats. The other one did. Like I say, he lived a charmed life.

He was pretty shaken up after the war. After a bit of a rest in Torquay, he was to be called back for another series of missions and then the war ended.

Back here, he worked for a company called MCleery and Weston. They sold building supplies. Half way through the day, he would have to go to the washroom and say to himself, “I have to get through this day!” He found it hard to cope with civilian life. The nine to five jobs. War time was a wild life. There was no tomorrow during the war. You were either on ops, flying planes or you were on leave.

You could go where ever you wanted. Drinking was a way of life in the pubs of England. He drank with a guy in a little town on the coast of England. He said, “See you later!”

He had a mission to fly. Never saw him again. Quite often he was sick to his stomach. I wrote down a bit of what he told me before he passed away. He said, “The mozzie planes would come in first and set the flares. The Lancasters came

GORDON MCCULLOUGH ~ 23

in and marked the targets.The Lancasters flew at eight thousand feet. Then the Lancasters at twenty thousand feet, would drop the bombs.”

His first fifteen trips, my dad flew in at twenty thousand feet. He was in the front of the plane, telling the pilot: “Left, right, go, steady, steady.”

His last fifteen missions, he flew in at eight thousand feet, marking the targets. He was stationed at Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire. On D-Day, they bombed Caens. He had missions into Germany. The wireless operator got a fix on the way to Greenland. They would, “Jam the G-Box!” as he put it. Bernard Loosely was the mid upper gunner. Jimmy Riddle was in charge of the G-Box. Keith Perry, the pilot, he said, “Was the best of them all!”

My dad was nuts about golf. He got into the 1980 Masters by giving a guy a couple of hundred dollars for weekly tickets behind a barn. It all started with him and Norie, at the Jericho Golf Course. During the war, it became an air force base. My dad idolized Ben Hogan.

Dad had pretty good health all the way up until about six months before he died in 2004. He had two apartment blocks that he kept on working with up until the end. One apartment was a thirty-five suite block in Marpole and the other, a thirty-seven suite in Calgary and four houses in Surrey. That was it. He sold most of them before he died.

He lived several separate lives, the band, university, the war, rental properties. Socially, a great guy, to live with him difficult, a perfectionist. He became down on people in the end. He was unable to find a successful marriage, almost misanthropic. He was very tenacious, the way he

24 ~ Dave McCullough

approached things though.

He talked about the depression a lot. How unfair it was with twenty-five percent unemployment. He never owned a stereo but he had a copy of the Kitsilano Boys’ Band record.

It stayed in his cupboard. Old habits die hard, I guess!

Dave McCullough (son)

CHAPTER 2

Clif Bryson After 20 years in the RCMP Band, Clif went to Australia and organized three bands down under, in three schools.

That was 1964. He went to the Board of Education in Australia. They said, “Oh, just what we were looking for. We only have strings and vocals in our schools.”

“How did you get into the RCMP band?”

It was 1938. I was nineteen and making about one hundred dollars per month when I heard about the RCMP band being formed. This was the first official RCMP band. They had had many over the years. I found out you could get a pension. In those days that was very enticing. The RCMP was the last thing in the world I thought I would ever join. They had a waiting list of ten thousand. We had to qualify and pass all the requirements. Be five foot eight inches tall, no glasses, single and sign up for eight years. Not now but back then it was tougher. We went through the same basic training as everyone else. That was a blow to Arthur Delamont. In 1938, they sent a man named Joe Brown out to recruit for the RCMP band. He got eight that were members of the Kits

26 ~ Freddie Archer And Eddie Morse

band. At first he took it as a personal insult. He said, “Come out here and steal my boys!” It was always a thorn in his side. As soon as the word got around, I called my friends.

I was sixteen in 1934 when I went to England with the band. I joined the Marie Abrahms Quartet, here in Vancouver it was a little non-union quartet. She played drums and sang, her sister played saxophone. I played saxophone and Bud Henderson played piano. He was a well known pianist in town. Then I joined the union and started with Len Chamberlin at the Trionon Ballroom and then at the Commodore.

“How did you get involved with the Kits band?”

In 1927, my granddad bought me a saxophone. I took lessons for a year. We moved over to Dunbar. In 1928, I heard that Arthur Delamont was starting a band at General Gordon School. It spread by word of mouth all over the neighborhood. I will never forget my audition with him. I started on C melody saxophone. I was the first saxophone in the band.

Before Kits, I had gone down and joined the National Juvenile Band. It was very popular. So I told Hoskins Sara, I played C melody saxophone. He said, “No sorry, there is no place for a C melody saxophone.” I went back to my teacher. He was operating a music company at that time, Eddie Morse. Freddie Archer and Eddie Morse took it over from Conn Vancouver. That’s where I had my first job at one dollar a week. Anyway, he switched me over to an E flat alto. With the C melody, I played note to note with the piano. Now with my E flat alto, I had to transpose down a minor third. I had my audition with Arthur in his kitchen. He put a piece of music up and I said, “Do I have to transpose this?”He just about exploded! He says, “What do you know

CLIF BRYSON ~ 27

about transposition?” I said, “When I play with the piano, I have to transpose down a minor third.” He just couldn’t get over that. Anyway, he was pretty much starting everybody up from scratch. He welcomed me with open arms. He put me in with the alto horns because they were so weak. I found that so dull playing after beats. Finally Herbie Melton joined on tenor. And then Alan Newbury on alto and we had a trio.

On the way back from England in 1934, we had a dance band. Bob Reid played lead trumpet. Gordie McCullough and Don Endicott. Don played saxophone and Gordie drums and Harry Bigsby played the piano. That was my first introduction to a full fledge orchestra. Don’t think Arthur approved too much but he loved us to practice because he figured at least we were blowing.

When we got back in 1934, my father got laid off from his job at BC Telephone, so things were tough. Mother got a job.

I was surprised at Arthur’s refusal to help Joe Brown recruit for the RCMP band in 1938. He became the bandmaster. He allowed me to form the first dance band in the RCMP. I led that band for nine years. Then the RCMP decided, they wanted to form a senior band in Regina. I was sent out on recruiting trips. We got enough people together to form a second band and I became the bandmaster again.

“Did you have any contact with Mr. D over the years?”

Oh yes, I often looked him up. When I retired, I took over his West Vancouver band in 1958. He made several trips to Hawaii, where I lived for a while. On the last trip he made with Gordon, I didn’t see them. They went to Maui. We were on Ohau but he called up, “This is Delamonski!”

I joined the RCMP when I was twenty and left when I

28 ~ Tug Wilson

was forty. I figured at that time, I was mature enough to call him Arthur. I don’t know if he really appreciated it.

There were a lot of kids that went through the band that he brow beat. They just couldn’t take it. It had to be perfect or he wouldn’t accept it. He was a hard taskmaster. He would bring in some of his side kicks from when he played at the Strand Theatre, people like Tug Wilson, get them to blow in the ear of the third trumpet player from behind. He was still playing at the Strand when he started the band. Then, the two Allen brothers joined. They both came from the National Juvenile Band. We took our first trip to Victoria in 1930.

When word got around that this band was going to Victoria, it was a big deal.

He treated me with respect. I guess because I already had a year before joining. There were many, many concerts, where only Gordon and I were featured as soloists.

The Chicago World’s Fair of 1933, every kid who came back, the parents couldn’t believe how mature we all had become and when we came back from England in 1934, we were all grown up.

Do you remember traveling across Canada by train?

“We always played a concert in Moose Jaw. It was always fun. He had a terrible temper, never swore. He would say, “Shoot!” And stomp his feet.

I remember once he had a gold plated trumpet and he hit one boy over the head in a rehearsal in the old school house at General Gordon. He used to embarrass us to tears at some of the concerts. He’d say, “None of these boys smoke. None of these boys take liquor.” He walked into one of the billets in Dunfermline in 1934. Here was Ardie Steeves and Doug

CLIF BRYSON ~ 29

MacAdams smoking. He said, “Boys, you have broken my heart!” The word got around. He was really crushed. He made it clear to them not to do it again.

“You didn’t go on the 1936 trip?”

No, the Allen brothers did. They live in Victoria, Bill and Jack. Bill was a tremendous player. Bernie Temoin wasn’t an original member.

When he first started the band, do you recall anything else about how it came about?

“His house was right next to the school. He would see school kids walking home. He thought maybe he could teach them to play. He approached Captain Steeves at General Gordon. It was exciting to me because I was playing lots of solos. The camaraderie was amazing, we still get together.

Doug Harkness who is a retired school teacher in California, he came up. I have known him since I was ten years old and Gordy McCullough. Roy Johnston was very close to Arthur.

Stu Ross was another original.

This next reunion concert may be the last one. Arthur left a certain amount of money for that purpose. And I think it is about all gone.”

What do you recall about the 1934 trip to England?

“We went over on the rolling Duchess, the Duchess of Athol, no stabilizers, so it rolled. I was one of the fortunate ones who didn’t get sick. Garfield White and the others stayed in their cabins. It was sunk during the war. A highlight of the trip was playing in the moat at the Tower of London. Arthur wasn’t adverse to playing pop tunes. We played the Tiger Rag. Next day in the papers, the headlines read, “Tiger in the Moat!” He was very current. If he bought an arrangement,

30 ~ Percy Williams

he was never happy with it. He always added lots of cuts.

He had a particular knack of filling out the middle section of the band. He always concentrated on the second and third parts and the baritones.

That built up those players to eventually become leads.

“That’s true. I remember we opened the Burrard Street Bridge. That was a highlight. We were the first group to march over the bridge in 1932. We played for Percy Williams. He was a man who would never hand out many cudos.

The only thing close he ever said that I can recall was, “I don’t know how he got such a nice tone on his horn.” That’s the closest he ever came to saying you did a nice job.

Before I left for Australia, I had the PNE band. I hired Arthur. He was always there. Dal had the PNE band. I took over for a couple of years after Dal. I also had the Shrine band for awhile. I had the PNE band in 1960 - 61. We had a formal concert band the first year and then a marching band the next.

“How did having you guys being conductors and him playing under you work?”

No problem, we all had such a great deal of respect for him. I had a band out at UBC and he had his band out there.

At intermission, he comes over and says,“Why don’t you put your trumpets over the railing so they can be heard?”

He always had his own way of doing things. That would be around 1959 or 1960.

When I had the West Van band, many times we would be competing. Once in Kelowna, he said, “Oh, I’m not looking forward to driving back to Vancouver.” I said, Why don’t I drive you back?” So, I did! We were always good friends.

CLIF BRYSON ~ 31

“How many boys were in the original band?”

I’d say between fifteen and twenty. I never had any private lessons with Arthur.

“Do you recall the first rehearsal?”

Oh yes, it was interesting, technically challenging, lots of solos. One thing that surprised me was being an ex-SA bandsman, he never used cornets in the band. We played a lot, a lot of fund raisers. We had to raise money for the trips.

We were hired out to Safeway. We also needed to play a lot to get ready for any contests. I have never come across an organization that was more successful.

“And it was all because of one man.”

If Arthur hadn’t left Jackie Souder at the Strand and formed the band we wouldn’t be talking today.

“Yes and the depression played a role as well.”

That’s true. We took twenty-five cents to him every rehearsal. He was certainly busy there for a few years. He had seven bands going at one time. One of the reasons I moved to Australia was because I was so busy with bands. I had the West Van band, Shrine band, PNE band, a professional band and a band for the blind kids at Jericho Hill School.

Everyone had to play from memory in that band. That was around 1962.

“How did you get involved with West Vancouver?”

I was down in Little Rock, Arkansas with the RCMP Musical Ride, just finishing a tour. I get this call from West Vancouver at two o’clock in the morning. To make a long story short, I told them I was going into the Kentucky Fried Chicken business with my brother-in-law. When I got back to Vancouver, I went and saw them and started up part time.

32 ~ Music Masters Position

I didn’t like the Kentucky Fried Chicken business, so I signed up full time. I also started a musical supply house with Jack Hamilton, to supply instruments and music to the service bands. Then, I went to Australia and organized three bands down under, in three different schools. That was in 1964. I went to the Board of Education in Australia. They said, “Oh, just what we were looking for. We only have strings and vocal in our schools.”

Meanwhile, a recording company and a publishing firm heard I was in town. They offered me a job setting up a retail musical instrument division. They were strictly a publishing firm. The school board came back to me and said, “We will give you the music masters job at one of our schools for boys.” My son ended up going there. However the salary could barely cover my rent, so I went back to the school board and they said to me, “We will give you a list of principals that want band programs in their schools and you can organize them.” I did that in the mornings and in the afternoons, I developed a retail music division which supplied the instruments to all the schools. I had a lot of contacts in the US with Boosey & Hawkes and other companies. So, it was no problem getting instruments and everyone was happy. I spent a year there. Then we applied for American visas. We had stopped in Hawaii on the way down and I loved it. Hawaii had a three year residence requirement be- fore I could teach. I had to find something else, if we were going to stay in Hawaii. I ended up training for an assistant manager of a drugstore chain. I also went to the University of Hawaii and took advertising. The head of the drugstore chain came to me and ask me to handle the advertising for

CLIF BRYSON ~ 33

ABOVE: The 55th Annual Festival in 2004 was dedicated to the late Clifton Bryson (1918-2004). While Clif was the bandmaster of the RCMP Band in Regina in 1950, he was approached by members of the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Club to help organize a band festival for Moose Jaw. Thank you, Clif, for helping to create such an amazing tradition.

34 ~ Garfield White

the chain. So that was great!

Then I got involved, through the advertising, with the Honolulu Board of Trade for eight years.

“That was when Arthur started coming over?”

Yes, about the time he married his second wife, Tracy.

We liked her but it didn’t work out. How was Bernie Temoin when you met him in Toronto?

“He was great, still practicing and playing.”

With people the caliber of Bernie Temoin, Jack Allen, Jack Bensted, it was a great band. The originals! It was a great time of my life. I have two former students who now teach at McGill University; Wayne Bates and Don Coombs.

Wayne was on cornet. He was very shy. This kid came along.

No way would he join the band. Eventually he did.

How old are you now?

“I turned seventy last January.”

Were a lot of the fellows you knew, lost in the war?

“Yes, quite a number, I can’t tell you how many. I was sixteen in 1934. Garfield White was our publicity manager.

He was very meticulous and a big help to Arthur. Our booking agent had us running all over the place and it was starting to cost us too much money in train fares. He would have us go from London up to Scotland, then back down to the Isle of Wight. That first tour of England was a learning experience. We sold postcards to make extra money. One fellow gave me a five pound note for a postcard. Great time!”

CHAPTER 3

Roy Johnston “I was the star trumpet player in the original Kitsie Boys’ band. By the time I left the band in 1935, I had 16 medals for solo and quartet playing. In 1931, I played the fluegal horn solo in the band’s test piece at the Toronto Exposition, where the band took first place. I was also on the 1933 trip to Chicago and the 1934 trip to England.”

“How did you get into the Kits band?”

My teacher got me tickets to go and see them down at the Denman arena near Stanley Park, where all the hockey games were played. I played in the National Juvenile Band.

They were run by a fellow named Jack Parle. He looked after the brass and William Hoskins Sara, he looked after the reeds and taught all the drummers. Good musicians came out of there. I still play with two or three, at senior citizens homes. Dave Dutton plays trombone. I was twelve on my birthday, February 17, 1927.

In his professional bands, in later years, he always had me sit on the end of the trumpet section. He knew, if he got into any trouble, I would be able to get him out of it. I told him, “I don’t want to play any solos anymore!” During the war, I

36 ~ Don Endicott

had some teeth out. When I got home, I went to the dentist and had the rest taken out. It took me a year and a half before I was able to play again.

Before I went into the Navy, I played a year with the symphony. Those were the days when the symphonies were made up of all local people. It hadn’t got to the point yet where they were drawing people from all over the world.

They had good musicians though.”

“Do you remember the first time you met Mr. D?” “I can remember almost everything that went on that day, I was scared to death. I would have been fourteen, in 1929. I didn’t know anything about him and I had never heard of the band. In those days, we were in the little house at the back of General Gordon School. He was just across the fence. We sat on benches, five kids to a bench. We had lots of room, six or seven, your arms got closer to you. He said, “Sit there on the first chair.”

Don Endicott sat next to me that first night. No one ever sat between us, up until the day we both left. Don is a terrific guy. He contracted polio. Oh, before we started, Mr. D sat beside me. He asked me to move over. He wanted to talk to me. He said, “How long have you been in the National Juvenile Band?

How long have you been taking lessons? What do you think about their band?”

I told him I was quitting. I had heard them somewhere and they really hadn’t done such a good job. So, I said, “Mr. Delamont, I heard them the other day and I thought they sounded like the devil.” He said, “Don’t you ever talk like that in here again. Nobody

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 37

swears in this place.”

That was swearing to him, so I got beat down before I even played a note. I’d done something wrong right away. I never did it again. He had two rehearsals a week, I only went to one. Just after I joined, Jack Allen joined. I never knew who he was because he came on the night I couldn’t come down.

So, Don Endicott says to me, “You should try and get down and hear this terrific clarinet player.” My teacher was the bandmaster of the 29th Battalion band. He had been the leader of the Seaforth Highlander band in World War I. One Saturday, he asked me to come down on Sunday, to help him out in a church parade. We met at the Seaforth Armories and marched over to Christ Church Cathedral. He presented the new colors to the church that were to be laid behind the alter. We all came back to the Armory. It was then that I was introduced to Jack Allen. His teacher had brought him down. Don’t think I heard his name.

He said, “Oh, you’re the hot shot trumpet player that just joined the Kitsilano Boys’ Band.” I said, “Are you that terrific clarinet player that I’ve been hearing about?”

We had both been standing there, not touching a drop of beer.

We both kept saying, “No thanks!” I didn’t want him to know I drank and he didn’t want me to know he drank. His mother and my mother use to make great wine. Beer was nothing to me. Finally Jack said, “Roy, I don’t care what you say to Mr. Delamont. I’m going to have a drink of beer.” I said,

38 ~ Jack Habkirk

“You son of a gun, I’ve been wanting a beer like you wouldn’t believe.” He said, “I thought you would tell Mr. Delamont!” I said, “Well, I thought the same thing.”

So, we tried to catch up! Eventually, we staggered over to Hastings Street. He had to catch the number fourteen out to Boundary Road and then catch the two door trolley, that use to run out to the Heights. I had to go down to Carroll Street and get the Interurban to McKay. So, that was the first time we met.

In England, we found out we could buy a Jill bottle of Scotch, for two and six. It was about the size of a medicine bottle. We always had one of these. After a concert was over, we would sneak off and have a swig.

I use to chum around a lot on the trips with Jack Habkirk, the bassoon player. He was an original, big man. He was brought up in a Salvation Army family. He lived out in the Kerrisdale area. I used to go to his house occasionally. His mother was the first woman I ever saw who I thought wore a wig. It used to be so neat, first thing in the morning. They were a very nice family. His father was a terrific man. He was a little spoiled and always ready to play pranks.

Jack and I stayed with my grandmother and grandfather in England. We snuck out to a pub one night. When we came back, they were all in bed. We had to hunt for the light switch but couldn’t find it. We had forgotten that they had gas, not electricity. We needed candles for the upstairs but couldn’t find them either. It’s a wonder we didn’t wake them up. We couldn’t find the stairs, so we got undressed in the dark. That was where my mother met my dad. We were

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 39

staying with his father and stepmother. They had a couple of aunts there as well. When I went back in the war, I tried to visit my mother’s family but I couldn’t find them. My uncle Charlie still lived at home with my grandad. He was a teacher.”

“Were pubs a big deal on the 1934 trip?”

“No, not really, pubs were just a novelty. We didn’t go to very many. We didn’t really have any money. The only money we had was what we were given by our parents. Remember it was the depression and things were tough.

We got fed all right. Whenever we played, we got paid, so that covered expenses. One time we went to Shanklin for a day concert. We had nothing else to do for the rest of the week. Turns out they didn’t know what we were like. They thought we were just a bunch of kids from the colonies. They weren’t going to hire us for more than a day until they found out what we were able to do. It was on an August bank holiday. Accommodation was all sold out. After we played, we were asked by our agents to stay for a week. Mr. D said, “Sure, we will stay!”

Only problem was, where would we stay? So, they rustled up a church that would take us. They got a mattress for every one of us and blankets.

The church had a big stone wall around it. The gate was locked at a certain time each night. Mickey Crawford didn’t make it back on time one night. We were watching for him.

We got him over the wall and pulled him up.

We stayed in a hostel only once in 1934. That was in Plymouth. We usually stayed in a bed and breakfast. When we landed in Liverpool, we got on a train, right on the dock

40 ~ Doug Harkness

and went right to Manchester. We were taken to a row of houses that were all attached (Foley Commercial Hotel).

They had knocked the wall down between them all, so you could walk down a corridor from one to another. That’s where we stayed. I remember Jack Allen, Jack Habkirk and I had a room upstairs. We showered but we didn’t know what to do with the water. It wasn’t running water, so we opened the window and threw it out into the backyard.

We competed there in the West of England Festival in Bugle. The first day we arrived, we all got together and the woman of the house said to Mr. D, “What time do you want to get knocked up?”

The more she talked the funnier it got. Then she said, “The knocker up man will be around at eight in the morning!”

The only bath in the house we were in was full of coal.”

“Where did Mr. D stay?”

“He stayed with us, in the same place.

In Edinburgh, we were billeted all over town. Some of us were in Dunfermline. In Dunfermline, Mr. D decided he was going to go around to all the billets and see how we were all doing. He walked into one place. Doug Harkness came up a few years ago from California. We had lunch with him. Gordy McCullough, myself and Hector MacKay. Doug lives south of San Francisco and is a psychology professor at Berkeley. Anyway, Mr. D walked into the billet where Doug was staying in Dunfermline. The room was full of smoke and dirty glasses were all over the place. Doug said, “I got quite a shock when I looked in the direction of the door and Mr. D walked in. He didn’t say anything. He just

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 41

stopped and stood there and looked. None of us said anything either. We were all smoking. He looked at each of us individually. Finally he said, “Boys, you have just broken my heart.”

Then he turned around and walked out. They never heard anything more about it. He never mentioned it or reprimanded them. They figured, what he did meant more than if he had ranted and raved about it.

Don Endicott was the oldest of our group. Jack Allen was the youngest. I played with Dal for a number of years at the BC Lion’s football games.

My dad worked for BC Electric. He died at sixty-four. He never got to enjoy his retirement, so I decided that I would retire at sixty-five. I still play my trumpet but Dal is the same as Mr. D. He’ll never retire.

A fellow came to our school and advised us to take book keeping, typing and short hand, that sort of thing. It was a two year course. In 1929 the crash came. I left school in 1930.

I got a job in Spencer’s Department Store at seven dollars per week. It usually wasn’t seven dollars though. When Mr. Delamont heard I was working at Spencer’s, he said, “Instead of going all the way home, why don’t you come and have dinner at our house?”

So, I did, right up until I left the band at Christmas 1934.

I was quite happy to leave school. I thought I was going to be a professional musician. I soon realized though, it wasn’t for me. I could see what my teacher was doing and what other people had to do to get jobs. They were stabbing people in the back to get jobs. That sort of thing still goes on today. I joined the musicians union in 1935. That was after

42 ~ Mickey Hunt

my older brother died. He was a violinist and teacher. He played all sports. He injured his back and it developed into a Tuberculosis Spine. All the time I was at Spencer’s.

When I went to England, I got time off. They put Johnny Arnott into my job at Spencer’s. When I got back from England, they wanted to keep him. So, they said to me, “We’re going to find you another job.”

I wound up working all over the store. After Christmas, my mother came in to wake me to go to work. I just lay there.

She came in three times. I looked at her and said, “I’m not going to go back to that place again.”

And I didn’t! My brother died in February 1935. I was more help to my mother at home anyway. In April, I joined the musicians union. In June, I was on my way to the Orient, on the Empress of Canada, where I stayed for two years.

The depression lingered on through the thirties. As I said, my dad worked for BC Electric. In those days, policemen, firemen and street car men, all made the same amount of money. I tried to get into the Fire Department. I played in the Fireman’s band. One day the conductor said, “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the chief. We will see if he can get you into the job.” I had a doctor’s exam and an interview. He said to me, “We’ll see if we can get you a job.”

Just as I was going out of the door, he said, “I forgot to ask you, are you married?” I said, “No!” He said, “I’m sorry Roy. I can’t hire you.”

During the depression, the city wouldn’t hire anyone who was single. They were only hiring married men, so they

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 43

could look after their families. So, I didn’t get on with the Fire Department.

The theatre that my music teacher used to work at, had a tunnel underneath, that lead to the Castle Hotel. When the first show was over, they would all go over to the Castle and sit there until it was time to go back for the second show. My teacher could drink twenty glasses between shows and still play a good show. That’s where all his money went. My dad would meet Mickey once a month, pay him for my lessons, for the four Saturdays. He met him in the Castle Hotel. By the time my dad left Mickey, all the money he had given Mickey had been spent. He never owned a home. He always lived in a rental place. He ended up on welfare, in a city owned home out by fourth and Alma. He lived there until he went into the hospital, where his legs were amputated and he died. I heard so many stories about the escapades of ‘Mickey Hunt!’ That was the way they all were. You wouldn’t think one man would do so much damage to his body. But he did.

Some musicians prospered.

Mr. D prospered by buying houses. He spent his time going around picking up rent cheques from the different houses that he owned. He put it all into annuities. He used to talk to me about his finances. One day he came out and sat down and said, “You know Roy, when I’m forty-five, I’ll be able to retire.

I’ll have a steady income coming in. I’m buying annuities!”

So that was another source of income. Most musicians only have one source of income. That was the difference between him and most other musicians of his day.

Apparently, he bought small apartments up until 1946

44 ~ Mickey Hunt

and then developed a ‘stock portfolio.’ I know one thing he did was buy second mortgages. He gave me the name of the woman who used to look after mortgages for him; Mrs. MacDonald. He said, “She phoned me up one day. I’ve got a second mortgage I think you’ll be interested in.”

Interest is pretty good on those. That’s what he was doing after he sold off all his real estate. That was the secret of his success. When his job was over, he went home.

Calvin Winters lived on the south side of town. We would see him once a week. He would come down in time for the rehearsal. We would never see him the rest of the week. We wondered where he went the rest of the time. Eventually he went belly up. He drank!

I remember when I had dinner with him at his house. After dinner, Mrs. Delamont would bring out a pie. She cut it in half. Mr. D had half. The rest of us, Vera, Gordon, herself and me, split the other half. She had another pie waiting, if we wanted more. I told him once when he told us he had diabetes years later, “You know why you have it?”

He liked everything sweet.

I remember when he had his heart attack in 1971. I heard it on the radio. I phoned around to find out what hospital he was in. It was St. Paul’s. Right across from where I was working. I went over and saw him. We were playing school concerts then. I was Chairman of the trust funds. I met Mrs. Borsa. She was sitting by his bed holding his hand. When he had his heart attack, he phoned Mrs. Borsa. If he had called an ambulance, he would have gotten to the hospital quicker

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 45

but I guess he didn’t think he was too bad. Before I left D I said, “You have a boat to play out this week and a school concert coming up. What are you going to do about it?” He said.

“I don’t know. Come back tomorrow and I will tell you.”

So I went back the next day. Mrs. Borsa was there. I said, “Have you decided what you are going to do about the boat and school concerts?” He said, “Ya, you’re going to do it! I said, “That’s fine. I can handle it but the school concert, I will need more time to prepare.” He said, “Do what you want. Have them put it off if you want.”

I had them put it off until June. Not long after that Ken Sotvedt brought a group of boys down and they played, “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You,” outside on the lawn.

That seemed to perk him up. So, he got out of the hospital and went and stayed with Mrs. Borsa.

I came over to Mrs. Borsa’s house. Arthur answered the door in his dressing gown. We went into the kitchen and he had all the music out for the boat concerts. I said, “I am more interested in seeing the music for the school concerts.” He said, “Don’t tell Mrs. Borsa but I’m going to do that one.” I said, “Okay, if you think you are up to it.” When the school concert came along, when I got out there, he was sitting on the stage in a high swivel chair that he had gotten from the library, like a bar stool. The music was all out, the seats set up, I couldn’t believe it! I hired all the guys but I didn’t tell them Mr. D was going to conduct. So, Ozzie McCoomb

46 ~ Empress of Canada RIGHT: Pre 1928 photo of Roy before he joined the Kitsilano Boys’ Band

BELOW: 1930 Roy with trumpet, middle left, seated, at Burnaby South High School’s annual concert

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 47

1937 Roy on board The Empress of Canada, on way to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Japan

48 ~ Navy Band

FAR RIGHT: c1960’s In a backyard Kenny Bucholl, Roy, Eric Muir, Doug Luff snare drum, Jock McCluskey bass drum.

RIGHT: Roy as a Shriner.

BELOW: 1970 Roy (top left) in Navy band on trip back East.

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 49

50 ~ Ozzie McCoomb

came in. He played bassoon in the symphony. Never played in Kits but he played in Mr. D’s professional band. When he saw Mr. D, he said, “What the hell are you doing here Arthur?” Mr. D said, “Oz, when I go, this is where I want to be.”

I let everyone know what he had said. For the next few concerts, we all expected him to drop dead at a concert but nothing happened. That’s how we thought he would go. We were always happy when he got through a concert and nothing happened.

When I heard he died at a Masonic Lodge Meeting, I was really happy that that was where it happened. It was appropriate. He was with men, he had known all his life. I ask the guys if they ever thought he would die at a Masonic Lodge Meeting and they all said, “No, we thought he would die conducting a concert.”

I firmly believe he died there because he wanted to die there.

Vera came back from California because she needed an operation. So, she moved in with Arthur. After a year, she was able to have her operation. About a year before Arthur died, Vera moved out into her own apartment at the foot of the Burrard Street Bridge. She started going out with Paul Jagger who had been in the band about that time. He was building a house on Salt Spring Island. Paul use to come and play with Mr. D. Arthur didn’t know that Paul and Vera were seeing each other.

One afternoon down at Kits Beach, Don Radelet and I came up to the stage where Mr. D was talking to Vera. Paul

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 51

came up. We were all together. All of a sudden Vera said, “Well goodbye.”

She got down from the stage and Paul went with her. Mr. D says, “Where are they going?” Don says, “I guess they are both going back to Vera’s apartment.”

That was the first time he knew that they were together.

He was so involved with what he was doing that every once in awhile he would poke his head up and see what was going on.”

“That’s true!”

“Sometimes he would go to the wrong place. One time he went to the CPR terminal and no one was there, so he had to go to Ballantyne.”

“When did his hair turn white?”

“Gordy McCullough said, “His hair turned white a lot earlier than he let on. He kept it black for quite a while.”

Not sure if that is true but he went to England one year black and came back white.

I saw Gordon back in Toronto during the war, 1943. He was selling vacuum cleaners. He had a rough time of it, in the early days. I thought I was going to join the Naden Band in Vancouver. A lot of Kits guys in there, Mickey Crawford, Jack Bensted. I got sent back to Toronto instead. Back then, Gordon was married to Joan Agnew. Gordon came out here when his mother was ill with Alzheimer’s. I saw him and said, “I guess you’ll be coming out here again.” He said,

52 ~ Harvey Stewart

“No, I will not come out again, not as long as mother is alive. I couldn’t go through this again. She didn’t even know who I was. She thought I was her brother.”

He didn’t come out again until after his mother died.”

“Alzheimer’s is a very bad illness.”

“Yes, I know. I keep asking my doctor about it because I’m starting to forget things.”

“What did he say?”

He said not to worry, he often forgets things as well. It is wicked. Jack Allen has it, don’t know if he knows or not.

We never suspected it. It creeps up on you. You can linger on and on.

The Chicago trip was interesting. Harvey Stewart was quite a guy. He could tell stories, dream up anything to tell.

When we were there, ready for the competition, there was another band. One of their fellows ask Harvey, “Where are you from?”

He told the craziest story you ever heard. He said, “We live up near the Arctic. We have ice and snow all the time.” The fellow says, “How did you get here?”

“We started out on dog teams to the nearest railway.

We finally got to Vancouver and left the snow behind.”

He had them all believing, the world according to Harvey.

I listened to Ben Birnie and his big dance band at the Paps Blue Ribbon Beer Hall in Chicago. We could sit there all day. I got his autograph.

We use to marvel at these big bands. Sally Rand was at the Chicago Theatre, doing her fan dance. Saw Sammy Davis Jr. with his father. Gracie Allen. Jack Benny..... Pretty neat!

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 53

The leader of Sally Rand’s band was one of the Trinosky Brothers. One of them married into Rogers Sugar, here in Vancouver. They came over from Russia at the time of the revolution.

I remember Mr. D catching me and Wally Oatway, playing each others instruments. He went up and down the aisles scolding us. It was just before the competition. We won everything we entered. The officials were shocked that we were so good. We got lots of medals.

I am thoroughly convinced that what he did was programmed into his brain by the supreme architect of the universe. Just think about it, how else would 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?”

“He taught girls as well?”

“Yes, I speak of girls as well as boys because Mr. D formed a girl’s band as well which flourished for quite a few years.”

“What did you get most out of your experiences with Mr. D?” “Oh, I got so much, not only did he pound into us what knowledge he could impart musically but he instilled in us a sense of right and wrong and what the words discipline and deportment meant. Mr. D 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. I am sure that he succeeded. Not one that any of us has heard about has gone bad. Maybe a parking ticket or speeding ticket but that’s it.”

54 ~ William Booth

“Was he very involved with the Masons?”

“Oh, he was not just content to be a side bencher, he joined three lodges and went through the chairs of one and became the Worshipful Master. He even achieved the distinction of being appointed to the position of District Deputy Grand Master of District 20 of all the Masonic Lodges in BC Mr. D was taking a prominent part in the ceremony of instilling the new Master of Meridian Lodge on a Saturday, when he died. Could there be a better a way to depart this earth, than working with friends and brother Masons?”

“Why do you think he was so successful Roy?” “I do not think it was just one thing. I think it was a combination of things. First of all there was the music. Life is like music. We start with the introduction, continue on through different passages, phrasing and pausing as we continue, sometimes repeating a part by going back to del segno and then finally taking the coda or the finale and ending up with a grandiose finish. Along with all this a little showmanship has to be added, otherwise all music could become a bit dull, even to the point of dying.

In the early days of the bands existence 1928 to 1934, the world was in a depression. Mr. D begged money and food from where ever he could and cheap fares from the CPR to accomplish what he did.” Roy continued.... “There were only eleven boys in 1928. By 1946 when Vancouver awarded him the good citizen medal, he estimated he had taught more than one thousand boys in various bands. He kept a list and tried at every opportunity to bring his boys together. As we grew up he kept in touch... When my wife was ill he called twice a day just to hear me say,

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 55

“She’s going to be all right Mr. D.” “Wonderful,” he would reply.”

“I take it he was a religious man but he did not preach to you boys.”

“In order to understand him you have to go back to where it all started in that far away town of Hereford in Herefordshire, England. Arthur was born into a family that embraced the teachings, preaching’s and drum beatings of William Booth, who only twenty seven years earlier had founded the Salvation Army, a religious and charitable organization along military lines for the evangelizing and social betterment of the poor and degraded.

I would like to believe that from an early age he was given a drum to beat and that he soon felt the rhythms of the music he was destined to impart to hundreds of boys and girls during his checkered and colorful life. The Salvation Army drum to me is a symbol of this wonderful organization. How many times have you seen pictures and cartoons of the Salvation Army fighting evil with possibly one cornet player and always the inevitable bass drum in the back ground?

That was Arthur!”

“You feel it was through music that he was able to impart the teachings of William Booth to the hundreds of boys and girls that passed through his organization?”

“Yes, I certainly do!”

“Why did the band start touring?”

“Mr. D felt we should see our country and began organizing tours. He would ask local firms to help defray the costs.

In the summer of 1931, he took us across the prairies by train. In cities like Edmonton, Calgary and Moose Jaw,

56 ~ Arthur Delamont Concert Band

we gave concerts in the parks. In Winnipeg the Hudson’s Bay Company hired us to entertain shoppers as they dined. What a grand sight we were, dark blue uniforms, matching forage caps, the red lining of our capes reflecting in our gleaming instruments. The band now played everything from marches to symphonic selections but our signature tune never changed, the Lost Chord. We began piling up the awards. We won the British Columbia and Pacific Northwest championships for four years in a row, as well as the 1931 Canadian Junior Championship. “Woodwinds, Brass and Glory,” a Vancouver writer called us. In 1934 the band went to Britain. Everywhere we went the public demanded encores. The West of England Band Festival yielded three more major prizes. Two years later Mr. D took the boys back to Britain to beat out 30 odd bands from all over the world and take home the coveted Cassell’s Challenge Shield at London’s Crystal Palace. He celebrated by marching the band to the Mansion House for tea with the Lord Mayor.”

“The boys sound like they were little angels. Surely they could not have been perfect all the time?”

“Things went less well on the bands third trip to England, in 1939. In Birkenhead police ask Mr. D if he knew who had been inserting dimes instead of six pence pieces into the candy machines. He did of course. Mortified, he assembled his boys, lectured them, then he confiscated their Canadian coins. A few days later the boys were skylarking in a boarding house when one climbed into the attic and fell through the ceiling. He was not hurt but the ceiling had to be replaced. Mr. D said, “That was the result of good clean fun. Buying English

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 57

toffee with dimes had been down right dishonest.”

“I left the band in 1935 and later during the war I joined the Navy.”

“How old was Mr.D in 1939?”

“In 1939 he would have been 47.”

“What did you do after the war Roy?” “I worked here in Vancouver and raised a family. I continued to play professionally. I played with Mr. D quite a lot. I remember in 1954 he enlisted 30 of us for the Arthur Delamont Concert Band, to play national anthems at the British Empire Games. One summer he rustled up fifteen of us for a little band that played P&O Liners out from Vancouver. ‘Waltzing Matilda’ for those bound for Australia.

‘California Here I Come’, for those off to San Francisco.

Always our finale was an unaccompanied cornet farewell, Mr. D standing with tears in his eyes, playing ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ In the late sixties Mr. D organized an alumni band to give reunion concerts with his still thriving Kitsilano Band.

In 1971 at age 79, when he suffered his heart attack, a few of us alumni played one of his favorite songs for him, Elvis Presley’s, ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love With You,’ outside his hospital window. In a couple of months he was back on the podium as if nothing had happened. Age never dimmed him.

While marching us in a parade, he might disappear into the crowd with his cornet to play ‘I Love You Truly’ to an elderly woman or delight a wide eyed child with ‘Happy Birthday.’

Then he would dash to catch up with us, spurring on the bass drummer from the rear by saying, “Hit that thing!”

On his 86th birthday in 1978, Mr. D and his Kitsilano

58 ~ 50th Anniversary

Boys’ band celebrated their 50th anniversary with a mammoth concert at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

The curtain went up on a stage crammed with nearly 300 Delamont trained musicians. There were four generations of us, the boys of the 1970s and the boys from years gone by.

There were several composers and members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. A priest got time off from a monastery in Mission BC to play the bass drum. A businessman and a psychiatrist came in from San Francisco.

In 1979 with his eyesight failing and suffering from severe diabetes, true to his word he honored a commitment he had made when he had left Great Yarmouth, England in 1939, to return and play the concert he had to cancel due to war being declared.”

“Vera tells me you gave the eulogy at Arthur’s funeral.”

“You have been listening to the eulogy for the past half hour, that and an article I wrote for Readers Digest in 1993.

“You are a budding writer!”

“No not really, just someone I felt strongly about. You know how it is.”

“Yes, I know Roy! I know.”

ROY JOHNSTON ~ 59

The haunting sound of the Last Post rang out from Edinburgh Castle as a Canadian war veteran paid a moving tribute to his fellow comrades. Former Navy bandsman Roy Johnston (81) travelled more than 5,000 miles to play at the Scottish War Memorial in memory of his brother-in-law and comrades who were killed during the Second World War. And 62 years on, he used the same cornet to play the Last Post in memory of his brother-in-law George Floyd, who was killed as he flew in a Lancaster bomber on his 66th mission in 1945.

CHAPTER 4

Dal Richards “William Hoskins Sara was one of the leaders of the National Juvenile band. He came from Kneller Hall in England. The band was led by Hoskins Sara and Jack Parle.

When boys heard that Arthur Delamont’s band was going to be a travelin band, they left the other bands.”

The list of old boys that I wanted to interview for this book from the 1930s and 1940s was impressive. If you listed them by occupation they would read a captain of industry, a billionaire, an RCMP band director, an engineer, a jazz musician, a real estate mogul, a trumpet player and a big band leader. The big band leaders name is Dal Richards. Dal has been prominent in west coast music circles since 1940, shortly after he left the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. Besides being a clarinetist and a saxophonist, he is also an arranger and a conductor. As well as wanting to hear Dal’s stories from his band days, I wanted to ask him about the other fellows who had been in the band with him, in the thirties.

Hello Mr. Richards, my name is Chris Best. I am writing a book on Arthur Delamont. I wanted to drop by and speak to you for a while about your days in the Kits Band. Beatty Street, four o’clock, I will be there!”

62 ~ Sandi De Santis’ Band

The walk over to Beatty Street took me up Davie and along Granville to Georgia Street. Once at Georgia and Granville, I headed south on Georgia, past the new Library, until I reached the Georgia Viaduct and Beatty Street. A short jaunt to the left and I was at Mr. Richards’ apartment block. The block was made up of several heritage buildings converted into loft apartments, with businesses at street level. A nice touch I thought, with the sky train station nearby and the modern high rises surrounding.

“Hello Mr. Richards,” I said, into the intercom.” This is Christopher Best.”

“Come on up Chris!”

As Dal opened the door, I saw a tall, well dressed, rather distinguished gentleman, in his late eighties, standing in the doorway.

“Come in,” he said. “Call me Dal.” We shook hands.

I glanced around the room. Over on a wall, I noticed framed records and several show posters. Seeing my interest, he said, “Things I’ve collected over the years and memorabilia from my days as the producer of the Lions half time shows.”

“How long were you their producer?”

“I was their producer from about 1954 to 1986.”

“That was quite awhile.”

“Yes, it was a good gig, as we musicians say. Delamont used to play for me in the Lion’s band you know. I do not know what he thought about being employed by one of his old boys?”

“It did not cause any problems?”

“Oh heavens no, Arthur was just one of the boys.

DAL RICHARDS ~ 63

Besides he was a good trumpet player, so I was always glad to have him play.

“These records, are recordings of hits from the swing era that I recorded. This one is Swing Is In .... Let’s Dance (1982).

And this one is Swing Is In.... Let’s Dance (1983). My recording of Opus One enjoyed sales comparable to those of LP’s, by many Canadian rock bands of the day.”

“That was pretty good. What year did you leave the Kits Band?”

“Let me see. That would have been about 1937. I had to make a decision whether to take a professional gig at the Winter Garden down at English Bay or go with the band to San Francisco in 1937. So, I opted to turn professional.”

“You were in the band from 1933 to 1937?”

“In 1938 and 1939, I played in Sandy de Santis’ band and then in Stan Paton’s Band. I started in the National Juvenile band under William Hoskins Sara and Jack Parle. I was led to that by my cousin, who was a pianist and a French horn player, played French horn in the National Juvenile band.

Her mother and my mother had the idea. I had an accident when I was nine years old, with a sling shot. Dislodged my left eye, so I was confined to a darkened room for several weeks in the summertime. The doctor said to my mother, “You have some musical talent. You play piano and sing.

Maybe your son has some musical talent.”

Betty Hofeister was a French horn player. Her mother introduced me to William Hoskins Sara. That’s where I took my first clarinet lessons. The National Juvenile band was not all that active. Sara and Parle were both rather eccentric characters. Hoskins Sara was from Kneller Hall.”

64 ~ Harry Bigsby

“How did you get into the Kits band?”

“I think the National Juvenile band was running out of steam.

There were four of us clarinet players. One of us four, either Bernie Temoin or Jack Bensted or Harry Bigsby, knew someone in the Kits band and knew we would be welcome if we came down. That would be in the early part of 1933. Then we went to Chicago that summer.”

“What happened to all the fellows in the band?”

“Harry Bigsby ended up as the Superintendent of Music for the Victoria School Board. Bernie Temoin, went to Toronto. Jim Findlay became the Superintendent of schools in Burnaby. He played a little afterwards. Jack Allen and Clif Bryson joined the RCMP, when they were forming a band.

They went to Regina. Herb Melton went to work for an auto parts firm in downtown Vancouver.

Jack Bensted, played with me in a dance band, here in Vancouver, so did Van Dunfee and Pete Watt. Van then went to San Francisco. He worked for a railway company. Pete Watt became a manufacturer’s representative for a women’s clothing company. Gordie Delamont was immensely successful. He played at the King Edward Hotel and the Royal York Hotel. He got in with the Romanelli family. There were three of them; Luigi, Don and Leo. They virtually controlled the music scene in Toronto.

Eventually, Gord got his own band at the Silver Slipper in Toronto. It was one of the first clubs to have liquor.

Then he started to get more into arranging and teaching. He was highly respected. Any arranger of recognition in Toronto would speak highly of Gordie Delamont. He had several

DAL RICHARDS ~ 65

pupils that became famous, Rob McConnell, Ron Collier, Moe Koffman, were a few.”

“What can you tell me about Ray Smith?”

“I got to know Ray through his father, Stan Smith. He was Chairman of the Empire Games. He was a good friend of Roll Holland, who was the Parks Board Chairman, for a lot of years. He was instrumental in getting the Parks Board‘s attention directed to me when they were looking for Sunday concerts at the Malkin Bowl in the summertime. I played those for several years. Ray was in the band back then.

These concerts at the Malkin Bowl, were called “Concerts in Rhythm.” That would be the late forties, early fifties.

I shared them with Harry Price and John Emerson, they each had a couple. Ray, when he was in the army and stationed back east, used to go down to New York to 52nd street, to see the musicians in the clubs. He sat in with trumpet player Wingy Manome and also Roy Eldridge.”

“And then he quit the trumpet all together?” I added.

“The story about that was, there were three trumpet players sitting around the Georgia beer parlor, downtown; Stu Barnett, Jack Townsend and Ray Smith. They were all out of work. Townsend said, “Richards is looking for a trumpet player. I think I will go see him.” Stu said, “Sandy de Santis at the Palomar, is looking for a trumpet player. I’ll go and see him.” And Ray said, “I’ve got a chance to work in a box factory. I think I’ll go and pursue that.”

And that was the end of his playing career. Don Endicott played at the Palomar. He went professional, played with

66 ~ Chris Stockwell (Stocky)

Ole Olsen. Don played with Ray Smith at the Commodore too. That was before Ray came to me at the Roof.

Roy Johnston played in the Lion’s band for years, starting around 1954. He played for a lot of years. Ross Armstrong played in the Haskell band, before he became an Optometrist.

Bob Randall was part of the Randall family, who owned the Hastings Park Raceway.

Norie Pearson was a great cricket player. Phil Baldwin became a radio announcer, so did Dorwin Baird. He was with CJOR. George Reifel, I think, started the vodka division of Alberta Distillers. Hector McKay was a copy writer at CJOR for a number of years, actually a lot of years! The studio was in the basement of the Grosvenor Hotel on Howe Street.

I remember the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933. There was a booking agent that booked all the big bands into the hotels in Chicago. They thought they would do really well, with the Worlds Fair on.

Problem was, people were tired after being at the Fair all day. So, we would slip the Maitre de a five note and he would let us sit in the corner, with a coffee and listen to the band. I don’t ever remember being turned away. Jack Bensted and I did that a lot!”

“Remember any of the big name bands you saw?”

“Clyde McCoy.......Sugar Blues, Art Kassel and his “Kassels-in-the-Air,” Johnny Hamp, Cab Calloway, Coon/Sanders, two guys, Coon was the drummer and Joe Sanders was the piano player. Ben Birnie was playing at the Paps Blue Ribbon Casino. We couldn’t go there!”

DAL RICHARDS ~ 67

“Do you remember any stories from the 1934 trip to England?”

“Yes, Chris Stockwell, our manager, who was not use to our rather stringent eating habits. He told a few of the boys on the train in England to go on up to the dining car and get something to eat. Well, when Mr. D heard, he lectured Stockie like you would not believe. They would have charged the band and the band did not have money for lavish meals on board a train. Stockie booked a lot of dance bands in those days, all over England. Really big time acts, we were a big time act. Jack Bensted and I again slipped the head waiter a little something, to allow us in to some high priced restaurants in London, so we could listen to the orchestra. We did that in Montreal at the Normandy Roof, at the Mont Royal Hotel. We did it at the Kit Kat Club in London. At the Kit Kat Club we listened to Joe Loss and his band. Joe was still going strong twenty years ago. He was doing cruises out of Southampton.”

“Is the Kit Kat Club still there?”

“No, it is gone. I have since done several series for CBC Arts National, on the History of the Big Bands. I did six hours on bands in World War II. I wrote the script. I narrated it and pulled all the materials together. The first hour was on Canadian bands.

The second hour was on British bands. Another hour was, “How the War Affected the Bands.” And then there was an hour on “Pearl Harbor,” an hour on “VE Day” and then an hour on “VJ Day.” When I was researching the Big bands, I discovered that Jack Bensted and I were in the Kit Kat Club in London the

68 ~ Joe Loss

evening Joe Loss made his first BBC broadcast. BBC.used to have one and a half hour remote broadcasts every night.

They would go to a different place every night, the Dorchester, the Kit Kat Club, the Embassy, the Savoy.

I remember telling Stockie about this the next day and he said, ”You mean they did not charge you?” I told him, “No, they just sat us at a table and said,” “By the way boys, when the band starts playing, make lots of noise!”

It was because half the place was empty during midweek.

So then Stockie ask, “Did you get to meet Joe Loss?” And we of course said, “No,” to which Stockie replied, “If I had known you were going there, I would have called ahead and got you an introduction because I book Joe Loss.”

So he did handle some pretty big name bands. We also heard Jack Jackson at the Dorchester.”

“Did you ever see Ted Heath?”

“Here’s a story!

We were playing somewhere in the Midlands. The Ambrose band was playing in the afternoon, hottest band in England.

Ted Heath played trombone for the band. So, some weeks later we were in the Selmer sales office in London and Ted Heath was there, trying a trombone. I went up to him and said, “Mr. Heath, would you play something for us?” he said, “Oh no, I’m not a solo man, I’m just a section man.”

So, he kept trying his trombone. He was quite kind to us

DAL RICHARDS ~ 69

but said, “I’m just a section man!”

That was before he had his own band. He became very successful. He was a late starter!

Ardie Steeves was a kind of a jazz guy. Jack Habkirk became a teacher. Don Wright, I think, became a banker. Don Cromie worked for a glass manufacturing company. Gordie McCullough use to turn up at the ‘Panorama Roof.’ He was always with a different woman on his arm. He did quite well.

He was a hot shot drummer for a while.

Stu Ross played in the Lions band. Jack Hamilton was my contractor for the Lion’s band. He tried to hire ex-Kits band members, if they were still playing. He played trombone. He went into the insurance business and was on the board of the musicians union.”

“What happened to you after 1939?”

“I had a band at the Palomar in 1938. Earlier, I had a band at the Alma Academy. It was a second floor ballroom. Then, I joined the Stan Patton Orchestra. I went on a road trip with them. We got as far as Edmonton where we opened at the Tivoli Ballroom in 1939. Our first night there it burned to the ground, all our instruments, music and uniforms, gone, so we searched around for new equipment. Next we played a week at the Strand in Edmonton. Then we wound up at a place called Pigeon Lake, for the month of August. We regrouped and played at some ballroom and then came back to Vancouver after Labor Day and played at the Alma. I kept on at the Alma Academy until the spring. Then Stan joined Mart Kenny, so I got a call from Mart Kenny saying, “I am going to leave the Hotel Vancouver, six weeks early.

70 ~ Bob Reid

There will be a six week interval before Len Hopkins comes out from the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa to play for the summer.”

As it turned out, Len was re-directed to the Jasper Park Lodge. So, we stayed on and on. I came down and auditioned for the manager.

In 1940, I succeeded Mart Kenny as music director and band leader at the Hotel Vancouver’s, Panorama Roof. I remained there for twenty five years and during that time, my orchestra was described as, ‘The Band at the Top of the Town.’ We were heard nationally on CBC Radio.

It was only eleven pieces but we featured in turn, the singer Juliette, Beryl Boden my first wife and Lorraine McAllister. Over the years the orchestra included, trumpeters Chuck Barber and Gordon Delamont and saxophonists Stan Patton and Lance Harrison.”

“How many nights per week did you perform?’

“It was an amazing five nights a week, twenty-five year run, which included twenty-five years of live Saturday night broadcasts.

“You played sax in the band?”

“Yes! In 1938, did Van Dunfee and Gordie Delamont play with you at the Palomar?”

“Yes!” “Around 1944 or 1945, we had a show at the Service Center, called “Furlough Dance Party.” It was located on Burrard Street, between Georgia and Dunsmuir. It was a ballroom on the east side of the street. Bob Reid was with me then.”

“Do you have any stories about Bob Reid?”

DAL RICHARDS ~ 71

ABOVE: 1944 Dal Richards Orchestra Hotel Vancouver, Top Left to Right, Tom Deeth, Frank Turvey, Ted O’Brien, Don Skiles, Pete Watt, Bud Henderson, Bob Reid, Don Dorazio, Byron Hauser, FRONT LEFT unknown, Beryl Boden, Dal.

“He did arrangements for me at four dollars an arrangement. He wanted to play a gig with Harry Price, on a Wednesday night. I said, “I can’t let you off but I will raise your arranging rate to five dollars, if that helps?”

“I was told he could read a book with one eye and his music with the other.”

“That’s true, at the Roof, I had a different sounding band than I do now. It was called a ‘Sweet Band.’ We had three violins, three saxes and trumpet and trombone. Quite often the trumpet and trombone had rests. He had a lot of free time to read a book.”

“Jim Findlay was there, when I got there. His wife,

72 ~ Hymie Singer

Honore, is coming to my ninetieth birthday party. Do you know about that?”

“No?” “My birthday is January 5. There is a formal dinner at the Hotel Vancouver. The Master of Ceremonies will be, Christopher Gaze and Bramwell Tovey will be conducting an orchestra. Then on Sunday, there will be a matinee at the Orpheum at two o’clock with the Corelioni Men’s Choir, full band, Jim Byrnes and friends. It is mostly corporate sales through Tourism Vancouver and I promote it on my radio show. It will be advertised in the newspaper in December.

Ray Smith played with me in the Furlough Dance Party. I have a picture of that band.

A gentleman by the name of Hymie Singer, who built the Palomar, had the idea for the ‘Starlight Garden,’ (summertime dances, down at Georgia and Denman). So, we played down there Tuesdays and Thursdays. In the beginning, we only played, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at the Hotel Vancouver.

I played for the wedding of Austin Taylor’s daughter, Patricia. She married William Buckley Jr., here in Vancouver in 1952.

When the Big Band music business slowed down in the late 1960s, I returned to school and received a Diploma of Technology in the Hospitality Management field from BCIT. A career in the hotel business followed. Then, as big band swing music regained popularity in the 1980s, the Dal Richards Orchestra and I have never been busier. We play corporate events and conventions, community concerts and special occasions, like weddings and anniversaries. I take a

DAL RICHARDS ~ 73

ABOVE: 1944 Broadcast from the Service center, Dal on sax, Ray Smith on trumpet BELOW: 1946 Dal Richards Orchestra, Starlight Theatre, Beryl Boden vocalist

74 ~ William F. Buckley Jr.

ABOVE: 1952 Playing for the wedding of Patricia Taylor and William F. Buckley Jr.

RIGHT: 1976 Dal with Arthur Delamont at Empire stadium

DAL RICHARDS ~ 75

fourteen piece band to the PNE each year and perform daily.

I will be doing that again this year. I have a combo that plays Saturday night dinner dances at the Pan Pacific Hotel every two weeks, as well!”

“Did you make any more records?”

“I have a CD called Swingin & Singin with Dal Richards & Juliette that is played often on Big Band Swing Stations across the country. My biography, ‘Big Band Boom,’ won a silver medal for documentaries at the 1998 US International Film and Video Festival in Chicago. And a musical special featuring my orchestra called “What Legends are Made Of,’ has been broadcast nationally several times on CTV and Bravo. On top of all that, I host a weekly radio show on 600 AM. Last year, I also did a four day tour.

In 1997, I played a cruise on the Volga River to Moscow.

It was a small cruise ship. I was there about twenty days.

A travel agent wanted to put a tour together. I used their musicians. It was the ships orchestra. They were a dance orchestra. The passengers were American. I took my music book. They knew all the tunes Gershwin, Cole Porter. They had been students at the Moscow Conservatory. I stopped and started them.

I was in London, on the way home and wanted to see the musical Chicago. Muriel, my wife, was in Liverpool. Someone I was with ask, “Did you see your sweetie last night?” I said, “She couldn’t get down, so we had to resort to phone sex!”

“That shocked them a little.”

“Have you done other cruises?”

76 ~ Dr. Swing

RIGHT: c1998 Dal at the Kirov Theatre, St. Petersburg

“I have done too many to remember, Panama, Hawaiian Islands, Mexican Riviera, Caribbean, both east and west, Alaska, with my own band.

In 1937, Bob Reid, got a contract on the CN ships, that sailed to Alaska, so I played on that. My first cruise job!

If I had the time and the cruise came up, I went. I played the PNE for many years.

“I thought this interview was supposed to be about Arthur Delamont?”

“I am finding your story fascinating. I thought I would let you tell it to the end. Besides, I think there is probably a lot of him in you.”

“There was probably a lot of him in all of us old boys, Chris.”

“Arthur was going right to the end. His was a lifetime of

DAL RICHARDS ~ 77

achievement of doing. For me, it is the same, a lifetime of learning that is what keeps me going. If I was not always learning something new, I am sure I would not still be here today.”

“Learning, achieving, commitment, life-long goals, do you think that might have come from Arthur?”

“I guess that could be! His friends called him Mr. D. My friends call me Dr. Swing!”

“Why doctor?”

“One of the awards I received was an Honorary Doctorate from BCIT.” “Have you received many awards?”

“I have received a few awards. Let’s see,there was a presidential citation from the Variety Club in 1993, the City of Vancouver’s Merit Award in 1994, the Order of Canada in 1995 and another award was from the Open Learning Agency in 2001.”

“So there were quite a few!”

“Not bad for a saxophone player!”

“If you could sum up your philosophy of life in one sentence what would you say it was?”

“That is an easy one, one is never too old to learn something new!”

CHAPTER 5

Jim McCullock “A group of the older boys, our fashion leaders, began wearing sporty pork-pie hats, which were very trendy at the time. This seemed to be a really “neat” thing to do, so I, being a painful copy cat, bought one too.

Big mistake.”

Jim

I graduated from elementary school in June 1931 and in September I was enrolled in Grade 7 at Point Grey Junior High School. Soon after that an announcement was sent home to all parents to the effect that a school band was to be formed under the direction of Arthur Delamont. By this time Mr. Delamont had attained a certain degree of local fame through his successes with the Kitsilano Boys’ Band at various musical festivals, notably the one at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto.

My mother was all-aflutter with the notion that her little boy could become a “boy soloist” – just like Roy Johnston!

My father was rather less enthusiastic, and I think that I felt somewhat indifferent about the whole idea. However, my mother’s iron will prevailed and we accordingly present

80 ~ Don Cromie

ed ourselves at the school one evening to be interviewed by the great man.

Arthur took one rather critical look at my protruding lower lip and promptly nixed the suggestion that I should learn to play the trumpet and decreed that, instead, I should play the trombone. I think that my mother was quite disappointed, but in due course we purchased a second-hand trombone for 75 dollars from Pacific Music on Richards Street (to be sure, Mr. D. was there to handle the transaction), and I embarked on what was to be a long and undistinguished musical career.

To paraphrase an old popular song, - “Arthur Delamont taught me trombone in a hurry.” He gave me two lessons in the basement of his Kitsilano house, and I learned how to read the transposed C scale, as written in the treble clef for trumpet or Bb baritone. This apparently qualified me to play in the school band. Certainly, it gave strength to the idea that early indoctrination can have a lasting effect, for although I learned over the next couple of years how to properly read bass clef notation, I also acquired a lifelong tendency to misinterpret chord symbols in trombone music.

What can I say about the Point Grey Junior High band?

– it struggled – the concert audiences suffered – the parents took pride – Delamont roared and lashed out with his baton – (all the legends are true!).

During the first year my fellow trombonists were Russ White and Mel Oughton. The three of us eventually did move up to the Kitsilano Band, but Russ and Mel soon lost interest. Forty five years later I renewed acquaintance with Mel in his hobby activities as a church organist and

JIM McCULLOCK ~ 81

restaurant pianist in North Vancouver. Don Cromie was our experienced veteran first trombone player, soon to move on to Magee High School. Hector McKay played French horn.

In the winter of 1933-34, when I was in my final school year at Point Grey Junior High, Mr. D. suggested that I should come down and attend rehearsals with the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. My mother was in seventh heaven and my father prepared himself to shell out 25 cents, twice weekly, out of his 100 dollar per month salary. I contented myself with a smug sense of superiority at now being part of the Kitsilano Boys’ Band, of Toronto and Chicago fame.

Rehearsals at the General Gordon School annex always started with Mr. D. sitting near the entrance with his notebook, carefully checking off each of our names as we tendered our 25 cent fee. Then came the testosterone – charged warm-ups, as each of us tried to show off his expertise, arpeggios, trills, grunts, wails, or the latest “neat” fragment from a current popular tune, finally to be interrupted by a testy, “come on, you fellows, do your practicing at home!”

Rehearsals could be quite intimidating – the pecking order was much in evidence. Some of the older members were kind, or at least tolerant; others were decidedly not. The music seemed discouragingly difficult at first. I was quite awestruck by our first trombones, Van Dunfee and Norm Pearson, who could actually play a solo passage without cracking a note. I had a very kind and tolerant mentor, Jack Read, who, despite being one of the older boys and having a lot of experience, seemed quite content to continue playing third trombone year after year. But he had a great low register sound and he played the third parts so beautifully!

82 ~ Gordon McCullough

And we had a killer saxophone section – Clif Bryson, Herb Melton, Alan Newbury and young Dal Richards, who had started out in the clarinet section.

There were the stars and celebrities: Roy Johnston, Don Endicott, Bob Reid on trumpet; Jack Allen, Harry Bigsby, Bernie Temoin on clarinet; the funny and unpredictable Mickey Crawford on flute; the caustic and formidable Stuart Ross on tuba, who, 30 years later, was to become a great friend and trusted business associate of mine.

And there was Gordon McCullough, snare drum, the quintessential man-of-the-world, along with Doug Cooper, bass drum, whose off-beat sense of humor would often lighten up a performance, not always with Mr. D.’s approval.

I gradually learned that Rachmaninoff was still alive, Rossini was not, mp means “not very loud” – not “more power,” how to double and triple tongue, how to count two consecutive 43 bar rests, hymns must only be played the Delamont way, Tchaikovsky was a Russian who may or may not be dead, proper stage deportment, trombones typically leave a messy floor in front of them, and how to keep two eyes on the music and one on the conductor at all times.

In the summer of 1934, the band prepared to tour England and Scotland. I wasn’t chosen to go! I probably couldn’t have afforded it anyway.

We, who were to be left behind, were delegated to play with another of Mr. D.’s bands that summer – The Vancouver Girls’ Band. I can’t recall who conducted us (it might have been Garfield White our publicity agent), but I do remember that we were fairly active, playing park concerts and excursion trips to Belcarra Park and Newcastle Island. Russ

JIM McCULLOCK ~ 83

White and I were on trombones, Hector McKay on French horn, and Bob Trerise on trumpet. Bob and I began a friendship and musical association that lasted until his death in 2005.

I can’t recall any specific activities or interesting stories about the Vancouver Girls’ Band, but I do remember some of the girls – Vera Filer was a pretty fair trombonist; Phoebe Findlay, flutist, also an excellent musician, was the sister of Jim Findlay, who was on tour with the Kitsilano Band.

Their father was magistrate James Findlay, a well-respected member of the Vancouver legal profession. Mae Scott, with whom I was half smitten, was the daughter of the head gardener at the McRae estate, Hycroft.

And then there was Joan Agnew, who was to marry Gordon Delamont, and whose younger sister, Lois, became a singer with Irving Lozier’s dance orchestra, with whom Bob Trerise and I played in the late 1930’s.

After the Kitsilano Boys’ Band returned from the 1934 trip, a major reshuffling of personnel took place over the next year. Many of the old timers and star players moved on to other activities or went professional– Roy Johnston, Don Endicott, Art van Dunfee, Clif Bryson, – and several died over the next year or two, notably trombonist Norm Pearson and saxophonist Alan Newbury.

Gradually the band took on a new face – with imports from Mr. D.’s West Vancouver Boys’ Band: Bill Barker, oboe; Russ Escott, drums; Stan Patterson, clarinet; Walter Parker, French horn; and Bob McCartney, trumpet. There were also new young players who would eventually become the stars and personalities of future years, such as Alan Johnstone,

84 ~ Cece Jenkins

Teddy Reser, Harold Atkinson, and Pete Humphrys.

Dal Richards and a very young Marvin Seis and Junior Green made up the saxophone section. Gordon Delamont, Harvey Stewart and Ross Armstrong were the first trumpets, and in the trombones Pete Watt and Don Cromie moved up to first chair, Eb Spencer played second, and Wally Reid and I shared third trombone.

Even some of the “originals” remained – Stuart Ross, who had abandoned the trumpet for the tuba, Wally Oatway, Bud Mottishaw, Cece Jenkins. Bob Trerise, who was my age, was even an original, having started with the General Gordon School Band at the tender age of 8.

As the year 1935 came to an end and we got into the new year, activity and anticipation of another tour of Britain increased. Each of us had to come up with a cash contribution of 100 dollars towards the band’s expenses, and in addition, we were each expected to take at least 100 dollars in spending money. Many of us tried to find spare time jobs to bolster our meager finances. I was able to work on Saturdays delivering groceries for our local Piggly Wiggly store on my bicycle. Mowing lawns and delivering newspapers were sources of funds for some. Band mothers held afternoon teas and bake sales.

The Safeway stores organization sponsored the band in a series of half-hour radio broadcasts. To this day I can remember the rather banal lyrics we sang to the tune of the “Jolly Coppersmith” march as the opening introduction to each broadcast. Theses lyrics were written, I believe, by Garfield White, and of course gave due credit to our spon-

JIM McCULLOCK ~ 85

sor, but in truth they were dreadfully corny: “We are the jolly Safeway men, from care and trouble free” – and so on. Finally the great day, June 15, arrived and we were on our way, to return exactly four months later, on October 15.

For many of us making our first trip this was a big adventure – an excursion into the great unknown. We were depression era kids, relatively unsophisticated, with little knowledge of a Canada that existed to the east of the Fraser Valley, let alone Great Britain. Kamloops and Revelstoke were unknown places somewhere up in what was referred to as “the interior.” Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal, we had read about in geography classes in school. Strangely enough, we had all heard about the Roxy Theater in Toronto, where there was reputed to be burlesque entertainment, complete with striptease acts. We could hardly wait!

The trip across Canada was exciting, busy, and enlightening – traveling in a crowded Pullman car was noisy, hard on the ego, and smelly. It was no place for a sensitive soul or anyone who cherished privacy.

Many of us enjoyed swimming – so we swam in the Columbia River, the Bow River, the Natatorium at Moose Jaw, the swimming pool in the Chateau Laurier. We saw the Canada we had read about: - the Kicking Horse Canyon, the Continental Divide, the Rockies, the Prairies, the nickel smelter at Sudbury, the lonely shores of Lake Superior. We went to the Roxy Theater in Toronto – it was everything we had hoped for. Our horizons were broadening rapidly.

And we played our music – Kamloops, Revelstoke, Calgary, Medicine Hat, Moose Jaw, Regina, Winnipeg,

86 ~ Pete Watt

Kenora, White River, Sudbury, wherever there was an available park, or station platform or Elks hall. And we stole souvenirs – notably engraved cutlery from the Nickel Range Hotel in Sudbury and the Walker House in Toronto.

Cliques started to form, some of which were to last long after the end of the trip; petty jealousies began, a pecking order was established. None of this served to diminish the esprit de corps that began to form –the conviction that we were an elite musical organization - the best in the world.

We arrived at Quebec City and there it was, our ship, the Empress of Britain, much grander than our Westcoast Empresses of Japan, Canada and Russia.

The ocean crossing was relatively uneventful – every morning we were awakened by the steward knocking on the door, “come and see the icebergs” – I think that one day we did actually see something that may or may not have been an iceberg.

There were rehearsals, a few performances, occasional forays into the first class areas – and much lusting after one particularly attractive young woman in First Class, who appeared to be the personification of wealthy and worldly sophistication. It was widely rumored that Pete Watt had been well received by this glamorous creature, but Pete was always a consummate gentleman and never did satisfy our prurient curiosity.

We docked at Southampton, and we must have had a few hours of free time before boarding the train for Yeovil, because I vividly remember the wonder of walking through the narrow winding streets and marveling at the ancient stone archways and cobbled streets, exactly as they had ap-

JIM McCULLOCK ~ 87

peared in the old books and British newspapers of my family home.

What can I say about our next three months? – it was certainly busy – with as many as three concerts a day, often in a different town each day. There were rehearsals, and extra rehearsals for the brasses; - fussy and fast little English trains, ancient buses, salty boarding – house landladies, and flushing the toilet by pulling down on a chain.

Memorable occasions: - tea with the Lord Mayor of London was all very nice, but how about the time when I had to hang on to the belt of an inebriated flute player as he peed out of the open back door of our bus all through Picadilly Circus during a late night return from a tour. The Crystal Palace Brass Band triumph was wonderful, but does anyone remember the infamous “black-balling” episode at the barracks of the Northamptonshire Regiment, during which considerable quantities of black Nugget shoe polish were used to paint certain sensitive regions of several youthful anatomies.

Or the very next night when a pillow fight took place, using heavy army-issue straw filled pillows. I remember it vividly, because I took a blow full in the face and was knocked unconscious briefly. The Northhamptonshires, of World War I fame, must have been glad to see us leave.

And the older guys were prone to brag about their prowess at “haystacking”. We younger ones made tentative attempts to emulate their example but I have good reason to believe that they were seldom successful. I have humbling memories of meeting a frighteningly persistent young girl (she might have been all of 14 or 15). I was selling band postcards during a short intermission at one park concert.

88 ~ Royal Dublin Horse Show

She was very “friendly” indeed, and I can well remember my feeling of panic at wondering how I was going to escape.

Fortunately, I somehow did manage to get away, and when I got back on the bandstand, found out that she had already propositioned several of the other guys!

There was a steady improvement in musicianship, our chops were getting better, and we could sense that we were developing into a first rate musical organization. There was a feeling of confidence that had previously been missing – we were now professionals – in spirit if not in actuality.

The brass players now started rehearsing in earnest for the approaching Crystal Palace Competition. I was quite devastated when Mr. D. announced the personnel he had selected for the actual performance. I was not “up.” I can remember being quite resentful about it, but later on I came to realize that Eb Spencer and Wally Reid were more dependable trombonists than I, and Arthur had made the right choice.

c1936 Irish Sweepstakes draw in Dublin

JIM McCULLOCK ~ 89

But at the time it was a bitter pill to swallow.

It is interesting to note that later on we heard that during our band’s performance in the competition, the adjudicators, upon hearing the rich and mellow sound of our trombone section, had assumed that those passages had been played instead by the French horns. Such a substitution would not be permitted, and they had briefly considered disqualifying our band as a contestant.

We went to Ireland, and had a chilly sleep on the deck of the ferry during a night-time crossing of the Irish Sea from Holyhead to Dublin. The Irish capital was quite an experience – the old buildings, the bullet marks in the stonework of those buildings, the small boys bumming cigarettes, meeting the Mills Brothers – who were on a concert tour, the pageantry and pomp of the Royal Dublin Horse Show, the thrill of seeing the Irish Sweepstakes Drum (that was a pretty big deal in 1936 – I suppose that for today’s youth it would be a

90 ~ Bob Trerise

big yawn).

Then came our stay at the working-class seaside resorts of Southport and Morecambe. I’ll never forget Arthur’s embarrassed silence as our agent, Mr. Stockwell, “Stocky,” gave us a cautionary talk on the dangers of striking up an acquaintance with “a certain type of woman” who probably came from nearby Blackpool, the noted sin center.

Scotland followed, with concerts in Edinburgh and Dunfermline, bicycle jaunts to see the Forth Bridge, bus tours to Loch Earn and Stirling Castle, and the Highlands, and much shopping for tartan, tam-o-shanters, neckties, and mufflers.

So many of us suddenly discovered Scottish ancestral connections.

A group of the older boys, our fashion leaders, began wearing sporty pork-pie hats, which were very trendy at the time. This seemed to be a really “neat” thing to do, so I, being a painful copy cat, bought one too. Big mistake. A short time later my hat suddenly disappeared – big mystery – no one had seen it, although I had my suspicions. These seem to have been justified since the hat was to be returned to me several years later by one of the former “in-group,” with whom I was by then on fairly friendly terms. I called him an obscene name, we had a good laugh, and I finally got to wear my no longer fashionable hat.

I have often wondered what it must have been like, for Arthur and Lillie Delamont personally, to take on the task of leading a pack of teen-aged boys on these trips – particularly in those days when society’s standards for acceptable behavior were somewhat more restrictive than they were to be later on. It seems to have been such a terrifying responsibility,

JIM McCULLOCK ~ 91

and such a lot of hard work, and yet most of the trips were relatively trouble-free. Arthur seldom showed the effects of any severe stress – I can recall only one incident on our entire trip – it may have been at the Brixton Astoria Cinema, when, in the middle of a performance, he suddenly threw down his baton and stormed off the stage. Fortunately, Gordon Delamont had the presence of mind to pick up the baton and continue conducting through the rest of the program.

After the Brixton Astoria engagement, Mr. D. allowed me to take a few days off to spend some time with my relatives, who lived nearby. I rejoined the band in time to play the night-time performance at the motorcycle races in Wembley Stadium. This was quite a thrill – to play before a crowd of more than 70,000 people. Then came the 6-day Bicycle Races at the Wembley Sports Arena, followed by the big triumph of our brasses at the Crystal Palace Competition. The excitement of that event almost eclipsed the wonder of the Crystal Palace itself – that magnificent 19th century structure of cast iron and glass.

Our tour was now rapidly coming to an end – we played one more week-long engagement at the seaside resort of Eastbourne and then all of a sudden we were at Southampton getting ready to board ship to Canada.

The return trip on the Empress of Britain was relatively uneventful.

One cameo memory I have is that of Bob Trerise and I having a conversation on deck one night with Canon F.G. Scott, of Great War fame, and his presenting us with cards on which were printed the words of the John McRae poem, “In Flanders Fields.” Canon Scott was just then returning

92 ~ Stu Ross

from the dedication ceremonies for the Canadian War Memorial at Vimy Ridge.

The train trip across Canada was also without major incident. There were concerts, and civic receptions. There was even swimming at Chapleau and Kenora, despite the early October chill. There was the thrill of the Kettle Valley train ride and the Myra Canyon – and on the last morning awakening to see the farm lands of the Fraser Valley out of our Pullman window, and realizing that in an hour or two we would be seeing our families again. It was over – how could you feel happy and sad at the same time?

I ask Jim if he wanted to say anything more about any of the other boys?

“Post band days, I got involved with Stu Ross very closely. He had Reliance Machine and I had my own business. I did a lot of work for him and a lot of consulting. Stu was his own person. Didn’t care who he insulted! We got along well! I had a great deal of respect for him and like wise! For years we had lunch together down on Hastings Street at the old Waldorf Hotel.”

“Did he talk much about Arthur?”

“Some, it was usually about how he helped Arthur do this or how he helped him do that, nothing critical.

They were both strong personalities and probably clashed a little, friendly clashing! Stu went right up to the top of the Shriners. He always wanted me to join. Even back in thirtyive or thirty six, Stu wasn’t adverse to telling him his opinion and he took it. The rest of us were very careful about voicing our opinion to Arthur Delamont!

JIM McCULLOCK ~ 93 Later Memories 1937 A heart-stopping moment when a tire on our bus blew out on Highway 99, enroute to San Francisco.

1938 I, as a freshman engineering student, playing in the UBC band enroute to a football game at Victoria College (U Vic), being reproached by our conductor, Arthur Delamont, for being drunk.

1950 Taking a lunch break from my job in a Winnipeg foundry to cross the tracks to the CPR Station to listen to the Vancouver Boys’ Band on their way to Europe, and Arthur trying to remember who I was.

1968 Arthur’s first comment when I showed up for rehearsals for the 40th Anniversary concert – “I thought you were dead”.

ABOVE: c1940’s Dance Band rehearsing at the Orpheum Theatre.

Wally Reid, Bill Brealey, and Jim on trombones. Ken Almond, Bob Tipple, Alan Johnston trumpets. Ken McKinley on drums. Leo Foster, bass. Ray Lowden,

94 ~ Arthur’s Concert Band 1970’s Playing various gigs for Arthur’s concert band – cruise ship departures, Chinatown funeral processions.

My wife getting steamed up because Arthur told her he thought that we should cancel a planned out-of-town weekend because he needed me for a gig.

1982 Coming straight to Arthur’s funeral service from my grungy industrial plant, I was the only one in the band with a brown jacket, pants, and brown socks. And a soiled shirt.

It’s been great, Arthur, I owe you!

CHAPTER 6

Paul Jagger “I lived in West Vancouver. I didn’t know what to play, so I said clarinet. Walter Parker and Porkie Downs came from West Vancouver as well. They joined the first official RCMP Band in 1938, when Joe Brown came to town and stole 14 of Arthur’s boys right out from under his nose.”

“Tell me how you first met Arthur Delamont?”

“I was living in West Vancouver. He had about six bands.

He became the leader of the West Vancouver Boys’ and Girls’ band. I started around 1935. Some of the guys from West Vancouver went on the 1934 and the 1936 trips to England.”

“Do you remember your first encounter?”

“I didn’t know much about the clarinet. My reaction was, Mr. Delamont was a strong personality. He just ran the place.

He wouldn’t stand for any nonsense. It was like a different world! I can remember him saying, “What do you want to play?”

Laurie and Stan Patterson played clarinet. They lived in West Vancouver. I was familiar with them, so I said,

96 ~ Johnny Hailstone

“Clarinet!” We had no money in those days. A chap came over from a music company in Vancouver and he said, “I can sell you a clarinet.”

Well, the middle clarinet cost fifteen dollars. So, I got this clarinet and went to the first practice. He said, “Blow an open G!” It was remarkable! He didn’t really know the clarinet but you learned from the other guys. There was no question that he knew what he wanted. He was a very strong leader.”

“Franklyn Hills told me that in 1930, the boys stayed in the Empress Hotel, when they traveled to Victoria.”

“He likely got someone in the CPR to cover the expenses.

He was really good at doing that sort of thing. He was a great salesman in that respect. He developed a lot of connections through the ‘Ladies Auxiliary,’ as well.

The West Van band went up to Vernon and Kamloops.

The accommodation was all arranged. We had a railcar. That carried on through the year. He just made the contacts with the people who had the hotels and the railway. He was very persuasive! He knew how to put it all together but the Committee and the Ladies Auxiliary raised a lot of money, very effective. They were very connected to the society types of the day, just tremendous.

The CPR was making money. They always made money.

During the depression, they were a very vital part of the community. The trains were the way to travel. They had trains, hotels and cruise ships.”

“Who are some of the guys you remember?”

“Jack Bensted was a great clarinet player. He could play by ear and he was a top notch reader. He always played

PAUL JAGGER ~ 97

first chair. He was a very likeable, good natured fellow. He came from the National Juvenile Band. He played tenor sax with us later. I did a lot of pro work with Jack and Dick Lazenby. We were a trio. Jack lived up North. He worked for a petroleum company, in sales, somewhere around Grand Forks.

Then there was Johnny Hailstone. Johnny use to live about two blocks from me in West Vancouver, at about twenty-second avenue and Bellevue. His mother was on her second marriage. She married Mr. Hailstone, who was a policeman for the West Vancouver Police Department. Johnny played drums.

Walt Parker was another. Walt didn’t go in 1939. The RCMP was starting a band. They came out to Vancouver and got several of Arthur’s boys, about fourteen in all. Some were suppose to come with us to England. Arthur wasn’t too happy.

“Take my boys!” he said.

Both Walt Parker and Porkie Downs joined up. Porkie played in the West Vancouver band, not in Kits.

Then there was Jack and Bill Allen. Jack became the leader of the RCMP band. Bill gave me clarinet lessons.

When we were in England, I got a letter from Walt. They had been down to New York with the band, where he met Tommy Dorsey and some of the members of his band. The RCMP band played at the RCA Music Hall.

Then there was Meade Sinclair. He sat next to me in the clarinet section, nice guy. He joined the air force. He died in a training accident or in the war, I forget.”

“Do you remember Alan Johnstone?”

98 ~ Kenny Bucholl

“Oh yes, we had a trumpet trio made up of Alan Johnstone, Fred Tossell and Carson Manzer.”

“Do you remember Kenny Bucholl?”

“Yes, he was a trumpet player. I remember, I said to Billy Barker, who was our oboe player, “I would like to go on the trip but I do not have any money.”

He was working at Westmore Furniture Manufacturing. He said, “I know the foreman; I’ll get you a job.”

And he did, fourteen cents an hour. The Superintendent of the factory was Mr. Bucholl, Ken’s dad. There would be thirty or forty guys lined up to get a job and here I got a job.

Connections, you had to have connections.”

“Do you remember Jack Ballantyne?’

“His dad had a job. I think he was in the clothing business because he was always well dressed.”

“How about Alan Forster, do you recall anything about him?”

“Oh ya, he was a good friend. He lived a half block away from me.”

“How did you get chosen to go on the 1939 trip?”

“What happened was, in October 1938, Arthur talked to the guys and he asked me if I would like to go.

When we came back from the trip, I went into Engineering at UBC. I graduated in 1943 and then went into the army for a couple of years. After the war, the first job I had was with General Electric in Peterborough, Ontario. Eventually, I joined Allied Chemical because I wanted to come back to Vancouver. I bought my own company in 1958.”

PAUL JAGGER ~ 99

“What do you remember about the trip across Canada by train in 1939?”

“We came out from England across Canada in 1927, so, twelve years later, it was like going back again. It was a thrilling experience. We had a marvelous time! A real opening up of what the world was all about. We had our own train cars.

Mrs. Delamont helped us with the cooking. I didn’t know it at the time but she wasn’t that well. Not really healthy. She was a very kind person. She always had a nice smile. She was a top notcher! She was more or less in the background, a hard worker, always very pleasant.”

“Did she interact with the boys?”

“No, she was like our mother. If we needed a button sewed on, that sort of thing. Mr. Delamont was the driving force. She was kind of one step behind him all the time.”

“Who were the chaperones?’

“I think it was Mr. and Mrs. Fish. They were very low key, very low profile.”

“Do you remember anything else about the train ride?”

“In Winnipeg, we played a concert in Assiniboine Park for thirty thousand people.”

“Do you remember Vera on the trip?”

“No, except that she played the xylophone and she was our majorette. She was top notch! She was really good but I never saw her on the trip. I think she was friends with one or two of the guys.”

“Do you remember Stocky, the band’s manager?”

“Yes, he was an excellent chap. He use to wear black suits and a black homburg, very professional. Stocky didn’t follow us around all the time but at our last date in Great

100 ~ Ian Richards

Yarmouth, he appeared on the scene. He went over to talk to Mr. Delamont. The guys said, “I wonder what he’s talking to him about.”

This was when they knew war was coming and this is what they were talking about. He said to Mr. Delamont, “The government wants you to get your band out of here.

Get out of England!”

The next day we got into buses and left for Southampton.

We left the next day on the Empress of Britain and zigzagged back across the Atlantic. Back home, our parents didn’t know what ship we were on and thought we might have been on board the Athenia which was sunk by a German submarine.

We thought the same submarine was probably looking for us because we were only two hundred miles away from where the Athenia went down.”

“Do you remember anything else about getting on board the Empress of Britain in Southampton?”

“I remember this, we got on the ship and went to France to pick up passengers to take back to Canada. They brought French newspapers on board and we saw: “GUERRE DECLARE” We left France in the evening. It was a beautiful clear night. I was on deck. As we picked up speed, there was a vibration. I’ll never forget it! Knowing there was a war behind us and we were taking off. No one knew what was going to happen.”

“Do you remember anything more about the trip?”

“I was born in Yorkshire. When we got to Liverpool, my uncle Herbert and his wife came to meet us. They said to Mr. Delamont,

PAUL JAGGER ~ 101

“We would like to take Paul back with us.” So, he let me go!

The last place we played was Great Yarmouth, great concert! People were holding hands and swaying back and forth, clapping, it was very joyous!”

“Do you recall any humorous stories?’

“No, we were just being kids. Didn’t really know what it all meant.”

“Then you arrived back in Canada. How was Arthur on the trip?”

“Most of the guys thought he was an excellent leader.

He was highly respected. He had a one track mind, the trip.

He didn’t show any outward signs of concern. When Stocky came up to him in Great Yarmouth and told him, “The British Government wants you home.” He just took his advice. His mind was always on the band. All he wanted to do was play music.”

“He was an extremely focused person!”

“Yes.” “He was very Victorian!”

“Yes, Salvation Army trained. There was a “singleness of purpose” there.”

“What do you recall about the 1979 trip?”

“That was an excellent trip. Jack Bensted was our first clarinet. Ian Richards played second. I played third. We went back to Great Yarmouth and played the concert dates we missed when we had to leave in a hurry in 1939.

In Scotland, we stayed at the University of Edinburgh.

Then we went down to the south, to Dartmouth. The guys

102 ~ Vera Delamont

got along fine. There was an excellent feeling on the trip. He had trouble getting the trip arranged and had to put his own money into the trip to make it happen.

One of the fellows managed to make some arrangements in Scotland at the last minute and we were off. He worked for the airport, here in Vancouver.”

“Tell me how you and Vera got together?”

“It was because I went back and started playing in the alumni band. In the late 1960s, she was down in L.A. with her husband and five children. Then she got a problem with glaucoma and needed some transplants. There was a Dr. Smith here in Vancouver who could perform the operation.

So, she came up. Just before that, she divorced her husband and went to stay with her daughter. Then she came up here

RIGHT: 1998 Party at Dal’s place. Back Row, left to right: Paul Jagger, Unknown, Vera Delamont, Franklyn Hills, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Doug Harkness and his wife.

Front Row, left to right: Don Endicott, Dal Richards, Hector McKay, Roy Johnston (on floor), Gordon McCullough

PAUL JAGGER ~ 103

and stayed with her dad.

It was marvelous, she could see again. She had three operations on each eye. During that time she began to come down to the concerts.

Then my wife passed away, so I got to know her. I asked her to come over to Saltspring Island, where I was building a house. One day, she was in the house and I was outside.

I heard this piano playing. I had no idea she could play. I got out my clarinet and played along. This made a real connection. So, we started to see each other. This would be the early seventies.

In 1982, she got a call from the lady in the apartment across from Mr. Delamont, saying he had been taken to the hospital. That is when he died. We got married, right

104 ~ Gordon Delamont

around that time.

We got along fine. I liked her. She’s a real nice gal! We played all this music together. We got along fine.”

“Did you know Gordon?”

“I knew him a little. Mostly just what Vera has told me. He wasn’t well. He picked up something when he was young, when he was a child. He had a band in Hamilton, Ontario.

He had to quit trumpet playing. Then he started composing and teaching. Mr. Delamont was disappointed that Gordon didn’t carry on with the band.

The music Gordon wrote fit in more with people’s way of thinking after the war. A lot of tension chords. The music he wrote was an extension of how he felt. Mr. Delamont was so keen on nice harmonies. Gordon was the opposite.

One time I went back East. I went to see Gordon. He was in the hospital. His son Gordo, played trumpet. Gordon and his dad never got along. Arthur wanted Gordon to be Arthur and he wasn’t, not a good relationship. He passed away shortly after my visit.”

“Do you know anything about the Vancouver Girls’ band?”

“Again, only what Vera’s told me. She said, “It couldn’t work.”

Mr. Delamont was too tough and the girls started crying. He couldn’t tone it down, couldn’t change. He helped so many young people, remarkable, just remarkable!

Delamont probably came from the Huguenot French in 1588. There was a big massacre. A lot of musicians, artists, educated people all left France and went to Southern England. They were skilled people, educated people. They

PAUL JAGGER ~ 105

established all their industries in England. I think that was his background a way back, and the business side of it? He was a good businessman!

Paul passed away in Vancouver in the Spring of 2012.

106 ~ Dick Lazenby

BELOW: Dick Lazenby banjo, Jack Bensted saxophone, Vera Delamont vocals, keyboard, Paul Jagger bass.

Vera Delamont “Gordon passed away in 1981, a year before Dad. That was really the beginning of the end for Dad. They were both brilliant but different people. Dad wanted Gordon to be Dad and take over the band after he was gone but that wasn’t Gordon’s kind of music. He liked jazz and did very well for himself in Toronto.”

I called Vera and made an appointment to visit her at her apartment in 1989. Vera lived on the third floor of a sixteen storey high rise next to Stanley Park. It was a pleasant walk down to Vera’s apartment, such a nice day, so I decided to take the route along the Stanley Park seawall. As I stood waiting for Vera to answer her door, I wondered what wealth of information I might learn from her on this my second encounter with Arthur’s daughter!

“Chris,” Vera said as she opened the door. “How nice it is to see you again. Come in!”

“Hello Vera, it is a pleasure to see you too!”

108 ~ Bernie Temoin

Vera was a lovely English lady in her mid 60s, when we first met. Her hair was short and blonde and she had a friendly inviting way about her. She liked to talk about her mother and father and was extremely proud of her father’s accomplishments.

“Please, sit down. How was your trip?”

I had just returned to Vancouver from Montreal, where I had lived since 1987. She showed me into the living room and over to a comfortable looking easy chair.

Just fine, I replied. I drove down from Montreal, through Toronto, where I took your advice and stopped and visited with Bernie Temoin.”

“Oh how is Bernie? I have not seen him in years. He was such a wonderful clarinet player, one of Dad’s finest. He went on to play the bass clarinet in the Toronto Symphony. Did he tell you all about his days playing in the symphony?”

“Yes, he did mention it. We did not have too much time.

He and his wife were leaving on a two week vacation to England, so I just managed to see him before they left.”

“Oh that would be nice for them. Now, where do you want to start? I have lots of scrap books you know, which you are welcome to borrow.”

“That would be good!”

“And family albums, as well as other things like trophies and of course, Dad’s trumpet and favorite uniforms. One is blue and the other is white. I have been trying to decide what to do with everything after you have looked at them. I spoke to the Vancouver Museum to see if they wanted to take them and they said that they did. They were not terribly excited but I guess museum people are like that. What do you

VERA DELAMONT ~ 109

think?”

“Yes, I know what you mean. That would probably be a good place for everything. Of course you know museums store everything away and only bring them out every so often for an exhibit. You would probably not be able to just go down whenever you wanted and see everything.”

“Yes I know but I do not really have any other options.”

“No, I guess not. The ideal solution would be if you could approach a private citizen who might be interested in funding a permanent exhibit. Do you know anyone who might be interested?”

“There were lots of people associated with the band who had lots of money. There was a time when Dad received financial help from several of them. In 1958, Jimmy Pattison helped pay for a reunion concert at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and afterwards covered the costs of a reception. Jimmy used to give Dad a new car each year from his car dealership on Main Street and the year of the reunion concert, Dad traded the car back to him so he was able to make up the difference to cover the costs.”

“Jimmy was in the band in the 1940s and so was Ray Smith, the President of MacMillan Bloedel. But I tried a few years ago to reach them both about helping out with a reunion concert and I could not even get to talk to them anymore, too busy I guess. Their secretaries said they would get back to me but they never did. No, funding was always a problem for the band. Dad was not rich you know.

“How did your dad manage to fund his band?”

“Oh, he was very careful with his money. He charged the boys for lessons. Mom liked to tell the story of walking into

110 ~ Dave McKenzie

their bedroom and finding stacks of quarters and nickels and dimes on their dresser, all in neat rows. He believed in being paid for the bands services. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, he charged a fee for playing. He also bartered a lot. He would trade for gas by promising to bring down the band and play in front of their service station to draw customers, in exchange for a tank full of gas. That was in the 1930s remember and times were hard. Dad loved people and he loved helping people. Whenever he was on tour in England he had the band hired out to seaside resorts and carnivals and regattas all over England to cover expenses. He was very good at finding capable people to travel with the band as managers. They would scout ahead and find inexpensive accommodations, maybe a Salvation Army hall where they would put up cots or a church or community center, seldom hotels but sometimes. Chris Stockwell was Dad’s first manager in England and then in the 1960s, the manager was an old boy by the name of Dave McKenzie.

Any money Dad ever had, he made in real estate not in the band business.

Back in the late 1920s, Dad built three houses on Seventh Avenue. He rented two of them and we lived in the other one.

Eventually, he sold them all. Then he started buying apartments, small apartments. This would be the mid-thirties. He had to find a way of making money. There wasn’t any money in the band business at twenty-five cents a lesson. I would be about twelve. There was no pension. He certainly had a head for business. He got out of the grocery business around 1926 or 27. Then he went into the band business. He knew that vaudeville was running out, this is when he got

VERA DELAMONT ~ 111

into real estate. No, any money he made, he made on apartments. He found it very frustrating. He hated the idea of losing money. He got out of it later. He was still in it in 1946 when I got married. He was always buying bigger and bigger apartments. Last one I remember him buying was a twenty room apartment on Granville Street. He was quite close with his business affairs, very English and very close with his money.

He used to buy horns and rent them out to the boys but he didn’t make any money. The house up on thirteenth, he bought the lot for one hundred and forty dollars. House cost thirty-five hundred to build. Then he sold it. That was just after the 1939 trip. After I was married, I never knew what went on. I know he had a stock portfolio.

I remember when I lived in White Rock with him, we went to look at some houses and he said, “Now don’t say a word. Don’t even let them know you like it. Wait until later and we’ll talk.”

He knew what he was doing. I remember him sitting there buying this apartment on second avenue. It started off at $69,000. He got it for $39,500. Just amazing, they needed money desperately and he knew it. That’s the way he did business.

When he wanted to be charming, he could turn it on. There was a pixie in him.

Mother never said much about money. It was a typical English marriage.”

“Did you travel to England with your dad and the band?”

“Oh yes, it was a real family affair. The first two trips in 1934 and 1936 that Dad took with the boys to the old

112 ~ Chris Stockwell

country; I was only 11 and then 13. I stayed with the chaperones. In 1939 however, when I turned 16, I talked Dad into letting me play in the band. I was the band’s xylophone player and majorette. ‘Forty-Nine Boys and a Girl,’ the New York Times read when we landed in New York for the World’s Fair. After the Fair we went on to England. As Dad said, “We are already half way to England so why not carry on with another tour of the old country?” which is what we tried to do!

We were in Great Yarmouth when things started to get pretty hot with Hitler! Chris Stockwell promised he would get us all out of England safely if we wanted to come over and true to his word, two months into our tour, in Great Yarmouth, he decided that it was time for us to leave. Our concert was cut short and we made our way by bus and under the cover of darkness, down to Southampton. We were supposed to go to Liverpool and catch the Athenia but at the last minute, Dad decided it would be safer to go to Southampton.

That was a decision which proved to be the defining factor in our safe return home. We learned later on board the Empress of Britain that the Athenia had been torpedoed by a U-Boat and had gone down with no survivors.

Poor Dad, no wonder his hair went prematurely white worrying about all of us.”

“Or maybe that was from 1914.”

“That could be, I do not know which was worse. You know, it is funny the little things you remember in times of tragedy. I remember sneaking out of the bus under the cover of darkness to get fish and chips while we were waiting to get on board the ship. There were covers on the windows so

VERA DELAMONT ~ 113

no light could be seen from outside.”

“What was the trip back like?”

“We had to zigzag back in order to miss being hit by a torpedo. Know one knew our whereabouts because of the blackout. We had to zigzag home, across the mid-Atlantic.

We could not let anyone at home know. They thought we were on the Athenia, as that is what they had originally been told. They thought we had all perished! Finally we came up the east coast of North America and arrived in Montreal.

Boy was everyone back home glad to hear from us. Dad wanted us to play concerts all the way back home across Canada but the parents would have none of that nonsense.

They put their foot down and told Dad to bring their boys straight home. The first time I think Dad ever did what he was told. Dad had to settle with being happy that the boys had played for passengers on board the Empress of Britain, to console them, as we made our way back across the Atlantic. Oh Dad was tough when it came to the band and the music. The music and the band were his life. But that time, he knew he needed to back down.”

“Did Gordon go on the 1939 trip?”

“No, Gordon got married the year before. In 1939, he moved his family to Toronto.”

“That must have been hard for your dad?”

“Yes it was but he and Gordon were two different people.

Both were brilliant! Gordon was a wonderful trumpet player but he preferred not to be in the limelight.”

“He was married pretty young.”

“Yes, he married to get away from Dad. Unfortunately they never got along as father and son. Dad wanted

114 ~ Joan Delamont

Gordon to stay in Vancouver and help him with the band but band music was not Gordon’s kind of music. Gordon preferred big band music and jazz. Gordon was also not that well. He had to stop playing the trumpet because of a heart murmur and he also had asthma. He stopped playing his trumpet and went into teaching and writing books on music theory. He took a few courses in New York but he mostly taught himself, a brilliant man but Dad never really recognized his genius until Gordon died. He died the year before Dad. That was really the beginning of the end for Dad. Dad never told either of us when we were growing up that we had ever done anything good but you have to understand, that was Dad’s way. I don’t think he ever told any of the boys that they had done something right.”

“But they all knew of course when they had done something good?”

“Oh of course they knew. It was actually Gordon who got Bernie to come out to Toronto. That was in 1939. Bernie had a hard time at first in Toronto. Eventually a conductor hired him to go on a tour and then he managed to get involved in playing jingles and then the Toronto Symphony.”

“Bernie is a very funny man. He brought out a scrapbook of his days in the band. In the scrapbook he still had pictures of some of his old girl friends. He told me that his wife had wanted him to throw them away but he did not want to saying, “Oh I remember a story about this one. I would tell you but my wife would kill me. And then there is this one that is another story.”

“Oh yes, Bernie was quite the ladies man. All the ladies loved him. Very sophisticated and debonair, that’s Bernie.

VERA DELAMONT ~ 115

Did he tell you that he had played for all the big names in show business, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby?”

“No, he never mentioned them.

Do you have any children of your own Vera?”

“Five, I have three girls and two boys. My oldest is in Calgary. He works for Petro Canada. The other four are in California. The oldest is Rick. My eldest daughter is Christine. Then there is Jocelyn and Sally and John. They are all married. Rick has four children. My middle daughter has two.”

“How many children did Gordon have?”

“Gordon had Susan by his first wife Joan and Debra and Gordo by Vina.

That reminds me of a good story on which to end. At my son’s wedding, unknown to all, there was some alcohol in the punch. Dad of course never drank. Well, after several glasses of punch, he was starting to feel pretty good.”

“Your dad did not know the punch had alcohol in it?”

“No, he would have been livid if he had known there was alcohol in the punch. Anyway, when we got him home that night, he was staying with us for the wedding, we put him to bed and of course he went right to sleep.The next morning he came down and said, “Funny, I do not remember coming home last night!”

We said that we were all pretty tired and that we had all gone straight to bed.

He never found out. He would have been very upset. No, Dad did not drink, he did not swear and he was completely honest!”

“I guess there were always forty-nine boys in your

116 ~ Fred Bass

father’s life at any given time?”

“And I was always the girl! It was pretty hard competing some times against forty-nine boys who kept changing every three to five years.”

“I guess it probably was, Vera.”

“But I managed. Yes, I managed.” she said, with a wink and a smile!

Twenty years later (2008) finds Vera in a nursing home.

Her eldest son Rick now lives with his family in Victoria, BC. All her children have copies of the books I have written about their grandfather and his band. They are grateful and happy to know so much more about his life. They never realized before the books, all that he had accomplished. I have yet to travel to Toronto to interview Gordon Delamont’s family but I hope to do so soon!

At the time of this second printing (June 2013), Vera Delamont just passed away in her sleep, peacefully at the age of 90.

Harold Atkinson “I went on the 1936 trip to England and played in the Crystal Palace Contest.

Boy, was that something!

We beat out 35 of Englands’ finest brass bands to take home the Cassell’s Challenge Shield. The Palace burnt down shortly after.”

“Do you remember your first encounter with Arthur Delamont?”

“He ran his baton around the inside of my bell. I had a baritone. Soon I was in tears. He was very stern. Most people had a great love and a great fear of him.

My main job on the Empress of Britain was to sell postcards in 1936. Everyday I went through first class. One old gentleman gave me a five pound note. I brought in quite a chunk of dough each day.

My father was the head of the meat department at Safeway. He was instrumental in getting Arthur a contract with Safeway. Fred Bass use to be our MC or announcer. We put on a series of concerts at the Georgia Hotel in the ballroom.

When we left Southampton in 1936, Stocky our manager, gave us all a little farewell speech. He said, “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and

118 ~ Mickey Crawford

from my wife’s bottom too!”

“You only went on the 1936 trip to England?”

“No, I went on the 1937 trip to San Francisco as well.

That was a bit of a hairy trip because the buses we hired had leaky gas pipes and everyone was under the weather. Some of us were quite ill, other than that, it was a good trip.”

“You played on the USS Virginia?”

“That’s right, we were the first Canadian band to play on a US battleship.”

“Do you remember who the chaperones were in 1936?”

“Mickey Crawford’s sister went.”

“What do you recall about the Crystal Palace?”

“He put me ahead of Hector McKay in the mellophone section. The adjudicators said, “We have never heard a band that played with such a mellow tone.”

“I remember being really nervous but we won. Arthur met one of the top band conductors in England. They went out for dinner (Harry Mortimer).”

“I remember Scottish girls were quite amorous. This one young lady ask me, “Would you like to see the town?”

Anyway, we walked around. She decided to show me lover’s lane. I was only thirteen. I was scared out of my mind. I didn’t know anything about that stuff. I had to beat a hasty retreat!

When we were in London, this letter arrived from this girl. It said, “One of my friends told me you are only thirteen. Is that true? I am eighteen!” I have one last story. I remember Dal

HAROLD ATKINSON ~ 119

bought this loaf of genuine French bread in Paris. He brought it back with us on the boat.

When we were coming across Canada on the train, he put it in one of the top bunks. We were almost home. Mr. D came by and closed the top bunk. He squashed the loaf of bread!”

ABOVE: 1938 Phyllis Humphrys, Pete Humphrys, Harold Atkinson to right at Newcastle Island

Hector McKay “I went on the 1936 trip to England as well and played in the Crystal Palace Competition. The trombones played so mellow that the adjudicators thought they were French horns and almost disqualified us because French horns are not allowed in a brass band.”

“I was sixteen in 1936. I remember running along the deck in first class, with my friend Alan. A large gentleman grabbed me by the shoulder and said, “Ah, I love to see young Canadian lads growing up!”

Then he started reciting poetry. When he finished he said, “What do you think of that lad?” I said, It’s as good as any I’ve learned in school sir!”

He let me go and started to laugh. When I caught up with Alan, he said, “Don’t you know who that was? It was Canon Duncan Campbell Scott, the Great War poet. He was reciting his own poetry!”

The test piece for the Crystal Palace contest was ‘Gems of Tchaikovsky.’ I remember we played at the Brixton Astoria Cinema in London. Arthur managed to get us on stage one afternoon, to rehearse the test piece. He asked the

HECTOR McKAY ~ 121

organist to listen and tell him what he thought of the performance.

Another time, we went to the barracks of a highland regiment (Scots Guards) in London, pretty important! Someone listened to us and conducted us. He valued their opinion. He changed the seating order. He said, “I’m sorry I can’t get my band to play for you. They are all on regimental duty!”

“Dal and Bernie and Jimmy Findlay went off to Paris.”

One time I wanted to find out what it would cost to travel to Cornwall to see my mother’s two elderly cousins.

It was an attempt to contact them that created the following scenario: I was talking to the hotel page boy about traveling to Cornwall. He said, “I’ll look it up for you sir!”

He had a bible and said, “Lord love us sir! Four pounds nineteen and six but you can use the phone for half a crown. I’ll get the number for you.”

“So, he’s busy getting the number. Meanwhile, there is this old retired army officer. I am sure he must have been from India. A great many of them were into their cups. He was drinking from a small glass, probably whiskey or gin.

All of a sudden I hear this voice. I was on the phone with someone who said, “All I can hear is it’s a Mister McKay phoning from London.”

The old warrior could see my frustration, so his voice came up, “Surely they can’t understand that Canadianese! Let me

122 ~ Pacific Northwest Music Festival

put that call through for you.”

And they didn’t! The page boy sympathized and said, “Ah, it’s always the way sir. It’s always the way but you tried anyway.”

After we were out of ear shot of the elderly gentleman, whom by this time had shuffled off to bed, I said, “Gosh, he was pretty drunk wasn’t he?” The page boy said, “Drunk! Not heem sir. He’s crackers! They’s paying to keep him here!”

Frank Hills “I was in the band from 1931 to 1935. I went on several overseas trips to Victoria on the Princess Alice.

We stayed several times at the Empress Hotel in Victoria and always won the Pacific Northwest Music Festival. Gee, those were great days!”

“How did you get into the band?”

“It must have been through contacts at Kitsilano High School. They made announcements that they wanted fellows to join the band. I went along with another fellow to see what I could play. Arthur did not want trumpet players but I took up trumpet anyway, much to his disgust, I suppose.”

“Do you remember what he said at that first encounter?”

“I had four lessons at Mr. D’s house next to General Gordon.

We thought we could tease him. One time we were late. So, the next time we put our pajamas on, over our clothes, behind the back of his house and went in. He was not amused.”

“No wonder you didn’t go on the trip.”

“I guess, I remember the first horn he got me. He came around to our place. It was a little Holten silver bell, jazz trumpet. I went down to his car to have a look at it and it

124 ~ Arden Steeves

had a lock on it but no key. So, I ran after him.

“No key!” he said.

It was a used case of course. That was my first experience with him. I remember one time I said to him, “Mr. D, I can’t make the next rehearsal.” He says, “Oh, well I guess we’ll have to cancel it then, shall we?”

Made me feel real important. We went overseas several times!

“Oh!” “To Victoria, we would catch the midnight boat. They would ship us all below deck and presumably we would all go to sleep and arrive in Victoria in the morning. There were a few times we went over in the daytime on the Princess Alice. This one time, it was quite rough. Mr. D was in his room, sick. We were up on deck, a few of us. We found some brooms and we would throw them up in the air and they would come down, further along the deck, toward the stern.

He must have had quite a time with us.”

“That’s the interesting thing. How he took a bunch of ragtag kids in 1930, and molded you into something else.”

“You’re darn rights it was, his discipline was great! To tell you how much his discipline meant to us, in the Empress Hotel, on one of these trips.....

“The Empress Hotel?”

“Ya!” “You stayed there?”

“Darn rights we did, so a bunch of us were having a pillow fight. The telephone rings. One of the older boys says, “Hills, Mr. D wants to see you!”

“Now, WOW, that was disastrous. I would have been

FRANK HILLS ~ 125

eleven or twelve. I was born in 1919.”

“And you stayed in the Empress?”

“Ya, sometimes we stayed with people but this time we stayed at the Empress. Every time we went over we won.”

“Except the first time in 1930, that one he lost!”

“Really, I loaned Gordon Delamont a quarter, so he could go to the Crystal Pool. He never paid it back.”

“One day, I am going to go to Toronto and visit Gordo, his son. I will get it back!”

“Okay!

Do you remember where the festival was held?”

“No, I don’t think we took a bus anywhere, so it must have been nearby.”

“Do you remember any of the guys?”

“Arden Steeves, he was very affluent. He won a trumpet contest in Toronto in 1931, so he phoned his dad to tell him.

His dad had said that if he won, he would give him a new car. He drove it to band practice at General Gordon. He was so proud of it, nice guy.”

“Pete Watt played in a trombone quartet with Jim McCulloch.

Stu Ross played in the Richmond Legion band.

Don Cromie’s dad was the owner of a glass company.

My mother made some of the capes.”

“The West Van band had little red bow ties.”

“That’s right! I forgot about that.”

“What do you remember about when Arthur left for Toronto in 1931?”

“All I remember is we were at a band concert in the bandstand at Kitsilano Beach. Afterwards, Arthur read out the

126 ~ George Fischer

names of those going to Toronto.

I remember fondly, listening to Arthur playing at the Stanley Theatre. Roy Johnston played a solo called, “When I Dwelt in Marble Hall.” Arthur used to play, “When You and I Were Young Maggie.” The variations were marvelous. He played “Carnival of Venice.” We played a New Years Eve concert at the Stanley Theatre. Afterwards, we were allowed to stay in the theatre to see the movie. I remember the lines to one song that was in that, “You may not be an angel because angels are so few. But until the day that one comes along, I’ll string along with you.” Those were wonderful days. Don’t think we realized it at the time. We were scared sick of him but he was good for us. The discipline carried on with us for the rest of our lives.

The other thing was that he played to the audience. He taught me to appreciate a lot of classical music that I would never have been exposed to otherwise. After each classical piece, he would play an encore. He would turn around on a button and you had to be ready or you were in trouble.”

“He was a showman!”

“Yes, he certainly was. We got into trouble with him on the 1979 trip because we weren’t fast enough anymore.”

“I think when he looked at us in later life, he saw us all the way we were when we were in the band.”

“I have no doubt about that. In the end, I got pretty close to him. We became very good friends. I put in a dishwasher for him. Almost all of us agreed later that his discipline was important to all of us. It was a great time of our lives.

Around 1938, when I was out at UBC, Arthur had the Varsity band. He played trumpet with one hand and the bass

FRANK HILLS ~ 127

drum with the other. One time my valve jammed. He said, “Here take my horn.”

So, I played Arthur’s horn for the rest of the night. That was a nice gesture, I thought.”

“He had a heart. He was a softy in many ways.”

“Yes he was. I was in engineering, Electrical engineering at UBC and graduated in 1942. Then I spent thirty-seven and a half years with BC Hydro. I built sub-stations and generating stations. Hydro’s not the same now. Those were it’s best years.

We opened the Burrard Street Bridge!

Didn’t get back together again with Arthur until he formed his pro band around 1954. George Fischer and I played a little with him. George was a great guy. We played in the Legion Band together and the Point Grey Concert band.”

“How old are you?’

“Eighty-nine, on January 13, 2008. “ “How did the 1979 trip come about?”

“It was the alumni band who arranged it. We played around town at the time. Two or three of the guys arranged it, two weeks in England, two weeks in Scotland. It was marvelous, just the greatest thing. Irene and I had a wonderful trip, no problems. Irene passed away about a year ago. I can understand how Arthur felt.”

“You look pretty spry!”

128 ~ Brock House Band

“Oh yes, I get around. I rehearse twice a week with the Brock House Big Band.”

“You’re doing pretty well!”

“I’ve got five children, eight grandchildren and one grandchild-in-law. It’s nice. They keep me going but I miss the guy!”

BELOW: c2008 Frank Hills playing in the Brock House Band.

CHAPTER 7

Don Radelet “He wrote something to me once about being a real friend to him, all these years. I was one of the ones he relied on over all these years. If I can take any credit for it, I sure earned it, on those hot days, lugging six or seven blue uniforms down to the dock.”

“Do you remember your first interaction with Arthur?”

“Yes,” “Keep still, get a pair of black pants and a white shirt for your first concert and a little bow tie.” “That was for the General Gordon School Band.”

“You weren’t one of the originals?”

“No, I lived in the neighborhood though, with several of them. Stu Ross was one.

My brother was the first to get a horn. He got a trumpet.

I was upset, so our parents bought me an eight dollar alto horn. Then we went down to Mr. Delamont’s place to have a private lesson. He scared the devil out of me. I didn’t have any idea what I was doing. Eventually, he said to me, “You should be on trumpet, you’re smarter than your brother.”

“Who were some of the boys who died in the war?”

130 ~ Pete Humphrys

“Meade Sinclair, Ross Sturley, Pete Humphrys. I was a very good friend of Pete Humphrys. I received a card from Pete at Christmas time 1943. He said, “Hope to see you soon old boy!”

It wasn’t long after that I found Pete’s picture in the paper.

There were several fellows who were killed in action in the air force.

“What was Arthur’s reaction to the loss of so many of his boys in the war?”

“Oh, it really upset him. I remember when the boy died in France on the 1962 band trip. Arthur played a hymn at every concert after that. Deep Harmony was the hymn.

I stayed in the band until I joined the air force in 1942.

When I came back in 1945, I got involved in soccer. Around 1950, after the band came back from England, someone said, “Why don’t you come down to the station to welcome the band back?”

So, I borrowed a horn and it was like I had never been away.

Then someone said, “Why don’t you come down to the Air force Reserve band?”

They had horns that I could borrow. I didn’t have my own baritone. Before long I was playing in every band. Half the Air Force band was ex-kits band members, Don Cromie, Ray Louden, Fraser McPhearson, Ozzie McCoomb.The better players always ended up in Delamont’s Concert band. He was very faithful.

I have been playing cruise ships since 1954. Right up until a cholera epidemic broke out on the boat then off for

DON RADELET ~ 131

three years. I have been back with the Cunard for about four years. It was always a bit of a thrill, marching out to the end of the dock. He would play Auld Lang Sang.

Every band I have played in, there has always been a half a dozen or so ex-kits band members; the Navy band, the Lions band, the PNE band, the Air Force Reserve, the Delamont Concert band. A lot of Delamont’s boys went on to conduct their own bands, Dal Richards, Ken Sotvedt, Ron Smith from Magee high school. He would never say they did well, he would always say, “I wouldn’t have done it that way.”

Around 1954, a bunch of us approached Mr. D about him starting his own concert band. Dal Richards was one of us.

Mr. D got up and said, “I have just got a contract for the British Empire Games.”

He says, “It ties in nicely, we just need uniforms.” Dal Richards got up and said, “Well Mr. Delamont, as you know, it’s dog eat dog in this business. I may have jobs that conflict with your band from time to time.”

He was just showing him that he was independent of him at that time. Anytime Arthur wanted an MC, he was there. but he wasn’t going to let Arthur conflict with his own livelihood.

There were only a few of us who have stuck with him over the years. Stu Ross is one. He was one of the originals. Roy Johnston wasn’t an original member of the band. He came a year later but he has been a soloist with him for a long time, as have Kenny Bucholl and myself.

132 ~ John Symonds

For years, he would telephone us up to see what was going on. We played in all the bands and he wanted to be in the know. Right up to the end, he was still calling up. He’d telephone at midnight just to talk if he couldn’t sleep. We never let him down. We played lots of Chinese funerals, dozens and dozens. All my best friends came out of the band, Alan Pugsley, John Symonds. Our wives all knew each other.”

“Who meant a lot to you in your life?”

“Arthur of course but another was old Bob Quinn, a janitor at General Gordon School. Through him I got involved in top flight hockey at St. Andrews.

Through Arthur, I got involved in playing in all these bands. The extra money I made was because of Delamont.

“Do you have any thoughts about the other guys?”

“Wayne Pettie is probably one of the top trumpet players in Canada. He plays everywhere in Vancouver, great player.

He can play anything.”

“Tell me about the 1939 trip?”

“Safeway was our sponsor. On the boat going over we always had a rehearsal. This was on the drunken Duchess of Bedford. It was called that because she rolled. We lost our encore book on the boat. For the whole trip we played without our music. He never did know. We were too afraid to tell him. We used to see lots of army trucks moving around. We toured the Blenheim Bomber factory, outside of Liverpool.

We knew something big was coming. Sandbags were going up around the buildings, air raid balloons were going up. I guess they knew Chamberlain wasn’t going to make it, when he went to see Hitler. Germany invaded Poland while we were there. We were just kids, more interested in girls and

DON RADELET ~ 133

going to the amusement parks on the pier.

Our ten cent Canadian coins fit perfectly in the Players cigarette machines. They were going to arrest us all if we didn’t make up the difference. We all had Players cigarettes on us.

In Birkenhead we stayed in a real old place. We were taken to Port Sunlight, a soap factory. We were all given samples of soap. We had a soap fight when we got back to our hotel. One bar of soap went through the ceiling. Cost Mr. D, fourteen pounds.

When we were in Great Yarmouth, we were ordered by the Admiralty to, “GET OUT OF ENGLAND” We were told to go to Liverpool and catch the Athenia.

We didn’t seem to mind. We knew some of the girls on the Athenia. They were Americans over on a bike trip. We had met them on the way over, so we didn’t seem to mind having to leave.

We couldn’t get through to Liverpool though because of all the cars and trucks on the roads and school kids. This was about the first or second of September. Everyone was getting out of the cities. There were lots of military vehicles. We ended up being told to go down to Southampton where we caught the Empress of Britain.

Went over to Cherbourg, where we picked up a bunch of Polish refugees and a lot of Americans. Ship was crowded, there were beds everywhere. We all had life preservers. We never missed a meal. During the day, we were up on deck.

We could see the zigzag behind us. We went down by Africa.

We could see the crew hanging over the side, painting the

134 ~ Halie Selassie

portholes black. We were told the submarines were after us.

War had been declared!

We finally got home and made it to Ottawa. Delamont had us set up under the Peace Tower and started to play a concert. Someone came out and told us to leave. We didn’t have permission. So, we went back to the train.”

“What do you recall about the New York World’s Fair?”

“Well, we played for Swifts Ham. We stayed at the YMCA on 20th Street. Had a wonderful time. Everyday the bus would take us out to the Fair. We went to all the different pavilions, saw the Billy Rose Show, the sky train, great place!

I remember in Bath, there were about three or four of us in this one room. We c 1980s Arthur Delamont had the only window from which you could get to the ground. We charged the guys to use our window because we were broke.

That’s where we saw Haile Selassie who was in exile at the time. It was in a freight yard. This old fellow was out painting with his easel and his dog.

It was Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia. We stood and watched him painting.

We saw Beverly Baxter, an MP. He showed us around the Houses of Parliament. We had high tea and fancy cakes.”

We could play pretty good by the time we returned home.

DON RADELET ~ 135

“Do you have any thoughts about the 1979 trip?”

“We stayed in this great old place in Glasgow. We were very lucky. Did some jobs we were hired to do. He came to me one day and said, “You didn’t bring me anything to practice did you?” I said, “Ya, I have Scenes That Are Brightest!”

Instead, he had me learn it! I had to play it at every concert.

He didn’t have any good trumpet players.”

“Do you have any other memories?”

“I remember playing for this one Chinese funeral in Concert Band. Brian Bolam second from left. Don second from right with Euphonium

136 ~ Jimmy Pattison

particular. We had to change in a funeral home. They had open caskets in the room. That was kind of eerie. We played so many that sometimes we would just leave work and go to them. Only problem was, we would often wind up on the evening news because the fellow was famous. You could only go to the dentist, so many times!

Stu Ross was the MC at one of Arthur’s concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. He said, “We have some guys who have gone to the dentist so many times. Stand up Don and show everyone your teeth!”

Jimmy Pattison would always show up late. The curtain was ready to be drawn. He wouldn’t have a bow tie. I always carried a couple of extras. I would pass one along to him.

Jimmy was on the committee that organized the reunions.

Even at those meetings, he would be in the corner on the telephone. He looked after the advertising.

“The girl that I got to know on the Athenia going over to England, I got a letter from her sister, when I returned, saying, “Norma had drowned on the Athenia!”

“We all had to wear life jackets coming back in 1939. He was very concerned. He knew it was risky. After the Athenia was hit, there was lots of concern back home. I know that he split his money up between himself and his wife, in a belt, which he gave to her, in case there was an emergency, she had half, he had half. He was a very sentimental guy. He’s been on the telephone to me crying about his marriage, how lonely he was. His eyes were bothering him at the end. His contact lens’ would go away up inside and he couldn’t see.

He had a concert in the morning. George Fischer and his

DON RADELET ~ 137

wife, (he was a druggist up on Dunbar Street), they sort of looked after him at that time. He liked to be babied. He had to have his apple sauce and tea after the concert was over.

There was a sentimental side to the guy, almost childlike in some respects. He would push chairs around and he would say, “Don, go out and set those chairs up.”

He knew I knew where they went and how many we needed.

He had me hiring the guys. He’d call me and say, “Don, I need six trumpets tomorrow.”

I didn’t know where I was going to get six trumpets. Often the guys would have concerts on that same day but I usually came up with them somehow. If I sent him the wrong guy, then he would give me hell.

“I didn’t want him!” he would say. Not only that, I would go all over the place picking up uniforms for the guys who didn’t have them. He wrote something to me once about being a “Real Friend’ to him, all these years. I was one of the ones he relied on over all these years. If I can take any credit for it, I sure earned it. On those hot days, lugging six or seven blue uniforms down to the dock and then if I was a minute late, “Don, where have you been?”

I never got paid anything extra. He knew who he could talk to that way.”

“Do you have any last thoughts?”

“On the 1979 trip, we were in a place in Scotland where they have mock weddings. There was a piper playing with his hat set out on the street. Our bus pulled up and Delamont says,

138 ~ Ozzie McCoomb

“Everyone out and get set up.”

He didn’t realize that this piper was trying to make a living, he just takes over but that was Delamont at the end. He then put his own hat down and says, “We are playing our way around Scotland and we need your support.”

Anyway, that night, Jack Bensted (one of the originals), and Ozzie McCoomb, met with Arthur and told him they were going to go home if he did that again. That and the fact he started ranting and raving at everybody because he didn’t have a good trumpet section, upset the guys. After they talked to him and he realized they weren’t kids anymore, it was a great trip. I even gave out flowers, at the end, to all the ladies. I saved the last one and said, “This is for the little girl that didn’t make this trip. Vera!”

He was in tears. Just an old softy!

This interview was conducted with Don in 1988. In October 2007, Don entered a nursing home, suffering from the effects of Alzheimers disease. A great guy!

Don passed away in March 2011.

CHAPTER 8

Jimmy Pattison “I have met many impressive people in my lifetime but I would have to say the three most impressive were Arthur Delamont, Margaret Thatcher, (We got to know Margaret Thatcher very well) and the third would be Charles Wick, Ronald Reagan’s best friend.”

Jimmy Pattison had been a member of the band in the 1940’s. I had called his office to see if I could interview him for this book. When I got back to my office, I found a message on my machine that made me very pleased. It was from Maureen Chant, Mr. Pattison’s assistant, indicating that Mr. Pattison would be able to see me at four o’clock on Wednesday afternoon.

That was a stroke of luck, I thought! Maybe now I would be able to piece together more of Arthur and the bands activities during the forties. So, on Wednesday afternoon, I made my way over to Hastings and Burrard. Mr. Pattison’s office was high up on the eighteenth floor of a new high rise building on the downtown waterfront. Making my way inside the building, I informed security that I was there for a four o’clock appointment with Jimmy Pattison. The security guard asked me if my name was Christopher Best.

140 ~ Maureen Chant

He then ushered me into one of the elevators, quickly activating the eighteenth floor for me and leaving me alone in the elevator as it ascended to the penthouse suite.

As the elevator door opened, I looked to the left and then to the right. I then made my way to the left, where I was greeted by a receptionist, who took my jacket and rain pants.

The weather had been exceptionally bad for July in Vancouver. It had rained practically every day that week. ”Mr. Pattison is still in a previous meeting. He should be through soon. You’re welcome to have a seat,” the receptionist said, pointing to some comfortable looking chairs to the right.

As I looked around the large open room, which seemed to go away off to the left and away off to the right, leading to more open spaces, directly ahead, through a large picture window in someones office I could see the water in Burrard Inlet, and Stanley Park beyond. Turning around, I saw an entire wall filled with framed pictures, extending the length of the wall, both to the right and to the left. The wall was broken up by doorways every ten feet or so.

“No, I think I will just have a look at the pictures if I may?”

I replied. Making my way over to the nearest collection of pictures, I could see that they were all framed ‘Life Magazine’ covers from the year 1961. In the middle, was a large picture of ‘Jimmy Pattison Buick,’ at 18th and Cambie. On each Life cover, was a full page picture of a famous movie star or public figure! Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, Kruschev, John Kennedy, Bridget Bardot, Eisenhower. On the next wall, were pictures of well known personalities from over the years either by themselves or with Mr. Pattison.

JIMMY PATTISON ~ 141

There was Nancy Reagan, Al Gore, Jean Chretien, Rudy Guliani, Bill Cosby, Tom Selleck, Steve Wynn, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., Prince Charles and Lady Diana and Margaret Thatcher.

Just then, I could hear some voices near the reception area, so I made my way back quickly passing Mr. Pattison on his way to another office to retrieve something. Upon seeing me he said, “How are you?”

“Just fine,” I answered, as I continued on back to the safety of the comfortable chairs in the corner.

“Hi Chris, I am Maureen Chant,” a voice said coming out of the nearest office. I got up and went into the office, where I found Maureen sitting behind a desk.

“Mr. Pattison should not be too much longer,” she said.

“No problem,” I answered.

“What is the significance of the Life Magazine covers on the wall?” I ask.

“That was the year that Mr. Pattison started in business.

We have them up on the wall, as a reminder of how far we have come. You would be surprised at how many people have never heard of some of those personalities.”

“Too young I guess,” I replied.

It wasn’t long before Mr. Pattison was back, showing two or three guests his picture collection before depositing them at the elevators. Making his way back to the reception, Maureen and I came out of her office to greet him.

“Have you met Chris Best yet? said Maureen. He is writing the books on Arthur Delamont.”

“Hello Chris!” Mr. Pattison said, extending his hand and

142 ~ Al Colette

ushering me into the room from which he had just emerged.

Once inside the room, Mr. Pattison said to me, “They were just in town from Shanghai. Sorry they took so long.”

“No problem,” I replied. “I am intruding on your daily schedule. It is kind of you to see me at all.”

“Oh no, that is fine. I wanted to talk to you.”

As I sit down on a sofa against the back wall, Mr. Pattison follows, sitting on a nearby chair at the end of the sofa. He is a well dressed man, wearing a sports jacket and dress slacks and tie. In his late seventies, he speaks with a soft voice that has been in command of boardrooms around Vancouver for nearly fifty years. At a time when most people his age, have long since retired, he is still the spark plug in the business conglomerate that he founded and forged with his own hands and which still bares his name, ‘The Jim Pattison Group’.

“Tell me, how you met Arthur Delamont? “ I asked.

“Al Colette went up to Kamloops. He has some land up there. He likes the outdoors. He absolutely was the best trumpet player, I have ever heard in my time. He and I use to play in the Vancouver Junior Symphony. It was Al who got me into the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. This would have been when the war was on, probably about 1943. Al was first trumpet in the symphony and I was second trumpet. He said to me one day that he was going to join the Kitsilano Boys’ Band and that I should join too, so I did. He had the most beautiful tone on his trumpet. He could have played professionally and gone right to the top of the charts in the music business but he preferred to be on the farm. That is what he enjoyed doing. His parents had a farm out in the Fraser Valley. He

JIMMY PATTISON ~ 143

was raised there. Then there was Bruce Ailsbury. They were the two main players I knew, during my time in the band.

“You were involved with the pep band at UBC?” “Oh yes, I went from the Kitsilano Boys’ Band, to playing with Delamont in the UBC Pep band. It must have been after the war.”

“Any stories you can recall from those days?”

“No, I cannot remember anything much. I wish I could give you some. The only thing I remember happened at band at General Gordon School. This was Kits band not UBC. Delamont got mad at a fellow by the name of Bill Harvey.

He was playing on my stand. There were a lot of trumpets.

In the first row there was the first stand, the second stand and the third stand. I was playing third stand. Then there were another three stands behind us in the second row. I was in the front row with Bill Harvey and Dr. Gripson’s son. Delamont was playing. There was a big pause. Bill Harvey played a note and Delamont went wild. He made everybody start over again. Bill was always willing to try hard but he did EXACTLY the same thing, the second time and Delamont was really burned up. We had to start over again, a third time. The third time, Bill Harvey did the same thing. Delamont went over and got an inkwell. You remember those inkwells they used to have on the desks in school?”

“Yes. I certainly do. He didn’t?”

“Oh yes he did! He poured the ink down the guys back he was so mad.”

“Couldn’t do that today,” I replied.

“No, he couldn’t do that today but I always remember that!”

144 ~ Ray Smith

“You obviously kept affection for Arthur over the years”.

“Oh yes.”

“Do you think he influenced your later life at all?”

“When I was just starting out in business and they had the first big reunion concert at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, I gave him a new car. That was about 1963. I was just getting going back then and it was a sacrifice but I wanted to do something for him, so we gave him a brand new car. I did it for him on behalf of the band but that was the kind of feeling I had for him. The spark plug of that whole deal, that first reunion concert was Ray Smith, who of course was the President of MacMillan Bloedel and eventually the chairman. That is when I first met Ray Smith. They had a committee meeting at the Delamont’s house. They ask me to go on the committee for the reunion. So, Ray was the chairman of the committee. I remember, I had never seen such organized notes like Ray Smith presented. To this day, I use the format that Ray Smith had at the committee meeting at Delamont’s house; on who’s responsible, by what date and so on. I had never seen that before. To this day, in my own company, I use the format that Ray Smith had at Delamont’s house.

It was a great place to develop lifelong friendships. Al Colette, I met in the band and we have remained friends to this day. Everybody in that band developed a bond. They really did!”

“Do you feel Arthur was an influence in your later life?”

“You know, I was thinking about that the other day. If somebody asked me, who were the most impressive people I have met in my lifetime, I would say, Arthur Delamont,

JIMMY PATTISON ~ 145

146 ~ Ronald Reagan

Margaret Thatcher (we got to know her very well) and the other would be a fellow by the name of Charles Wick. He was the head of the United States Information Agency in Washington DC and Ronald Reagan’s best friend! For maybe thirty-five years, Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan spent Christmas with Charles Wick and his wife, who was named Mary Jane Wick. They lived in Los Angeles in Lana Turner’s house. But, those three people were the most impressive people that, individually, made an impression on my life. One of the things that impressed me most about Arthur was the integrity of the man. He had a passion for his work.

He was totally honest. Today, I do not think he would do nearly as well because he couldn’t be himself. You can’t do this, you can’t do that, he did what he did! His training in the Salvation Army put him in good standing. He always played a hymn. I always liked Abide With Me! Anything else you want to talk about?”

“No, not unless you have some more stories.”

“If I think of anything more, I will let you know but I sure always remember the Bill Harvey incident. I always remember the committee meetings, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the UBC stuff!

What impressed me most was his integrity, his passion, his discipline, his commitment to the boys. He didn’t pull punches. He didn’t care if you were rich or poor or from what family you came. He treated everybody the same!”

CHAPTER 9

Ray Smith “When I was in Toronto in the early 1940s, I often went down to New York and sat in with Wingy Manome’s band or with Roy Eldridge. But I gave it all up to go into the box business.”

Before I left Mr. Pattison’s office, I ask him if Ray Smith had any children that I might try to contact regarding scrap books and memorabilia from Ray’s band days. He said, “Ray was ahead of me in the band but we did become very good friends. I got to know him through the band but not until the first reunion concert was held in 1963. Ray has a son and at least one daughter.”

“Do you know his son’s name?”

“Yes, let me see. Come on, I need to check in my office.

We both get up and I follow Mr. Pattison out past the reception and around to the right and into another room.

“Here it is! His name is Stan Smith,” he says checking his Blackberry. “He was working for Sonora Lodge, for

148 ~ Juliette

Brandt Louie. You know, IGA, London Drugs.”

“Yes,” I reply. “Where is Sonora Lodge located?”

“It is up near Stuart Island. They have a beautiful place up there. I am sure that he will have some scrapbooks or his sister will. He had a couple of sisters. One of his sisters stopped me when I was going to the dentist one day. I had parked my car in a Safeway lot. She was coming out of the Safeway Store. She told me she had some stuff from when her dad played the trumpet. But Ray Smith was one of a kind!

He was a very special guy. He just died not too long ago.

Here’s a guy who came out of the band, went to Toronto and played professional trumpet as a result of being in the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. Delamont raised him basically in the music business. He was top drawer. He was so good! He was ahead of me, so I never heard him play in the band but I would take him out on my boat and Ray and I would play the trumpet on my boat. We would have dinner and bring a group of people and Ray would play his trumpet and so would I. But I met him --- back it up! The friendships that I made through the band meant a great deal to me. There is a bond there. Anyway, I would call Stan Smith. Ray Smith put a lot of effort into the band. I would say that Arthur Delamont relied on Ray Smith more than any other single person in his whole system.

After Ray left the band, Delamont went to Ray Smith for reunions, advice or whatever. Ray Smith was a huge friend of Arthur Delamonts. Of all the people who went through the band, I would bet that Ray Smith would be in the top five people that meant something to Arthur Delamont.”

RAY SMITH ~ 149

“Thank you very much.”

“Okay.”

The next morning I called Stan Smith and talked with him about his father, for about fifteen minutes. When I got off the telephone I dialed another number, which Stan had given me. In a moment, an energetic female voice answered.

“Hello?”

“Is this Juliette?”

“Yes it is,” the voice replied.

During the 1960s, Juliette, could be seen and heard across Canada, on CBC TV, on Saturday nights, as her musical variety show was broadcast live from coast to coast.

“This is Christopher Best. I am writing some books on Arthur Delamont and the Vancouver Boys’ Band. I was just speaking to Stan Smith regarding his father Ray Smith. He said that you were Rays’ best friend, for the last few years of his life. He thought you might be able to tell me some stories about the musical side of his fathers’ life.

“Ray and I met again after we both had finished our careers, so to speak. But he did tell me a few stories. I remember him saying when he lived in Toronto he would often go down to New York, in his uniform and sit in with some of the top jazz bands of the day.”

“He must have been good?” I replied.

“Oh yes, I think so! Arthur Delamont, boy there were a lot of good musicians came through his band. His son Gordon wrote arrangements for me for a while in Toronto. And Dal Richards came through the band. He is a friend of mine.”

“I would love to visit with you and hear your stories?”

“Sure, give me a call back in a few days but not before

150 ~ Vicki Burroughs

one o’clock.”

“Yes, Stan told me, once a musician, always a musician.”

In my efforts to try to find out more about this old boy, whom also had been trained as a top notch trumpet player, I discovered instead that he rose to the top job as President and CEO of MacMillan Bloedel. I contacted one of Ray’s two daughters, Vicki Burroughs. She supplied me with some M.B. newsletters that basically told me the story, of that part of Rays’ life.

Ray Smith became the CEO of MacMillan Bloedel in the 1980’s, after twenty-six years of working his way up through the ranks of sales, assistant manager, newsprint representative in Pasadena, California, manager of three different departments, general manager, vice-president and president.

He called himself a ‘Jack of all trades.’ He once said, “I was told years ago, that good luck is when preparation meets opportunity.”

Ray started playing trumpet in the Point Grey Junior high School band under Arthur Delamont. He later graduated to the Kitsilano Boys’ band. At age sixteen, he began playing professional trumpet with the Dal Richards band, in 1942.

For the next fifteen years, he played clubs and performed concerts across Canada and in the United States, as well as on the radio. When asked about the Kits band, he would say, “Being in the band meant hard work, discipline and high standards. Delamont’s standards were sometimes embarrassing. One such incident was at an international competition when the band was awarded marks of 100 percent. When Delamont received the award he delivered a scathing attack on the judges saying,

RAY SMITH ~ 151

“Any fool would know that nothing is perfect.”

The band shriveled up with embarrassment.”

Before joining MacMillan Bloedel in 1957, Ray worked days at Warren McCuish Men’s Clothing Store, where he was a partner and seven nights a week, he played the trumpet. A year and a half later, he realized that the clothing business was not for him, so he took a sales position in Vancouver with Davies Paper Box Ltd., where he became sales manager. Four years later, he left to join Home Oil Distributors Ltd. as manager of their Marine Division. When he eventually joined MacMillan Bloedel, in 1957, his salary was only $6,800 a year. He said, “It was fun and challenging to be in on the ground floor of the paper business. Our department had the best of both worlds --we were part of a large company but we did our own thing. Over night we became a power in the paper industry. Everybody had real pride in MacMillan Bloedel. HR MacMillan was one hell of a guy. There was wonderful spirit. I still have that spirit and I know others who were around back then still have it as well.”

When Ray was ask one time about his father Stan Smith (an original member of the Kits Band), he commented, “My dad was active in many sports and business associations. He was in real estate development with Royal Trust for fifty-two years. He also found time to be General Chairman of the British Empire Games held in Vancouver in in 1954.

He probably bought and sold every piece of downtown Vancouver three or four times over. He was the best businessman I’ve ever known as well as a very good friend.”

Ray never came across as a workaholic or an over

152 ~ Stan Smith

achiever, despite his steady rise to the top and his regular seven am arrival at the office. Words that usually cropped up when his colleagues described him were ‘relaxed’ and ‘very approachable.’ His management style was not autocratic and he tended to consult others who were affected by his decisions or who would provide useful information. Ray put a premium on producing when the chips were down. One of his favorite stories was from his days in the entertainment world.

“I was playing with Dal Richards; we did broadcasts right across the country. I was playing second trumpet and an older fellow played lead. Three minutes before air time he took ill and I had to play lead with this huge band. I know Richards felt just sick; I was sixteen or seventeen at the time. It came off fine --- to the extent that Dal stayed with one trumpet and added a fifth saxophone. When you get under pressure and find out you can do it --- the kick is something else. I felt pretty good about that.”

Now, more than ever, I wanted to hear Juliette’s stories about Ray. But I also wanted to talk further with his son, Stan. I managed to catch up to Stan at the ‘Jericho Tennis Club’ a couple of weeks later, just before he was about to depart on a business trip to Japan. Here is what he had to say, “Dad loved music! When I was a young kid growing up, there would be lots of parties at our house. Our home was sort of like a central spot where Dad’s friends would come and a lot of times, Dad would be playing the trumpet and other people would be playing other instruments. He had an unbelievable love of music. He used to tell us stories of

RAY SMITH ~ 153

when he played in the band, his days at the ‘Cave Supper Club,’ the ‘Commodore’ and the ‘Panorama Roof, his Kitsilano Boys’ Band days. If he wasn’t playing he was listening to music. He and my mom were almost the reverse of young kids, in that they would have the stereo blasting. Dad would pretend to be a conductor. He loved Sinatra and the big band sound. He had a real love for music.”

“What kind of a guy was he?”

“He was one of the easiest going guys you could ever meet, just a sweetheart of a guy. He was social with his close friends but a quiet guy otherwise and very protective of his family. He went to a lot of public dinners but he would have preferred to come home and have dinner with his family, when he was the President of MacMillan Bloedel”.

“But music was always a real part of his life!”

“I just remember, whether it was in the car or in the house, music was always playing. I remember in the car, he would be playing the music so loud my mom would give him a hard time because he would be waving his arms while he was driving. My mother, Kate, passed away in 2003. She played the violin. He became very close with Juliette and those two talked a lot because they both shared that common love of music, singing and bands.”

“How did he meet Juliette?”

“He was a friend of Juliette’s from the early days. They met again at a function, after my mother passed away and they became good pals. They dated on and off. But to hear those two talk about music was amazing. Juliette was a big star in Canada and the US. Those two could talk eighteen hours a day about bands and different band leaders.”

154 ~ Jack Munro

ABOVE: Late 1940’s Ray seated in the middle of the Warren McCuish Clothing Store booth at the PNE BELOW: Early 1940’s Ray seated in back to the right of the piano in the Dal Richard’s band. Dal is standing left

RAY SMITH ~ 155

“Did he ever mention Arthur Delamont?”

“I heard his name a lot but I was so young, I don’t remember much specifically. Vicki, my older sister, might recall more.”

“It sounds like your dad was always working.”

“Dad squeezed a lot in. He worked days and nights. He was a hard working, family orientated, kind of a guy, who sort of knew how to balance the corporate life with family life and achieved what not too many people have achieved, in terms of working his way up from a junior position in the plant to the chairman of the board, in a tough business and really not generating any enemies along the way. Jack Munro, the IWA President, and my dad were probably best friends. You would think because he was a union man and my dad ran the biggest forest company that they would be adversaries but they were dear friends. Jack was very upset when Dad died in 2005. He was seventy-nine.”

What general qualities did your dad possess that made it possible for him to work his way up to the top?”

“Dad was just so likeable. He was a real genuine guy. I think people saw that in him. Dad was slow and steady. He was never flamboyant. He didn’t waste his money on fancy cars and fancy houses. He was just an average kind a guy”.

“Jim Pattison speaks highly of your dad.”

“He was good friends with Jim Pattison. They grew up in the same era. I remember one night, I had dinner with Dad and Jim, in a little restaurant in West Vancouver where Jim often ate, and the two of them would talk about music. They were buddies.”

“Your family lived in Los Angeles for awhile?”

156 ~ MacMillan Bloedel

“Yes, I remember when we were young kids we lived in Los Angeles for about three years. Dad had to call on the newspaper companies because he was selling paper. Us three kids would go in the car with him to New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California, while he sold his paper. L.A. was a big move for us. We had the choice of going to L.A. or to Alabama. We were sorry to leave Vancouver. When we got to L.A., my older sister met her now husband, Tim but we all knew it was best for Dad’s career. We were lucky though because for somebody like my father, we only moved once.

Some of those big corporate guys are moving all the time.

The original company, MacMillan Bloedel, was his life in those days. When it was sold to Noranda, he struggled with the sale. There was a conflict between big business and this Vancouver icon. Almost everyone knew someone who worked at MacMillan Bloedel. I think my dad felt that it was a real sad day when the name, ‘MacMillan Bloedel’ disappeared because that was what B.C. was all about.”

“Ray had great organizational skills,” Jimmy said.

“I remember running into somebody who had worked in the mail room at MacMillan Bloedel. He said, “Your dad would invite me up to his office to have a coffee.”

“Dad treated everybody the same, whether you were in the mail room or the president of the company. I think that was Dad’s greatest strength.”

“Arthur was the same with his band. It didn’t matter if you were from the east side or from the west side, nor if your parents had money or didn’t, he treated everyone the same.”

RAY SMITH ~ 157

“Jim, I think, is a lot more driven than my dad. Dad was devoted to my mother. Dad would literally carry my mom around in her last years. She was one of those old fashion moms and wives, who sacrificed a lot for their kids. It is tough with them both gone. He led a great life!”

“How was he in his later years?”

“He was one of those guys who, if he was not on top of his game, he did not want to be around. He remembered the good life. I remember we were going to move him out of his house into assisted living and I could see it in his eyes, he didn’t want to do it.

A very private guy! Bob Findlay, the president at MacMillan Bloedel after Dad left, called me up after he had passed away and said, “Your dad was just too great a guy to let it go at this. We want to have a function at Capilano Golf Course for him.”

There were about two hundred people in attendance. People like Peter Bentley talked and reminisced. It was nice.

Dad would have been happy.”

“Is there any memorial to your dad?”

“There is a cherry tree we planted on the way up to the golf course, with a plaque. Every time I go to play golf, I say, hi Dad! Playing golf was another one of his life pleasures.

There is an assisted living home for Canadian musicians and actors who contributed to Canadian culture. We contributed to that on my dad’s behalf. There is a plaque remembering Dad. It is located near the Westin Bayshore Hotel. We were down at the opening, in 2007.

There are also a couple of music scholarships at local universities, which Dad contributed to, as well.”

158 ~ Denny Christianson

“Anything else you can tell me about his love of music?”

“I think his real love was music but he realized early that he couldn’t provide for his family the way he wanted through music. That caused him to go in another direction. He had three kids. Mom didn’t work. He liked that life style.

When I get back from Japan, I will try to get you together with Juliette and myself, so you can hear some of her great stories about my dad. She is a wealth of information.

She is just a beautiful person!”

PHOTO: Ray with Juliette

CHAPTER 10

Ron (Collier) Colograsso “That’s right, Duke Ellington. Give Merlin Williams a call and he will tell you how Ron and the Duke met and the collaboration they enjoyed until Ellington’s death in 1974.”

Ron Colograsso played in the Kitsilano Boys’ Band from 1943 to 1950. Unfortunately he died in Toronto in 2003 of natural causes. Vera had told me that Ron, in his later years, taught jazz studies at Humber College in Toronto. Vera did not know much more about his activities, other than he had changed his name to Collier. She suggested calling the college to see if anyone remembered him. The next morning I placed a call to Humber College in Toronto.

“Yes, this is Christopher Best calling from Vancouver. Are there any teachers at the college that would remember Ron Collier? He apparently taught at the college before his death in 2003.”

“There is Denny Christianson.”

It took me a couple of days to reach Denny Christianson but when I did, his recollection of Ron’s career was remarkable. It was a conversation that I will never forget.

160 ~ Humber College

“Ron was a composer/arranger. He wrote for almost every combination of instruments imaginable: Solo flute with piano, strings, woodwind groups, brass groups, full orchestra, concert band, big band, studio orchestras... Ron’s collaboration with Humber College began in 1972 and continued into the 1990’s.While at Humber he directed the college’s stage band to victory at Music Fest Canada in 1975, 1982 and 1986 and made the record albums First Take and Humber at Expo 86 with the Humber College Big Band.”

“Who did Ron study with in his formative years?”

“Ron studied first with Gordon Delamont here in Toronto from 1951 to 1954. Then he was the first Canadian musician to get a Canada Council Grant from the government which he used to further his studies in New York City with George Russell from 1961 to 1962.”

“I guess he played in several bands before coming to Humber?”

“Oh yes, let me see if I can remember them all. He started of course with the Kitsilano Boys’ band from 1943 to 1950. Then, throughout the 1950’s he played trombone with several Toronto dance bands, such as ‘Mart Kenny and his Western Gentlemen.’ He played free lance with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Ballet and COC Orchestras, as well as CBC Radio and various TV groups. While a member of the Norman Symonds Octet, he formed his own jazz group. At first from 1954 to 1957 a quartet without piano. Then, a quintet that performed at the Stratford Festival in 1957. A dixtour formed in 1960 and on occasion in the 1960’s, like at Expo 67, he had his own big band. His quintet participated with the CBC Symphony orchestra in the

RON COLOGRASSO ~ 161

premiere and recording on Symonds’ Concerto Grosso for Jazz Quintet and Symphony Orchestra and in subsequent performances of the work with other orchestras.”

“He was quite busy!”

“Oh he was indeed,” replied Denny. “During the late 1950’s, Ron, like Norman Symonds, was a central figure in the Third-Stream movement in Canada. In that idiom he composed such works as Sonata (pre- 1956, played with Norm Amadio) for piano and jazz quintet. In the 1960’s he worked also with the spoken word, completing ‘The City’ (1960, for orchestra and narrator-singer, an evocation of life in the city, with readings by Don Francks.) ‘Hear Me Talkin To Ya’ (1964, for octet and narrator-singer; a collaboration with Francks, whose libretto was taken from the book of the same name, comprising remarks on the subject of jazz made

by US musicians,) and ‘Carneval’ (1969, libretto by Gwendolyn MacEwen, premiered by Collier’s orchestra, with Bruno Gerussi as narrator and Fred Stone as flugelhorn soloist, July 2 1969 at the Detroit-Windsor International Freedom Festival.) Ron also wrote scores for the play ‘The Mechanic’ (1965), for the ballet Aurora Borealis, (1966, Almitra; seen Jan 1 1967 on CBC-TV,) for several industrial films 196771, for CBC radio and TV shows, and for the feature films ‘Face Off’ (1971), ‘A Fan’s Notes’ (1972), and ‘Paperback Hero’ (1973). His ‘Waterfront, Night Thoughts’ (1965 Almitra), was recorded by Robert Atken. There is someone else though you should talk to about Ron’s collaboration with Duke Ellington.”

“Duke Ellington!”

“That’s right, Duke Ellington. Give Merlin Williams a

162 ~ Duke Ellington

call and he will tell you how Ron and the Duke met and the collaboration they enjoyed until Ellington’s death in 1974.

Merlin Williams played baritone saxophone in Ron’s jazz band and he also wrote several articles for the jazz magazine Whole Note.”

I thanked Denny for the information and hung up the telephone. In a few minutes I was able to get Merlin Williams on the telephone as well!

“Hello Mr. Williams, Christopher Best calling from Vancouver. I am writing a chapter on Ron Collier for a book.

Denny Christianson at Humber College gave me your name.

He said that you would be able to give me some information regarding Ron Collier’s association with Duke Ellington.”

After exchanging a few niceties, Merlin quickly became deeply engrossed in relating to me how Ron Collier had met Duke Ellington.

“Ron had seen Ellington’s orchestra in concert in Vancouver in the late 1940’s and worked at the Stratford Festival in the late 1950’s when the Duke was giving concerts there; however the two did not actually meet until 1967. Louis Applebaum put together a project to feature the work of three Canadian Composers, Norman Symonds, Gordon Delamont and Ron Collier. Applebaum approached Duke Ellington, asking him if he would be willing to be exploited on behalf of three Canadian writers. Duke agreed and the recording came about. The album, which is still available, on Attic Record (ACDM 1425) contains two of Ron’s compositions (Aurora Borealis and Silent Night Lonely Night).

A year later, Ron conducted an orchestra with Ellington as guest soloist in Detroit in a performance of ‘Aurora

RON COLOGRASSO ~ 163

Borealis.’ Sometime after that, Duke called Ron to see if he’d be available to write the arrangements for an album he was doing with his own band. Ron did two charts for the record, and recalls that trombonist Lawrence Brown, one of his inspirations on that instrument, looked at the part and announced, “I’m not ganna play that! I don’t have the chops!” The solo got reassigned to altoist Johnny Hodges, and the record got made.

Ellington again called on Ron when he was putting together a concert at a Benedictine Monastery in Oregon. Ron arranged the music and conducted the orchestra himself.

Later, Ron did the orchestrations for Ellington’s ballet suite ‘The River.’ Ron told me of his occaisional frustration with Dukes’ working methods. Ellington would give him single melody lines with chords. Ron would ask what he wanted.

Duke would reply, “You know what to do! “Listen to the recording by the Detroit Symphony of River Suite on Chandos CD 9154”Duke was right!

In 1972, Ron became the composer in residence at Humber College. He later became the arranging teacher, and led many award winning ensembles. Ron’s connections with Duke led to Ellington’s visit to the college in 1973. Quite an auspicious first guest for the music program. After Ellington’s death in 1974, the college named the scholarship award for ‘Best Arranger’ in Duke’s honor.”

“Did Ron continue to write while at Humber College?”

“Ron wrote prolifically for Big Band while at Humber.

Part of this was necessity. Material had to be written to fit

164 ~ Oscar Peterson

the smaller ensembles at the beginning of the program. He also wrote as a creative outlet and produced such works as The Humber Suite, Four Kisses, Gentleman Harry (a tribute to saxist Harry Carney, of the Ellington band), and Mr. CM (in honor of Charles Mingus) to name but a few. One of his most stunning arrangements from this period, Scrapple From The Apple, was recorded by Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, on the CD Brassy & Sassy (Concord CCD 4508). Ron’s students from Humber College include many of the busiest and most creative musicians on the jazz and commercial music scene in Canada today.

After retiring from Humber College, Ron kept busy with writing projects. In 1997 he completed an enormous undertaking: a version of Oscar Peterson’s Canadiana Suite for jazz orchestra. The eight movement work, an hour long, is breathtaking. It was premiered in Vancouver in 1997, and performed again at the Toronto and Ottawa Jazz festivals in 1998. Sadly, it has not been recorded. Ron Collier’s jazz orchestra was featured in an Ellington Centennial concert in 1999 with the Nathanial Dett Chorale. The two groups performed music from Duke’s Sacred Concerts.

In 2000, Ron’s band opened the Du Maurier Downtown Jazz Festival in Toronto to a standing room only crowd.

It was natural that the Toronto Duke Ellington Society would present Collier’s big band in their annual Duke Ellington birthday concert at Walter Hall in 2001.”

After getting off the telephone with Merlin Williams I thought, “And I wondered if anyone at Humber College would remember Ron Collier. Sounds like another one of Arthur’s

RON COLOGRASSO ~ 165 OPPOSITE:1946 Ron (with tie) and Jimmy Pattison at a banquet in the Hotel Vancouver honouring Arthur Delamont

BELOW:1998 Ron with the Ron Collier big band at the 1998 Kits band Reunion Concert in Vancouver.

166 ~ Gordon Delamont

old boys sure learned his lessons well!”

This chapter on Ron Collier was adapted from an article in Downbeat Magazine on Merlin Williams.

BELOW: Ron Collier, Duke Ellington, Norman Symonds, Gordon Delamont

CHAPTER 11

Kenny Douglas “Roy and I are in a drugstore, in L.A. in 1947 and Jimmy Durante comes through the door. So we talked to him for a while.

Here we are, the two of us, just twelve and thirteen, loose in Los Angeles.”

When I returned home, I noticed that I had a message on my e mail. It was from an old boy named Kenny Douglas.

He wanted to meet with me and tell me, his stories, about his days in the band and what Arthur had meant to him. I arranged to meet with Ken the next day. Ken lived in White Rock, so we agreed to meet half way, at a White Spot Restaurant on King George Highway in Whalley, a neighborhood of Surrey. Ken had been on the 1953 trip to England, the 1948 trip to the Calgary Stampede via the old Kettle Valley route and also on the 1947 trip to Hollywood, which I did not know much about.

Sitting across the table from Ken in the White Spot, I soon discovered that Ken was a jovial fellow, who remembered lots of stories from his band days. After talking to Ken, for a while, I knew that those days had meant a lot to him,

168 ~ Roy Griffith

as they had to everyone else that I had thus far had the pleasure of interviewing.

“So how did you meet Mr. D?” “We lived down at Glen Drive and fourteenth Avenue.

My dad was born and raised in the dairy business and the first business he worked for, when he came to Vancouver, was a company called Four X Bakery, the old Shelley’s, down behind the General Hospital. Roy Griffith’s dad, used to run a butcher shop in the neighbourhood. My dad, used to drop in to see him regularly. Roy’s dad mentioned that Roy was going into music. My brother was already in Arthur’s Grandview band and then later he was promoted into the Kits band. My dad thought it would be a good idea, if I joined the Grandview band, along with Roy. So, Roy and I went into the Grandview band in 1941. I remember playing in the Lyric Theatre, on Granville Street, when I was seven years old. Arthur said, “How did you get your trumpet?”

By this time, my dad had a bicycle shop. What he did was trade a fellow a used bicycle for a used trumpet. It was a thin bore horn and tough to blow but it developed the lungs.

That’s how it all started. I am in that picture of the band down at the Hotel Vancouver in 1946. I was just coming into the Kits band at that time. I remembered Arthur before I met him, from his stage playing around town.

Roy and I were picked out of the Grandview band to go to Hollywood in 1947. That was our first trip. I remember, Roy and I got into one of the radio stations, NBC/ABC and saw the old Red Ryder western half hour show, that was on radio in those days with Red Ryder, Little Beaver and his horse

KENNY DOUGLAS ~ 169

Thunder. We watched them live on the stage. We came out of that and the first day after, Roy and I are in a drugstore and Jimmy Durante comes through the door. So, we talked to him for awhile. Here we are, the two of us, just twelve and thirteen, loose in Los Angeles. I remember we stayed at the YMCA in Hollywood. The band played in the Los Angeles Police Benefit Show. On that show, were the Mills Brothers and others of that stature. Roy and I were two little go getters. We had a lot of fun getting into all sorts of things.

Later on in life, I became a Shriner and here I am back in Toronto in 1975, celebrating a show for a great shriner/potentate named Jack Streight, who was a lawyer. Don Bellamy, the Vancouver alderman, was a great choreographer for tattoos. Don produced the show with the Glenn Miller band and others. They also had the Mills Brothers. Of course, they were not all the originals. So, I go around and hunt up the Mills Brothers and ask them if any of them are originals.

One says, “Yes I am!” I said, “1946, LA Police Show. There was a youth band from Canada playing on the stage of the El-Bekal Shrine Temple (the place where they held the Oscar Awards).

“Ya, I remember.”

“I was one of those kids!”

He turned to the other fellows and said, “You guys won’t believe this” and told them the story.

He remembered the band!”

“You played with some pretty top name acts!”

“Yes, we sure did.” Ken replied.

“Tell me about the trip to England in 1953.”

170 ~ Ian Douglas

“On the trip across Canada, we travelled on trains drawn by a steam locomotive. On the trip back, we travelled on a train drawn by a diesel locomotive. Roy Griffith, managed to talk his way into the cab of the train on the way back. We came through the Connaught Tunnel, through the Rockies, right up front! They showed us everything and got out of the cab in Revelstoke. They explained to us the detonating switch, how they give it the juice to stop any jerking and explained to us the difference between a steam engine and a diesel. How smooth the diesel was, as the train glided along.

The tunnel was a little frightening!

We were in tourist class, sit up by day, bed by night. Just out of Sarnia, we decide that Arthur has cookies he was not sharing. So, we get a little raiding party going. We sneak up after everybody is asleep to the front car, through the kitchen and into the storage room and we get the cookie box. He had a stash of cookies. So we swiped them! Took them back to the back car and ate them all. The next day Arthur said, “Somebody stole my cookies.”

Boy was he upset!

“Who stole my cookies?”

He was just flipping mad!

In those days, the people at Woodwards and at Safeway Stores were the two sponsors (food/clothes), who got us across Canada. Garfield White was Arthur’s contact with the CPR. He was a great pal of Delamonts. He had an act during the war called ‘Madame Olga Petrovich.’ Garfield was the Madame, singing to another fellow dressed in a tuxedo. Oh, God was it funny! Garfield was a character.

My brother Ian was in the band from 1939 to 1947 and

KENNY DOUGLAS ~ 171

he played clarinet. He was just a young toad. Arthur called Norm Mullins back from university, in order to play and handle some of the legal work for the 1950 trip. I got that job in 1953. I handled copyrights. There were copyrights on music back in those days. We had to estimate the number of people in the audience. After every concert, I kept a tab, on which I had to list what we played. I did all the copyrights, two shows a day, six days a week. The seventh day we traveled. Between Arthur and I, we would estimate the number of people at each concert. If there was a collection taken, we had to pay just dues. Arthur took care of it. Years later, when I became a Shriner, we were told that if we played tunes, we had to pay the copyright people. Now days, it has all gone to hell, with computers and copy machines. It was only pennies but add it up. Rumor was later on, when I was running one of the Shrine bands, which I did for about twenty years, we had to be careful! The copyright people were going after the universities at the basketball games and football games.

They had people sitting in the audience. You get into a basketball game and you have a band on this side and a band on that side. The score is 101 to 103, which is not unheard of in a game. You play a tune on this side 101 times. You play a tune on that side 103 times, plus the rah rahs before and everything else. They had guys sitting in the audience keeping track of it all. One of the universities got a bill for well over $100,000. That was about 1975.

We arrived in Quebec City after touring across Canada, and boarded the Samaria, where we were locked up for another three days. We had lots of band practices. Boy, were they practices, right through gales and all. For two days

172 ~ Petula Clark

solid the storm lasted and the ship went up and the ship went down. We were in tourist class, which wasn’t first class and it wasn’t second class. It was below deck. We didn’t even have portholes in our rooms. We would have a two hour practice in the morning and a two hour practice in the afternoon and a two hour concert in first class. The next day we had a two hour practice in the morning, a two hour practice in the afternoon and a two hour concert in second class and so it went.

He was getting us ready for London because we were doing BBC’s ‘In Town Tonight.’ The last night on board, we were all confined to our cabins for being out on deck at two in the morning and for sneaking into first class. The crew told the Captain and the Captain confined us to our cabins. The next morning, Arthur read us the riot act!

“You’re going back on the next ship. You’re all going home.” We of course knew that if he was going to carry on across Britain, he couldn’t send his older players back home.

When we finally landed, all was forgotten and on to the next chapter. In London, we were asked by ‘Ealing Studios,’ to act as the John Philip Sousa band, for the July 4 celebrations.

A very young Petula Clark was on the bill as well!

Next, we were off to Sunderland, where we headlined with David Whitfield, the singing coal miner. Some of the boys went out for fish and chips at a roadside stand. They ran into some Teddy Boys. One of them asked, one of our boys, if he had a light. When he put his head in reach of the Teddy Boy, the Teddy Boy slammed our lad in the mouth. They just wanted to intimidate us. The police came around and talked to us. They rounded up a few of the ruffians....

Arthur never knew! They had square toed shoes and razor

KENNY DOUGLAS ~ 173

blades. Striped pants were in vogue and white socks, penny loafers, t-shirts and sweaters!

When we returned to London, all of a sudden, we were drawing young people to our shows. Kids were crowding around our stage door. We started to make friends with some of them. They were all our age.

We played at Charing Cross, two shows a day. It was an open air amphitheater across the Thames from British Empire Gardens. We walked from there, 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 we got there, the Teddy boys would be there with their girlfriends and they invited us to sit with them.

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

We 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!

We went to the original productions of South Pacific, Seagulls Over Sorrento and Paint Your Wagon. Because we were part of the Empire chain, we played at different Empire theatres, the Hackney or Shepherd’s Bush, Darby or Leicester, we knew about all the shows.

The 1953 trip was probably the neatest trip of them all!.It was very professional, very professional! We stayed in digs which were private homes that catered only to theatrical people. We traveled on Sundays. Sometimes we would have tours arranged for us to china factories and so on. At the

174 ~ David Hughes

place we stayed at in London, there were two huge poles that went all the way up to the ceiling. One of the boys in the band bragged, that he could hypnotize any one of us who wanted to be hypnotized. He hypnotized one little fellow and had him shimmy up one of the poles, touch the ceiling and shimmy back down. When he snapped his fingers, the young lad said, “Come on let’s go kick the ball around.”

He hadn’t realized what he had just done.

We used to do a thing on the trip called, “Rag Time Wedding.” Arthur decided that I, Roy, Mike Hadley and David Hughes, would all be a part of it! I had to dress up as a sailor.

Mike dressed up as a bride. I used to put on a rubber nose and rubber ears over my own big ears. I could make my ears go back and forth. The people just ate it up! It was a shotgun wedding. Well, we did this at three shows a week. Don Atkins decided to put some spice into the act. He goes down to a store and buys a revolver. It was a 45. He buys the blanks.

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

Wham! Wham! The gun goes 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!

In London, Arnold Emery, Roy and I got some tickets for the Gene Autry Show, with his horse Champion. All the way to London to see Gene Autry! Gene sang his songs and the show went on and on and on. We got back to Shepherd’s Bush late for a parade and went straight down to our changing room. Someone had stolen my pants. Arthur finally

KENNY DOUGLAS ~ 175

came down and told me to get out on parade, which we did from time to time to promote the shows. Arthur flipped out because I had no time to shave. So, we had to have a meeting, the committee and Arthur decided I had to take my punishment, which was to go onto the baggage truck. The guy on the baggage truck was an alcoholic, so it really wasn’t punishment. We would pull into a pub, the bus would go by.

We would come out, after a refresher and away we would go.

We would pass them again and wave and they never caught on. By the time we got to Blackpool, we were both feeling pretty good. We unloaded the instruments, including the sousaphones with extra enthusiasm, prompting Arthur to yell, “Be careful, watch those sousaphones.”

He never caught on!

In Paris, we went to the Moulin Rouge night club. It was the place in Paris to go. The stage would come out and then the Can Can girls would come out. We were sitting right in the front row. I tell you! I wanted to say that I had danced with a girl at the Moulin Rouge. I went over to this girl and asked her to dance. She couldn’t speak English. I couldn’t speak French. When it was over, I said, “Thank you very much” and went back to the boys. There was this little bar across the street, from a small hotel that we knew and when we first went in, they barely talked to us.

We got changed into our blue blazers, with the maple leaf on the pocket, with KBB and Canada, white shirt, yellow knitted ties, stripes, white socks and penny loafers. They took one look at us and saw the maple leaf. Couldn’t buy a thing!

They had thought we were Americans. Canadians wow!

We ate eggplant off the tables, along with our drinks and

176 ~ Shriner’s Oriental Band

ABOVE: c1959 Shriner’s Oriental Band, Kenny sitting in middle in red with black sabre

KENNY DOUGLAS ~ 177

178 ~ Stu Ross

had a great time. When we landed back in London from Paris, a lot of the guys were running out of money and didn’t have enough money left for a hotel room. We had been instructed to be at the train sharp, the next morning, as we were on our way back to Southampton, to catch the boat home. A bunch of us slept on the bandstand at Charing Cross, like bums on the street. We all got up the next morning and caught our train to Southampton. It was a great trip!”

“How did Arthur impact your later life?”

“I will tell you another story and work my way into how he influenced my life. One day, in the 1940s, Arthur was sick in bed. He called me, to see if I could deliver some music over to the West Vancouver band. I went all the way over to Alma Road from Burnaby. Picked up the music, went all the way down to the West Vancouver Ferry, the old ‘Bonnie Bell.’ I took it out to West Vancouver. I could hardly carry it all! A few days later, I had to do the same thing again for the North Vancouver band. At one time, I rehearsed Monday and Thursday nights with the Kits band. In the daytime I played in our high school orchestra.

On Friday nights I played in the Grandview band and on the weekends we played concerts. It was my life! I had to give up soccer. My brother was an all star sportsman. He played against the top British and Scottish teams that came to town. Everybody thinks because you play an instrument, you’re a nerd. A bunch of goody goodies. Boy, were they mistaken. There were some great athletes in the band. Don Radelet, Stu Ross who was one of the originals. Both were Shriners!

I have had the pleasure of being in two great fraternities,

KENNY DOUGLAS ~ 179

the Kits Band and the Masons. Same as Stu Ross, who was also a Potentate of the Gizeh Shriners.

David Hughes, Robert Sherrin and myself, were from time to time, called upon to make little speeches. That was Arthur grooming us to eventually meet the Lord Mayor of London and so on. To us kids, we were just going on a bunch of trips. To Arthur though, he had a master plan, to have the best organization possible.

The education he gave us was unattainable anywhere else.

I have stood up, in front of groups of five thousand Shriners as Master of Ceremonies and at band competitions in Minneapolis, St. Louis, San Francisco, Cleveland, Toronto and many other cities. I’ve been doing this for years and never really thought about where I got my training. The old boy did it for us and much, much more!

CHAPTER 12

Brian Bolam “I worked as a guide for this ‘American Sportsman’ show. They used to use all these celebrities as their hunters and fishermen. People like Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Phil Harris.”

“Tell me how you got into the band?”

“Okay, I started in 1943. My father worked in the Burrard Shipyard in North Vancouver. He bought a trumpet from a sailor down on the wharf, who had won it in a poker game.

He paid seven dollars for it. It was a very narrow long model Conn. He brought it home and my mother said to myself and my brother, “The first one that comes home from school gets to play.”

I came home as quick as I could from school. My brother didn’t come home for four days. He didn’t want to play. So, I went up to the North Van schools band, as they called it in those days. Arthur Delamont was there and I came in with this trumpet and no case. My mother said, “Brian wants to join the band.”

I was eight. He says,” “What’s he doing with an instrument? I’ll decide what

BRIAN BOLAM ~ 181

he plays.”

“Oh he can make quite a bit of noise on this already,” my mother said. So, I played it a bit.

“Oh, all right,” he says, “but I like to decide what the kids play and what I need.”

Arthur was very inclined to assess you, as to what kind of a character you were, in those days. Being a little pugnacious character as I was, my mother sent me to school until I was fifteen, in short pants and I was very small. I was not perhaps, as pleasant to get along with as a lot of kids because I used to get picked on for wearing short pants. My brother did too. My brother became a wimp and I became a fighter!

Delamont found that out pretty quick. We used to lock horns quite a lot. Although we had a great deal of respect for each other in many ways, he would want to beat me on the head and I would want to return the favor and he didn’t like that much. We always got along, for the type of characters we were. We both had a fair bit of confidence and a little cockiness but as I got older and played in the North Van band, I became the lead player in the band, which was a big deal for a kid of twelve or so. Arthur Delamont asked my family about me coming into the Kitsilano Boys’ band in late 1947. They were going to go to Calgary the following summer. It caused a fair riff with one of the other trumpet players. He was a couple of years older than me. He thought he was better but he didn’t get asked to go into the band. I had no idea why I was chosen and he was not.

Later it donned on me. I was quite small and quite short. I played quite well for a kid. Delamont used to have me stand on chairs, playing solos, when we went on tour. I used to

182 ~ Susan Cates

play some of the hymn tunes and other things. I remember in the 1948 music festival, at the Pacific Ballroom in Vancouver, we played an overture called the ‘March of the Spanish Soldiery.’ Part way through it, he pointed at me to play the solo. I had no idea I was going to play it. We were in a festival with adjudicators.

He knew I could sort of pull it off. I didn’t have a lot of nerve problems. I played it and it was okay and we won. He used me for that sort of thing quite often. It was because I was small. It wasn’t because I was a better player than the other guy. It impressed the adjudicators.

Delamont spent a lot of time patterning himself after John Philip Sousa. He saw him live a couple of times. He followed his style of programming. He followed his style of uniforms. He followed his style of how to entertain people.

He had a great deal of ability to do that. He had the same sort of character. Just an interesting time as a young guy.

I grew quite a bit on the 1950 trip. I grew about four or five inches. I still wasn’t very tall. I played through that year. My father got quite ill. He eventually died. I had to drop out of school and go to work. I faded out of the band about 1951. I would have liked to have gone on the 1953 trip. It was probably the best balanced band he ever had. There were several great musicians in that band, Bill Trussell. Bill Good’s drumming skills were outstanding.

I joined the Musicians Union in 1957. Started to play Parks Board concerts with Arthur in the band or with Arthur conducting. I got to know him quite well over the years. I had a lot of respect for him. He was a fine musician himself. People maybe do not realize that he was very good but

BRIAN BOLAM ~ 183

when you hear some of the stuff he did early on and some of the abilities he had, he was really a fine trumpet player.

A lot of those early Salvation Army trained people were musically so well attuned to the music because they made them play in three and four sharps all the time, or flats, and they had a real ear for harmonic sounds and blended beautifully. Anytime I hear a Salvation Army band, I always think of how he played and why he played the way he did.”

“Tell me about squirt?”

“Squirt, ya, well that was that little guy. Arthur dubbed me squirt early on. It was one of his beckonings.

“Squirt come out here,” he would say.

“Squirt, the audience can’t see you. Stand on the chair.

Now, this little guys going to play the solo. He might muck it up,” he says, “But you got to give him a chance. He’s just a little guy!”

In 1947 or 1948, the MacMillan Club of Canada, had a competition. One of my teachers at school entered me when I was 14. I won the junior division of this festival. The next year I got entered again but not in the junior division. I was right in there with up to university level kids. But I was 15 and it was 1950, in the spring before we went to England. I was going to play Nola. Arthur heard about it and said, “You fathead, you can’t play that. I’ll give you something to play.”

He gives me this tune called ‘Don Quixote.’ I was accompanied by a young lady named Susan Cates. Her family owned Cates Towing in North Vancouver. She was a very good pianist. Having learned from Arthur a little bit of stage deportment, I went out and didn’t have a music stand. I

184 ~ Sir Ernest MacMillan

memorized it. I guess I played pretty well. At the end of it, I got applause from the audience and the adjudicators had their heads down. I turned to my accompanist to acknowledge her. Apparently that really impressed the adjudicators because no one else had done that in the contest. I won that contest and the Arthur Delamont big Silver trophy. When I got back to the Kits band, he said to me in a gruff voice, “What happened? It couldn’t have been any competition.

Fathead. You can’t have won that, you were playing against players from UBC.” I didn’t know I had won it and I didn’t think I had won it. After I had played the piece, I got on the ferry and went home to North Vancouver. Then, I got a telephone call about 3:00 pm.

“Where did you go?”

“What do you mean where did I go?”

“You left the hotel. Why did you do that?”

“Because I finished playing and I went home.”

“But you won the competition. You should have been there to get presented the award.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think I could have won.”

The end result was, I had to get presented this trophy by Sir Ernest MacMillan himself, at Malkin Bowl, in Stanley Park, about a month later. That was even better! Arthur was quite disgusted that I won.

“Couldn’t have played it that well,” he said.

“We are in England on the Embankment in Bath, on the 1950 trip. Part way through a concert, he starts giving out music. We didn’t know what he was doing. He gave it out to everybody, except me. He had written an arrangement of an accompaniment to ‘Don Quixote.’

BRIAN BOLAM ~ 185

I hadn’t seen it or thought about it for three months. He starts it off, going like mad. The tempo was about twice what I was used to and I screwed it up a bit. He stops the band and gets on the microphone.

“This young man thought he was a good trumpet player.

We will give him one more chance at it but he sure mucked it up that time. He won this trophy that I am not so sure he deserved.”

“According to Bob Cave, I looked daggers at him. When he started it again, Bob said,” “You never looked at the music, you looked right at him, right through him and you played it flawlessly!”

“He put it away and we never saw it again.

He was like that! He would test us. He would do that. He was never complimentary to people. Years later in the pro band, when I played the post horn for the first time, he turned to me and said, “That was quite good!”

I almost fainted on the spot!

I was a bit of a nasty little character. I had been picked on at school, by everybody, over the short pants. I always had a little chip on my shoulder and he and I tried to knock each others chip off a few times over the years. We always got along well but there was always a little test of wills. He was very interesting.

As I say, I didn’t realize in those years, how well he played until I started to go back and think about how he did simple things. Nothing he played was terribly difficult, although he did play the Carnival of Venice in a contest, with Kenny Douglas pretending to play in front of a curtain. It was

186 ~ Glen Startup

1947 or 1946. It was in a competition, in a theatre, where the band was entertaining but there were some featured entertainers, competing on different levels.

Delamont thought it would be a lark, if Kenny stood out in front of the curtain and pretended to play the ‘Carnival of Venice.’ Kenny was a pretty good actor and he would do it!

Part way through, he was supposed to put the horn down and people would see he wasn’t playing. But it didn’t happen.

The horn didn’t go down and he won the competition. I am not sure why but no one was ever told. But the point is that Delamont played the Carnival of Venice very well.

When he played things like the Lost Chord, it is a simple thing to play except that when you gliss down from a middle G to a low D, below the staff and try to keep it in tune on a cornet, it is difficult to do because cornets are notoriously sharp on low D. He controlled this instrument so well in that type of setting. He knew how to play. Very demanding!

Alan Colette was the lead trumpet player when I joined the band. Bruce Alsbury was second. Cyril Battistoni was third or fourth. Glen Startup was in there. The band was really good. We went to the Calgary Stampede. Alsbury and Colette were on that trip. We had a really strong band of probably about fifty pieces.”

“Did you do a lot of marching on the 1950 trip?”

“No, we did some in Holland for the competition. The interesting thing was, they didn’t care how you looked. The adjudicators stood between the rows and listened to you go by. They wanted to know if you could play.”

“Any thoughts about the 1950 trip?

“Chris Stockwell had it set up so that we were on the

BRIAN BOLAM ~ 187

c1950, London, England, Sylvester Bolam, the Editor of the London Mirror Newspaper with his nephew Brian in London. His Uncle gave him a Hardy reel and a fly fishing rod. Brian became a pro fly fisherman and sports guide.

BELOW: Brian playing in the Firefighter’s band (middle).

188 ~ Clayton Mack

go all the time, I guess, two hundred and fifty concerts in one hundred and fifty-six days.”

He arranged transportation. He arranged all kinds of things.

Bill Good and I were on the luggage committee. There are probably a million little stories here and there.

One interesting story was the trip over to Dublin, on a small vessel, similar to the Union Steamship vessels. When we arrived at the theatre, the marquee read, “Dead On Arrival,” the Kitsilano Boys’ band, which we nearly all were because the trip over had been so rough! I couldn’t stand the smell of diesel and people being sick, so I went outside on deck and one of the bigger fellows grabbed my belt and put it through the railing and back into my pants or I would have been washed overboard. There was water coming down the funnel. We were on the side of a trough and when we looked horizontally, we saw the other side of the trough. We thought the boat was going to fall into the hole. The waves were thirty-five feet high. It was just incredible. If you have ever seen one of those storm pictures of the North Atlantic at its worst, that’s what it was like. It was an amazing trip!”

“What else do you like to do, besides play trumpet?”

“I do a lot of sport fishing. I got a telephone call one day to go down to Florida to do some tropical fishing with this guy. He turned out to be a no show, I couldn’t believe it! So, I missed out on my tropical fishing adventure. A friend of mine last year said, “Come to Cuba with me! It’s marvelous. It’s cheap. And it’s very good fishing”.

“I thought why not. I tied a lot of flies. I got my gear ready. He was absolutely right. It was a marvelous trip. The

BRIAN BOLAM ~ 189

people were great. The food was good. Guides were excellent. Equipment was awful. The government issues them boats. Outboards are terrible. We had one jump right off the end of the boat. It had no screws to hold it to the transom. It jumped right off and landed in the water.

Fishing, I do a lot. I have done some guiding as well. I guided for a friend of mine. I was a Fireman here in Vancouver for twenty-five years. Firemen have a lot of time off.

They always get into trouble. Either they have a side line job or they chase girls. Or they play trumpet. I did everything.

A friend of mine, who was a Fireman, his brother-in-law worked for ABC in New York. He worked for this “American Sportsman” show. They used to use all these celebrities as their hunters and fishermen. People like Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Phil Harris.

It was done with three cameras and a very technically advanced crew that had been all over the world. They were very good at what they did. They wanted to come to British Columbia to hunt grizzly bears and do a coho fishing show at the same time. I did a lot of fishing in those days. My friend’s brother-in-law called, wanting to know if he knew anyone who could help out with the trip. They had had the name of two guides in Bella Coola and wanted to know which one to choose. One was a guy named Rob Fisher and the other was a guy named Clayton Mack. He told him to telephone me. He told him that I could help him out.

He said I knew all about hunting and fishing. So, he called and said, “We need to know which of these two guys is the right guy to do the job. Could you research that for me?”

190 ~ Rick Jason

“I said, “Sure!”

I did some leg work and found out one was not so great but the other guy, an Indian, was probably the best guide this country ever produced. They asked, “Would you fly up to Bella Coola and get him to sign a contract?”

I said, “Okay.”

I flew up to Bella Coola with the contract and they had offered him fifteen hundred dollars for twenty days. This was 1969. He was supposed to supply his boat and a helper. They said, “He’s going to get all this advertising. Be on television.”

“I talked to this fellow and I liked him. He was just a delightful character. He was really, really smart and probably the best known grizzly bear guide ever in the history of grizzly bear hunting. I thought, this was a bloody insult, fifteen hundred dollars. I telephoned them back and said, “No, he won’t sign it. He wants more money.”

We didn’t even discuss it actually. So, I said, “How is twenty-five hundred or three thousand dollars?”

He says, “Okay!”

I changed it and got him to sign it. This guy kind of liked me because of what I did. He thought that was quite a decent thing to do, so we did this show and I went along.

Then he calls me up and says, “Can you get me a good size boat that will house twelve or fifteen people for twenty days? We need to charter it. We need a skipper and we need a cook.”

I did some leg work. Found out what and who I needed and put it together and sent it up to Port Hardy. It worked

BRIAN BOLAM ~ 191

fine and again, I wound up going on the trip. And so it went!

Getting back to the grizzly bear trip, I did a lot of shooting in those days, as well. When we got up there, Rick Jason, who was on the TV series ‘Combat’ in the 1960’s, he was the hunter. All he did was brag about this custom built rifle he had along. I had a pretty plain jane factory turned out model, I had had for a number of years. We get up there and they send me across to the other side of the Dean River, where we are going to do the Grizzly show, with a cameraman who was so scared, he was shaking. Soon, Rick Jason got a grizzly in sight. Boom! Down it goes and up it got and it ran off.

It’s going up a bank about two hundred yards away from me. I went, BOOM and I dropped it. Down it went. These guys all said, “Wow, what a shot!”

“I don’t usually shoot at anything more than forty yards away. I consider myself a hunter not a shooter. I was the hero for shooting the bear. Rick Jason is now getting static from one of the head cameramen who said,” “You’re suppose to be so good and you can’t even kill a bear with it?” Rick Jason says, “It’s a way better rifle than that thing he’s got!” The cameraman says to me, Where is it shooting?” I said, “It’s shooting right on at one hundred yards.” He says, “Can I borrow it?” I said, “Yes.” They had a contest. The cameraman waxed this custom built rifle, which upset Rick Jason even more. On this same trip, a guy named Joe Brooks, who was an outdoor writer for ‘Outdoor Life’ for years, a very famous

192 ~ Joe Brooks

fisherman, “He was with us for the coho part. I know a lot about fishing. We got into this situation, where we were suppose to fish for coho in the saltwater in Kivatna Inlet. The river had come up with the rain and the fish had gone into the rivers.

They said, “What are we going to do?” I said, “Well, that’s okay!

Never mind. I thought that might happen.”

I had lures and flies for the river. The flies worked to some extent but it was slow fishing. So they switched to lures and used spinning rods. He says, “Have you got any lures?’ I said, “Yes.” I pulled out a box of thirty-six of my handmade lures, everyone of them identical and gave them to him. He says, “What if they don’t work?” I said, “They will work!”

He cast them out. He was into fish right away. He says, “Man, these things are great!” I said, “I told you that!”

For the next several years, I got called every May. They would say, “Okay we’ve got September tenth to October fifteenth.

We want to do a show” on this or that.” It was great!

“Tell me how Arthur influenced your life.”

“I would say he influenced many of us in that he set standards of deportment and character that stayed with us a lifetime. One thing he did do to some people, Doug Holbrook, as an example, is scare them half to death. Doug is still scared

BRIAN BOLAM ~ 193

of him and Doug is seventy-six. I didn’t have that problem. I had a great deal of respect for his talent and what he did with his life. He used the talent he compiled so well. He made us play way over our heads.

We had no business playing as well as we did. In many cases, under somebody else, we never would have achieved that level. He just made us confident of the fact that we could do these things. He also had a way of editing music that made us look pretty shiny. As far as the standard of playing, I don’t think any of us were as dedicated as he was, as he practiced every day right up until the end.

There is a story I tell, of when we both played in Dal Richard’s Lions band. I looked over at him one day. He was about sixty-eight years old and I said, “Arthur, why don’t you get that horn replated? It looks terrible!”

He sort of smiled and said, “Gosh, dang, bust it all! I should get my horn replated at my age? Why would I do that?”

But he took it in and got it done. He got it all re-lacquered and it looked great! Ten years later, he is seventy-eight now, we are in the BC Lion’s band. He’s marching along and I say to him, “Arthur, you should take that horn in and get it relacquered!”

He just smiled at me and shook his head in disbelief that I would ever suggest it again. He had so much acid in his system that the lacquer peeled off quickly. It looked pretty bad!

Most people called him Mr. D out of great respect. But in the pro bands, he was Arthur. He was just another trumpet

194 ~ Bill Trussell

player, who was a good player, who played in the sections.

Usually, he would play second or third and did it very well.

He never got up in the lead chair, Arnold Emery and I took care of that. He was no slacker! He played his part and played it well. Even in the later years. He still had the ability to play awfully well. He had a lot of influence on all of us. Always!

We always had enough respect to show up on time for jobs properly dressed and that stayed with us all our lives. When I played at the Hotel Vancouver, I was always there early, properly dressed. I was on time. I was always able to help, set up chairs, put things out. We took care of business. All the guys I ever played with were exactly the same; Sandy Cameron, Ted Lazenby, Bill Trussell. We were always on time!

One of the funny stories that Judy would tell you was, I was playing the Hotel Vancouver one night and Bill Trussell asked me if I could give him a lift home. Marlene Trussell telephoned Judy about one in the morning and said, “Do you know what’s happened to Bill?”

She says, “No, I don’t but he’s with Brian. They will be talking.”

And we were! We were sitting in the White Spot at Park Royal until five in the morning, reminiscing. Talking about fishing, building boats, playing instruments. Bill and I were in different years in the Kits Band. He came in later, yet, we played together a lot over the years. Judy says, “They’re not drunk and they are not chasing girls!”

CHAPTER 13

Ron Wood “A fellow named Don Broadbent was in the Kits band. He went to Hollywood in 1947. Later he became a jet fighter pilot and flew for the Snowbirds!”

“Tell me how you met Bobby Gimby?”

“We were in Toronto, walking down the street on the 1950 or 1953 tour. This fellow stopped us because we had our Maple Leaf on our Jersey with the VKBB crest and said, “I’m Bobby Gimby!”

“We didn’t know who he was at that time of course, “The Happy Gang, CBC - Radio, Centennial Song C-A-N-A-DA.” Said he had been in the band. Then he took us to a very lavish lunch. The four of us! We called ourselves the four musketeers. There was Michael Hadley, myself, Murray McAndrews and Ron Lockwood.”

“Now, tell me how you first met Arthur Delamont?”

“I first met him at Britannia High School on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, when I joined the Grandview Band.

My father was a musician, as a hobby. We went down to the music store and he bought me my first cornet. It was a Conn Victor. Same as Delamont’s. And that is where I learned

196 ~ Ian Gregory

to shake my head inside a trumpet bell, as he beat you on the head! That is where it started. It was fairly rapid! I took private lessons from a fellow by the name of Tug Wilson.

I was nine years old. Within two and a half years, I was in the Kitsilano Boys’ band. I played third cornet. In 1948, I went to the Calgary Stampede. My first overnighter was to Cumberland, over on Vancouver Island. Some sort of May Day Celebration. That was my first taste of being on the bus, with all the hazing that went on. I was just a young fella. I was told, “Make sure you sit up in the front of the bus, if you want to be safe.”

“The Calgary parade was probably the longest parade, I ever marched. It was about five to eight miles long. I positioned myself right behind a horse. One of the Mounties( RCMP)! I thought it would be a good idea, to keep my line straight. I did not think about what horses often do, when they walk long distances.

My father drove me to band every Monday and Thursday night. He picked up guys like Gordon Laird, Glenn Startup, and Kenny Douglas. He was President of the band association from 1948 until 1955. He was responsible for raising money. He was a Rotarian along with Ian Gregory’s father and Richard Brown’s father. They all belonged to the Rotary in downtown Vancouver.

They raised enough money to send the band to Europe in 1950. Each boy only needed to pay one hundred dollars. All the food we needed on the train across Canada was provided

by Richard Brown’s father. He was in the wholesale food business. He provided the food on three trips, 1950, 1953

RON WOOD ~ 197

and 1955. It was all done on the wholesale level. We had big buckets of butter and jam. I remember Ron Colograsso going along saying,” “Anyone want any more jam?”

“He had this big Empress jug of jam. You would hold out your bread and he would slap it down on your bread. I was just a little guy on the 1950 trip. I was only thirteen. I later learned that Arthur had assigned Bob Cave to keep his eye on me. He was billeted out with me a kind of a non-official chaperone.”

“You said that your dad was a musician?”

“Yes, he played in the Saskatoon Symphony. He had a dance orchestra called the “Northern Stars.” They played at a resort in Saskatchewan, near Saskatoon, called “Watrous Lake.” We were told, by an English relative, that one of our relatives, Sir Henry Wood, had been the conductor of the London Philharmonic. He apparently, was the first conductor to perform Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,’ outside of Russia.” Then we had the Wood family orchestra. My father played piano. My brother played drums. I played at Lodges, when I was eleven, got into performing quite young. I have to say, my brother is by far the better musician. He has my father’s ear, a natural. He lives in Penticton. He plays with a guitar player who was in the band for a singer named Roger Whittaker. It was always there, music in the family. I used to listen to Louis Armstrong and Harry James. I even took drum lessons from a fellow named Don Broadbent. He was in the band. He went to Hollywood in 1947. He became a jet fighter pilot and flew for the Snowbirds. Unfortunately, he had the bad habit of blacking out at certain altitudes. Left that

198 ~ Lorne Beauchamp

and became a lawyer for Sears.”

“Tell me about the 1950 trip?”

“The train ride across Canada was marvelous. I remember the steam and the smell of detol. Just to detour for a moment.

My greatest thrill was to play Haydn’s, Trumpet Concerto, in the ballroom of the Hotel Vancouver. Arthur arranged it, with band accompaniment. I was about fifteen. I have it on tape. So, where were we?”

“You were on board the train!”

“I remember opening the blinds one morning. We were going through Kicking Horse Pass in the Rockies. All these elk were running along beside the train. We stopped at Banff.

I was given a bunch of postcards and told to go out and sell them. They sold for twenty-five cents. Then back on the train! I remember Swift Current. We went to this hall. This was my first indication of being famous. That hall was full.

Outside in the rain, people were standing with umbrellas, waiting for our concert. There must have been two thousand people. Marathon was my first date on the trip with a blonde.

Toronto, we played a couple of concerts at high schools. We took a side trip to Port Arthur. Then we took the boat train to Quebec City. When we got there, we had to pile our luggage up about ten feet high, in a shed, on the dock. Then we went outside and caught our first glimpse of the ship.

I remember one story, about one of the guys. His name was Lorne Beauchamp. He was establishing quite a relationship with this older woman, on one of our weekly gigs in England. Some of the boys told Arthur. Arthur was afraid that it might get too serious, so he took matters into his own hands. In the middle of one of our concerts he said,

RON WOOD ~ 199

“The public are always saying that they are not boys because they are so tall. They tend to be taller than the English equivalent. For instance, Lorne Beauchamp, would you stand up. Would you believe that Lorne Beauchamp is only sixteen?”

The girl friend was in the audience. That was the end of that relationship!

There was another fellow, by the name of Alex McLeod.

When we were playing the Palace Theatre in Blackpool, next to it was the Palladium Dance Hall, led by Alan Lerner (later of Lerner and Lowe fame) and then there was the Blackpool Circus. Between each act at the circus, thinly clad ladies would come out, with cards, to announce the next act.

Alex got to know one of these gals and became smitten! We came back to Blackpool several times during the tour. This relationship grew and grew, to the point that he wanted to marry her. He was one of the older boys, eighteen, I believe.

He got up his courage and went to talk to Arthur and said, “I want to marry her and I want to take her back to Canada. How can I do that? I don’t even have enough money to buy an engagement ring!”

“To some people’s surprise, not too others, Arthur lent him the money to buy an engagement ring. She followed the band back to Vancouver. They were married. He became very successful. He managed a Safeway store in North Vancouver. We called him tit-mouse!”

“What do you remember about the ship ride to England?”

“I remember the rough seas!

We rehearsed in the back lounge on the aft deck of the ship. It was quite a thing, playing the 1812 Overture,

200 ~ Spithead Revue

ABOVE: c1950, Ron Wood seated at a LINE-O-TYPE machine at Hemsley House, Manchester. Hemsley House published several newspapers.

BELOW: Ron (bottom left) with his Dixieland band.

RON WOOD ~ 201

coming up to the storm part at the beginning. All of a sudden, the seas would come way up behind us and then go way down and you wouldn’t see anything but sky. The old propeller would vibrate and down we would go again. Sea sickness was fairly prevalent. The food was good! There were fourteen courses; three main entrees, three desserts and so on. Some of the guys tried to eat all fourteen. Most didn’t make it. During the storm, the dining room would be half empty but all the boys would be there. Somebody would start saying, “Up and down, up and down.” All of a sudden the dining room was cleared. One time I was sick. I ran outside and up to the rail. I opened the door and it was all canvassed in.

We played endless games of whist. The ‘Four Musketeers’ played six hundred and fifty games of whist on that trip. In 1953, we came into the harbor in England in the middle of the coronation. We arrived in the middle of the Spithead Revue.

All the warships were lined up. When we got to London, we went to Pall Mall. All the decorations were up and a carriage went by with the Queen and Prince Phillip. We landed there on June 6, my birthday, so I became legal. The child labor act stipulates that you must be fifteen. Arthur told us, “If anyone asks your age, you’re fifteen.”

Inspectors often came to the back of the stage because there were lots of family acts in vaudeville.”

“What do you recall about England?”

“We went down through Weymouth, Eastbourne and Exeter. I remember Exeter. We met the Lord Mayor. We played in a great bandstand in Eastbourne. Then, we started doing the embankment concerts. The Thames Embankment was

202 ~ Grenadier Guards

across from the Festival of Britain Hall.

We played every day. There were about four bands playing each day. The one before us was the Grenadier Guards band. The one after us was the Welsh Guards band. Some of the top collier bands played as well. We were in pretty good company!

Holland was fantastic! Hillegum was our first stop. The family I stayed with, the gentleman was a bulb farmer and a florist.

He used to come to Vancouver each year, to Cambie Florists and he always looked us up. This went on for about fifteen years. He came to Vancouver, sold his bulbs, and then he came over to our house for dinner. The Dutch love Canadians! To this day, when a bride gets married in Holland, she takes her bouquet and puts it on the Canadian memorial. Many thousands of Canadian soldiers, under the age of twenty-three, died in Holland. We tied wooden shoes to the outside of our cases - no room inside. In Hilversum, we went to a big radio station and made some broadcasts. We got to see the workings of the station. In Middleburg, I was billeted with some resistance people. They took me into a room and pushed a button and one complete wall slid back to reveal a radio transmitter. It was connected to London during the war and was the central transmitter for the area. They told me lots of stories. They gave me a complete collection of Nazi occupied Holland coins. They were made of plastic. Also, they had buried a time capsule in their wall. At Oosterbeek we won the marching competition. We didn’t march but Arthur got us out there pounding the beat. Jack Hamilton or Walter Goral became the sergeant-major. The next thing we

RON WOOD ~ 203

know we took first place.

In the hotel the next morning, we woke up and looked out our windows and wondered what was going on! We went out on to our balconies and all the competing bands were warming up in front of us. They were showing their respect because we had won. The competition piece was “Le roi de la roi.”

Back in England, we traveled up to Glasgow, where we played in a number of parks; Alexander Park, Linn Park and so on. Again, we were followed by the Grenadier Guards and Welsh Guards and others. At Sterling, we played in Sterling Castle. That’s where I lost my voice. My voice broke.

Puberty!

“Would you like to buy a POSTCARD?” In Aberdeen, I remember they talked very fast.

We stayed in pretty nice digs at Golders Green in London.

They were theatrical digs! The room we had was in the front parlor, turned into a bedroom. There was a big double bed and two little cots on either side. Two things we used to do were go out and get a big order of fish and chips. Bring it back and stick it in the bed and use it as a bed warmer. Then, we would jump into the bed and eat the fish and chips. One of us jumped on one of the cots and it collapsed. The gal who ran the place was looking to make some money and went to the Hippodrome and told the management that we had destroyed the bed. She wanted to be compensated. They sent someone up. As it turned out, it was a set up. The legs were held on by string. Any weight landing on it would collapse the bed. She was exposed for her larceny.

In Blackpool we played at the Palace Theatre. Jack

204 ~ Jack Parnell

Parnell, who was the British Stan Kenton, was at the Winter Gardens ballroom. We had a larger audience than them, as we did at a later date, when Frank Sinatra was at the Winter Gardens and we were back at the Palace. Several of us hung out with some of their band members, including their drummer Phil Seimens. Most of the week, after our late show, we would go backstage at the Winter Gardens and wait until they were finished and then a bunch of us would go down the street to an all-night fish and chip joint and gab for what seemed to be hours. For me this was a turning point. After hearing and seeing their lifestyle, I decided to become a banker like my uncle.

Another story, we were playing in London, Chiswick I believe. We were billeted out. When we went to the front door, here are these two gorgeous girls, about six foot three.

Turned out they were dancers for the ‘Follies Bergere’ in Paris and its counterpart the ‘Windmill’ in London. Their father, who was the owner of the house, was a drummer for the ‘Stanley Black Orchestra.’ We had great adventures there because we were young fellas and they were about eighteen or nineteen. They came up with great phrases such as, “What time do you want us to knock you up in the morning?”

Which of course meant, when do you want us to wake you up? Hillary and Margaret were their names. Hillary took a liking to Muzz (Murray McAndrews). Of course, he thought he had died and gone to heaven! Hillary was quite the fast lady. Some member of the London mob asked if she would go with him to Paris for the weekend. He said he would buy her a Jaguar car. She did and he did! There was a running

RON WOOD ~ 205

gag. These girls would go running around the house scantly clad. Then they would come banging on our door at just the right moment. Then there was Paris!

I wasn’t going to go. It was going to cost me twenty-seven dollars. But I did go. We stayed at a place called the “Hotel Danielle” There were about six or eight of us. We didn’t need television. All we had to do was go into our room and turn the lights out and look out into the courtyard with all the shutters open. There was more action going on in that hotel than on twelve channels of television. We went down to the restaurant. We had our Maple Leaf emblems on our sweaters. We ate supper. When we went to pay for our bill, they wouldn’t let us pay for it.

I never walked so much in my life. I met my mother at the Eiffel Tower. We went up to the top and she bought me a white Swiss Army knife. It had the Eiffel Tower on it. The knife has had a life all its own. I have lost it seven times but I have always found it. Right now it is lost! In Bristol, we discovered that Canadian pennies were the same size as a six pence British coin. They fit nicely in to the slot machines, for the pool tables in the hotel. Arthur was critical of the facilities to the hotel manager, who quickly replied, “Now let me tell you about your scoundrels” and he threw a bag of Canadian pennies on the table. Arthur said, “I have never been so embarrassed in my life!”

On the way home, there were not many Hi-jinks. We just wanted to get home. We were men now, not boys...

“Oh, one of the boys, Brian Bolam, went and visited his uncle, who was the managing editor of the Daily Mirror in London. As a gift, he received an upscale flyfishing outfit

206 ~ Murray McAndrews

(Hardy, I think). To this day, Brian is a well known fly fisherman and guide.”

“Anything you can tell me about any of the other guys?”

“Murray McAndrews was a close friend of mine. He is a top research scientist for Shell Oil in Houston Texas. He has a place on South Pender Island. He married his high school sweetheart, Ann Wood. This guy’s a brain! When he joined the band he didn’t know how to play pool or anything. He was a shark inside of a month. Clarinet, he had never played it before. Six months later he was a virtuoso (12th Street Rag.) He goes to university, never studies and gets scholarships left, right and center; a ninety-five percent average!

When he graduated, Shell came to him and said they would build a special lab for him if he joined Shell, so he did. He has stayed on, always in the scientific area. He never got into the business side to my knowledge. His wife was very smart.

She was a top athlete, gorgeous! She was a cheerleader at Magee High School. I had the dance band at Magee. I recall, Mike Hadley played E flat alto sax parts on his mellophone.

He could have discovered a new Glen Miller sound. Dal Richards had the dance band at Magee when he went there earlier. Harry King was our music teacher. He wrote the official Ubyssey song to this day, “Hail Ubyssey!” He put on a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan.”

“What did you do after the kits band?”

“I played the Panorama Roof with Dal Richards, subbing for Art Tusvik. Art would get a job at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre or elsewhere and I would sub for him. Then, I played over at the Commodore with Gerry Deagle’s dad for Claude Logan. Same thing, I relieved Art Tusvik. Then

RON WOOD ~ 207

I gave it up to pursue a career in banking with the Bank of Montreal. I worked my way up through nineteen branches and became an organization specialist, efficiency studies.

When computers were introduced to banking, I was the first to convert data so it was compatible for processing by IBM computers. I would be the non-technical person. In Vancouver, we operated out of the Fairmont Medical Building on Broadway. I was at Nuns Island, Montreal when the very first ATM was started up. There was myself and five other guys and the president. On the basis of that and other achievements, they picked twenty-four guys to go back to university on full salary and were called President’s Scholars. The bank was a little tired of all the guys they were hiring. They thought they were pretty hot stuff but they were not. So, I went away for five years. I worked in the summers and graduated in Commerce from UBC with first class honors. Then, I got a bursary to go to Berkeley. The bank said, “You can go if you want but we are not paying you a dime more. We will give you much more than an MBA’s salary.”

I had been in the bank twelve years before I went to university. So, I went to Prince George, as Deputy Manager, with thirty members on staff. That was my last branch. Then I went on to work as a national controller, evaluating the performance of the provinces. After that, I went into teaching, using the Kits band performance skills! We hired four hundred new MBA’s and I put them through a six week course, twenty-four at a time, to try and make bankers out of them.

“Did you ever get your MBA?” “No, never bothered. I was teaching anyway, how to make commercial loans from two hundred thousand dollars to

208 ~ Bill Cave

twenty-five million. We started our own school. Then later, I reorganized and expanded our own law department because we were spending so much money on lawyers.

Next, I became the executive assistant to the chief financial officer of the bank. The main job there was, to consolidate all head office functions under his authority. He was a genius.

His corner office of First Canadian Place was the very center of Canada’s financial district. He gave me carte blanche. For instance, Bank of Montreal bought Harris Bank in Chicago.

He went down to be chief financial officer for six weeks. In his absence he said, “There’s the desk. Do your best!”

Just a dream job! There were lots of interesting people, Jean Chretien, Aziz from Iraq, the Chairman of the Bank of Japan, coming to our offices. There were lots of very famous people coming through the bank. A fabulous time! When I finally got everything consolidated, he became vice-chairman. As a result of the consolidation, the bank began giving lucrative early retirement packages and I said, “I know how to save you some money. Put my name at the top of the list!” It took fifteen minutes over lunch at his club.

That was the end of my career. That was 1991. Then I retired to Vancouver Island. First we lived on the water near Ladysmith. We saw all these yachts coming in and decided we wanted one. So, I took a power squadron course and became commander in the South Island. Bought a twenty-seven foot cruiser and cruised the Gulf Islands. I did that for a while and then came the big Kits band reunion in 1998.

I was sitting on the ferry, going over to Vancouver and

RON WOOD ~ 209

these two guys sat down. One of them said, “You know, I just got a double cup par-dub-a!”

That’s the name of a mouth piece. I leaned over and said, “Double cup par-dub-a, you say! That’s not a brassiere is it?” It turned out to be Norm Godfrey and Ian Douglas. Then, I went to get something to eat and this guy with a big white beard sat down and said, “You’re going to the Kitsilano Boys’ band reunion aren’t you?” I said, “How do you know?”

Anyway, it turned out to be Bill Cave. After we came back, Norm called me up one Monday night and said, “Get your horn and come down to band practice.”

He was the president of the Nanaimo Concert Band. That was the end of boating. I sold the boat and began playing in three bands and then three more. Twenty-four concerts a year, a little less now.

My big passion is my Dixieland band, ‘Dixie Down Beat Jazz Band!’ Our Nanaimo Concert band is going on tour. We are going to Nova Scotia. We went to Holland, France and Belgium in 2005 and won a gold medal at the Music Fest in Ottawa in 2001.”

“Any other old boys you would like to mention?”

“Donny Clark is my hero!”

He plays the way I would want to play, if I had gone professional. Both Donny and Arnie Chycoski went on to be the leads on the 1955 trip. Donny played Dixieland with Lance Harrison. Then he went on to play with Tommy Banks in Edmonton. He played with a group called the Northern Connection.

210 ~ Arthur Anderson & Company

He plays in a band in Sun Valley now. He is one of the most successful musicians around.”

“Tell me how Arthur influenced you?”

“His biggest influence was in leadership, mostly. There isn’t a day goes by that I am not using a skill that he taught me, with my Dixieland band, programming. You start off with a fast number, then a number to show your skills and so on but leadership. I worked at the Bank of Montreal for thirty-eight years. How to deal with people, how to discipline someone, he taught us. How to write a traffic ticket, if somebody is not performing, how do you get them to change, so they love what you say to them. The other question is the pursuit of excellence, heavy on the word pursuit. The enthusiasm you show and how you transfer that enthusiasm on to other people. That comes right out of Arthur Delmont’s hand book. Honesty is another thing I learned. What is right and what is wrong. An executive came to me and said he wanted to give away a car for high performance, but he didn’t have room in his budget. He said, “Stick it in your budget!”

Is that honest? I refused. As it turned out, the executive was let go further on down the road. The chief financial officer, who was somewhat religious, found out I had an honest streak and eventually I became his personal assistant. Values I guess in the broader sense, Delamont values. Just remembering how Arthur dealt with situations with the boys. How he managed to get his message across without destroying anyone’s self respect: management, love of music, love of travel.”

“Who were the three most influential people you have

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met in your lifetime?”

“My father was a big influence on me. He was president of the band from 1948 until 1955. Our dinner table was always a lesson in business. Arthur, for the reasons stated.

And probably my last boss in the bank was the third biggest influence on me. He was a religious person and how he reconciled his religion with being chief financial officer; having to do budget cutting and firing people. – i.e. “Pay unto Caesar, that which is due.” He was the head of Arthur Anderson & Company, Chartered Accountants consulting wing at thirty years old. He wrote the text book on Computer Auditing, used today at the University of Toronto. One of the most brilliant minds I have ever come across. He could read a report six inches thick in fifteen or twenty minutes and come up with penetrating questions that got to the root and he was a nice guy. He wasn’t a good public speaker, so I presented objectives, strategies and tactics to head office staff meetings of about two hundred personnel, while the corporate controller gave the numbers. After professional coaching, he became an easy going speaker.

How do you end solidly, so everyone goes away with a good feeling? Performance skills just show up all over the place. They were all brilliant.”

“Good company!”

212 ~ Don Kirkby

CHAPTER 14

Donny Clark “I got to meet and spend an evening with Louis Armstrong. We went to his concert at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Lance Harrison and I and Hugh Pickett, later we went back stage at intermission, to see him and then we all went back to his apartment after the show.”

“I was one of five added players for the trip, myself, Dennis Tupman, Earl Hobson and Don Kirkby, we all came from Victoria, recommended by Howard Denike. Arnie Chycoski came from New Westminter. He was recommended by Fred Turner.

We had to buy a raincoat and bring our own spending money. My mom put me on the CPR boat. I think the date was May 5. It was my dad’s birthday. I didn’t see her again until the 2nd of September, when she came to our homecoming concert.

I was in the tenth grade at the time and had only been to Vancouver a couple of times to see the “Jazz At The Philharmonic” concerts, at the old Georgia Auditorium. When I got off the boat this time, I stayed with Ed Silva-White’s family in West Vancouver. They had a beautiful home on Marine Drive, just past Park Royal and before Ambleside Park.

214 ~ Dave Dunnett

I arrived in Vancouver early for rehearsals, so I had lots of time to walk the streets and hike the hills.

The day finally arrived and we took off across Canada.

First stop was Revelstoke, then Banff, Calgary, Moose Jaw, Winnipeg, Kenora, Marathon, Toronto and finally Montreal.

We had our own train coach where we slept and ate. At each stop, our cars were set on a siding and from there we would go and perform our concerts, come back to sleep and then move on.”

“Do you remember your first encounter with Mr. D?” “From the first rehearsal, he never paid much attention to any of us new members. I was advised that this was “good,” as any attention from Mr. D was usually one of fury, rather than friendliness. All was so far, so ‘good’ until we were on the boat to Liverpool. The Ascania was not a large ship but big enough for a ship’s orchestra.

The first night out from Montreal, others and myself hung around listening to the orchestra do their dining and dance set. When they finished, they were to have a bit of a jam session, so I went and got my trumpet. My grade eight band teacher in Creston had me listening to and playing jazz right from the first time I put the horn to my lips. So, it was a given that I wanted to sit in with the boys and jam the blues; ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ and ‘How High The Moon.’

Out of the blue, Mr. D appears! My horn miraculously transferred to his hands and then to my case on the floor.

Within moments, we were all downstairs in our staterooms and in our bunks. I don’t remember his words to be too endearing but he made the point that we all had to be in good shape for the band rehearsal the next morning.

DONNY CLARK ~ 215

We landed at Liverpool. In those days, Paul McCartney was only thirteen but he already had a friend named George Harrison. We boarded a bus and we were off to Blackpool for the first of our three visits. Each would last a week and were at the Palace Theatre. We slept on the stage one night because our “digs” were not ready.

My most memorable musical experience happened during our third trip to Blackpool. After our last show, each night, we would race up the street to the Winter Gardens and watch the great Ted Heath band. We would hang around their dressing room and got to know them all. They were preparing for one of their famous London Palladium Concert records.

Jimmy Coombs (bass trombone) was in the band and he later moved to Vancouver and did lots of work here. Art Tusvik even married Jimmy’s daughter. That just shows you how tight we were with the Heath orchestra at that time. The next year the Heath band came to Vancouver on an exchange tour with Duke Ellington. The musicians union in England was very strong and kept all foreign professional bands out except, they were allowed to do an exchange. The Heath band did five concerts in America and the Ellington band did five in England. Lew Hilton, Dave Dunnett and I came over from Victoria to that great concert at the Forum, out at the PNE. The concert also featured the great Carmen McCrae and the HI-LOs. It was fantastic!”

“Do you remember much about bussing around England?”

“Not a lot but as boys will be boys, we were always looking out the windows for “scones.” A nice term for girls, at least much nicer than some names I’ve learned since. We

216 ~ Brian Todd

were always on the look out for “Teddy Boys” but that was more mystique than anything.

I remember in Cheltenham, walking across a park and somebody recognizing my crest. It was a tourist from Victoria. The moment brought thoughts of home.

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.” For me, it was a time to begin defining some personal values and concepts of politics, war, national pride and a general moving outside of myself to become aware of a bigger picture of the world.”

“Can you tell me anything about any of the other guys?”

“Some became very dear friends and fellow musicians I’ve worked with for the last fifty-two years. Here we are in November 2007. For most of us, that is almost the end of the journey. But there is still lots of long tone practicing to do and we keep moving ahead. One of my best friends became a best friend after the trip. Brian Todd was only fifteen on the 1955 trip but did he ever have a beautiful tone. He was featured every concert with a solo on his cornet. We hooked up again at UBC. Brian is godfather to my son David. Brian is a true renaissance man, in that he is an artist with everything he touches, be it his wonderful bands he developed at KSS in Kelowna, his chef skills, his herb garden, fly fishing, paint brush, his trumpet playing or his arranging skills.

Bill Trussell became ill coming home and had to stay in the hospital in Quebec City. We all missed him at our homecoming concert. Bill and I worked together at the Cave

DONNY CLARK ~ 217

nightclub for fifteen years. Bill and I were the coffee drinkers. Most of the others enjoyed something on the ‘cooler’ side. Bill had studied architecture and he used to draw puzzles using squares, circles and cones, developing inventive figures of design. We used to pun a lot too and recall some of the one-liners from past comedians. Just a punch line would bring a laugh or two. Bill also worked with me in the Dr. Bundolo Band for nine years. We also did the opera orchestra many times and the Bobby Hales Orchestra. Bill built a sailboat and I helped pour some of the lead in the keel.

The boat was so classy; it was used in a movie in which Sandi Dennis did a love scene. That was Bill! He passed on a couple of years ago and we all miss him. He always made the reunions.

Ted Lazenby (trombone, euphonium) also went through UBC with me. Ted had a satirical whit, which gave him a very biting sense of humor. Ted was the first horn player to graduate in performance from UBC. Soon after, he took his family to Germany, where he played professionally with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and did very well.

Arnie Chycoski and I were the lead players but Arnie really carried me and the rest of the trumpet section because he was so powerful and good. Everyone in the band respected his leadership and his great playing kept the trumpet section a truly happening experience. On one number he would end on a double “G.” Arnie used to hang out with Alex McLeod.

Both were nineteen and we younger guys were a bit fearful of their odd snears. They never seemed to smile. While Arnie was growing up in New Westminster, Fred Turner, grandfather of the great Brad Turner, took Arnie under his wing.

218 ~ Dennis Tupman

He helped him keep out of trouble and guided him in his early years. In the early days Arnie and Ray Sikora were buddies.

I played together with Arnie in the early 1960s, before he left for Los Angeles to study at Westlake College of Music. He made great connections and developed a fantastic reputation. He went on the road and recorded with the Si Zentner Band. Arnie became famous for his “kiss.” At the ending note of “Up A Lazy River” he made the end of the note sound like a kiss. He came back to Vancouver for a few months. There was not much work for him, so he headed for Toronto. The rest is wonderful history - Lead trumpet with the Boss Brass! Nowadays he is considered one of the world’s greatest lead trumpet players for all his great work over the span of 1960-1995. He now lives over on the island and still practices, even with his new teeth. He certainly has inspired many young players. I have never missed a “Kits” reunion and Arnie tries to make as many as he can. I have always had very positive feelings about the organization. It’s like coming home.

Dennis Tupman and I are very good friends and compatriots for music advocacy. He played first clarinet chair on the 1955 trip and his solos were always beautifully executed (not the firing squad). If you have ever listened to Dennis speak about music, love, being a person, the kinds of things we tend to put aside for another time, you would realize just how passionate this man expresses his ideas. I’ve watched Dennis speak to a bleacher full of grade seven and eight students without a microphone, describing the music performed at Washington DC commemorating the 9/11 tragedy. You normally don’t see tears on mass like that. I’m glad he didn’t

DONNY CLARK ~ 219

become a professional minister. He travels, does clinics and speaks his message all over Canada and the US. Bing Thom, now here’s an icon. I can still hear him singing “Let the sun shine in, face it with a grin .....” He was just fifteen and not too big for his age. His brother Gene played sax beside Bart Reemeyer. I have a great picture of Bing, Arnie, Ian Gregory and Gerry Deagle atop the Eiffel Tower.

I think Arnie took it upon himself to watch out for Bing.

Gerry Deagle still plays a lot of trumpet. He and I have had some pleasant duet sessions. He sure has a passion for inventive jazz and good conversation.

Eric Wood and I have kept in touch all these years too. He is very active in the Penticton Jazz Festival both as a player and administrator.

Ian Gregory, Charlie Henry and I hung together a lot as the trip progressed. I recall at the end of the trip going to Paris for five days on Dan Air. It cost us each twenty-seven dollars return. We hardly got any sleep. We walked everywhere, to the Sacre Coure, Eiffel Tower, and the ladies jiggling their keys behind their backs. We somehow were not quite ready for the museums and art galleries or les femme de la nuit.

Those interests would peak in later years. We went to the Follies Bergere, standing room only! They had a great live orchestra. Lots of tall show girls with plumes and sparkles.

Le Mayo was a strip club with naked women riding bicycles.

We couldn’t see anything really but we couldn’t miss it. We were never afraid of getting mugged. We felt invincible. Nobody would ever do anything to us. We were musicians, with grandfathers. Who would want to hurt us? Of course, as we look back as grown ups, we realize we were so naive.

220 ~ Lance Harrison

Not many parents today would understand the freedom we had in those large cities and we all came home unscathed.

Mrs. Wood and Mrs. D were there to keep us tidy. The fact that they were just there was enough to remind us of home and our mothers. Sleeping on the stage that one night in Blackpool was no major hardship but the stage itself certainly was hard. No mattress or pillow, just our blue raincoats but as kids we were resilient.

There was a myth in those days that jazz bands were made up of dope addicts, marijuana smokers and hard drinkers.

Most of the guys I worked with liked to have a “taste” but no hard stuff like the movies.”

“Any other bands you encountered in England?”

“Yes, the “Basil and Ivor Kirchen band” from Scotland was playing in Cheltenham, a real hard swinging Basie styled band. No trombones though; five trumpets, five saxes and five in the rhythm section. Someone said something to somebody and I was asked to sit in and play a blues solo on one of the guy’s horns. They asked me if I wanted to stay in England and tour with them and not go back to Canada. I said, “No, I’ve got to go back to Canada. I’m still in school and have to finish grade ten.”

On the Central Pier at Blackpool we caught ‘Kenny Baker,’ one of England’s finest trumpeters.

I know who else we saw in Cheltenham, the great vaudevillian ‘George Formby.’ As was the variety circuit in the 1950’s, many great stars from the vaudeville era still worked.

There were also many European circus type acts and always a very funny comedian on the show. We usually got top billing. Logistically, you had to put the band on the program

DONNY CLARK ~ 221

last because of its size; on last/top billing. It was always the Vancouver Boys’ Band from Canada, not the Kitsilano Boys’ Band.”

“When you returned, you went back to Victoria?”

“Yes, I went back to Oak Bay High School. Had to repeat grade ten. But it worked out fine as it gave me a good grounding for the arts courses I was to encounter at UBC. I got my degree in general music and wanted to become a high school band teacher like my buddies Lew Hilton and Brian Todd. All through my UBC years I was busy playing for the CBC, working at the Cave, playing with Lance Harrison. I was just too busy playing my horn to get into teaching. I played with the CBC orchestra for twenty-two years.

I started adjudicating in the early 1970s for Bill Stonier. I really enjoyed being on the road with Bill. He is a truly first class person... Later I hooked up with Yamaha through Bob MacDonald who worked hard in the early days to introduce Yamaha instruments to the working musicians. I’ve spent many years doing clinics and concerts in schools for Sight & Sound out of Terrace, a community with wonderful bands as well as a symphony. With Ian McDougal, George Ursan, Oliver Gannon, Tony Clitheroe and Ron Johnston we started the jazz band called ‘Pacific Salt.’ The personnel changed a bit but it was very inspirational and albeit, challenging.”

“Ever play with Delamont?”

“I know he used to get a band together and play for the docking of the cruise ships as they came and went. I never got a call but that was probably because I was pretty busy at the time. He was, in the 1930s and 1940s, considered one of Vancouver’s finest trumpet players. He played the

222 ~ Sharman King

symphony and the vaudeville shows of the day. His son Gordon was a fine soloist and a major part of his dad’s prize winning groups in the 1930s.”

“Did you know him?”

“No but I sure know about him. His arranging was superb and his text book on arranging is still used by the Armed Forces Band.”

“Was Tom Keenlyside at UBC when you were there?”

“No but I have done a lot of playing with Tom and love his sax work and flute work. He has a great studio and does music for cartoons. Both Judith Forst (Lumb) and Ben Heppner graduated from UBC. Now, there are two true icons!

I did my Masters in Composition at the University of Victoria. I like to let others decide whether to call me a ‘composer’ or not. I love to write and explore sonorities and voicing. I write now for the WOW jazz band, ten pieces.

Another ten piece group I love to play with, when they ask me is the brass tentet organized by Jim Littland. This group fields some great players such as Tom Shorthouse and Henry Christian. We get together once every couple of months at Sharman King’s “Book Warehouse” warehouse. Jim has a fantastic selection of brass music and is very active in that genre.”

“Did you know Ron Colograsso?”

“I met him once in Toronto. The story may be a bit convoluted by now but I understand that when the Kits Band was coming back from Europe in 1950, Ron got off the train in Toronto and stayed, changed his name and never looked back. Ron Collier is world famous.

On our return we sailed on the Scythia, taking the north-

DONNY CLARK ~ 223

ABOVE: c1998 Donny, Arnie Chycoski and Stu Barnett.

ABOVE: c1965 Lance Harrison, Dave Pepper, Don Clark, Fraser MacPhearson at CBC.

224 ~ Tom Banks

ern route. We even saw icebergs! There were lots of storms, so we would go up to the front of the ship and slide back down the deck as the ship would be high in the water at the bow. I can still smell the crusty buns they served with all the meals. Cigarettes were only ten cents a pack on board. Mr. D knew we smoked and we all knew he was looking over our shoulder. He wasn’t but seemed to be. I guess we were just being careful and he did give us a lot of rope.

Like any trip in life, it’s the journey not the destination that is important. For me the Kits band instilled a positive practice ethic, encouraging me to try to get better.”

“Tell me some of the fellows you have played with?”

“If you could open a musicians union directory from the 1960s to the late 1980s they would all be there. I joined a band called the ‘New Orleans Connection’ in 1986. The personnel changed but ‘Tom Banks’ was our most outstanding pianist. I know it sounds like ‘name-dropping’ but this guy is a Senator now in Ottawa; yet another Canadian icon. We toured Canada and all over Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary. ‘Torbin Oxbol,’ a very exciting and wonderful bass player, ‘Jerry Fuller,’ drums, ‘Jack Fulton’ on trombone and the teacher ‘George Haden’ on clarinet. We even had three complete symphony programs to work from. We did four concerts with the VSO and it was a treat to stand out front of that great orchestra and play solos. In Europe we played everything from concert halls to little jazz clubs and even some restaurants.”

“I am going to Sun Valley, Idaho, in about two weeks for a jazz festival with a band from California called the Chicago Six. This will be my tenth year in a row. We play other

DONNY CLARK ~ 225

festivals as well. We go for a week and play three one hour sets a day. We get treated wonderfully.”

“You guys were the legends! You and Ron Colograsso and Arnie Chycoski, Ted Lazenby, Bill Trussell and some of the others. Growing up, as a kid in the band, knowing that some of you guys made it to the heights you did, gave the rest of us an incentive to strive for the top in our own pursuits.”

“That’s nice to hear. Sports people respond to words like this by saying, “it’s the team,” or, “it’s the coach, or” my mom driving me to practice.” It’s very much the same here too. ‘Mr. Delamont,’ ‘Gordie King,’ ‘Howard Denike,’ my co-players. If we show up on time, do a good job and don’t cause the leader to worry we usually get called again. This is a basic work ethic.

I know for a fact, that if I hadn’t gone on that five month tour in 1955, my life would have taken a completely different direction. It was a defining moment in my career. I might not even have gone into music. Repeating grade ten gave me a better grounding in my schooling, inspiring me to go to university. Who knows, I might not have even finished high school! So, I look on it as a very significant and positive time in my life. Also, it told me if you have talent and you work hard, you can get some where.

I was in the VSO, when ‘Stravinsky’ came and conducted.

I got to meet and spend an evening with ‘Louis Armstrong.’

I went to his concert at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Lance Harrison and I had just finished playing for the opening the new Four Seasons Hotel on Georgia Street and Lance said, “Let’s go down and see Louie.”

The impresario Hugh Pickett gave Lance and I his last

226 ~ Louis Armstrong

two remaining tickets. We went back stage at intermission to Louie’s dressing room. Lance and he were old buddies, so afterwards we went to his hotel with Bob Smith, the jazz radio announcer. Bob did an interview and then we all went around the corner to the ‘Cave’ for the last show. When the guys in the Cave band saw us their grins really beamed. I never got a picture or an autograph but I sure have a good memory of that evening. I went to the Louis Armstrong House Museum in New York City where much of his memorabilia is on display.

But I sure loved the Kitsilano Boys’ band. It got me out of a small town mentality, to a career playing with some of the best players around. The Kits band was like a National Youth band, in its day. National exposure, there was lots. Of course you had to live up to your “rep.” That’s not always easy for a trumpet player. Sure glad Arnie was there. I bet every trumpet section he ever led would concur. I was so happy to have been a part.”

“You also have to live up to your peers.”

“That’s true, everybody has their job to do.”

“How do you think Arthur influenced your life?”

“Leaders lead and the rest of us follow. Arthur Delamont was our leader and his traits of gruffness and confidence, with a twinkle in his eye influenced us all for the rest of our lives. To attempt to articulate this today, makes me feel very humble but he got us all to work together and trust each other. When he grabbed my horn out of my hands and tossed it in my case that time on the boat, I learned a good lesson.

Even then, it was a positive gesture. He wanted me up playing in the morning and not out cavorting with the crew. So,

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it’s all positive!”

“Who were the three most influential people in your life?”

“Musically speaking, I have told you about Armstrong.

He would be right at the top. He is the spiritual tap root of the tree from which all trumpet players hang their horns. Howard Denike, band teacher in Victoria. He was a wonderful mentor for so many young musicians. He could see where we were going and helped so much. Gordy King, he instilled in me a love of jazz and classical music, to play it and to listen. He and Howard helped me start writing too. Lance Harrison, Doug Parker, Dave Robbins, Bobbie Hales and Ian McDougall, all of them had a highly respected sense of values. Just to have been a part of that professional scene for all these years makes me feel very fortunate. Often people ask me, “Why didn’t you go to Toronto?” I say, I was doing everything here, so why go there. I was giging usually five nights a week, playing at the Cave, odd work with the VSO, twenty-two years with the CBC Chamber Orchestra, Opera Orchestra, Broadway shows, Ice Capades, the circus, dances, weddings, even the odd funeral, the PNE. All kinds of CBC radio and television shows like the Irish Rovers and Dr. Bundolo.

We forget today just how much work the CBC gave to musicians during the 1960’s and 1970’s. I was a member of Pacific Salt Jazz Sextet with Ian McDougall, George Ursan, Oliver Gannon, Ron Johnston, and Tony Clitheroe. PJ Perry, Jack Stafford and Torbin Oxbol were also long time members. We even opened for a Miles Davis concert at the

228 ~ Herman’s Jazz Club

Queen Elizabeth Theatre in the 1970’s. So, I did a little bit of everything. That’s what I do today but more on the “little” side.”

“What does the future hold for Donny Clark?”

“I’m 69 and would like to do some more trout fishing. I have a place on Kootney Lake where I’ll go in March 2008 and in the middle of June you will find me most evenings off Girder Point tossing a dry fly. I have three great kids and three wonderful grandchildren and believe it or not, a great ex-wife, the mother of my children. I still go to Victoria periodically to play with my friends at Herman’s Jazz Club. I will try to get to New York, stay with my son, get a terrific injection of great music and art, come home and do some writing, playing and of course, some fishing!”

CHAPTER 15

Bing Thom “Later in life, I learned another technique, Transcendental Meditation from the ‘Maharishi Mahish Yogi.’ I have been meditating now for several years. I met him when he was here in Vancouver.”

Next, on my list of old boys to interview, was Bing Thom.

Bing Thom has earned fame and reputation as one of Canada’s foremost architects. His projects are world renowned.

Besides working on pavilions for World’s Fairs over the years, he designed an entire city in China, called Dalian. In Vancouver, most recently, he completed the Chan Centre at UBC and a host of other projects.

I called Bing and booked an appointment with him for the following Saturday afternoon. As I made my way along the seawall, from English Bay towards the Burrard Street Bridge, I soon found myself at the Aquatic Centre where I turned left, and arrived in a few moments at Beach Avenue, just below Bing’s office. Bing Thom Architects is located in an inauspicious, two level, older building, tucked discreetly below Pacific Boulevard, just to the right of the Burrard Street Bridge. Not at all where one would expect to find an

230 ~ Point Grey Junior High School

architectural firm of that caliber.

I was a few minutes early for our appointment but I knocked on the big glass door on the north side of the building anyway. Shortly, a young fellow appeared and ushered me into the foyer. He introduced himself as a photographer and said that Bing had not yet arrived but that he was sure he would be along in no time. The young fellow took me up a narrow staircase which led to one large expanse of a room. I could see several models of buildings, under construction, on different desks and tables placed in rows running the length of the room. As we were waiting for Bing, the young fellow talked about some of their projects, both past and present.

It wasn’t long before the sound of footsteps could be heard from behind, coming from the stairwell. When we turned, we saw Bing standing at the top of the stairs.

“Hello,” he said, upon seeing me.

“I see you have arrived. Let’s go into the kitchen. Would you like some cookies? I just finished a swim at the beach.”

“It was not too cold?” I asked.

“No, I do it every day. I am use to it.”

Bing showed me into a kitchen area, where we both sat down at a table. On the table was a bag of cookies, Bing removed some of the cookies from the bag and placed them on a nearby plate. I said, “Tell me, how did you first meet Arthur Delamont?”

“We moved to Vancouver in the early 1950’s. We had come from Hong Kong. My father was born here but myself and my brothers were born in Hong Kong. I didn’t speak hardly any English. I was twelve. My mother read about

BING THOM ~ 231

the band in the newspaper. It was a wonderful chance for boys to go to Europe. She asked us, “Do you want to learn a musical instrument?” We said, “Why not?”

So, she took us down to Point Grey Junior High School.

It was an afternoon. My mother talked to Arthur. There was me and my two elder brothers. One of my brothers chose to play the trumpet. My second brother chose to play the sax. And I chose the clarinet. He stuck this instrument in my mouth and said, “Blow!”

We ended up taking lessons from him and then we went first into his Point Grey Junior Band. After that we graduated into the Kits Band; the Junior Kits band. They played earlier in the evening and when you were good enough, he held you over and you went into the senior band. It probably took about a year or a year and a half to move up.

He was such a scary guy! We were all living in fear.

Sometimes he would single you out and tell you to play in front of everybody else. If you played badly or squeaked, he would give you this look or hit you on the head with his baton or a rolled up newspaper. He somehow though, inspired you to work and practice. He had his way of bringing it out of you. It was like he challenged us to prove to him and ourselves, how good we could become. It was kind of a hidden challenge.

“You think you are so good,” he would say. Some of the boys who expressed to him that they wanted to become professional musicians, he was extra hard on them.

“You think you could do it? You don’t have any idea

232 ~ Gene Thom

what it is like.” He would say.

It was his way of toughening them up. I do the same thing with my junior architects because if you are going into any field, every day, you have to achieve the best. If there was any kind of values that he taught, it was that in this world there is only the one percent. And if you are not in that one percent, you don’t count. He taught that sense of excellence.

That sense of discipline. That sense of perfection. When you play in a band, you are only as good as the worst player because the worst player is going to spoil the music. Even in the work that I do now, building buildings, you are only as good as the guy who is going to make the mistake. It is the mistake that everyone sees. It is a whole different way of looking at what quality means. What perfection means.

What competitive life means. He certainly built this competitive spirit into us, so that you never know what you can achieve until you try. That is something which is invaluable for young people to learn.

The fact is, you are only as good as the person sitting next to you. Team work, achieving perfection as a group, rather than individually.”

“All three of you went on with your music?”

“No, my eldest brother dropped out and became a photographer. My second eldest brother, Gene, played with me in the Kits Band.”

“Do you remember just before the 1955 trip? Was there a competition to go on that trip?”

“Oh yes, especially for me. I was sitting on the last chair.

I was the youngest. The problem was that there was another boy a little older, sitting one chair up from myself. Mr. D

BING THOM ~ 233

said, “Look, there is only one of you going to go on this trip.”

That was a year before the trip. So we competed all the time; the two of us. He didn’t let us know until about one month before the trip, who was going to get to go along on the trip. For me it was traumatic. The pressure but it brought out that sense of work ethic in us.

“Tell me about the trip?”

“I got to go! I remember traveling across Canada and stopping at whistle stops, sleeping on the trains, playing in small towns. That was eye opening. I had never been across Canada before that trip. It was all kind of deliberately set up as a training period, for when we reached England. We honed our skills. When we left Vancouver, the band was good but not nearly as good as he wanted. But if you play every day, twice a day, sometimes three times a day, you just get better and better and better. He was constantly forcing us to sight read, playing pieces we had never seen before. Testing, trying to see how far he could push us as musicians. On the train we had sectional practices. You never stopped playing.

“Tell me about the boat ride?”

“I was one of these guys who were already sea sick before I got on to the gang plank. I was sick all the way up the St. Lawrence. It became kind of a joke. We practiced, the boat would sway. If we were really sick, he didn’t insist on us attending practices. He didn’t humiliate us. He didn’t make us feel ridiculous. If you were sick, you were sick. I was fourteen on that trip. In England, he asked me to speak publicly at concerts. I even sang a little song, “When the Sun Shines In.” That was always a huge hit because I was just a little

234 ~ Toscanini

guy. At the end of the show, I would get a little more attention, for my singing, so that was fun. Once and a while a pretty girl would come up to me. That is when we discovered girls. It was really all about learning to stand on your own two feet and be able to present yourself and to represent others. That was to me the most significant experience that I got from the trips.”

“See any other bands in England?”

“We saw Ted Heath of course. We didn’t compete on the 1955 trip. We played in vaudeville and stayed in digs. The landladies because I was of Chinese extraction and because I was small, always made me rice pudding. I hated rice pudding but I always had to eat it because you didn’t want to offend people who thought they were going out of their way to make something special. I remember going to Paris and the Follies Bergere. Seeing naked ladies for the first time.

I wasn’t supposed to be able to go in but somehow they sneaked me into the theatre. That was a huge big deal, everyone was drinking wine but I only drank coke. I didn’t have any money. All we ate in Paris was bread and cheese.

Mail time was always fun. We always wondered if the girls we met in the last town would write to us or not. That was a big deal too.

In every town we let the Mayor know we had arrived. We would march down the center of town, either unannounced or arranged. It was the old caravan act. Letting everyone in town know you had arrived. We usually made a lot of noise and marched around a lot, street theatre. That was the vaudeville in him. He was a showman. He knew how to present the band. I often wondered if his hair was really white or if

BING THOM ~ 235

it was peroxide. I thought, maybe that was the Toscanini showing through in his character. They had a lot of the same characteristics, the temper tantrums, the showmanship, the drive for perfection.”

“Don’t forget John Philip Sousa.”

“Oh yes, John Philip Sousa. That was a logical association because of the bands but because Delamont played so much classical music, I personally saw a connection with Toscanini.”

“Tell me about the incident in London, when he called you all together one day and made an announcement.”

“My memory of it is, that one day, very sudden, he called us all together and said, “The people who have been employing us, who brought us over here, who we are under contract with; we have broken off with them. Either they have gone bankrupt or something very serious has happened. We have two choices.

We go home or we keep going but if we keep going, I cannot promise you a meal every day because we do not know where we are going to be. So, what do you boys want to do?” We all said, “Let’s keep going!”

No show of hands but he knew somehow we wanted to stay.

One night, at half time, during a concert and after I did my song, he said to the audience, “We are stuck. We are in your city. We need you to volunteer to take one or two of these boys.”

We were divided up into threes and fours and we ended up in people’s homes. We would sell postcards. The money

236 ~ Arnie Chycoski

was counted out and given to each of us for our meals each day. Often we were fed by the people with whom we stayed.

Because I was young, I was always sent out to sell postcards.

In 1958, I became the treasurer. It was my job to make sure we got enough money to pay for our meals.”

“I found a lot of quotes in the newspapers of the day, saying the band had been scheduled to perform in places like Norway and Sweden, but that never happened. I guess that could be accounted for by the fact that your bookings fell through?”

“I do not know, could be. On the 1955 trip my brother was in charge of the laundry. He would always try to find a Chinese laundry. That way he could usually get a free Chinese meal and often did and then he could find a Chinese girl friend. There might be a daughter in the family, that was a big thing with him.

After the music, the postcards were the next most important thing on the trip. We couldn’t lose those postcards. They were our bread and butter. They had to get on the train and they had to get off the train. They were very important. The postcards were as important as our instrument.”

“What do you recall about Ted Heath?”

“I didn’t go to see him but my brother and Arnie Chycoski and some of the others went to see him and met him and the members of his band backstage. They came back in awe and so happy. Delamont kind of played it down. To him, it wasn’t serious music. The boys got together and played little dances on the trip. Delamont didn’t discourage it but I never felt he encouraged it either. Arnie Chycoski had a real cool sound. He didn’t usually play the solos. But whenever there

BING THOM ~ 237

were any technically challenging parts, Arnie took over. I remember Arnie well and I have great memories of him because he looked after me on that trip, especially in Paris. He went out of his way to look after me.

One of the things Arthur did not like us doing was sleeping in the daytime; whether it was on the bus or whereever.

He always got upset. I never knew why he was so intolerant of daytime sleeping. Chewing gum and sunglasses were the other two things he disliked.

His discipline was so effective, that even now at my age, maybe three or four times a year, I will have a nightmare. It will be either I forgot my cape or my instrument or my socks are not matching and I will wake up in a cold sweat.

He was my father figure. My father was in Hong Kong. I didn’t have a dominate male in my life except for Delamont.

He affected me a lot with his values and his beliefs.

“He was larger than life.”

“Yes” “Your back home after the 1955 trip and then the 1958 trip arrives.”

“Yes, between 1955 and 1958, I got a summer job in Sacramento and I didn’t practice for about four or five months.

When I came back, he was so mad at me. He didn’t let up for a good six months.

I think he was really disappointed that I had let my skill slip. I think he felt quite hurt that I was so negligent to let that happen. It took a long time to get it back but I did.”

“I think he took it very seriously how he nurtured everyone along.”

“Oh yes, he was disappointed in my character that I didn’t

238 ~ Brussels World’s Fair

c1998 Bing and Arnie Chycoski at the Reunion Concert

BING THOM ~ 239

care enough to practice.”

“He did, practice I mean.”

“Yes, he played right to the end. That’s why I quit. I didn’t have the time to keep it up. In university, I couldn’t face myself, so I couldn’t fool around. That was the message he taught, don’t go halfway. If you can’t do it to the best of your ability, don’t do it. That’s the lesson I learned from him, that I have carried with me all my life.”

“Then, the 1958 trip came along.”

“That trip, for me, was more fun because I was older. I knew what was going on. On that trip it was more playing in bandstands and in holiday resorts. We didn’t play at all in vaudeville. I had more responsibility. The memorable part for me of the 1958 trip was going to the Brussel’s World Fair. That really changed my life. It made me an architect. I always wanted to be an architect but that experience made me realize more than ever, that I wanted to be an architect.

That’s where all the buildings were from different countries.

It gave me a sense of internationalism. In one short day, you saw the best from all the countries.

Playing in the festival in Kerkrade, Holland was also a great experience. Learning how much Canadians were loved in Holland. We played Dvorak’s New World Symphony at the festival.”

“Do you remember anything else about the 1958 trip?”

“No, I don’t remember things as vividly as others. I remember more the philosophical associations, rather than the specific.

So, I came back and went to university. He wanted us

240 ~ Arthur Erickson

to to keep playing. I wasn’t someone whoever thought he would make his life in music. I felt I had gone as far as I wanted to go in music. At one time I wanted to join the VSO but I never did. My interests were in the classics. I loved music but music was not my gift.

I went to architecture school eventually. I remember being interviewed by the director. He asked, “What do you do for a hobby?”

“I play clarinet.”

“Do you still play?”

“No, I gave it up.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, I didn’t think I was going to be really good in music.” He said, “Oh, so you thought you would give architecture a try?”

“Well, I guess it’s true!”

All the values I learned in the band, I carried with me to the work I do today; the philosophy of working in the arts.

Either you’re going to be really good or you don’t do it because it’s miserable in between. It’s difficult everyday, just go at it. Keep honing your skills, your craft. You never know how good you can be, you just keep going at it. It becomes part of your life.”

“I don’t think Arthur thought much about his past glories or previous trips. I think he concentrated on the next challenge, the next group of boys.”

“We went to Belgium, Holland, Jersey and then all over England on that trip. On the 1955 trip, there were a lot of boys from other bands. The core band in 1958 was from the West Vancouver Band. There was some friction between

BING THOM ~ 241

the parents of the West Van Band and Arthur. I guess that is why he left the West Van Band.

We came in second in the Victoria Music festival one year.

We heard about it for years and years. He did not like to lose.

It’s the same in my practice now. If I go into a competition, I want to make sure I win. I think that comes from him. He was miserable if he lost. He ate us up but he ate himself up even more. He was a very competitive person. Imagine the pressure he put himself under. I think he only lost maybe three times in his whole career. He won two hundred awards and that’s not bad. I remember distinctly he said to us in Victoria, “There is only number one in this world. Nobody talks about number two. You either win or you lose. Never tell anyone you came in second.” That’s the philosophy I have in my office, either you win it or you lose it but don’t tell people you came in second. There is no sympathy for the also ran and that’s the way he was. That, I remember really clearly.

I don’t ever remember Arthur sitting me down and talking to me alone. Whenever he said something to any of us, he always addressed the group but you knew when he was talking to you. He had a habit of doing that.”

“Who were the three people who were the biggest influence on your life?”

“Delamont obviously was a big influence. He formed so much of my early years and then Arthur Erickson. He was very instrumental. Then later in life, I learned another technique, Transcendental Meditation.

So, the Maharishi Mahish Yogi was a big influence. I

242 ~ Kato

have been meditating now for several years. I met him when he was here in Vancouver. And there is probably a fourth.

There was a professor at university, a Japanese professor named Kato. He was a philosopher, a medical doctor, social commentator, a universal man. He was a guest professor at UBC for three years. He was very influential in teaching me about culture, history and civilization; the broader aspects of education. And of course there is my wife who is my best friend and critic. She keeps me level headed and inspires me when I’m down.

Delamont taught me about character. Erickson taught me about architecture. The Maharishi taught me about inner truths. And Kato taught me about intellectual aspects of society and cross culturalism. He would compare Japanese literature to Chinese literature, to German literature, to French literature. Anyway, he taught history backwards. He said, “We make history everyday. The only way you can understand history, is to learn it backwards. The forward part is all our lives. Every day we re-invent it!”

“I’ve met some pretty interesting people. I have been blessed to know people like Delamont. Life is a series of accidents. Everyday we probably have one hundred accidents. Depends what you make of them. Certain people you click with. So, it was a very deep relationship I had with Delamont. At least for me personally. I remember he used to say every year in the middle of band practice, “I have to go and get my Pontiac.”

He never talked about it. He just kind of had a way of slipping things in now and then. Of course, I think, he got a new Pontiac from Jimmy Pattison every year. It was like a

BING THOM ~ 243

stream of consciousness in between periods of stoppage. It would just come out. He treated all of us as though we were part of his family, a part of his inner life. He never talked to us as individuals. A very personal story for me was when my father passed away very suddenly, on a visit to Vancouver.

That same day at band practice, he said something like, to the whole band, “I am sorry your father has gone but I suppose it’s good that you have come to band practice.” He didn’t say it to me, he said it to everyone in general. A lesson; that was his way of teaching everyone. He always talked in generalities about specifics.”

When my session with Bing was over, Bing walked me back downstairs and bid me adieu! What had impressed me the most about Bing was that throughout the entire interview, I had completely forgotten that I was talking to such a world renowned architect. He was so unassuming and into the moment, that I felt as though I could have been talking to someone about the scenery at the beach or someone I had just encountered on a nearby park bench.

From the moment we had sat down in the kitchen, I found myself looking at and listening to the young boy within the man; that same young boy whom Arthur had given the clarinet to, so many many years before. The excitement, the laughter and the humor were still present. The experience had been so genuine, real and spontaneous, that I knew I had been in the presence of a gifted, talented and rare human being...

DENTON PARK Those Fabulous Fifties

CHRISTOPHER BEST

Christopher Best THE LEGACY OF ARTHUR DELAMONT Book II christopher Best

CHAPTER 16

Arnie Chycoski “The Boss Brass started as a commercial band playing pop tunes. Then Rob McConnell said, “Let’s start playing other kinds of music.” So we did! I played lead trumpet with the Boss Brass for 35 years.”

In the 1950’s, I discovered that Arthur had taken the band on some really great and extended trips to the old country.

We have heard about the 1950 trip from Brian Bolam and Ron Wood, where the band encountered strong feelings of sentiment from their Dutch hosts. Kenny Douglas told us a lot about the 1953 trip, when the band played in vaudeville theatres from Blackpool to London. And Bing gave us some great philosophical insight into the 1955 trip.

But there was one person whose name kept coming up; someone whom I really wanted to meet. He had only gone on one trip with the band and that was in 1955 but he had gone on afterwards to play lead trumpet in the Boss Brass in Toronto with Rob McConnell for thirty-five years. I was curious to find out about the journey that had led him to the lead chair in the Boss Brass. His name was Arnie Chycoski, the boy who had looked after a very young Bing Thom in Paris, some fifty years earlier.

246 ~ Sher Chycoski

Arnie lived on Vancouver Island, just north of Nanaimo, with his second wife Sherilene, ‘Sher.’

“How are you?” he asked when I called him up one morning.

“Sure, I would be glad to sit and talk to you about the band and my career.”

The next day, I got up early and made my way down to the bus depot on Main Street. The sun was shining. It was a beautiful Vancouver morning. I boarded the bus and departed the terminal. In about forty-five minutes the bus arrived at the Horseshoe Bay Ferry and proceeded straight to the front of the lineup. I knew taking the bus would be a good idea after reading in the newspapers about the long queues. Soon, we were on board. After several walks around the observation deck and a tea break or two, we arrived in Nanaimo, two hours later.

Arnie had said to give him a call when I arrived and Sher would drive down and pick me up.

“Hi Arnie, it’s Chris,” I said, standing at a pay phone, near the rear of the bus depot. He replied, “Sher is on her way back from Victoria. When she calls, which should be shortly, I will let her know you have arrived and ask her to pick you up.” About an hour later, a burgundy SUV pulled up to the back of the terminal, driven by a young looking woman in her late thirties, early forties.

She wound the window down and said, “Chris? I‘m Sher. Arnie ask me to pick you up.” After exchanging a few hellos, we were back on the road, and heading for Nanoose Bay. “Arnie tells me you play the trumpet?” I said.

ARNIE CHYCOSKI ~ 247

“Yes, we met at the 5th Field Military band in Toronto, while I was going to Sheridan College for musical theatre.

He was the lead trumpet and I played second.”

I knew she had to be considerably younger than Arnie. If Arnie was sixteen in 1955, that would make him sixty-nine today. She went on, “I spent two years in the music department at UBC and played in the 15th Field Regiment for a while. Then I went back to Toronto and did my last two years at the University of Toronto. I also spent some time in Malibu, California as a music teacher and in Sacramento as a visual and performing arts coordinator while I was pursuing my doctorate at the University of Southern California (USC) which I finished in 2005.” It wasn’t long before we arrived at a nice, one level, waterfront home with a big yard and a magnificent view of the surrounding ocean and harbor. Arnie was in the back part of the house when we entered.

“Hello, glad you could come.” Arnie said upon seeing us.

“Hope I can remember some stories to tell you. How are you dear?” He said to his wife, who replied, “I am tired this is my only day off. I have been working long days lately at my studio and the Village Theatre for Bard to Broadway’s (B2B) summer programs in Qualicum Beach,” she added, directing her attention towards me.

“We had the B2B Pacific Vocal Institute professors Gary Glaze and Cynthia Munzer from USC staying with us, so I had to take them back to Victoria. Have you eaten anything?” she asked Arnie.

“No,” he replied, as if he had gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar!

248 ~ Fred Turner

“Well, you better, you don’t want your blood sugar to get too low.”

With that, Arnie shuffled off to the kitchen, where he pulled out some cold pizza from the refrigerator and put it in the microwave, leaving me alone in the living room. When he came back, pizza in hand, he said, “We use this room for entertaining and rehearsing.”

It was a large room, close to the ocean, with big glass windows all around and a glass skylight above.

“It’s beautiful,” I said. “And you get an amazing view of the ocean and harbor as well. I see why you don’t want to leave.”

“He mumbled something inaudible, his mouth full of pizza and motioned me to sit down at an antique circular table, to one side.

“Tell me how you ended up going on the 1955 Kits band trip to England?” I suggested.

“He had a crisis with his trumpet section before the trip.

He called me up and asked me if I wanted to go on the trip. I didn’t know what to do. I was in New Westminster. I played with Fred Turner in the New Westminster Band. Arthur must have heard me playing somewhere or another. Donny Clark and I, wound up being the added trumpets. I had heard stories about Arthur. I was about sixteen. I went in and sat down on the last chair, that was third.

He saw me down there and said, “What are you doing down there? I want you to play first.”

“I was really scared of him. We would be rehearsing. He would say,”

ARNIE CHYCOSKI ~ 249

“Gosh, darn it all, anyway!”

Never swore but he goshed and darned all over the place.

He took off his gold watch and threw it against the wall. He never gave me any heat at all. I think it was because I didn’t come on like I thought I was the best player in the world.

Donny Clark did a lot of the solos. When I came back from the 1955 trip, I was asked to play at the Cave Supper Club, with ‘Paul Souder’ and ‘Dave Robbins.’ They were professionals. It was a good thing for me.

“How long did you play at the Cave?”

“I played for several years, I even began to smoke. It was my only self defense. It was such a smoky environment, at the Cave.

“I was told you were making more money in a week at the Cave, than your brother made in a month installing furnaces.”

“Yes, he was a tradesman. My dad didn’t like me being a musician. He just wanted to make sure that I would be okay, but I never had any money problems. I always had money.

It turned out to be a steadier job for me than it was for most in those days. After playing around Vancouver for several years, I went down to Los Angeles for seven years. I was about twenty around 1960. In LA, I did a lot of studio work and got in with a band led by Si Zentner. One of his tunes was “Up A Lazy River.”

And the Johnny Mann Singers! Then, I went to Las Vegas for six months and got married in ‘The Little Chapel of Flowers.’ That was 1964! The girl that I married was from Vancouver. It was fast and cheap. I developed a sleeping problem in Las Vegas. I used to hang out in the clubs until

250 ~ Louis Bellson

ABOVE: c1960 LA Arnie playing lead trumpet in the Si Zentner Band.

Third from the left, in back.

sic in the morning. Then, I would come home and turn on the air conditioning. I would always wake up at noon everyday. Then I had the whole day to fill until we played in the evening. I played with Louis Bellson in Las Vegas.”

“Do you have any stories about Louis Bellson?”

“He was a beautiful man. He was married to Pearl Bailey.

She was very bossy. She would get mad at the band and he would turn around to the band and say, “It’s all right guys!”

“How did you get the gig?”

“I got a call from LA. I started getting a name for myself, as a good first lead. So, these guys started to call.”

ARNIE CHYCOSKI ~ 251

“Do you have any other stories about Las Vegas?”

“Lionel Hampton’s band was playing in Vegas at that time.

I went to hear him. The bass player and the drummer didn’t like each other. On the bandstand they had a fight. He fired them all.”

“Who impressed you the most?”

“Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie were impressive.”

“Did you know Dizzy?”

“Oh ya, I played a television show in Montreal with the MSO. Dizzy was one of the guests. I never got to meet Sinatra but I played with Les Brown. Sinatra was very humble in the early days.”

“He was still out drawn by the Vancouver Boys’ Band in Blackpool, England in 1953.”

“Really, I remember the theatres in England. There were lots of comedians, one hour show.

In Vegas, we played at the Flamingo Hotel. That was mob owned, everything was in those days. You didn’t insult anyone down there. I remember Louis Prima and his wife, Keely Smith.

Jack Teagarten’s brother used to play after hours until six in the morning. That’s where all the musicians went.

I made a mistake when I left Vegas and came back here to Vancouver. When we arrived at customs, the agent asked, “Where are you going to be living?” I said, “Oh, we will probably live in Canada.” He said, “I guess then you will not need this anymore.” And he tore up my green card!”

“What do you remember about Arthur?”

“When I first joined the band, Cyril Battistoni said to

252 ~ Benny Louis

me, Cy was a good trumpet player, he said, “Arthur is really tough!”

They all grumbled about how tough he was but if anyone from outside the band dared say anything, the guys would jump all over him. They would have a fight coming.

In Vancouver, after Vegas, I played for a couple of years and then went off to Europe. We had two kids. I didn’t get much work over there though. I am not a person that pushes myself; to find jobs I mean. We were in Paris. I found the French very rude.

After Paris, we went to Spain. You couldn’t buy property but you could lease for one hundred years. Then we went to England. Then we came home and stopped in Toronto.

My wife had a friend in Toronto. The work was ridiculous in Toronto, in the late 1960s. I auditioned for one guy. His name was Benny Louis. There was only me and Benny and his wife upstairs cooking. She kept yelling, “Benny, ask him to play Stardust!”

He gave me thirty jobs within a month and a half. He was working all the time. His orchestra played Bar Mitzvahs, dances. All Jewish functions!

I did a lot of freelancing and CBC work on television and a lot of recording. There were a couple of years there, when Trudeau was in power, if you invested in a talent, you could deduct everything.

A lot of people were supporting the Arts. When it became known that there were a lot of good musicians in Toronto, they started coming up from LA. Then the movie industry started up.”

ARNIE CHYCOSKI ~ 253

“What would an average work week be like for you in those days?”

“My mornings would be an eight am rehearsal for a jingle, for an hour and then the same again at ten. I lived in Oakville.

The kids were in school and a third child at home. We would have lunch and a drink and then back for a two o’clock call.

Then, I started playing at the Royal York Hotel. That was when the Royal York was bringing in ‘Tony Bennett,’ ‘Ella Fitzgerald’ and a lot of other big names. It was a house band.

That lasted for a couple of years, in the evening.”

“Tell me about the Boss Brass?”

“The Boss Brass started as a commercial band playing pop tunes. Then Rob McConnell said, “Let’s start playing other kinds of music.” So we did! He was a jazz arranger. Guys like ‘Rick Wilkins’ worked for us but you had to keep in good with the contractors. If they didn’t like you, you wouldn’t work. I never threw my weight around, consequently, I was always working. I worked more than the average guy. No one ever got upset with me. After, well, with the Boss Brass, the brass section was on everything; movies, jingles. It became an entity unto itself.”

“How many years were you with the Boss Brass?”

“I was with them for at least thirty-five!”

“That’s a long gig. Did you get a gold watch?”

“No, Rob wasn’t like that.”

“What year did they end?”

“I think it was last year, in 2006. They still had a smaller band.”

“When was the last time you played with them?”

“About five years ago!”

254 ~ Moe Koffman

“You should have got a gold watch and a house. Do you have any more stories about the Boss Brass?”

“Well, we were always drinking. We always had a bottle on the bus. It wasn’t a healthy life style. It showed up in later years, with poor health.”

“Did the Boss Brass travel a lot?”

“Yes, we traveled all over the east coast, Montreal. We went to do a recording, with a company in Montreal.”

“What was Moe Koffman like?”

“Oh, Moe was a great guy! Rob should have been a school teacher. He was always telling us what to do but the guys

ARNIE CHYCOSKI ~ 255

let him get away with it, Guido and Moe. Here’s Moe, probably the richest guy in the business and he’s listening to Rob but never contradicted him. Moe made a lot of money through his recordings in the 1960’s. He ended up being a big contractor for all the shows coming to Toronto. Shows like ‘Showboat’ and ‘The Adventures of Spider Woman.’

The shows were broken in, in Toronto and then went on to New York.”

“Did you ever do any contracting?”

“I used to contract my own little band. I was the leader of a night club band when I first arrived in Toronto but then I got too busy.”

“I was told you were quite often called to Chicago, or New York or Boston to play?”

“People didn’t really like you to invade their territory. I never sat in first chair. They sat me in first chair but I got up and moved to second or third. These are little secrets that the kids can learn. Because there are so many great players, you have to have the right attitude. It’s the same in all walks of life.”

“Tell me about the Spitfire Band?”

“The Spitfire Band was at the same time as the Boss Brass.

They played pop music. It was primarily a recording band but we did play concerts. One of the leaders of the Spitfire Band has since passed on. I will say, if I had gotten paid for everything I was supposed to have been paid for, I would be richer than I am today. It is a cut throat business in many ways, no controls.”

“When did you finish playing with the Spitfire Band?”

“Oh, about the same time I finished with the Boss Brass,

256 ~ Bill Trussell

about five years ago. I have been married to my second wife for thirteen years. I guess I have been living in Nanoose Bay about fifteen or sixteen years and here for three years.”

“Do you have any more stories from Toronto?”

“A lot of tragedy actually also here in Vancouver. Tragedy mostly caused by booze.”

“Anything you want to say about the guys you played with in the Kits Band?”

“Bill Trussell was a great player. I kept in touch with a few of them after I left.”

“How did you get started playing the trumpet?”

“I really wanted to play clarinet. There was one in the Eaton’s Store catalogue. It cost sixty-four dollars. I couldn’t afford it, so I kept working. Then I found a trumpet for sale.

It was a Czechoslovakian trumpet. It cost thirty-four dollars.

I bought it! I have never done any other kind of work except play my trumpet.”

“Do you wish you had become a clarinet player?”

“Right now I do, it would be a lot easier.

“They don’t have clarinet players in the Boss Brass though.”

“That’s true, no clarinet bands.”

“I think you did okay with the trumpet.”

“I guess so!”

“You taught at Malaspina College?”

“Yes, just for a couple of summers at jazz camp.”

“Did you like teaching?”

“Yes, I liked some of the kids I met. There was a young girl, she was about sixteen. She had the prettiest sound. Her father came to me, she was really talented. Trying to get

ARNIE CHYCOSKI ~ 257

kids to work is frustrating. She wanted to play jazz. I told her to listen to jazz!”

“Did trumpet playing come easy to you?”

“I guess it did, I played a lot. Not necessarily wood shedding but I was just always playing in bands.”

“How do you think Arthur influenced you?”

“He gave us all a place to play. I was playing with a fellow named ‘Bill Williams’ before the 1955 trip. I was making a lot of money.”

“You took a cut in pay to go on the 1955 trip?”

“Oh ya!”

“Tell me who the three most impressive people are that you have met in your life?”

“Well, two people who really impressed me were ‘Maynard Ferguson’ and ‘Dizzie Gillespie.’ One time I went to a club Maynard was playing at in New York. He started with Maria. With the biggest sound you ever heard. He just wiped out everybody. He was just a strong player. There’s a guy named ‘Guido Basso’ who is just a fantastic trumpet player.

Another great trumpet player is a fellow named ‘Erich Traugott.’ He was a Toronto studio musician. I learned a lot from playing next to him. He was always so in tune that you had to play in tune as well. You knew he was right.”

“If there was someone playing a wrong note, you knew it was you.” I added.

“That’s right!”

“What enticed you away from a paying gig in 1955, to go to Europe with the band?”

“It was their reputation and their prestige. Everyone told me it was a good thing to do. I enjoyed the trip across

258 ~ Blood Sweat and Tears

Canada, stopped and pulled our train cars over to the side and played our concerts.”

“What do you recall about the trip?”

“Do you know Bing?”

“Bing Thom?”

“Yes, he’s a big architect now. When we went to France, I took him around with me. Delamont ask me to look after him. Later, when I came back from the USA, someone said to me, “Do you remember Bing?”

“Yes,” I said. “He was the young fellow who played the clarinet in the band.”

“See that building over there, he built it. I never knew that he had become such a famous architect.

We played a lot of vaudeville theatres. When I returned to England, later in life, I used to watch British television, and I saw a lot of the same performers on the television that we had played with on the same bill in vaudeville. Jersey was interesting, there were lots of German fortifications left over from the war. The music we played was great. Probably about two hundred concerts in all. We traveled by bus around England.”

“Do you remember some of the big names you played with over the years?”

“Oh, I played for ‘Mitzi Gaynor,’ ‘Tony Bennett’, ‘Jimmy Dean.’ We used to pass the Glenn Miller Orchestra on the road and also Woody Herman.”

“Any other big bands you played with?”

“Yes, I did some session work with ‘Blood Sweat and Tears’ and with ‘Lighthouse.’ They were hard, very loud.

ARNIE CHYCOSKI ~ 259

You couldn’t hear yourself. It wiped you right out.

It’s been a great life and I have three wonderful daughters and five grandchildren which is the best gift a man could ask for in this day and age.”

“Thanks Arnie.”

“You’re welcome!”

260 ~ Point Grey High School

BOSS BRASS - Discography

The Boss Brass. 1968. CTL 477-5015/RCA CTLS-1015 Boss Brass Two. 1969. CTL 477-5118/RCA CTLS-1118 The Sound of the Boss Brass. 1970. CBC LM-73 Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass. 1971. CTL 477-5143.

Reissued as Down to Brass Tacks. Pickwick PC-40013 Rob: Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass 4. 1972. CTL 477-5159.

Reissued as Odds and Ends. Pickwick PC-44007 The Best Damn Band in the Land. 1974. CTL CTLS-5182/ U Artists UALA-309G The Jazz Album. 1976. Attic LAT-1015 Big Band Jazz. 1977. 2-Umbrella UMB-DD4 Nobody Does It Better. 1977-8. CTL CTLS-5215/Phonodisc NV-5004 Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass Again! 1978. 2-Umbrella UMB-GEN-1-12 The Hi-Lo’s - Back Again. 1978. MPS 0068.217 Singers Unlimited with Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass.

1978. MPS 0068.238 Present Perfect. 1979. MPS 0068.249 Are Ya Dancin’ Disco. 1979. CTL CTLS-5223/New Ventures NV-5008 All in Good Time. 1983. Innovation JC-0006 Atras da Porta. 1983. Innovation JC-0010 Boss Brass and Woods. 1985. Innovation JC-0011 Mel Tormé Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass. 1986. Concord Jazz CJ-306 The Brass is Back. 1991. Concord Jazz CCD-4458

CHAPTER 17

Bill Ingledew “One day we got on a bus and went down the Champs Elysee. This was 1962, right after the problem in Algeria.

It was like a military fortress. Arthur said, “Okay, stop the bus!

Everybody out and get your instruments and capes on. We are going to play!” We played right in the middle of the Champs - Elysee!”

“How did you meet Arthur Delamont?”

“That is an interesting story, my mother went to Point Grey High School as a little girl. When she was there, Mr. Delamont played a performance at the school. My mother saw the performance. She was so impressed that she said, “If I ever have a son, I am going to make sure he plays in that band.”

We moved to West Vancouver in 1950. And my mother dragged me down to the old post office building, where the band practiced. She introduced me to Mr. Delamont and told him the story of seeing him when she was a little girl in high school. He took one look at my teeth and said,

262 ~ Rolfe Storie

“He should play drums!”

“I wanted to play trumpet. “He said, “You’ll never play the trumpet.”

But I insisted on playing the trumpet and that’s how I met Mr. Delamont.”

“What year would that have been?’

“I would have been about ten or eleven years old in 1954.”

“Do you recall any other stories about the early days?”

“Yes, across from the old post office was a field. Every night we would come early and play baseball on this field.

Delamont would come out raging mad because he wanted us inside starting to play.

On the 1962 trip, Marni, his second wife Tracy’s daughter, came along. Marni and I became very good friends. We dated later. As we all know that marriage did not work out too well.

When ever Delamont was down on the trip, he would come and talk to John Rands and myself about his personal problems. It was ridiculous! Us teenage kids acting as a sounding board for a seventy year old man. He was frustrated because things were not the way they were with his first wife. I guess he talked to me because of my relationship with Marni.

I can remember countless evenings with Arthur and John, trying to figure out what to do.”

“Do you remember much about Lillie Delamont?”

“No, she was not in very good shape on the 1958 trip. She was sick. Gordon and his wife Vina were there to help out.”

“I think it was Mike Hadley who helped her out on the 1958 trip on the continent.”

“That’s right and in 1962, if it hadn’t been for Mike

BILL INGLEDEW ~ 263

Hadley, we would have been out to lunch. He phoned Mike from Paris and said, “We are in Paris and we are stuck!”

Mike intervened on Jack Wright’s behalf because of the legal problems. He also arranged for us to go to Cologne. Arthur had a lot of respect for Mike Hadley. Was Mike in charge of the Canadian Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958?”

“No, he worked for the Canadian department of external affairs in Cologne.”

“Oh I see.”

“I still want to interview Mike in Victoria. I would also like to interview Sandy Cameron.”

“Yes, Sandy would be a good one as well. Nice fellow, he was quieter than Ted Lazenby and that crowd.”

“What do you recall about being selected for the 1958 trip?”

“I was only thirteen. There were a lot of people ahead of me. Brian Parkinson was the lead trumpet. D brought Art Tusvik back in for the trip and also Rolfe Storie and Bill Pickett. They were the three who played the trumpet trios.

It was a pretty tough line-up to crack into but I played in the West Van band and I guess I was just lucky.”

“What do you recall about the 1958 trip?”

“I remember the train trip across Canada. We had our own car. They used to leave us at stops, if we wanted to stay over night; Revelstoke, Calgary and so on. That was a big part of the bonding process.

On the boat in 1958, we played a lot of concerts. On the 1962 trip, we used to practice in the hold on the ‘Orsova.’ We

264 ~ Ken Sotvedt.

1962. It was a twenty-eight day trip, boy was it hot going through the Caribbean.

You have to remember, I was one of the little guys in 1958.

There was Ken Sotvedt. ‘Big Daddy’ we used to call him, his little brother Jimmy, who we called ‘Grubby.’ Ted Lazenby who was a big guy, very intimidating but he had a heart of gold and Art Tusvik, who wasn’t one of the enforcer’s but we as little guys were in constant fear of being attacked by these big guys. I remember that quite vividly.”

“Did the guys have a dance band on either of your trips?”

“I think they must have. I can’t recall exactly but it seems to me they played gigs here and there.”

“I know Gordon and Ted Lazenby played around London.

Gordon managed to find gigs for the two of them.”

“There were two tiers in the band, the big kids, who were in a world all their own, and then the little kids. We lived a different life. I remember on the 1958 trip, all the girls came up after each concert and ask us for our autographs. And it was always the little guys! They liked the little guys. Jimmy Sotvedt, John Rands, myself..... then on the 1962 trip, it infuriated me because all these beautiful girls would come up to the little guys. Not to us older guys.

In 1958, we were on Jersey, in the Channel Islands. We stayed in a skating rink. That is where we were billeted. We were thrown out of so many hostels, due to pillow fights and so on .

Bill Rolfe, we called him ‘Stoner!’ Freddie Hawes, we called him Gullible.’ Bing Thom and I used to play tennis together. We used to call him ‘Bing Thomson,” the Scottish side of the family.”

BILL INGLEDEW ~ 265

“What can you tell me about Gordon Delamont?’

“Gordon was a pretty impressive and imposing guy. We all knew he was somewhat of a ‘God’ in the music industry.

Arthur was pretty proud of him. He was very different from Arthur. Gordon was a real swinger, where as Arthur was as straight as an arrow. Gordon was sort of a breath of fresh air.

I remember one time, we were waiting for a train at the train station and Art Tusvik made Gordon a bet that he couldn’t hit a high ‘F’ cold. So, he pulls out his horn, puts it up and bang, true to form, hits a high ‘F.’ Gordon was much more lighthearted than Arthur.

Gordon had his two daughters with him on that trip and his wife, Vina. Susan who was fourteen, she kind of hung out with Brian Parkinson on that trip and Debra, who was only about three. She was Vina and Gordon’s daughter.

We played in the Kerkrade Music Festival on both the 1958 and the 1962 trips. I remember being very intimidated on the 1958 trip because we weren’t a marching band. But Delamont had a way of getting us to believe we could do it, with lots of precision. Anyway, there were all these big American bands but we went in and did our thing and got a first place.”

“In later years, we did a lot of marching.”

“We never liked it. It’s not easy playing a trumpet on the march.

I remember on one of Arthur’s earlier trips, 1955 I think, the guys had a little skit or comedy act called the ‘Firehouse Five.’ I remember it well because Brian Todd used to have this tiny little cornet, which he would carry around in a

266 ~ Bill Millerd

sousaphone case. They would announce this number and the guys would come running from the back and you would see Brian with this great big monstrous case and then he would open it up and pull out this tiny little cornet and they would play their number.”

“Do you remember Garfield White at all?”

“Just that I remember him as an MC for one of our concerts. He was a great speaker, very dynamic. A great MC! I never could figure out his role.”

“He was the publicity manager for the band from 1931 until 1939. Then he went off and entertained the troops with an act called ‘Madame Olga Petrovich.’ Arthur hired him back after the war, in 1947. He remained until around 1953, at which time there is no more mention of him.

Can you tell me anything more about the 1962 trip?”

“It was badly organized. I remember when we were in Paris, sometimes I used to tear my hair out over some of the things that Arthur did! One day we got on a bus and went down the Champs-Elysee. This was 1962, right after the problem in Algeria. It was like a military fortress. There were soldiers walking down the streets with machine guns.

So, Delamont says, “Okay! Stop the bus! Everybody out and get your instruments out and capes on. We are going to play!”

Right in the middle of the Champs-Elysee! The minute we stepped out, there were policemen all over us and they didn’t do anything. So, we marched down the Champs-Elysee and played. Then we stopped and sold postcards. People gathered around.

I remember the 1962 trip better because I was older. I

BILL INGLEDEW ~ 267

remember the night the two boys got hit by the car in Paris.

‘Bill Millerd’ broke his arm, ‘Chris Crane’ was the other boy who was injured. In the ‘cities’ in Europe at that time, the cars did not use their headlights because of all the overhead lights. Therefore, judging distances was much more difficult.

The problem was, an ambulance came and took them off somewhere but no one knew where they went? ‘Ted Millbrand,’ who was with them, came and told everyone.

Finally, we found out where they were. Delamont and I went down to see them. It is one thing to buy a quart of milk but to try to understand what the doctor was saying in French was something else.

Then, the night that ‘Rick’ collapsed, we were all locked in this school. When he hit the locker and fainted, we had to find someone to let us out, so we could take him to a hospital. It was quite a challenge and a tough trip; then the guys got sick with mono-nucleosis in Cologne.

One of the most moving moments, that I can remember, was the funeral for Rick, which was held in a cemetery in Paris. It was one hundred and fifty years old. They had never allowed music to be played in the cemetery. It was just not done. We played! It was a pretty moving experience. We played a hymn and I played a solo.

In Kerkrade, I remember the night before we were to play we heard a Swiss band play the test piece. We all played the same test piece in 1962 and I remember Delamont was just rubbing his hands because he knew we were going to do a lot better.”

“Did you know Ken Sotvedt wrote the arrangement for “Scenes That Are Brightest” that you guys played at the

268 ~ Bob Reid

1958 homecoming concert?’

“No, I didn’t know that. We also played it all over Europe as well.

In 1962, the boat trip was twenty-eight days. We stopped in Balboa, Panama, Kingston, Haiti and Bermuda. We practiced a lot and were pretty good by the time we reached Europe.

After Paris, we went down to Nice in 1962. I remember one night there was a huge American band playing a concert in a band shell. They were good! Delamont decided he wanted to play a concert in this same place. Somehow, he made it happen. We weren’t booked for it. It was a couple of nights later. It wasn’t packed like it had been for the American band but it was quite a thrill.

We played two radio shows on the 1962 trip. One was in London and the other was in Cologne. In Cologne, we did one of those impromptu junk music concerts, which he did all the time, ‘Holenstrasse’ and we were right in front of this office tower. There was a movie company in the office building and they actually made a movie of us. It was sponsored by ‘Blaupunkt.’ I don’t think anybody ever saw it back home. It seemed like everything Delamont touched turned to gold. He had a way of being in the right place at the right time.

In England in 1958, we played on a variety show in London (David Whitfield). It was like the Ed Sullivan show of England. I don’t know how he got us on to that one either.

In 1962, on the way home, we flew home. We stopped in Greenland. Bill and Gary Rolfe’s dad worked for CP Air. He arranged the flight.”

BILL INGLEDEW ~ 269

“What do you make of the whole experience some fifty years later?”

“He certainly had as much an influence on my life as anyone. I loved every minute of it. I loved the band! I thank Arthur for that. More than anything, being exposed to him in close quarters, taught me a lot about discipline, the way you conduct your life. He was much more than just a conductor.

He was a role model for me and for so many others who came through this band.

The other thing about Arthur was he challenged everybody. I always remembered him telling me I would never be a good trumpet player and he inspired me to become a good trumpet player, which I did.

He was never one to hand out praise except maybe to Ted Lazenby when he played “Scenes That Are Brightest.” He did mention people like ‘Bob Reid,’ who was probably the best trumpet player he ever had. I didn’t know who he was but I do now.

In Cologne one night, Arthur wasn’t feeling too well. We had a concert and I had a trumpet solo. Afterwards, he came over to me and said, “That was really good!”

Then in the world music festival in Kerkrade, I again had a solo in the test piece. Afterwards he said, “That was very good too!”

For me, that meant a lot. “ We pause for a moment. I see tears in Bill’s eyes.

“Especially after he said I would never play the trumpet.

It was part of his ‘modis operandi’ to challenge people. He would throw out carrots to us all, like talking about

270 ~ Gordon Delamont

ABOVE: c2004 Bill playing in front of Jimmy Pattison at the Ken Sotvedt Memorial concert at the Kits Showboat

RIGHT: c2007 Bill at Brian Parkinson’s 65th birthday party

BILL INGLEDEW ~ 271

‘Bob Reid.’ And he would talk to me about Gordon being an outstanding musician but I don’t think he liked what Gordon became. They were just completely different styles!

The way they dressed and the way they carried themselves.

I couldn’t get over how different the two of them were.

I know he respected Gordon as a musician though. He deferred to him often. At rehearsals, Arthur was quick to criticize. Gordon never criticized us boys. Arthur however would not criticize Gordon. He respected his judgment.

I don’t think we had the same respect for Gordon, as we did for Arthur. Gordon was more one of the guys. You didn’t hang out with Arthur.”

“Maybe discipline goes hand in hand with respect.”

“Maybe, I never thought about it that way.”

CHAPTER 18

Bob Calder “The Three Musketeers, Art Tusvik, Ted Lazenby and Ken Sotvedt” were something else. I was just the little guy they grabbed so there would be four in their room. They really cared about the music though.”

“I had taken piano lessons. My mother was a piano teacher. My parents decided I should play another musical instrument. They got me a clarinet and started me taking lessons from this fellow down around Dunbar and Broadway. This fellow said to my mother, “You really should take your son down and get him into the Kitsilano Boys’ band.”

So, they did, that would be around 1956. They drove me down for the first few years. I just loved being around the guys. That’s when I met Delamont.

I remember what a disciplinarian he was at rehearsals.

I talked to a fellow about that aspect of his teaching, a fellow named ‘John Trepp.’ John taught choral music at Magee High School. I said,

BOB CALDER ~ 273

“You’re going to have to be careful because you have a lot of similarities to Delamont and times have changed.”

“In this culture, Delamont would have probably been taken to court for abuse because that’s not tolerated anymore; different time, different world!”

“But he was a product of a different world.”

“Absolutely, Salvation Army but he recognized too, that you had to have that discipline if you wanted to get above and beyond just good. Above and beyond you had to be something unique and he was unique. Boy, I tell you, you paid attention when he talked. I saw him throw his trumpet.

He would chuck guys out and tell them to go home. It was pretty unbelievable when I think back now.”

“But at the time it didn’t faze us.”

“No, it didn’t faze us because that was just him.

Years later when I was a grown-up, I began to realize more and more what that discipline had meant. It was huge, just huge! That carried through my professional music career when I taught teams and a lot of things. The demand for excellence meant if you were going to do something, do it to your fullest, otherwise don’t do it, go do something else.

He had a marvelous way of going from the ‘terror to the teddy bear,’ he really did and those of us who were allowed to see that other side, it endeared him to a lot of us.”

“Because you knew he wasn’t really a tyrant.”

“It was just a part of the role. I saw him chuck patrons.

They would be sitting in the first row at a concert and he was short chairs for the boys. He would scream at them, “Get up and move!”

These people had paid good money to come to the concert.

274 ~ Lillie Delamont

But he would think nothing of being rude. No time for small talk.”

“Were you selected for the 1958 trip?”

“Yes, I was asked to go. It was just thrilling. I was so pleased to be asked to go. I was pretty young and naive but you grew up in a hurry because it was a long time to be away from home at that age. That affected my parents. I often wondered how it affected the parents, to have their young kids away from them for five months.

I talked to my parents about it after I had grown-up and it was a sacrifice and a commitment for many of them. It was a lot of money in those days because if you think about it, it was only fifteen years after World War II. That’s where your kid was going. I was only thirteen. It was thrilling!

On the train, I had to spend a couple of hours each day talking to Lillie Delamont. I just kept her company. I can’t remember what we talked about but she was like my grandmother. We would go from station to station and get out and play and sell postcards. Even if it was one in the morning he would have us out there.

He only had me sell postcards once and then I was back in the band. I always wondered why!

The cross Canada train trip was very memorable. I remember more about the 1962 trip. We had a little Dixieland band on that trip. We used to play in the crews quarters.

They thought the sun rose and set on us. Sometimes the crew would take us with them on shore leave. Cock fights in Jamaica, Haiti and so on... I shudder about it today.

Lillie was just a sweet lady who liked to talk.”

“Tell me about your adventures with ‘The Three

BOB CALDER ~ 275

Musketeers’ (Ted Lazenby, Art Tusvik and Ken Sotvedt).”

“They were something else! They were older and had been on the 1955 trip. They knew what was going on, great musicians but they also went out. They liked their beer and so on. I stood guard to be sure Mr. Delamont didn’t come along. Lots of goofy things, I was the fourth person in their room. Because there were only three of them, they grabbed me to make up a fourth.

Mostly, I remember that they were incredibly committed musicians and they would not tolerate any more than Delamont would anything that distracted from the music.

Ken was the section leader in the clarinets. Ted was the section leader in the trombones. Art was basically the lead trumpet player. They saw that there were sectional rehearsals all the time.

I remember in England, Ted and Art playing with the ‘Ted Heath’s’ band. They got up there on stage and I remember thinking what a thrill that would be to play. Someday, I’m going to do that. I admired that so much. I loved big band jazz! That’s probably where it all started with me. That was at a dance in Cheltenham.”

“So you played on the Ted Heath Show as well?”

“Yes, we did, at a show theatre. There was a radio show.

Art and Ted only played at the dance not the radio show. I remember both Art and Ted socializing with ‘Bobby Pratt.’

He was Ted Heath’s lead trumpet player.”

“What do you remember about Kerkrade?”

“In 1958, the test piece was called ‘Sea Portrait.’ Delamont found out that the guy who wrote ‘Sea Portrait,’ Eric Leidzen was an adjudicator at the festival, so we played it. Just

276 ~ Rick Patterson

blew him away!

The people over there just couldn’t get over that we won both the marching and the harmonie divisions. It was unheard of over there and nothing looked like the Kitsilano Boys’ Band, with the red capes, the caps and the discipline.

How we held our instruments on the march and in concert.”

“The capes were also very practical.”

“That’s true, during my time in the band, we always had a powerful trombone section and with six of these guys leading the parade, you could hear the band coming a mile away and you always knew who it was.

In 1962, we won it all again at Kerkrade. I remember we put on a concert in the town of Kerkrade, in a band shell.

There was a grass slope leading up behind the seating area.

Everyone came to hear us play. That was a phenomenal experience. I remember Delamont walked off the stage. Gordon went after him and then Gordon finished conducting the concert. He didn’t tolerate fooling around.

“Do you remember the Brussels World’s Fair?”

“Just a World’s Fair. I remember Bing Thom, good clarinet player, good friend to me. I never heard from him again after the band. Unless the guys played professionally afterwards, I lost touch with them.

I remember taking my kids to the train ride in Stanley Park. ‘Chris Crane,’ who played clarinet was the engineer on the train. I hadn’t seen him in twenty-five years.”

“In 1958, you played at the BBC Studios?”

“Yes, on a program called ‘Talk of the Town.’ I collected tons and tons of silver tea spoons. My wife has inherited them from my mom.”

BOB CALDER ~ 277

“Tell me about the 1962 trip?”

“After Rick’s death, there was a riff in the band because the parents wanted us to come home and Arthur wanted to stay. He let the parents know that they weren’t telling him what to do. There were a number of us who thought we should go home and not go against our parents. Then, there was another group who thought we should carry on, so it created a riff but it was his decision. There was a lot of turmoil because people didn’t know what was going to happen. Some of us were called before the ‘French Surete’ and questioned about Rick’s death. How did they know there had been a fight the night before? None of us would talk. The Canadian Ambassador was there. We didn’t know what was going to happen to ‘Jack Wright.’ He was in police custody, so we left and went down to Nice. It was pretty up in the air until they returned ‘Jack’ to the band then everything was fine.”

“But that was so Delamont always doing his own thing.”

“Yup, things changed in later years also in his professional band. I played with him professionally for a number of years. In the beginning he treated all his guys as though they were still ten years old. This got a little weary after a while, treating fifty-five year olds like ten year olds, ao he mellowed over the years not with the music but with how he treated the guys.”

“Do you have any more stories about playing in the later years?”

“I almost went on the 1979 trip. He asked me to go but I decided against it, been there, done that! It has been the same with the reunion concerts. I went to the first two

278 ~ Susan Delamont

RIGHT: c1958 Bob at Kerkrade, Holland

BELOW: c1958, Bob second from left in front with Gordon Delamont directly behind him, Susan, (age 14) Gordon’s daughter and Vina, Gordon’s wife with their other daughter Debra (age 3)

BOB CALDER ~ 279

or three out of respect for Arthur and then I stopped going.

Been there, done that!

The success of that band was entirely due to Delamont. It was his drive and his way of doing things that made it successful. I’ll never forget him talking about playing hymns.

He changed the breathing on the hymns. For centuries, everyone breathed in the same place, not him. Where did that inspiration come from? He left people in tears when they heard him play a hymn. It was unique to him. It came from his religious being, inside. The trumpet trios, the ‘Land of Hope and Glory,’ the ‘Lost Chord,’ that was all Delamont’s showmanship.

There was such a pride in that band. We always tried to play pieces that were harder than what the boys played on previous trips. He would go to Chapman’s Music in London, with Ted and Ken and Art and he would say, “I don’t know. It looks pretty hard.” And they would say, “Let’s do it!”

We all knew when we returned home and played the homecoming concert, that there would be lots of old boys from past trips in the audience. We wanted to blow the guys away. There was competitiveness. He always played a march, a broadway show, an overture, a hymn, a trumpet trio, almost always Land of Hope and Glory or the Lost Chord. Then he interspersed them with the encores. And one of his big things was when he turned around quickly, you had better be ready to play the encore or else!”

“Then, after 1962, you went on to university?”

“Yes, the summer of 1962, I went down and joined the Musicians Union. Delamont told me to go and join. I played

280 ~ Brian Knapp

clarinet with Arthur for about a year and with Dal. Dal was the one who told me, “If you want to get more jobs, you had better pick up a second instrument.”

So, I learned to play tenor saxophone. Then, I got into more concert work. I played tenor sax all the time with Dal. I played throughout university. Music paid my way through university. My parents never paid a cent. Then I got into teaching. I played for Henry Mancini and Andy Williams, when they were in town. A part of me wondered what if I had pursued that end of it more.”

“It is hindsight.”

“Yes, anyway, I am quite happy I chose the teaching side and then I got married. I had a whole other life. I taught and was in administration for thirty-five years. Started teaching at Eric Hamber for eight years, then I went to Killarney as Department Head of English for five years. Then I went into administration as a Vice-Principal at John Oliver, Windemere, Prince of Wales and Magee. I eventually became the Principal at Point Grey. Then I ended my career back at Killarney for the last eight years.”

“Tell me how you benefited the music department, with your position as an administrator?”

“There were two things. The most notable music program in Vancouver was at Magee with Pete Stigings and John Trepp. I spent a lot of time promoting school concerts.

I helped the bands raise money for trips. Sometimes I would sit in with the clarinets or saxes, pass on my knowledge. At Eric Hamber, I actually taught stage band.

At Killarney, Brian Knapp had a huge band program. He

BOB CALDER ~ 281

just needed a principal who cared about the band. Music educators gave me an award during my tenure at Killarney as ‘principal of the year,’ for all B.C. That was for my support of music.

Dennis Tupman probably had a lot to do with it. I’ve known Dennis for years as coordinator of music.

When we were doing renovations at Killarney, I said, “We are going to have a state-of-the-art music facility.”

I met with Brian and we came up with a plan that had a recording studio, big band area and so on and it was dedicated to me.”

“There is a big plaque up on the wall?”

“Yes?” “How long have you been retired?”

“Seven years.”

“Do you occasionally go back?”

“Oh yes, this is actually the first year I have not gone back. I like to go to their Christmas concert. I love to hear kids playing music. What a way to celebrate what I had as a kid myself.”

“Who were the three people who influenced your life the most?”

“Obviously Delamont was a big influence. He had a profound influence on my life. My father had a huge influence and probably a third would be a principal named ‘Min Sugimoto.’ I came across him early in my career at Killarney.

He encouraged me to go into administration. He thought I would be a good administrator. He prodded me, supported me, that sort of thing and it became a huge part of my life.”

“Did you continue to teach after you went into

282 ~ Frank Millerd

administration?’

“I was somebody who never forgot he was a teacher. I’m a trained teacher who became a principal. I would often come in and take an English class or I would come in and take Brian’s band for a few numbers. I always did that right up until I retired. I loved being around the kids and I loved being around the staff that were working with the kids. I had a lot of time for those people. It was the politics that made me decide to retire. I said to myself, I’d rather be golfing!”

CHAPTER 19

Bill Millerd “I think one of the things people might take notice of is the number of different people whom have been seen at the Arts Club.

People like ‘Michael Buble’ and ‘Michael J. Fox, who was on our stage on Seymour Street when he was very young.

‘Eric McCormack,’ who went on to do ‘Will and Grace’ and Brent Carver of course.”

“My brother Frank was a member of the band. He started on clarinet and then Delamont switched him to saxophone.

We were in the West Van band. I wasn’t all that interested in skiing, which is what all the kids did. My dad ran a fishing company called the ‘Great Northern Cannery’ in West Vancouver. I was quite interested in music, so I trotted along with my brother. I don’t think I was initially interested in percussion but Arthur had a great talent for understanding what each kid was going to play. Somehow he could steer you towards the right instrument. Somehow he decided that I would be fine on percussion because he didn’t have many.

A lot of people wanted to play trumpet because they got to stand up and he played trumpet.

I started on percussion and that was fine. When he heard that I played the piano, he asked me,

284 ~ Harold Fielding Agency

“Do you want to learn to play the xylophone?”

He often had a xylophone soloist. He wanted to give me a solo. He wanted me to memorize it because soloists didn’t use music. It was a struggle.

When I went on the 1958 trip, it had mainly been organized by the West Van Parents Ass. When he got to Europe, he dropped the West and we became the Vancouver Boys’ Band. This caused a lot of concern with the chaperones and was the reason he left the organization upon our return. He was a man who was true to his word” Some of the West Vancouver Boys he grew a liking to, he kept in the Kits band for the 1962 trip. We were some of the better players. There were a group of us.

I was just a kid on the 1958 trip, fourteen or fifteen. It was an unbelievable experience. Prior to the trip we had gone to the Calgary Stampede and played the PNE Parade. There was always something going on.”

“How long was the 1958 trip?”

“It was at least three or four months. On 1958, we took the train across Canada and caught the Sylvania to Southampton. When the 1962 trip came along, I was in university.

I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to go but he needed a xylophone player. By then I had become a professional musician and played out at Empire Stadium for the football games. He conducted the Air Force band and he dragged me along on that.

After he left West Vancouver in the fall of 1958, I think he hurt a a little financially because there had been financial support from West Vancouver that was no longer available.

The 1962 trip was not as well organized.

BILL MILLERD ~ 285

We literally had to put out the hat as we traveled to make ends meet. His second wife, Tracy, went along with us on the 1962 trip. I think they fought all the time. I remember in 1958, going into a theatre in England and doing a concert with one of England’s big band leaders, ‘Ted Heath.’ We played on the ‘Ted Heath Show.’ We played for the ‘Harold Fielding Agency.’

The highlight of the 1962 trip was Paris. I got hit by a Citroen and wound up in hospital while the band went down to Nice. One of the boys fell in the shower and got a concussion. He passed away, so we had a vote on the trip in Paris in July, whether to stay or to go home. We all decided to stay and go on to Kerkrade but we did vote to go home by airplane, rather than by boat.

Going over on the 1962 trip, we went down to San Francisco and through the Panama Canal and over to Europe. I flew to San Francisco and met the band because I had to stay in Vancouver to write an exam. Earlier that year we played the World’s Fair in Seattle. We learned the repertoire on the boat. It was a splendid trip, we went to Jamaica and finally landed in Southampton. In 1962, when the band came back to Paris, we played at the funeral for the boy who died. We played a dirge at a cemetery. Art Tusvik and Ted Lazenby used to pick on me. They thought I had too much attitude for a young fellow but I was a soloist. That was in 1958. Ted Lazenby was a good trombonist.

Delamont had an extraordinary ability to get people who couldn’t really play, to play well. Also he had the innate sense of picking out the right combination of boys that sounded good together.

286 ~ National Theatre School

He was always hitting you and calling you names, trying to push you to your limit. If you couldn’t take it, you left and that was okay with him. He wanted to toughen you up.”

“When you came back, you continued to play?”

“Yes, I played professionally until I finished university in 1965. Then, I went around the world. I went to theatre school in Montreal. He asked me, “Do you want to be a professional musician?”

He was a realist. He said, “Well, this is the life you will lead.”

I guess he thought I had some talent. Maybe not the caliber of a Ted Lazenby, who was brilliant but you could make a good living. I think he felt he was training boys for life, not to be musicians, for life experiences. Unless you were driven, he didn’t push.”

“Was going to theatre school in Montreal, something you had thought about for awhile?”

“We’re at university, my connection with Delamont continued because I played in the Lion’s Band. Some of the other guys from the Kits band played in the Lion’s band as well.

I remember the time the ‘Beatles’ came to Empire Stadium.

We were hired to play to the crowd before the ‘Beatles’ arrived. That would have been in 1963. We were roundly booed by the young girls. They came right behind us in their limo and then ran on stage. A half hour later, they ran off. By that time our job was finished. I also played in the bands that played in the parks. So I became a professional musician.

Then, I went on an exchange scholarship. I had majored in political science and I was interested in far eastern politics. I went to Japan. I was also interested in theatre but I wasn’t

BILL MILLERD ~ 287

sure that it would make a career. In the mid 1960s, in Vancouver, there wasn’t much professional theatre at all. While in Japan, I did a little bit of work with Japanese students who wanted to learn English. We performed a couple of plays together including” Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.’ It was a very odd play to do with Japanese students. Then I went to London. I decided if I was going to go to a theatre school, I would rather go to a Canadian theatre school. So, I went back to Canada and applied to the National Theatre School in Montreal. It was sort of because I was asked to audition. I had helped a young actress through an audition and while I was there, the adjudicator asked me, “Have you thought about going to theatre school?” I said, “Perhaps I might!” I applied and got in. I think they were more impressed with the fact that I already had a degree. I am not sure whether they thought I had any talent or not.

I was at the theatre school for two years. During that time, Expo ‘67 happened in Montreal. It was a very important time for me because I realized that I could make a career in theatre.

I came back to Vancouver because I was offered a job as the stage manager at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre. During that time, I also managed the old Arts Club Theatre at Seymour and Davie Street.

That would have been the 1968/69 season. I became fascinated with this small theatre which only sat between 200 to 300 people. I was also interested in directing. So, I started directing plays. I began to officially run the Arts Club in 1972, with a show called, “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and

288 ~ Arts Club Company.

Living in Paris,” with ‘Leon Bibb,’ ‘Ruth Nicoll’ and Ann Mortifee. Brent Carver was in it later.

I left the playhouse and started to build up the Arts Club Company. Eventually, we had the opportunity to move to Granville Island and opened in the fall of 1979. We kept the Seymour Street location until it closed in 1991. We never owned it. That was during the era of flipping properties. It escalated in price and was resold and resold. The Vancouver International Film School has the old ‘Arts Club’ address.

That’s kind of co-incidental!”

“Should be a plaque erected.”

“Yes, there should be a plaque or maybe something on the sidewalk.”

“Maybe a star erected.”

“Yes, good idea!”

“Anyway, in 1979 we opened the space next door. It was a small revue theatre. So, we were running three theatres until 1991.

I’m programming. I’m the artistic director. I’m doing some directing. I’m running the theatres. We started to tour the suburbs, which we still do today and then in the mid 1990’s, we became involved in renovating the Stanley Theatre. We completed that purchase in 1997. It was renovated as a single venue and we opened it in the fall of 1998. The Stanley Theatre became the primary home of the Arts Club Company.

We subleased the Revue Theatre to an improv group and here we are today.”

“If you were to sum up the philosophy of the Arts Club today, what would it be?”

“To provide quality theatre to the community and to

BILL MILLERD ~ 289

enrich the community and to provide a home for up and coming and established artists. We regularly tour the province.

We play in their venues. There are lots of venues.”

“What is your role today?”

“I pick the plays for the season. We do twelve plays a season between the two theatres. Plus we tour three shows. I hire the directors. I work with them in hiring the actors and the designers. I oversee the production.”

“You are more or less the producer.”

“Absolutely, I am the artistic producer.”

“Tell me about the Order of Canada?”

“I was fortunate enough to receive the ‘Order of Canada’ in 1994. It was a wonderful honor. I received it for building up theatre and supporting the community of theatre in Vancouver and for establishing a strong theatrical community.”

“What does the future hold for Bill Millerd?”

“Of course that is yet to be seen. I am interested in new work. I am interested in supporting local play writers. We have a commissionaire program. We also do work shop readings. We involve people. That’s a big interest.”

“Anything else you would like to say regarding the Arts Club?”

“I think one of the things people might take notice of, is the number of different people whom have been seen here like ‘Michael Buble,’ and ‘Michael J. Fox’ who was on our stage on Seymour Street when he was very young, ‘Eric McCormack,’ who went on to do ‘Will and Grace’ and of course Brent Carver. The company of ‘Ain’t Misbehavin,’ they became very well known, ‘Sybil Thrasher.’ ‘Olivia Fox’ went on to Broadway. ‘Tara McCleod’ also went on to

290 ~ Barbara Barsky

Broadway and is coming back to do ‘The Producers.’ ‘Jay Brazeau’ who has done lead roles in Toronto is another. I think it is the development of the performers as well as the writers that is important and is something that we have tried to provide.”

“Barbara Barsky has also appeared on our stage.”

“Yes, sometimes people will email us and say, “I came to the Arts Club when I was a kid.”

“That’s important too.”

“Does the Arts Club Company tour nationally?”

“Not often, we have done some national tours but not for awhile. It’s very expensive and the countries huge. We would if someone would pay us. We have a very well managed touring system but we would need to be paid.”

“Do you ever miss the music?”

“I direct the musicals. That’s how I keep my hand in it.

I’m directing the ‘Producers’ and I did ‘Gypsy,’ with Barbara Barsky. That’s how I keep involved in music.

When I did the reunion concert a few years ago, I was annoyed that I couldn’t pick it up as quickly as I wanted to.

I’d love to play the xylophone again but no time. I spent a lot of time practicing in those days and playing concerts. I never learned to ski because I had band practice even though I grew up in Vancouver. I kind of regret that but that was the choice.”

“What do you make of Arthur and the whole organization, so many years later?”

“I certainly didn’t know it at the time but in retrospect he established a kind of bench mark for bands that other music teachers followed. I think it was unfortunate that he didn’t

BILL MILLERD ~ 291

RIGHT: c2007 Bill with Barbara Barsky, star of the Arts Club production of ‘Gypsy.’

BELOW: Bill with Michael Buble

292 ~ Dave McKenzie

understand the quality that young women could bring to a band. Of course in West Vancouver we had boys and girls because the parents insisted. I grew up in West Vancouver.

Although his methods today would not have been condoned, I think he would have adjusted. I think in his own way, he was a genius. The way he could fashion forty kids into a world class ensemble was amazing. He also had an instinct for what each of us could do. He said to me, “I put you on percussion because I thought you could be a xylophone soloist.”

I don’t know where he got that from?”

“Maybe he was just planting the thought in your mind?”

“He could have but good teachers are like that. They instinctively know and he had already been doing it for many many years, by the time I joined the band.

And I think he also created a family, where there was an extraordinary loyalty, not only from the kids but from the parents and the idea that we could travel to Europe at a time, in the 1950’s and before that in the 1930’s, when travel to Europe was unheard of was amazing. Now of course, school groups are going all the time.”

“Not only that the trips were often five months in duration.”

“Yes, that’s right and then taking us to France, when none of us spoke French. If he was still doing it today, he would probably go to Asia. He would explore new markets. He was an adventurer! He was an explorer too. He explored new music. We always had the latest musicals. He was not stodgy in anyway.

I think truly, he inspired character. He taught responsi-

BILL MILLERD ~ 293

bility to ones self.”

“It was all about life lessons!” ”Yes, it certainly was about life lessons.”

“You’re right though about him being an adventurer. In the 1930s, he only traveled to England, Scotland and Ireland.

Then in the 1950s, he started going over to Belgium and Holland. But it wasn’t until the 1966, 1968 and 1970 trips, that he traveled further a field, to places like Copenhagen, Geneva, Zurich, Barcelona, Madrid. Then in 1972, he went to Finland, Norway and Sweden and on his last trip, in 1974, he winds up in Estonia and Russia.”

“He was an amazing guy!”

“Anything you want to say about any of the guys?”

“Ken Sotvedt was the one who called me up and got me back for the reunion concert in 2003. Then it was only a week later that he died. Ken became a teacher, leader, and organizer. Delamont had an instinct with those he could depend on. Ken was one of them. I was a soloist, so he didn’t burden me with anything else.

As in any group, it was very clique. There were pockets of friends that formed, whom you stuck close to. You knew who had similar interests. Then of course, there were the old kids versus the new kids. There were initiations. Coming home was always great. You have been away for four months. You see your parents in a different way. They look older. Of course, you’re growing up! Some of the guys were great players, whom we just loved to listen to; ‘Sandy Cameron,’ ‘Ted Lazenby,’ ‘Art Tusvik,’ ‘Bill Ingledew’ and ‘Brian Parkinson,’ they were all great players.

I played with Dave McKenzie. He had a good repoire

294 ~ BG Holt

with Delamont. Dave organized the 1966,’68 and ‘70 trips.

He was good guy!”

“Who were the three people who influenced your life the most?”

“Arthur would be one of them. You tend to look at people who were teachers. There was a teacher at school named ‘BG Holt.’ He really encouraged me to go into theatre.”

“Was he a drama teacher?”

“No, he was a social studies teacher. He was just one of those teachers who were inspiring. I guess he saw something in me that I didn’t see. The other would have been a professor at UBC, Dr. Brockington. He was the head of the theatre department. He gave me some very good advice.

But Delamont and his power of music was certainly a big influence on me. What music can do for people. Every Remembrance Day, when I hear the ‘Last Post,’ I think of him and the way he played. The dedication he showed was amazing. It wouldn’t matter if it was raining. If you were committed to doing something, you did it. That can’t be taught. You have to see somebody carry it out.”

“We were all pretty lucky.”

“Yes, I think we were lucky. Some kids couldn’t take it, so they left but that was fine. He was toughening us up for life!”

BILL MILLERD ~ 295 T H E VANCOUVER BOYS’ BAND READ WHAT THE PRESS AND ENTERTAINMENT MANAGERS SAID 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 welltrained 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 will long be remembered.” Bristol Evening Times.

296 ~ A&W Root Bear Commercial “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 bandsirien.” – Gloucestershire Echo.

CHAPTER 20

Bob Buckley “During my jingle period, I wrote lots of jingles for Pepsi, Coke, MacDonald’s and the A&W Root Bear Commercial.”

“I think I was fourteen when I joined. We had been living in Seattle. My dad worked for Boeing. We were only there a year. My brother was draft age, so we moved the family back to Vancouver. My dad stayed in Seattle.

The school I was going to had no music program. My mother found out about the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. I went down there. I was completely intimidated. I didn’t want to go back.

Arthur was hitting people over the head with his trumpet and calling people fatheads, chumps and silly asses and I thought, no, this is too scary. My dad came up from Seattle and he said, “Look, at least go for three rehearsals. If you don’t like it then you don’t have to go back.”

Good fatherly advice, by the end of the three I was completely hooked. I could tell what an incredible band it was.

Even though he was a complete tyrant, I could tell what he

298 ~ Seattle World’s Fair in 1962

was after was perfection and really great musicianship. That was the beginning of it.

I remember my mom became a member of the Women’s Auxiliary. We had a pretty big house and a pretty big lawn.

The band would come and play for fund raisers on our lawn to raise money for the trips.”

“Do you remember your first one on one with Arthur?”

“I had been playing a couple of years, so I didn’t go into the junior band. I went straight to third clarinet in the senior band. I don’t remember him ever talking to me directly. I was very short. I remember playing a Dixieland piece out at the Abbotsford Air Show. It was my first concert with the band.

First clarinet played the solo but Arthur had me stand up and pretend to play. I was so upset because I knew I could have played it. My mom and dad came up to me after and said, “Oh, you had a solo.”

“I had to explain to them, that I hadn’t really. I just stood up.”

“He liked to do that with the little kids.”

“I think one of the reasons the band was so great was his showmanship. That was as important as anything else. That was probably around 1960. I remember going down to the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962.”

“What do you recall about the 1962 band trip to Europe?”

“I remember, I was one of the smallest on the trip. We landed in Kingston. A couple of us bought a bottle of Tequila.

We went up to a park one night and sat and drank the whole thing. Back at the boat, there were three younger guys and one older guy in each cabin. In our cabin, it was ‘Charlie

BOB BUCKLEY ~ 299

Bowman.’ He was on the bottom bunk. I was on the top bunk.

In the middle of the night, I threw up all over. I knew I had had it. I had avoided any indoctrination up to that point but I knew the older fellows were going to come after me. So they waited and waited until we docked in Southampton. I was dressed and ready to go. A bunch of the older boys came and grabbed me and threw me into the swimming pool. That’s what I got for being sick all over Charlie. It was mostly deserved, tried by jury!

Another popular thing at that time was the guys talking in high falsetto voices, making fun of each other.”

“I have never heard of that before.”

“We rehearsed a lot on the boat. We went down through the Panama Canal on this trip. I remember stopping in San Francisco for a day. We went to Long Beach and saw the Panama Canal. We went to Kingston, Jamaica and then to Bermuda. I remember the white roofs on the houses in Bermuda, to catch the rain. We played in all those places. I think we just marched off the boat and started playing. I don’t think it was prearranged. We were gone for five months.

I remember being sick on the boat and rehearsing a lot. I had started writing music by then. Some short pieces for the clarinet section.

First place we were billeted at in England was Dartmouth.

I just got an e mail from a lady, who found my name and remembered me from the trip. The older guys had girl friends in Dartmouth. I was too young for that, only fifteen.

We stayed in London for a while. We stayed in houses.

‘Bill Millerd’ was in my house. Besides being an incredible percussionist, he was a very good piano player. I remember

300 ~ Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland, Big Band

writing a piece of music for clarinet and piano and we would sit and practice together. That’s where I got to know Bill.

Don’t think we were in London for long.

Then we went over to Amsterdam. That’s where I got sick. The band went to Cologne, Germany. I wound up in a hospital in Cologne for five weeks, while the rest of the band continued touring.”

“Tell me about the Nazi doctor?”

“This is what I was told by one of the mothers that came to visit me. There were three of us who got sick. The mother of two of the boys came over to be with us. The senior doctor, who couldn’t speak any English, had apparently been a Nazi fighter pilot during the war. He was a big huge blond guy with blue eyes. The other two guys got better quicker and I ended up staying by myself for about three weeks. The other doctor, who was in his twenties and could speak English, was a jazz saxophone player.”

As I was getting better, he would sneak me out and take me down to hear the jazz bands down on the Rhine. I remember going to this one jazz club. The ‘Kenny Clarke/ Francy Boland,’ big band was playing. I bought their album there and I still have it. I had all the guys sign it. It is still one of my favorite jazz albums. The doctor knew them. That was a real thrill!

While I was in the hospital, I wrote a piece for the band called ‘The Vancouver Suite.’ It had three movements and we performed it at the homecoming concert. ‘Dal Richards’ was the MC.” “That was your first large scale concert band piece?”

“Yes, up to that point. Exciting, I had one of the mothers

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buy me some score paper. I had no instruments. The whole thing was written in my head. That was a good discipline for me. It helped me a lot, later in life.”

“How did you approach Arthur with the piece?”

“I think I just came up to him and said, “I’ve written a piece for the band.” He said, “Okay, we’ll try it”.

I had a band at my disposal, so let’s use it. I eventually joined the band in Paris. That’s where Bill Millerd and another fellow got hit by a car on the Champs-Elysee, a Citroen. They ended up in hospital. Bill still has a pin in his arm. He can’t move the arm very well. We also lost Patterson in Paris. It was a very dark time. It seemed like lots was going wrong. I remember Arthur had each of us, one at a time, come into his hotel room. It was very dark. He was sitting in the corner. I couldn’t really see him. He ask each of us, “Do you want to carry on with the trip or do you want to go home?”

There were enough that said, “Let’s go on!”

The show must go on, as they say and it did. I think if we had gone home, with our tail between our legs, it would have hung over our heads for a long time. So we did the right thing.”

“Do you remember Lillie?”

“No, she had passed on before my time in the band but we never saw Delamont or his wife, except at rehearsals and concerts. They kept separate from us most of the time. I do remember being in Nice. There were bidets in the hotel

302 ~ Bobby Hales

rooms. We used them for washing socks and underwear. The band went to other places. But those are the only places I remember. We rented Vespa scooters in Nice, lots of fun. We flew back on a prop jet, about sixteen hours. I was sixteen when we got back.”

“When did your rock career start?”

“My dream was to be a symphonic composer. I fell in love with ‘Stravinsky’ and ‘Bartok,’ when I was fourteen or fifteen. I just wanted to write orchestral music. The idea of being a rock musician, even though I liked the music, was not anything that I aspired to at all. So I went to the University of Washington to study to be an orchestral composer. I got rather disillusioned. What mostly was going on, people were writing these esoteric compositions for other composers that most people wouldn’t want to listen to. It was not accessible music. At a point I said, “I don’t want to write esoteric music.”

I left university, after a year or two and came back to Vancouver.

CBC was having an audition for a show called, ‘Let’s Go!’ It was a weekly, television, top of the pop hits sort of thing. Each day of the week, it came from a different city. In Winnipeg, it was the ‘Guess Who!’ ‘Dr. Music’ was another.

They were looking for long haired, hippy type musicians, who could read music. I could also play keyboards and saxophone, so I got the job. I ended up being the arranger for at least half the arrangements, along with ‘Bobby Hales.’

For one year, I was the keyboard player. Another year, I played saxophone and sang on the show. It was the beginning of my rock and roll episode. While I was doing

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that in the day, I was playing six nights a week in a club. The club was Oil Can Harry’s!

For a few years, I was actually making more money than my father was making as a chief designer for Boeing. It didn’t last for long for only a couple of years. When that all ended, I wanted to have my own band. My dream was to combine rock and roll and symphonic music and jazz and write my own compositions for my own band.

I started a band with guys who were all musically literate.

Who all understood different types of music. The band consisted of Terry Frewer, Peter McKinnon, myself and Mike Hendricks; “Cat” Hendricks. So, we started working on original material. It was intricate rock music. We started to have some success. We had one number one record and a couple of number two records. That was the band Spring!

I remember one time John Lennon had the number one record, with ‘Imagine.’ We had the number two record and Paul McCartney had the number three record, with ‘Maybe I’m Amazed.’ We were sandwiched between the Beatles, who were my heroes at the time. It was pretty nice!

I started working on an hour long composition called ‘Song Cycle.’ It was a combination of rock and symphonic.

It took me six months to write. At the time, Meredith Davies, was the conductor of the VSO. He was interested in bringing the symphony to a younger audience, so I talked to him. I copied out all the parts and brought it to him. It was a lot of work. We performed it once here, with the VSO and then in Edmonton, with the ESO, with Tommy Banks conducting.

Then we wanted to take it on the road but it was too expensive. We played once more and that was it for that piece of

304 ~ Straightlines

music. Spring gradually disintegrated. The guys went their own way, into funk, jazz and so on. Even though we had number one records, we never made any money. It just paid for our food and rent and that was it.

We opened and played with, ‘The Who,’ ‘The Doors,’ ‘Led Zepplin,’ on their very first tour before they were famous and ‘Janis Joplin,’ so we played with a lot of big names as an opening act.”

“You must have known Bruce Fairbairn?”

“Yes, that was a sad story.”

“And after Spring?”

“What was lacking with Spring was the excitement of the live performance. We didn’t jump around like Led Zepplin.

So, I wanted to have a band with a greater stage presence.

I put together a band which eventually became known as ‘Straightlines.’ I hated the name because of the drug connection, which we weren’t at all. That band had two albums out.

A number one record, with a song called ‘Letting Go,’ number one in French as well as in English and again we never managed to really make any money. For a few months, when we were drawing crowds of three thousand or four thousand, we began to get a taste of what it was like being a big time rock star but it didn’t last. There was a problem in the band with alcohol and drugs so it split up. That would have been in the early 1980s.”

“That was quite a stretch in rock andrRoll between Spring and Straightline”.

“Yes but what I was doing, as well, through all that time, I was writing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of radio and television commercials.”

BOB BUCKLEY ~ 305

“That was your jingle episode?”

“That’s right, I was doing two or three or four or five a week.”

“The Root Bear commercial?”

“Yup, I wrote lots of stuff for MacDonalds and Coke, Pepsi and a lot of jingles for airlines. It was with a company called Griffiths-Gibson and they had salesmen, who went all over America. That is where I really honed the art of being an arranger. I would be doing three or four big sessions a week, with brass players and string players. That was before the days of synthesizers. We’d get a job, I’d write the jingle.

We’d hold the telephone up and I would play and sing the jingle for the client. They’d go, “Okay” and in a couple of days, we’d be in the studio, with the musicians and the singers. It’s changed completely since those days, so I did an immense number. I wrote probably one thousand or more.

My evenings were taken up writing songs, with David Sinclair. The reason it took so long for another band to come along was there was no time. I scored a television series at that time. I was the musical director on others. CBC was very happening back then. I remember one year, CBC had a fiscal ending in January. They had to spend so much money each year, or they wouldn’t get it again the next. It was early December and they hadn’t spent all their money. I get a telephone call, “We have all this money that we have to spend. We have to do a television special and you have to hire a huge orchestra. So, I did! I was on the road at that time, with ‘Straightlines.’

I was literally flying to Edmonton in the afternoon, doing

306 ~ Griffiths-Gibson

a gig at night and flying back in the morning. Then, I was doing a recording session, arranging all day and then flying back at five o’clock to Calgary, doing a gig. We toured all across Canada that way.

CBC, bless their hearts, hired some very odd people. They hired a new tape operator. All he did was, “Push play, Push stop!”

We spent the whole day recording a large orchestra. After we finished each session, he would play it back to us and we would say, “Okay,“ and then proceed to the next tune. At the end of the day, we said to him, “Let’s hear everything back. We’ll sit back and listen to it all.” All that was on the tape was the last song. He kept recording over the same piece of tape, over and over and over....

We had to go back the next day and do it all over again. That guy was with CBC for many years.”

“There goes our tax money.”

“That’s right!”

“You were freelance with CBC?” “Yes, I spent a lot of time in that cement bunker over there.”

“How did you come up with the tune for the Root Bear commercial?”

“The guy, who was working at the ad agency, came up with the idea of the bear. He came to Griffiths-Gibson. The inspiration was actually the ‘Pink Panther Theme.’ We couldn’t use the saxophone, so we used a tuba. We recorded it with Dennis Miller, the tuba player with the VSO at the time.

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ABOVE: c1969, Spring, Rob Cass, Terry Frewer, Bob Buckley, Kat Hendrikse BELOW: c1986, The Body Electric, Frank Ludwig, Ross Friesen, David Sinclair, Bob Buckley

308 ~ Brian Gibson

In Canada, there are no residuals for commercials. So, we never got more than one hundred and fifty dollars for writing it. Doesn’t matter how many times it’s played, financially.

It’s still the same. In the States they pay residuals or performing rights. But no performing rights in Canada. Bruce Allen managed us for a little while. ‘Straightlines,’ did a little better with him.

Then along came Expo ‘86! Brian Gibson and I were asked to write a song for the Canadian Pavilion. The idea was they were doing this half-hour long video. It was going to start on the East coast, in Newfoundland and work its way across to Victoria. It was about, how people celebrate Canada Day, from East to West. Started at dawn and ended with evening fireworks in Victoria.

They wanted a piece of music that depicted all that across Canada, ending with a big anthem. That is how, ‘This Is My Home,’ was born. And it’s become a second national anthem.

It has a whole life of its own. It was one of those melodies, I wrote in about ten minutes but the arrangement took a long time because it was a symphonic arrangement. That was incredible!

It was definitely one of the highlights of my composing career. We got to use the whole Vancouver Symphony, the Bach Choir, a children’s choir and eight singers from Montreal. They flew them to Vancouver. We had Valdy, Ann Mortifee, Jane Mortifee.

A year ago, I was invited back to Toronto to conduct it at the Massey Theatre, in Toronto. I conducted twenty-five hundred people performing that piece. It is still performed today.

It was a massed school orchestra, with a gigantic choir.

BOB BUCKLEY ~ 309 RIGHT: c1986 The Body Electric L to R, David Sinclair, Ross Friiesen, Bob Buckley, Jim Randolph BELOW: Bob rehearsing “This Is My Home,” with L to R, Howie Vickers, Brett Wade, Peter Clarke, Terry Frewer, Jane Mortifee, Rachel Paiment, Joani Taylor, Brian Griffiths and Bob at the piano

310 ~ Metasis

RIGHT: Bob today, in 2008

BELOW: Bob, in 1969, playing the flute in his band ‘Spring.’

BOB BUCKLEY ~ 311

No finesse, big arms, I just tried to keep every one together.

It was great fun!

I have to say, the things I learned as a musician and arranger and composer, when I was with the band, were what has set me up for my whole professional life, as a musician.

If you keep your eyes and ears open when you’re in a band, you can’t learn that at university. There’s no better way to learn. You listen to what the trombones are doing. What the French horns are doing. How they all fit together. Why they fit together. How the sounds work together. It’s the best school there is for an arranger.

The biggest problem with amateur musicians is they want to play too loud and then they get out of tune. From what I remember of the band, we had incredible dynamics.

I also got hired to do the music for the B.C. Pavilion.

See the golf ball over there? This guy had designed a sculpture to go inside, ‘Metasis;’ it kept moving! It was never the same shape twice. I got a telephone call. They wanted me to write a piece of music that would play for twelve or fourteen hours, every day and never repeat itself, imagine that one!

What I did was, I went and sourced out a bunch of video machines with rewind on them. When they came to the end, they would go back to the beginning and start all over again.

I had sixteen of these things, all started at different times.

The music would always be moving and playing. It was atmospheric music!”

“What did you do after 1986?”

“I was forty then. I was still touring around in rock and roll bands and doing jingles and television shows. About forty-two, forty-three, I got fed up so I decided to look at

312 ~ ReBoot

changing my music career to writing for films. Problem was, when someone knows you as a jingle writer, it takes a long time to break out of the stereotype. I was in Little Mountain Sound. One of the engineers said, “There are these three English guys in town, who are developing a TV show that is going to be broadcast. They have come to Vancouver for help with the animation and because the BC government, offered financial incentives for film makers. They are looking for a composer for their TV series.”

It was the first, totally computer generated animated TV series of all time. It was ground breaking! They were looking in LA and England, for a composer. Top guys were writing samples and sending their work to them because it was so ground breaking. They all wanted to do it. So, I bumped into one of the guys and asked him if I could bid on it? He said, “Sure!”

It turned out, all of the composers in LA and England, submitted electronic scores. Thinking this is computer animation, they wanted electronic. I was the only one who submitted an orchestral, Star Wars, John Williams type, big robust score. I thought it would be nice to have the juxtaposition of the electronic, with the real world.

Turns out, that’s exactly what they wanted and I got the job. That was the beginning! It was a show called ‘ReBoot.’

I must have done around fifty of those shows. It became the number one animated cartoon show on television, all over the world. That would be 1994, the year the Commonwealth Games were held.

I did lots of shows for those guys. They went on and did

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the ‘Transformers,’ television series and lot’s more. Now, they have done hundreds, so that’s what I am working on now. I’ve done projects for Disney and MGM. It is very labor intensive and computer driven. Because of my background, one of the things I am good at is making the computer sound like a real orchestra.

The budgets are smaller now, than they were twenty years ago. We used to have a budget, thirty years ago, of around ten or fifteen thousand dollars, for a one minute commercial. Now a days, the entire budget for a half hour television show, is about seven thousand dollars, it’s changed. It has to do with computers. There are a lot of television shows being made. A lot of bad television shows. I really think the only place you will hear, newly written orchestral music today, is in the movies. Symphony orchestras seldom play anything under one hundred years old. Danny Elfman and John Williams, these guys, I wish symphony orchestra’s would start playing movie scores. I think they would draw an entirely new audience. Mozart wrote music for the masses. It wasn’t meant to be for the elite or highbrow.

I really am excited though, about writing for the movies. There is the opportunity to write some pretty innovative music because it is attached to visuals. People will accept it! You can do some pretty far out stuff musically. What I am trying to do, is write the best possible music behind the animation. Possibly, it will open their ears up to something other than hip hop and the radio.”

“What takes you to Holland and England every year?”

“In 1994, I got a telephone call from a lady. They had hired somebody to write the music for the Commonwealth

314 ~ Marlise McCormick

Games in Victoria. It was two months away and he hadn’t turned in any music yet. This lady was the choreographer for three thousand people. She had been with ‘Cirque de Soleil.’

She came over to see me. We talked and I accepted a commission to write an hour of music. All I had were counts on a tape recorder. I had written a song for a contest, which I had won, called ‘Let Your Spirit Take Flight.’ It was for the games. Anyway, the lady and I fell in love. Her name is Marlise. It was Marlise McCormick. We got married! Our dream was to work together on shows. She got this telephone call from Holland, from this huge academy. The lady who was teaching there was going to go to work for Cirque de Soleil.

Marlise teaches a certain kind of modern dance they needed.

They asked her, “Can you come over for a year and be on the faculty, while this lady is away at Cirque de Soleil?” We thought, “Why not, it would be an adventure!”

She moved away for three months, just after we got married. Eventually, I came over and it became the beginning, of a whole lot of relationships with people over there. Europe is wonderful and adventurous, for new ideas and productions, not like here. Here, everything is sacred. If it is not ‘My Fair Lady’ or ‘Oklahoma,’ forget it! So we wanted to put all my experiences, orchestral music, musical theater, jazz and rock together, with her experiences, circus, modern dance, ballet, physical theatre and story telling and see what we ended up with.

That’s what we are doing. It’s like a musical but there is no dialogue. There is a story but it’s not completely story driven.

They keep inviting us back and giving us more money for

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these projects. We get wonderful performers. We’ve written a musical called ‘Cafe Diablo’ and another stage musical called, ‘The Bridge.’ Takes place entirely on a bridge. We were invited, this year, to come over and do the opening ceremonies for an International Dance Festival. There were dancers from all over the world. I was working in a hotel room, turning out music each day. Then I would take it down to this studio and it was put to dance. You could see it evolve day by day. Then, all these dancers came in from Africa. It was amazing! So, on my sixty-first birthday, May the 9th, I had two hundred performers, performing my music and my wife’s choreography, what a thrill!

As for England, we lived there for a while. We met this novelist. She’s written six or seven novels that have been made into television movies. She’s won awards, so I was looking for a lyricist to write a musical with. Now, I am writing a Christmas musical, with her called, ‘Tinsel,’ which take’s place at a Christmas office party. It should be a lot of fun. It is just being completed.”

“Anything else about what you got out of your time with Arthur?”

“It was all about listening. Today, most musicians are too into what they are doing and don’t listen to the whole sound enough. This is one of the things Arthur instilled in us, listening to the sound of the whole band, not just ourselves.

That’s incredibly valuable. The other thing is being a team player and the pursuit of perfection. He was a tyrant but in a good way. The things I learned in that band have stayed with me all my life. I can say, I wouldn’t have had the career I have had, if I hadn’t been in his band. The people who

316 ~ Hubert Kline Hedley

went on and became accountants and doctors and bricklayers also learned a lot in the band. His lessons applied to other disciplines, besides music.”

“Who were the three most influential people in your life?”

“Arthur would definitely be one. Another would be a fellow called Hubert Kline Hedley. When we were living on Granville Street, when I was fourteen, we had an apartment.

I was in the dining room writing by our piano. This man moved in upstairs. One day he came down and knocked on our door and introduced himself. He was a composer from California, a wonderful composer from the 1940s and 1950s.

He was a very melodic composer, wonderful man. He became my friend. He became my mentor. He gave me his orchestral scores to look at. He shared with me what pieces I should be listening to, to improve.

By the time I was eighteen I had already learned from him everything they teach you in the first four years of university.

He became my model, do as I do. I’ve always learned that way. Find somebody who does something well and do it like they do. Then of course, you develop your own style.

I would have to say, the third would be my father. I’ve only recently come to realize, how difficult it must have been for my father, to bring up someone, who was going to be a professional musician. Watching the ups and downs. There were a lot of difficulties especially financially. You know, when they were in their sixties and seventies, they would come to the rock and roll clubs where I was playing! Dad would be dressed in a shirt and tie and have his ear plugs in his ears and we were loud.”

BOB BUCKLEY ~ 317

A tear comes to his eye. We stop, while Bob recomposes himself.

“They were just so supportive, in so many ways.”

“Any interesting people you have met over the years?”

“Stravinsky! He was very old. He conducted the Rite of Spring. He was with a very young woman. I went back afterwards and shook his hand, just before he got into his limo. I told him how much his music had meant to me.

I’ve done a lot of work with Bryan Adams. I knew Bryan when he was sixteen. I have done a lot of work on his albums. He’s a very nice guy! He is very generous with his time. I called him up a while ago, when I was in London and went over to his house. He’s still a nice guy!

I worked with Jack Lemon, same thing. Whenever he had a chance, he would come back and hang out with the band.

Of course, he was a jazz pianist! I toured with Led Zepplin.

It was funny to hear these guys, who when they were talking, sounded like bankers. Then, when they got on stage, they went completely wild.

And ‘The Who!’ They’re nuts all the time!

I never met Jim Morrison.”

“And you said you knew Bruce Fairbairn?”

“Yes, It always struck me strange, that a trumpet player would become a heavy metal producer. Knowing him as a person, the two never jived. He did it very well.

Bob Rock is another producer, who hired me. He’s become a multi-millionaire. A really nice guy. He got an award at the Juno’s last year. Someone said to me afterwards, “Your name got mentioned at the Juno’s.”

“It was him, he mentioned me.”

318 ~ Jimmy Pattison

“What does the future hold for Bob Buckley?”

“That’s another thing I learned form Arthur Delamont, you are sure never too old. I think that’s what kept him young. He had so much energy. I’m sixty-one now. Most guys my age are thinking of retiring. I can’t see myself quitting. It’s not the conversation, I’m having at all. I still think, my best years are yet to come. The things I learned from Arthur Delamont will remain with me forever.”

“Oh, you were going to tell me about being invited on to Jimmy Pattison’s boat?”

“Oh yes, well, I’m thinking it’s a Kits Band reunion. I get on the boat. Bill Vander Zalm is standing there. Glen Clarke, the ex-premier is standing there. Jack Munro, the big Union guy is there. I’m looking around and realize, there are no Kits band guys, other than myself and Jimmy.

Turns out he liked me when he had met me a couple of years earlier. He just wanted to invite us on his boat. We were moving in a circle we did not normally move in. So, I got to hang out with Vander Zalm, Clarke and Munro. He had us all sit at a table and introduce ourselves and talk about ourselves, contribute something! I said, “I can play the piano?”

“So, I played the piano. He liked that! It was so wonderful, just a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful surprise. I’m always impressed by people who have achieved that level of world fame but are still just one of the guys. He is ‘King Jimmy’ on the boat. But he is still just one of the guys. Who is a great guy!

Another story, when he first got the boat, he had white carpets put in the engine room and everywhere else. He had

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to replace the carpet in the engine room several times but finally he got it to stay white. That’s how he runs his businesses too. He is a great promoter of the band and just a great guy!”

320 ~ Andrew Brodie

AWARDS GOLD RECORD Letting Go LEO AWARD Best Musical Score GOLD AWARD Association for Multi-image International CARAS MUSIC AWARD Artist of the Year CARAS MUSIC AWARD Producer of the Year CARAS MUSIC AWARD Album of the Year BMI AWARD Best Symphonic Composition PRO AWARD Outstanding Success in Canadian Music PRO AWARD Excellence in Canadian Music JUNO NOMINATION Composer of the year JUNO NOMINATION Song of the year ALFIE AWARDS U.S. radio commercial music I.B.A. AWARDS U.S. radio and television commercial music CREDITS CASPER’S HAUNTED CHRISTMAS (feature) Score and Songs MY TWO BOBS (feature) Theme and Score DAEMON RISING (feature) Theme and Score SCARY GODMOTHER (feature) Theme and Score A CORPS PERDU (feature) Song THE LOTUS EATERS (feature) Songs THE PLASTIC MILE (feature) Score THE SUPREME KID (feature) Orchestrator and Arranger REBOOT (series) Theme, Songs and Score SHADOW RAIDERS (series) Theme and Score TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS (series) Theme and Score TRANSFORMERS: BEAST MACHINES (series) Theme and Score Bob has recorded and worked with artists including: David Foster, Aerosmith, Motley Crue, The Cult, Quireboys, Bryan Adams, Our Lady Peace, Jack Lemmon, Jay Leno, Natalie Cole, Prism, B.T.O., Rita McNeil, Valdy, John Parr, Rock & Hyde, Randy Travis, The Irish Rovers, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. www.bobbuckley.com

CHAPTER 21

Malcolm Brodie “As Mayor of Richmond, I greeted Queen Elizabeth at a civic reception for her in Richmond in 2002.” I remember the 1966 Kits Band trip to Europe very fondly.”

The next group of old boys that I wanted to interview were all fellows that I had known in the Kits band in the 1960s. They were now a mayor, a TV producer, a military band director, a high school band director, a musical theatre composer, a resort developer and an engineer.

“My brother Andrew, a very talented flute player who still plays, joined the Kitsilano Boys’ band about 1956 or 1957.

He went overseas in 1958 with the band. By that time, I had started playing the trombone. I had another brother John who started playing the drums. I joined because of my brothers.

I originally started playing with the band in the summer of 1958. He had a conductor take the band here in Vancouver when he was away. I would have been in grade four or five.

322 ~ Graeme Monteith

I played in the junior band. Then for a couple of years in grades six and seven, in the senior band. I then dropped out for various reasons. I had no further involvement with the band until 1966.

After I was in grade twelve, I happened to run into Graeme Monteith, the clarinet player. Graeme told me the band was going overseas in a few weeks and they still needed a trombone player. Was I interested? We had to put it together very quickly and I ended up making the trip.”

“Recall any interactions with Arthur in the old days?”

“I sure do. I took music lessons from him. My main recollection of him was the obvious one, what a strict disciplinarian he was. You would be put on the spot in front of everybody to see how well you could play. There were immediate consequences if you were not up to scratch. You risked real humiliation which seemed to happen to most people quite regularly. That was my main impression of him, as a disciplinarian. Over the years, he took a tremendous number of people from all sorts of different circumstances and really helped them in many ways”.

“He really focused their lives!”

“Yes!” “Anything you recall about the guys you knew in the band?”

“When I look back on it, especially in my official position today, I regularly see and hear concert bands and if I have the opportunity to talk to them, I ask if there are any ex-members of the Kitsilano Boys’ band. Inevitably, a number of them are. We have a Legion Band here in Richmond.

There must be six or eight who were in the Kits band. So, I

MALCOLM BRODIE ~ 323

regularly run into people who have had a relationship with the band.

There were people I knew in the band who I somewhat keep in contact with to this day. For years, trumpet player Richard Christie was the band director at Lord Byng High School. I ran into trumpeter Lyn Rycroft in the community and sousaphone player George Ellenton is one guy who really made music a career with his music and dance school in Delta. He sang and danced in ‘My Fair Lady’ at the Gateway Theatre over Christmas this year. Barry (trombone) and Gordy (saxophone) Brown are in our Legion band. Each one of these people knows a member of other ex-kits Band members - so the circle grows.

I knew a lot of people from the 1962 band like Ken Clarke and Gary Rolfe because I went to high school with them.

Then in 1966, I went myself.”

“What do you recall about the 1966 trip?”

“It was the first time I had been to Europe. First time the band flew everywhere. It was a great experience. I never got back to Europe for another twenty-five years. I was too busy building a career. But I remember how much I liked it. I think we had some pretty good experiences on that trip.”

“Do you remember Kerkrade?”

“Yes, I do remember it quite distinctly. We did pretty good precision marching in those days. I think it was the discipline he instilled in us and the practice and a real confidence that we could do anything. I think every time you go away you come back with a different perspective. For me, it was an important time in my life because I had just finished grade welve. I was seventeen. When I came back, I took a year off

324 ~ Warren Gill

and then went back to university for seven years straight.

I think those kinds of things give you a certain perspective with the other fellows who were in the band. When you see each other, you all know what you are talking about. It was a common experience, the band.”

“My earliest recollections of you were back in our high school days, when you played in the band ‘Spectre’ with Bruce Fairbairn. How did that come about?”

“We went to Prince of Wales High School and there were a few of us who wanted to start a dance band. Bruce Fairbairn was always a natural leader. He was the leader. He went on, of course, to become world famous before his untimely death. But there were other people of note, Warren Gill. He is still one of my close friends. He is a Vice President of Simon Fraser University. Also, friends like Elliot Clarkson, Ronn Zinko and the late Don Ramsey, who became Mayor of Harrison Hot Springs.

Anyway, we just wanted to start playing for dances. We got someone to let us play for a dance. We didn’t do very well. We got someone else to let us play. We did a lot better and kind of progressed from there. I played with that band for about six years from grade twelve, right through my under graduate degree in commerce. It basically financed my spending money. When I got into law school that stopped.

But another thing that playing in the Kitsilano Boys’ Band did for me was it gave me an appreciation of music. Looking back on it, I think what I enjoyed the most was the marching. I quite enjoyed the marching. Still like music. Still like listening to a good military band. You hear them from time to time. They are very disciplined and precise in the play-

MALCOLM BRODIE ~ 325

ing of their music. My playing in the Kitsilano Boys’ Band certainly fostered that ability. When I first started playing in ‘Spectre,’ I played keyboard but then I switched over to trombone.

“Did you keep in touch with Bruce Fairbairn?”

“Yes, over the years I kept in regular contact. He was one of those guys who never lost sight of his roots. Although he had plenty of opportunity and incentive to move to New York or Los Angeles or Toronto, he wouldn’t do it. When I had my law practice, I did some work with him, through that.

Our horn section from the old band had a reunion set of gigs at a night club downtown in the early 1990s. The whole band got back together for two nights. It was a great time.

That led to a presentation at the Commodore Ballroom. Half the night was horn bands and half was psychedelic bands.

Ever since then, with Warren Gill, who still plays in a band called ‘Wager,’ I sit in with the horn section and his band, maybe once or twice a year, which I have always enjoyed doing. Probably once or twice a year is enough. After Bruce Fairbairn passed away, Richard Christie, who played in the original band, joined us again. He’s been the trumpet player ever since.”

“Once you were in law school you stopped playing all together?”

“I pretty much did, except I still played the piano occasionally. I mostly played cocktail piano at Cecil Green at UBC, that sort of thing. I still play piano today but once law school was over, that was the last of the gigs.

“You practiced law for several years?”

326 ~ Mayor of Richmond

“I practiced in Richmond. I joined a law firm in Richmond. I went out on my own in 1980. I had my own firm with partners until I was elected Mayor. I was elected Mayor in late 2001.

When I was first elected mayor, it was because the previous mayor had gone into provincial politics and had resigned. There was a by-election which I won. I had a one year term. I still had my law practice. I did both. It was a very challenging year. I was very busy. When I got re-elected, immediately I shut down my law practice and I have just been mayor ever since.”

“How is life as Mayor of Richmond?”

“It is very challenging and very interesting. And to bring it back to the band, I regularly run into people who played in the band and we have remarkably similar stories. For instance, I have spoken with Bing Thom. We had dinner together and spoke about the band at length. I have seen him a few times. He talks about Arthur’s influence on him. He was like a father figure to him.”

“With a lot of the boys, I think. So now you’re the Mayor of Richmond and as if that is not enough you became the head of Trans Link!”

“Yes, well, you can’t relate everything to the Kitsilano Boys’ Band but it’s consistent with the lessons we learned.

Like either you’re in the band or you are out of the band. You can leave whenever you want but if you’re in the band, you come to practice, you get there on time and you do your job and that’s what you learn. Just decide what you want to do. I remember how intolerant he was of people who didn’t know what they wanted to do. Either you’re in or you’re

MALCOLM BRODIE ~ 327

not.

I remember another time in the 1960s we were playing a concert at the Canadian Memorial Church in Vancouver, just before one of the festivals in which the band used to play. There were three numbers that all the bands had to play in the festival. He wanted to use this concert as a warm-up for the festival. He looked out into the audience and he saw some of the boys from the North Vancouver band and their conductor in the audience. He didn’t play the pieces. He didn’t want anyone to know how he was going to play them.

He didn’t want to be copied. He was very competitive and he knew what to do and what not to do.

One of the things I learned from him was that if you don’t regenerate the organization, it dies. He was constantly bringing in good players; constant regeneration.”

“He had his fingers on any new talent that surfaced around town.”

“In later years the talent pool wasn’t less, there were just more groups for them to perform with and more opportunities, more things to do.”

“What would you say was Arthur’s influence on you?”

“He influenced people in a real way with the inspiration that he would provide and the discipline that he would instill. The loyalty he would attract. There was a certain stability in the whole thing. It was one of those constants and still is for many. He was uncompromising in his demands that you perform well. He would never accept second best. He was always driven towards that end.

The band was always consistent from one year to the next. When I left and came back, the band was just the same.

328 ~ Bruce Fairbairn

ABOVE: c1990’s Bruce Fairbairn, Malcolm and Elliot Clarkson, the horn section from Spectre playing in a reunion in Warren Gill’s band BELOW: c2002 Malcolm greeting the Queen at a civic reception in Richmond

MALCOLM BRODIE ~ 329

He hadn’t become the slightest bit accepting of mediocrity.

Sure he mellowed as he got older but the times changed. The boys of the seventies wouldn’t accept the same level of discipline as the boys of the thirties or fifties or even the sixties.

His approach stayed the same well disciplined and always a high performance level.”

“Who would you say are the three people you have met in your life who have influenced you the most?”

“Arthur, in terms of music but I would say probably one of the biggest influences on me would be a trombone player at UBC who taught a harmony class in my second year. His name was Robert Bricker. We took ear training. He took all of what I knew about music and put it together. Music wasn’t just something you read. It was relative. It was a part of a big organizational piece. He was the right person at the right time. As a result, I started playing piano again and still play for myself, to this day. Well known Vancouver guitar player, Dave Sinclair, was also in that class and to this day, also reflects on the lessons learned there.

In my job, I have met a lot of famous and impressive politicians including prime ministers. But I wouldn’t say that they have generally influenced me. But another person would be Bruce Fairbairn, my old friend, the trumpet player and leader of our band. He was just such a natural leader. He just knew what to do. To be around him was very inspiring.

And of course my wife Chris has been a huge inspiration to me. We have been married thirty-one years. We have two children, a son and a daughter!

“How is your Chinese?”

“My Chinese is very limited.”

330 ~ George Pettie

“What does the future hold in store for the Mayor of Richmond?”

“I hope the future is as interesting as the past, as this has been an exceptionally interesting and challenging position.”

CHAPTER 22

Wayne Pettie “After I finished playing with Dal, I played in an ‘oom pah pah’ band down at the old CNR train station at Terminal and Main Street. That was with George Le Flesch and Henry Ohman. George had all these charts from LA. They were fun to play!

It was the best paying gig in town at the time.”

“I joined in 1966! I was playing in the Vancouver Youth Orchestra. Al Lehtonen was also playing in the youth orchestra. Al says to me, “Why don’t you come out to the Kitsilano Boys’ band?”

I was getting kind of bored with the youth orchestra. Al was already in the Kits band. Also the directors of the youth orchestra told me to attend band camp, if I wanted to progress in the orchestra. That didn’t sound very interesting to me, so I thought I would try Kits.

My brother George and I went together. George, who was fearless, sat in first chair trombone. I, on the other hand, tried to make myself invisible by sitting in the very last chair of trumpets (second row). Mr. Delamont seemed to enjoy ‘knocking you down a peg or two’ if you showed too much confidence, so naturally he picked on George. George had a big, powerful sound but struggled through the difficult,

332 ~ George Le Flesch

technical solo that Mr. D had chosen for him. Sight-reading wasn’t his forte at this time due to practicing symphonic repertoire over and over and no time for private instruction.

Eventually, he got to me and said, “Come up here!” (Front row trumpets) “Play this!”

I managed to play the piece fairly well.(At least he didn’t tear me apart). After band practice he took me aside and said, “We have enough trumpets for the European trip but if you play baritone you can go.” I was ecstatic!

“You bet I’ll play baritone” I said. This was three weeks before the 1966 trip.

George was already committed to go and work in the forestry that summer, up north, so he couldn’t change his plans.

I went on the 1966 trip and then again in 1968. George went on the 1968 and 1970 trips. I couldn’t go on the 1970 trip for a couple of reasons. When I came back from Europe in 1968 with the band, Dal Richards asked me to come and play in his band, every Saturday night. He hired me before I joined the union. I also had a girl friend. I went to Columbia Junior College in 1969 and then on to UBC. After I finished playing with Dal, I played in an ‘Oom Pah Pah’ band down at the old CNR train station at Terminal and Main Street. That was with George Le Flesch and Henry Ohlman. George had all these charts from LA. They were fun to play. They had an audition in Richmond at a hotel.

They tried out several symphony musicians. Then they tried out some others, including me. At the time, it was the best paying musical job in Vancouver, six nights a week. It lasted about two and a half years. The place could accommodate up to twelve hundred people. I had to stop playing because of

WAYNE PETTIE ~ 333

an appendicitis attack. I had to go to the hospital for twelve days. Afterwards, I couldn’t play very well. I put the trumpet in the case and said, “That’s it, it’s time to teach.”

I didn’t seem to have the strength anymore. I went back and got my teaching certificate from UBC. The first teaching job I applied for was in Port Moody.

John Bayfield was the principal (Port Moody Junior Secondary), an old Kits band member. I went for an interview. There were three people firing questions at me. Finally, I said, “Thank you very much” and I got up and left. I figured I wasn’t getting that job. Then the next day, I got a telephone call telling me I had gotten the job.

The most important thing I learned was you needed to be organized and I wasn’t organized. I just flew by the seat of my pants. I was young. I figured I could handle it. I thought I knew a lot. I didn’t know hardly anything about the other instruments. I had to learn as I went along. The brass instruments weren’t too bad, being that I was a trumpet player.

But the flute, clarinet and oboe, that was another story. Most directors recommend their students take private lessons on the instruments they do not know very well, when possible.

I learned through trial and error. I did that for four years (grades eight through ten). I went out to all the elementary schools to recruit kids because there were not enough at the high school. I had to teach English as well, in the cafeteria.

Band I taught in the gymnasium, while other things were going on. It was not a good situation, so I left. I had had enough, not a good experience.

Then, I went back to playing. I played twenty-six jobs

334 ~ Stu Carpenter

during the month of September and made fifteen hundred dollars. I realized that that was not going to work out as I had two kids.

Once I decided that only playing professionally wasn’t going to make ends meet, I applied for another teaching position. I soon got an interview for an elementary school, grades four through seven. The interview went well and the job was like a dream. I was hired to teach band at several schools in North Vancouver.

The first principal I met, at one of the schools, was a great guy. He left me alone to do my thing. That’s what I had needed on my first assignment. At the end, I was covering eight schools. In the beginning, I covered three elementary schools and a high school. The junior high was a nightmare.

The others were great and the kids paid attention. They liked their instruments. It was just wonderful! I was very positive.

The fellow before me had been very negative. I guess I was a breath of fresh air.

I had them play some challenging pieces. Our first concert, I turned around and said to the audience, “We did it!”

The audience laughed. I was in North Vancouver for twentyfour years. I taught in about fifteen schools in all as an itinerant. I just retired. I pulled all my kids together for concerts.

It worked great.”

“Tell me about Arthur?”

“He kept me in line. I was pretty rebellious. He used to give me rides home after band practice. My parents were very supportive. I remember on the 1968 trip, I was determined to show everybody that having my parents along as

WAYNE PETTIE ~ 335

chaperones was not going to interfere with my having a good time. I went out of my way to be rebellious and I was always doing things to excess. I am sure you remember.

“Yes, I remember.”

“Before we left on the 1968 trip, I was sick as a dog. My dad gave me a couple of stiff drinks, ‘gin and colins.’ It settled my stomach. I lost a lot of weight just before the trip.”

“Who are the three people who have been the greatest influence on your life?”

“I’d have to say my parents. Stu Carpenter was another one. Talk about a guy being nasty. He made Delamont look like a choir boy. He was nasty! I had a half hour lesson with him when I was fourteen. He had this little music shop in Burnaby across from Sears. I had bought this Olds Recording trumpet. He didn’t like it, so he gave me a lecture. He always seemed to be in a bad mood. This was before Kits.

I was still in the youth orchestra. I remember playing the first three notes of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto for Stu Carpinter. He says, “That’s wrong! This is wrong! That’s no good!”

He almost gave me a nervous breakdown. I had to change my embouchure but it was worth it. He corrected several problems that I had developed.

He was all business, a real taskmaster. I was actually afraid to go to a lesson. He rarely praised you for your effort.

He expected nothing less than perfection. I always made sure to practice exactly what he assigned each week. I would see previous students leave in tears which would raise my level of anxiety. If you were able to persevere through the mental strain of his demeanor, you could learn a lot. I now

336 ~ Joe DeBruycker

appreciate what he taught me.

Joe DeBruycker was another influence on me. He was also into repairs as well as teaching. Stu used to get his trumpet repaired by Joe. This would be six or seven years after I took lessons from Stu. Joe says to Stu, “Try that horn.” Stu says, “Whose horn is it?” Joe says, “It’s Wayne Pettie’s, that’s the one you told him he shouldn’t play, years ago.” Stu says, “Oh, well, it’s a pretty good horn.”

It was my Olds Recording trumpet. I just really liked it, so I kept it.

Joe would come over to our house because he liked to play ping pong and so did my dad. I’d be about seventeen. We had this fridge in the house. I worked hard at my practicing. How I worked was, every time I made a mistake or got frustrated, ’Wham.’ I’d hit the fridge with my elbow. There were dents all over the fridge. Mom would be in the living room listening and she would say, “That doesn’t sound right.”

“Wham!” there goes the fridge.

Joe would come over. He and Dad would have some rum.

Joe asked, “Have you been practicing? You sound very rough.”

I practiced all the time, so I decided to back off and only practice once every other day. I tried to focus better.

Then, when I had my lesson with Joe and he would say, “Boy, you’ve been practicing.” I’d say, “No, I have just learned how to focus better.”

It was kind of funny how it worked but he was nurturing

WAYNE PETTIE ~ 337 RIGHT: c2007 Ron Smith, tuba Wayne Pettie, trumpet, Gregg Hurst, trumpet, Robert Fraser, trombone, Rick McVicar, drums

The ‘Sixuvus’

BOTTOM: c2005 Bob Fraser, Gary Musatto, Ron Smith, Gregg Hurst, Wayne Pettie

LOST CHORD

THE

Strawberry Fields Forever

VANCOUVER KITSILANO BOYS’ BAND

THE LEGACY OF ARTHUR DELAMONT Book III

Christopher Best

WAYNE PETTIE ~ 339

and therefor influential, I would say.”

“A third influence?”

“My parents of course, were a big influence. Being a part of the Kits band was a big influence. I remember later on when I played for a Lion’s Football game and Stu was playing as well, I took my part up an octave because I was bored.

Stu came over afterwards and said, “Don’t ever tell anyone you took lessons from me.” I said to him, “Get lost!”

That was the first time I ever said a bad word to him. I never really talked to him again. He told Joe DeBruycker about this and Joe said to him, “You deserved it.”

That was when I first started playing with Dal. After that incident with Stu, we seemed to get along better. But he got me to do things I probably never would have done on my own. So, I have to say he was really a big influence.”

“Do you remember any humorous moments in the band?”

“I remember one time marching in Penticton or Abbotsford. I had forgotten my black socks. I covered my ankles with black shoe polish and it worked!

You should talk to my brother George. He would probably remember more of those days than I. He lives in Fraser Lake with his family. I went up to visit him a couple of years ago. I hadn’t been up there before. Great reunion!

340 ~ Sunshyne

About the Author: I was born on November 22, 1949, St. Cecilia 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 BC in 1979 and a Teaching Certification in 1980.

For the next five and half years I was a music educator in Eastern Canada. 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 House on Cote Des Neige Road, The Warfleet Trilogy and The Summer They Played the Duke of Earl. Books on the Kitsilano Boys’ Band include By Jove What A Band, Woodwinds, Brass and Glory, the Red Cape Boys, Denton Park, The Lost Chord and The Life and Times of the Legendary Mr D. Books by the author can all be found on the web at www.warfleetpress.com

CHAPTER 23

Dave Calder “In the late 1960s, Bruce Fairbairn had a band called Sunshyne and I became their drummer. The success of Sunshyne got us signed to a lot of demo deals and that is how my recording career started.”

Dave Calder was working as a VP of marketing at the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. He had become a television producer at some stage in his career. I gave Dave a call and arranged to meet with him at the Aquarium, the following Thursday, at four in the afternoon.

At three fifty-five, on Thursday, I arrived at the back door of the aquarium. I stood and looked in awe, for a moment, at the beauty that surrounded me. Stanley Park is a national treasure. Revered for years, as the jewel in Vancouver’s tourist crown!

“What a place to come to work to every day,” I thought, as I gazed at the tall two hundred year old fir trees, that skirted the perimeter of the aquariums’ parking lot. Once inside, I approached the reception desk and asked for Dave.

In a couple of minutes, a rather boyish, fifty something year

342 ~ Dave Pickell

old appeared. It was my old friend ‘Dave’ whom I had not seen in forty years!

Before settling down for the interview, Dave took me on a ten cent tour of the new Aquaquest/Canacord Gallery wing of the aquarium, which had just opened a couple of months earlier. Afterwards, back in Dave’s office, I asked, “What is your role with the aquarium?”

“I am the vice president of marketing and communications. I thought when I took the job, that I would be mostly involved in dealing with various areas of public interest, such as our position on keeping mammals at the aquarium but there is so much more to the job. The aquarium is the only one of its kind in Canada. It consists of two entities, there is the attraction side and then there is the conservation; education and research side. Because we are non-profit, all the money we raise goes back into funding our projects, whether it be a new physical feature, such as the wing I just showed you or funding research projects such as determining alternate food sources for sea lions or the warming effect of the ocean on its inhabitants. We can contribute to a wide variety of aquatic research that will help our grand kids enjoy the bounty of nature we enjoy today.

The public only sees a small part of our operation. For instance, there is only one sea lion in the public viewing pool but we have another eight in our research pool that the public doesn’t see. This is why we have the attraction in the first place; to amaze, engage and inspire people. It is really an amazing organization!”

“So how does a former TV producer end up with a gig like this?”

DAVE CALDER ~ 343

“Oh that’s easy Chris, same way I got my last position with Intrawest where I was also a VP of marketing. Both jobs were designed around my strengths in the media industry.”

“Let’s go back to your days as a TV producer.”

“Okay let’s, that was quite a ride, I tell you Chris, quite a ride. First though, let me tell you about my studio days because that is really where it all began.

It all started back around 1968. I had always wanted to be a professional musician. When I was twelve or thirteen, I was already playing professionally on weekends, around town, for weddings, banquets, and other special events, anything I could. When I got back from the 1968 Kits band trip to Europe, my parents wanted me to go to UBC. So, I enrolled in first year arts. I went to classes for five days and spent the rest of my time in the music faculty building. I met a lot of great musicians there, like Tom Keenlyside, Dave Pickell and Bruce Fairbairn. Bruce later went on to be probably, the most successful heavy metal rock band producer of all time, producing bands like Aerosmith and Bon Jovi. But in those days he had a band called Sunshyne and I became their drummer. The success of Sunshyne, got us signed to a lot of demo deals and that is how my recording career started. We recorded at Mushroom Studios, Little Mountain Sound, Psi Chord, Pinewood, even did CBC television and in Seattle, at Kay Smith Studios, where we worked with Jim Gaines, the producer of Tower of Power.

In order to achieve more radio success, Sunshyne evolved into a commercial entity and morphed into the successful local rock band, “Prism.” When Sunshyne ended, I managed to get into jingle recording with Griffiths /Gibson and also

344 ~ Dave Sinclair

with Kokoo Productions. I even went to LA for a time, where I played in a band called ‘Hamlet.’

Michael Omartian was their producer. He also produced Christopher Cross, who became very successful. ‘Hamlet’ did not, except in the south western U.S. After L.A., I returned to Vancouver and continued playing on sound tracks for shows for CBC. In the late seventies, I wound up back at Little Mountain Sound, with Bob Buckley, Peter Clarke, Brett Wade and Dave Sinclair. I was part of a band called “Straightlines,” which managed to get signed to a record deal, only to find myself again replaced, by a drummer, who could sing lead vocals. That is when I started to look further afield. I did a little touring after that with Denise McCann and then with Jane Mortifee and I played with Wayne Kozack for a while in an incredible band called, ‘Mad Ivan and the Hornets,’ at a local club.- We were a regular feature at Fred Xavier’s ‘Rohans,’ here in Vancouver. But I had pretty much decided to explore other career ideas. It was my dad actually, who suggested I go into TV production. He had seen me playing on sound tracks for TV shows and thought that it might be a good fit.

In 1980, I enrolled in BCIT’s, TV production school.

They also offered broadcast journalism and radio but I opted for TV production. I spent one year in the program here in Vancouver and then as the result of a school tour of small broadcasting stations around BC, I found a small station in Prince George, where I thought I could learn a lot, in a short time. After talking to my department head, he said he would co-op my entire second year, if I could secure a position at the station. I secured the position and he co-opted my

DAVE CALDER ~ 345

second year at New Caledonia College in Prince George.

In 1981, I found myself in Prince George as a writer/producer for TV station CKPG. At the end of my first month at CKPG, I received two cheques. One was for my salary at the station and the other was a residual cheque from a Labatt’s jingle, I had played on back in Vancouver. My residual cheque was larger than my salary cheque. I remember looking at the two cheques and wondering if I had made the right decision but it worked out great. Seven and a half years later, I was assistant general manager of AM/FM and TV and had two sons born in Prince George.

I learned a lot, TV programming, sales, marketing, management, operations. It was the right call because I had the chance to do so many things in both radio and television very quickly.”

“What was your day to day focus?”

“It changed a lot. When I started, I was primarily focused on writing commercials for radio and TV. The sales department would bring me clients and I would generate the creative ideas. It was kind of ad agency experience without the ad agency, you know, target markets, competitive advantages, selling propositions, a very creative time. My routine, after I came up with the creative ideas, was to work with our audio guys and video guys, in short, be a producer.

One of the nice things, about being in a small market was that I got to do all the post production work. It was just me and the cameraman. If I had gone to CBC in Vancouver, I would have spent my first year pulling cable or holding a clip board, regardless of my background, so it was the right move for me. It was also a fast track to exposure to differ-

336 ~ 1040 KICKS

ent people in the communications industry. I got to go to CBC affiliates meetings in Toronto and Montreal.

I got to program the television station. I was the one who went down to the US and purchased programming. I interacted with program distributors and got to know the programming opportunities to introduce new shows. I was the first programmer to bring Oprah Winfrey to a Canadian television station in B.C. I was the first to bring Star Trek, The Next Generation into Canada and I was the first to put the Wonderful World of Disney on five days a week in Canada instead of just Sunday nights. I could do these things because we were such a small market; we were off the radar so to speak.

However, I also still remembered that my residual cheque was larger than my monthly pay cheque, so I moved quickly into sales and management, where the money is in the media world. In 1989, I came back to Vancouver and became general sales manager for 1040 KICKS, a teen orientated radio station, not a wise move. I had tried for programming positions at KVOS and BCTV but lost out to internal candidates.

Unfortunately, I could not make the station profitable and parted ways with the owners, starting my own communications consulting company, Calder Communications.

Other jobs that were available to me were outside of Vancouver and I did not want to leave my extended family and friends. My early clients were the TV and radio stations that I had contacts with from my Prince George days. TV stations in Terrace and Kitimat and so on. I actually became quite a successful consultant because of those contacts, that was 1990-91.

DAVE CALDER ~ 347

I was working out of the offices of a radio and television representation company called Paul Mulvihill Limited. There I met David St. Laurent, which was a neat relationship. He was heading up their radio representation side. We wound up doing some research work with Vancouver ad agencies, on behalf of my clients, to find out if we could do a better job representing smaller market broadcast companies. As a result of that focus work it became clear to me that we were looking at a huge business opportunity. That business opportunity was to create a new media firm that did not just represent television or just radio but was an entity for all sorts of media including outdoor. It had never been done before.

There had not been a new media company started in Canada for several years. It was pretty much a firmly entrenched old boys club. So, the game plan was put in place by one of my clients, Okanagan Skeena Group, headed by Brian Edwards, who was a huge supporter of mine and liked the concept. Brian worked hand in hand with me to develop the concept. I was not interested in the representation side.

I wanted to consult with the stations. So Brian and I put the concept together and then we told David about it and ask him to come on board. Twenty-four hours later we left the offices of Paul Mulvihill and formed a new company which became known as Media Group West. C. S. Media Group West Ltd. was the legal name; C for Calder and S for St Laurent. Our silent financial partner was Okanagan Skeena Group. They helped fund us and allowed us to get a line of credit at the bank. They allowed us to plug into their benefits, accounting and everything else. This allowed us the freedom to do our thing. We started with twelve companies and in

348 ~ Brian Edwards RIGHT: 1969 Sunshyne playing in the Kits Day Parade.

L to R, Dave, David Pickell, Bruce Fairburn, Peter Bjerring BELOW: c1970 L to R Dave Pickell, Bruce Fairbairn, Richard Christie, Tom Keenlyside, Dave Calder, Ralph Eppel.

DAVE CALDER ~ 349

panies and in one year we had over one hundred. It was a great success, stratosphere! It was quite a rush. By the mid 1990’s we were extremely successful.

On the flip side, by the mid 1990’s, Okanagan Skeena had become much larger and Brian Edwards ask me to become VP sales and marketing of Skeena which I did. I started to move away from Media Group West. I still owned shares and was involved on a small scale in order to avoid any conflict of interest with my new position. One of my jobs at Skeena was to go into radio stations the company was purchasing and fix them top to bottom, figure out how to improve them.

So, my experience from the past fifteen years came into play.

In the late nineteen nineties, a company called Telemedia, purchased Okanagan Skeena. When that took place I had ceased to be an owner of Media Group West, so I became chairman of Media Group and a senior VP of Telemedia. I remained there through 2002 when Telemedia was sold to Standard Broadcasting and pieces of it were flipped to other corporations. When that happened I decided it was time to pack it in.

As I said Chris it was a great ride. It was an amazing experience with lots of building and expanding. I still do some consulting work from time to time, that’s when I ended up at Intrawest because I did not want to leave Vancouver, so I entertained the idea of a career change and even welcomed it. A family member had some contacts with Intrawest. They created a job for me based on my experience. Now, four years later, here I am still in the media world but really much more content and focused on contributing to a legacy organization that will flourish for generations to come.

350 ~ Bud Kellett

As you know Chris, the Kits band is a fraternity of the highest order. The fact is you can run into alumni and you already know several things about them. They are disciplined, they are creative, they understand the idea of working hard to achieve high standards. We were all exposed to success at an early age. Jimmy Pattison for instance does not have to see me work. If I applied for a position at one of his communications companies, if I tell him I was a Kits band guy that tells him a lot about what I bring to the table, character, discipline, approach and so on. Jimmy is a good example. You have probably heard about him cutting his lowest producing sales people. Well, Delamont didn’t keep guys around who couldn’t perform either you know Chris!”

“No, I guess not. I guess not!”

CHAPTER 24

Richard van Slyke “I met Pierre Elliot Trudeau here in Vancouver at a state dinner for the Japanese Prime Minister. Very dynamic!

He was shorter than me. I always like that in a man. (chuckle) What impressed me was his energy. I disliked his politics and the way he treated the military.” “But I could see the dynamics that flowed, the direction, the goal orientation he had.”

“How did you get into the Kitsilano Boys’ band?”

“I was playing in the Kerrisdale Kiwanis Band. I kept running into fellas who played in the Kits band. A friend of mine, Iain Petrie approached me and ask me if I wanted to step it up a notch and get into a band that played at a very professional level, as the Kerrisdale Kiwanis band was going through a leadership change.

“Who was their conductor?”

“Bud Kellett, he decided to pack it in. Bobby Hales was the leader of the Junior band. That put the band into limbo.

I auditioned for Mr. D. At the time he had enough trumpet players, so he put me on mellophone which I hated but I

352 ~ Don Radelet

actually practiced that stupid mellophone.”

“Remember any interaction at the time?”

“No, nothing dramatic, the mellophone playing didn’t last long. When he was selecting people for the 1968 trip, he felt I would be better off in the trumpet section.

But I found because I started out as a junior in the band, that I had a bit of a different perception of him. He was an acquired taste. I found him quite intimidating. He would get angry and I wasn’t use to that kind of approach.

Obviously I got used to him. He would come around behind us as we were playing, very, very intimidating! It certainly made me practice my charts. Making sure I pretty much had it nailed.”

“That was in the spring of 1968?”

“No, that would have been the fall of 1967.”

“Then the trip came along and you were chosen for the trip. Tell me what you recall about the trip?”

“I was quite excited about that. I had done some traveling previously. I went to Expo ‘67 by train the previous year but first I had to come up with the money. I scraped together all I had from my paper route. Then my father took me to the bank and co-signed for a bank loan. So, I was able to come up with the money for the trip.

I remember all the work we did to prepare for the trip musically and from a fund raising point. Getting out there, marching through the Kitsilano neighborhoods. I always wanted to play in the band rather than be running up and down the stairs selling pens and stuff to people in the neighborhoods. But boy, talk about preparing us for some of the work we would be doing in Europe, there was method to

RICHARD VAN SLYKE ~ 353

the madness, in terms of preparing us and in raising the necessary funds. Because when I look back at what we got to experience, that was the best six hundred dollars I ever spent in my life. I got so much from that experience. I was a changed person. I had always been a hard worker, very focused and goal orientated but now it was like I was on steroids. It really had a powerful influence on me musically and otherwise.

When I went on to direct the band of the 15th Field Artillery Regiment, I applied a great number of things I learned from Arthur Delamont to the band, in terms of programming, running a tight show, being able to back announce (what the announcer says to explain what just happened), being able to use the encores, always leave them wanting more, make them laugh, make them cry!

When I joined the military, a good number of the musicians were ex-kits boys band because they came out of that band and there was little where else in the community that they could perform at that standard. Guys like Ken Fowler, Iain Petrie, Peter Irwin and Don Radelet. Guys from the 1930’s, 40’s, 50s... A good number of these guys were serving in the military as professional musicians.

I learned an awful lot about programming. I always remember how smart he was in terms of how he had us conduct ourselves on stage; arms-crossed, deportment etc. I definitely applied that in terms of the shows. I put on tight shows, well rehearsed, don’t have that down time, find out what works, the little bits. I used to bring little kids up in front of the band that works. I can’t tell you how many little things I learned from Arthur, doing so many shows with him across Europe.

As a result the band here is consistent and has been rated as

354 ~ Dave McKenzie

the tops in Canada. To a great degree, it is because of what I learned in the Kitsilano Boys’ band with Arthur Delamont.”

“But I hear you have taken it one step further and a lot of your musicians have Bachelor degrees and Masters degrees?”

“In my band now, probably five percent have Bachelor degrees. A number of them have Masters degrees and a few have Doctorates.”

“How did that come about?”

“Unfortunately there isn’t of course the equivalent of the Kitsilano Boys’ band out there anymore. I tell you, if the Kitsilano Boys’ band had still been going when I was directing my military band, I would have been in there like crazy, recruiting like a maniac. That’s just the kind of quasi-military, much disciplined background that I would be looking for.

Today, to get people who perform music, at really above the Grade three level, I have to go to colleges and even more so to the universities. But I can say that I can get people today from the universities, who won’t make it through an audition. There are very few people who I played with in Kits, who would have trouble getting through an audition, at least on a probationary level. As you know, we weren’t running around with Bachelor and Master’s degrees. We had gone through that university of playing in the real world.

“It was very, very powerful and something which we do not see to any degree today.”

“No, it’s not out there, that’s for sure. Do you have anymore thoughts about the trip?”

“I certainly learned a lot about life. I had my sixteenth

RICHARD VAN SLYKE ~ 355

birthday on the trip. We had just finished the Dartmouth Regatta and we were in Brighton. We were playing at the Pavilion. The guys all bought me drinks. To make a long story short, I found myself lying face down in the gutter. The first and only time in my life I ever did that. I never behaved in that fashion again. It was a great learning experience!

The first time we played the Pavilion, I was constipated.

I ask Dave McKenzie what I should do, so I went to the Pharmacist and got a common laxative. I took a couple nothing seemed to happen. I took two more, nothing happened.

I took about eight! Well, we were sitting on stage. It was the second show we had done that day and all of a sudden, I think, “Oh my gosh, it’s happening!”

We had to play the Lost Chord where all the trumpets stand in a row at the front of the stage. So, I’m standing there thinking, “Oh please God, let us finish this tune so I can get off stage.”

Well, the show ends and I’m just sprinting right into the washroom. I must have dropped twenty pounds right there, just dreadful cramps. I felt terrible! I was so debilitated by then. The bus driver came down and rounded up everybody.

I couldn’t get off the toilet. They all left! The caretaker came down and turned off the lights and I’m still there. Thank God we weren’t driving to Yeovil, so I eventually got back to where we were staying.”

“Sounds like the walk back might have been good for you.”

“I guess.”

356 ~ Dutch Minister of Defense

“Do you have any other stories?”

“I remember one funny story that I can recall rather specifically. Iain Petrie and I went down to Kits Beach. It was a few days before we were to leave on the trip. I’m a very white person as you can see. Well, I got horribly sun burnt.

It came up in blotches. Of course we had to get on that plane wearing our nice white shirts and ties and jackets and I was in agony. I had sprayed myself with some kind of aerosol that was supposed to kill the pain, except my white shirts all turned yellow. I was just in agony for the whole flight and for three days into the trip until I lost a layer of skin like a snake.”

“Tell me how you got involved with the army?”

“Once again, it was an ex-Kits band guy, who said to me, “Do you want to get into something where you get paid to rehearse and do gigs?”

I had to audition. I was enrolled in the Canadian Forces Reserve.”

“What year?”

“1968! In 1969, I was sent away and trained as a radio operator. Then I took a junior leadership course after basic training.”

“So this has been a major career for you?”

“Oh yes, I am now in my thirty-ninth year, including stints with Nato in Germany and Bosnia. I have taught at Nato schools. I’ve done large tattoos. I’m a trained artillery man, paratrooper, officer, and parachutist.”

“How much of your time, are you involved in music?”

“Most of my time in the army, my trade has been musician. I came up through the non-commissioned ranks,

RICHARD VAN SLYKE ~ 357

serving as trumpet section leader and sergeant major and then becoming the bandmaster upon successful completion of the Director of Music course at the Canadian Forces School of Music in 1983. I became bandmaster in 1984 and Director of Music in 1985. Bandmaster means you are the senior enlisted rank in the band or second in command. Director means you’re the conductor. Prior to taking over as conductor, I ran the show band and took the parade band, dinners, the secondary jobs, less important ones.

When I took over the band there were about forty members. Many only played about once a week. They were not that serious about it. I re-auditioned everybody and got it down to thirteen players. But they were thirteen strong, very motivated individuals and then I began recruitment. Over the following five years, I built the band up to be the top band in the Canadian Forces.

We currently are around forty-five players and we literally have traveled the globe. Once again a lot I got from the Kits band. We’ve been to China twice, Europe, Holland, North America and Hawaii five times. All over the place, simply because the band has reached a standard of performance and show, that people said, “Hey, we want these guys.”

We just played a tattoo in Rotterdam, Holland because the Dutch Minister of Defense told the Canadian Government, “I want the 15th Field Regiment band.”

“That’s what happened to Arthur. The band developed such a reputation that they were being requested to play all over the U K. After they had won the World Championship in Chicago in 1933, they were in great demand.”

358 ~ Order of Military Merit

ABOVE: 2006 International Military Band Concert at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia Washington.

BELOW: 2004 Richard with the town band of Bihac, Bosnia, which he befriended.

RICHARD VAN SLYKE ~ 359

“I’ve had people call us up and say, “Can you be in Dallas or whereever in a week?”

“Can you do that?”

“Sometimes we can. I have had to turn down stuff that made me want to cry but to be honest, it has become much more difficult since 9-11 to take a military unit across the border. But with the appropriate lead time, I can make it happen. I literally have to stamp it three months in advance and it must be signed off by the Commander of the Canadian Army in order to take a band out of the country, so you can appreciate the difficulty of a fast turn around.”

“Are you still the director?’

“I will be until the first of July 2008. At my age, I want to hand the band over to someone younger because of course I want the band to go up. Check back with me and I’ll tell you what I might be doing after July 1!”

“How many military bands are there in BC?” “There are five in B.C. and some associated bands.”

“Tell me about the medal you won, which is the military equivalent to the Order of Canada?”

“Strangely enough, it’s sitting right here. I was just getting ready to hang it up. In the military, there is what is called the ‘Order of Military Merit.’ It’s basically for service above and beyond, not a gallantry medal. I was awarded it in 1999, at a service in Rideau Hall, for my work with the 15th Field Band.

They always joke in the military, that you’re either going to get a medal or go to jail because you can get a little outside the box at times. Fortunately, I didn’t go to jail because of my ability to represent Canada at the local, national and

360 ~ 15th Field Band

international levels, without the resources that you might have in a perfect world, I stood out. When people think you can do things like recordings, videos and so on, on limited resources, they think it’s great!

During the first ‘Gulf War’ we produced a video for our troops with the Bach Children’s Choir. We did just a ton of things in terms of fund raising for military charities. We did a series of shows at the Orpheum Theatre called, ‘What A Risk,’ that really raised the profile of the military with ordinary Canadians, that combined with working in the civilian community. I was President of the Richmond Youth Club Society for a number of years.

“Did you ever try to start a youth band like Arthur?”

“Unfortunately, I am too busy. I did try something for a couple of years. I went around to high schools to try and find those one or two bright sparks and brought them to do shows with my army band. I wanted to give them an outlet but our funding was cut and I couldn’t continue.

We still try to get out and get involved with students. UBC used to have an honor band weekend. We do the reading clinics, where the school teachers will sit in with us to fill the instrumentation.”

“Is the 15th Field Band, a full time position?”

“No, it is a part time position. It’s actually a little more.

For us in leadership positions it’s not uncommon to do one hundred and twenty to one hundred and eighty days a year, especially if you are doing outside tours. It’s a pretty darn serious hobby.”

“How does the 15th Field Band compare with other military bands across the country?”

RICHARD VAN SLYKE ~ 361

“We are the strongest. There are some good ones. We’ve toured with the Grenadier Guards and the Scots Guards.

We tend to work with military bands that are operating on a very high level. It’s international, I want our people to learn.

When we paraded on Parliament Hill after playing with the Grenadier Guards, we did a better job.

When we were playing this Dutch Military Tattoo in Rotterdam, we were selected as the top of the thirteen bands in the show and elected by the stage crew as the most professional and we were the only reservist. It starts from that kernel with Arthur Delamont.”

“Somewhere along the way you had time to get involved in Real Estate?”

“Yes, I became licensed in the mid seventies. It was my day job. I ended up as one of the top sales people in Vancouver. In 1980, I became a partner in a company (Century 21). Anyway, we became the number three out of five thousand Century 21 offices in Canada and the world, in terms of sales.

Ultimately from a life style point of view, I decided I was going to die young. Too much stress involved in running a large sales force, so I sold my real estate business but kept my property management business, which I still have to this day. That’s my vocation. This is my avocation.

But I like the music. I have been blessed with a career that allows me to pursue my first love: music.”

“Who are the three people who have influenced your life the most?”

“Music gives you a lot of opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people in interesting situations. Pierre Elliot

362 ~ Billy Carter

Trudeau was a fascinating guy and a very interesting guy.”

“How did you meet him?”

“I met him during a state dinner for the Japanese Prime Minister in the early 1970’s. He was very dynamic. He was shorter than me. I always like that in a man. (chuckle) What impressed me was his energy. I disliked his politics and the way he treated the military but I could see the dynamics that flowed, the direction, the goal orientation he had. He was nice enough to me. He came to see the musicians. This was in Vancouver.

I remember the brass in Ottawa were so concerned because the band was going to play ‘Colonel Bogey’ on parade and of course it was the theme song of the movie ‘Bridge on the River Kwai.’ They were ever so freaked out, an interesting fellow.

Some have influenced me in a negative way, rather than a positive way; strangely enough, Billy Carter was one, President Carter’s brother. I ended up working a World Championship Cannonball and Belly Flop Diving Competition. This was back when trash sports were very popular on ABC TV in the US. I got to meet him. There was a beer strike on. Artie Johnson was there from Laugh-in. Billy had brought a bunch of flats of ‘Billy Beer.’ So, we all sat in the hotel suite, swilling Billy beer with Billy and I realized how unhappy the fellow was, second banana type, party type. It ultimately ended up with him in a fist fight in the parking lot. Secret Service guys must have been going crazy. I thought to myself, “Oh my gosh, I’m so very fortunate to be a happy guy with a life to lead without the expectations of the

RICHARD VAN SLYKE ~ 363

comparisons that this poor fellow was dealing with.”

I had another circumstance when I was serving in Bosnia. I had seen some very unfortunate things. I saw massed graves. I had a young girl die right in front of me. I was told about an elderly lady. She was a Serb who had been ethnically cleansed. She had no family. This was in the winter.

We were afraid she was going to freeze to death. I arranged with my guys to get some firewood for her and to try to help her out, which we did.

I went back two days later just to check and her wood had been stolen and she had frozen to death.

I came out of that again realizing how extraordinarily fortunate we are as Canadians and myself in particular with family and friends. So, the people who have influenced me haven’t necessarily been the ones you might think but people who have made me realize how extremely lucky I am.

How grateful I am to be a Canadian!”

364 ~ Nato school

LEFT: Richard celebrating in Munich after successfully completing the Nato school in Oberammargau

ABOVE: c2003 McArthur Air and Space Museum, San Diego, California

CHAPTER 25

Marek Norman “My score for ‘Dracula’ – A Chamber Musical, premiered at Halifax’s Neptune Theatre and enjoyed tremendous success at the Stratford Festival. It was subsequently filmed for national broadcast on CBC television.”

“We all need a hero, a mentor, a leader, a spiritual guide, a person whose charisma and experience presents possibilities beyond our more modest frame of reference. Men, women, children, we all need a hero at some point in our lives. Most men, myself included, are quick to acknowledge their own fathers as the source of early insight and inspiration. It’s not until a man has matured that he fully understands the reason why his dad should be held in such high regard.”

“How old were you Marek, when you first met Mr. D?” “At the callow age of fourteen, I found my second hero and, like hundreds of other male teenagers from Vancouver, British Columbia, that particular individual appeared in the form of a wild eyed, white-haired gentleman, by the name of Arthur Delamont. Part angel, part devil, Merlin, Richard the Lion Heart, and John the Baptist, all rolled into one. Mr.

366 ~ Commander in Chief

D, as he was (and ever will be) known by each and every member of the famed Kitsilano Boys’ Band, was both lovable tyrant and troubled genius. My own affection and respect for the man began to develop within the first few moments of meeting.”

“Do you remember that first encounter with Mr. D?” “I sure do! It was a rainy evening in the fall of 1966, when my ever-supportive, encouraging mother, ushered me to the dank, cavernous reaches, of the General Gordon Elementary School basement - where, for many years, boys like me, had arrived in a state of fear, trepidation ... and wonder. After all, Arthur Delamont had (for better or worse), earned a reputation as being a demanding, (albeit charming), taskmaster, after having led his Vancouver Kitsilano Boys’ Band to countless awards and world renown.”

“The Old Man gave me the once over. Not even Svengali’s glare possessed the same degree of magnetism. Then, after a smile and wink in my mom’s direction, he afforded me a brief, perfunctory handshake and said: “Don’t tell me you play the clarinet. This band is overrun with licorice sticks!” I managed a weak and trembling reply.

“I’m afraid I do, sir.”

“Afraid ?!” He snapped. “What are you afraid of? Get your horn and show me how good you are ... and hurry! I haven’t got all night.”

“Yes, sir,” I began assembling the instrument. Each second of the task felt like hours passing.

“It’s about time,” he barked. “Alright, play a C-major scale.”

MAREK NORMAN ~ 367

Naturally, the first note squeaked.

“Fathead!! Try again.”

“Somehow, I found my air, sound emanated, fingers moved ... and a limping progression of notes (more like Cdemented/diminished) issued forth.”

“Fine,” said Mr. D. “Take the last seat at the end of the clarinet section. We’ll give it a try.”

“That was the beginning of my eight-year stint with the band ... and a life-long devotion to Arthur W. Delamont.”

“What was your most proud moment in the band?”

“Now in my fifties, I look back on those years with the Kits Boys’ Band, with what can only be described as, “fanatical affection.” I’m most proud of the fact, that after a considerable amount of disciplined practice, I was able to work my way up through the ranks of many fine players, to eventually, be awarded the coveted position of concertmaster. In our band’s case, lead clarinetist!”

“Were the band members very competitive?”

“No! Competition between fellow band members was never a dominant factor in the organization, when I was in the band. Certainly, (as one would expect to find in any group consisting of young men with raging hormones and primal instinct), there were friendly rivalries, “kangaroo courts,” innocuous threats ...even a few knockdown fights - still, the band was a bona fide ‘fraternity of fellas’ - old boys and young men who would go to great lengths in order to help, support and protect each other. Truly, a ‘band of brothers’ and Mr. D was our Commander in Chief.”

“You studied with his son Gordon, I am told?”

“For whatever reason, providence chose to honor me

368 ~ Gordon Delamont

twice with kindness by connecting my own life’s journey with that of, not one, but two Delamont men; first the father, then the son. I had, of course, heard many stories about Gordon Delamont - the brilliant, highly-respected musician/ arranger who, throughout the nineteen-fifties, sixties, and seventies, carved out a wonderful career in Eastern Canada - more specifically, Toronto. Gord was hugely instrumental in guiding many of this country’s finest composers and/or arrangers - some of whom; Ron Collier, Rob McConnell, Don Thompson, Moe Koffman, Hagood Hardy, Paul Hoffert, Brian Barlow and Ed Henderson, have gone from private study sessions with Gordon Delamont, to world acclaim on their own merit.”

“How did your first meeting with Gordon unfold?”

“In 1977, at the age of 25, after having spent a number of years experimenting with composition (ie; choral/orchestral works, musical theatre and pop song writing), I had reached a plateau of creativity... repeating myself, falling prey to formulaic structuring - basically, stagnating. Determined to remedy this trend, I decided to venture further a field, of my beloved Vancouver, by moving to the ‘big city groove’ of Hogtown (better known as Toronto.) It was only days after my arrival in Ontario, that a particular opportunity presented itself - one which would help steer my career course from that point hence. To be accepted as a private student of Gordon Delamont, was not an easy exercise. Hopeful applicants, were first required to ‘pass muster’ by presenting themselves, (along with a good many examples of their work), at the quiet, suburban home/studio, of Canada’s leading authority on Advanced Harmonic Technique and Arranging.

MAREK NORMAN ~ 369

My initial interview with Gordon Delamont was expected to be no less intimidating for me, than when first meeting his dad - which, oddly enough, also took place in a basement.

This coincidence, proved strangely comforting and helped alleviate my crippling anxiety, being that I was pretty much convinced GD, was about to laugh me out of his home.”

“Did he?”

“No, in fact, I was whisked into a cigar-scented workroom/ den with the welcoming words: “Good afternoon, please call me Gord.” Thus began my weekly study with this quiet, pensive, some what enigmatic gentleman. The ensuing three

370 ~ Karl Norman

years of work, would prove the most challenging, creatively stimulating, period of my life to date. I owe so much to Gord’ s keen insight, guidance and friendship.

There you go, Karl Norman, Arthur Delamont, Gordon Delamont - each a son, each a father ... and all three my heroes!”

MAREK NORMAN (Musical Director/Composer) – Marek Norman, (born and raised in Vancouver,) is considered one of Canada’s most versatile composer/arrangers. He has created countless scores for radio, television, film and the concert stage (including Carnegie Hall) and is the recipient of the prestigious CLIO Award (Best Song of the Year) as well as two Dora Awards for (Outstanding Production, Best Musical Direction), for co - producing the Canadian premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins. His score for Dracula – A Chamber Musical, which premiered at Halifax’s Neptune Theatre, enjoyed tremendous success at the Stratford Festival, and was subsequently filmed for national broadcast on CBC Television. He is the composer of two other hit musicals, Emily (Charlottetown Festival) and Larry’s Party (Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg). Most recently Marek has been teaching Composition for the Musical Theatre, working with exciting young Canadian writers. www.mareknorman.com

CHAPTER 26

Bill Inman “My most poignant image of the trips is sitting in the huge outdoor amphitheatre of the Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, Scotland. With my eyes closed, I remember how Delamont played solo, the first verses of “The Lost Chord”…

We all simply called it “The Band,”‘back in the day,’ it was pretty well known and in later decades, when I played, there still weren’t really any other well enough known community groups to confuse it with.

So, when someone says, “The Band,” today, it triggers particular memories. The boys have aged and spread out and I seldom run into them; but, I know there is a loose knit group of alumnus who each carry their own unique images. For some reason my most poignant image now is sitting on stage one warm sunset evening, in the huge outdoor amphitheater of the Princes Street Gardens, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

With my eyes closed, I remember how Delamont played solo, the first verses of “The Lost Chord”… a classic, haunting, Arthur Sullivan hymn, that by now, we all know the notes to by heart. His tone is seasoned but still strong. In the big bowl of the Princes Gardens, he presses out each, even

372 ~ Psychedelic Sixties

tone, with a single sweet voice.

Then... in the final chorus, our fifteen-odd trumpeters quietly step up to the side flanks of the stage beside him. In one long note, that starts as a hush and crescendos to a deafening roar through the gardens, vibrating the stage, the music stands and my chest..... We all join in and I find somewhat to my surprise, that I finish playing the hymn with tears in my eyes!

This was the psychedelic sixties and my friends, halfway around the world, were probably cheerfully distracted by banging rock ‘n roll, but here I was, moved by this “longhair” music?

We were only subconsciously aware of experiencing something special and unique, maybe more than simply music that would stay with us for a long time.

Modern authors have a lot of complicated theories on raising and motivating kids; developing a work ethic, a moral compass and so on. Several of these arguments have merit but I believe, that quite possibly, later success is more often simply a legacy of particularly strong character examples in our formative years. Some of us were lucky to have strong parents or other mentors. But for many who didn’t, and as an extra benefit to all, there was “Mr. D.” Delamont’s biographies bear out the illogical nature of what he did. It would seem pretty challenging, in theory, to take a bunch of boys, at a stage in their life where they have the hormonal conflicts of adolescence, are still basically immature (and hence with short attention spans), in an environment of multiple, competing, social affiliations (often with more appealing and more physical, recreational choices)

BILL INMAN ~ 373

and get a serious performance out of them.

Now, try and make them sit still long enough to perfect a higher form of music. And then, try and take it to a level, where they compete with and often triumph over, senior bands around the world. It didn’t really have the predictors for success, except, it had Delamont’s unique passion and determination! His own consistent habits and focus on what he did set the bar and gave us an example on which to model our own ambitions. Once I and the rest of his ‘boys’ came under his influence, we couldn’t help but be motivated by his intensity of purpose, amplified by the fact that he actually ‘walked the talk’ himself.

For example, his habit of rising at five in the morning, to study and rearrange the music, so it would be ready for the next night’s practice. Plus, we knew, HE still practiced every day on his own horn. So it was pretty hard to justify not having time in, OUR days …and so on.

The medium was music but the message was simple: ‘to be successful, start applying your youthful energy to whatever you wanted badly enough!’ I believe that a lot of impressionable boys caught a spark under Mr. D’s baton that ignited their success in many diverse disciplines later.

My path, has taken me, through now several decades of developing real estate and later resorts, in a wide range of destinations… And for lots of the choices I made, I had the unseen conductor- looking over my shoulder, with a word or two that stuck after all the years.

My aggressive curiosity for new travel destinations was fed during my early European trips with the band. My confidence was augmented by the doors that the band opened

374 ~ General Gordon School

for us as youngsters. And some of my first tools of passion and presentation were imparted, from Delamont’s organizing media, of musical performance.

Yet Mr. D was always humble by example and wouldn’t let even the best of the boys show off, or ‘grandstand.’ I’ve lost my paper diaries I kept of our trips but I must have asked Delamont to sign a page for me. On the long flight home from my last trip with him, I remember, he simply wrote, an ‘eighth’ note of music on it and penned below …“Just a quick note from a shy musician ~ Arthur W. Delamont.

None of these thoughts occurred to me, when my mother gave me a bit of an ultimatum in my very early teens. It seemed, I was hanging around street corners too much, with school friends, of no apparent affiliation or ambition. There was an incident that has become a bit dodge (by repression) in my memory, where, I allegedly lit a neighbor’s garage on fire; in any case, she placed a clipping on the dinner table advertising that the Vancouver Kitsilano Boys’ Band, was recruiting new players.

THIS, she argued, would be a better focus for the time I apparently had to waste. She gave me the choice to sign up for the band or one or two other community activities that I confess to not remember. In any case, the ultimatum was to sign up for some structured activity that had a bit of discipline involved. Luckily, I attended a Monday night practice at General Gordon before investigating whatever that other choice was, and the rest is history.

The selection process for the Kits Boys’ band was instantly challenging and dramatic. The retention rate, of would-be bandsmen was eventually a fairly low percentage of the

BILL INMAN ~ 375

potential young recruits that read those newspaper ads and actually came to an ‘audition,’ in the basement practice hall.

The inference that you could apply and only possibly be accepted to the band, probably eliminated boys with less confidence. Other boys came and only observed, from the back of the room, eventually lacking the nerve or inclination, to jump in- after watching Delamont’s, dramatic teaching style.

It was a loud and challenging show, punctuated with, apparent tantrums that involved his shouting, screaming and throwing chairs. Some boys were genuinely terrified and some left, without even leaving their names with the band manager. But eventually, the rest of us realized that the ‘old man,’ was not seriously malicious or violent! On the contrary, the theatrics, veiled a truly genial and warm hearted artist. (Later, I remember, seeing him, barely concealing a smile, on a couple of occasions when he banged a chair on the floor - to underscore a point... and it actually broke!)

In fact, I came to appreciate later, that in the audition process, musical “ability” was not the prime factor in many cases. Musical aptitude probably was, but Delamont had his eye out for anybody with the moxy, try hard enough.... and stick at it long enough to contribute. THAT was the test he administered, with his loud, gruff and at times, fully theatrical and military style, at the initiation to band practices. I knew almost nothing about music, but was drawn into the sound and spectacle.

Still, joining up could be quite a test of will. Over the ensuing years, we all got to know Delamont on a more

376 ~ Chumps, Fatheads, Silly Asses

personal level and even hear him... eventually..... praise those who reached highest, in effort and achievement. But the timid and the most wanting in self-confidence often did not make it through the first few nights of loud haranguing.

“What instrument do you want to play sonny?” Mr. D demands of me. I like apparently too many other candidates, (besotted by Herb Alpert and other ‘pop’ stars of the day), suggest the trumpet…

“Here try mine” he challenges and shoves the horn in my direction (the tentative tones that come out are not of a caliber, I suspect impress him….)

“Trumpet players are a dime a dozen” he rattled” here, try this Eb horn,…. try this tuba…” as he grabs a succession of instruments from the band members around him and I try to fumble and “Can’t play that one sonny…. go home and play the fool instead!” ....and so on, even to a point where he asks me to bang the big bass drum and he tells me that my note is “flat”... (To smirks of amusement from the other drummers, who must have watched this routine before).

In any case, after ten or fifteen minutes, of me perspiring quite a bit, we eventually settled on the plan - that I could try a trumpet and in fact rent one of Delmont’s huge collection of used horns (My instrument ended up being an old but storied English cornet, that I faithfully toted back and forth on the bus twice a week and ‘rented’ from him for I recall $3/month when I remembered, whereupon he would write me out a neat carbon copied receipt). ….. “Now, show up an hour early with all these other youngsters for beginners practice” he instructed and I was done, sent off to see the band manager about details.

BILL INMAN ~ 377

Of course I stayed for a while, to hear the full senior band practice. The thundering sound of their rehearsal, reverberating off the walls and ceiling, of that concrete bunker, was both intimidating and intoxicating at the same time …and I was hooked!

So, on successive Monday and Thursday nights at six pm sharp, I showed up, with a small group of initiates, playing simple tunes. Mr. D stood blaring over our shoulders, on his own horn, to set the tempo. WRONG notes were usually brought to the attention of the rest by his over-loud trumpeting, of the CORRECT note in one’s ear and accompanied occasionally, by either his hitting you on the head with a pencil (he kept these ever-ready to amend his handwritten musical scores and more in his music case, in case he broke one on something or someone!) ....or simply, pausing and shouting, the CORRECT treatment, of the notes to us All this along with screams of: “CHUMPS!” “FATHEADS!” or “SILLY ASSES” Delamont was an avowed non-swearer and would not tolerate it in the boys either, but these and a few other wellworn and more sanitized expletives would signal the height of his ire (My memory was that one of the local papers did a story on the band one fall, that illustrated his teaching style and while they included the first two terms, they edited out the “silly asses,” as being a bit too edgy for print in the 1960’ s). Needless to say, this semi-weekly ritual continued to, ‘thin the herd,’ before some made it to the performing group. Those of us who persevered, eventually, knew we had reached at least a certain threshold of his respect, when one night, he would nod and suggest, we could stay on, for the

378 ~ Jim Pattison

‘real’ practice! …This required a quick glance to a proud parent waiting in the background that spoke without words: “I know that you drove down to get me at seven pm but I am staying till eight-thirty now, so just be cool and come back later please!”

Mr. D had some interesting ways of soliciting commitment from his boys. Once you were accepted to the ‘real’ band, you would eventually get a real membership card, signed personally by Delamont. In my early teens, this was about the only formal membership card I had to anything and I faithfully kept it, in my room, with my sport ribbons and trophies.

I am proud to have known some fellow bandsmen, who became consummate musicians and went on to distinction in the performing arts. Although I did not become a professional or even life-long musician, the gift of my many years, around the band, was that I hear and enjoy music, its influence and musical themes, differently, as a result.

And now, looking back three and four decades, I also realize, my memories and long-term “take-aways” were less about music, and more about the ideas and inspiration, I got from the process and practices of Delamont himself. Others, many of whom became friends for life, cannot have helped being influenced, as I was. I can only assume that many of them recognize the seeds of some of their own successes in these early life lessons and memories.

On the first of my own two European tours, at only fourteen years old, I was able to play in front of crowds in countless cities, in six counties, all new to me. I got to step out

BILL INMAN ~ 379

and introduce a number, saying my first public words to the packed house, at the Queen Elizabeth theatre. I shared a music stand at a reunion concert with Jim Pattison, (albeit I didn’t know who he was at the time - except that Mr. D used to proudly display the alternating red, then yellow, new cars that he got from Jimmy ….the alternating colors were so people would know, without being told, that he got a brand new car every two years!)

Later, I would tour another dozen cites in Europe, march and play literally hundreds of parades; getting showered with rose petals after winning the Parade of Roses in Nice, stalling traffic on the streets of Paris and London, through the gates of Tivoli in Copenhagen, and on and on.

I got so I marched in time to school with out realizing it.….

In one sponsored fund raiser, we marched and belted out tunes for twenty-five miles, continuously. In England, our tuba players had to stop every few blocks and empty the big sousaphones because enthusiastic parade fans had filled them, throwing the large heavy English pennies of the day.

When we hit a town, it often involved greetings and audiences with mayors and city fathers. Then, here at home, we played openings and events, hosted by celebrities; up to and including the Prince of Wales, – pretty heady stuff for a bunch of teenagers!

Plus, Delamont kept us on a pace that belied his age, which was over a “normal” retirement age, by the time I

380 ~ Delamontisms

met him in the late 1960’s! In the British Isles, we would do things like fourteen day fifteen city tours of Scotland, with scheduled evening gigs, additional afternoon shows and then still jump off the bus at shopping centers or parks we passed, for un-scheduled extras. WE would be beat! HE would have a cup of tea and go back to work, writing up the next day’s program.

Nor did Mr. D ever insist on special privileges or treatment for himself. On several of these tours, he would have to stay with the boys, in whatever accommodation the manager had scraped together. In one town, along the West Coast of England, we ended up in a, ‘trade for-playing,’ Salvation Army dormitory of six or eight bunks to a room. Mr. D assigned me to the upper bunk above him, in a rickety old steel-spring bunk bed. I spent several hours in the morning, uncomfortably in need, but unwilling to chance waking the ‘old man,’ by climbing down to use the bathroom.

To call Delamont, simply a ‘musician’ or ‘band leader,’ is coming up short of terms. He was a ‘showman’ in the old sense of the word, a student and veteran of vaudeville, classical, musical productions and the ‘speaker’s corner’ style of his Salvation Army roots.

Mr. D had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of gags, stories, asides and extemporaneous speeches he would deliver during breaks and music change-ups between numbers (By the way “they are ‘numbers’ or ‘pieces’ boys! Don’t call them ‘songs’ – who’s singing?”)

These interludes during literally hundreds of hours we spent on stage performing with him, were the venue for Delamont to download his unique philosophies and life

BILL INMAN ~ 381

lessons, that so many of us carried on to apply in other areas of our lives. It would take me many more pages than I have time for, to relate the many “Delamontisms” that I can still recall immediately and vividly but here are a few classics, as faithfully quoted as I can remember them: “Get the cage before you get the bird.”

(Mr. D had limited patience with some of the young guys who ended up marrying young without a home or a financial plan for the new marriage!)

“I believe all religions are good that make people good.”

(Way ahead of his time in religious tolerance, he would have had predictable opinions on the religious-justified terrorism in this century!)

“What do you mean you don’t have time? Get up at five in the morning [like me] and you’ll find time!”

“Too sick? Be sick on your own time. I played the horn in vaudeville with my lips bleeding…there was nobody else to take over for me!”

Mr. D. was a stickler for presentation. Guys used to paint their ankles black with shoe polish before admitting they forgot their black socks for concerts.

And as obvious as it seems now, I first grasped a critical principle of marketing, from his often-repeated mantra as we set up on stage –…”90% is the eye.”

He taught us that ...as much as people came to HEAR music they were still most influenced by what they SAW.... a sloppy appearance would net a poor review, HOWEVER good the music.

382 ~ 90% is the eye!

ABOVE: Skiing at Whistler Resort

RIGHT: With Dana, Madison and Dax

BILL INMAN ~ 383

And so it became one of my first marketing lessons. Before I heard it expressed different ways by different people in fancy marketing classes later, I picked up that people always seemed to make up their mind, based on their first visual impressions. Even if the content and behind-the-scenes technology was impeccable, it was always a lot more work to move their impressions from what they saw first, to what they heard later!

I suppose that Delamont knew that his eyes would influence him too and I remember watching him whenever he wanted to evaluate or appreciate music with his owns eyes closed to focus.

So, years after, I found myself envisioning real estate projects, resorts on the beach in Mexico, lodges in the mountains or simply what people would see when they first walked into a Presentation Centre. While going through a mental checklist (that also included matching up my socks before a presentation!) There was often another voice that reminded me....”

“90% is the eye”

CHAPTER 27

Tom Walker “I met with my client and ended up being taken to a site on Mount Fuji. Turned out this fellow was an incredibly wealthy philanthropist.

He asked me, “Would you design a home for me?” He had a couple of acres near a golf course on Mount Fuji. There are quite a number of golf courses around the base of the mountain.”

Tom and I had been on the 1970 trip together. I had heard that he had designed and built a bandstand in Maple Ridge which I wanted to learn more about. Tom agreed to drive in from Maple Ridge, where he lived, the next Sunday and meet me in downtown Vancouver, on the Waterfront.

“Chris!” a voice said from behind, as I stood in the lobby of the Waterfront Hotel on Vancouver’s waterfront, the following Sunday afternoon. As I turned around, I saw a slightly heavy set, man in his fifties, wearing a green sports jacket, turtleneck sweater and dress pants standing directly behind.

When he spoke though, it was the same old Tom. One of the nicest guys in the band!

“Hi Tom,” I replied. “It is good to see you again after forty something years. Shall we take a seat in the lounge over there and order some lunch?

386 ~ Kitsilano Show Boat

It is on me, so enjoy. It is the least I can do, for getting you to drive in so far, on your day off.”

Once seated, we placed our orders, with the hostess.

“So tell me, how did you get started as an engineer?”

“After the 1970 Kits band trip to Europe, I took a year of science at UBC. I intended to go to architectural school.

However one architect I knew, Tony Wilson, suggested I go to BCIT for two years and then transfer to either the University of Manitoba, which was Canada’s top architectural school or the University of Oregon in Portland, which is considered one of the top schools in the US. I applied to BCIT but they had a two year waiting list.

So, I took a few jobs at Kits Cameras, the Bay and summers prospecting in the bush. Finally, I got into BCIT. I got my diploma, got married, had kids and I have been waiting to go to architectural school ever since.

I wound up with two partners, owning an engineering company. One of my partners is a professional engineer and the other is trained in architecture.”

“I guess there is a pretty close association between architecture and engineering?”

“Yes, BCIT is very good at combining the two disciplines.

I graduated in 1977. If I ever win the lottery, I will go back to architectural school.”

“Did you keep on playing after the Kits band?”

“Oh yes, I played with the Kits band through 1972, though I did not go on the trip that year. I played with the UBC pep band because Delamont was still doing that at UBC and I played with the Fireman’s band down at hall number 1. I never joined because it was too far to drive in from Maple

TOM WALKER ~ 387

Ridge. I also played with Theatre Richmond and the Metro Theatre in Marpole in their pit orchestras.

The last time I saw Mr. D, I was with my wife Susan when she was pregnant with my first daughter Diana. We were at the Kitsilano Show Boat and Delmont came and sat down beside us. We talked for awhile. He had walked down from his apartment, a few blocks away. We gave him a ride home and that was the last time I saw him. That was the summer of 1982. He died shortly afterwards.

In 1980, we moved to Maple Ridge where Susan was teaching high school. I had been working as a ‘building plan checker’ and ‘inspector’ in Surrey. I went to work for an engineering company in Port Moody owned by Cyril Maplethorpe, where I met my two partners.

Diana was born in 1982 and Emily in 1985. I did all the domestic things you do in Maple Ridge, with a wife and children. When Diana was in high school, I got involved in the music department. The department was suffering from a lack of funds. It did not have a lot of instruments. I got together with a group of parents and we formed a non-profit society whose sole purpose was to fund the music department at Maple Ridge Secondary School. Then we wrote cheques to the music department.

It was quite successful. We raised many thousands of dollars a year for the department. We had pasta and jazz night and a trivia night and so on. I remember doing a walk-a-thon for twenty-five miles, with the Kits Band, for the 1970 trip, boy were my feet blistering. We never did anything quite that intensive in Maple Ridge.

“When did you start your engineering company?”

388 ~ Cyril Maplethorpe

“Phoenix Structural Designs is the name of our company.

We started it in 1990, after working for an engineer named Cyril Maplethorpe. Cyril had been in the Royal Air Force working on Wellington bombers. He told us stories of his war days. I am a pilot and have my own small plane. I have had my license for seventeen years. I love aviation!”

“Does your engineering company take on major projects?”

“No, mostly small to medium projects. We do a lot of commercial/industrial buildings throughout the lower mainland, sunshine coast, the interior and Vancouver Island. They are almost all in BC. I did do some work in Japan but that was on my own. Custom luxury home designs which I got involved in through some contractors I knew.”

ABOVE: The first house Tom built on Mt. Fuji in Japan.

TOM WALKER ~ 389

“Tell me about Japan!”

“My first trip to Japan was in 1988. My clients name was Mr. Hasegawa. He has holdings in Vancouver. He told his Vancouver office manager to keep his eye out for a certain style of architecture. My name came up three or four times, regarding certain homes I had designed. I was asked, “Would you be interested in doing some work in Japan, for a Japanese client?” I said, “Sure I would be interested, absolutely!”

“I ended up meeting him on one of his trips to Vancouver.

I was given very formal instructions, on how I should conduct myself during the meeting. It was very formal and very interesting. I had always been interested in things Japanese, ever since I was a kid.”

“You might have wound up the court engineer to the Emperor!”

“No, I do not think so but it was all very interesting. Japanese architecture has always intrigued me. About a month later, I got a telephone call and was asked, “Do you have a passport and can you be in Tokyo in one week?”

That was the spring of 1988. I said, “Certainly, I will be there.”

I wound up flying to Tokyo where I was put up in a nice hotel, in the Ginza district. I met with my client and ended up being taken to a site on Mount Fuji. Turned out this fellow was an incredibly wealthy philanthropist. He asked me, “Would you design a home for me?”

He had a couple of acres, near a golf course on Mount Fuji.

There are quite a number of golf courses around the base

390 ~ Mr. Hasegawa

of the mountain. The nearest Lake was Kawaguchi-Ko. It is near one of the seven lakes of Mount Fuji.”

“How is your Japanese?”

“Better then, I have lost a lot of it. They gave me an office to work in, in Tokyo. It was at one of his companies, called Custom Homes of Japan. They built high end homes for the diplomatic corps in Tokyo.

I spent a few weeks developing the preliminary concept plans. In the day, I would discuss details with my client. In the evening, he would take me to the most incredible places, places that I would never have had the opportunity to go to on my own, like wonderful, exotic restaurants that cater to the very wealthy.

When the contractor who was building the house came over, we would work until eight or nine at night and then we would all go out afterwards. There would be a team of executives. After dinner, we would all go to a karaoke bar.

They really wanted to know me as a person. My liver took a beating because these guys liked to drink scotch.”

“Not sake?”

“We drank some sake but mostly scotch, ‘Suntori Scotch.’

There would be a whole bottle on the table. The hostess would be pouring the drinks. These guys would each get up and sing. The room was full of smoke. When it was my turn, the only song I knew in Japanese was ‘Sukiyaki.’ Growing up in Steveston, with a lot of Japanese Canadian friends had its benefits.

There was great applause of course because I sang it in Japanese. Then, they wanted a song in English. I sang More.

I noticed, everyone was crying, in the front row. They

TOM WALKER ~ 391

thought I was crying, so they did as well but I wasn’t crying.

My tears were from the cigarette smoke.

Anyway, they loved it! It was an amazing experience.

I came back home and worked on the designs through the summer. He came to Vancouver in the fall to see the finished designs. We were in a restaurant at the corner of forty-first and Granville.

I presented him with the final designs. I did my presentation with display boards and so on after the meal. He looked completely stoical! I couldn’t read his face at all. I didn’t know if he liked it or not.

I thanked him for the wonderful experience in Japan, bowed deeply and sat down. He turned and spoke to his assistant. His assistant looked at the fellow next to me, my Canadian contact, Mr. Lee and Mr. Lee said, “Mr. Hasegawa likes the design very much. How soon can we start?“ The contractor was there as well. He wanted everything built with Canadian products, except the plumbing and electrical. We ended up shipping twenty-two full size containers of materials to Tokyo. In Tokyo, everything was put on trucks and shipped to the site on Mount Fuji. It took nine months to build. I was there for the opening party. I was expected to greet his guests as they came in the door. One of his best friends came in with a huge bouquet of Irises and handed them to me and said, “I want one, can you work for me?”

I designed my next house for him in Karjizawa, which is east of Tokyo. Through the courtesy of the Haseman Corporation, which was Mr. Hasegawa’s company, they

392 ~ Belle Morse

arranged, through the imperial Japanese household, for me to tour the Katsura Palace in Kyoto. I was the guest of Mr. Hasegawa’s father in Kyoto. He was a patron of a Buddhist Temple. I got to see the temple as well as be his guest. I got to go places that most westerners would never get to go.”

“You built two houses in Japan?”

“No, there were more. Through Japanese architects I got to know, I designed around two or three dozen in all. I have been to Japan a couple of times. A lot was done by email correspondence. The luxury home market though pretty much dried up in the 1990s when the Japanese economy stagnated.

I made some good friends!”

“What influence has your music played in your life?”

“It’s become something I hang on to. It’s part of my past and my present. It’s my touchstone for everything. If I can’t play my trombone, I feel there is something missing in my life.

I met Gordon Laird, an old Kits alumni, who was a minister in Maple Ridge. He had a reunion of old Kits Boys at his church. Out of that association, began the renewal of the Maple Ridge Concert Band. It is still going strong. I later became the President of the band.

As President, I got involved in the local arts council and then the BC band association. Years later I became president of the BC band association. Through that association I met lots of musicians throughout BC, the Bruce James Orchestra, with whom I still play, for instance. So, music has remained a huge part of my life. I do it because I love it! I love it. I never wanted to be a professional. I still play with a group called FAT Jazz, which stands for friends and teachers.

TOM WALKER ~ 393

I am one of the friends and the teachers are music teachers. I have played with them since 1993.”

“Tell me about the bandstand?”

“Oh you know about that, well when I was President of the Maple Ridge Concert Band, we went on a road trip. We went to Band Fest in Revelstoke. There we played in a little bandstand. I started reminiscing about all the bandstands we played on in Europe with the Kits band. The idea came up wouldn’t it be great to have a bandstand in Maple Ridge? So back home I started playing around with designs. I remembered the bandstand in Dartmouth and the one in Le Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, with its beautiful iron work and the one in the Limmat Park in Zurich. Next, we discussed the idea at a band rehearsal and decided that if we could get the city to donate the land, it might be possible. I started talking to Parks and Leisure people and told them, “I will do the design but it must have the proper acoustics.”

I told them, “You get slap echo if a bandstand is not acoustically designed. You hit the snare drum and seconds later you hear it again.”

I called up BKL Acoustical Engineers and hired them to design the acoustics. They came up with the ‘Cadillac of designs,’ that would allow every player to hear everyone else on the bandstand. This was fabulous and the city donated the park in downtown Maple Ridge. Then I started visiting various service groups; the Kiwanis, the Rotary, Lions Club, Kinsmen and so on. I pitched my idea to them.

The mayor at that time was ‘Belle Morse.’ She introduced me to George Price, the president of the local Legion, who

394 ~ George Price

said, “Not only do I know everyone in Maple Ridge, I know their skeletons as well! I will get money for you.”

And he did, he became the chief fund raiser. This guy was an amazing man. He was a pilot in World War II, a trombone player and he had played in the Salvation Army Band when he was a kid. Before he retired he was in Real Estate and his nickname was ‘Silver Heels’ we got along like a house on fire.

I went along with him and watched how he got money out of people. We went to eight car dealers in town. When we went to the last one, he told him, “Everyone has donated one thousand dollars.”

The fellow gave George a sob story about how tough times were, even though he was very successful. When he was through, George said, “This is what I am going to do. I will write a cheque for you for one thousand dollars and donate it on your behalf.”

The guy looked at him and said, “George, you would do that for me?” George said, “You’re a fine upstanding citizen in this community. You should be able to donate one thousand dollars but if you cannot, I will donate it on your behalf.”

The fellow was dumbstruck! George started to write out the cheque and then he said to the guy, “Of course, you realize, I will have to tell everyone in town, that I did this?”

The fellows face was priceless, embarrassment, surprise!

He pulled out his cheque book and wrote George a cheque for one thousand dollars, right there on the spot. I said to

TOM WALKER ~ 395

George afterwards, “You couldn’t afford to write a cheque for one thousand dollars.” George replied, “You knew that and I knew that but that guy didn’t. Besides, I was going to give it to you and then beat you up for it later.”

So, we raised lots of money in the community.

It has eight stained glass panels on the top that were offered to service clubs. They in turn each donated at least five thousand dollars. In the end the entire cost was around one hundred and ninety thousand dollars. Totally funded through donations. There were also seventy-two bronze plaques, donated at cost by a local funeral parlor. Each brought in one thousand dollars. I took one of the plaques. It’s in the middle of the bandstand, on the top step. I wrote on it, ‘In Memory of AW Delamont, conductor, Kitsilano Boys’ Band.’

If you go out and see the bandstand, you can see the plaque. I thought it was appropriate. After all, he was why I was there. I was in a unique position and I could design.

The day we opened it the Maple Ridge Concert Band gave it to the people of Maple Ridge. George married his sweetheart, Thelma, on opening day and it was broadcast on the CTV national news. Other cities have approached me, Calgary, Lethbridge and Sidney but when they discover how expensive it is, it becomes less appealing.

It has been used for concerts, remembrance days, church services, plays, Shakespeare in the Park, dances, Canada Day celebrations. It’s become a cultural centre for the downtown. It spurred the renewal of the downtown area a few years ago.

396 ~ Freddie Lambert

ABOVE: c2007 The Maple Ridge Bandstand in downtown Maple Ridge, designed by Tom Walker. The Arts Centre and Theatre are in the background.

TOM WALKER ~ 397

The next progression for me was the development of an Arts Centre. I became the president of the arts council and the arts centre became my next project. On opening day I escorted the Lieutenant Governor, Iona Campanola through the centre, so you can see the whole music thing has really been important in my life.

Oh, I almost forgot, I knew Arthur’s cousin, Freddie Lambert was his name. He was my mother-in-law’s boyfriend.

He was a real dapper dresser. Looked like Arthur, same hair, fascinating guy! He was in his eighties when I knew him.

He had been on the vaudeville circuit. He was a ventriloquist and a magician. He had a couple of puppets. He also had fantastic slight of hand for a man of his age. When he died the puppets were at his funeral sitting on his coffin. It was very touching. He loved jazz and played a fantastic harmonica.

He used to come to big band dances with the Bruce James Orchestra.

398 ~

INDEX Abbotsford Air Show 298 Aerosmith 343 Agnew, Joan 51, 83 Air Force Reserve Band 130 Allen, Jack 29, 37, 40, 41, 52, 64, 82, 97 Allen, Bill 29, 97 Alma Academy 69 Alsbury, Bruce 143, 186 Ambrose Band 68 American Sportsman Show 189 Archer, Freddie 26 Armstrong, Louis 213, 225 Armstrong, Ross 66, 84 Arthur Delamont Concert Band 57, 130 Arts Club Theatre 283, 287-9 Ascania 214 Assiniboine Park 99 Athenia 112, 133, 136 Atkins, Donn 174 Atkinson, Harold 84, 117-19 Australia 32 Bach Children’s Choir 360 Bailey, Pearl 250 Baird, Dorwin 16, 66 Baker, Kenny 220 Baldwin, Phil 66 Ballantyne, Jack 98 Banff 214 Banks, Tommy 209, 224, 303 Barber, Chuck 70 Bard to Broadway 247 Barker, Bill 83, 98

Barlow, Brian 368 Barnett, Stu 65, 223 Barsky, Barbara 291 Basso, Guido 255, 257 Bates, Wayne 34 Bath 134 Battistoni, Cy 186, 251 Baxter, Beverly, MP 134 BBC 172 BC Band Ass. 392 BC Lion’s Band 62, 69, 193 BC Music Festival 56 Beatles 286 Beauchamp. Lorne 198 Bellamy, Don 169 Bellson, Louis 250 Bennett, Tony 258 Bensted, Jack 51, 64, 66, 96, 101, 106, 138 Bigsby, Harry 27, 64, 82 Billy Rose Show 134 Birkenhead 56, 133 Birnie, Ben 66 BKL Acoustical Engineers 393 Blackpool 90, 203, 215 Blackpool Circus 199 Blenheim Bomber Factory 132 Blood, Sweat & Tears 259 Boden, Beryl 70, 71, 73 Body Electric, The 307 Bolam, Brian 180-94, 205 Bolam, Sylvester 187 Bon Jovi 343 Bonny Bell 178 Boosey & Hawkes 32

400 ~ Index

Booth, William 55 Boss Brass 218, 253 Bowman, Charlie 299 Bristol 205 Bricker, Robert 329 Britannia High School 195 British Empire Games 57, 131, 151 British Empire Gardens 173 Brixton Astoria Cinema 91, 120 Broadbent, Don 195, 197 Brock House Big Band 128 Brodie, Andrew 321 Brodie, Malcolm 321-30, Brooks, Joe 191 Brown, Barry 323 Brown, Gordy 323 Brown, Clifford 251 Brown, Joe 25, 27, 95 Brown, Les 251 Brown, Richard 197 Bruce James Orchestra 392 Brussels World’s Fair 239, 276 Bryson, Clif 25-34, 64, 82 Bucholl, Kenny 48, 98, 131 Buckley, Bob 297-320, 344 Bugle, England 40 Burnaby South High School 46 Burrard Street Bridge 30 Cafe Diablo 315 Calder, Bob 272-82 Calder, Dave 341-50 Calgary 55, 85, 214 Calgary Stampede 167, 196 Cameron, Sandy 194 Campanola, Iona 397 Canadian Junior Championship 56

Carpinter, Stu 335, 339 Carter, Billy 362 Carver, Brent 283 Cassell’s Challenge Shield 56, 117 Castle Hotel 43 Cates, Susan 183 Cave, Bill 209 Cave, Bob 185, 197 Cave Supper Club 153, 216, 249 CBC 67, 221, 227, 305, 343, 344 Century 21 361 Chamberlain, Len 26 Chant, Maureen 141 Chapleau 92 Chapman’s Music 279 Charing Cross 173 Cheltenham 216 Chicago Six 224 Chicago World’s Fair 28, 66 Chiswick 204 Christian, Henry 222 Christianson, Denny 159 Christie, Richard 323, 325 Chycoski, Arnie 209, 213, 217, 236, 238, 245-60 Chycoski, Sher 246 Cirque de Soleil 314 CKPG 345 Clark, Donny 209, 213-28, 249 Clark, Petula 172 Clarke, Ken 323 Clarkson, Elliot 324 CNE 79 Colette, Al 142, 186 Collier, Ron 65, 159-66, 368 Cologne 268

INDEX ~ 401

Colograsso, Ron 197 Commodore 26, 66, 153, 206, 325 Concerts in Rhythm 65 Coombs, Don 34 Coombs, Jimmy 215 Cooper, Dougie 16, 82 Connaught Tunnel 170 Cornwall 121 CPR 54, 96, 170 Crane, Chris 267, 276 Crawford, Mickey 39, 51, 82, 118 Cromie, Don 69, 80, 81, 84, 130 Crystal Palace 56, 87, 91, 117, 120 CS Media Group West 347 Dal Richards Orchestra 71 Dalian 229 Darby Theatre 173 Dartmouth 101 Davis, Miles 227 ‘Dead on Arrival’ 188 Dean, Jimmy 258 Deagle, Gerry 206, 219 DeBruycker, Joe 336, 339 Deeth, Tom 71 Delamont, Arthur 26, 74, 79, 139, 366 Delamont, Gordon 44, 51, 64, 70, 83, 104, 113, 125, 149, 160, 166, 221, 265, 271, 278, 368 Delamont, Lillie 44, 99, 274 Delamont, Vera 44, 50, 99, 102, 107-16 Denike, Howard 213, 225, 227 Denman Arena 35

Dennis, Sandi 217 Dixie Downbeat Jazz Band 209 Dorazio, Don 71 Dorsey, Tommy 97 Douglas, Ian 170, 209 Douglas, Kenny 167-79, 185, 196 Downs, Porkie 95, 97 ‘Dracula’ 365 Dr. Bundolo 227 Dr. Swing 77 Dublin 88 Duchess of Athol 29 Du Maurier Jazz Festival 164 Dunfee, Van 16, 64, 70, 81 Dunfermline 28, 40 Dunnett, Dave 215 Durante, Jimmy 167 Dutton, Dave 35 Ealing Studios 172 Eastbourne 201 Edinburgh 40, 371 Edinburgh Castle 59 Edmonton 55, 69 Edwards, Brian 347, 349 Eiffel Tower 205 El-Bekal Shrine Temple 169 Eldridge, Roy 65, 147 Ellenton, George 323 Ellington, Duke 159, 161, 166 Embankment in Bath 184 Emerson, John 65 Emory, Arnold 174, 194?8 Empire Games 65 Empire Stadium 284 Empress Hotel 96, 123-5

402 ~ Index

Fraser, Bob 337 Frewer, Terry 303 Fulton, Jack 224 Furlough Dance Party 70, 72, 73 Gaines, Jim 343 Gannon, Oliver 221 Gateway Theatre 323 Gaynor, Mitzi 258 Gene Autrey Show 174 General Gordon School 26, 36, 53, 81, 84, 123, 132, 366 Georgia Hotel 117 Gibson, Brian 308 Gill, warren 342, 325 Gillespie, Dizzy 251 50th Anniversary VKBB 58 Gimby, Bobby 195 Fairbairn, Bruce 317, 324-5, 328, Ginza District 389 341, 348 Glasgow 203 FAT Jazz 393 Godfrey, Norm 209 Ferguson, Maynard 257 Golders Green 203 Fielding, Harold, Agency 285 Fifteenth Field Reg. band 247, 353, Good, Bill 187 357,359 Goral, Walter 202 Grandview Band 168, 178, 185 Fifth Field Military band 247 Great Yarmouth 58, 101, 112, Filer, Vera 83 133 Findlay, Bob 157 Green, Junior 84 Findlay, Jim 64, 83, 121 Gregory, Ian 196, 219 Findlay, Phoebe 83 Grenadier Guards Band 202, 361 Firehouse Five 265 Griffith, Roy 168, 170 Fireman’s band 42 Griffiths/Gibson 305, 343 Flamingo Hotel 251 Grosvenor Hotel 66 Floyd, George 59 Foley Commercial Hotel 40 Habkirk, Jack 38, 40, 69 Follies Bergere 204 Hackney Theatre 173 Formby, George 220 Haden, George 224 Forster, Alan 98 Hadley, Mike 174, 195, 262 Fowler, Ken 353 Hailstone, Johnny 96, 97 Fox, Michael, J. 283 Empress of Britain 91, 100, 113, 117, 133 Empress of Canada 42, 47 Endicott, Don 27, 36, 41, 65 England 67 Eppel, Ralph 348 Eric Hamber High School 280 Erickson, Arthur 241 Erwin, Peter 353 Escott, Russ 83 Exeter 201 Expo 67 160, 287 Expo 86 160

INDEX ~ 403

‘Hail Ubyssey’ 206 Hales, Bobby 217, 227, 302, 351 Hamilton, Jack 69, 202 Hamp, Johnny 66 Harkness, Doug 16, 29, 102 Harrison, Lance 70, 213, 223 Harvey, Bill 143 Hardy, Hagood 368 Hasegawa, Mr. 389 Haskell Band 66 Hauser, Byron 71 Hawes, Freddie 264 Heath, Ted 68, 215, 275,285 Hedley, Hubert, Kline 316 Hillegom 203 Hemsley House 200 Henderson, Bud 26, 71 Henderson, Ed 368 Hendricks, Cat 303 Henry, Clarke 219 Hereford 53, 55 Herman’s Jazz Club 228 Hills, Frank 96, 123-8 Hilton, Lew 215 Hobson, Earl 228 Hodges, Johnny 163 Hofeister, Betty 63 Hoffert, Paul 368 Holbrook, Doug 192 Holland, Roll 65 Hollywood 167 Holt BJ 294 Hopkins, Len 70 Hoskins, Sara, William 26, 35, 61, 63 Hotel Danielle 205

Hotel Vancouver 69 Hudson’s Bay Co. 56 Humber College 159 Humphrys, Pete 84, 119, 130 Hunt, Mickey 43 Hurst, Greg 337 In Flanders Field 91 Ingledew, Bill 261-71 Inman, Bill 371-83 In Towne Tonight 172 Irish Rovers 227 Irish Sweepstakes 88 Jackson, Jack 68 Jagger, Paul 50, 95-105, 106 Jason, Rick 191 Jenkins, Cece 84 Johnstone, Alan 83, 97 Johnston, Roy 16, 29, 35-59, 66, 79, 102, 131 Juliette 70, 149, 158 Kamloops 85 Karijawa 391 Kassel, Art 66 Kato 242 Katsura Palace 392 Kay Smith Studios 343 Keenlyside, Tom 221, 348 Kellett, Bud 351 Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland 300 Kenny, Mart 69, 70, 160 Kenora 86, 214 Kerkrade, Holland 239, 265, 267, 278 Kerrisdale Kiwanis Band 351

404 ~ Index

Kettle Valley Train 92 Kicking Horse Pass 198 Killarney High School 280 King Edward Hotel 64 King, Gordie 225, 227 King, Harry 206 King, Sharman 222 Kirchen, Basil & Ivor, band 220 Kirkby, Don 213?

Kit Kat Club 67 Kitsilano Boys’ Band 27, 46, 61, 79, 150, 196, 221 Kitsialno High School 123 Knapp, Brian 280 Kneller Hall 61, 63 Koffman, Moe 65, 254, 368 Ladies Auxilary 96 laird, Gordon 196, 392 Lambert, Freddie 397 Las Vegas 249 Lazenby, Dick 97, 106 Lazenby, Ted 194, 217, 264, 275 Led Zepplin 317 Le Flesch, George 331, 332 Lehtonen, Al 331 Leicester Theatre 173 Leidzen, Eric 275 Lemon, Jack 317 Lerner, Alan 199 ‘Let’s Go!’ 302 Lighthouse 259 Littland, Jim 222 Little Chape of the Flowers 249 Little Mountain Sound 343 Lockwood, Ron 195 Logan, Claude 206

London Philharmonic 197 Lord Byng High School 323 Lord Mayor of London 56, 87, 179 Los Angeles Police Benefit 169 Loss, Joe 67, 68 Louden, Ray 130 Louis, Benny 252 Lozier, Irving 83 Ludwig, Frank 307 Luff, Doug 48 MacAdams, Doug 16, 29 Mack, Clayton 189 MacDonald, Bob 221 MacKenzie, Dave 110, 293, 355 MacMillan, Bloedel 109, 144, 150 MacMillan Club of Canada 183 MacMillan, Ernest, Sir 184 MacPhearson, Fraser 130, 223 Mad Ivan & the Hornets 344 Magee, High School 280 Maharishi, Mahish, Yogi 229, 241 Malkin Bowl 65, 184 Mann, Johnny Singers 249 Manome, Wingy 65, 147 Mansion House London 56 Manzer, Carson Maple Ridge Concert Band 392, 395 Maple Ridge Bandstand 396 Maplethorpe, Cyril 387 Marathon 198, 214 Marie Abrams Quartet 26 Masons, 54, 179

INDEX ~ 405

Massey Theatre 308 McAllister, Lorraine 70 McAndrews, Murray 195, 204, 206 McCann, Denise 344 McCartney, Bob 83 McCloskey, Jock 48 McConnell, Rob 65, 245, 253, 368 McCoomb, Ozzie 45, 130, 138 McCormick, Eric 283 McCormick, Marlise 314 McCoy, Clyde 66 McCuish, Warren, Men’s Clothing 15, 154 McCullough, Dave 24 McCullock, Jim 79-94 McCullough, Gordie 15, 27, 29, 15-24, 40, 51, 69, 82, 102 McDougal, Ian 221, 227 McKay, Hector 40, 66, 81, 83, 120-22 McLeod, Alex 199, 217 McRae, John 91 Medicine Hat 85 Melton, Herb 27, 64 Middleburg 202 Millbrand, Ted 267 Millerd, Bill 283-96, 299 Millerd, Frank 283 Miller, Dennis 306 Miller, Glenn, band 169, 258 Mills Bros. 89, 161 Monteith, Graeme 322 Montreal 214 Moose Jaw Kinsmen Club 33 Mordie, Harry 16 Morse, Belle 393

Morse, Eddie 26 Mortifee, Jane, Ann 308, 340 Mortimer, Harry 118 Mottishaw, Bud 84 Moulin Rouge 175 Mount Fugi 385 Muir, Eric 48 Mulvihill, Paul, Ltd. 347 Mullins, Norm 171 Munro, Jack 155 Mushroom Studios 343 Naden Band 51 Nanaimo Concert Band 209 Nanoose Bay 246 National Juvenile Band 26, 28, 35, 63 National Theatre School 287 Nato School 364 Navy Band 48 Neptune Theatre 365 Newbury, Alan 27, 82 Newcastle Island 82, 119 New York World’s Fair 12, 134 New Westminster Band 248 Norman, Karl 370 Norman, Marek 365-70 Normandy Roof 67 ‘Northern Stars’ 197 Northamptonshire Regiment 87 Oatway, Wally 53, 84 O’Brien, Ted 71 Ohman, Henry 331, 332 Oil Can Harry’s 303 Olsen, Ole 65 Omartian, Michael 344

406 ~ Index

Oosterbeek 202 Order of Military Merit 359 Orpheum 72, 360 Orsova 263 Ottawa 134 Oughton, Mel 80 Oxbol, Torbin 224 Pacific Music 80 Pacific Northwest Music Festival 56, 123 Pacific Salt 221 Paladium Dance Hall 199 Pall Mall 201 Palomar Supper Club 65, 69, 70 Panorama Roof 70, 153, 206 Parker, Walt 83, 95, 97 Parkinson, Brian 263 Parle, Jack 35, 61 Parnell, Jack 203-4 Patterson, Laurie 95 Patterson, Rick 267, 277 Patterson, Stan 83, 95 Pattison, Jimmy 109, 136, 139-46, 155, 165, 242, 270, 318, 350, 379 Patton, Stan 70 Pearson, Norie 15, 66, 81, 83 Pepper, Dave 223 Perry, PJ 227 Peterson, Oscar 164 Petrie, Iain 353, 356 Petrovich, Olga, Madame 170, 266 Pettie, George 331 Pettie, Wayne 132, 331-9 Phoenix Structural Designs 388 Picadilly Circus 87

Pickell, Dave 348 Pickett, Bill 263 Pickett, Hugh 213 Pinewood 343 Plymouth 39 PNE 30, 76 PNE Band 31 Point Grey Junior High School 79, 150, 231, 261 Port Arthur 198 Port Sunlight 133 Price, George 394 Price, Harry 65 Prima, Louis 251 Prince of Wales 379 Princes Street Gardens 371 Princess Alice (Ferry) 124 Prism 343 PSI Chord 343 Pugsley, Alan 132 Quebec City 86, 171, 198 Queen Elizabeth 201 Queen Elizabeth Theatre 58, 109, 136, 144, 213, 225, 321, 328, 379 Quinn, Bob 132 Rabin, Oscar 173 Radelet, Don 50, 129-38, 353 Rag Time Wedding 174 Ramsey, Don 321 Randall, Bob 66 Rands, John 262 RCA Music Hall 97 RCMP Band 25, 27, 33, 64, 95, 97

INDEX ~ 407

RCMP Musical Ride 31 Read, Jack 81 Reagan, Ronald 139 Reboot 312 Red Ryder 168 Regina 33, 85 Reid, Bob 27, 70, 71, 76, 82, 92, 269 Reid, Wally 84, 88 Reifel, George 66 Reliance Machine 92 Reser, Teddy 84 Revelstoke 85, 214 Richards, Dal 61-77, 131, 150, 152, 153, 193, 206 Richards, Ian 101 Robbins, Dave 227 Rock, Bob 317 Rohan’s 344 Rolfe, Bill & Gary 264, 268, 323 Romanelli, Luigi, Don, Lee 64 Ross, Stu 29, 69, 82, 84, 136, 178 Royal York Hotel 64, 253 Russell, George 160 Rycroft, Lynn 323 Safeway 31, 85, 132, 170 Salvation Army 55, 183 Salvation Army Band 394 Samaria 171 Sandi de Santis 62, 63, 65 San Francisco 93, 118 Scotland 101, 137 Scots Guards Band 361 Scott, FG, Canon 91, 120 Scott, Mae 83 Scythia 222

Seaforth Armorie 37 Seaforth Highlanders Band 37 Seis, Marvin 84 Selassie, Haile 134 Shanklin 39 Shepherd’s Bush 173 Shorthouse, Tom 222 Shrine Band 31, 169, 171, 176 Sikora, Ray 218 Silva-White, Ed 213 Silver Slipper 64 Sinclair, David 307, 329 Sinclair, Meade 97, 130 Singer, Hymie 72 ‘Sixuvus’ 337 Skiles, Don 71 Slyke, Richard van 351-63 Smith, Bob 226 Smith, Keely 251 Smith, Ray 65, 72, 73, 109, 144, 147-48 Smith, Ron 131, 337 Smith, Stan 65, 147, 151, 152 Sotvedt, Jimmy 264 Sotvedt, Ken 45, 264, 275, 267, 293 Souder, Jackie 31 Souder, Paul 249 Sousa, John, Philip 172, 182 Southampton 67, 86 Spencer’s Department Store 41 Spenser, Eb 84, 88 Spitfire Band 255 Spithead Revue 201 ‘Spectre’ 324 ‘Spring’ 303 Stanley Black Orchestra 204

408 ~ Index

Stanley Theatre 126, 288 Stan Paton Orchestra 69, 70 Starlight Garden 72, 73 Startup, Glenn 186, 196 Steeves, Ardie 16, 28 Steeves, Captain 29 Sterling Castle 203 Stewart, Harvie 52, 84 Stigings, Pete 280 St. Laurent, David 347 Stockwell, Chris 66, 68, 90, 99, 101, 110, 116, 187 Stonier, Bill 221 Storie, Rolfe 263 ‘Straightlines’ 304 Strand Theatre 28, 31 Stratford Festival 365 Stravinsky 228, 317 Streight, Jack 169 Sturley, Ross 130 Sudbury 85 Sugimoto, Min 281 ‘Sunshyne’ 341, 348 Swift Current 198 Sylvania 284 Symonds, John 132 Symonds, Norman 160, 161, 166 1040 KICKS 336 Taylor, Joani 309 ‘Talk of the Town’ 276 Teagarten, Jack 251 Temoin, Bernie 29, 64, 82, 108, 114 Thatcher, Margaret 139, 146 Thom, Bing 219, 229-43, 258, 264, 326

Thom, Gene 219, 236 Thompson, Don 368 ‘Tinsel’ 315 Tivoli Ballroom 69 Todd, Brian 2166, 265 Tokyo 391 Toronto 64, 79, 85, 214 Toronto Exposition 35, 125 Toronto Symphony 108, 114 Toscanini 235 Tossell, Fred 98 ‘Tower of Power’ 343 Townsend, Jack 65 Traugott, Eric 257 Trepp, John 272 Trerise, Bob 83, 84, 91 Trinosky Brothers 53 Trionon Balllroom 26 Trudeau, Pierre 351, 362 Trussell, Bill 194, 216, 256 Tupman, Dennis 213, 218, 281 Turner, Brad 217 Turner, Fred 213, 217, 248 Turvey, Frank 71 Tusvik, Art 206, 215, 265, 275 29th Battalion Band 37 UBC 30 USC 247 USS Virginia 118 Valdy 308 Vancouver Girls’ Band 53, 82, 83 Vancouver Junior Symphony 142 Vancouver Symphony 58 Varsity Band 126, 143 Vickers, Howie 309

INDEX

Victoria 96, 123 Walker, Tom 385-97 Watt, Pete 16, 64, 71 84, 86 Wellington Bomber 388 Welsh Guards Band 202 Wembley Sports Arena 91 West of England Band Festival 40, 56 West Van Boys & Girls Band 30, 83, 95, 284 Weymouth 201 White, Garfield 29, 34, 84, 170, 266 White River 86 White Rock 111 White, Russ 80 Whitfield, David 172, 268 Whittaker, Roger 197 Wick, Charles 139, 146 Wilkins, Rick 253 Williams, Bill 257 Williams, Merlin 161 Williams, Percy 30 Wilson, Tug 28 ‘Windmill’ 204 Winnipeg 56, 85, 99, 214 Winter Gardens 44, 204, 215 Wood, Eric 197 Wood, Henry, Sir 197 Wood, Ron 195-211 Wright, Don 69 Wright, Jack 277 Xavier, Fred 344 Yeovil 86

~ 409

Zentner, Si, Band 218, 249, 250 Zinko, Ron 324

410 ~ Notes

Read about the life journeys of twenty-seven promi-

nent and successful Canadians, who were all members of the worlds most famous boys band!

Gordon McCullough Clif Bryson Roy Johnson Dal Richards * Jim McCullock Paul Jagger Don Radelet Jimmy Pattison * Ray Smith Ron Collier * Kenny Douglas Brian Bolam Ron Wood Donny Clark

Bing Thom * Arnie Chycoski Bill Ingledew Bob Calder Bill Millerd * Bob Buckley Malcolm Brodie Wayne Pettie Dave Calder Richard Van Slyke Bill Inman Marek Norman Tom Walker

They talk about their first encounter with the legendary conductor and founder of the band, Arthur Delamont.The trips they went on. Other fellows in the band. Their lives after the band. And how the whole experience influenced their lives, some 30, 40 and 50 years after they were known as,

the red cape boys......

* Recipients of the Order of Canada