AMBASSADORS OF EMPIRE The Life and Times of the Legendary
Mr. D
The story of ARTHUR W. DELAMONT and his champion
VANCOUVER KITSILANO BOYS’ BAND
The life and times of the legendary
Mr. D
c1930s, Vancouver Province
The story of ARTHUR W DELAMONT and his champion
VANCOUVER KITSILANO BOYS’ BAND by Christopher Best
North Vancouver Schools Band (1948)
Mr. D directed this band from 1938 through the summer of 1953. This was one of the seven bands Mr. D directed throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
The life and times of the legendary
Mr. D
c1930s Vancouver Province
The story of ARTHUR W DELAMONT and his champion
VANCOUVER KITSILANO BOYS’ BAND
Copyright 2013 Christopher Best
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, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopywrite.ca, 1-800-893-5777 Warfleet Press 1038 east 63rd Avenue, Vancouver, B.C., V5X 2L1 www.warfleetpress.com All photos from the collection of Christopher Best unless otherwise noted.
Cover Photo: 1937 The boys in San Francisco for the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. Cover design by Christopher Best Text design by Christopher Best Edited by Dr. Robert S. Thomson Printed and bound in China
Library and Archives Canada Cataloging in Publication
Best, Christopher 1949 The Life and Times of the Legendary Mr. D, The Story of Arthur W Delamont and his champion Vancouver Kitsilano Boys’ Band ISBN 978-0-9812574-6-4
1. Best, Christopher, 1949-. 2. Bands-Canada-Biography-Youth-Canadian-Culture
c1930s Vancouver Province
iv vi
Frank West Millerd, Van Band 8 grad 195
CONTENTS
Foreword.....................................................................................i Preface............................................................................iv 1. Salvation Army Beginnings............................................... .. ..1 2. 1931 Champions at the Toronto Exposition..........................12 3. 1933 Champions at the Chicago World’s Fair........................22 4. 1934 Champions West of England Band Festival.................38 5. 1936 Champions Crystal Palace Band Festival.....................66 6. 1937 Guests in San Francisco - Golden Gate Bridge..............88 7. 1939 Guests at New York World’s Fair & on to England......96 8. 1940s Supporting The War Effort at Home.......................118 9. 1950 Champions at the Oosterbeek Band Festival..............136 10. 1953 Top Billing Moss/Empire Vaudeville Circuit............158 11. 1955 Park Concerts, Jersey Island, and a UK Tour.............178
ABOVE: In the 1930s and 1950s the boys became so famous that cartoons appeared in the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers. Every time they went on a trip and returned with a prize, a new cartoon appeared. This one appeared with an article called “A Boy With A Horn� sometime in the early 1950s. (artwork by Gerald Lipman)
12.1958 Champions at Kerkrade & Brussels World’s Fair ................196 13.1962 Champions again at Kerkrade Band Festival........................220 14. 1966 Champions again at Kerkrade Band Festival........................236 15. 1967 Train trip to Montreal for Expo 67 .....................................248 16. 1968 A Tour of the Capitals of Europe..........................................254 17. 1970 Another tour of the Capitals of Europe..................................266 18. 1972 A Visit To Sweden and Norway...........................................274 19. 1974 Their last Tour of the UK including Russia and Estonia.......284 20. 1976 Several Reunion Concerts ....................................................296 21. 1981 Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night..............................302 22. 1998 The Old Boys’ Reunion Concerts..........................................310 Books by Warfleet Press.......................................................................338 Acknowledgements.............................................................................343 Index....................................................................................................351
FOREWORD
The Kitsilano Boys’ Band is a Canadian legend. Billed on its international concert tours from the 1930s through the 1970s as “The World’s Most Famous Boys’ Band,” it became a unique tradition in Canada’s musical history. Programmes, handbills and posters of the day show it performing a breathtaking range of music: “from Sousa to Boogie-Woogie.” Highly acclaimed by critics and audiences alike for its brilliant performances, its disciplined musicianship and superb showmanship, the band of thirty-nine 14 to 20-year olds bore witness to the potential of youth, and to the inspired leadership of its founder, Arthur W. Delamont. In the early days of writing this book the author had entertained the idea of entitling it “Ambassadors of Empire.” Such a title today may well have struck a nostalgic note; perhaps, in a Canada long accustomed to multiculturalism, pluralism, and its own national flag and patriated constitution it might have seemed rather quaint. But while the current title better captures the aura which Mr. Delamont cast, the notional one did reflect one of his ambitions. He wanted young Canadians to experience “the Old Country” from which he had emigrated. Indeed, he regarded the band’s extended concert tours as a means of returning them home to their ‘roots.’ Thus “Ambassadors of Empire” suggested a journey in two directions: into Canada to develop the tradition of the British concert band, and out of Canada to show the “Mother Country”—in decline as a world power since 1945—that her colonial sons still kept the torch alive. The formal portraits of successive ‘Kits’ bands standing before the Queen Victoria monument at Buckingham Palace symbolize this dimension of the Delamont vision. So, too, do the mirror images of formal band portraits on the steps of Vancouver’s courthouse. Yet the term ‘empire’ also resonated with Britain’s famous Moss-Empire chain of vaudeville theatres throughout the U.K. in which the Kits Band projected its image in pre-television days. Mr. D, as the “boys” called Delamont, was an extraordinary character. With his shock of white hair, his commanding presence and firmly expressive baton, he could be at once charming, irascible, encouraging and overbearing. His disapproving scowl during a hard-wrought musical passage
OPPOSITE: Vancouver Kitsilano Boys’ Band: Canadian champions Toronto 1931. Pacific Northwest and B.C. champions 1931-2-3-4. First prize winners World’s Fair Chicago, 1933. First prize winners West of England Band Festival, 1934. BELOW: 1939 Poster advertising the boys at the Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool. This theatre was a part of the Moss-Empire chain.
ii ~ The Band Always Featured Soloists
ABOVE: Michael Hadley was on the 1950 and the 1953 Kits Band tours to England and Holland. BELOW: Ray Smith, who was in the band in the 40s. Ray was an exceptional trumpet player. He became the CEO of MacMillan Bloedel in Vancouver.
could burst suddenly into a radiant, beatific smile of approval. His character evinced an energetic counterpoint: good humour, caustic wit, cutting criticism, understated praise, and artistic vision, He was a demanding mentor. Yet beneath all the artist’s antics lay concern not only for excellent musicianship, but for fostering the journey into manhood of ‘his’ boys. For him, this journey was as much moral as musical. It was not unusual, for example, for him to cut off a passage in mid-flight during rehearsal in order to deliver a ‘sound bite’ homily on questions of trust, loyalty, honor, probity, responsibility, social service and—unlikely as it seemed to those who had suffered his wrath—compassion. At such times, his origins as a Salvation Army bandsmen were poignantly eloquent. If, as some claim, Mr. D had copied (or at least paralleled) the ‘American’ concert band style of John Philip Sousa, it was the Salvation Army bands of the UK that shaped the tonal quality of Canada’s Kitsilano Boys’ Band. To achieve such a rich sound was a huge challenge. It was conditioned as much by instrumentation as style. North American bands, to choose but one example, preferred the trumpet, whereas British bands held to the cornet. Thus what might pass for the ‘Sousa style’ of clarion brassiness contrasted with the mellifluousness of the British style. Mr. D drilled his boys in the art of hymnic playing. He did so by insisting on their practicing long, sustained tones, and by rehearsing the ensemble with hymns and anthems that required sostenuto performance. Indeed, each instrumental section saw to it that its collective ‘voice’ never broke a phrase, not even for a breath. He insisted on his young musicians listening intently to each ‘voice’ in the ensemble. But while maintaining a full range of tonal colour, he also insisted on brilliant attack, accurate tempo—and dynamics, dynamics, dynamics. It was arguably this blend of ‘Sousa’ and the British band that characterized the Vancouver Kitsilano Boys’ Band. The band always featured soloists of exceptional achievement. One recalls the soaring and vivacious triple-tongued trumpet trios and the sterling performances of trombone or euphonium. Jazz numbers featured instruments typical of the genre: tenor saxophone, trombone, clarinet and drums. Classical works from Bach to Grieg and Holst spotlighted brass and woodwinds playing passages originally scored for symphonic strings. All this was backed by rich ensemble playing. From its beginnings in 1928 to its final years, this pre-eminent concert band rehearsed twice-weekly in the basement of Kitsilano’s General Gordon Primary School. It trained young people to the highest standards of musicianship and performance. And throughout those years it paid rent. This magnificent musical group was unsupported by government grants, Canada Council, corporate sponsors or even the School Board. Its graduates have gone on to become leaders in a variety of fields. Many of them have attained national honours: Queen’s Counsel, Order of Canada and Fellow of the
FOREWORD ~ iii Royal Society of Canada. Many former bandsmen knew Mr. D during a number of phases of their early development and later careers, and maintained contact with him throughout their lives. I am one of these. The experience has been a formative influence. Having begun as a youngster under his tutelage, I grew into a Kits Band musician, played in two overseas tours, and eventually helped arrange the band’s visits in Belgium and Germany. Mr. D and I became good friends. My being invited to write this Foreword is therefore a special honour. Michael L. Hadley, CD, PhD, FRSC.
LEFT: 1931 This Brass Quartet took First Place at the B.C. Music Festival four years in a row: 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1934. They also won First Place at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto in 1931. Left to right: Roy Johnston, Gordon Delamont (seated), Arthur Butroid and Wallace Oatway (standing) Roy Johnston won no less than 16 medals before he left the band after the summer of 1934. He was known as the “Boy Wonder.” Below Left: Bronze medal for solo playing won by Wally Oatway at the Canadian National Band Festival in Toronto in 1931. Arthur encouraged his boys to enter solo competitions as much as possible. Below: Boys on the train to Toronto, 1931.
PREFACE In writing this book I conducted over 100 interviews with former band members, sons of former members who had passed away and other people who had been prominent in the music field at the time. These interviews proved to be the most interesting and rewarding part of my research. They were extremely important in filling in the gaps in the band’s history, of which I was not aware, as well as affording me many stories and anecdotes from different periods of the band’s history. All of the former members led busy and successful lives after their band years but each of them remembered their band days with the most vivid of recollections. My only regret is that I had not started earlier with my interviews, as many of the original members of the band had passed away by the time I began my research. Nevertheless, I did manage to interview two key original members of the the General Gordon School Band from 1928 (Roy Johnston and Clif Bryson). Both continued playing professionally all their lives, Roy with Mr. D in his Arthur Delamont Concert Band and Clif first as a professional musician and conductor in the original RCMP band and later as a band director in Vancouver and Australia with numerous bands. I was also able to interview the sons and daughters of several of the original members: Steve Oatway’s father Wallace was the third boy to join Arthur’s band, Dave McCullough’s father Gordon was one of Arthur’s first drummers, Arthur Butroid’s daughter did not know much about her father’s early years but did give me access to his scrapbooks and photos from his band days and Gordon Delamont’s two daughters Susan and Debra and son Gordo remembered their father to me with great affection and esteem. As well, over the span of twenty years I have had many conversations with Vera Delamont, Arthur’s daughter, who granted me access to the family scrapbooks. The most important years in the band’s history would have to be from the beginning (1928) through 1936. These were the formative years when Arthur marched his boys through the provincial, national and world band championships. In 1936, they beat 25 of Britain’s best adult bands at the National Brass Band Championship at the Crystal Palace in London during their second British tour. They would make one more tour of Britain in the thirties (1939), where they found themselves more or less trapped in
BY JOVE WHAT A BAND THE STORY
VANCOUVER KITSILANO BOYS BAND
Christopher Best
ABOVE: By Jove What A Band, my first book on Arthur Delamont. OPPOSITE: Arthur W. Delamont in Vancouver, 1970. BELOW: A Pictorial Record. Available at www.warfleetpress.com
vi ~ Representing Twenty Years Of Research Great Yarmouth when war was declared. Much was written about the band in the newspapers in the 1930s, both in Vancouver and in towns they passed through on tour, both in England and across Canada. Many of these newspaper clippings were collected by Lillie Delamont (Arthur’s wife) and Garfield White, the band’s publicity manager, who kept in contact with town newspapers, letting them know when the
ABOVE: Art Butroid became a Commander in the Royal Canadian Navy OPPOSITE: 1935 Massed band concert in the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver with seven of Arthur’s bands: Vancouver Girls’ Band, General Gordon School Band, Point Grey Junior High School Band, West Vancouver Boys’ Band, Prince of Wales and Queen Mary and the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. BELOW: Clif Bryson directed RCMP Bands for twenty years.
band would be passing through so the newspaper could inform the town of the band’s pending engagement at the local civic hall or school. Thanks to their due diligence and foresightedness, much has been left in print of the band’s history during this period. It is also a testimony to the high esteem that Arthur and his band enjoyed by music critics, civic officials and the general public of the day that so much was written about their activities in the newspapers. I made a concerted effort to discover as much as I could about this period of the band’s history and I was able to interview several other boys who had been in the band then as well. They included Bernard Temoin, Hector McKay, Alan Johnston, Don Radelet, Ron Ptolemy, Jim McCullock and Dal Richards. During the 1940s the band did not make any overseas tours but did travel around British Columbia in support of the war effort. They played at military bases throughout the province to help bolster the morale of the soldiers. My interview with Jimmy Pattison, who was in the band in the 1940s, helped me discover more about the history of the band during this period. Another interview with Stan Smith whose father Ray Smith had been in the band in those days was important. Stan’s grandfather, Stanley V. Smith, had been an original member of the band as well. I was able to interview many boys
PREFACE ~ vii from the 1950s and their scrapbooks continued to afford me invaluable newspaper clippings of the band’s travels and successes during this period. By the 1960s, the band was less featured in the local newspapers, as times had changed and people’s interests were much more eclectic. However I was in the band in the sixties, so I have been able to include my own personal remembrances and stories from that period: my three trips to Europe with the band, and my own and other sixties boys’ newspaper articles and photos from the day.
CHAPTER ONE
SALVATION ARMY BEGINNINGS
1. THE SALVATION ARMY
Band History: 1910 Hereford, England * Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan * National Congress of Sal-
vationists * The Empress of Ireland * The Territorial Staff Band * Black Friday * Vancouver 1920 * Kitsilano * General Gordon School Band * Percy Williams * Anecdotes: Eddie Morse and Freddie Archer * The Originals * Roy Johnston
1892 Hereford, England It all began when Arthur William Delamont
was born into a religious family that followed the teaching, preaching and drum beating of William Booth, who only 27 years earlier, had founded the Salvation Army, a religious and charitable organization run along military lines for evangelizing and the social betterment of the poor and degraded. Arthur was the second oldest of five boys and three girls born to John and Seraphine Delamont. Their names were Leonard, Arthur, Walter, Frank, Herb, Lizzie, Myrtle and Beatrice. Arthur’s father, John, was a bouncer for General Booth and played bass horn in the Hereford Salvation Army Band. He was also a member of the volunteer Fire Brigade. John Delamont was a leather tanner by trade and worked at Messr. Herrons’ Skinyard. Arthur was apprenticed to the drapery trade with Ald C. Witts and Leonard learned hairdressing with Mr. J. Lawford of Widemarsh Street. In 1910 John Delamont answered a call in the Salvation Army newspaper War Cry for qualified bandsmen to emigrate to Canada to help bolster some of the Salvation Army bands in the small towns on Canada’s prairies. That is how the Delamont family came to be in Moose Jaw.
1910 Moose Jaw was a town of about 15,000 people, with its fair share of picket fences and boys and girls playing in the streets. There was one thing though that made Moose Jaw stand out from the rest of the towns on the prairies: its Salvation Army Band. The band was vastly improved with the arrival of the Delamont family: John played bass; Leonard, Arthur and Frank all played the cornet; Walter played baritone horn and Herb played the alto horn in E flat. The Salvation Army Band swelled to 22 members with the addition of the Delamont family. Resplendent in their scarlet tunics with white embroidery, they presented quite a spectacle marching down the main street of Moose Jaw or performing a concert in the park. For more solemn occasions the white embroidery was left behind. Besides playing the cornet in Moose Jaw, Arthur indulged himself in the sport of motorcycle racing.
National Congress of Salvationists
Every four years a call went out across the Dominion for qualified Salvation bandsmen to participate in a Territorial Staff Band to play at a National Congress of Salvationists to be held in London, England. The next congress was being held in 1914.
ABOVE: Moose Jaw Fire Brigade, John standing. OPPOSITE PAGE: 1900. Hereford Salvation Army Band. John Delamont seated second row from bottom, second from the right. Courtesy: Ray Farr BELOW: A Salvation Army satirical cartoon of the day.
2 ~ The Territorial Staff Band
ABOVE: The Delamont family band in Moose Jaw about 1910. From left to right: Walter, Arthur, John, Herb, Leonard and Frank. Below: Arthur with his motorcycle, 1914.
Here is how it read: The International Congress, London, England, June 11 to 27, 1914, a last call! If you wish to join one of the parties sailing under the auspices the Salvation Army, write immediately to: Lieutenant Colonel Turner, 20 Albert Street, Toronto. If resident in Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta, write: Staff Captain Tudge, 231 Rupert Street, Winnipeg. If in British Columbia write: Staff Captain White, 301 Hastings Street East in Vancouver.
April 12, 1914 A Trip To London There was much com-
motion and excitement in the Delamont household on Athabasca Street in Moose Jaw. Father had long before sent a letter off to Toronto requesting their participation in the Territorial Staff Band but the boys knew that they probably would not all get to go to England. The letter with the answer had just arrived. Father took his time opening the letter and then he handed it to mother, as he could not read. Mother declared, “Only Leonard and Arthur get to go.” After the disappointment subsided, they were soon all rallying around Leonard and Arthur, wishing them God speed and a safe voyage. Like most boys their age, Arthur and Leonard were interested in boats and trains and motorcycles. Turning to their mother they asked what the name of the ship was that would be taking them to England. Mother handed them the letter and they read out loud the name of the ship: ‘The R.M.S. Empress of Ireland.’
THE SALVATION ARMY ~ 3
The Territorial Staff Band of Canada was a musical
organization that Salvationists all over the Dominion longed to see and hear but Canada is a land of enormous distances and travelling was expensive. Besides, the band contained a large part of the Salvation Army staff and business would have come to a stand-still if they had been absent from their positions for any lengthy period. In all there were 400 Salvationists going to the International Congress in London. They were divided among five different ocean liners. The Empress of Ireland carried 165 members and all 37 members of the Territorial Staff Band including Commissioner Rees, Colonel Maidment, Adjutant Hanagan (the Bandmaster) and their wives.
May 1914 Early one morning five members of the Delamont
family departed for Quebec City: Arthur, Leonard, their mother Seraphine, their father John, and their eldest sister, Lizzie, who was an officer in the Army. The Empress of Ireland was a class “A” ship of the Canadian Pacific Line. It had been built in Glasgow in 1906. Its skipper, Captain Kendell, had become famous when on one crossing he had apprehended the notorious Dr. Crippen, who had been trying to escape from England to Canada. On board the ship the band played ‘God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again’ as it pulled away from the dock in Quebec City. After dinner Commissioner Rees called a meeting of all the band members, to whom he said, “I understand you like to be thought of as the Commissioners’ Band. Why not come back to Canada as God’s Band?” The Empress pulled into the dock at Rimouski about 10 pm that evening to drop off and pick up mail. Shortly after leaving Rimouski she was broadsided by a Norwegian tanker, the Storstad. The devastation was swift
ABOVE: Colonel Maidment (left) and Commissioner Rees on board the Empress of Ireland. BELOW: The Territorial Staff Band of the Salvation Army that set sail on the ill-fated RMS Empress of Ireland in 1914. They include Commissioner Rees and Colonel Maidment. The survivors are marked with a white X.
4 ~ Black Friday
ABOVE: Captain Kendall BELOW: The Moose Jaw Salvation Army Band after the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland. Their two comrades who died on the Empress can be seen at the top of the photo on either side.
swift and deadly. Within fourteen minutes the Empress had disappeared beneath the St. Lawrence. The shrieks and cries of the survivors in the frigid waters pierced the evening quiet like knives. The crew had managed to get several lifeboats off the sinking ship and into the water before she went down and they were busy picking up survivors. The Delamont family, who had been asleep (like most of the passengers on board), tried to make their way up the narrow staircase from third class to the decks above. By the time they reached the last staircase, the ship was almost vertical. Leonard managed to help his mother up on deck along with Lizzie and John. Once on deck he took off his life jacket and put it on his mother, kissing her goodbye. Then they were all washed overboard. Arthur, who had been trapped below, managed to crawl out a porthole and run along the side of the ship until he reached the bow, where he too was washed overboard. Arthur was picked up by a lifeboat that also contained his father and mother and sister. When he asked his father if he had seen Leonard his father replied, not wanting to alarm his mother, “I think he was picked up by one of the other lifeboats.” The survivors standing on the shore watched the last lifeboat as it reached safety and when there was no sign of Leonard, Arthur’s mother could contain her sorrow no longer and screamed, “Leonard, my poor Leonard.”
Black Friday The day went down in Salvation Army history as Black
Friday, for out of 1,475 people on board the Empress only 397 survived. Out of the 37 members of the Territorial Staff Band only 9 survived. Commissioner Rees, Colonel Maidment, Adjutant Hanagan and all their wives perished. The eulogy read: “They were the fairest and best of the movement in Canada and the loss to the executive and ranks of Blood and Fire
THE SALVATION ARMY ~ 5 (the Salvation Army war cry) will in many ways prove irreparable, for its most prominent leaders have sung their last Glory song on earth.” When Captain Kendall, who had been hit on the head and rendered unconscious, was told of the loss, he cried like a baby. The coffins of the dead were unloaded off the rescue ship Alsatian at Rimouski and then shipped to Quebec City and then on to Toronto where a funeral service was held in the Toronto Arena. Massed bands of the Guelph, Toronto, Oshawa, Chatham and Hamilton Salvation Army bands filled the bleachers. In the center was a huge cross made of floral arrangements. At the head of the cross sat the survivors of the Territorial Staff Band. After the disaster, Arthur returned to Moose Jaw with his family and spent his time playing in the local theatre pit orchestra. He married Lillie Elizabeth Krantz in 1916 and in 1918 they had a son, Gordon. Arthur’s prospects for pursuing his musical career in Moose Jaw did not seem promising, so in 1922 he packed up his family and moved out west to Vancouver.
Vancouver in the 1920s was growing by leaps and bounds. People were flocking to Vancouver in hope of a better life and to be a part of a young and growing city. The Vancouver music scene in the 1920’s was vibrant and abuzz with endless possibilities for talented young musicians. There were several vaudeville houses including two Pantages theatres (both on Hastings Street), the Orpheum, the Capitol, the Strand and the Beacon. There were many bands including military bands: Duke of Connaught’s Own Rifles Bugle Band, Seaforth Highlander’s Band, Irish Fuselier’s Marching Band, Corp of Commissioners’ Pipe Band; community bands: Grandview Band, Collingwood District Band, Mt. Pleasant Band; family bands: Timm’s Family Band, Beaton Family Band; professional bands: BCER Co. Trumpet & Drum Band; Parks Board Band. There were even several Indian bands in the surrounding communities. Besides concert and marching bands there were several local dance bands that played in the theatres and dance halls: Sonny Richardson & his Kampus Kings, Calvin Winters and his Capitolians and the Earl Hill Orchestra. In 1921 a dance hall (the largest in BC) was built on Bowen Island, which allowed 800 people to shimmy at one time. Vancouver’s first band concert took place in 1887 and in 1891 the
ABOVE: The Duke of Connaught’s Regiment. BELOW: 1920 Arthur playing in vaudeville at the Pantages Theatre in Vancouver.
6 ~ The General Gordon School Band Vancouver Opera House opened on Granville Street. Sarah Bernhardt performed there and Mark Twain and Pauline Johnson read excerpts from their books. In 1897 the first movie house opened in Vancouver. In 1910 the Vancouver Exhibition (a precursor to the Pacific National Exhibition) opened at Hastings Park. Radio came to Vancouver in 1922 and the Vancouver Province and later the Vancouver Sun began live broadcasts. The only prominent youth band in the city in the twenties was the National Juvenile Band led by William Hoskins Sara and Jack Parle. Into all this excitement came Arthur Delamont in 1922 eager to make a name for himself.
Up And Coming Neighbourhood Called Kitsilano
ABOVE: The Delamont Grocery store in Kitsilano about the mid 1920s. BELOW: The Vancouver Parks Board Band, 1925. Arthur may be seated on the grass at right with the cornet. Location: The Pavilion in Stanley Park. Vancouver Public Library, Special Collections, VPL 4220
When the Delamonts arrived in Vancouver, Arthur immediately went down to the local musicians’ office to get his membership card. He was told that he would have to wait six months before he could play professionally, so he opened the Delamont Grocery Store at 7th and Maple Street in an up and coming neighborhood of Vancouver called Kitsilano. When his six months were up, he began playing his trumpet in the vaudeville houses of Vancouver. In 1924 Arthur and Lillie’s second child, a girl, was born. They named her Vera. It was not long before Arthur had enough money to buy three lots in Kitsilano next to General Gordon Elementary School. He had three houses built, rented out two of them and moved his family into the third house which was next to the General Gordon School playground. From his living room window every day he could see the school children going back and forth to school and it gave him an idea. He was teaching Gordon to play the trumpet and it would be nice if Gordon had some boys of
THE SALVATION ARMY ~ 7
his own age to play his music with, so why not start a boys’ band! One day he decided to go over and talk to the school principal, Captain Steeves, about his idea. Captain Steeves was delighted with Arthur’s idea and he even said that he would send his own son, Hugh, down to play in his band. He also told Arthur that he could use the little school house at the back of the playground for evening rehearsals. Arthur knew that vaudeville would not last and he did not want Gordon hanging around the street corners getting into trouble, so he thought he would give it a try. When he mentioned his idea to the other musicians in the pit orchestra one evening at the Pantages Theatre they said he was crazy and warned him that boys that age could not sit still long enough to play anything decent. If there was anything that made Arthur more determined than ever it was someone telling him that something could not be done. So upon hearing their remarks he packed up his trumpet, got up and told them he was off to start a boys’ band.
The General Gordon School Band
True to his word, Arthur made an announcement to the students at the school, found some old instruments in various attics, and one evening the General Gordon School Band was formed. When Arthur and Captain R.P.Steeves conceived the
ABOVE: 1928 The General Gordon School Band on the steps of General Gordon Elementary school. BELOW: The Orpheum in the 1940s.
8 ~ Percy Williams idea of organizing a band in connection with the school, they had no idea that it would one day become the finest youth band of its kind in the country and maybe in the entire world. Together, they assembled a small group of boys, some so young they had difficulty holding their instruments. On the night of the first practice it was discovered that only one youngster had received previous instruction. What they played is unknown; it was reported there was plenty of sound. One afternoon the band made an appearance on the school grounds before a large number of spectators. The music supervisor for schools was an interested listener. When asked to comment on their prowess she politely remarked, “The little dears….” Those ‘little dears’ numbered between fifteen and twenty in the beginning. They all lived around General Gordon School, on Sixth or Seventh avenue. It was ‘word of mouth’ that brought many of them to Arthur’s doorstep. “Word got around that Arthur Delamont was starting a boys’ band in Kitsilano. Everyone joined!” (Clif Bryson 1928, band director, RCMP) ABOVE: 1928 Gordon Delamont in the front yard of their house on West 7th Avenue. BELOW: Gordy McCullough and Doug Harkness’ wife in later years.
Percy Williams
To Arthur’s surprise, the boys came willingly to rehearsals, and when he told them they were going to march in their first parade to welcome home local runner Percy Williams from his double victory in the Amsterdam Olympic Games in June of 1928, they were all the more enthusiastic. Arthur knew how to motivate young boys. Just as he and his brother Leonard had been motivated by thoughts of playing in the Territorial Staff Band, these boys were no different. Lillie and some of the mothers set about making uniforms for the boys: pill box hats, white shirts and dark trousers with a dark stripe down one leg. When the big day came the boys looked magnificent marching behind Percy Williams in their new uniforms with their instruments glistening in the afternoon sun. With the success of the Percy Williams parade, boys started to flock to Arthur by the dozens. After his boys’ success in the Percy Williams parade, Arthur entered the boys in the Canadian Pacific Exhibition Band Festival in the summer of 1929 at Exhibition Park in Vancouver and they came in second. Not a bad start, he thought, but not good enough; they would now have to really get down to work. In music as in life, timing is everything. In 1929 the stock market crashed. People were out of work all across the country. During times of national tragedy, people look to the arts, music and cinema to forget their troubles. Arthur’s timing could not have been better.
THE SALVATION ARMY ~ 9
Background & Anecdotes Eddie Morse and Freddie Archer In 1927, Clifton Bryson’s grandad bought him a saxophone. Clif took lessons for a year and in 1928 heard that Arthur Delamont was starting a band at General Gordon School (The news had spread like wildfire all over the neighborhood). Clif said he would never forget his audition with Arthur. Clif started on a C melody saxophone and was the first saxophone in the band. Before Kits, he had gone down and joined the National Juvenile Band, which was very popular. He told Hoskins Sara that he played a C melody saxophone. Sara said, “No, sorry! There is no place for a C melody saxophone.” Clif went back to his teacher, Eddie Morse, who was operating a music company at that time (Freddie Archer and Eddie Morse had taken it over from the Conn Company). That’s where Clif found his first job at one dollar a week. Anyway, Eddie switched Clif over to an E flat alto. With the C melody, Clif played note to note with the piano. With his new E flat alto, he had to transpose down a minor third. He took his audition with Arthur in his kitchen. Delamont put a piece of music up and Clif said, “Do I have to transpose this?” Delamont just about exploded! “What do you know about transposition?!” Clif explained, “When I play with the piano, I have to transpose down a minor third.” Mr. D, as the boys called him, just couldn’t get over that. Anyway, he was pretty much starting everybody from scratch. He welcomed Clif with open arms. He put him in with the alto horns because they were so weak. Clif found the part so dull, playing off-beats. Finally Herbie Melton joined on tenor sax and then Alan Newbury on alto and they had a trio. At first, rehearsals were held in the little school house situated in the back corner of the playground behind General Gordon School. There was ‘Norman Pearson’ or ‘Norie’ as the boys called him. He was a champion cricket player who is now in the BC Hall of Fame. Norie played trombone and was a good friend of Gordy McCullough. Gordie started on trombone but used to hang out at the Strand and Beacon theatres watching the drummers. He told Arthur one day, “I want to switch to drums or I will quit!” So Arthur let him. Gordie McCullough lived at 2551 West 7th Avenue. Van Dunfee was another trombone player. He lived at 2725 West 16th. Then there was ‘Donald Endicott’ who played trumpet. He lived at 2239 Trafalgar Street. Van Dunfee, Gordy McCullough and Donald Endicott all later played together in a dance band at the ‘Alma Hall,’ which stood at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Alma in Kitsilano. (Clif Bryson interview) Then there was Ardie Steeves. Ardie had a good life. He was the youngest in his family and he was spoiled. He became a pretty good trumpet
ABOVE: Doug Harkness on a trip up to Vancouver in later years. BELOW: 1929 Gordy McCullough on trombone before he switched to the drums.
10 ~ The Originals
ABOVE: Roy Johnston in 1928 before he joined the Kitsilano Boys’ band. BELOW: Art Butroid in his back yard with his French horn.
player. Ardie used to go to the movies alot in the thirties. His mother had a jar of coins which she used to let Ardie help himself to, so he could go to the picture shows at least once a week. I guess she thought it would be good for him. Ardie’s dad had told him, in the spring of 1931, “If you place first in the solo trumpet class at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, I will give you a new car.” It was the first big national contest that Arthur entered his boys in. Ardie telephoned home from Toronto to tell his dad the good news so that his new car would be waiting for him when he arrived home. Ardie drove that car to band practices ever after. He lived at 3636 West 4th Avenue. Doug MacAdams came from a wealthy family. His dad had some money in the stock market and got it out before the crash of 1929. He had over a million dollars, an enormous amount in those days. He lived at 2745 Point Grey Road. Dougie Cooper was also in the band. He played drums along with Gordie McCullough. He lived at 2476 West 6th Avenue. Dougie Harkness was another boy in the neighbourhood group. He was the practical joker and lived at 2834 West 3rd Avenue. Mack Morrison’s father became the first president of Arthur’s parents’ association, called “the Committee.” He led the Committee from 1931 to 1935 or 1936. Mack was a trumpet player and lived at 4573 West 1st Avenue. Doug Barlow’s father was the first secretary of the Committee and Jimmy Findlay’s father was a chief magistrate of the Vancouver Law Courts. Both Doug and Jimmy played clarinet. Jimmy wound up doing some publicity for the band when it was on tour in England in 1936. Doug lived at 2516 West 6th Avenue and Jimmy lived at 6579 Maple Street. Jack Habkirk’s father became a city alderman in the thirties. The Habkirk’s were from Winnipeg where Jack’s father had worked as the composing room foreman at the Winnipeg Free Press. They lived at 6210 Cypress Street. Other boys in the beginning included Wally Oatway, who played baritone. He was the third boy to join Arthur’s band, after Gordon and Clif Bryson. The day Arthur announced to the students at General Gordon that he was forming a band, Wally ran all the way over to Arthur’s house to be the first in line. Then there were four boys who played tuba, Walter Mottishaw, John Hardy, Stuart Ross (who started on trumpet but switched to tuba) and Dordie Baird (who became a DJ). Pete Watt was another and he played trombone. Most of the boys lived in close proximity to one another, within the boundaries of this up-and-coming new neighborhood on Vancouver’s west side called Kitsilano.
‘The Originals’ These boys would become known over the years
as ‘The Originals.’ Almost all of the ‘originals’ stayed with Arthur
.
THE SALVATION ARMY ~ 11 right up to the big climax at the Crystal Palace Band Festival in London, England in the summer of 1936. That’s one reason they were so darn good! Other ‘originals’ included Arthur Butroid (who became a Commander in the Canadian Navy during the war), Jack Fairburn (who later ran a lumber company), Clifford Wood (who became an Aide-de-Camp to a Canadian General in Italy during WWII), and Ross Armstrong (who became an optometrist). Bob Randall’s family owned the Hastings Park Raceway. Bob later became the director of the Ascot Jockey Club. George Reifel was another original, as was Phil Baldwin who became a radio announcer. Freddie Woodcock was there too.
Roy Johnston was the star of the band. The ‘Boy Wonder’ they called him. He joined the band in 1929 and
was their star trumpet soloist. By 1934, he had garnered no less than sixteen medals for his solo and quartet playing in various competitions. In those days, they used to give out medals to winning soloists or group players. In 1931, Roy played the flugelhorn solo in Haute Monde at the Canadian National Exposition Band Festival in Toronto. This was the test piece in the big competition that the band won (their first great victory). It made them National Champs! Roy’s music teacher told him he should look into this new band starting up in Kitsilano. Roy didn’t know anything about Arthur and he had never heard of the band. As mentioned they rehearsed in the little house at the back of General Gordon School. Arthur’s place was just across the fence. The boys sat on benches, five kids to a bench. Each bench accomodated six or seven kids but they had to keep their arms in close. Arthur said to Roy, “Sit there on the first chair!” Don Endicott sat next to Roy that first night. No one ever sat between them up until the day they both left. Before they started, Mr. D sat beside Roy. He asked him to move over because he wanted to talk to him. Mr. D asked him some questions. “How long have you been in the National Juvenile Band? How long have you been taking lessons? What do you think about their band?” Roy told him he was quitting. The last time that he heard them they really hadn’t done such a good job. He continued, “Mr Delamont, I heard them the other day and I thought they sounded like the devil.” Arthur said, “Don’t you ever talk like that in here again. Nobody swears in this place.” That was swearing to him. So Roy got beaten down before he even played a note. He’d done something wrong right away. He never did it again. Such was Mr. D’s influence. (Roy Johnston interview) Jack Allen also joined the band in 1929. Jack and Roy soon became great pals. Roy Johnston was in the band from 1929 to 1934. He later became a BC Hydro right of way agent and played professionally.
ABOVE: An early photo of Art Butroid in his front yard in Kitsilano. Art played E flat horn /French horn in Arthur’s first band and was a member of the brass quartet that took first place at the BC Music Festival from 1931 to 1934. They also took first place in Toronto in 1931. BELOW: The National Juvenile Band of William Hoskins Sara and Jack Parle wore Stetson hats and Mountie style uniforms. CVA-99-1907, Vancouver Archives
To order this book please go to our website at www.warfleetpress.com and click on the cover. Leave a message after the synopsis Thanks you! Chris Best Publisher
THE POWER OF
DELAMONT
When Arthur Delamont came to Vancouver in the 1920s he had a vision one day: to establish a youth band good enough to win international competitions against the very best adult bands. This is exactly what his Kitsilano Boys’ Band achieved. Chris Best uses hundreds of photos, candid interviews of former band members and a CD of vintage band excerpts to explain the Delamont phenomenon: his virtuoso trumpet playing, his showmanship, his leadership-- his uncanny ability to inspire hundreds of boys and girls to practice until they reached a remarkable level of musicianship. Delamont’s students also learned lifelong lessons about honesty, modesty, teamwork, the courage to take on difficult tasks, and self-confidence. It is largely thanks to Delamont’s example that the British Columbia Department of Education decided in 1961 to allocate generous funding for hundreds of band programs throughout the province. Dr. Robert Stuart Thomson, owner of Godwin Books. $49.95 Can