1933

Three new boys arrive at General Gordon Jack Benstead, Harry Bigsby and Dallas Richards. They are eager to go on Arthur’s next trip with the band which he has just announced will be Chicago and Delamont is pleased to have them, all clarinet players. They are deserters from William Hoskin Sara’s National Juvenile Band. Joan Agnew and Phoebe Findlay ask Mr. Delamont if he will start a girl’s band so she and the other sisters of his boys can have a band to play. She overhears Jack questioning Dallas Richards how Delamont is going to get the band to Chicago. After he agrees to start a girl’s band they leave but not before Joan tells Jack not to worry, he got the band to Toronto.

Jack Allen,Harry Bigsby,Ben Temoin, Jack Habkirk

In the band, the boys eagerly anticipate their new goal and wonder if they are up to the challenge. The band is all abuzz about going to the Chicagoland Band Festival and entering the Junior Band Championship of the World. Gordon tells the new boys not to worry his dad will get them all to Chicago, especially Jack. Jack is a little taken back by his boldness. Gordon talks to a few other boys in case any of them have any doubts promising that his dad and Garry have everything under control. Gordon tells Jimmy Findlay that it is great his dad is going to start a girl’s band. Jimmy isn’t so pleased. Telling him they really just want to get close to you. The first rehearsal of the girl’s band takes place and Gordon is there with his dad and so is Garry. It doesn’t take long for sparks to fly between Joan and Phoebe. But Gordon seems to be enjoying it all and compares the situation to a Roman orgy. Garry is doubtful either will be successful.

Garry receives a mysterious note, makes a mysterious trip down to the Pantages and brings back a mysterious parcel. The mystery is revealed when a smartly dressed young man named Dave Denton interrupts a band rehearsal and tells the boys he is part of a vaudeville duo called Madame Olga Petrovich. On cue, a well-endowed Russian countess enters stage left. It is Garry dressed up in his vaudeville attire as Madame Olga Petrovich to the delight of all the boys. Seems one of the boys saw Garry dressing up and threatened to tell. All is forgiven and as usual Garry saves the day!

Phoebe arrives at band practice and offers her services to help raise money for the trip. Gordon says he needs someone to help him organize the music. She has had some book keeping training at her father’s law firm so she figures that’s not too far off. Arthur is hesitant but gives his approval. Surprisingly, she does a good job. Joan hears about it and also comes down to offer her services but she is too late. Seeing as how Phoebe likes sorting music so much and is so good at it, Arthur makes her his head music librarian. Joan is not impressed until Gordon asks her to accompany him to the corner malt shop. Phoebe is too busy.

Freddie Woodcock now a mellophone player complains that Art, Doug and Ron, the other mellophone players leave him nothing to do and he doesn’t like it. The others later tell him he looks silly playing a mellophone. Arthur tells the other boys that everyone has a place in the band and tells Freddie he will rewrite his parts so they are more interesting.

The boys play everywhere to raise the money to go to Chicago stopping again at whistle-stops along the way. They play several concerts at the Chicago World’s Fair and win the contest 13 ½ points ahead of their closest rival. That evening they march around Soldier’s Field and the next day see a Chicago White Sox game at Comisky Park. On the train ride home they stop and give a concert in Moose Jaw. The whole town is down at the train station to greet the Champs when they arrive back in Vancouver.

Quotes from Ambassadors of Empire , Season 1 Episode 2:

Mr. Donaldson, Century of Progress exposition, Chicago: “There is no doubt that your band would be a decided attraction.”

Bellboy: “Did you know Al Capone used to won this hotel? Well he did and on the top floor there is a shooting gallery where dummy cops pop up!”

Newspaper: “Hail the Champion Boy’s Band of the World.”

Andy Gleeson, Kitsilano Times: “It was another win for Vancouver and this great and glorious colony of Great Britain.”

Quote: “The nearest approach to a Sousa Band ever heard.”

R.D.L. I find my memory reflecting to another August evening, when, in somewhat similar surroundings, I was awaiting the appearance of a famous band. It was in the grounds of the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901 that I first heard the much-heralded “Sousa’s band.”

RDL: But it is difficult to imagine him having any greater control over his men than Arthur Delamont, our former fellow-townsman, has over his boys tonight. They synchronize to every beat of his baton, they respond to every movement of his hand. The program is quite as varied as any of Sousa’s ever was, a few standard pieces, a collection of well loved operatic melodies, some of the popular airs of the day, a sweet and solemn hymn tune in which some wonderful tone effects were produced, and a great collection of Scottish gems as a fitting finish. As the whole tone of the band is heard in Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot, the environment of 1901 becomes more real than ever. How well I remember the crowd around the bandstand: youth and beauty, laughter and lightheartedness. I look with a new attention at the crowd around me tonight. It seems much the same as the former one. But I have changed! Let us see. I move quietly through the crowd. Every now and then friendly salutations greet my ear. Eyes sparkle and pretty lips are parted in winning smiles. Alas, they are not for me. My son is walking by my side. A generation has gone – a new one has risen.”

Friend: “The whole town is down to greet you Arthur.”

Arthur: I don’t want you to think we ran away with the trophy. He pointed to the silver cup at his feet. There were ten junior bands competing, and in my opinion the first, second, and third were very close. When the marks were given out and we were 24 ½ points ahead, it was only a matter of whoopee.”””Roy Johnston: “Arthur was different from other musicians of the day. He did not drink or use profanity and he prospered. Mickey Hunt was another professional trumpet player around Vancouver in those days. Mickey Hunt played at the Hotel Vancouver. There was a tunnel underneath the hotel that led to the Castle Hotel. When the first show was over, the band would all go over to the Castle and sit there until it was time to go back for the second show. Mickey could drink twenty glasses between shows and still play a good show. I took lessons from Mickey Hunt. My dad would meet Mickey once a month at the hotel and he would pay him for my lessons. By the time my dad left Mickey, all the money he had given him had been spent. He never owned a home. He always lived in a rental place. He ended up on welfare, in a city-owned house near fourth and Alma. He lived there until he went into the hospital where his legs were amputated and he died. There were lots of stories about the escapades of Mickey Hunt! That was the way so many were.”

Arthur: “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!”

Mrs. MacDonald: “I’ve got a second mortgage I think you will be interested in.”

Roy Johnston: “Interest is pretty good on those. That’s what he did after he sold off all his real estate. That was the secret of his success. When his job was over, he would go home.”

Roy Johnston: “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.”

Arthur: “All music belongs to the Lord.”

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

Western Canada Radio News: “Emerson said that, ‘If a man made a better mouse trap than his neighbor, the world would make a beaten track to his door,” which is very true. But we might qualify Emerson and say, if a man made a better mouse trap than his neighbor, they would all start to imitate his. Inevitably the success of one man in some branch of endeavor fires the imaginations of many more to excel in that same line. This is what Delamont achieved. After the Kitsilano Boys won the world championship in Chicago, juvenile bands received a great impetus in Vancouver and Vancouver became, ‘juvenile band conscious’.”