1947

On the way to California.  Their first concert is in Klamath Falls. It is over 100 degrees when they arrive. There is a constant flurry of handkerchiefs and fans as the uncomfortable crowd watches their performance. Our discomfort is much worse. Dressed in black pants and white shirts we wear a crimson/black cape around our shoulders and tightly clasped at the throat. The music stands flash in the glaring light and seem to intensify the heat on stage. Mr. “D” in his white suit is perspiring freely as he conducts us through the final opus. There is generous applause from the audience, quick praise from our host and then a mass exit to the cool darkness outside.

We return to a school gym later in the evening to bed down on old army cots. It has been a long day and that combined with the humidity has sapped all of us. Normally on such a trip there would be some horsing around but fatigue rules the night. Lights are extinguished and soon the labored sleep and snores of a tired band punctuate the night. It is perhaps 2am. when the first thump is heard followed by a quiet curse. And then seconds later three more thumps jar the blackness of the night. “What the hell is going on?” someone yells. “Turn on the goddamn lights” shouts another. The gym lit up and we gaze upon the clutter of cots and the four guys that have fallen clear through to the hard floor. The room erupts in laughter and then more cots disintegrate followed by crashing bodies with legs sticking through the ripped material. Within minutes there are nary a one left. It is absolute bedlam. That morning, as we dress blurry eyed for the bus trip to L.A., it is learned that the cots had been made years before to help the Japanese who suffered many casualties in the 1923 earthquake. The cots never reached Japan but languished in storage until the Kits massacre.

Down in California. Kenny meets Jimmy Durante. The boys spend one week in L.A. playing five concerts at Clem Davies Ministry that he has moved down from Victoria. Seems he needed to get out of town in a hurry. Clem comes out in a flowing crimson robe every bit as flamboyant as the boys’ uniform and mesmerizes the audience. Roy meets Red Ryder. They all have funny little cameras and ball point pens which have just been invented. Glen sees Gene Krupa. They all keep diaries which read thirteen cents for this and ten cents for that. All most of them have to spend is ten dollars.

Quotes from Ambassadors of Empire Season 2 Episode 5:

Clem Davies: “This band is also the voice of God. These young and talented musicians have come all the way from Canada tonight to entertain you.”

Mayor McGeer: “You have done good work on behalf of the city and helped with good relations south of the border. If there were forty Kitsilano Boys’ Bands in this city this would be a good city indeed.”

Arthur: “Clarinet players who play jazz lose all their tone.”

Arthur: “Trumpet players who play jazz lose their embouchures.”

Gordon Laird; “The stage was our home.”

Gordon Laird: “He was famous for having ringers show up all over the place.”

Clem Davis: “I bless one for the congregation and the other for this splendid band of young men. Before you depart my good friends take two capsules of this holy water and double your generous contributions.”