1928-1931

The curtain closes on another show at the Pantages vaudeville theatre with clown acts and dancing bears. As the lights come on and the musicians pack up, a young boy Freddy Woodcock comes over to Arthur Delamont. News of how he might get back to England with his own band and relive the trip that never was is delivered to him when the boy is able to easily blow a note on his trumpet. But it is more than reliving the trip, he wants the music of the Territorial Staff Band to live on. News always travels in twos and threes in the music business. The next day, Arthur sees boys hanging around the street corner by the school next to his house. He goes over to see Captain Steeves the principal and tells him he is thinking of starting a boy’s band. Vaudeville is on its way out and so will he be if he doesn’t find another line of work, the writing is on the wall. He finds a new home at General Gordon.

Arthur has one son and one daughter. He doesn’t want him hanging around the street corner. He goes around the neighborhood handing out fliers announcing he is starting a boy’s band. It’s a longshot but he has come to like challenges ever since fate got the upper hand. The bigger the better. Boy’s start arriving on his doorstep daily. Clif is his first alto saxophone player. When Arthur finds out he can already play he signs him up immediately. As it turns out, there is lots of saxophones in the neighbourhood. A tenor sax arrives Herbie and another alto Alan. Now they have a trio. Norie is a champion cricket player but decides to take a stab at the trombone unlike his friend Gordy who starts on trombone but because he likes to hang around the Strand Theatre watching the drummer in the pit orchestra, he tells Mr. D as the boys call him that he will quit if he doesn’t let him play drums so he lets him. A real trombone player arrives in the form of Van. He lives at 2725 West 16^th. ‘Donald’ is one of many trumpet players. Arthur likes giving trumpet lessons because he plays one. He lives at 2239 Trafalgar Street. Van, Gordy and Donald all conspire to play together in a dance band at the ‘Alma Hall but don’t want Mr. D to know. He hates dance bands. The Alma Hall stands at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Alma in Kitsilano.

Ardie has a good life. He is the youngest in his family and he is spoiled. He becomes a pretty good trumpet player. Ardie goes to the movies a lot. His mother has a jar of coins which she lets Ardie help himself to, so he can go to the picture shows at least once a week. I guess she thinks it will be good for him. Doug comes from a wealthy family. His dad has some money in the stock market and gets it out before the crash of 1929. He has over a million dollars, an enormous amount in those days. He lives at 2745 Point Grey Road. Dougie is also in the band. He plays drums along with Gordie. He lives at 2476 West 6th Avenue. They all know each other. Doug is another boy in the neighborhood group. He is the practical joker and lives at 2834 West 3rd Avenue. Mack’s father becomes the first president of Arthur’s parents’ association, called “the Committee.” He leads the Committee from 1931 to 1936. Mack is a trumpet player and lives at 4573 West 1st Avenue. The boys all come from good homes. Doug’s father is the first secretary of the Committee and Jimmy ’s father is a chief magistrate of the Vancouver Law Courts. Both Doug and Jimmy play clarinet. Jimmy winds up doing some publicity for the band when it is on tour in England in 1936. Doug lives at 2516 West 6th Avenue and Jimmy lives at 6579 Maple Street.

Jack’s father becomes a city alderman in the 1930s. The Habkirk’s are from Winnipeg where Jack’s father worked as the composing room foreman at the Winnipeg Free Press. They live at 6210 Cypress Street. Other boys in the beginning include Wally, who plays baritone. He is the third boy to join Arthur’s band, after Gordon and Clif. The day Arthur announces to the students at General Gordon that he is forming a band, Wally runs all the way over to Arthur’s house to be the first in line. Then there are four boys who all play tuba, Walter, John, Stuart (who starts on trumpet but switches to tuba) and Dordie (who becomes a DJ). Pete is another and he plays trombone. Most of the boys live in close proximity to one another, within the boundaries of this up-and-coming new neighborhood on Vancouver’s west side called Kitsilano. Other ‘originals’ include Art (who becomes a Commander in the Canadian Navy during the war), Jack (who later runs a lumber company), Clifford (who becomes an Aide-de-Camp to a Canadian General in Italy during WWII), and Ross (who becomes an optometrist). Bob’s family owns the Hastings Park Raceway. Bob later becomes the director of the Ascot Jockey Club. George is another original, as is Phil who becomes a radio announcer. Freddie is there too. Roy Johnston is the star of the band. The ‘Boy Wonder’ they call him. He joins the band in 1929 and is their star trumpet soloist. Together, they become known as the General Gordon School Band and march in the homecoming parade for sprinter Percy Williams.  All these boys and many more will go on to become known as The Originals, a part of ‘The Greatest Generation.”

In the meantime, the stock market crashes and no one has any money. Fate is playing its hand again. Arthur decides to take his boy’s band to the 1930 Provincial Music Festival in Victoria anyway. He enlists an old vaudeville buddy, “Garry” Garfield White who is also the head ticket agent for the CPR. Garry gets them passage on the Princess Alice ferry to Victoria and puts them up at the Empress Hotel, a CP hotel. As it turns out, it is harder than it looks and they come in second. Back home, Arthur looks around for another festival and he finds one in Toronto the following year but how to get there, “Garry” to the rescue. He lines up two Colonist (Pullman) cars for the two week trip, peanut butter, jam and bread supplied by Safeway Stores. Before they depart, it is back to Victoria and another shot at the Provincial Music Festival. This time they are victorious and head to Toronto as Provincial champions.

Always innovative, Arthur has his boys out on the platform at each whistle stop playing for the townsfolk and other passengers. Whether at home or on tour, he wants them to always be up for the job. In Toronto, the adjudicators are out for blood. They don’t think there are any good bands out west. They can’t believe their eyes when the number of Arthur’s band appears at the top of all their score cards. Unable to change the outcome they succeed in getting revenge by telling them they will mail them home their customary medals. A British adjudicator comes over to Arthur and says, “That was a mighty fine win Mr. Delamont, you completely outclassed all those Toronto bands.” Arthur feels better now. They are now National Champions.

Ambassadors of Empire Season 1 Episode 1, Quotes:

Music Supervisor for Schools: “Those little dears!”

Clif: “When word got around that Arthur Delamont was starting a boy’s band in Kitsilano everyone joined.”

Clif: “Do I have to transpose this?”

Mr. Steeves: “If you place first in the Canadian national Exhibition band Festival in Toronto I will buy you a new car.”

Roy: “I heard them the other day and I thought they sounded like the devil.”

Delamont: “Don’t you ever talk like that again in here.”

CNE Official: “If you want to come the test piece is Haute Monde.”

James Oliver of the St. Hilda’s Band from London, England: “Congratulations Mr. Delamont that was an easy win. You completely outclassed those Ontario bands in your category.”

James Oliver: “And that brass quartet they simply astonished the judges. It was an enviable victory for all your boys.”

Moose Jaw newspaper; “Come hear a band of real indians.”

Townsfolk: “What, no indians?”

J.N. Eagleson, Supervisor of Music for Edmonton Schools: “I don’t believe I have ever heard a band in which tone and timing and general ensemble were so well mastered as this one.”

Toronto Adjudicators: “There must be some mistake. That is a senior band on the stand now.”

Arthur: “If I charge twenty-five cents a lesson twice a week for each boy and one dollar for private lessons, we could probably do quite well.”

Arthur: “Instead of going all the way home why don’t you come over and have dinner at our house.”

Boy: “Hills, Mr. D wants to see you!”