With the close of the school year in June 1949, the UCLA Band completed the most successful season in the history of the school. For all those members who helped make it such a success by participation, either in the fall or spring semester, or both, this booklet is compiled as a resume of what the band accomplished for the complete year. It also serves as a permanent record and souvenir program for all bandsmen.
Included in these pages are facts, lists of performances, and statistics which show that the Band was not only the largest school organization (out of 192 recognized organizations), but it also proved to be both a top group in self-administration, besides being a highly efficient one in getting things done in a hurry with spectacular results. This certainly could not have be accomplished without complete cooperation and spirit - esprit de corps, that is - from everyone in the Band.
In the Fall of 1946 - the first full season after the war ended - the Band started regaining momentum under the very capable direction and organization of Leroy W. Allen, UCLA's beloved builder of better bands, personal friend of all bandsmen past and present since the birth of the Band at UCLA and the only man to take the Band into the Rose Bowl on two New Year's days. Falling under the supervision of two genial men of melody and astute administration - Patton McNaughton and C. B. Hunt - in the fall of 1947, while Mr. Allen was enjoying a well-earned sabbatical leave, the Band forged ahead like the Super Chief on a straight track. In two years it has not yet stopped making history in musical accomplishments and performances at all college and civic affairs. These records can be attributed directly to the drive and infectious enthusiasm that Mr. McNaughton and Mr. Hunt transferred to personnel in the Band who were willing to work hard and long and were able to play well. (Pat was formerly associated with bands at the Universities of Nebraska and Michigan. C. B. was head of the band at George Peabody College for Teachers in Tennessee). The Great Bruin Band stands out as a striking example of what can happen when a new organization is set up and the whole group gets firmly behind its leaders.
During the past year the Band was rated by many writers and critics as the best university band on the pacific coast. For one, Will Connolly, sports writer of the San Francisco Chronicle, devoted a major part of two sports columns to the Band at the UCLA-Cal football game in Berkeley. "That UCLA Band is simply Gre-a-a-t!" was the headline of one column. For his friendly publicity Mr. Connolly was awarded the position of Honorary Drum Major in the Band - the first one ever awarded at UCLA, if records are correct.
During football season, as spectators sat comfortably back in their seats after the first half of a hard-fought football game, they glanced down at the Blue and Gold clad figures parading onto the field in their casual-cardigan or military uniforms. As they played their flashy silver and gold instruments and weaved into one formation after another, it probably never occurred to the spectators how much time and work were put into providing just 12 minutes of entertainment for the 344,000 people who watched the half-time activities of the Great Bruin Band at seven home games in the Los Angeles Coliseum and one at the Memorial Stadium at Berkeley.
In order to tell the full story of how over 100 men and women were at the right places and at the right time and were playing the right music to accompany a half-time formation, it is necessary to go back to last summer when a committee of bandsmen gathered every Thursday night in the band room on the UCLA campus to discuss and plan the Bruin Band's coming football productions of the season.
First of all an idea had to be found; that is, a theme for each game upon which the plan for the sequence of formations could be based. After the idea was uncovered, formations were drawn on a blackboard to get a rough draft of how they should look. Since a drawing on a blackboard does not look like a group of people standing on a football field, some means of representing actual conditions had to be found.
A large board, about the size of a ping-pong table, was made by Drum Major Gordon Wheatley and bandsman Jim Saunders to represent a football field. The white yardlines and even the numbers on the field were all drawn to the scale of one inch to one yard. ''Men" two inches tall were made by Art Talbert to represent the actual members of the Band. The formations could then be set up on the board and the committee could see what the formation would be like on the field and make adjustments necessary to create the desired effect.
The next step in preparing the formations was the copying of the formation "man-for-man" from the board on a stencil which would later be used to duplicate a set of plans for each member of the band. The dots which represented the correct position on the field also had to be numbered to designate which bandsmen went where. The positions are numbered in such a way as to bring to a minimum the number of steps a man would take in changing formations and so that men in the same file would follow one another from one formation to another.
The Band is, to our knowledge, the only college band in the United States that writes its own arrangements for its half-time activities. A committee arranged music selected by the formation committee as appropriate for each formation. The arrangements were then duplicated and parts were printed out to the band members when the occasion arose
All this pre-season frenetic activity paid off for the first time at the first football game in September. By scheduling rehearsals every day during registration week, the Band was able to present its first polished production of fall, with a full complement of bandsmen, at the UCLA-Washington State game, Saturday night, September 18 - the weekend before school even started:
Add to all the above the work put in by all band members at the weekly Tuesday and Thursday two-hour rehearsals and the Saturday morning three-hour rehearsal; add the work of Drum Major Gordon Wheatley and Twirler Hap Westbrook; add the time consumed in arranging for transportation, building props and getting meals; add the time spent in notifying radio and television of the half-time events planned; and the thousand and one other time-consuming details that crop up and you might have some idea of the work it takes to put a band on the field.
Yes, and all this time together and leave out the time the band takes to play at other school functions during fall and you will find that for every 15 minutes of half-time activities the band spends on the average 3,000 man hours of preparation.
Every fall one of the highlights to which the Band looks forward is the big football weekend by train up to San Francisco. Last November was no exception, when the entire band, including two photographers, five general assistants, and two sponsors boarded the Southern Pacific Football Special at Glendale on Thursday night, November 4. It proved to be one of the greatest weekends up north that the band has ever experienced. Not only did the Band participate in special parades and a gigantic bonfire-rally on Friday, but all bandsmen played and shouted themselves absolutely out of voice by cheering for the team on Saturday. Papers and people afterwards commented on the ebullience of the Band at Berkeley, and how it touched off the spark that started a new spirit era at Westwood for the team and the entire rooting section for the rest of the year.
Immediately after football season the Band began playing for all home basketball games. With radio and television pickups made inside the Men's Gym, the Westwood musicians performed for a total of 14 basketball games and helped blow the team on to the Southern Division championship.
Not content to sit back after a successful football season and relax by playing already published and played concert band selections, the UCLA Concert Band settled down to really make music history during the spring semester. On May 10 they presented a concert in Royce Hall featuring all original scores by outstanding American contemporary composers. All selections were written especially for the UCLA Band. This is believed to be the first instance anywhere in the country where a complete program of contemporary music was written for and dedicated to a college band for its concert.
The feature presentation was the first performance of a new work by the eminent American composer Roy Harris, entitled "The Fruit of Gold", a symphonic fantasy written in commemoration of the Centennial Anniversary of the California gold rush. The composition was written on the commission of the Associated Students of UCLA, and also marks the first time in the history of band music that a university has taken such action.
Dr. Harris conducted his own composition. His wife, the well-known Johanna Harris, played the piano part.
Conducted by Mr. McNaughton and Mr. Hunt, the other works presented were "Three Village Sketches" by Dr. Boris Kremelniev of the UCLA music faculty; "Capitol Sketches" by Harold Kidder, author of "Symphonic Opus" which was played last year, and who is now teaching in New Mexico; "Royce Hall Suite" by Healy Willan, head of the Department of Theory, University of Toronto Conservatory of Music, Ontario, Canada; and the opening movement of the "First Symphony For Band" by Kendall Capps, Jr., Bruin Band music student.
Whereas the usual band libraries are built around transcriptions from orchestral scores of overtures and symphonies, Mr. McNaughton and Mr. Hunt conceived the idea of an all-original manuscript concert at an early date. They wanted Bruin musicians to interpret music composed solely for band instrumentation, designed to bring out the great tonal color and brilliance of the symphonic band. It only remained for a myriad of details to be worked out, and when the concert was finally set up, for everyone concerned to devote many hours of had work and extra rehearsals to make it another Bruin Band musical success.
To call a screeching halt to this great year's hustle of activity, the annual Band Banquet was held on Tuesday, May 31. This time the staff wanted to finish off the year in royal style by holding the banquet off campus. The "Bit of Sweden Restaurant'' on the Sunset Strip was selected, and all band members and their guests were able to "guide right" around the smorgasbord table. Before dinner everyone attended a broadcast of the Bob Hope radio program. After the banquet color movies of fall half-time formations were shown, and 42 band awards letters were passed out. Ralph Shaffer began his term of office as the newly elected band manager.
The big disappointment of the spring term was the realization that C, E. Hunt will not be back at UCLA next fall. He will fold his tent and silently steal away back home to Tennessee, where he teaches in the Music Department of Peabody College in Nashville. No one will be missed so much at UCLA by so many people!
So ends the school year in spring of 1949. All returning bandsmen can look ahead with anticipation to another great season. And everybody can also look back with a feeling of pride that he has been a part of an organization that has contributed so much to college life and that has accomplished what it set out to do - to be the best band that UCLA students and directors could produce.
Cliff Cole
June 1949
(with thanx to Jerry Schlapik and Pete Matz, Great Bruin Band publicity chairmen, for use of certain material)
