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Jolly Jesters
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Alumni Corps
member, Tom Mellors marched with the Jolly
Jesters. |
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This corps was organized by a
group of men in the Militia and was a trumpet
and marching unit for the 5th Column, Royal
Canadian Army Service Corps. The uniform at the
time was the army dress blues with white pith
helmet. Because of active duty during the war
years, the corps was disbanded but reformed in
1947-48 and continued to be a parade corps until
entering and winning the Canadian Drum Corps
Championships (Senior Novice Class) in 1952.
After attending a contest in Batavia NY in 1954
and realizing just what could be done with a
drum corps, the director at that time, Ted
Riley, put his full effort into creating a show
and in 1955 this corps performed the first full
Canadian M&M show.
A slight alteration to the uniform was made in
1956 - the blue jacket being replaced by a sky
blue and royal blue satin blouse. It was also
this year that the corps received its first
invitation to a major American contest -
appearing in Albany NY and drawing tremendous
applause from the audience.
Shortly after this, an invitation to participate
in a four week competition sponsored by the
Toronto Argonaut Football Club was accepted.
Four corps took part in this competition, each
one appearing during half time ceremonies at a
home football game. The Jesters came out on top
of this contest. In order to avoid conflict with
union and army regulations, the corps rented
clown costumes for this appearance and adopted
the name " The Jolly Jesters". The name and the
show caught on so quickly that it was
unanimously decided that the corps would appear
the following year in the clown uniforms and
carry on as the "Jolly Jesters". In 1957 the
corps appeared in red and white satin clown
costumes , with the drum major varying his
costume from that of a court jester to that of a
comical tramp. During this year the corps
increased its popularity and was invited to
appear in top contests throughout the United
States. Serious thought was given to reverting
back to the dress blues in 1960 in an attempt to
create a more serious image and winning type of
show. A slight performance error caused us to
narrowly miss winning the Canadian Championships
during this year.
It was also decided to change the name to "The
Jesters" at this time and so once more the corps
appeared in new uniforms and carried a new name.
1961 was a difficult year for the corps but it
carried on and with the aid of top ranking
instructors fought back, despite small numbers,
to place a good 4th in the championship contest.
With the addition of excellent talent in 1962
the corps hit the field in larger numbers and
immediately established itself as a top unit.
This was proven by the fact the Jesters won the
Canadian National Championship colour guard
trophy and placed 2nd at the Canadian Nationals
in Waterloo, Ontario.
A great deal of the improvements this year were
made possible by the fact that in July, the
corps received its biggest break yet by
attaining full sponsorship by the Metropolitan
Toronto Police Association.
(Bruce: I loved this corps..the half red/half
white clown suits were genius as the corps
flashed red and white in sequence as they
marched. They used to snap the horns up on the
starting line and release coloured balloons as
they stepped off. And a kick ass hard core
rudimental drum line that one could still drool
over...)(I
found this write-up on the internet. It was
supplied by Bruce Lindsay.) |
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Jolly
Jesters (1958) |
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