All this election stuff reminds me of an appearance by the Imperials at a rally for John Kennedy in 1960.

They organized a parade from a Loop hotel down Madison Street to the Ampitheatre (now gone) for a Kennedy rally. Lots of people and press.

Well, as I remember, the people along the parade route were pretty sparse and were mostly 'skid row' drunks hired to help boost the attendance. (Corps alums from those days might remember 'skid row')

It was interesting. We had to put some corps members up front to protect the color guard and female DMs from the drunks. And, it was really cold.

Don't know what benefit the corps got from this .. but I hope that it was worth the pain.

A few years before my time but I remember the Ampitheater well. Circus, Hockey, Concerts (best I saw there was Lynyrd Skynyrd/The Who).

What are we going to do with all the free time - missing all of the Political ads, calls, mailers...

Only 4 more years till we do it again

What did you do in the Corps? Tenor-Snare-Ass't Drum Instructor

What years were you a Corps member? 60-69

Were the skid row people filling out the ranks of the crowd or the corps?

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Bob, they did BOTH. They were there because 'da Mayor' paid them a stipend to appear and enlarge the crowd. But, many of them tried to march along with the corps .... it was a real pain.

Yeah, it was always fun when audiences thought it was ok to join in.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Speaking of audience participation, does anybody else remember the exhibition at Dunning? For the younger members, that was a mental institution at Irving Pk and Naragansett (sp). We fit right in...

John, I remember that well. There was some concern that they would let us OUT after the exhibition!

I also remember that we had to place guards with the equipment truck, etc .. because stuff could 'grow legs'.

The Cadets also marched in the Kennedy parade in 1960. As we were waiting to start Kennedy's car came by. I remember seeing him and also being pushed by the crowd.

I also remember Dunning parade/exibition. I think that was 1964 and it was during the day. The corps was younger that year and only a few of the kids dudn't make the parade because of jobs. It was interesting. I saw the Garfield (or whereever they are from now) Cadets director, George Hopkings, reacting to his corps show at Leland Stanford Junior Univesity a few years ago and his antics reminded me of the reaction of the inmates at Dunning.