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Antique band transportation / wagons
Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2025 11:49 am
by bisontuba
Just some neat stuff from days gone by....fyi...thank you IBEW...
GH196-bandwagons.pdf
http://www.ibew.org.uk/GH196-bandwagons.pdf
Re: Antique band transportation / wagons
Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2025 8:55 pm
by Jperry1466
How cool! I have seen such wagons/trailers used by shrine bands in parades, although I don't recall any being horse-drawn. Even the shapes were the same.
Re: Antique band transportation / wagons
Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2025 11:26 pm
by tofu
While I’m well aware of the Circus Band Wagons having played on them back when the Great Circus Parade was still being held in Milwaukee and at the very end of it up in Baraboo, WI (home of the Circus World Museum and former summer home of the RIngling Bros. Circus) - I didn’t realize individual town bands had their own dedicated wagons. Fascinating.
Interestingly the Mason City Iowa band is picutred on an electric band wagon - they were ahead of their time
I’d say it looks to be around 1910-1914 time period - electrics were pretty popular in big cities in that time period (especially among women) but I’m surprised to see one in Mason City. If you ever see say an old Detroit Electric coupe of that period it would have maybe 20 big lead acid batteries in it. That wagon must of had an even bigger number. Can’t imagine they traveled outside of Mason City in that. An interesting choice for the day.
Towns really had pride in their local bands and citizen members. Instruments were really expensive as were those wagons so towns must of dug deep. You don’t see that kind of town pride much any more outside of sports teams.
It always amazes me for as much as feminists talk about how suppressed women were way back in the day I’m struck by the large number of girl and women bands shown here. They clearly had good support and an audience that came to listen. There were also girl basketball and baseball leagues back then and the teams traveled. It seems that around 1860 or the start of the Civil War treatment of women started to change and improve as the 20th century dawned. They achieved the right to vote in 1920 - and promptly led the campaign to ban booze.
Re: Antique band transportation / wagons
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2025 6:58 am
by bloke
sidebar:
Having played in several parades that involved being pulled down the street on a trailer, It ain't easy.
Re: Antique band transportation / wagons
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2025 9:05 am
by shovelingtom
bloke wrote: Mon Oct 06, 2025 6:58 am
sidebar:
Having played in several parades that involved being pulled down the street on a trailer, It ain't easy.
- IMG_2275.jpeg (146.7 KiB) Viewed 1230 times
This one involved the tuba player hurling screamed curses at the driver at various points.
Re: Antique band transportation / wagons
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2025 9:22 am
by bloke
yes...and (for the life of me, I can't remember where...??...One of them was in a large (not Memphis) city on a REALLY LARGE trailer (the band plus a whole bunch of mucky-mucks), and it was still VERY bumpy...possibly (??) in the UK or Holland...
Re: Antique band transportation / wagons
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2025 2:26 pm
by prodigal
Honestly, I think marching with a sousaphone would be safer.
Re: Antique band transportation / wagons
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2025 3:05 pm
by Stryk
LOVE this!
Re: Antique band transportation / wagons
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2025 11:54 pm
by tofu
bloke wrote: Mon Oct 06, 2025 6:58 am
sidebar:
Having played in several parades that involved being pulled down the street on a trailer, It ain't easy.
lol
Try doing it 16 feet in the air on top a 4000 pound circus wagon with solid axle solid wood wheels - crammed shoulder to shoulder with 12 other musicians sitting on wood planks that are 10 inches off the floor - being pulled by 4 - 16 horses through densely crowded streets (300,000) filled with crazy people full of beer (parade originally sponsored by Schlitz (the Beer that made Milwaukee Famous) and in the later years by Miller Brewing. You prayed the old wooden brake shoes on the wagons could handle the steep decent of Wisconsin Ave especially when you came up on the hard right 90 degree turn! Just gettin on top those wagons was an odyssey involving climbing a too short extension ladder while holding on to your horn with one hand while hoisting yourself up the last 4 feet with the other. One year our wagon was in line waiting for the start of the parade and one of the largest of the circus wagons that held maybe a circus band of 30 pulled along side the wagon in front of us. Out of nowhere the idiot director started blasting (rehearsing) a circus march. The 4 big horses of the wagon in front of us bolted hard left and the wagon tilted about 30 degrees before the two handlers got a hold of the reins and just barely managed the wagon/horses back even keel. That was scary as people on top could have not only been seriously injured but killed. Thank god the two guys handling the wagon I was on were pros and the 4 horses we had stayed calm through it all. That whole parade I was worried our horses might get spooked - with the wagon getting tipped over and the 300lb. bass drummer and even heavier snare drummer I was sandwiched in between on the bench would land on top me and my helicon.
Maybe 40 years ago my jazz combo did a 4th of july parade on the back of a pickup truck. Our drummer was a wonderful old guy - in the Navy band on a ship at Pearl Harbor - he also played tuba interestingly in the Navy Band back then. He had a drum kit that could be best described as ancient eclectic. Half way through the parade the nut on top the symbol either failed or wasn’t proper secured but the symbol came flying off landing squarely on the end of my shoe. For reasons I can’t remember I had worn steel toe work shoes to that gig - foot still hurt like heck from that symbol drop but nothing got broken.
Re: Antique band transportation / wagons
Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2025 8:35 am
by humBell
tofu wrote: Mon Oct 06, 2025 11:54 pm
bloke wrote: Mon Oct 06, 2025 6:58 am
sidebar:
Having played in several parades that involved being pulled down the street on a trailer, It ain't easy.
lol
Try doing it 16 feet in the air on top a 4000 pound circus wagon with solid axle solid wood wheels - crammed shoulder to shoulder with 12 other musicians sitting on wood planks that are 10 inches off the floor - being pulled by 4 - 16 horses through densely crowded streets (300,000) filled with crazy people full of beer (parade originally sponsored by Schlitz (the Beer that made Milwaukee Famous) and in the later years by Miller Brewing. You prayed the old wooden brake shoes on the wagons could handle the steep decent of Wisconsin Ave especially when you came up on the hard right 90 degree turn! Just gettin on top those wagons was an odyssey involving climbing a too short extension ladder while holding on to your horn with one hand while hoisting yourself up the last 4 feet with the other. One year our wagon was in line waiting for the start of the parade and one of the largest of the circus wagons that held maybe a circus band of 30 pulled along side the wagon in front of us. Out of nowhere the idiot director started blasting (rehearsing) a circus march. The 4 big horses of the wagon in front of us bolted hard left and the wagon tilted about 30 degrees before the two handlers got a hold of the reins and just barely managed the wagon/horses back even keel. That was scary as people on top could have not only been seriously injured but killed. Thank god the two guys handling the wagon I was on were pros and the 4 horses we had stayed calm through it all. That whole parade I was worried our horses might get spooked - with the wagon getting tipped over and the 300lb. bass drummer and even heavier snare drummer I was sandwiched in between on the bench would land on top me and my helicon.
Maybe 40 years ago my jazz combo did a 4th of july parade on the back of a pickup truck. Our drummer was a wonderful old guy - in the Navy band on a ship at Pearl Harbor - he also played tuba interestingly in the Navy Band back then. He had a drum kit that could be best described as ancient eclectic. Half way through the parade the nut on top the symbol either failed or wasn’t proper secured but the symbol came flying off landing squarely on the end of my shoe. For reasons I can’t remember I had worn steel toe work shoes to that gig - foot still hurt like heck from that symbol drop but nothing got broken.
They don't make 'em like they used to...
(i came back to the thread after looking at the pics a second time, and finally noticing they were in alphabetical order by band name...)