| Golden Memories |
|
Chapters |
| .We held our second election of officers and Sam Litzenberg
was elected President for year '92 -'93. We held our first annual Barbershop
Singer's Sale and Membership Drive and raised over $600 for our chapter
and added four new members. We now had 18-20 members that attended meetings
on a regular basis. With the money, we purchased our first "show duds",
added to our music library and planned our first Christmas season public
show.
Our first show, "Barbershop Harmony at Christmas", held in the Longview Community Theatre in mid December, was written by the late Don Florey, and produced by Charlie Parker, with the chorus directed by Darrell Stevens. We were such a small group by other SWD chorus standards that Don asked barbershoppers from the Kilgore, Nacogdoches, and Shreveport chapters to help us out. We ended up with 30 voices for the show and featured Those Sabine River Bottom Tuneshiners comedy quartet. Jim Uhier of the Shreveport chapter performed his "Cajun Night Before Christmas" and a good time was had by all who attended. "Lonesome" Charlie Parker was elected President for our '93 -'94 year. We continued our "Telephone Thoughtfuls" program, but had to limit it to 4 calls per week because of time restraints. We began our "39 in '93 membership drive with Lyle Putman as chairman. With the promotion, we gained voices and our active membership grew to the point where we applied for our SPEBSQSA Charter. The Nacogdoches Chapter was gracious enough to act as our sponsor. During the rehearsals for our first summer show, Don Florey announced that the famous "Tulsa Tradition" quartet had accepted our invitation to appear as the headliners. To add to our excitement, we received word that our application for charter had been accepted and our charter certificate was to be presented during the summer show now entifled "Barbershop Harmony .An American Tradition". The appearance of the "Tulsa Tradition", with an unknown chorus like the F.U.N. Bunch was the "icing on the cake", and brought barbershop harmony fans from outside the area to attend the show. Their performance made all of us realize what true barbershop harmony is supposed to sound like. We continued our community service efforts with performances in Longview, Kilgore, Marshall and Henderson. We were invited to perform at the Marshall, Texas "Festival Of Lights" to open their Christmas season and used this as a vehicle to promote our upcoming Christmas Show. The show, "Holiday Harmony" was directed by Don Florey and featured the "Sabine Riverbottom Tuneshiners". This was our third Christmas show |
and was held in the T. G. Fields Auditorium in Longview.
1994 was an exciting year for our new chapter. Jerome Orr was elected President and we held our most successful Barbershop Singers Sale and Membership Drive. In the summer of 1994 we presented our version of the "Phantom of the Barbershop". The show was co-directed by Jim Stone, a dual member from the Shreveport Chapter and Richard Krogh, a member of our chapter. Richard's past history includes being an actor and official photographer for the SPEBSQSA in Kenosha. This show featured the talents of the "Driftwood" quartet. Another '93 -'94 year highlight for our group was being invited to be the official "mike testers" at the regional SPEBSQSA chorus competition in Dallas. There we lived up to our name "F.U.N. Bunch" and received a standing ovation from the audience. In December we presented our fourth Christmas Show, "Christmas Time FUN is OK", produced by Don Florey and directed by Shreveport's Jim Stone. To top our previous shows which featured the likes of Those Sabine Riverbottom Tuneshiners, Driftwood" and the "Tulsa Tradition", it was necessary to bring out the "big guns". We did it again through Don Florey's efforts. With his connections, he was able to get a commitment to do our show from the famous OK 4 quartet. Their superb performance, along with the LeTourneau Young Men's Chorus helped us present our most successful show to date. Lyle Putman, who had been our membership chairman, was elected President of our chapter for 1995 and has guided this year's community service activities and the planning of our annual show. Our Chapter and all barbershoppers suffered tremendous loss July 15, 1995, when our mentor, Don Florey died. On the first of August in Longview, Don's good friend Richard McDaniel, our chapter and barbershoppers from four states presented a "A musical Tribute to Don Florey" for his wife, family and friends. This tribute made us all realize that with Don, our chapter had the best salesman the SPEBSQSA ever had. Over 400 barbershoppers and friends of barbershoppers attended. Our chapter started the evening's entertainment. In one segment, all barbershoppers who had ever sung a song with Don Florey were asked to join the our group and sing one more for Don". More than one hundred barbershoppers joined us on stage. Darrell Stevens directed and, "My Wild Irish Rose", never sounded better. It was a night of music that our chapter and all barbershoppers who attended will remember. The man may be gone . . . but his memory and love for barbershop harmony lingers on. |
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Contents |
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How It All Began Chapters Chapter Histories International Quartet Champions ChorusesAdministration
Contests and Conventions Registered Quartets Publications Recognitions In Conclusion