Golden Memories  River Cities Jubilee         Chapters Shortly before receiving the charter, Worth Hodges, Jr., joined the group and became the third president. He remembers one of the first performances being for the local CPA meeting at the Shreveport Country Club. This led to a performance for the Regional CPA annual conference in Many, Louisiana. In 1950, the Monday night meetings were moved to the Washington-Youree Hotel in downtown Shreveport. At one time there were as many as 70 paid members on the roster. The meetings were well attended and robust woodshedding was the order the day. Gang (chorus) singing was from a list of songs with only the words printed! Most members believed that barbershop was to be sung in a woodshed manner and that arranged music was for "long-hair" musicians. The "break time" during meetings would sometime last for over an hour because most members were woodshedding in various corners of the hotel and having a wonderful time. Structured meetings with printed music and chorus rehearsal came later. Then at the end of each Monday evening, the group would perform in the hotel lobby for the guests present. Quartets and chorus would perform for about 30 minutes to" pay the rent". This also succeeded in promoting barbershopping around the town. At one time, the "Mobil Oil Travel Guide" listed this lobby performance an one of the features of visiting Shreveport. May25, 1951 was the date of the first big show, a "Festival of Harmony" in the C. E. Byrd High School auditorium-featuring a chorus of 35 directed by Peyton Carter and ten (!) local quartets. One was the Bellaires Quartet with Ernie Turner, Charlie Melton, Milton Herbert and Wayne Dillman. Sponsored by the Civitan Club with the proceeds benefiting the Caddo Foundation for Exceptional Children. Years later, the 1955 Southwestern District Convention and Contest was held in this same school. At that convention, Dallas member, Hank Lewis, gave Shreveport chorus director, Ernie Turner, a new arrangement of "Old Black Joe". Ernie presented it to the members at the next Monday night meeting and almost lost his chorus director's position over this first introduction of printed arrangements! Years later, new chapter member Jim Clancy had some of his early scores rejected because they were too modern!! One of the early performances featured Pat Murphy, a showman with a minstrel background, who sang a solo of "Shine On Harvest Moon" in front of the chorus. Pat would sing the verse and then drop to one knee at the chorus for "Shine On, Shine on Harvest Moon". During one performance, before a live audience, Pat's knee hit the floor at the same time his voice hit "Shine" and his upper teeth blew  out of his mouth! Believe it-Pat caught the uppers in flight, kept singing right in time and placed them back in his mouth during the next breath spot!! In 1952, a large group from the Shreveport chapter traveled to Jackson, Mississippi for their annual show. Five guest quartets made up the show-The Flying L, Mid-States Four and the Statesmen Quartet were a part of that show. Shreveport was never the same afterwards! Their first "really big shew" was in the Shreveport Auditorium in 1956 with Jim Stone directing the chorus and the new international champs, Confederates, were the headline quartet. Annual shows have been produced almost every spring since then. In 1984, their first OKTOBERFEST was held: a one night festival complete with German bands, dancers and even a group of entertainers from the Wurstfest in New Braunfels, Texas. This event has proved very popular with Shreveport citizens. And, a Valentine singing program was introduced in 1989 with an average of over 150 valentines delivered each year. Charlie Holst was the first trained musician to be chorus director. He followed director Peyton Carter. Others were Bob Teague, Ernie Turner, Tom Wiginton, Jim Stone, Glenn Hutton, and Bifi Moring. A transfer member from Florida, Danny Whipple, was the first to really teach chorus singing as we know it today. He was a trained church choir director and a barbershop quartet member who had competed in the international quartet competition. During Danny's tenure, a bass singer named Jim Clancy joined and sang in a quartet with Tom Wiginton, Danny and Bob Bell. They were a quartet named the "Tetra-chords" and placed in the top ten in the Southwestern District. Directors following Danny were Ron Thiebeaud, Jesse Dean, Frank Dahlberg, Al Landry, Mike McLallen and Dwain Brobst. Early quartets were the "Louisiana Planters", the "Sheriffs Quartet", the Crosstowners", the "Mid-South Four", the "T'housand Pounds of Harmony", the "Pelican Staters", the 'Dixie Dudes", the "Moonlight Knights", the "Bellaires", the "Trump Chords", the '"1"acel Opre Brab Four", the "Sound Explosion", the "Southern Belters", the "Red River Rats", the "Airdales", the ~etra-chords", the "Faux Pas Feaux", and the "Sounds of Yesteryear". The Shreveport Chapter was not contest oriented, but did enter competition many times. Two of their quartets, the Tetra-chords", mentioned above, and the "Faux Pas Feaux" with Jim Stone, Charlie Melton, Curtis Grappe and Jerry Kelley, placed in the Southwestern District top ten in the early 1960's. And the "Sounds of Yesteryear" with Tom Bryson, Ken Long, Jack Thomson and Jim Stone, were the 1989 District Seniors Champs. The chapter also hosted several Division Contests in the     Previous Page Table of Contents Next  Page Sections: How It All Began   Chapters    Chapter  Histories   International Quartet Champions   ChorusesAdministration Contests and Conventions   Registered Quartets   Publications   Recognitions   In Conclusion