| During the off-season, Baggs, Bell
and Ferrazzutti decided to keep most of the musical show
from 1958. Bell was keenly interested in what was going
on in the drum corps movement in the United States and
was determined to evolve the Optimists into an
American-style corps with more complex arrangements and
more diversity in musical styles. Ferrazzutti was
equally determined to advance the style of drumming. As
an organization, they also decided the corps’ level of
performance would benefit from direct competition with
American corps.
In their earliest American performances,
they were amazed at the reception by American drum corps
fans. Prolonged standing ovations greeted each
appearance. The judges didn’t agree. The fact of the
matter was, the Optimists were being beaten like a
rented drum.
In his “Rochester Drumbeat” column in
the Chicago-based Drum Corps World magazine, Mannhardt
wrote, “The talk around town in the early part of June
was about the results of St. Patrick’s contest at Jersey
City. People were wondering how such high scores could
be racked up so early in the season and how there could
be such wide spreads among the scores.
I listened to the tapes of the contest
and it seems incredible that the Toronto Optimists could
be over nine points behind the leaders, especially when
eye witnesses stated enthusiastically that they had the
best precision of any corps, senior or junior.”
To avoid a collapse of morale, the
instructors continually pointed out that this was a
valuable learning experience and the rewards would come
with time. That time came in August 1959 at Rome, NY,
when the Optimists defeated the Garfield Cadets by
almost four points. Garfield, later that month, came
seventh at the VFW National championships in New York
City.
Fuelled by the learning in the United
States, the Optimists returned to Galt, Ontario, and
retained their Canadian title by a considerable margin
over Scout House. |
