Volume I – 1948-1959
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Barbershopping in the Carolinas 1948-2010 Volume I – 1948-1959 Published by the Carolinas District of the Barbershop Harmony Society 2019 i Table of Contents The Barbershop Harmony Landscape in 1948 ................................................................... 1 Conventions and Contests .................................................................................................. 2 Chapter Growth .................................................................................................................. 3 Notable Achievements ....................................................................................................... 4 Asheville, NC Chapter ....................................................................................................... 6 Canton, NC Chapter ......................................................................................................... 12 Winston-Salem, NC Chapter ............................................................................................ 15 Charlotte, NC Chapter ..................................................................................................... 18 Elizabeth City, NC Chapter .............................................................................................. 23 Raleigh, NC Chapter ........................................................................................................ 25 Greensboro, NC Chapter .................................................................................................. 27 Spartanburg, SC Chapter ................................................................................................. 32 Gastonia, NC Chapter ...................................................................................................... 33 Palmetto State (Charleston), SC Chapter ......................................................................... 36 High Point-Thomasville, NC Chapter.............................................................................. 38 Laurens County, SC Chapter ............................................................................................ 39 Durham, NC Chapter ....................................................................................................... 40 Marion, NC Chapter......................................................................................................... 42 Inter-chapter Activities ..................................................................................................... 43 Summary Information ...................................................................................................... 44 Chapter Tree .................................................................................................................. 44 Chapter Membership ..................................................................................................... 44 Chapter Quartets ........................................................................................................... 45 Dixie District Leadership .............................................................................................. 46 Dixie District Honors and Recognition......................................................................... 46 Contest Judges .............................................................................................................. 46 Conventions and Contests Hosted ................................................................................ 46 Dixie District Chorus International Contest Representative ......................................... 46 Dixie District Quartet Champions and International Contest Representatives ............. 46 Dixie District Chorus Contest Competitors .................................................................. 47 Dixie District Quartet Contest Competitors .................................................................. 47 ii The Barbershop Harmony Landscape in 1948 The Asheville, NC Chapter was the first chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A.) in the Carolinas1. It was chartered on June 14, 1948 with 60 members and was sponsored by the Louisville #1, KY Chapter. What did the barbershop harmony landscape look like in June 1948? The top figure shows the S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. districts as they existed in 1948. There were 13 districts covering the Continental United States and Ontario, Canada. (Chapters in New Brunswick, Canada were part of the Northeastern District.) The Society had seen exponential growth since its founding by O. C. Cash in 1938—from five chapters and 150 members in 1938 to 500 chapters with a total membership of 21,771 in 1948. Dues were $3 per year. The Dixie Association of Chapters (also called the Dixie District) had been established on February 24, 1948 with 424 members from 10 chapters. The Dixie District (bottom figure) included the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The District was much larger in 1948 as compared to when the Carolinas District was established in 2010. In the west it included Louisiana and Arkansas that moved to the Southwestern District in 1953 and 1979 respectively. In the south the Dixie District included Florida, most of which became the Sunshine District in 1959. 1 In this volume, “the Carolinas” refers to the SPEBSQSA chapters in the states of North Carolina and South Carolina, and not to the Carolinas District. 1 For the first eight years there were no regions or divisions in the Dixie District. One of the results of the significant growth of the District was the need to divide it into more manageable sections. The original regions were established in 1956 and consisted of the Cotton Region (Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, the western half of Tennessee, and Florida west of the Apalachicola River), the Tobacco Region (eastern half of Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina), and the Citrus Region (Florida east of Apalachicola River). The figure to the right dates to early 1958 since it includes the High Point-Thomasville, NC Chapter (called Hi-Tom) that was chartered in October 1957. All the Carolinas chapters were in the Tobacco Region. Conventions and Contests In 1948 there were two Society-level conventions as is still the case in 2019. The 1948 Mid-Winter International Board Meeting was held January 15-18 in Pittsburgh, PA. It included two days of meetings, a Saturday might Parade of Quartets show with four current International medalists quartets, the future 1948 Champion (Pittsburghers), and the Pittsburgh Chorus. Tickets for the show were $2.40 and $1.80. By 1956 the Mid-Winter Convention had started on Wednesday and had added more meetings (District Presidents and International House of Delegates) and sessions (Chorus Directors’ Conference, College of Arrangers Meeting, Barbershop Craft Demonstration, and a Judges’ School). Additional events were added over the years including Thursday and Friday night shows, a Seniors Quartet Contest in 1986, and a Youth Chorus Festival in 2008. The 1948 International Convention and Contest was held June 9-13 in Oklahoma City, OK. A registration for all events was $5. Executive Committee and Board of Directors meetings were held on Wednesday and Thursday (day and evening). Regional quartet preliminary contests were held on May 1st and 2nd with a total of 240 quartets competing to qualify for the International contest. Twenty quartets competed in Semi- Finals #1 Friday morning, 20 quartets competed in Semi-Finals #2 Friday afternoon, and the top 15 quartets from the semi-finals competed in the Finals on Friday night. Saturday brought more meetings in the morning, the Jamboree in the afternoon featuring the 25 quartets that did not make the finals, and an evening show. The top five quartets from the finals sang another set of songs in the Medalist Contest in the first half of the evening show from which the champion and the order of An example cover from 1948 of medalists were determined. The score were cumulative across all three The Harmonizer, the Society’s magazine 2 contest sessions. The second half of the show included the medalists performing again along with International Champion Quartets from previous years. The International Chorus Contest was added to the format in 1954. In 1958 the quartet contest format was changed to have two quarter-final sessions, a semi-final session with the top 20 quartets, and the top 10 quartets in the finals on Saturday night. Although the total number of quartets competing and the specific days the sessions were held would vary through the years, the format for the quartet contest would remain the same through 2017. The past quartet champions still sang on the second half of the Saturday night show until 1960 when a separate show, Parade of Past Champions (now called the Association of International Champions (AIC) Show), was added. A Collegiate Quartet Contest was added in 1992. When the International Chorus Contest was added in 1954 the Dixie District annual contest schedule became fixed. The Dixie Regional Preliminary Quartet Contest was held in the spring to qualify quartets for the following International contest. Contests were held at the fall convention to crown the District Quartet Champion and the District Chorus Champion that would also represent the Dixie District the following year in the International Chorus Contest. The Rebel Rouser, the Dixie District bulletin,