In the colorful landscape of mid-century American performance, few artifacts evoke as much mystery and charm as real photo postcards (RPPCs). One such image circulated from a Dallas estate bears the name Marita Meola, described as an Army dancer and baton twirler. It’s a single snapshot, but it...
Lincoln School Majorettes including Jeanne and Liz Logan, Springfield, Missouri, 1954. Lincoln School Majorettes, 1953 Lincoln School Marching Band, 1953 Lincoln School Marching Band, 1949 Lincoln School Marching Band, 1949
The Chinese Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, featured majorettes marching in the Moon Festival Parade, August 1941. The festival was reportedly held in Hollywood or L.A’s Chinatown or both. It was one of the first fundraisers for United China Relief and took place fives...
Walter Aldine “W.A.” Thomason, was a talented drum major, twirler and tumbler for North Carolina State University. His earliest recorded performance at the University was in 1940. According to Ancestry.com, Thomason was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1920 and died in 1989. He...
A drum majorette leads an Armistice Day parade in Kentucky, 1941. Armistice Day is an international holiday observed each year on November 11 to commemorate the end of World War I.
Brown University students Robert Hackett (1919-2003), Class of 1941, and Kenneth M. Greene (1920-2021), Class of 1942, pose with guest majorette Betty Brown Lee, 1942. Brown was an Ice Capades star. Photo Source: Brown University Alumni Magazine. Photo published with permission. Here is another...
Katherine Stump Werntz Kridler (1925-2013) and her identical twin sister, Betty, twirled for College High School, Warrensburg, Missouri. They were also majorettes with the Central Missouri State University Drum and Bugle Corps.
A La Crosse State Teachers College majorette poses in her marching band uniform featuring a treble clef at the shoulder and and hemline decorated with a musical staff, symbols and notes. This costume is very similar to what Mary Hartline wore in 1955, 10 years after this picture was taken.
Dorothy Vinella Humphrey (1928-2002) was a drum major for Booker T. Washington HS, Dallas, and also Prairie View College, now Prairie View A&M University. Prairie View is a public historically black land-grant university located northwest of Houston. It was founded in 1876, and is one of...
Louie Jolene “Jo” Hardison was a drum majorette for Olton High School, Olton, Texas, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Olton is located south of Amarillo where Hardison was born. She lived in Dallas most of her life and died in McKinney, Texas in 2015, at the age of 91. The last photo...
