Florence Iva Begay, a Navajo baton twirler and high school valedictorian from Flagstaff, Arizona, became the subject of national attention in 1948 after an incident on a bus in the Texas Panhandle exposed the realities of segregation faced by Native Americans traveling outside the Southwest....
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...
The Winchester High School Majorettes, Winchester, Kentucky, 1949. The identify of three of the six are possibly: far left: Betty Joe Rose Hughes; 2nd from left, Kitty Tabbs; and far right, Amy Stacey. The high school closed in 1963 when it consolidated with another school.
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.
