By Paul Hobe
After twenty-three years under the direction of Emil Rinkendorf at least ten other men put their imprint on the band. For brevity, their names are Stump, Best, O’Donnell, Yagello, Kropf, Chick, Nash, Synnesvedt, Slimak and Shaffer.
The band survived the Second World War and continued being very active during the next two decades. The band still leads the parade or provides music for Memorial Day. Venues for outdoor concerts include Elks Flag Day, Molly Stark Hospital, and Copeland Oaks. Parades include Halloween parade in Alliance, Sebring Fireman’s parade, Minerva Homecoming and of course the Memorial and the Carnation Day Parades. The Music Performance Trust Fund still supports several of the concerts. Sometimes a winter or Christmas concert is scheduled. Members sported new wool uniforms with navy blue coats and gold pants in 1950. They are very warm for summer concerts in the sun on the cement pad band site at Silver Park.
1972 brought many changes for the band including new red blazers suitable for outdoor and indoor performances graced the musicians. In that year John Shaffer, director of bands at Minerva High School, became director of the City Band. He instituted a “contract band” in which each scheduled concert consists of one two-hour rehearsal and then the concert. All musicians are compensated financially at the prevailing union rate and supported through the Music Performance Trust Fund of the Alliance Local 68 of the American Federation of Musicians. I still remember the ring of trophies around the walls of the Minerva high School band room earned by the band under Shaffer’s direction. By this time females were part of the band.
Activities still include the Memorial Day parade and Carnation parade until about 1977. At that time the City Band becomes exclusively a concert band then plays at the cemetery for Memorial Day and a series of concerts at Silver Park. Alliance Federal Savings and Loan sponsored one concert in 1976. The new band shell at Silver Park was dedicated in 1979. For this a 40-piece band and 40-voice chorus came together to perform “John Marshall – Chief Justice” composed by Paul Whear, formerly of Mount Union college. Eleven supporters including the MPTF support the concert. In 1983, The Review writes that the “Carnation City Band” plays for Memorial Day at the cemetery. This name for the City Band can be confused with the “Carnation City Jazz Band” which becomes active and plays a different musical style.
Seven or more concerts were played almost every year from 1973 through 1982. Several concerts are recorded during this period and are available at Rodman Public Library in Alliance. 1983 shows two concerts, then for 1984 only one “due to lack of funds” on the schedule sent to band members. The Alliance City Band played their last and only summer concert at Silver Park on July 28, 1985. The band continued to play for the Memorial Day activities at the city cemetery until 1988. The band played “You’re a Grand Old Flag” for the massing of the colors and accompanied the audience in singing “God Bless America” and the “Star Spangled Banner.” Fittingly, the Alliance City Band, pretty much in existence since 1859, performed the National Anthem as its last piece on Memorial Day May 30, 1988.
In 1992, the Alliance City Band officially ceased to exist. Since about 1970 the band had built up the Alliance City Band Endowment Fund. That fund, amounting to just over $10,000, was transferred to the Alliance Symphony Association to assist needy students in their musical education.
So, what happened? The MPTF’s revenue was tied to record sales; as vinyl LP sales declined, so did contributions to the trust fund. Available funds declined 20 percent from 1987 until 1989. With dwindling funding from the MPTF and no major community supporters the band could no longer remain as an organization.
In 2011, I was realizing that the band had a very impactful history in Alliance and that its history should be consolidated in some fashion. With the assistance of Karen Perone, Sue Grove, and long-time member Ron Beutler I researched and wrote “A Band of Music, the Alliance City Band Story, 1959-1992.” For those interested it is available at ibew.org.uk. Several CDs are available at Rodman Pubic Library. The recordings were made during the Shaffer era. Frank Trunzo, piccolo player, who had marched in 45 Memorial Day parades thought that the band under John Shaffer was the best since the days of Emil Rinkendorf.
[Pictured above: 1972 photo with the band in their red jackets on the concert cement slab at Silver Park]