Abilene Stories by Glenn Dromgoole

Author:Glenn Dromgoole
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Abilene Christian University Press
Published: 2013-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

Douglas Fry, band director at ACU from 1953-69, led the band in a concert at the end of his first year that would not soon be forgotten.

HOWITZER ON THE HILL

JOHN C. STEVENS

The most spectacular band concert in the history of Abilene Christian University took place on Friday evening, May 21, 1954. The place was Sewell Auditorium. The band was the Wildcat Band— not yet known as The Big Purple. The director was Douglas “Fessor” Fry. It was the end of Fry’s first year as band director. A 1940 graduate of the college, he had been hired away from Brady, Texas, high school, where he had won all sorts of honors for his high school band.

Fry knew how to run a band. He had organizational skills and discipline. He knew how to develop a good marching band for halftime at football games. He also had an outstanding concert band, and this was his first spring concert at ACC. If some people had been making the decisions, it would have been his last spring concert.

On the day of the program, the Optimist [student newspaper] carried a short notice: “The ACC Wildcat Band will present its spring concert, Friday, May 21. Both heavy and lighter types of music will be played.” Little did the campus newspaper know how “heavy” it would be. One of the numbers was Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.” The reporter did not know that the grand climax, with sounds of cannon fire in Moscow, would not be the usual rolls of drums but the real thing.

Fry had made a deal with a local unit of the National Guard—the 131st Field Artillery of the 36th Division—to set up a 105-millimeter howitzer at the rear of Sewell Auditorium. He had two cousins—Neil and David Fry—who were members of that unit and who had special responsibilities. David, with a walkie-talkie, was stationed off-stage with the conductor in view. Neil, with a walkie-talkie, was outside with the gun crew. As the concert band reached the exact point for the thunderous response, the conductor gave the signal to his offstage man, who relayed it to the gun crew outside. The result was described in the next issue of the Optimist, under the headline “Novel Band Concert Creates Disturbance.”

“To some it was the end of the world; to some it was a Russian attack; to some it was an explosion in the Science Building; and to some it was the dormitory going up in flames.

“And yet to many others it was the climax of a marvelous band concert in Sewell Auditorium. Thanks to the nine booming sounds from the National Guard cannon, last Friday’s program was considered extremely effective.

“Indeed it was! Whole dormitories shook. Windows fell out. Babies were awakened. Parents ran out in the street. Cars stopped. Neighborhood people called city police sixteen times and the Reporter-News about ten times. As far as attracting attention, the concert was a howling success. We only hope most of the reaction was favorable.”

Not all of the reaction was favorable.

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