Birth of the Band
part 4
After Yates left, Superintendent Haisley convinced former colleague Clarence Roth to 
come to Ann Arbor and take over the instrumental music programs.
Haisley's first charge to Roth was to get new uniforms for the band; the old ones from Champion's time were faded and worn. Roth put together the first "Bands in Review" concert in 1947 as a fundraiser. The uniform salesman convinced Roth that purple dye just didn't hold up, so the new uniforms were maroon with gold piping. While later generations of band members would ridicule this choice of colors, Roth and his band wore their spiffy new uniforms with pride.
Clarence Roth in 1944
Roth brought back Bands in Review in 1950 and made it a permanent institution in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, featuring all the district's middle school and high school bands. The same year, Roth began taking the high school band to state competitions, where it consistently received first-division ratings. In the postwar boom, Huron and Main streets became business routes for the new Interstate highway system, so the band now marched to the Friday night football games down State to Hill and west to Wines Field, with the school victory bell carried up front.
Roth at U-M Band Day in 1952
Roth exposed the band to new music, new bandleaders, and new experiences. Roth had met the U-M's Bill Revelli years earlier, and in 1946, Revelli's office and the rehearsal space for the Michigan Marching Band moved into Harris Hall, kitty-corner across from the high school. Revelli had frequent contact with the high school band, and invited it to participate in the first Band Day at Michigan Stadium in 1951.
Under Roth the band also began to tour, performing at the International Lions Club Conventions in Chicago, New York City, and Miami in 1953–1956. In 1956 the Ann Arbor High School Band hosted nationally renowned conductor Paul Lavalle in a special concert at Hill Auditorium.
The 1946 Ann Arbor High School Band on the stage of Pattengill Auditorium in old Ann Arbor High in 1946.
In 1948, Clarence Roth established one of the band's most cherished traditions: he asked Joe Maddy for permission to take Ann Arbor High's band to Interlochen for a week of "band camp" in late August. Maddy was reluctant at first, but the experience turned out to be good for everyone.
Roth at Interlochen in 1960
LEFT: Tennis court marching drills | RIGHT: Concert rehearsals in the Bowl
Photos courtesy Interlochen Center for the Arts
This was likely the first high school band camp of its size and scope in the nation. This August will mark the fifty-ninth annual band camp for Ann Arbor high school students, who will live in the same cabins, hold social events in the same lodge, and rehearse in the same hall as generations before them.