In honour of the Dukes 70th Anniversary I have undertaken this Dukes Legacy project to bring to life as many memories of Dukes Life as I can of the last 70 years. So far precious few documents from the 1950’s or 60’s have surfaced. The Dukes have certainly had a great showing over the years and I hope we can some day return to our former greatness. Many people have worked really hard over the years to make things happen for the Dukes, and this is a tribute to these real people and their labour of love. I hope that some day people will look back at these relics, much like I’ve looked back at all the relics I could find of the past, and paste together a picture of who we are and will become. Cheers, Daniel.
Scroll down to see the catalog items. Then click a catalog item to view the artifact. Click the blue chevron on the lower right to return to this catalog. Please note: You can click on any booklet to open and view the pages. You can use the left and right chevrons, or just click on a page, to flip through the pages of the book. Also, there’s tons of material here so please allow a few moments for it all to load.
An unknown photo that I found amongst Ron’s memorabilia stuff he lent me. He’s been stashing Dukes memorabilia for some 70 years. This must be the oldest artifact of the Dukes. I spotted a tiny handwritten note on the back of the photo that seems to say 1955. Could it be?
This seems to be the first time the Scarborough Chapter appeared on the roster of competitors at a Regional Contest. Order of appearance of the choruses was: 1. Orillia Chapter, 2. Toronto Chapter, 3. Scarborough Chapter, 4. Barrie Chapter, 5. East York Barbershoppers, and 6. London Chapter. The Competition was held in Hamilton and sponsored by the Hamilton Chapter who do not seem to be on the chorus roster for some reason. George Shields, of East York Barbershoppers fame, was the presiding Ontario District President. Scarborough Chapter also had one quartet, The Harmonizers, competing that year. The event ended with a rendering of ‘God Save the Queen’ and something called ‘America’ whatever that might have been!
There is no venue indicated for this show and no exact date. But it does say 1964 on the cover so it definitely happened in 1964.
I don’t have much background information about this photo. It was submitted courtesy Michael Black of the Ontario District office with thanks. The file was labelled 1965. Was there colour photography back then? Maybe Kodachrome. Lots of young faces.
This relic is the handout by the SPEBSQSA College of Harmony of the year 1971. It is officially autographed by Ron himself, so it is apparently his copy from when he attended college. It includes ‘The Harmony Textbook’ which was ‘flagrantly plagiarized from Mac Huff’s Quartet Manual (but by permission of course!)’, whatever that means.
The Quoter-Note, the ‘Official Bulletin of the Scarborough Chapter – SPEBSQSA Inc’ is full of stuff. They definitely had a lot to say in those them days. The artwork is hilarious, but the articles are equally hilarious. It seems the ‘team’ was getting ready to go to Atlanta, and a few articles have something to say about that, mainly pep talking and arousing the members from their apathy it seems. The Dukes had a regular event, ‘Novice Quartet Weekend’ just for…novice quartets. Quartets were big back then I guess. The June 1972 calendar, the back page of the Quoter-Note, indicates a weekly Practice Curling Club and regular rehearsals at Harmony Hall.
Yup, by 1973 the Dukes were already Champs worthy of singing Broadway. It must have been an amazing show.
In February of 1973, the big concern seemed to be that some of the Dukes weren’t working hard enough to learn words and notes. Also, there’s a great cooking page about how to prepare an elephant for dinner. The wives and girlfriends were also significantly involved in the goings on. So much vibrancy, companionship but they also wanted to win, win, win.
Here are Dukes in full green and gold regalia. Bowler hats and all. Looks like there were gold spats or something gold at the cuff. But where are those famous white gloves? Gareth Evans conducted the Dukes in this portrait.
The Quoter-Note for March 1973. I’d love to know how these booklets were produced. There were no computers and no Adobe InDesign. I’m pretty sure they had typewriters, possibly even an IBM ‘Selectric’ typewriter with white-out auto-correction, which were first leaked into the market by 1961 , but still…it would’ve been a major undertaking. And don’t forget, someone had to actually write all those journalistic articles since there was no ChatGPT or Claude AI.
‘By the Singin’ Cradle of Liberty’. Does it really say that, and what could it possibly mean? Oh wait, maybe it’s ‘Singin’ by the Cradle of Liberty”? Does that make more sense? Sure it does. Where is that cracked liberty bell? Boston? Cincinatti? Philadelphia? One of those. Well, the main thing is we won, we’re the ‘International Chorus Champions’, yay for us! The conductor was gold with green and everyone else was green with gold. Including those gold cuffs and a lapel flower, possibly an eidelweiss.
Ya, no wonder they sounded so good…there were 140 of them Dukes. I’d like to see them make that grand sound with only 18 Dukes!
Amazing Pendant from the 1977 Win!. I photographed it from the real thing which I borrowed from Ron Brown. It’s made of felt. By then they had already become known as the Dukes of Harmony.
Here’s a great article about the Dukes
which was published in the Toronto Star Sunday Magazine ‘The City’ dated January 8 (my birthday), 1978! This proves that there is no bad publicity. How did they manage to get such a huge spread in the Star Magazine?
This first Saga of the Dukes booklet was prepared in 1979 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Dukes in 1954. Flip through the pages to experience the splendour of those days of glory! Please click the image on the left to open the book in a lovely lightbox, then flip through the pages. Please allow the book a moment to load up as it is quite old and weary.
This finding is incredible. The Dukes made an actual vinyl recording! About 15 songs all told. Does anyone have a recording of this? Well if it’s vinyl I would have no way of playing it back come to think of it, due to no ‘record player’. Nonetheless, here are the front and back album covers including original artwork with Sir Duke. Thanks again to Michael Black for sending these over. If anyone does have a digital recording of this ‘album’ please send it over and right away!
An original photograph of those illustrious 2-time International Champs, the Dukes of Harmony, taken in 1980. I found it among Ron’s stuff that he’s been keeping, thankfully, for years. Who was the music director? How did he manage so many barbershoppers? How many tenors were there? Who took this photo? Where was it taken? Who set up those risers?
Who was Sir Duke? Did he play football AND sing harmony? And did he do both at the same time? He looks a tad bereft in the rendering of him. That must’ve been a really great show it seems.
The Quoter-Note for October 1982 was beautifully bound and had a dark green cover page with bright yellow text. They were revolutionary and avant-garde those designers. They were also amazing barbershoppers! In this episode you can even find all the Dukes’ autographs spread over 2 spreads. What was the purpose of that one might wonder?
This show was held in Brockville on June 5, 1982. autographs spread over 2 spreads. What was the purpose of that one might wonder?
Here’s the playbill for the Dukes 1983 Show at Roy Thompson Hall. Just the artwork and the layout of this playbill must’ve cost a fortune. What were they thinking?
This seems to be just the order form for ticket sales for the show. Why would they spend so much money designing and printing such an artifact just for ticket sales?
This document seems to be another ticket sales order form. Firstly, who chose the colours for this one? It’s almost impossible to read the cover. And why spend so much on a ticket order form? I dunno.
This document seems to be another ticket sales order form. Firstly, who chose the colours for this one? It’s almost impossible to read the cover. And why spend so much on a ticket order form? I dunno.
This document seems to be another ticket sales order form. Firstly, who chose the colours for this one? It’s almost impossible to read the cover. And why spend so much on a ticket order form? I dunno.
This document seems to be another ticket sales order form. Firstly, who chose the colours for this one? It’s almost impossible to read the cover. And why spend so much on a ticket order form? I dunno.
Here is an amazing relic! It is the playbill of the Dukes show of May 10 and 11, 1986 at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. Click the left and right arrows to flip pages. The playbill even had a page for autographs. The cost of the show, or was it the playbill itself was either $18.50 or $20.50 as indicated on the first page. Was that a lot for the time? You can scroll down over the booklet to zoom in and scroll up to zoom out.
Here is an amazing relic! It is the playbill of the Dukes show of May 10 and 11, 1986 at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. Click the left and right arrows to flip pages. The playbill even had a page for autographs. The cost of the show, or was it the playbill itself was either $18.50 or $20.50 as indicated on the first page. Was that a lot for the time? You can scroll down over the booklet to zoom in and scroll up to zoom out.
It would seems that our very own Ron Brown gave the Special Welcome as the President in this document.
This event was hosted by the Dukes at the Inn on the Park. The document is full of fun stuff, including an add for transducer indicators with a difference. There were 12 choruses competing, most of which I never heard of, including ‘Dufferinaires’ and ‘Harmonaires’. The back page has an amazing hand written tag possibly written by one Al Baker.
Quite a bit of interest in Kansas City. It even warrants 3 question marks???What is it about Kansas City one may wonder? This Quoter-Noter specifies the Dukes top priorities. The most important ones are Fall Competition and winning Internationls again. they were definitely ambitious.
In this episode the Dukes were preparing to travel to Calgary. That’s probably where the Dukes in Calgary photograph was taken, seems logical. See the following exhibit for the pic.
That’s a lotta Dukes right there. Why were they in Calgary? Probably to win something, what with their unfair advantage and all.
This second Saga of the Dukes booklet was prepared in 1994 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Dukes in 1954. Flip through the pages to experience the splendour of those days of glory! Please click the image on the left to open the book in a lovely lightbox, then flip through the pages. Please allow the book a moment to load up as it is quite old and weary.
No artifacts were found between 1994 and 1997. This show had a matinee and an evening show. Now that’s hubris for ya. It was held in the George Weston Recital Hall of the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts. Fancy.
No artifacts were found between 1997 and 2004. Where did everone go? Who designed this one? It was printed on glossy paper and included a ticket order form at the bottom of the page.
An original framed certificate I found among Ron’s stuff that he’s been keeping, thankfully, for years. Who were the Barons of Barbershop? Were they somehow affiliated with the Dukes? According to this certificate they’d been performing since 2001! Here’s what the illustrious Robbie Rhodes has to say about the Barons, for which I thank him!:
The Barons of Barbershop wee a group of 16 or so Dukes who were retired and willing to do the daytime requests for singouts that the working guys could not do. Started in about 2003or s by Jim Rehill. Jim is now retired, but still going strong,lives in Uxbridge, and has lots of historical stuff of the Barons time singing. Rpm and I were in it.
Songfest was started by Al Davis a baraitome in the Barons. There were a lot of retired barbershoppers around in 2001 when Songfest started who won medals and still performed as well as a couple of unregistered choruses–the Barons and Suburbaniares and Second Career.
Joe Daybell and I took over in 2006 when Al Davis moved to Cambridge to be near their daughter. Joe replaced Al as chair and I replaced Bill Burrell as computer guy.
The group sang in Florida, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Toronto,, of course.
I think Jim has kept a book of all of the Barons sing-outs including picrures. I have a bunch of pictures too. 4 of the other Barons came to the recent 70th show.
At Songfest we still give out certificates like the one you howed me in the email to each singing group.
This show was held at the Knights of Columbus Council 11729, wherever that may be. It seems the Dukes had a relatively small part in the show, wherew the Holy Redeemer Glee Club had two appearances that evening.
Here’s a professional looking photograph I found of an unknown quartet. However, it does seem that the barbershopper on the left is a young Ron Brown if I’m not mistaken.
This was my first attempt at a playbill for the Dukes. The best part of it was the cover page. The show was directed by Dan Rutzen that year, and Ryan Jenkins, a young fellow from Ohio was the assistant music director. There were a lot of advertisers that year, including a full page ad in the middle. What happened to all these advertisers one wonders? The show was held at the West Rouge Community Centre to a full house.
This show was directed by Dan Rutsen. Dan had his entire high school band performing with us and quite a few other performers as well. A great time was had by all. It was a minor spectacle.
This show was directed by Dan Rutsen and Mitch Wedgewood was our assistant director that year. In 2020 Dan left and Mitch took over as music director. Dan had his entire high school band performing with us and quite a few other performers as well. Another great time was had by all.
Many of the old timers showed up for this grand reunion at West Rouge Community Centre. I think this was the last show ever held at West Rouge.
This show was held at the Lawrence Park Community Church where we regularly rehearse every Monday night. It was a great afternoon show and Jamie was one of our superstars.
The 2023 Variety Show was held at the Lawrence Park Community Church. Our music director was, and still is, the illustrious Jordan Travis, of acclaim. For the playbill that year, I use the famous artwork ‘Sharp Harmony’ painted by Normal Rockwell in 1936. When designing the artwork for the playbill I was not aware that it had already been used for the 1984 show held by the Stratford Chapter. Great minds think alike! And it is a great piece of art, especially for Berbershoppers, as depicted in the painting.
The 2023 Variety Show was held at the Lawrence Park Community Church. Our music director was, and still is, the illustrious Jordan Travis, of acclaim.
Rick Morrison joined the Dukes in 1976. In this gripping saga, he reveals all. Here is the complete text of the interview. Grab a Timmy’s and read on. I’ve interspersed the interview with authentic photos Rick sent me as well.
Here’s the first set of pics and his description of them:
Here’s the transcript of the interview.
Green and Gold uniforms were our signature uniforms in the 60, 70 and 80s. They were made of authentic Irish linen and custom made for each man. When the chorus went to white the uniforms were sold to the Mount Baker Chorus in Bellingham, Washington State which is part of the Evergreen District. I moved out west in 1992 and went to an event at their hall which was more of a barn on members farm. Lot of singing by choruses and quartets. I was in a room and saw their chorus pictures and noticed they were wearing the green and gold uniforms. I was shocked and wasn’t aware this is where they ended up. They said go look in the other room and there are over 100 uniforms hanging. So as I am slowly going through the jackets looking at names and memories are screaming back there is a chorus singing an awesome inspirational song. Names of members who had passed away brought tears to my eyes. I was looking for my jacket but didn’t find it. This was a very moving experience. So, last I heard a few years ago, the uniforms were given to the school district and they are still being used for school plays in the Whatcomb county. Just though I would share this with you. Anyone who wore that uniform would have plenty of memories.
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Ontario Branch of
The Barbershop Harmony Society
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