Masqueraders
1964 - 1971

How the Masqueraders was formed

After the New Orleans Cadets Southernaires lost one half of it’s members to the Stardusters, the Southernaires marched the 1962 Mardi Gras season with the other half of the corps. After the parades were over we tried to get more members over the next few months but to no avail. Someone mentioned that the Crescent City Rebels was a small corps also and they might consider merging with us. The Cadets management contacted Charlie Guy the Rebels director and a deal was put together. The Rebels and Southernaires would merge.

I suggested the name Masqueraders (from carnival) and the colors Purple, Green, Gold (from Mardi Gras ), and to ware masks. The name and colors was accepted by the new management which now included Charlie Guy as the interim Corps Director, but we couldn’t ware the masks. The first year 1963, for Mardi Gras we used the Southernaires black pants w/ yellow stripe and the shako w/red plume, also we had new, cavalier emerald green shirts w/black ascots made and also a yellow cumber bun. My time with the Masqueraders was only two years because the management wasn’t happy with Charlie Guy and was going to replace him with L.A. Gilmore again. One half of this corps. Thought this was wrong and we quit in December and asked Charlie if he would restart the Rebels again, he did and that will be the subject of the next article.

Submitted by Elroy Ingersoll

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