Memorial Day Sunday With Dean Mora's Orchestra

Dave Dolson

Distinguished Member
Distinguished Member
My wife and I went to a Memorial Day Sunday celebration honoring the men and women of the armed forces. It was an evening of dining and dancing with Dean Mora's Orchestra, a fully-staffed swing band complete with three violins and three singers (one male, two females - all wonderful).

It was held at a nightclub/restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, The Cicada Club. The place was luxurious in feel and decor, just like one would imagine a nightclub from back in the day would look. A gem in downtown L.A.

There is a dress-code enforced, but for this event, attendees were encouraged to wear WWII-era clothing. It was obvious that many had visited a recommended costume shop - at least a hundred or more men and many women were wearing authentic-looking and well-fitted military uniforms (dress uniforms, not combat-style).

It was right out of central casting! The guys looked just like a bunch of folks would have looked in the WWII-era. Very impressive - including one old gentleman who was introduced as having landed at Normandy and earned a Purple Heart. He was roundly cheered by everyone.

Mora's band was terrific - very authentic in their styling, phrasing, and tune selections. It was the best swing band I'd ever heard - powerful and well executed. The saxophone section (five) were superb - the tenors were crusty looking but sounded good. The two altos looked to be older Selmers, and only the baritone player had what looked like a modern horn, although he really sounded good as he anchored the section.

Mora was wearing a perfectly designed Army warrant officer's outfit and looked a lot like Glen Miller. One of the female vocalists was wearing a WAC officer's uniform.

It was a Memorial Day celebration to remember. DAVE
 
That sounded like a treat for the ears and the eyes.

Dave, thanks for the report.



Julian
 
"Earned a Purple Heart" is probably not the right way to put it. I got three of them, and didn't have to do a thing for any of them...

One hopes that this current outpouring of respect for those in the armed forces will continue and not fall by the wayside (as it seemed to have done during the Vietnam Era). We seem to have swung from one extreme (where we in the military were pretty well treated as pariahs) to the other (where everyone is called a "hero").

(Of course, the music from those days was nothing to write home about, and certainly not something to field a twenty piece group with strings to play in any event some seventy years hence. Still, if someone tries, I'm sure that Grace Slick will be available for the vocals...)

To be fair, most of the newly coined "heros" are quick to reject all of the false accolades. In particular, that young lady in the maintenance unit who was captured at the start of the war immediately shed her "hero" status.
 
Please excuse my choice of words . . . let's see . . . won, issued, honored with, handed, tossed . . . However the old guy received his Purple Heart, he has my gratitude for just being there when it all went down. He was the only one at the dinner who looked old enough to have actually worn the uniform of the USA during WWII.

I never served in combat, the closest I came was while being stationed in Stuttgart, Germany with the US Army. I fought the battle of the gasthaus and chased a few frauleins. Oh, I suppose the hoards from the east could have crossed over the eastern borders, then there would have been hell-to-pay and I would have been in the middle of it, but that didn't happen. Elvis and I both rotated home without a scratch.

When Vietnam came along, I was already discharged and in a police uniform. I never saw a serviceman or woman disrespected - I suppose it happened, but not around me. I fought many a pitched battle with the anarchists of the day, but those folks were out of control, not just against service men.

As for the music of that era, I actually liked Creedence, but few others. In 70 years if someone put on a Creedence Clearwater show, and I was still around (which I won't be), I'd go to it. DAVE
 
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