Anaheim Scouts

The Anaheim Scouts drum and bugle corps was formed in 1958, based in Anaheim. They were sponsored by the Explorer Scouts Troop 72, American Legion Post 72, VFW Post 3173 and the Elks Lodge 1345. The corps’ colors were green and red.

The Explorer Scouts Troop 72 had a primitive drum and bugle corps as a sideline to its knot tying and other camping activities. Of course, this wasn't just any primitive drum and bugle corps, either. Mr. John Walters started it with the organizational support of Maurice Williams, the troop's scoutmaster. Walters was a former Lakewood Ambassador instructor, whose sons happened to belong to Troop 72. Wearing standard khaki scout uniforms festooned with war-surplus braids and leggings, the little corps of elementary and middle-school kids had been stomping, beating and blasting its way around southern California's community parade circuit until 1962.

In the fall of 1962, in the ancient days of southern California drum corps, Zig Kanstul, Joe Lintz and Bill Cadek stumbled across this Boy Scout troop, Anaheim Troop 72. The next year was an amazing transformational time. Proper instruments were purchased. Uniforms were changed to the slightly more attractive Explorer Scout version, a la Madison and Racine Scouts. Zig taught the drummers to drum real rudiments, while Joe taught the horns to play real polyphonic music . . . from sight-read scores no less. And, together with Bill they created an organization that could grow and sustain a competitive drum corps. 

With the structure in place, the three set out to recruit new, more experienced members. After all, they couldn't expect a bunch of little elementary and middle school kids to take on the then powerhouse likes of the Japanese Scouts, Hawks, Cathay and Senoritas without some heavy hitters of their own. The easiest recruiting targets were the strong Anaheim High School band and the nearby Lakewood Ambassadors, the well-respected corps founded by a true grand-dad of southern California drum corps, Bill Francis. Two of the more notable catches were the Ambassador's former drum major, Don Arnette, and the well-known drill instructor, Joe O'Day.

A Girl Scout color guard was added to handle the pageantry chores. Don Arnette's wife, an interesting story in itself, took over as color guard captain. With a name change from the Troop 72 drum and bugle corps to the Anaheim Scouts, the corps was ready to take the competition field for the first time in the spring of 1963. Although the inaugural season saw no championships, competing at the CA AL State, the Anaheim Scouts did gain the solid respect of its competitors and generated buzz of impending success in future seasons. Yes, there would be future successes beyond anything imaginable in 1963, but not the way anyone expected. 

Messrs. Kanstul, Lintz and Cadek were flushed with excitement from their accomplishments. However, they were even more frustrated by the meddling of the local Boy Scout Council and a group of myopic parents who would not support taking the corps to its next level of development. So, they joined-up with John Walters and left to create the Velvet Knights. In doing so, they took most of the older, accomplished and experienced musicians.

In the fall of 1963, the gutted Anaheim Scouts should have folded. After all, what was left? Although they had the new uniforms and equipment, the best musicians were gone along with the brain-trust instruction and management staff. Indeed, the Scouts would have folded had it not been for the uncompromising determination of one man, Mr. Donald Porter, Sr. It was Mr. Porter who single-handedly picked-up the pieces and methodically reassembled the organization. He wasn't a musician; he was an aerospace engineer of focused, disciplined intelligence, sophisticated tastes, and caring, thoughtful patience.

As the father of Don Porter, Jr. – former drummer with the Ambassadors and one of the finest drum corps percussionists of all time – the elder Porter had seen a lot of good corps and he knew what he liked. Although it would be hard to say that Mr. Porter initially had a clear intent to create a nationally competitive drum corps, his professional capabilities, high intelligence, refined taste, and force-of-will set him on that path.

Through his contacts within the military to secure practice sites on military installations such as taxiways and hangers. This military style carried over into the corps members' dress and behavior, precision and bearing as well, even out of uniform. Haircuts were short, sports coats were required, and "corps members were encouraged to walk in step with each other when seen by the public out of uniform." By early 1964 in his role as director, Mr. Porter sold his vision of a new Anaheim Scouts to the remaining membership and their parents. Energized, yet still unsure of themselves, the corps members went out on the stump recruiting fellow school band members, primarily from Savanna and Magnolia High Schools in Anaheim and Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton. This effort paid off with a grand total of six drummers, 18 brass, five color guard, and one drum major – all males.

At the same time, Mr. Porter signed a trio of instructors, Kent Larsen, Donald Palinsky and Robert Schroeder. Larsen, the drill instructor and Palinsky, the horn instructor, were both Chicago Cavaliers alumni from the early to mid-1950s. The Anaheim Scouts competed a few weeks later in Sacramento at the 1964 American Legion state championship contest. Despite the corps' newfound confidence, the handicaps of its small size, overly simplistic repertoire, and old-style drill were too much to overcome. The Scouts didn't win, but they didn't lose, either. The experience gained would be of tremendous value down the road.

As the season wound to a close in the early summer, Kent Larsen's dictatorial style became one of many friction points with the more genteel director. Sensing that things might not work out in the long run between Larsen and himself, Mr. Porter developed a relationship with another instructor, Mr. Thomas Day, who was a Chicago Cavalier alumnus of a later vintage and former marine, too. In the fall of 1964, the competitive corps, led by Don Porter, severed its relations with the Troop 72 scouts and this became the foundation of the Anaheim Kingsmen.

Although the Anaheim Scouts were not a household name competitively, in only 2 short seasons, leaders within the organization went on to be a catalyst in the drum corps activity for years to come.

Members (2)