This script was originally written for the 2018 Crandon Drama Club Walk & Talk. Historical research was conducted by members of the Crandon Area Historical Society and student researchers Nolan Wilson, Tucker Krause, and Rachelle Cappel. Members of the Crandon Band to perform at the event were Ceara McCarthy and Allyson Stepper.
The first community band in Crandon was organized in 1905 and a band stand was built the following summer in 1906 and according to the newspaper at a considerable cost. The band stand was moved from the courthouse grounds to the fair grounds in 1910 with the Fair Board taking control of it. In 1912, citizens proposed that the county replace the bands stand but the board rejected that proposition by unanimous vote, instead voting to put a drinking fountain for the public on this spot, as well as a water trough for horses. Nevertheless, the Crandon Band continued to provide musical entertainment for Crandon at weddings, community celebrations and at our very own opera house.
Back before there were
phonographs , radio, television, tape recorders,iphones , and streaming music, the people of Crandon listened to their Saturday night concerts from the band shell located here at the northwest corner of the courthouse square with grateful and uncritical ears. Residents spent their warm summer evenings listening to the band playing the favorite tunes of the day, undoubtedly ending with a rousing rendition of Semper Fidelis as the crowd gathered up their blankets and chairs and prepared to return down darkened streets to their homes.