QUESTIONS:
1- In the early days of the NYC Parks Dep't. quartet contests (mid/late 1930's), nostalgia was de rigueur. Toward that end, what was each quartet required to wear when it competed?
2- On what type of nostalgia trip did the participants put the spectators (and themselves) by the vehicles in which they arrived at the competitions?
3- What did the Parks Dep't. do in the band shell (the location of the contest stage) that enhanced the connection to the "good old days ?
4- What old-time gifts were used as contest prizes?
5- Many aspects of the NYC contests were adopted by the later Society contests; some were not. Identify a noteworthy characteristic of the NYC contests having to do with song selection that the Society did not emulate.
ANSWERS:
1- Period costumes from the 1890's, the theme of which was picked by each of the quartets.
2- A nostalgia trip that focused on horse-drawn buggies, turn of the 20th century "horseless carriages" and bicycles built for two which were the conveyances used by the singers and judges.
3- An authentic barbershop was constructed on one side of the band shell that featured two barber poles, antique barber chairs, shelves of shaving mugs, a coal burning pot-bellied stove, and spitoons.
4- Shaving mugs (replete with the NYC Parks Dep't logo), shaving brushes and straight edge razors. Extra trivia -- one cent was distributed with each razor due to the old wives' tale that said a penny would remove the curse (I'm not making this up) that comes with sharp items like razors.
5- The Parks Dep't. gave every quartet a list of approved songs from which it had to select its first song. Its second song was chosen by the quartet itself, but it must have been written prior to 1905.
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