Figure 1.--Here we see Sr. Ciricillo in the middle of his impressively uniforned boy band. The undivided back postcard image is undated, but woulod have been taken about 1905. Sr. Ciricillo is almost certinly an Italian immigrant.

Many of these boy bands would have been lost to history if their nanes were not shown up on the ever present big drum. Here we see Ciricillo's Italian Boys Band. We know it functioned from the early 1900s decade to at least 1916, but this is justwhen we have found images, it was actually even longer. The founder and director was Salvatore Ciricillo. And the band was at some point based in Dubuque, Iowa. Of course Iowa is where thev River City Boys Band was located. The image we have here shows that his band based in Cleveland, Ohio. As the boys grew up, the name was changed to Ciricillo's Italian Band. It must have been a very successful band as the boys are very smartly outfitted in military uniforms which would have been costly. Marching bands and music was popuilar at thee time. it was the era of American March King John Philip Sousa (1854-1932). We know nothing more about Sr. Ciricillo, but suspect he was an Italian immigrant. Many Italian villages had small bands. They were not marching bands or boy bands, but small village bands were commn in Italy, Greece, Gernany and other European countries. ASn Italian readerv tells us, "Yes, it was very common for Italian villages to have small bands to support a range of public events. This was especially the case in southern Italy even for very small villages. It is less true today, but still common." And it is likely that Ciricillo put his Old World musical talents to work when he arrived in Italy. One examle of how immigration greatly enriched the American musical traditiion. Jews, Germans, and African Americans also made huge contributions.

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Created: 1:50 AM 4/25/2010
Last updated: 2:21 AM 8/25/2024