An apology to followers of my blog as I have not had an opportunity to finish up this latest edition of "A Trumpet Plays Over Arizona" but I hope you enjoy this one from previous days long gone by.  Phillip A. Hirales
As football season moves into full swing, and as school bands go through their routines at high schools and colleges around the country, it is well worth the time to go back to earlier days when the educational community was traditional and not "politically correct", when the path to acquire the prerequisites for a profession or to prepare for a career was spelled out quite clearly.  So it was in Bisbee like many other communities that the culmination of an individual's public education resulted in graduation from high school.  And in Bisbee, during the `1940's and the rest of the war years, you attended old Bisbee High School, not the present one but the high school at the top of the hill, the building which at one time was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not as the only building that had access to its three floors from ground level.

                                                           

                            BISBEE HIGH SCHOOL                                

Bisbee stands today like it did back in the 1940's, solid, unyielding, beckoning to students to complete their high school education, and to reach the high school, a person would have to walk up the hill to enter its hallowed halls of learning.  At this time, there were no charter schools, no alternative programs, no online courses, no options for the real high school diploma.  The only way one could get the high school diploma would be to walk through the bottom door, and then, walk up and down those stairs, attend  classes, and hopefully, at the end of four years, you would have the coveted high school diploma.  As I was doing research on teachers and programs from the 1940's, I came across names and pictures of teachers from that era, Martha Woundy, Barbara Reavis, Lois Nelson, Fuzzy Warren, Jack Miller, Joseph Payne and others who taught both at the revered old high school and the new new high school.  It was my good fortune to have studied with these master teachers who demanded excellence and were respected for the high standards they set.   As a member of the class of 1962, we experienced one semester at the old Bisbee High School, and then, transferred to the new high school in the Spring Semester of that school year.

There were extracurricular activities at this time for high school students attending Bisbee High School, and so, we would like to feature two of these musical groups at this time.  In keeping with this blog's themes of honoring those individuals who had an impact on the musical scene of Arizona, specifically the Bisbee area,  we should definitely not overlook Mr. Arthur Reppe, the Band and Music Teacher whose name resonated in Bisbee even after his departure years later. So, if a Bisbee Music Hall of Fame exists, his name should be at the top of the list for he truly made an impact on the Bisbee community, no CDs, no recordings, just basic musicianship.

1940 HIGH SCHOOL BAND

Mr. Arthur Reppe was the director.  According to the Cuprite yearbook, this Band played for football games, rallies and parades and traveled out of town to perform as well.  It is well worthy to note that rallies in Old Bisbee had the Band marched up a hill to arrive at the rally which was in the area were the City swimming pool exists today--an excellent vantage point to see the burning of the B at which time the Band played the Fight Song.  In 1940, the Band played in Tucson for several events including a Miners Convention, and in February of that school year they played for the Tucson fiesta which eventually became the Tucson Rodeo Parade.  At this fiesta, they awarded a trophy for the best musical presentation at the parade.  Back in Bisbee, they presented a Mid-Winter concert with the high school orchestra, yes Bisbee High School did have a classical performing orchestra at this time. and then, they went back to Tucson to attend the Annual Southern Arizona Music Festival.

1940 DRUM AND BUGLE CORPS

The Drum and Bugle Corps played at all home football games and also at out of town games.  This musical organization was named "Old Faithful", and the accompanied the Band to Tucson in February of this same school year to play and march at the rodeo.  The director of this group was not identified but it was a well-rehearsed group that were always enthusiastically received by an attentive audience as written in the Cuprite annual.  Trips by the Band and the Drum and Bugle Corps at this time were over the Divide which is the winding road, and the tunnel used by traffic coming from Sierra Vista and Tombstone did not exist. As a matter of fact Sierra Vista did not exist and  the only way to Tucson was through Highway 80 through Tombstone, St. David, Benson and eventually Tucson--there was no I-10.

1944 High School Band

The high school band was also a smaller version of the 1940 Band but it was very active playing for several bond sales including the Third War Loan Drive at the Post Office Plaza.  The Band also played for Santa when he arrived in Bisbee and Lowell that year according to the yearbook.  In addition, the Band played for football games and pep rallies, and on Jan. 28, they played for an important basketball game between Bisbee and Douglas in the high school gym.

1944 Drum and Bugle Corps

A smaller version of the 1940 drum and bugle corps was featured in the 

1944 Cuprite but the director as Mr. Arthur Reppe, according to the yearbook.

Travel had been curtailed but the Drum and Bugle Corps did perform at the 

Sun Bowl Game in El Paso, Texas.

Arthur Reppe

Bisbee High School Band and Music Teacher

1936-1951

Beloved Master Teacher

The 1951 Bisbee High School Cuprite Yearbook is dedicated to Arthur Reppe

by students for his 15 years of excellence and dedication as the Band and Music teacher at Bisbee High School

                                            Bisbee High School Cuprite, 1951