At the height of the
devastating 1950 Winnipeg flood, a novelty
recording by Marsh Phimister and His
Orchestra entitled Sandbags, Sandbags,
Sandbags, recorded at CKY radio's
Main Street studio and sung to the tune of
the recent Teresa Brewer pop hit Music!
Music! Music!, was released on a 78
RPM disk with profits earmarked for the
flood relief fund. It received
considerable play on local radio stations
and helped to rally the public. Of
greater musical interest, however, was the
B-side, Give Me a Little Time,
sung evocatively by Maxine Ware backed by
Marsh and his band. A true gem.
John Einarson Excerpt from Heart of Gold: A History
of Winnipeg Music, published 2021
1942
at The Cave
L-R, On the Stairs: Mickey Shannon
(drums), Gil “Stoney” Hanson (saxophone),
Unknown, Stan “Gus” Gallant (1st trumpet),
Lloyd Semers (2nd trumpet), Daniel Morgan
MacNeill (piano/arrangement), Wally
Koster (tenor/trombone),
Henry “Hank” Morrison (tenor Sax), Ed
Peterson (1st trombone)
In dark suit, front right: Marsh
Phimister (band leader/bass/arrangement )
Circa
1941 at The Cave
The
above photo was first published in Musical
Ghosts: Manitoba's Jazz and Dance Bands,
1914-1966 by Owen Clark, 2007.
The date should read 1942, not 1947.
In 2012, it became known that the first
person on the far left, cited as Unknown
in the caption, is actually Daniel Morgan
MacNeill
(1913-2003). MacNeill was a
pianist/arranger with the Marsh Phimister
Orchestra. Daniel's son, Ian
MacNeill, advised,
"He left the band in late 1942 to join the
Navy and never returned to Winnipeg".
Hattie
Noel with Marsh Phimister and His
Orchestra
Winnipeg
Tribune, April 14, 1942
The
CBC Times (Prairie Edition) was published
weekly by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation at its
Prairie Region
Headquarters, located at CBC Building, 541
Portage Avenue,
Winnipeg 2, Man. It was available
by subscription for $3.00 per year.
Opposite is an article appearing in the
above edition
regarding Marsh Phimister's upcoming
variety show,
"Music Stand", and includes a short
biography.
