The Out of Towners Quartet was formed in the spring of 1958. We were all
members of the Allentown-Bethlehem Chapter. The Dundalk, MD Chapter was
advertising about a riverboat ride to Tolchester Park in the bay. A novice
quartet contest was to be a part of the plan so we decided to enter. Not
having a name as yet, we discussed it while stopping for gas.
Since we all lived out of town Bob suggested "Out of Towners" and we agreed
because we could always change it later.
We entered the contest and met the Oriole Four and we won the novice
contest. Now we had a trophy with our name on it so it stuck. We were now
the OUT OF TOWNERS.
That fall we competed at district in Reading, PA and we won the district novice
quartet award. In 1959 we went to District contest in Asbury Park, New
Jersey and placed a very proud third place. The summer of 1960 we were
fortunate enough to qualify for international in Dallas, Texas. That
contest was best noted for the appearance of a new quartet singing a special
spot on the Saturday night show. They were The Osmond Brothers and made
some real excitement in the barbershop world.
In October of 1960 at Atlantic City our dreams came true when we became the
District Champs of MAD. As expected we sang on many shows and had a very
exciting reign as champs and attended international competition again in
1962 at Kansas City, Missouri and again in 1963 in Toronto with our new,
lead Joe Dimaggio.
Some of our greatest thrills was singing on shows with The Buffalo Bills,
The Midstates Four, The Suntones, The Pittsburghers and many other great
quartets of our society. One great Sweet Adeline quartet was the wonderful
Gibson Girls. For several years later our lead was Al Reese
who we had many good times singing with including a trip to Alton Bay, N.H.
where we first met the Boston Common when they first formed as a quartet.
One of our high spots was singing with "The Pyopsofoot Chordsmen". This was
a chorus made up of five of the quartets that was coached by Bob Loose, one
of the very best coaches of our time. We sang at a district contest while
the scores were being totaled. During this era of barbershop we didn't have
computers, division contests, (there were 55 Quartets in the district
contest in 1960) or many of todays conveniences we have today.
Today, Larry is the only one still a member of the society as a member of
the Easton, PA Chapter and a regular at DELASUSQUAHUDMAC. We all still
play golf and are active in our church choirs.
As noted, our three first leads were Ruth, Dimaggio and Reese which were
three of the finest names in baseball.
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