Uniforms!

From the beginning, Up With People always had some very colorful costumes for its chorus and casts.

So did Sing-Out South.

However, surprisingly, when I got into an e-mail discussion about this the other day with Wanda Ricks Horrell, she said she didn't remember the original SOS cast having costumes.

But the photo below tells the story.

This photograph was taken at the show the original Sing-Out South cast performed at Estes Park in June, 1966 (when we won the overall talent contest over all the other local casts).

Some other black and white shots taken earlier at other SOS performances reveal we wore the same costumes (a-line jumpers similar to the national casts in various colors of yellow, red and blue for the women; navy blue coats and dark trousers for the men with blue and white striped ties).

SOS cast at premiere shows at Hillsboro High School, March, 1966

Even after SOS re-formed itself after the ACTION NOW! Estes Park Conference, we more or less kept the original styles of our costumes. See THE NASHVILLE BANNER newspaper photo below which was taken during the taping of our Memorial Day TV Special at the WSIX-TV, Channel 8 studios on Murfreesboro Road in May, 1967....

You will notice about the only change is with the men's costumes who went from navy to tan-colored blazers, although the trio had light-blue colored sport coats.

However, only a few months later, at least by the spring of 1968, the women's costumes were changed as you can see below. The new dresses were no longer a-line jumpers with a white blouse underneath. Instead, the costumes appear to be one piece uniforms with a cowl-type treatment around the neck. The color pattern was also different and more varied with different shades of blue, green, red and yellow...

Does anyone remember when we changed to the uniforms above? And does anyone know why we changed the women's costumes back again?

Just a few months later, the costumes went back to a-line jumpers with a white blouse underneath as you can see from photos of shows below, done over several of the next few years from the summer of 1968, on into 1969 and through the early '70s.

An outdoor show, possibly at Camp Boxwell or in Edwin Warner Park, during the summer or spring of '68.

Our 30-minute public TV, WDCN-TV, Channel 2 special taped in the fall of 1968. Note the addition of new women's colors such as pink.

On the steps of the War Memorial Auditorium. This was after I left the cast, so it was in the fall of 1969 or later into 1970 or '71before SOS discontinued.

So here are some questions to ponder(if you have any information, e-mail it to me or leave your thoughts and memories below).

1. Who made these costumes, especially for the women? Your Moms? Our Sing-Out mothers? Large sewing bees?

2. Where did the patterns come from? The How to Create Your Own Sing-Out Book? Somewhere or someone else? Who choose the colors and the fabrics so they would match?

3. How did all this get done in particular for the premiere shows since we did them in late March, 1966, less than 2 months after we started practices in late January?

4. Where did the guys get their ties, blazers and pants? Off the rack? Some particular store?

5. And what and why was the change made in the women's costumes in the spring of 1968? And then why and how were things changed things back, seemingly within just a few months later that year?

Inquiring minds want to know!