The mundane problems of finance have troubled the band before. After the war, for example, when Walter J. Skinner '48 was trying to reorganize the group, its total assets consisted of a few pre-war records. Skinner sold the records for $18, spent this for stationery, and then sent letters to alumni. These resulted in $300, with which Skinner bought more stationery, and he finally got enough money to buy pants. Jackets eventually followed, and ever since, this outfit has comprised the ban's attire.
The band, however has not been perennially broke and has at least once benefited from unexpected generosity. In 1949 it was invited to play in New York at a National Association of Manufacturers convention. The NAM not only paid all the band expenses, but also added a $1500 retainer.
The group has not always been so affiuent, and thus it has never been in danger of losing its spontaneity, leading Herbert Warren Wind to comment in a Collers article in 1951 that the group is one of the few Ivy League organizations which take "unashamed delight' in being collegiate. At times, this delight is veritably gleeful. Whenever the group travels south to Columbia or Princeton, an early morning stop at Yale is standard procedure, and the musicians have yet to be deterred by sleepy curses, falling water, or growling police.
Despite such attempts to douse the enthusiasm of the bandsmen away from home, even the disheartening combination of foul weather and fouler football have not kept the band from serenading the team after every game. Such consistency of spirit prompted varsity coach Lloyd P. Jordan to present the organization with the football used in the Crimson's 22-to 21 upset victory over Army in 1951. The ball is now encased in a place of honor in the band room.
After squeezing into a basement room in Lowell Hose, and then in the basement of Paine, the band finally obtained a location big enough to have a place of honor. In 1952 the band moved to its present headquarters at 9 Prescott Street, through the courtesy of the Varsity Club above. Once dusty walls are now enlivened by appropriated road signs: old refrigerators now house uniforms. The band motto, "Illegitimacy Non Carborundum," adorns a main wall.
The motto ("Don't Let the Fellows Wear You Down) is perhaps less than delicate. But for that matter, so is the band. The niceties of nuance and proprieties of gentlemanly behavior are for more sedate organizations. Once, in a typically caustic vein at a typically ragged rehearsal, Holmes announced: "This has got to come to a screeching halt." He may well have expected the bandsmen to stop screeching, but as for a half, well, in spite of money troubles. Yale brickbats, and fatiguing greyhound bus trips,--the Sprit of the Harvard Bend Goes On and On.