“Our reception was so good and so enthusiastic that our hosts kept yelling for more,” wrote Peter H. Strauss ’54, the band manager, in an account of the evening in the band archives.

But their reception among New Haven’s law enforcement was far less cheery, as Strauss learned that one man’s parade is another man’s riot.

Strauss and Edwards K.L. Upton ’53, a faculty member, were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace and parading without a permit. Bail was set at $250 for each of them.

The New Haven police initially attempted to arrest the entire band, according to Strauss, but not all of them were able to fit in the police station.

“One of the four busloads of band members was pulled into the jailhouse that night before everything was settled out,” Strauss recalls in an interview.

With an early rehearsal and football game scheduled for later that day at Columbia, Strauss and the band were eager to leave their situation in New Haven behind them.

But $500 in bail had to be raised, and the two band members under arrest had under $30 between them, according to Strauss,

After an unsuccessful attempt to pawn an extra tuba, the band pooled their wallets and collected bail for their martyred comrades.

Charges against Upton, who had been arrested randomly from the mass of musicians, were eventually dropped. Strauss was given a short probation and ordered to pay minimal fines for damage to several New Haven police cars, which he says was caused by rowdy Elis incited by the performance.

Back at Harvard, Strauss and the band avoided major punishment from an amused Adminstrative Board.

According to Strauss, Associate Dean Robert B. Watson ’37 informed him, “The [Ad] Board has asked me to advise you that it is, in the circumstances, forced to issue an official reprimand for your actions in connection with the Yale incident, but also has asked that you be told, unofficially, of their opinion that it was one of the greatest stunts in over 10 years.”