Best Of The Mummers

"Living High Fidelity" Champions of the Philadelphia Mummers Parade [Liner] Aqua is the oldest continuously marching String Band on Broad Street, operating under its original Directors who formed the band on April 2, 1920. Captain Fred J. Kesel claims the distinction of being the first musician to make the Glockenspiel or Band Lyre, part of Mummers' music. Today, the bells play a strong part in creating the distinctive tone of string band music. In the forty years since 1921, Aqua has scoured every remote corner of the earth to use imaginative themes and costumes. Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Brazil have represented the Spanish influence, while such exotic spots as Africa, Arabia, India, China, Egypt, Siam, Russia, the North Pole, and even Shangri-La have not been neglected. Many forms of human activities have been portrayed in string band version through the years, and spectators have seen royal courts, operas, carnivals, gamblers and playing cards, beggars, merry-go-rounds, even pixies, slaves and pansy flowers. Aqua's creativity always rises to the occasion and has earned for this outstanding club many a deserved honor. The vivid Siamese Dancers themes for 1955 will be long remembered by those spectators fortunate enough to have seen it. Especially notable was captain Fred Kesel's glittering portrayal of the six-armed god Vishnu, for which he was awarded First Prize from the city of Philadelphia in the Captain's Costume division; the David W. Crawford Memorial Trophy by the Charles Klein New Year's Association; and the first Oscar issued to the winning captain by the Philadelphia New Year's Shooters and Mummers Association.