Last month, we released a set of LPs made by the Wagner College Choir under the direction of Sigvart Steen.
In that same posting, we also released a short home movie of the choir departing for one of its famous tours and performing at an unidentified venue:
Because the footage of the choir tour departure and performance was found on the same 8mm home movie reel as footage obviously shot at Homecoming 1958, we assumed that the choir footage came from the same year.
A comment posted on our YouTube channel by a Wagner alum, however, suggests that our assumption was incorrect.
"Didn't recognize any of the students. The date is probably off by 2 years," wrote Bayboy11235. "I checked the yearbook from '58 and recognized most of the choir. None of them are in this film. My guess 1955-56? The bus used for the tour in '58 had a sky liner roof."
And looking closely at the film to compare it with the choir group photos from the 1956, 1958 and 1959, we think Bayboy may be on to something — but we would like your help to confirm our hunch.
Choir members and other alums from the mid- to late Fifties: Please take a look at the photo below, taken from the choir home movie, and compare it to the Kallista 1956 photo. Are the individuals circled in the home movie photo the same people who are circled in the Kallista photo? Have we identified them properly as Ann Paschke, Carl Pederson and Barbara Cole? Can you identify any more of the students appearing in either photo? And can anyone help us in nailing down the year the choir tour and performance home movies were shot?
Please send your reply to Wagner College Historian Lee Manchester (lee.manchester@wagner.edu). Thanks!
And, for the bonus point: There is a woman who is featured in much of the first half of the choir film. Can anyone tell us who she is?