The band was so popular that they became known as the ETO Band. The 156th Infantry Band during a lunch hour concert on the steps of St. Thereafter, the band’s schedule was packed they played parades, clubs, Red Cross Clubs, and events in Trafalgar Square. Within a few months, by January 1943, the 156th Infantry Band was successful in receiving a transfer in its entirety to a new post under Special Service Headquarters, London Base Command. With CWO Rosato acting as agent, the dance band stayed busy around their camp and in London. The band arrived in England on Octoand made their home with Headquarters Company, 156th Infantry Regiment in Broadway on Avon, 100 miles northwest of London. When the band received overseas orders, the instruments nearly remained dockside as they were told they wouldn’t be needed, but with luck and persuasion, the load of musical gear made it onto the ship. Labruno on bass, and CWO Rosato.” Gift of Mr. Personal caption on photo reverse: "Rosato. At one stint of shows, the band supported actress Carole Landis, who would later aid the band in a most advantageous transfer.ĬWO Frank Rosato conducting three 156th Infantry musicians playing saxophones and bass. The band’s reputation grew when they were transferred to Camp Bowie in Texas and became the backing band for the many USO performances touring through the area.
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While in training at Camp Blanding in Florida, some members of the 156th band took action that had a direct impact on their war experience by keeping them behind the bandstands and out of the foxholes they formed a dance band-a smaller, jazzier version of the larger outfit that played reveille and marches. Band members were not automatically exempt from combat or from other military functions playing in the band was almost a supplemental duty.
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The band was expected to complete maneuvers and training alongside all other members of the regiment. They then joined forces with the 108th Cavalry Band in New Orleans, and the new 156th Infantry Band was formed. When the National Guard units were federalized after 1940, the band members were given the option to withdraw or go on active duty some withdrew, leaving only nine original members. The 156th Infantry Band’s origins lie in the Louisiana National Guard Band, formed by 28 members of the Louisiana State University band who were in the National Guard. His son Frank, from a young age, would regularly join him on trumpet during performances. Professor Rosato emigrated from Italy, settled in New Orleans in 1912, where he became a civic music champion and advocate. His father, Joseph Rosato, was a music professor at Tulane University and head of the Rosato School of Music. Rosato, who grew up in the Irish Channel neighborhood of New Orleans, was born to be on the bandstand. Much of the band’s energy and their drive for perfection came from the bandleader, Chief Warrant Officer Frank Rosato, referred to at age 30 as “old man” by the band he commanded. He was encouraged in this course of action by news that American scientists had just successfully tested the atomic bomb.The 156th Infantry Band, a regimental band from Louisiana, brought a New Orleans flair to one of the most influential postwar moments in Europe, when they were selected to provide the musical backdrop for the Potsdam Conference as the “house band” at the Little White House. Roosevelt died three months earlier, arrived at the meeting determined to be “tough” with Stalin. Truman, who had only been president since Franklin D. Russian armies occupied most of Eastern Europe, including nearly half of Germany, and Stalin showed no inclination to remove his control of the region. and British suspicions concerning Soviet intentions in Europe were intensifying. Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam to discuss issues relating to postwar Europe and plans to deal with the ongoing conflict with Japan. READ MORE: FDR, Churchill and Stalin: Inside Their Uneasy WWII Alliance The decisions reached at the conference ostensibly settled many of the pressing issues between the three wartime allies, but the meeting was also marked by growing suspicion and tension between the United States and the Soviet Union.
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The final “Big Three” meeting between the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain takes place towards the end of World War II.