Meddiebempsters History
Much of this history paraphrased from "MEDDIEBEMPSTERS HISTORY: And May The Music Echo Long, 1937-1987" by Peter K. Race, M'52.
The singing group that came to be known the Bowdoin College Meddiebempsters was the brain child of not one, but two men: Professor Frederick E.T. Tillotson and Geoffrey R. Stanwood M'38.
Initially devised as a "group of singers that would be comparable to Yale's Whiffenpoofs," the four initial members were an almost immediate success, singing around campus countless times during the spring of 1937. After a short time, the group was expanded to a double quartet, with which they entertained many small audiences of the campus community with old favorites and tight harmonies.
The first song ever performed by this initial group was "Talk About Jerusalem Morning," straight out of the Yale Songbook. Soon thereafter, however, the group had many songs in their repertoire from both borrowed and original sources. From the beginning, the group adopted the idea that the songs themselves were far less important than their experience performing them. They were a group that, in the words of Geoffrey Stanwood, "enjoyed each other, had a helluva lot of fun, and worked up a good blend of voices."
While there is some contention as to the true story behind the decision to call this new group the Meddiebempsters, the most commonly-told story these days attributes the name to a "pin the tail on the donkey" type of exercise involving the map of Maine.
The most commonly-told story these days attributes the name to a "pin the tail on the donkey" type of exercise involving the map of Maine.
Tom Bromwell M'41, according to the story, "was blind-folded, spun, pointed in the direction of a map of Maine and hit the town of Meddybemps with his pencil. That did it!"And that it did. The name was slightly altered, a ninth member was added to augment the octet, and the Bowdoin College Meddiebempsters were born. The group was then found performing under their new alias for private functions as well as public concerts, frequently as part of Bowdoin College Glee Club Concerts during the intermission period, and even early on was invited to perform for the Governer of Maine at Bailey Island.
During World War II, the Meddies, unlike many other organizations on campus, continued to exert their energies and voices to keep the music alive despite the period of intense student disruption. During this period, the directorship was assumed by Professor Tilly, much to his dismay, to help keep some sense of flow and continuity during these tumultuous years when the college had fewer than one hundred total students.
After the Second World War came to a close, the Meddiebempsters' notariety grew by leaps and bounds. After a Glee Club tour to Washington D.C. in 1948 where the Meddiebempsters impressed the First Family, the Trumans invited the Meddies to take a USO tour of Europe for the first time. The tour was enormously successful and resulted in a full performance calendar for the 1948-1949 academic year. The Meddies had become a performing group of international note.
The Meddies made frequent high-visibility appearances in the upcoming years, including a very successful performance on "The Tex and Jinx Show," after which the Meddies were offered a professional summer-long engagement in the Catskills.
The European tours also continued, as the Meddies were invited back to Europe by the Department of Defense every summer from 1948 through 1955. After another decade, the nine men of the 1965 Meddiebempsters were once again invited to do sixty-five concerts in eight weeks, including an impromptu concert for some Russian Border Guards. All in all, "fifty-eight Meddiebempsters had the unparalleled opportunity over an eight-trip, eighteen-year period, to demonstrate on another continent those sounds which had made them justifiably famous in their own country."
Over the next twenty years, through the eighties, the Meddiebempsters produced no fewer than twelve albums, archiving nearly eighty songs on a combination of vinyl and cassette. Of course, no song less more well-known to Meddiebempsters and their fans than "Mood Indigo." "Mood" was performed in 1937, during the group's first semester of existence, and is still performed by Meddiebempsters today.
The last twenty years of history have been years of intense cameraderie, if not reflecting the productivity of past generations. Past members have said "I consider myself more of a 'Meddie Alum' then a Bowdoin Alum or at least as much. Can't beat the all male sound!" and "Fun, blending, singing, comeraderie, travel, great exposure, meeting Bowdoin alumni all over the country, singing with other similar (inferior) groups at other colleges..."
The Meddies today are, in many ways, very similar to those who performed under the same name more than sixty-five years ago. Although today's Meddies can be heard producing vocal percussion in the context of a song less than a few months old, today's Meddiebempsters still wear the navy coat and tie that was worn on the Meddie's first European Tour. They still sing Mood Indigo almost identically to the original arrangement. They still carry on the idea that the experience is the most important part of the group. Without fun along with the incredible music, the Meddiebempsters would surely not exist today.