In the1940s, Frankie ‘Leather Lip’ Farr (Memorial), nicknamed for amazing endurance and stamina playing his horn, was the first soprano horn player to perform a solo on the contest field. He was a widely admired member of the Appleknockers senior drum and bugle corps of Geneva, New York throughout the 1940s and 1950s. During those years, the Appleknockers performed on a year round basis, marching in parades and participating in field contests in the summer, and presenting indoor stage concerts in fall and winter. He was also a popular trumpet performer with dance bands and jazz groups throughout the upstate New York area around Geneva, and headed his own dance band: Frank Farr’s Big Swing Band, whose members included drummer Norm Peth. He was such an accomplished jazz musician that he improvised his solos on the contest field. The Appleknockers flourished under the direction of other young enthusiasts who eventually became Hall of Fame members, including drum instructor John S. Pratt and his mentor Norm Peth, music director Jack Bullock, who played alongside Farr in dance bands, and Kenny ‘Ace’ Petersen, who replaced Farr as the Appleknockers’ soloist in 1954. The Appleknockers finished in the top 10 in every American Legion championship contest they entered, beginning in 1941 when the corps was one of the first competitive drum and bugle corps to play jazz styled music. The corps was formed in 1928, initially operating under the sponsorship of the Geneva Winnek American Legion Post 396, competing primarily in the Penn-York contest circuit. The unusual name, adopted after World War II, refers to Geneva’s location in the apple-growing region of upstate New York and that they “knocked” around the country participating in many events.
*Deceased
