These turned up in a folder of pictures from Homecoming in 1951. It took me a minute to realize that they were two completely different outfits:
I’m always going to vote for the band that includes a banjo.
Something else quite interesting emerged from this folder and I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. It might require a trip to Wyoming after the snow melts.
Bonus:
Outdoor piano what?
The caption for the second photo is online (https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/78516):
Lee’s Owl Band performing in front of Fondren Library during Homecoming sign-up. The musical performers are Bob Sheehan (on trombone), Dick Shannon (on clarinet), W.C. Dunlap (on trumpet), Felix Stagno (on banjo) and Briggs Manuel (on saxophone). In addition, there is also a tuba player and a pianist, largely obscured from view. Sheehan is wearing dark glasses and is bareheaded, while the others are wearing either caps or fedoras, all of them are dressed in overcoats, with Stagno seated on the edge of the stage.
That ex-fountain is not the one I saw at Physics or Chemistry. I need to find that.
That “Lee” is probably Lee Chatham, father of our Lee Chatham Seureau.
Second Pic:
I think I see a drum to the right of the picture.
Also, I am NOT sure that the person on the piano bench (I think) is a piano player or the left leg of the tube player, spread to the side.
If that is the piano player, then that is a rather short tuba player.
I think there is a tuba player and a piano player, but perhaps the tuba player is perched on the back corner of the piano bench. Can’t swear to it, though.
It looks to me like the tuba and piano players are both sitting on the bench, back-to-back. The right legs of each — pointed in opposite directions — are visible in the photo.
IF they are both sitting on the piano bench, then they must be freshmen.
Otherwise their derrierres (?sp) would be too big to both sit on the bench.