This week’s ARTCAST looks at a classic football season and includes a sizzle reel of classic Hollywood performances by the Trojan Marching Band. Watch carefully to see if you’re in it. Have you got a question for Dr. Bartner? He’ll answer them in next week’s concluding ARTCAST. Just submit your question by Dec. 6 to tmb@usc.edu.
Trojan football fans will never forget the 2017 Rose Bowl, when a Matt Boermeester field goal with time expiring propelled USC to a 52-49 victory. But the route getting to Pasadena wasn’t easy.
The Trojans started the season with a 1-3 record, and then went on to run the table. To earn a trip to the Rose Bowl, USC had to beat Washington on the road as a nine-point underdog in front of a hostile crowd. The Trojans went on to upset the Huskies 26-13.
“This was one of the great upsets in my career. We were surrounded by 70,000 wild Husky fans,” Bartner recalled. “This team went up there and really shut them down. We had a small but vocal crowd. “It was an unbelievable celebration. USC jumped Colorado (in the rankings) and went to the Rose Bowl. Everything lined up for us and it all started on this Washington evening.”
In the Traditions segment, Bartner discusses how the Spirit of Troy became Hollywood’s band, starting with support from Paramount Studios publicist Hank Ehrlich. TGMBITHOTU has appeared in some 150 movies and television shows, and is one of the few college bands to have its own IMDb listing.
The segment concludes with a two-and-a-half-minute sizzle reel of TMB performances, including “Dinah” in 1974 (“I got to sit next to Rock Hudson!” Bartner recalls), “The Naked Gun” in 1988, “Forrest Gump,” in 1994, and “Hawaii 5-0” in 2010.
Bartner credits band members for establishing the TMB’s Hollywood glitz and glamour.
“It’s the students who are putting in the extra time,” he says. “These movies are all-day shoots. The students give up their time and their talent to make this all happen. “That’s what we’re trying to create at USC. Memories for a lifetime.”
You’ll find this week’s ARTCAST and other Spirit of Troy videos on the TMB’s YouTube channel.
