You know, they have the BIG title song- “76 Trombones”- have they ever really had a marching band with 76 Trombones and all the etc? (110 trumpets?) 
Not trumpets, cornets.
Interesting question, though. Answer might be in the Guinness Book of Records. Don’t forget you need more than a thousand reeds. I’m not sure if oboes and bassoons count as two reeds each, but either way, that’s a lot of pairs of pants with a big gold stripe running . . .
Okay, I’ll stop now.
All that and only one bass? I don’t think so.
{nitpick}
It’s a red stripe.
{/nitpick}
My friend had a cd where they performed 76 trombones with you guessed it 76 trombones…it was really good and they covered some cool songs I’ll ask him who they were if your interested.
Didn’t Prof. Hill specifically make this claim about the John Philip Sousa band? That would narrow the search a bit. Hill was a flim-flam man anyway, so there’s no reason to believe anything he said.
According to the lyrics, Gilmore [presumably Patrick S Gilmore], Pat Conway, The Great Creatore [real name: Giuseppe Creatore], WC Handy, and John Phillip Sousa had all come to the same town on the same date.
(All of these men are real, however, they don’t fit well on a timeline, as Gilmore died before the Great Creatore ever visited the US, and Handy was not, to the best of my knowledge, a concert bandleader.)
And Hill could not have graduated from the Gary, Indiana, Conservatory, Class of '05, because the town wasn’t built until '06. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary%2C_Indiana#History
Yes, and Captain Billy’s Whizbang wasn’t published until after 1920, after the time period of the musical.
But who cares?
Those nice red stripes would have been all covered with dung, unless the copper-bottom tympani in horse platoons were at the rear.
Has anyone ever actually *seen * a double-belled euphonium?
They exist. My band teacher in sixth grade had one.
I’d swear Liberace is in there somewhere, too, (at least on the Broadway: The American Musical compilation I have) which never made sense to me because it would have been WAY too early for him. And he has nothing to do with marching bands anyway.
Alessandro Liberati, 1847-1927.
Found here.
Seen it. Played it. Didn’t actually shatter window glass with it, though it wasn’t for lack of trying 
A more important question is whether farting bedposts (a.k.a. bassoons) have ever been part of a marching band in a parade. A concert band, sure, but bassoons are heavy, and double reeds are mighty fragile…
Tip o’ the hat to old Professor Hill for knowing that there’s a difference between cornets and trumpets!
Right. Just to show how lazy I am today, I dragged out our old (1978) copy of the Guinness Book of Records, and my son’s 2004 copy. First, the bad news: as many of you probably already know, the Guinness Book people have found out their biggest market was among preteens, so they have now given the book an obvious preteen slant. Lots of pages about Pop Music and Rock Music, but no entry for a Largest Marching Band in the 2004 edition. However, in the 1978 edition, we read:
If this band did indeed feature 76 trombones catching the morning sun, with 110 cornets right behind, we are left with 1,790 other musicians. Since much of the brass section has already been counted, we might just be left with enough musicians for over a thousand reeds to spring up like weeds, though I have found no evidence to support tympani, horse platoons, or double-bell euphoniums.
Ah…THAT makes much more sense!
And what IS a horse platoon, anyway?
Other cultural references explained.
I have my doubts about the 50 mounted cannon in the battery, though. Unless they were playing the 1812 Overture, they’d either drown out or take out the rest of the band.
You know, normal people get earworms like commercial jingles or “Sweet Caroline”. I get “76 Trombones”…
Not “Sweet Caroline”!!!
Must…drown…out…earworm…AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHH!!!
There waaaas a wiiiild coloooonial boooy,
Jack Duggannnnn waaaas his naaaaaame
Since we’re talkin’ 'boutThe Music Man try this
Lida Rose, I’m home again, Rose
To get the sun back in the sky.
Lida Rose, I’m home again, Rose
About a thousand kisses shy.