Why would Hollywood and Broadway royalty come to a drum corps show at age 94?
Rita Moreno is that rare EGOT winner: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards. For one hot, steamy night in August of 1980 she was all ours. Rita co-hosted the live five-hour broadcast of the DCI Championship Finals on PBS with game show host Jim Peck and yours truly, a young drum corps guy named Steve Rondinaro.
It was her first exposure to this thing we love. Rita was blown away by what she saw on the field that night. She was enthusiastic, curious, and best of all she was genuine and fun. No airs, no prima donna stuff. Jim and I loved working with her. I’ve always wanted to get her back.
Years passed. Decades passed. There was Rita in Steven Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story” in 2021. The urge to get her back to DCI sprang anew. But how?
Last year news broke that Rita Moreno would receive a special award at the Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Past Drum Corps Associates president, lifelong drum corps guy and friend Allen Buell was coordinating the affair as part of his real-life job at the Eastman.
I called Allen and asked him if he’d ask Rita what she remembered about that DCI experience and if she would maybe — possibly — even remotely consider coming to DCI finals again. A few days later my phone rang with Allen Buell on the caller ID. “Steve? Hang on a minute. Somebody wants to talk to you.”
Oh boy…
“Stephen?”
“Rita, my dear!”
“Of course, I remember DCI and you. I loved it. I would love to come see it again!”
And off we went, working on logistics with her daughter. As Rita reminded me in our several phone calls: “I’m ninety-bleeping-four years old so don’t trust my memory on anything.”
If we’re all doing as well as Rita Moreno at 94, we’ll have been truly blessed.
I cannot tell you how special it was to get Rita back to the DCI Finals and share her with a stadium full of fellow fans. Many friends on the Drum Corps International team helped make it happen. She wowed everyone. Amazing at 94 and so much fun.
