Rehoboth Piping Out Labor Day Musical Boardwalk Parade set Sept. 2
A lost Rehoboth Beach historical tradition of “piping out” the summer on Labor Day with a joyous musical parade on the Boardwalk is being revived this year by the Rehoboth Beach Historical Society.
Revelers with musical instruments of any and all varieties are asked to gather on the Boardwalk by 5:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 2, in front of the Henlopen Hotel, and the ensemble will then proceed to Pipe Out up the Boardwalk to the area in front of the Bandstand. The historical society is providing 40 kazoos for people without their own instruments.
Band leader and trombonist Nick Nichols said, “It would be nice if everyone participating can contribute to ‘When the Saints go Marching In’ to get us started, but to be a true ‘piper,’ getting into the spirit is more important than musical acumen.”
Although records are ambiguous, Piping Out is thought to have originated in the mid- to late-1950s by the late bandleader Sammy Ferro whose orchestra played for dances held at the old Henlopen Hotel. At the last dance of the summer on Labor Day, Ferro would take his band “to the boards” followed by his audience, and then lead a spontaneous musical parade down the Boardwalk to the vicinity of Dolle’s popcorn stand at Rehoboth Avenue. The tradition temporarily ended when the hotel was destroyed in the “Great Storm of 1962,” but was started up again when the new hotel was completed in the early 1970s.
Rehoboth Beach Museum Director Nancy Alexander said, “It is not clear when the Piping Out event stopped being held, but we suspect that it was so much a part of the energy and enthusiasm of bandleader Sammy Ferro, that whenever his orchestra stopped playing Rehoboth dances, no-one else stepped forward to continue the tradition.”
Cape Gazette archives show that Ferro led the Piping Out until 1999, when his heart began to weaken. He died Nov. 6, 2001, at the age of 87.
She said that it is known that Ferro was also a radio announcer in Washington, D.C. and an enthusiastic promoter of Rehoboth Beach, and that on his programs he would regularly talk-up Rehoboth Beach as a fun vacation destination. “Piping Out was his own unique contribution to making Rehoboth a fun experience,” she said.
While reservations are not needed, the society asks that potential participants call the Rehoboth Beach Museum at 302-227-7310 to let the society know and to reserve a kazoo.
