Many of us have wondered, "Why are we the Crimson Kings?" After a few theories, we decided to ask Lily Din Woo '59-'83 - former member and director of the Corps. Here's the real story as told by Lily! "We actually renamed the corps in 1970, when we decided to enter standstill competition in the Nassau Suffolk circuit. Our original name was the "New York Chinese Public School Drum Corps". We were in the process of converting from a fife, drum and bugle corps to a drum and bugle corps and were designing and ordering a new uniform. We wanted to create a new name and logo on the uniform.
The name came out of the color of our uniform at th time (crimson red satin shirts) as well as a positive attitude of what we wanted to be on the competitive field. As it turned out, we won many competitions over the years, including first place at the Northeastern States Championships. At one time we had over 120 members (including th feeder group), with about a 35 member competitive hornline, full drum line and color guard.
The inspiration to go M&M in the 80's was inspired by a visit by the "Imperial Dragons" from California. They were on tour for DCI and we made arrangements to host their stay for one night in our gym. As a "thank you", they gave us a preview of their performance. Shortly afterwards we went into the Garden State M&M circuit to compete. It certainly wasn't easy to find space to practice (we used parking lots by Wall Street on Sundays and the ballfield down by Cherry and Market Street)."