Ambassadors bring back golden age

Hills, continues to play bugle.

He learned to play the trumpet as a freshman at Penn Hills High School, joining a local dance band called the Tophatters. After graduating in 1943, he joined the Navy and served as his ships’ bugler while also working as a machinist mate until his discharge in 1946.

After World War II, Mr. Laus joined American Legion Post 351 in Homewood and became a member of the Pittsburgh Rockets. He played and taught with them from 1948 until 1973.

An instructor for many Pennsylvania drum and bugle corps, he joined the Steel City Ambassadors in 2003. Two years later, he was inducted into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame and then the first class of the Buglers Hall of Fame.

He is famous for his rendition of “Flight of the Bumblebee.” He was the first and only bugler to play the pieces on an old-fashioned G singlevalve bugle.

Mr. Laus competed solo for about 10 years as a soprano player at the local, state and national level. He never lost from 1956 through 1964. He retired after winning nine consecutive National Individual Invitational championships, a feat that’s never been matched.

“It is a great honor to share the field with someone like this,” said Mr. Porter. “This is something we are losing today, that connection to the past. Some kids today just don’t understand what came before them.”

Mr. Laus says he has always found his friends in a corps. “When you graduate from high school, everyone runs in a different direction,” he said. “But when you’re in a drum and bugle corps, you’re always together.”

For a schedule of performances, go to http://steelcityambassadors.org/2016Site.