Derby "Gang Show" participants in 1934!
DERBY — Local scouts are gearing up to stage their 96th annual “Scout Gang Show” this weekend, an old-fashioned variety show.
Members of Housatonic Council Cub Scout Pack 3, Boy Scout Troop 3 and Venture Crew 33 will present the show at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (May 7) at the Derby Ghana Methodist Church, located at the corner of 5th and Elizabeth streets.
Tickets are available for $12 from Pack 3, Troop 3 and Crew 33 scouts, or by calling 203 – 732-0343. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door. Proceeds will help send scouts to Housatonic Cub Scout Day Camp and the Edmund D. Strang Scout Reservation Summer Camp, as well as 15 scouts who’ll take a trip this summer to the United Kingdom and Ireland.
According to Troop 3 Scoutmaster Randy Ritter, Derby scouts have been performing the show since 1922 (two years were missed during World War II, and the last two years due to COVID-19).
Ritter said some of Derby’s scouting alumni, including late actor Brian Dennehy, Shelton Aldermanic President John Anglace and Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Champ Captain Bob Skoronski, performed in the show during their youth. For more than 70 years, the show was under the direction of the late Scouting pioneer and Derby Hall of Fame member Edmund D. Strang.
This year’s show will feature TV theme show songs, including from “Gilligan’s Island,” “The Flintstones,” and “Sesame Street.” Scouts will perform more than 20 songs, and there will also be jokes and skits.
Special guests are expected to include Past Housatonic Council President Gary Parker, St. Margaret Mary chorus director Sarah Widomski, and former mayor/current Derby Town Clerk Marc Garofalo. Garofalo and Christian Tracz are expected to again dazzle the audience with their dueling accordion performances, Ritter said.
“This annual show has been performed by generations of scouts from the Valley going back to the 1920’s, and some of the jokes and songs we still use are from that period too,” Ritter said in a press release. “Some year we’ll get around to contacting the Guinness World Record group to see if we qualify.”
Click here for the event’s Facebook page.
Cub Scout Pack 3 Derby, founded in 1927 is the oldest Cub Scout Pack in the country. They meet at 6:30 p.m. Mondays at Derby Ghana United Methodist Church. Boy Scout Troop 3 Derby, founded in 1914, meets at 7 p.m. Wednesdays at Derby 2nd Congregational Church. Co-Ed Venture Crew 33, founded in 1938, meets at 7 p.m. Thursdays at Derby 2nd Congregational Church. All three groups are open for membership to youths throughout the lower Naugatuck Valley.
