The Greater Overbrook String Band is now strutting its stuff in suburbia.
The Mummers have relocated to the basement of the Highland Park Firehouse at Park Avenue and Cedar Lane in Upper Darby.
"We moved because we weren't getting any of the younger generation who wanted to join the band," said John Hicks, the group's president.
Two Street, or Second Street in South Philadelphia, had long been home to Greater Overbrook, as well as other Mummers' clubhouses. It is also the site of the New Year's after-party, where the bands gather to serenade each other.
But with competition from larger bands such as Ferko and Quaker City, recruiting was a challenge for Greater Overbrook.
The 35 playing members were not enough to strut up Broad Street on New Year's Day, Hicks said. A string band needs a minimum of 48 playing members to make the march.
"We decided to save the band, and that is why we came here," said Hicks, a deputy fire chief in Upper Darby.
With a number of the band's members living in the Upper Darby area, the idea of a shorter commute to practice, and the hope of new recruits, the change of address made sense.
The strategy seems to be paying off.
Already, Hicks said, they have recruited four players and a dancer. One is an 11-year-old saxophone player whose father is a firefighter. Another is a retired member who lives nearby and rejoined the band.
This is not the first time the band has experienced a shortage.
For the 2001 New Year's parade, it recruited several members of the Temple University and West Chester University marching bands to help fill the ranks.
"We were looking for more saxophone players at the time," Hicks said, noting they were short on tenor sax players.
Jim Driadon, the band's captain, hopes to attract members of local high school bands.
"Originally, when we were in the Overbrook section, we had a lot of Delaware County kids in the band," Driadon said. "They were all good musicians."
Driadon said the band was looking for saxophone, mandolin, violin, bass fiddle, and banjo players - just about anything but brass players.
"As long as they can march," he said. "If they can't play, we will teach them."
In 1930, the band was known as the 69th Street String Band. It changed to the Whitman String Band in 1939, and in 1953 to the Greater Overbrook String Band. In 1997, it merged with the Italian-American String Band and moved to Second Street.
Greater Overbrook is not the first to relocate to the suburbs.
In the 1960s, the Broomall String Band left South Philadelphia for New Jersey, where most of its members lived. The Durning String Band moved to New Jersey, then merged with the Garden State String Band of Gloucester City in 1988. The Uptown String Band now calls Hulmeville, Bucks County, home.
"It doesn't matter if you are big or small - you still struggle with membership," said John Pignotti, president of the String Band Association, and a Mummer with the Hegeman String Band for 41 years. "Some [bands] are healthier than others."
Pignotti said there are 18 string bands, down from 27 in the 1980s.
Being a Mummer, he said, is not easy. The commitment goes year-round with practices, parades, and fund-raising.
He said "all the Mummers" were out during Fourth of July weekend, calling it "the weekend to make money."
String bands planned to play over the weekend in parades from Virginia to Rhode Island, Pignotti said. Some were doing as many as 12 parades.
Greater Overbrook, which planned to take part in four suburban parades, will not be abandoning South Philadelphia altogether.
"The traditional New Year's thing . . . we will be going down to Two Street," Hicks said.
Contact staff writer Mari A. Schaefer at 610-892-9149 or mschaefer@phillynews.com.
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