"Sally" 1960s "Mexico 1519 to 1521" (1964) "El Dorado, City of Gold" (1968)

HAROLD  SALDENAH DATE OF BIRTH: 1925 PLACE OF BIRTH: Belmont, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad EDUCATION: ... CAREER:                                 Saldenah began his mas career after World War II assisting bandleaders such as Harry Basilon, Mansie Lai, and Harold Tang Yuk. Some of his early recruits were Bobby Ammon, Edmond Hart, and Stephen Lee Heung, all of whom went on to lead their own successful bands. Inspired by the 1951 Hollywood movie of the same name, Saldenah designed his first mas band "Quo Vadis" in 1953 with Roman soldier helmets made of papier mache painted to look authentic. In 1955, he introduced metalwork to mas by employing Ken Morris to fabricate copper breastplates for Roman soldiers in his winning Band-of-the-Year presentation "Imperial Rome 44BC to 96AD." As his band attracted more masqueraders in the early-1960s, he became the first bandleader to create sections in his presentations. He won 6 Band-of-the-Year titles (1955, 1956, 1958, 1964, 1965, 1968) before moving to Canada in 1977 where he became involved with Toronto's summer Caribana, a Carnival-like parade. He returned to Trinidad in 1983. The following is a listing of Saldenah's Carnival presentations: 1953 - "Quo Vadis" 1954 - "Conquerors of Kisra" 1955 - "Imperial Rome 44BC to 96AD," 1st 1956 - "Norse Gods and Vikings," 1st 1957 - "The Glory That Was Greece" 1958 - "Holy War," 1st (Tied) 1959 - "Cree Indians of Canada" 1960 - "Siam 1250-1767" 1961 - "Zambesi Head Hunters" 1962 - "Julius Caesar's Conquest of Gaul" 1963 - "Controversy of Time" 1964 - "Mexico 1519 to 1521," 1st 1965 - "Pacific Paradise," 1st 1966 - "Asia" 1967 - "Epic of the Zulus" 1968 - "El Dorado, City of Gold," 1st 1969 - "Psychedelic Latin America" 1970 - "Atlantis - Land of Seven Cities" 1971 - "Festival of the Tembu Warriors" 1972 - "Fantasy in Jewels" 1973 - "Fashionable Sailors from Paris" 1974 - "Sun Kingdom of the Amazons" 1975 - "Cult of the Leopard" 1976 - "A Sailor Is a Sailor" 1983 - "Masquerade to Carnival" 1985 - "We Mas Have Class" AWARD: 1972 - Trinidad and Tobago Public Service Medal of Merit Silver (for Carnival Development) DIED: 1985, in Trinidad, from cancer. Compiled by Ronald C. Emrit