“Hindoo” Boy in Marine Corps Band
Snapshots from Indian-American history
this month, that year
May 16, 1918
—An article
in the San Francisco Chronicle
describes the Marine Corps
Band playing a free concert at
a Children’s Hospital. A photo
caption reads, “Ram Gaibai
(sic), a solemn looking Hindoo
boy, no bigger than a doll, beat
a drum with the assistance of
the Marine drummer.”
Ram Bagai later became president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (which gives out the Golden Globe awards) and during the ‘50s and ‘60s introduced many Indian films as art films to American audiences.
For more on the fascinating story of his family, see http://aiisf.org/immigrant-voices/stories-by-author/876-bridges-burnt-behind-the-story-of-vaishno-das-bagai/
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