Remembering Maurice Mandell - Mr. Boar's Head

October 6, 2014

Maurice Mandell, Chief Minstrel 1979-2004 

photo from Boar's Head archive

Maurice Mandell with Boar's Head Director Bob Beiring, about 1989

Photo credit: Michael Wilson

Maurice's operatic voice carried that tune for 35 years in the Boar's Head Festival from 1969 until his retirement in 2004. "In my mind, Maurice was known as "Mr. Boar's Head", and I can never think of anyone else when I hear the Boar's Head Carol.", said Boar's Head Festival director Bob Beiring.

A short clip of the chief minstrel, Maurice Mandell, leads the Boar's Head procession during the 2001 Festival.

Maurice's training was here in Cincinnati at the original Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where he studied operatic voice and also met his long-time wife, Louise, also a trained singer. Maurice's opera career took him to NYC, where he performed at both the Met and NYC Opera. He came back to Cincinnati to start his actual career in Financial Planning in 1968. Gerre Hancock, our Music Director in 1969, needed a new Chief Minstrel with a "voice", and hired Maurice. The rest is history, as Maurice and Louise liked Christ Church so much, they joined our ranks, and then he became a "volunteer singer" in the Festival as a CCC member, and best known of our Boar's Head's Chief Minstrels.

The Waits

August 23, 2014

Before there were clocks, young men in training as guardians of the castle were also trained to mark the hours and days.  They were called waits, which is the medieval term for "watchmen".  Waits also marked the holidays, and the entertainment of the castle often depended upon them. 

In the Middle Ages it was customary for the lord and lady of the manor to provide lavish Christmas feasts for their serfs and vassals. Frequently they came into the castle to sing carols and toast their lord saying, "Wassail!" which means "Good health to you!"

The Waits in the 1950s
Photo from Boar's Head archive