Life for the band was far better after the Second World War than it had been after the first. In fact, music throughout the area was booming, with both Oil City and Rocky Grove fielding strong, active bands. The Franklin Band maintained a strong line-up, including many names that would be long associated with the band: Roy Smith, Harold Pixley, Bob "Ish" English, Jerry Frey, Harlow Bower,  and Dick Eshelman. New faces came into the area in this period as well, including Bob Hulings and his old college friend, Dick Abel. This particular photo comes from 1947. Initially, Hiker Kinsley was the leader during the post-war years, but soon Roy Smith returned to the podium. The band continued with the distinctive brown uniforms for several years. In the early fifties, they began using majorettes to perk parades up a bit. In this ragged but somewhat digitally restored picture, you can also see the band's first black member.                     By the mid-fifties, the band was beginning to feel a membership pinch. The mid-fifties were a period interested in modern, new, forward-looking things-- a town band seemed a bit quaint, old-fashioned. In 1955 the city finally erected a brick band stand in the park, dedicating it as a war memorial band stand. The bandstand would be modified a bit in the eighties, but it is that same war memorial band stand that the band performs on every summer. Here's a photo of the band taken a few years after the new bandstand was built. The photographer is upstairs in City Hall, shooting at the band down in the street in front of fire station.                 Doc Myers, Dick Eshelman, and Glenn Steele  are among the members here. Roy Smith stands to the left of the band, baton in hand.