When Jacky Bam Bam was a teenager, there were two things crucial to him, two things that he knew that he had to one day accomplish— become an on-air rock radio personality and a Mummer.
Now, he’s living the dream.
Bam Bam has been a DJ at 93.3 WMMR for almost 20 years, and also a Golden Sunrise NYA fancy division Mummer (among other divisions since his start at age seven). And this week, his childhood ambitions have come full circle with an induction into the Mummers Hall of Fame.
“My dream a kid was to be a captain in a string band, or any Mummer division, get into the Mummers’ Hall of Fame, get onto rock and roll radio as a DJ, and have my mom and dad still alive to witness it all,” said Bam Bam. “I did it.”
Though he has been part of new clubs (Adelphia NYA) and old clubs (Trilby String Band, Uptown String Band), Bam Bam worked through South Philly’s Golden Sunrise NYA for the 2024 parade, winning First Prize for his “Jungle Exotica Themed 2024 Handsome Costume.”
When he went to the 2024’s Mummers Museum banquet to pick up his prize, a surprise twist came into play.
“I got my plaque, went back to my table, President Jack Cohen started talking. I’m babbling away with all of my friends seated with me,” said Bam Bam. “Then I heard Jack say something about someone doing so much for Mummery, not just his club or division, but all clubs and all divisions. I heard something about being an ambassador of Mummery and night-times, and then he said my name. My jaw dropped. Everybody at my table knew, and my mom and dad knew, but they all wanted it to be surprise. And for the first time in my life, I was absolutely speechless. Total loss of words.”
Being inducted into the Mummers Hall of Fame is truly an outstanding, organic celebration for all of what Bam Bam does with, and for, the parade tradition that goes back to 1901, and happens to be the longest-running, continuous folk parade in the United States. Along with doing his nightly Mummers 10 p.m. “Seventh Inning Strut” during his WMMR radio show — “I can’t believe that ‘MMR lets me play Mummers music in the middle of Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones and Black Crowes songs” — Bam Bam is laser-focused on the art and pageantry of plumes, feathers and golden slippers.
“The media only ever focuses on the Mummers on Thanksgiving and New Years, and then they’re forgotten about the rest of the year,” he said. “Not on my watch. It’s a nightly thing – a daily thing – for me and mine. If I get involved with a fundraiser, a cancer benefit, I bring out the Mummers. I bring Mummers onto my radio show, and on-the-air. All of them, they’re rock stars in my book.”
Considering that Bam Bam has worked a plethora of on-air and backstage meet-and-greets in his time, calling Mummers “rock stars” carries weight – and yes, the DJ has introduced gold spangled-and-sparkling Mummery to the likes of Steven Tyler and the Black Crowes’ Robinson brothers.
“These guys call me an ambassador, which is weird because only Bob Shannon, rest in peace, is the true ambassador, but I take my responsibility very seriously. It’s a dream come true.”
Talking about having Mummer-dom in his blood since birth, Bam Bam humorously reminisced about how his father asked that he not touch a parade-walker’s back plumes during their march. He’s quick to recall the old Philadelphia Convention Center in the middle of the University of Penn’s campus, and how in 1976, the Fancy Division – for the first time ever – joined up with the string bands for a massive celebration of “red-white-and-blue” patriotism.
“I never forgot that – it was like sitting in the front row for the Rolling Stones, or Sinatra,” he said. “And I love being part of the Fancy Club, and all Mummers, because it’s important for me to keep the tradition of backpieces and wear big captains’ plumes on my back.
“The plumage, the tradition: that’s what I fell in love with when I was a little boy with my father taking me to the Convention Center’s Mummers Show of Shows and sitting on a milk crate on Broad Street in front of Genemi’s Funeral Home on New Year’s Day where my Aunt Millie had a house.”
Bam Bam acknowledges his career as a radio rocker, and meeting up with his hard rock heroes. Yet, hanging with, and being a Mummer, means everything to him.
“People don’t always understand how I can do this rock-and-roll job and still have a thing for the Mummers. But to me, talking to, and being a Mummer is bigger and better. The Mummers mean everything to me. They’re rock stars.”
