The Alexan­der Rag­time Band took its name from an Amer­i­can movie of the same name. Around No­vem­ber 1938, the movie Alexan­der Rag­time Band was shown at the De Luxe and Em­pire cin­e­mas in Port-of-Spain. Pri­or to this re-chris­ten­ing, the name of the band was the Cal­vary Tam­boo Bam­boo Band. In the mid to the late 1930s, when the Wa­ter­front in Port-of-Spain was be­ing de­vel­oped, the area where the fire sta­tion now stands on Wright­son Road was a huge dump­ing ground, and many emp­ty steel drums of all sizes were dis­card­ed and dumped there.

There was al­so a dump in the Mu­cu­rapo area (south­west­ern Wood­brook). The youths from New­town and Cor­beau Town (the area where Crown Plaza now stands) used to go there, and to the Har­bour Scheme area, took the pans and car­ried them up to the Big Yard, al­so called the Dame Lor­raine Yard, at the cor­ner of Wood­ford Street and Tra­garete Road. The Big Yard was al­so well known for its stick fights and oth­er cul­tur­al and artis­tic ac­tiv­i­ties dur­ing the Car­ni­val sea­son.

For the 1939 Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions, there was the tran­si­tion from tam­boo bam­boo to met­al, as paint cans, bis­cuit drums, brake drums, and ce­ment drums took over from the tam­boo bam­boo. With the met­al pans tak­en from the port area, the youths would gath­er in the Big Yard and prac­tise to get a per­fect rhythm in time for Car­ni­val 1939. For Car­ni­val 1939, the Alexan­der Rag­time Band hit the streets for the first time with a new styling of mu­sic, led by Carl­ton Forde, al­so known as Lord Hum­bug­ger, parad­ing in full re­galia with ba­ton, top hat, gloves and coat­tails.

The charis­mat­ic Leo Warn­er, one of the most artis­tic pi­o­neers, was very good on the large bis­cuit drum, which gave the band its bass sound. Oth­er good bis­cuit drum men were "Peche" and "Po­lice." Oth­er main men in the ARB were Vic­tor "To­tee" Wil­son and Fred­er­ick "Man­do" Wil­son, who it is said mas­tered the two-note paint pans and start­ed in­tro­duc­ing the melody, which mo­ti­vat­ed the chantuelle singers of the band to sing with more gus­to and en­thu­si­asm.

From the Cal­vary Tam­boo Bam­boo Band of the pre­vi­ous years, the tran­si­tion was in full ef­fect to the met­al/steel and iron band. As the leg­end goes, the ARB was com­ing up Park Street with the peo­ple danc­ing and hav­ing a good time, and as they turned down in­to Char­lotte Street, the peo­ple from Hell Yard were amazed and in awe of what they saw. Some mem­bers of the pi­o­neer ARB in­clud­ed Car­ton "Hum­bug­ger" Forde, Vic­tor "To­tee" Wil­son, Vic­tor "Man­doo" Wil­son, "Bud­dy" Col­ston, "Popoy­ack," Leo Warn­er, "Peche, "Po­lice", and, the Alphon­so Broth­ers.

Regi­nald "Popo" Alphon­so was al­so one of the ARB fa­mous iron men. Oth­er leg­endary names and char­ac­ters of this era, all con­tribut­ing to the preser­va­tion and progress of the steel­band (both the in­stru­ment and move­ment) were George God­dard, Fred­di Ma­roon, Maifan Dray­ton, Clari, John­ny Rab, Ron­nie St Hill, Lio Ter­ri­ble, the Cor­beau Town Sec­tion, the May­ers Broth­ers, Can­di Bou­can Steel Man, Gum­bo Lie Lie, and Gum­bo Gle­sen.

Years lat­er, in the pe­ri­od af­ter World War II, Alexan­der Rag­time Band spawned the Red Army Band, lo­cat­ed on Green Cor­ner, and Com­man­does on Ed­ward Street. To­day, the mem­o­ry of the leg­endary Alexan­der Rag­time Band con­tin­ues to live in the pages of steel­pan his­to­ry in T&T, across the globe, and in the hearts and minds of those sur­viv­ing pi­o­neers and pan lovers of that glo­ri­ous era. Some res­i­dents of the Big Yard com­mu­ni­ty were the Bish­op Fam­i­ly, the Coombs, Miss No­ra, Beryl Hugh­es, Hast­ing Hug­gins, Adams, Desmond Hug­gins and Claire.