Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Technique Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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1915 TECHNIQUE Q7 student generation, events of a past decade must be regarded as such- are in danger of oblivion. Some, of necessity, cease to exist with the disappearance of the thing or event which gave them birth. Others, in which the original cause persists, are so altered as to lose all semblance of their earlier form. Cognizant of these facts, it was With an especial pleasure and in- terest that the Writer received a request to draw up some record of the beginnings of the Tech Show. By rare good fortune there Was in his possession a brief statement of the ShoW's origin, Written by the one most concerned in it and best able to describe it. This may be given in its original form :- 6'To the Tech undergraduate of to-day, the Tech Show seems so much a matter of course that he can hardly imagine that the early spring ever arrived Without bring- ing the Tech Show with it. The Show to be given this year will be the sixteenth in the history of this now thoroughly established annual festivity. But With this taken for granted, it is a Tech generation, and more, since the Show had its beginning. There is not a little danger that the origin and purpose of the Show may so soon retire into remote tradition as to become myth- ical. Therefore the Venerable Ones who Watched the ShoW's beginnings think it Wise to leave authoritative record of them. In the late Winter of 1899 the Athletic Association of M. I. T. found itself, 'not to put too ine a point upon it' as Mr. Micavvber would say, 'bankruptedf This pain- ful fact was impressed upon the collective mind of the Association by the refusal of certain Boston firms, Who shall be nameless, to furnish any further medals for dis- tribution by the Association until at least some share of the last medals furnished had been paid for. This condition of things was the more embarrassing as several medals had been earned and not yet presented, and the Winners of them were be- coming explicit in the expression of their opinion of the Association. Money Was imperatively in demand. The Association appointed a com- mittee of Ways and means. That committee decided that the aggre- gate talent of Tech might be equal to the presentation of a Minstrel Show, for admission to Which the friends of Tech might be coerced into paying a quarter each. Coun- sel as to the most effective method of getting up the aforesaid Show Was sought of an Old Friend of Tech. This friend expressed an un- expected faith in the artistic re- sources of Tech, and very strongly urged an extending of the Minstrel idea from the twenty-Eve-cent en- ' .... a...-,..,T, ,1.....-. :.. . . 5, A5 : ,. ,y:,'4n5Aii::'.iaLa..-:f::L:E:n2f1mgL- gr 'gg w':::::,2:f'r,:.L::M.'.3:l3'5,7',g1' 1'--f -. -J a . I E 5 --- - '-2 Lewfra-maaf.1 .'ff.m's-w-- -- -2 '- .-...ii nq-Yfgm 5 A L ,W - 'li -1 ,QI QA, V 'W I s.-V fam i 125 ' 'u wfffe7 u fffWM'f!,9jQs,,.w-f. 4- in 2 ada.. 3,425 llil!2L2ZZ?iZWE an f : : E: : -E,n:T :ann .,.....,......mQxu...-. N X E :gm-Leu - - I IX PM .faq ik I - 3 ---,,.m,.f,,7.m...,,.....,..,.,1 .,.....+:5 ......... !k,.....,-......,.,.,.... ,, . e - - - 1- - A ' -. . V: f ? . . ..a-..,........,-,,... M..-.......-. Eu.. . . . . 4-L, . f xKn5,1.m I ' f' .

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Q6 TECHNIQUE 1915 will follow will continue right up to Mayor Curleyis limit. In addition to these big concerts of the year, there have been the usual barn-stormingv trips in the towns around Boston. Some of these have only pleased the mana- gers by the financial returns, but others have proved very pleasur- able affairs, as the concert and dance at Framingham High School, lasting till the departure of the last car. To promote even better fellowship among the members, a smoker-re- hearsal was held in the Union early in March. Each Club took its turn performing for the enjoyment of the others, and the intermission was filled with smoke and knocks. At this meeting the new constitu- tion was submitted and accepted. The system of hurried elections pre- ceding the annual banquet in May has been modified, the Executive Committee and the newly organized Faculty Advisory Committee select- ing the general manager, the treas- urer, and Club managers from among those trying out for the posi- tions. The rest of the system of election and management has been overhauled and improved upon to an extent that assures for the coming years even more progress and success than has fallen to the lot of the seaso11 of 1913-19141. R. D. SALISBURY, '14. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE TECH many changes in the nu- ts merous undergraduate activ- ities at the Institute. Some have expanded and grown in strength, some pursued an even and undis- turbed course, and some few have gradually dwindled and finally dis- appeared. Most noticeable of all have been the modiiications in the regulation and interrelation of the various forms of student endeavor. More, these changes, great and fun- damental though they be, must be regarded as the mere foreshadowing of still other and more far-reaching changes which must come inevi- tably with the passing of the old, and the birth of the new, Technology. Increased opportunity for new, in- creased scope for existing, student activities are the logical comple- ment of the general expansion and development promised by the great change. It is good and desirable that an institution should follow the normal course of evolution, and that each year in its history be a record of definite progress. But periods of rapid growth must be associated with rapid changes and the certain unavoidable losses incident to them. At such times traditions-for, with the brief memory of the briefcr SHOW HE last few years have seen I , g .,,,vQipf:g:::'.5ae.wr..:mff-Q-7me ,- X v-H is :ea'nmEw+-- - ffl :fn E . 5 I -..W , ,,.,,.,,,,,...,,.f,, ., ,. h L , ,M I Q . . . . rw I :.-V 111' 1 u uw- ' My ' n tt'--li' Fam!!! . . .f-4... ,I .. .r.-...- -. -J - .... 1 .,... ,,,,,,,,,,,,., n E I am- - ., -.,!,,.,,,,,,,,.f. . - - - Qty - , uf-I---gm.- 1--. 5 . -..- EE:-L-,..: im. --I 1 ,,,M.,.,,,, , 5 i lx ., A I.:-Lanai! ,, ,- when f,c5'.!,ee.'t...um:cQR:xxN2 ggritgi - : .ar :.: - 'H ' ' Qg:::: ',Ft::::f:i::::::,',':m.-:'.',':'77! 2 E 2 E Li.. - -fi x w un rl -K . 11 I '. :1211:mC':'A4!un'., ,1. w:! f -' 5 . as : -E ii

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Q8 TECHNIQUE 1915 tertainment in a small hall to a dollar-and-a-half entertainment in the Hollis Street Theatre. The astounded committee pleaded bank- ruptcy and consequent inability to meet what they gloomily prophesied would be a certain and appalling deficit. The Old Friend expressed willingness to so far back the faith in Tech already expressed as to formally agree to meet any deficit that might occur, if the aHair were carried out under competent and experienced direction. Thus reas- sured, the committee, albeit trem- blingly, embarked upon a-to them -shoreless and uncharted sea, to find on the evening of the 12th of May, 1899, that they had entered the haven of a very triumphant success. The Tech Show was an established fact. The precedent was estab- lished for all time to come, and, in its Hrst experiment, the Show was the joyful and amazed winner of some hundreds of dollars, which should presently enable the Ath- letic Association to arise, phoenix- like, from the depths of its humilia- tion. That was the beginning of the Tech Show. The venturesome, successful, and now historic com- mittee of management were: Milton Webster Hall, 1900, general director and business manager, George Car- los Winslow, 1899, ticket manager, James Bradford Laws, 1901, man- ager of oliog Allan Winter Rowe, 1901, manager of sketch, Harry Leonard Morse, 1899, press agent. Since the Hrst Show, each year has seen fresh venture of Tech into the histrionic Held, and each venture has shown a marked increase in Hnancial success, if a somewhat fluctuating artistic standard. 6' It was the hope of the Old Friend, through whose suggestion the Erst Tech Show came to be, that it might accomplish very much more than the financing of the Athletic Asso- ciation, desirable as this consumma- tion was in itself, and as relieving the strain long and generously borne by the friends of athletics in the Institute. The Old Friend had long dreamed of the Tech Show as a nucleus and strong promoter of social life in the Institute, as bring- ing men of widely varying general interests together as fellow-workers for their alma mater in a new field, and as strongly fostering the demo- cratic spirit, which must be the spirit of Tech if Tech is ever to stand assured in the Hrst place as a maker of workmen. These objects the Show has in great measure helped to accom- plish, and in so much the Old Friend's dream has come true. From the first the Show has called to itself the Httest men, on the sole ground of their Htness. It is to be earnestly hoped that the Show will never fall below its original high 5 .s ,ff x n mmf. 9 ci x , 1 : -w 4, , 1, ? .a::5'..'Wa::c:u51,1Li'3'-Tj jQZ,.:f.4'21F : ,g -' .. .. '-H'-,,,.. W . --F . BH' war r -'- E ::,'...ff.:7f ,BE QM x.::.mn'E?5Fl,Ag5W:::u,,, ,Nksk - . . ,,,, ' lriinj L- .....::'-5f!77lli'lfiKiiGlTCLG5'r'-2jQf-1- '4 I 'fig l Ulfffflfmiiwmglwgfimiffra LL E I. TEH: V 1'-555,55 Um. .3 jA'ffQ:fmfff,1z7z1 A 1 5 g,,:.,5Lsm,:,mMgfg'gqm?TqE1,igQQ,gXXRg Egzgfgil . .1 . 4 45, . : Ef:::': ,,,??::,':i,g,':::ul.'::,w.':c'f,'-572. i 2 E E 2.5.1 '. -flxx g i l? L. . nl .'. I 2 'I '. 5 .iL'4'RC'!Z4'!:15E'L',!ifZ .? ,: