Brearley School - Brearley Book Yearbook (New York, NY)

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The scenery, created at the hands of Manship and Hardy, was very appro- priate and cleverly made. Afterwards there were refreshments and dancing, which successfully con- cluded a very entertaining evening. RUTH MAGOR, VH. THE VII'S HILARIA 1 ' The fact that the invitation did not include Will Hays gave rise to some apprehension, we arrived in a highly critical mood but found nothing to censure, and everything to praise. . After the opening chorus, Lucky Seven, which was led by Peggy Vander Veer, Mary Esther Stilwell, as mistress of ceremonies, announced that they would exhibit a day's performances at a broadcasting station. At the unhappy hour of seven o'clock, Penelope Hunter felt constrained to seek Health to the music of Barbara Hall and the instructions of Elizabeth Washburn. Margaret Robinson gave a few monologues which revealed her as a local Ruth Draper. The audience found especially amusing the one which showed the plight of a woman in a portrait gallery, torn between the pictures and her anxiety for her Philistine son. Then Barbara Sims, Peggy Vander Veer and Ruth Magor out- Boswelled the famous sisters when they sang Bye Bye Blues. The real stars of this Hilaria were two pianos on which Ruth Magor, Mary Esther Stilwell, Barbara Hall, and Nancy Etherington played their expert jazz. Ruth Magor and Nancy Etherington number among their other accomplish- ments that of composing. They played arrangements of some of their own songs. Many of our illusions about radio plays were shattered by Penelope Hunter, Gretchen Ridder, Barbara Sims and Alice King, who were more con- cerned with certain smaller carnivora than with the Romance of Angelica. Whoever wrote the speech on our feathered friends was satirist of no mean powers, and Mary Dewart's rendering of it was enough to scare anyone away from the radio. Class VII then preceded us around the corner and brought us television numbers of Margaret Robinson, and Nancy Etherington tap dancing. As a final number, Nancy Etherington, Barbara Hall, Mary Esther Stilwell, Ruth Magor, Caroline Sawyer, and Margaret Robinson formed an orchestra dressed in black and white costumes. This was very impressive. Their songs were all the popular tunes of the last summer. Nancy Etherington played a piano and saxophone at practically the same time. This was the most impressive f ll. O a BERYL DAWSON MARGARET VEEDER i441

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THE VllI'S HILARIA On Friday, March 11, the VIII's gave their Hilaria and those who came to it found that it was a very amusing and skillfully produced show. After several false starts, which rather embarrassed Ruth Lambert, but served to get the audience in a humorous frame of mind, Ruth succeeded in getting a small projector to work, and showed two reels of moving pictures which she had taken of the inmates of the Brearley. Everyone admitted that this was a genuine brain-wave on the part of the VIII's and it has been suggested that every class hereafter should do the same, and thus leave behind them some record of their days at the Brearley, over which they can chuckle when they return to class reunions. Visualize Sarah Key saying to her daughter, See now, there's Mother playing basketball. Mother wants you to grow up and be a basketball player just as she was way back in 1952. After this Helen Hanford appeared before the curtain, dressed at la Gay Nineties with bustle and parasol complete, and gave a very flowery rendering of After the Ball, which brought many laughs. We glanced at the program and saw Selected short subjects by our local artists. Helen was evidently one of their local artists. Then the curtain rose on the first act of Under the Gaslightsf' This act and the succeeding ones kept us laughing incessantly. Some of this laughter was caused more by the mistakes made, than by the acting. When the curtain snapped wide open, instead of closing, at the end of a thrilling act, and when the villian's enormous black moustache became slightly lop-sided, it was uproarious. Peanuts were thoughtfully supplied to throw at the villains, and Miss Carey joined in the fun and took several well-aimed shots at the most menacing villain that we have seen in a long time. Perhaps it was the moustache, which concealed most of what is normally Margaret Kidder. Whatever it was, the result was rather terrifying. Eleanor Gould was the proud, blushing heroine. We were almost as much impressed by her various costumes as by her acting, which was very skillful. Ruth Lambert, Frances Poor, Margaret Veeder and Pauline Manship also gave clever and amusing performances. The rest of the cast did their best and did it well, and succeeded in making it a very commendable show. Between the second and third acts, Bebba Chalmers entertained us with some Italian songs which came as a pleasant surprise to those of us who did not know that she had such a charming voice. N31

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