Eastern District High School - Eastern Senior Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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Looking Cgflorward fBackwa'rols The year is 1900. the time is 12 midnight, the setting: a blasted heath in the middle of Williamsburg Bridge Plaza. Three ghastly-looking creatures are leaping around a flaming pot. ln screeching tones, all off-key, they sing. 4'Double, double toil and troubleg Fire burn, and cauldron bubblefl A frightened-looking young Gibson girl approaches them hesitantly. One of the witches ffor that's what they arel whirls toward her, screaming, '6Who art thou? What is it thou desirest? Speak! Our heroine stammers tearfully, ul am a reporter for the new Eastern District High School newspaper. lf you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, I'd appreciate your giving me a little advance information on the distinguished graduates my school is sure to produce. The witch holds out her skinny hands and says. uCross my palm with silver. With nervous fingers our girl reporter drops a coin into the outstretched hand. The witch screams, there comes a clap of thunder. a puff of smoke, and the bloody apparition of a truant officer appears and speaks. Miss Reporter controls her shaking fingers and takes stenography notes, which follow: ln 1903, Henry Schacht will be a student at Eastern. Several years after gradua- tion he will return as a teacher. Many years later he will leave Eastern again, to join the cast of Arsenic and Old Lace, and then he will go on to Hollywood where, as Henry Sharp, he will appear in many films. In 1913, She Stoops to Conquer will be produced at the school by the graduat- ing class. In it will appear Joseph Auslander. who is destined to win the Harvard Medal for poetry and a fellowship for study abroad and also become a professor at Harvard. as well as one of America's celebrated poets. At this point, the apparition snarls, uAnd now we come to one of our favorite sons-a murderer. He cackles frighteningly. uThis'll kill you! Know who the murderer is? ltls-Willard S. Sprague! ln a play to be produced at your school and called Justice at Last! In his next play. A Dream of the Future, he plays an old bachelor. He comes back to Eastern as teacher and administrative assistantf' Here the cackle becomes so loud that it ends in a paroxysm of coughing and the disappearance of the apparition. 6'Tell me moref, implores Genevieve. 4l've given our girl reporter a name because l'm tired of calling her our girl reporter.l 4'Nol'7 shrieks the second witch. uSeek to know no moref' But Genevieve is persevering and undaunted. Also, she knows her Macbeth, so she's ready with the right answers. ul will be satisfiedfl she says. Deny me this and an eternal curse fall on you. 4'O.K., sisterf' hisses Witch No. 2. MMore silver. pleasef' She feeds the flames with old test papers. There comes a second clap of thunder, and a cloud of smoke fades away to reveal the second apparition, a bloody dean. He speaks in a voice that is itself a clap of thunder, and Genevieve throws away her used-up pencil and seizes another to continue the record: Eastern will produce a novelist. Daniel Fuchs, who will write Summer in Williamsburg and be called to Hollywood lo work as a scenario writer. Twelve

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World War ll- Eastern contributed an ambulance to US. Army qv And then Vtforld War l shattered the old existence. Eastern rallied to the colors and acquitted herself nobly. Many of the students joined the armed forces. Others sold Liberty liouds. President Wilson. in a personal letter to Dr. Vlymen. commended the school on her excellent showing. ln May of 1920, a Pageant of Peacei' was presented to secure funds for a memorial to the teachers. graduates and students of Eastern who had served during the war. The memorial look the form of the mural at the Rodney Street entrance to the school, which was unveiled on October 31, 1922. The roaring twenties had begun to roar. The flapper was here with her boyish silhouette. .Xutomobilcs were now cars and they really began to speed things up. Prohibition and prohibition hooch inspired all sorts of nonsense. People did any- thing to attract attention, from sitting on llagpoles to bathing in milk. Eastern was a quiet oasis in all this uproar. It continued steadfastly on its way. adhering strictly to its appointed task of giving its students the best kind ol' educa- tion to meet a rapidly whirling world. ln l9f'iU, hve years after celebrating the sehool's silver anniversary, Ur. Vlyrnen retired and was succeeded by Dr. Frederick W. Oswald. liy 1923i Eastern had added two annexes. one on Meeker Avenue and one on Mclfibben Street. liy l9Ii9. when Dr. Oswald left to become principal ol' the new Lafayette High School. these annexes had been dropped. Dr. Oswald was succeeded by the present principal. Dr. Samuel D. Moskowitz. The fabulous' twenties had been followed by the depressed thirties. Tensions increased all over the world. When Wo1'lcl Wlar II broke out. Eastern did her duty again. '4Liberty7, bonds were now 'lDefense'l bonds and then 'lWar'7 bonds and Eastern bought her share and more. The school supported all the war drives and contributed an ambulance besides. Once again. her teachers and students joined the armed forces and sacrificed much to hasten the day of victory. So here it is 1950 and Easternls golden anniversary Ends her still full of vigor, adding an annex on Humboldt Street, extending the range of her courses, adapting herself to a radically changed and changing environment. fullilling new needs as they arise. always serving her community in a thousand ways. a 5 1 . X' irzv--'ik new . fs be :pimp l..,'l TIEQEM OUT World War ll-Easternites do their part OE

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There will be actors like Marc Krah lCf1'SS Cross, Black Handl and Marvin Kaplan l Adamis Rib, Red Head and Reformerl and Eugene Smith lSou.th Paeihel. There will be lawyers like Hyman Barshay lat one time assisistant district attor- ney of Brooklynlg Murray Gurfein lassistant to Governor Deweyli .lohn McGrath 4District Attorney of Brooklynl. There will be reporters like you, Genevieve lHow did he know her name? Must be something to this witch businessl. and Meyer Berger lof the New York Times and 1950 Pulitzer Prize winnerl and Kalman Siegel lalso of the New York Timesl. The apparition disappears. Genevieve frantically searches through her purse and throws another coin at the witches. The usual thunder and smoke produce the third apparition-of a principal. ,Xppropriately enough, the third apparition is concerned with alumni educators like Louis Schucker lprincipal of Junior High School il:35l and Minna Colvin lhead of the Social Studies Department at James Madison High Schoolt and Eugene A. Colligan lprincipal of Boys High School and president of Hunter Col- legel and Dr. John F. McNeill lprincipal of Erasmus Hall High School it. He is also interested in George McLaughlin lPolice Commissioner of New York City at one timel and Francis McCarry lludge of Surrogates Courtl. After sneering at the three witches lwho suddenly look like school teachorsl, the third apparition disappears. This time Genevieveis coin and the thunder and smoke appear simultaneously. lBy this time, the witches and Genevieve are working together as smoothly as a C.C.N.Y. basketball team.l The fourth apparition, a gold and white cherub. an- nounces the future rabbis of the East Midwood Jewish Center and the Rockville, Long Island, Jewish CenterHHarry and Perez Halpern, brothers. And now the dawn arrives, the cock crows, the witches disappear tditto the boiling cauldron and other propsl and Genevieve runs back to school, her precious notes clutched tightly, and barely reaches the official class on time. But the strain has been too much. An ambulance is called and she is taken to another Eastern alumnus, Dr. ,loseph Wortis, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University. who listens sympathetically to ber incoherent babbling about the witches of Williamsburg Plaza. VAGRANT THOUGHTS True friends . . . The silent night, A book of pleasant verse To while away an hour . . . these he True friends . . . 'W' it Colors . . l,I'l'Cl0IlS, The reds and blues The lost refrain The many hues and shades Of some old melody. That decorate the artisfs old The moment when tzro lorers part Palette . . ls clear. -Kalman A. Seigel, 1935 Thirteen