Hobart College - Echo of the Seneca Yearbook (Geneva, NY)

Page 29 text:

The sporting world gathered itself for more history. John Tandy, only two months later, broke the four- minute mile and beat Bannister’s time. In September ’54 Rocky Marciano, despite a split nose, sent E.zzard Charles home without a title, which he now claimed. Heavyweight champion of the world. With his face shadowed by a thick beard, Sal (the Barber) Maglie stood on the mound in Brooklyn and scowled in October ’54. Of all the hated Giants, the Dodgers hated Maglie most. Three times this year he had beaten them. This time the Giants needed only one game to put the Dodgers out of the National League race. Maglie did it. 29

Page 28 text:

The feminine, always suggestive of a time of troubles, dominated the decade: its hoodlums, its heroes, its artists. Liberace flashed to stardom in sequined coat and lovely curls, as much as in talented fingers and a penchant for middle-age women. Miss Cinemorsel Monroe and Joe united two loves of the decade: both were soon adrift in opposite direc- tions. T.V. felt its way, by charging headlong into the worst and the best its medium might offer. The domi- nance of feminine tones made T.V. a powder-puff wet with Noxema: “Pinky Lee,” “Howdy-doo-dee,” and “Canyon Jack.” Heights were rare but comedy by Jackie Gleason was bearable. Audrey, his wife, was very bearable in “The Honeymooners,” popular Glea- son show skit. While T.V. “Democriticized” itself, the world re- garded the phenomenon of the Russian Smile. The generation now living gazed with wonder and nearly died by fright. Krushchev and Bulganin wreathed in smiles portended very little good for the young genera- tion. In ’56 they died in Hungary in inspired revolution against such happy masters—an unhappy burden. •■28

Page 30 text:

Favorable signs of world happiness—how brief!— were in the offering that October in ’54. The Yugoslavia of willful Tito accepted the Trieste settlement. Tito promised Yugoslav investment in Trieste. Russian Smiles were growing cheshirely. Even Ernest Hemingway might be pardoned in such a happy, unmilitant mood, if he delightedly re- ceived a mere traditionalism: the Nobel Prize. A few old signs made their appearance: a Todd jack- et, a style begun in 1928 by a Yale student, is fitted to a Yale freshman. But, the first year of our generation could have as a perfect synthetic symbol, nothing more fitting than “Scrabble” which took the country by storm. It was a game of words yet there was a fearful note in the chaos of its name and the first word written on the board fearful for what would soon worry us anew, what was perhaps the horrid end of generation: “conquest.” But of whom and by what? 30