Hunter College High School - Argus Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 102 text:

THE ARGUS We walked out with regal tread, regqarded pop-eyedly by or three hundred johannas. about twlo- hundred and fifty CCounting my entranced cousin, Whom I ignoredj We stood a Wlhile and talked'-I saw to it. Of course, I said deprecatingly, you've never been interviewed bielforef' Oh no, not by the Argus! And by the way, I should like to see the Arigius. And tell the girls I'll be glad to help at rehearsals any afternoon I'm free. And COITIIC1 around and see mel any time. I'll be glad to have you. I was there tihle next Saturday. C. H. H. I W- gf 100

Page 101 text:

THE ARGUS About forty years, I guess ! At least, slaid I. Well, anyway, it's a long time, she insisted. You know how you sometimes dream of things? I dream of school. Therefs nothing Hippy about our sdhlool, it's so staid and dig- nified-I'll allways have a feeling of reverence for it. And I may have forgotten my Latin, and I mlay havie forgotten my geometry, and even my manners, but I'll never fonget the real lessons that school training taught me--system, and un- selfishness. Follows some enciouragjemlemlt for a few of us would-be Duse's. There was a Dramatic Club when I was in Hunter, and I tried every single term to m'ake it and never could. I was eliminatiesd every time. fAnd Uolday her name is up in the lights. Balm to some of our wounded soulslj What would you 'say to the beginner in the dramatic field ? I asked. Well, she considered, you have to look at it from a practical standploiint. You have. to have money, or else a home in New York Otherwise it's practically impossible. It takes a long time before you get a name, and in the hard' times when you're out of work, you have 'to have ia home to fall back on, or else muolney. And it's so hard to tell 'at first whether you've got talent. Generally beginners in -the fielld that wear heavy street make-up and such don't get anywhere. Mash notes? Oh, they're the bunk. She struck a tragic attitude. No one ever wanted tio die for me, no one ever sent me pearls inside flowers. And my stage door johnnies are mostly johannas.-Oh, tell them I have jewelry ! she laughed. I'll say so. Such braclellets, silver and jeweled, and they jingled musically. It was the fur coat, however that decided me. I1 am going to be an actress, just like Miss Larrimore. As we walked out, the Scandinavian conversationally inclined Cerberus chuckled. Th1eIre's a big crowd today waitin' 1101 see you walk out, Miss Larrimoref' I'm walking next to you, Francine, says I for did I?j. That's right, says she, maybe they'll think you're me. 99

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THE ARGUS This from Sam Hellman, whose short stories in the Satur- day Evening Post are-welll, read them! QChorus from the school- We do! Q Dear Miss Hochman: Unaccustomed as I am to addressing young 'high school ladies-my own pair of queens being in the very short frock and very long division stage of their education--yet it is hard to resist an appeal coming from a fellow-craftsman. You make it too difficult, though, by denominating me an Eminently Respectable and Highly Distinguished Author. To be respectable is good, to be called respectable is crushingg to be catalogued as such with a capital R as you have done is cataclysmic, but to be listed as Eminently Respectable-Well, that defies the adjectives of derogation to do their worst. As for Highly Distinguished Autfhor-that combination is to be, writ- ten only with a chisel over the grave of him, who was known in his sneered life as one of th-em writer guys that gets by with murder. So you see how impossible you have made it for me to write something for the Argus. Should I do so I would tacitly admit that I were Respectable and Distinguished-wlhich I perhaps do in private-but which I could never, never do in public from innate. modesty and from fear of getting, what the bibliophiles and lexicographers of the better class would call the Razzberryf' You can make any use of this letter you wish from having it engraved in copper and placed above the door of Hunter College to using it to wiple fudge stains off the kitchen floor. I am too Eminently Respectable to be annoyed by any treat- ment, and too wrapped in the cerements of 'highly Distin- guished to be able to make a sign of dissent. Yet cordially yours, My