Memphis Technical High School - Review Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

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After such a mass lor is it mess?J of brains the au- dience needed rest. During the intermission I saw Letrice Andrews, a buyer form Gerber's, who was looking over the New York fashions, talking to Juanita Carpenter, whose poetry has won her a familiar name all over America. What that name is I won't say, but we've all got imaginations, haven't we? I heard Arnold Shappley and Joe Crone, who own a chain of gas stations, talking shop. Now that gas rationing is off, they're doing a boom- ing busin-css. iThree filling stations blew up when at- tendants Marshall Loftin, Ewing Browder and Earl Hood lit matches and peered into gas tanks! A little learn- ing is a dangerous thingy. Elizabeth Fairleigh, the book reviewer, was reading a book by Jerry Nevils en- titled, Flat Feet, or What Did I Do in the Infantry. I saw Harold Dotson signing a contract with William Kellum. Harold owns a barber shop and supplies Wil- liam with hair for his toupee factory. If you're wonder- ing how Mr. Kellum got his brilliant idea for a head muffler factory, just recall his unfortunate ifor othersl habit of hair-pulling. And just for the record, Harold's first customer in his barber shop was Don Smith, who decided, when a group of autograph hounds mobbed him, calling him Miss Lake, that it was time he had a hair- cut. Then I saw Jimmie One Meatball Ledbettier, who is thc butcher in James Yes, We Have No Bananas Heard's Super Duper Market, seemingly listening most sympathetically to Fred Kendall's reasons for being a vegetarian. Hearing Jim Billingsley, Wall Street broker the often isl, telling James Hadley, cub reporter for the Bare Facts, that the theater had been designed by Walter Buddy Hoback, the great land I say that doubtfullyl architect, and built by George Rothwell, contractor, I rushed madly, nay, furiously, to the door and was ouside before I realized that I wasn't even there! So, fearlessly, I waited for the second part of the show to begin. As Mary Frances Culp and Billye Green- way, who own a tea shop, chatted on unmindful of the glares of Dorothy Cox, the secretary to dollar-a-year man George Nutzell, who must pay back 99c of it to the government, and Robert Houston, co-owner of the Thrifty Department Store tAlton Hargrove's the silent partnerfor is that a little on the impossible sidel the lights dimmer and the curtain went up. Now came the comedy i?l act of the Three Wits, Nit, Half and Dim, composed of Evelyn Pedretty, Anne Tyus, and that's me third from the left. However, only two wits came out on the stage, which further proves that those three aren't all there. I can't understand it, but without me the act was a smashing success-smashed by several irate patrons with axes whom I recognized to be Gene Forrester, Emmett Garner and Jack Norvell. Oh, well, you can please some of the people half of the time but one-eighth of the people are smarter than you anyway. Next the Pie-Eyed Pipers sang a few songs, accom- panic-d by Jean Schwend, who had been introduced to the piano for the first time in her life not two minutes before. The Pipers, who were rusty as well as pie-eyed, included Dorothy Wynne, Georgia Bell Smith and Tom Sawyer. The new crooner, John Dugard, put the audience into an uproar. Never had Sinatra so stirred an audience! Everyone was screaming-it was murder. KM. L. Lyle tried it on Johnl. Vivian Easley and Donna Briggs fainted while Ushers Tom Edwards and Charles Crail ran around with smelling salts and stretchers for ex- treme cases. Billy Haynes even began calling Dr. Kildare. Singer Dugard, deeply hurt Iby the terrific right of James McCulloughJ left the stage. Speaking of boxing, James Lee is making that his profession, but he spends so much time on the canvas he's becoming famous as the Boll Weevil. Following were the Vitamin-Plus Kids, Frances Sorce and Jane Williamson,. who sang and danced. The Muscle Man from the nearby circus, Bill Jones, was going to perform some feats of miraculous strength but he left his muscles in his other leopard skin. After his apology, the attendant, Walter Miller, came out from the wings and nonchalantly carried tht: huge weights from the stage. James Goolsby was the next to sing. You'll have to hand it to him-with brass knuckles. That guy really has nerve! I thought it was too good to be James and was sure of it when the record got stuck. M. B. McC1earen was to blame-a throw-back to the Macbeth days at Tech. This brought the curtain down on the final act. The audience rose to its feet armed with over-ripe vegetables. I understood that after the show there was to be a stew, but since I never touch the stuff, I knew it wasn't to be me. Now I can get the real significance of that statement! Seeing that so many of the people were going back- stage iseeking revengej, I decided to join theun. Read- justing my Peer-o-scope, I went through another wall and found myself among the props, ropes and settings of backstage. There I saw Elsie McDermott, who de- signed and made the lavish costumes for the production, and her helpers, Annie Rose Barker and Mary Welch. They were busily re-sewing the seams of Carol Wynne's costume ldoesn't that needle you-or do you get the point?J which she spit laughing at the antics of James Eaton, slapstick comedian. Busy signing autographs for the starry-eyed Margaret Newman and Dorothy Smith was Billy Rogers, who has topped Fred Astaire's great dancing abilities. The beautiful New York debs, Anna- belle Smith and Elizabeth Rodgers, were scan chatting with the doorman, James Tribble, while they impatient- ly awaited the return of their escort, Professor Wilbiert Morris, who teachers at Frank Faulkner's School of Hard Knocks IOpportunity is a student therel. The school's colors are black and blue, as are the pupils. And speaking of bruises, I saw that big bruiser, Ron- ald Green, who has been patronizing the massuer, Ber- nie Mulliken. Bernie has a college degree, M.A.P. lMas- ter of Ach-cs and Painsl, and his customers are also given a degree-the third one! Bernie's assistant, Charles Jones, really rolls the patrons. By the Way, who is this Little Joe? All this dope I got from J. B. Robertson, foreign correspondent for Associated Press-they like him better at a distance-who, because he was able to crawl away after a message, received the Purple Heart, a charley horse, and a pair of crutches. Hearing a loud crash, I turned to see Betty Grear twisted on ropes, wires, and overturned lights, and Leon Hurt, the photographer, fussing at her for smashing the lights and ruining the film. Leon was photographing Dorothy Hinsley, singer at the Apple Orchard, a pretty seedy night club owned by Clarence Walker and Clar- ence Allen. The famous model who poses for Scream PAGE FIFTY-THREE

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fi 6lfll:02S C-!6l.4.4 mojo 667 Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day ..... Because Macbeth and his hard-driving Simon Legree of a wife were not enough to keep my eyelids from hang- ing down to my chinmor maybe it was because of that new mascara with the cement base-I decided to leave my fellow inmates of first period English. No, I didn't intend to beg the permission of Miss Johnston to run to my locker on the second floor and get my package of Dentyne tdreamer that I aml. I had one of those new in- ventions, the Handy Pocket Portable Collapsible fit often dldb Peer-o-scope, an extraordinary little gadget which looks off into the future, guaranteed to satisfy or your twenty-five cents refunded, so the clerk at Walgreen's had assured me the day before as I chewed up some lunch there . . . Ooops, discovered! Determined to get my money's worth I set the dial at 1955, put the instrument to my eye-under cover of my English Writers, of course -and peered. lThe Penny Arcade would not comparel I was amazed at the power of my little two-bit con- traption, for there before me 'mong the gay lights of ole Broadway stood a gigantic theater. It made the once-great Madison Square Garden look like a summer stock playhouse. In bright neon letters ten feet high lokay, so it was only nine and a half? appeared the name----the William Rothrock Super Colossal Theater. And under these breath-taking words ran several lines of small print fonly eight feet highj announcing the ap- pearance of many stars of stage, screen, and radio, who were on a tour of the nation. The ticket seller was Thelma Eichelberger, who tried to short-change everyone. Betty Livingston, who never got further than physics at Tech, was arguing the difference between fifty cents and a half dollar and finally walked away with seventy-five cents donated by several irritated people who were tired of waiting in line. Thomas Nicklas, the famous football player, contributed three slightly worn slugs to the col- lection. The ushers, Ben Galloway and Lester Hoback, kept saying, Use the aisles to the right, until the theater-goers vwcre surprised to find themselves out on the street again. Once my peer-o-scope had pierced the inner walls of the theater, looked around at the first nighter audience. Seated in the spacious aditorium were many of my old school friends. Surrounded by furs, jewels, and men, some of whom were-well, bobby sox, I'm no census tak-c-.'!-the multi-millionaires, Jill Robinson. With her were her glamorous friends, Bettye English, who has traveled over every inch of the globe promoting good will 1she's just the one who can do itj, and Miriam Cristil, who is co-owner with Jill of an exclusive dress salon. These two smart girls have practically forced Hattie Carnegie out of businicss. On the third row were the Honorable Paul Mostert, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and his office boy, Frank Jackson. I noticed John Anderson making sketches of the surround- x PAG E FI FTY-TWO JANE STEPHERSON AND JEANE MOSS ings. John, who is known porfessionally as Andy, has created several comic strips such as Notes On a Nut, Journeys Of a Jerk, etc., which are read and enjoyed by everyone but Lehman Sammons, who hasn't learned to read yet. Lehmah, by the way, is chief goldbrick of six-star General John Parker, the only one of its kind in existence! Seated next to Andy was the polo-playing playboy, Jerry Dunn. My attention was now drawn to some horrible racket which I recognized as the overture. II had read the scriptj. Waving a baton and dividing his g'ancs between Joe Sax and Walton Sheley, who were playing the white spots on the music instead of the black spots for are you supposed to?J was Mort Scruggs. Just before the house light dimmed I saw Joan Rook and Gloria Booker, those two girls-about-town, dash to their seats in the eighth row. As the lights went out a hush fell over everyone-- everyone but Barbara Munn, the gossip columnist, who gave out with one of those musical f'?J laughs, while Elizabeth Spencer, Joyce Eubank and Marjorie Horton told her the latest about their white collar jobs. 1They work in a laundry.J The master of ceremonies stepped to the footlights and to my surprise I saw that he was Billy Irium Plus Bell iwhata smile! whata a. personality! whata lie!J. First was the introduction of Miss America by her man- ager, Joe Norvell. For the third time in succession Amer- ica's most beautiful was Faye Herriman. Then there was a dance by Joy Alexander. Next Martha Andrews, the celebrated Metropolitan star, sang an operatic solo. Then there was a play written by the famous playwright, Flora Martin, which starred the Hollywood favorites, Mary Jean Hankins, queen of the pin-ups. and Richard Akers, idol of the idiots. Josephine Conley was given a bit part-something she could sink her teeth into. Next from, the Don Finney Model Agency, were Rose Marie Danlre, Mary Elizabeth Benson, Betty Ann Jones, Mari- lyn Domangue, June Miller and Dorothy Bennett, who were to accompany the new Maid of Cotton, Billie Eng- lish, on her nationwide tour. flf these beauties can't sell cotton, nothing can!J Billie Mae Chastain then sang a song while the audience drooled. For those who wanted the more intellectual type of entertainment a Genius Quiz was presented with repre- sentatives from various fields of learning. Those who took part in this bit of irony-and it really took brass-- were: Oliver Reeves and Neely Roper, mathematical wizards, Dortha Anderson, the new dean of Vassar, Shirley Hillstrom, noted authority on foreign languages: Bruce Reynolds, expert musician, Betsy Brinkmier, prom- inent comedian, Donald Roe, newspaper man, and Lona Lovett, famous artist. Waldo Long, who is noted for nothing, was the quizmaster-a case of the blind lead- ing the blind. '

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Shampoo ads, Clara Bootsie Jones, was also waiting to be photographed with her fellow model, Joann Mc- Adams, who going to Hollywood as Loan Behold. While Waiting for Linville Hawkins, Leon's assistant, who is called Flash because his head resembles a burned-out light bulb, to untangle the mess-no reflection on Betty- Bootsie and Joan discussed the cover girl of the year, Mary Belle Pilgrim, who got that title because whenever her picture appears on a magazine cover everyone runs to cover it. I next saw Mary Ruben, the interior decorator, who was decorating his interior with a chopped liver sand- wich-he brought his own lunch and his friend, Gene Simmons, the book reviewer, who was engrossed in a little black book. And there was Alice Pitts, the one who sings the commercials on the radio, asking Van Sin- gleton if he'd seen the show. She shouldn't have asked that-she could see he was foaming at the mouth. I saw Martha Nelson, secretary to William Wilcox, who is president of the Wilcox Insurance fno double indemnity clauses-we saw that picture, tool Company. Martha was telling Velma Turnipseed, one of America's best dressed women, of Esther Matthew's lecture tour. Esther is founder of a charm school Cjust send us a penny postcard-We're dreadfully low on stationeryj. And there was Charles Rogers, the world's champion pie-eater, just as pie-faced as ever. Patti Hamilton was visiting New York from the little Middle Western College where she is an English teacher, and Jane Dickerson, editor of a woman's magazine, discussed with Pauline Reynolds, the author, her latest story for the magazine. Then I saw a luscious pair of nylons in the middle of the floor and around them a rope. The first poor unsus- pecting victim to fall for this bait was Barbara Mann. As soon as she had touched the stockings the rope sprang around her and left her danging several feet in the air-her feet! Then a police siren sounded, from be- hind a trash heap stepped an uncouth creature with a gun in one hand and a book in the other. As this charac- ter advanced to Barabar I asw that it was Jeane Moss and the book she held was her own, My Adventures in the Memphis World Exposition, 1956 and was printed by Bobby Simonton's publishing company. This trap was the only method of getting people to read her book. Having nothing better to do-and may I advise that you never get that desperate for something to do-I decided to read several chapters. Looking over Barbara's trem- bling shoulder I read this: My boss, Jack Ringer, editor of the Memphis Sun, called me into his office one day and told me to cover the Memphis World Peace Exposition in disguise as a street cleaner. As my assistant, he sent Denby Brandon, the copy boy. We were to apply to for jobs as street cleaners at the office of Mayor Ray Sanders. We walked in and bumped into the secretary, Lois Hughes. Mayor Sanders gave us jobs and then he took me aside and asked if I thought Denby would make a good street cleaner. After all, he said, it takes brains to do this sort of job. I assured him that Denby would be satis- factory in this job since he had done such work before. We shuffled by the- beautiful Plycon Building, where President Margaret Williams, the first woman president of the United States and for whom they had to change PAGE FI FTY- FOU R the constitutional age so that she would be able to hold office, was dedicating this exposition to permanent world peace. Seated near the president was her all-woman cabinet, including Secretary of State Bobbye Collier, Sec- retary of War Ann Wilosn, Secretary of Labor Benthel Nichols, Secretary of Treasury Dorothy Crysack, Post- master General Cieda Lee, Attorney General Elnora Vaughn, Secretary of Navy Mary Ann Crook, Secretary of Commerce Marie VValden. Just then I heard something crack and there 'was Denby lying on the ground-he had broken his broom by leaning too hard on it. I looked over at the Peruvian Building, where I saw Ambassador Frances Dixon, who was recently appointed because of her excellent knowledge of Spanish. She says modestly that she owes everything to Miss Lula P. Cullen, Stand- ing near Miss Dixon was the President's personal ad- viser, Ernest Pinky Bowers. While I stared at them, I was almost knocked down by those still inswelparablesf- Jeannine Coleman and Mary Francis Spence. They both started telling me where you could get the most won- derful super-duper hamburgers imaginable. It's a little stand across from Bettie Lowe's Souvenir Shop, chirped Jeannine. I ran down there and found out that the stand was owned by Beeler, Hammers, Henders and Yoon. Murray Beeler cut the bread and put Gus Hammers fried the meat! Orma pickle and onion on, and Alfred Yoon terpiece to the now-starving customer and I recognized Don Robinson, who the champion track team at Yale. Don coach form the second string when he the mustard ong Henders put the handed the mas- I looked around is now coach of was promoted to explained a diffi- cult lateral pass to the coach. June Pitts ran over to ask my opinion on the World Peace Exposition. I soon found out that she was the head of the Gallup Poll. I decided to go over to the Souvenir Shop and pick up a few things. As I walked in I found that Leona Beverly was still trying to explain the South Carolina Nullifica- tion Act to Miss Butler. Jim Davenport waited on me and tried his best to sell me a gen-uwine sea-shell, guaranteed to be found in the Mississippi River. My money was cheerfully snatched by Jean Moss, the cashier. I walked out and turned on my pocket Walkie-talkie. I quickly switched off the year's latest finds lin fact, too latej, Marjorie Wilson and Mary Ann Fallot. Then I heard a loud sobbing voice and I knew that it was time for Pep-You-Up Cereal's program, known as The Happy Life of Matilda Zickerwacky, starring Audrey Greer. The program was introduced with loud sobs by Opal Cherry. The members of the happy family consisted of Joe Zickerwacky, played by Harold Wade, Mother Plotzenheimer, played by Barbara Nowell, and the dog, played by Virginia Easley. For the best performance on radio, the dog won top honors. Because there were so many tears in my eyes, I hard- ly noticed that I was sweeping dirt all over Virginia Camp's feet. When I looked up, shle recognized me, and I certainly recognized her because her face had been plastered all over every billboard in America. She was the Float-Away Toothpaste Girl. She had been made famous by her equally famous agent, Dick Busby. With Virginia was Joyce Norris, who was singing with Tommy Dorsey's band. Joyce told me that Sara Beth Meadows