Occidental College - La Encina Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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secretary, Bettie Dean Hart all of whom gave confidence, counsel, and labor in the times when these were most needed. Others on a staff kept small that it might be efficient were, Betty Merchant, Lee Campbell, and Henry Swinerton, while the advertising was handled by Cyril Kerrin, Armour Morris, and Barbara Morris. Nor could this book have gone to press without the aid of those two indefatigable assistants: Mary Cozzen ' s and Baily Abbot ' s Fords. What greater small glory could come to Martha Messick, and Vincent Jorgenson, grad- uating seniors of the Fiftieth Year Class, than to leave their undergraduate days behind as respective presidents of championship glee clubs. Surely one of the finest tributes to Occi- dental ' s celebration of a half century of progress was the culminating victory met late in April in San Diego when these two organizations swept to first places in the Southern Cali- fornia Glee Club songfest. Nor was that all; rather it was only the termination of a highly successful season which for the men included an impressive Home Concert built around Dr. Charles Frederick Linds- ley ' s interpretation of King Robert of Sicily, numerous radio broadcasts over local and national hookups and a rollicking, singing trip from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon with concerts too numerous to mention, lire women, though less transient, were, however, no less mute as they traveled from Santa Barbara to San Diego keeping certain home fires burning while the male songsters were gone with their wind. As the final musical spectacle of the year, too late, unfortunately, for pictures in La Encina, presented in May in the Greek Bowl was colorful, riotously song-full Smetana ' s The Bartered Bride. Leads in the production were taken by Cora Burt, William McClintock, William Hunt, Martha Messick, Eugene Bell, William MacDougall, Vincent Reed, Donald McKenny and Meryl Corn. Against a native green outdoor setting the kaleidoscope of peasant costumes and lilting music and ballet and folk dancing surpassed most every expectation. Under the executive leadership of Carter Yates, the direction of Kurt Baer and the roof of Occidental ' s Little Theatre, the Oxy Plavers spent a diverse, productive season. First, early in the fall, braving the rush and swirl of Greekdom ' s high-peak of social affairs, they presented The Queen ' s Husband with plaudits for Kenneth Sheets who played the King, timorous and lion-hearted, and June Hosmer who was his wife, and merely lion-hearted. Later on in search of new campus talent an evening of one-act plays was presented and while not quite as smooth as Noel Coward ' s Tonight at Eight-Thiity its entertainment was far more diverse. But with a real half-moon among the props, and a warm spring evening as part of the scene, the players blazed much color into their season ' s closing with a sweeping production of William Shakespeare ' s The Merry Wives oi Windsor. Amazingly good scenery, perfect acoustics and some grand lighting effects all helped the outstanding bits of acting make the 22

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Under the smiling leadership of President Jerrj ' Isett, the Associated Men Students marched resolutely each Wednesday to compulsory chapel, put over with huge success a Men ' s High School day, a Men ' s Stag and diverse smaller activities for men only. Lack of ardent belligerency on the part of either of the lower classes made it hard for their elder brothers to decide upon the supremacy of either class other than that evidenced one sunny autumn afternoon when the neophytes lethargically did win a muddy tug-o-war. Because of the example set by President Fred Lindsley ' s perspiring brow, the Freshmen raised and guarded an adequate Pomona bonfire which fortunately proved to be a truly prophetic funeral pyre for the blue-feathered sagehen. More luckless was the sophomores ' plight who, under the dominance of President Bob Ryf, made an unorthodox raid upon the Pomona rally fire only to be caught in abundant numbers and treated to tonsorial experiments by enthusiastic amateurs. The Junior Class rested well through the presidency of Charles Hutchins, and it is even whispered that they as a unit indulged in two social affairs, a Junior-Freshman dinner dance and the Junior-Senior Prom. But here it is intimated that the impetus for those two functions came from the vitality of other classes while the Juniors remained as usual sophisticatedly inert. Besides the conventional ditch-day, and commencement time activities, the Seniors were caught, capped and gowned early this year in April, in fact, to take part in the academic pro- cessions that marked much of the color in Founder ' s Week of this fiftieth year. They marched as a body behind President Arthur Hagen. Exactly how mighty the pen may be on the Occidental campus is questionable, but The Occidental under editor Bill Burt tasted public opinion as to favorite swing bands, fought a few bumps out of the road west of the library, and engaged in a presidential straw vote that was as embarrassing as the Literary Digest ' s. Active in exciting student interest in the paper were political columnist Bob Barrett, society editor Betty Schweitzer, and sport ' s editor Don McKenny. In February, James Krulish was elected into editorship with the only obvious change that of the social column passing from Delta to Zeta hands. That the two editors ' hearts were in their work was displayed by the more frequent large issues of eight instead of six column editions. Casting itself free from all previous tradition, taking a historical theme, assuming an informal mood, La Encina promised to be at least original in both form and context. Taking the prerogative that his editorship gave him. Jack Webb watched his grades plunge a whole grade point within a half of semester and then announced that he had a book that was dif- ferent. To the fact of this annual ' s physical completeness, he is indebted beyond all measure to three particular people: assistant editor, Jane Frampton; art editor, Peggy Houghton; and 21

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giant humor of the production as artistic a thing as has been played in the Greek Bowl. Assum- ing the role he once so enjoyed as drama critic, the editor pauses to fling orchids for charac- terization to Roy Littlejohn as Falstaff and Willow Bray and Lita Houston as the merry wives. WTien into the rich but almost forgotten fields of oratory and debate come some forty odd undergraduates prospecting for honor and exciting extra-curricular activity, it can be little less than an amazing tribute to the Occidental speech department. Attacking contemporary subjects four members of the Occidental debate team traveled to Stockton to compete against Brigham Young, Montana State, Utah State, U.C.L.A. and Cal-Tech and to be defeated in the semi-finals by the University of Nevada. In the party were Kring, McCune, Prochaska, Gassaway and Coach Melekian. Don ' t touch me. I am Crazy Horse! night after night filled the air of the Phi Gam basement and distraught Fiji minds the house over, but it was all to good purpose and late in March, Carter Yates won the Southern Conference Interpretive Reading Contest. Mean- while, down on Armadale Avenue gentle Deltas were sighing to The Ancient Beautiful Things and Willow Bray captured the parallel women ' s honors. Gregariously, the fraternal herds on campus moved through fairly peaceful pastures even though with Psi Delta Chi a thing prehistoric, the men felt a little overwhelmed by the larger number of women ' s houses. But what they lacked in quantity they decided to make up for not so much in the quality of their persons but in what they might do. And so, the Alpha Taus won a cup and an inter-fraternal glee club contest. The Kappa Sigmas chose four to sing their way to quartet supremacy and a hundred dollar prize. S.A.E. captured the intramural oratorical contest. But it was the Fijis who startled the whole campus with their sudden single surge of altruistic and intellectual philanthropy when they presented a lecture on art featuring one of their most prominent alumni, Rockwell Kent. Vestiges of Greekdom ' s more prosaic existence were seen in a rather smooth dance presented by the male conglomerate at the Vista del Arrovo Hotel in Pasadena, and in their synchronized Hell weeks that improved the condi- tions of every house, if not every pledge. Much of the good cooperation of the Greeks was due to the tact of Charles Bosworth, Interfraternity Council president. Invoking not so many diverse muses, the sororities glided through a year that bespoke of a gay social whirl, sundry teas for faculty and mothers, two very long evenings of pledge presentation, and a romantic, though the night was much too cold, Pan Hellenic dance at the Annandale Country Club. Reigning over the six sorority presidents that formed the Pan Hellenic Council was Jane Kieser. 23