Oregon State University - Beaver Yearbook (Corvallis, OR)

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Speakers Highlight the Big Con George Gallup. Vance Packard. Dick Gregory, and John Barth were a few of the headliners for The Big Conference: An Inquiry into Illusion and Belief . The Big Con was a week-tong event in May of more than two dozen noted and notorious personalities The purpose of the conference was to look at the many ways in which Americans form their beliefs and illusions All events were free and open to the public Funding for the conference was provided from Oregon State, the OSU Foundation, and a S20.000 grant from the Oregon Committee for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities George Gallup, director of the Gallup Poll and leading authority on American public opinion was the first evening speaker at the Big Con Following his speech. Curtis Mac-Dougall. an author and authority on Public opinion analysis, gave an unscheduled rebuttal of the talk. On Thursday night. Vance Packard, a nationally known social critic and novelist spoke on the theme The Changing American Character He listed and expanded upon ten traditional American characteristics Dick Gregory was the last speaker at OSU's Big Con He began his address — No More Lies The Myth and Reality of American History — with a display of a comedian s flair that won him fame as a nightclub and television entertainer. 26 Time

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1 — Dick Gregory addresses the audience. 2 — Curtis McDougall gives a rebuttal 3 —• Vance Packard discusses The Changing American Character. 4 —An amused George Gallup Time 27