St Johnsbury Academy - Lamp Yearbook (St Johnsbury, VT)

Page 14 text:

12 THE ACADEMY STUDENT CLASS PROPHECY Time: 1960 Setting: Aboard the yacht “Spirit of ’36” in New York Harbor Characters: Emily Healey—an old maid Verona Tripp—a gay divorcee Albert Bahrt—captain of the yacht Eddie Olliver—private orchestra leader (The two ladies have become suddenly rich by holding a joint ticket on the winning horse in the Irish Sweepstakes. They have bought a yacht and are going on a cruising trip.) Verona: Eddie, you know you have charge of the musical en- tertainment. and we want it to be good. Edmund: Yes. I know, and I’ve hired Althea McFarland. You remember her. don’t you? She has become the most Emily: Albert: Emily: Verona: Eddie: Verona: famous torch singer in the United States. Also Martin Granger is going to help on the vocals by crooning. That will be nice. Don’t you think it would be grand to have Fleurette and Woodrow Roy come and do some of their famous dances? Who are the guests? You’ll have so many entertainers that you won’t be able to have much of an audience. You know' Eddie’s orchestra is quite large. For guests we are having old classmates, the famous Dr. Miltimore and his wife, the former Frances Marshall. Also Edward Brough, a professor of psychology at Wellesley. His wife is Lillian Lindsley. They make a nice looking couple. Boy, how' the old class has changed! In one night club where I w'as playing this spring I w'as astonished to see Betty Lou Witters as checkroom girl and Dotty Lee Higgins as a cigarette girl. I attended the Turner and Chase Circus last month. Two of the barkers were Sammy Weiner and Paul Benoit. Sam was inviting everybody to come in to his “magnificent, gigantic, colossal sideshow.” I entered and there sat Donald Bovee chaiming snakes by playing his clarinet.

Page 13 text:

THE ACADEMY STUDENT 11 equaled, even though modern violin-makers have at their command a more varied and more abundant supply of wood, a much greater knowledge of science, and a wider market for their products than had Stradivari. The secret of his varnish and the method of its use died with him, and scientists are still striving in vain to rediscover it. Unlike these practical arts which seem to he completely lost are those fine arts, literature, sculpture, painting and others, which have not really vanished but which point to the past as the period of greatest accomplishment. There is always the hope that our civilization can sometime surpass these accomplishments, but until that time the triumph of the past must he conceded. All these vanished arts and crafts serve as a warning and a challenge to the people of our world. Almost without exception these lost skills were in the possession of a privileged few, and so were easily forgotten. No greater lesson than this should he needed to urge the preservation of our democratic institutions, an extensive public school system and an unhampered press. The challenge of former ages has already been partly met by the recovery of many once-lost arts, such as road-building and the manufacture of stained glass. It remains now to determine whether the heights reached in times gone by can be attained once again and surpassed. —Robert White CA u tog rap hs

Page 15 text:

THE ACADEMY STUDENT 18 Emily: Verona: Albert: Emily: Eddie: Albert: Eddie: Verona: Emily: Verona: Albert: Emily: I went to that circus too. T saw Barbara Sumner in charge of the monkey act and Myrtle Firestone as the lion tamer. I read in the paper last night that Isabell Renfrew, widow of the late Henry Fuller, the famous steeplejack, has married Donald MacDowell, the president of the American Druggists’ Association. Yes, Henry was killed two months ago; he was walking down Broadway and slipped on a banana peel. I just heard a news flash that the famous aviator, Fred Bean, and his ife, Barbara Dow, are completing their round-the-world flight in their specially built plane designed by Fred and built for them by the Woods Aeronautical Corporation. By the way, the founder of that company is Gordon Woods. He married Marion Beck, didn’t he? Yes and no, didn’t you hear about the famous Woods-Beck-Wilcomb bigamy trial by Judge Brown of the Court of Appeals? Oh! Yes, that was cpiite a scandal. The Judge was our old classmate. Joe Brown. He married Lyn Til-den, and they have a home and three children up at North Danville, Vermont. Norman Atwood is the chief designer of the Zabarsky Follies, founded and managed by Maurice Zabarsky. Paul Wilkie and Ruth Bean, the great dance team, a e co-starring in this year’s Follies, together with Ginny Ball, the great blues singer. Yes, but the Blodgett Sisters. Barbara and Eileen, are really the hit of the show as tap dancers. Leighton Bradley is the master of ceremonies. Leighton’s wife, Ann Brown, has founded the Brown Institution for Better Babies. Ralph Conly and Ralph Chase assist her in training the infants according to the most up-to-date rules. Well, getting back to the subject of guests, who is next on our list?