Yale University - Banner / Pot Pourri Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

Page 14 text:

aie is not an ivory tower, insisted a newspaper advertisement slipped under every door early in the year. In 1954-1955, the Yale community was forced to an awareness of the truth of this claim. No longer could the Yale undergraduate wrap himself in a cocoon of his personal affairs, isolated from what was happening in the outside world. If a man half a world and a whole philosophy away were to give an order, the Yale student might find himself suddenly shouldering a rifle, piloting a jet, or clearing away the rubble of a demolished city. Perhaps his generation was not as fatalistic or apathetic as its critics would paint it; but neither did it have the carefree abandon with which such an age is associated. It was a nervous America, and a nervous Yale. Tradition remained, but the ivory tower had crumbled. MARCH began insignificantly enough with the introduc- tion of the Hawaiian-Alaskan statehood bill, and already many began to worry about designing a new flag. Billy Graham was touring England, telling Englishmen The voice of God is with you tonight. Arturo Toscanini became old suddenly, lost his place in the middle of a symphony, and later announced his official retirement. A master had stepped down. Investigation committees became acutely interested in Robert Oppenheimer and comic books, and seemed on the verge of ban- ning both. But the big sound of the month was the biggest the world had ever heard. The hydrogen bomb was exploded, releas- ing a power 750 times that of the puny atom bomb. What would be next? Scientists had the answer to that too, as they announced one year later the cobalt bomb, capable of ridding the world of all of us. It was an age of progress. Arturo Toscanini ' s baton wavered in the midst of a symphony, and the famed conductor later announced his retirement. A gallery of central figures in the Senate-Army-McCarthy hearing. tfelch Schine lenkins Cohn McCarthy

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SIGHTS and SOUNDS 1954-1955 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of b elief, it was the epoch of in- credulity; it was the Spring of hope, it was the Winter of despair; it was the season of light, it ivas the season of darkness; we had everything before us, we had noth- ing before us; we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. — A Tale of Two Cities THE 1954-1955 scrapbook of sights and sounds re- corded heroism and cowardice, courage and futility, record-breaking feats and complete frustration. The year was an entity out of time, important intrinsically and as a minute part of an age. Its sights were graphic, its sounds were sometimes pleasant, often harsh. Each of us has heard the roar of the ocean in a seashell far removed from any beach. The editors hope that the reader who picks up this scrapbook years from now, will find that in much the same way it will bridge the gap of time and distance from Yale, that years and miles will fade in capturing again the sights, sounds and emotions of a crucial year.

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$ J APRIL and May were noisy in the world and at Yale, and most of the sounds were ominous. Dienbienphu entered the world ' s vocabu- lary, and the Senate-McCarthy-Army hearings began. McCarthy ' s grating voice began with point of order and scarcely ceased. Ray Jenkins ' southern drawl and the mellifluous tones of Joseph Welch became familiar to a nation of living-room listeners. Other sounds were more pleasing. Roger Bannister heard the enthusiastic roar of track fans as he became the first human to break the four-minute mile. A few days later, Earl Warren ' s voice droned out over a packed court room, and his words heralded the end of segregation in the public schools. This was not a pleasant sound to most of the South. Yale shuddered at the screech of slipping tires as two seniors died near Poughkeepsie in an auto accident. While William Buckley defended McCarthy before an overflow crowd in Woolsey Hall, the first stone was being set in place toward the forthcoming censure hearings. Yale men were facing the pressing problems of trying to avoid being swept off the streets by the mobs of Hillhouse students. The Class of 1958 fell heir to the benevolent despotism of Harold B. Whiteman, as Prince Hal was appointed Dean of «f Freshmen, and the check-cashing line at the Co-op continued to £ grow longer as College Weekend approached. How was your P. R. rating? One of the few pleasant sounds to French soldiers in Indo- china was the name of the Angel of Dienbienphu, Nurse Genevieve De Galard-Terraube. The Geneva Conference moved on, while, on the other side of the world, the carrier Bennington caught fire, killing or wounding three hundred. Some of these men were old enough to die, but the Senate had just ruled them too young to vote. There was the sound of irony in the month of May. Ernest Hemingway ' s plane crashed in the jungle, but Papa walked away from the debris to laugh at his own obituaries. Bozell — Yes Buckley — Yes 7s McCarthy more of an asset than a liability? 1 Countryman — No Harper — No