The Boston Week-End

A carefully planned and elaborately executed party was provided for Dartmouth men and Stanford guests by the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Boston oyer the weekend of the Dartmouth-Stanford game, which took place in the Harvard Stadium November 28. Under the leadership of Allan L. Priddy '15, president of the Boston Association, an efficient organization of committees worked out plans and executed them with the most thoughtful attention to details, providing a week-end focussed about the big Dartmouth-Stanford dinner in the Copley Plaza Hotel the night before the game. More than 900 attended the dinner, a most elaborate and successful affair, which was followed on Saturday night by a dinner dance at the Statler Hotel. The hospitality tendered by the Boston Alumni Association host to the members of the Stanford football party during their four-day stay, and even before their arrival, is a separate story.

All New England alumni of Stanford University, as well as all Dartmouth men, were invited to the dinner at the Copley Plaza. The annual dinner of the Boston Alumni Association was set ahead from a date usually later in the winter in order to coincide with this occasion, so that the year's activities of the Boston Alumni were centered about this event.

Attractive Dinner Setting

The setting for the dinner in the large ballroom at the Copley Plaza was very elaborate. An elevated speakers' table extended almost the whole length of the Copley Plaza ballroom on one side. Covering the whole wall behind it was a large painted panorama supplying a California note to the scene. A corresponding painting covered the opposite wall with a New England scene. In the center of the room was a large "S" table covered with a checkered tablecloth in the Stanford red and white, with a model of a Spanish building of the Stanford architecture as a centerpiece. President Wilbur of Stanford and the other California representatives at the head table had strips of red and white tablecloth before them. Both informality and color were added to the scene by the alternating green-and-white and red-and-white of the tables. On every table was a tall white illuminated model of the cupola of Dartmouth Hall.

The Indian motif was very strong in the decorative atmosphere of the dinner, since Dartmouth shares its Indian tradition with Stanford. At one end of the dining room there was a more than life-size animated Indian upon which a spotlight was thrown at one point while it raised its arm in salute. All of the waiters were dressed as Indians. The menus, printed on paper resembling birch bark, included such characteristic New England dishes as baked beans and fish cakes, squash and pie, and the like. One of the most impressive decorative effects at the dinner was achieved in a darkened room when the waiters streamed in with the dessert course on illuminated platters, alternating red and white, and began circulating around the tables with Indian halloos. The informality which the Boston hosts aimed at in inviting their Stanford guests to "supper" was very successfully attained.

The toastmaster, Mr. Priddy, opened the speaking program with his tomahawk gavel following music during the dinner by the Dartmouth band and songs by a double quartet of Dartmouth undergraduates. The speakers included President Hopkins, Judge Nelson P. Brown '99, and Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of Stanford and Secretary of the Interior in President Hoover's cabinet. E. K. Hall '92, who was scheduled to speak, was prevented from attendance by illness.

Excellent Speaking Program

Judge Brown wrote an introductory narrative poem in the meter of "Hiawatha" recounting the history of Stanford and the negotiations for the game and extending greetings to Dr. Wilbur and his college contemporary, President Hoover, and welcoming the Stanford visitors. The poem is printed in full elsewhere in this issue. Dr. Wilbur was the next speaker. He thanked the Boston Association in behalf of Stanford for the hospitality extended speaking of the pleasantness of the relations between Dartmouth and Stanford and mentioning the responsibilities of college men in such a great national crisis as the country is at present facing. President Hopkins extended greetings to President Wilbur and the Stanford representatives and spoke in appreciation of the value of such intersectional contests as that which was to be played on the morrow and of the appropriateness of Stanford as Dartmouth's opponent in such a game. At the head table were seated William W. Grant '03, trustee; Frederic H. Leggett '98, president of the Alumni Council; Morton C. Tuttle '97, trustee; William B. Owens, Stanford; Dr. Boynton Merrill '15; Edward W. Knight '97, trustee; Nelson P. Brown '99; H. B. Thayer '79, trustee; Charles M. Cram, Stanford; President Hopkins; Allan L. Priddy '15, president of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Boston; Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of Stanford; Lewis Parkhurst '78, trustee; William J. Minsch '07, chairman of the Alumni Fund; Clarence B. Little '81, trustee; Craven Laycock '96, dean of the College; J. E. McDowell, Stanford; Fred A. Howland '87, trustee; Charles R. Cabot '12; and John R. McLane '07, trustee.

At the conclusion of the speaking Professor Whitford led a double quartet of members of the Dartmouth Glee Club in "Men of Dartmouth." 'At the close of the dinner newsboys swarmed into the room giving away free copies of a special edition of the Boston Traveler with the entire front page devoted to the Dartmouth-Stanford week-end.

Other Festivity

The Saturday night affair following the football game was a dinner dance at the Hotel Statler at which P. N. Blodgett '25 was master of ceremonies. He had a group of entertainers for divertissement from time to time. Music for dancing was provided by Lew Conrad's orchestra with Leonard W. Joy '16, radio orchestra leader, assuming Conrad's baton for one or two numbers.

Hospitality to Stanford

An amazing attention to detail was provided in the plans for the entertainment of the Stanford team prepared by a committee composed of L. K. Neidlinger '23, C. G. McDavitt Jr. '26, and L. H. Martin '28. The committee turned over a large part of the actual execution of the hospitality to six representatives of the Green Key from Hanover. Hospitality began before the team had even arrived, when guidebooks to Boston, especially bound in Stanford red for the occasion, were put on the train at Chicago. New England "oranges" (apples) also greeted the Stanford men on their train before their arrival at the Belmont Springs Country Club on Wednesday.

The six representatives of the Green Key (undergraduates who lived in Boston and were familiar with the city) were constantly with the Stanford team throughout its fourday stay administering the hospitality arranged for by the Boston hosts. They had a desk at the country club equipped with guide books, maps, city directories, and a list of the names and addresses of all Stanford alumni in the Boston district with the telephone numbers where they were available. They had a directory of Dartmouth alumni, through whom they were able to make contacts for the Stanford men with practically any business or banking house in the city. They had three Buick automobiles at their constant disposal for taking the Stanford men wherever they wanted to go, which included points of interest not only in Boston but as far out as Wellesley.

Special arrangements were made for taking Stanford men in planes for an aerial view of the city. Guest privileges were provided at the Boston City Club, the University Club, and a number of the country clubs. Moving picture houses and theatres were opened to the visitors. Newspapers were received by airmail from California and placed in the lounge at the Stanford quarters. By arrangement with Wright and Ditson the hosts supplemented the clubhouse equipment with games of all varieties, and movies showing Dartmouth College buildings and activities were arranged in the lobby for showing at all times.

GILE HALL Between the Two Trees. Picture Shows the End of Tuck Drive and the Baker Library