Dartmouth in New York
DURING THE PAST several months there have been all manner of strange tales passed about here concerning the more recent activities of Ping Ferry '32. Ferry's career being such a checkered and elusive one, it's well-nigh impossible to keep track of him, and your correspondent wouldn't want to take responsibility for all the details. From several of Ping's friends, however, the stories have come, and they would seem to deserve a retelling here. At this time last year, Ping (he always uses that name rather than the William H., even on his business cards) was handling publicity for Eastern Airways and, with the help of his man Dominick, giving lively parties in his East Side apartment. Some months later Ping gave out word that he was quitting Eastern Airways and starting his own advertising agency, for which he had lined up several promising accounts. Shortly after this, when he was one day scheduled to have lunch with a friend, the friend got a call from Ping around eleven in the morning. Ping explained he was sorry he was going to have to break the luncheon appointment, but that he was leaving for the Virgin Islands within the hour. To the friend's surprised questions Ping replied that "I've just decided I want to go to the Virgin Islands." He said he had settled his affairs here, bought a ticket to St. Thomas, and had just forty dollars left. "But I can rent a beach cabin down there and fish," he told the friend. Ping wasn't heard of for two or three months, when word came through that he was holding down several jobs and becoming quite a figure among the natives. It was reported that he was announcing a radio news broadcast over the local station, acting as croupier in a gambling house at night, and playing the organ in a St. Thomas church on Sundays. Why Ping ever gave up this idyllic life, no one seems to know, but this fall he was seen passing through town here. Since, he has been doing something or other in Washington and Detroit, and last reports have him working as a reporter on the Manchester, N. H., Union.
Such strenuous doings are far remote from the life of the average Dartmouth graduate in New York, who is now settling down for a winter's siege of work, and trying to manage a couple of week-ends off for some of the games. Although very few got up to Providence for the Brown game, there were a hundred or so who gathered at the Club to listen to the play-by-play account, which was sent down by direct wire and announced by two former Green letter men, Dave Hedges '§4 and Hank Whitaker '37. Club President John W. Knibbs 'O5, who heads the sales department of the Otis Elevator Company, was on hand with photographs, architect's drawings, and all manner of glowing descriptions of the new club house. Renovating activities are being pushed ahead as rapidly as possible, but it will probably be several weeks yet before the new club is opened.
Probably the only Dartmouth movie house manager in town is Buzzy Edson '34, who puts on a dinner jacket every evening to receive the sable and caviar clientele which flocks into his Trans-Lux Theatre on upper Madison avenue. A number of the Dartmouth crowd also puts in an appearance there, and Buzzy makes sure that all news reels concerning Dartmouth are brought to the Trans-Lux screen. One well known New York landmark where plenty of Dartmouths are in evidence is Rockefeller Center. Nelson Rockefeller '3O is there, taking general charge of things for his father; Francis T. Christy 'lB is head of the Center's legal department; and Bob Bottome '3O is second in charge of Rockefeller Center's renting office—which work, it seems, should encompass considerable latitude. Bottome says that any number of Dartmouth men have offices in the Rockefeller Center buildings, and that plans are now being initiated to form some sort of a Dartmouth luncheon club there.
Dartmouth Number 1 graduate athlete at the present time is undoubtedly Red Rolfe '3l, whose third-base covering was a vital factor in the Yankee steam-roller that flattened the Giants in the World Series. Immediately after the last game, Red entered St. Elizabeth's Hospital here for a bone growth removal operation. The' trouble was in the thigh bone, and had come on during the past year without any apparent cause. The Yankee fans had certainly had no cause for complaint, but Red thought it was slowing him down and decided to have it out without further ado. The operation, although an intricate one, was quite successful, and now Red is preparing to return to his home at Penacook, N. H., where he always passes the winters coaching basketball at the Concord Business College and giving talks at the nearby boys' clubs and Y. M. C. A.'s. Former All-American A 1 Marsters '3O is officiating at some of the big games this fall, but he's also a lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission, and is at present doing a lot of underground investigating work to bring Patman-Robinson Law violators into line.
Jerry Danzig '34, former editor of TheDartmouth, spent his first year out of school working for the New York Journal, but he's now gone into radio, and is in charge of special features at WOR. Jerry's voice is coming to be recognized in many of the nation's households, for, besides other broadcasts, he is one of the two interviewers who visits different New Yorkers in their apartments every week for the coast-to-coast "Let's Visit" program that goes over WOR and the Mutual Broadcasting System.
