Class of 1935
Self styled iconoclast Charlie Lebeaux writes in to say that he isn't called Labazaud, not even in Greek. And as for the hysychia part of it, if there is any of that around Detroit he hasn't heard of it. "Thatgentleman is not yours truly, but Mr.Charles La LazaucL, who started at theUniversity of Athens after graduation. I'm quite entirely and securely in the U. S." So securely, as a matter of fact, that Charlie doesn't appreciate my attempts at English humor (spelled Humour). I have myself once in a while the sickening feeling that I shall desert all tradition and think PUNCH is funny. But I wonder if I really merit the following: "Along with all theothers, it (the column) strikes me as themost banal accumulation of fond-salesman's small talk a fellow ever had to expose himself to, twelve times (or ninetimes) in the year I'd be interestedto hear something of the doings of the disinherited. Of myself, as one of these last,I ca?i say that I've been round aboutAmerica, working in factory and farm,lived leanly and rich, am now a foundryworker in the Ford River Rouge, and ampreparing to 'change all that.' " But Charlie closes in a softer vein. "Don't take all thistoo much to heart, Bill, but do scratch yourhead a time or two. I'm an iconoclast, butI still live 'ln Dartmouth's Memory.'
I am not very sure just what this "doings of the disinherited" means, but if it's of any interest to you I saw in France last week a parade burlesquing I'affaire Simpson, and with an old car emblazoned with chalk: "Jazz, C'est nous!"
Howie Croninger, having sent in his thesis on the Gufley Coal Act of late lamented fame, has now decided to get married. "We plan to be married in asmall University of Chicago chapel, Saturday, June 12." Howie is still with General Electric in Schenectady, and drove from there to Chicago to present the thesis. "Grand trip—except for a broken axle returning." News also came of Ted Harbaugh, now fully recovered from pneumonia and on an extended tour of the West.
Joe Parachini is at last settled on land though he is still working for a shipping concern in New York. He met Carl Funke in church a while ago and discovered he still wants people to buy Pall Mall cigarettes. Various others have turned up. Bill Harloe, genially prosperous; Dan Cotton and Rob Somers. Bob Neill is in East Orange, works in New York. Frank Stockman going strong with J. Walter Thompson Company in spite of the stupefying Princeton atmosphere. Joe himself spends his spare time at the Metropolitan and has gone temporarily batty about Kirsten Flagstad. Good chorus there too, but Joe says it makes him homesick for the second tenor section in the Dartmouth Glee Club. [Bankart, Smith, Hon. Sec., and Parachini.] They have a singing coach now, a fellow from Chattaqua.
By the way, does anybody know if Jack Blanchard is in Europe? The O. D. U. (Overseas Dartmouth Union) has lost track of him. I got a letter from Ted Steele the other day when he couldn't come to our Dartmouth Night Dinner. "Thesnappy train service, and my present lackof nights out [shades of Smith College]conspire against it. Gallagher says he can'tmake it either, which apparently leavesus solitary in Oxford to celebrate in ourown quaint way, badgering the Yale menand such stuff Cheerio for thenonce. . . .
I dropped in on C. A. Crane at the Impasse des Deux Anges in Paris three days ago and was greeted by his landlady in a none too fetching kimono but with a fetching smile who told me that Monsieur had gone to Germany for Easter. On various sides I have heard that Crane has been doing very well in the language field. He went to Spain with a fellow from Oxford and was rattling off Spanish at a great rate. Italian, German and French are also on the list, and there is some rumor of Russian. The Alley of the Angels is on the left bank off Rue St. Benoit in case you get to Paris when Monsieur is home.
Dick Lauterbach, whose marriage in Moscow some time ago I noted in this column, is back in New York.
"I've started innumerable letters to you ever since I read Tom Lane's remark—in the column—about the Moscow Summer School refusing to let me in. There just wasn't any summer school, and as a result they let us do what we wanted with the summer. I led a group of about ten or twelve college people on a 3,000 mile trek around the various republics in the Soviet Union. The farthest point away from 'civilization' we touched was Erivan, the capital of Soviet Armenia. Here one could see the old order and the new side by side. In the middle of the town a new modern opera house was being built, on the outskirts fine brick apartment buildings; and yet, still, the natives lived in mud huts, bathed in dirty irrigation canals. It was a thrilling country of contrasts and contradictions, but an experience I shall never forget.
"As to my marriage: we tried to get married on the boat going over, in London, on a Finnish steamer, in Helsinki, in Copenhagen—but civil law thwarted us in each case. Finally we got to Moscow, and everything seemed set. But I came down with something which was successively diagnosed as intestinal flu, mumps, indigestion, and finally malaria. I lived through it, whatever it was, and we were married. After the brief civil ceremony we went to a Torgsin store and bought bottles of cranberry brandy for ourselves and two witnesses. Plus a tremendous hunk of cheese. We sat down on the curb in front of the store and proceeded to have a wedding feast.
"Last October I gave up a perfectly good job in the Public Relations Department of Gaumont British, bought a second hand Buick and drove out to Los Angeles with Bettina to introduce her to my family."
Three months there, in which matrimonial tendencies on the part of Rapf and Schulberg were unearthed, then back and into a job with Thomas Uzzell in New York. "I am in charge of marketing—trying to place stories, novels, plays etc. withmagazines, publishers and, producers." Dick has been selling a good quantity of his own stuff, too.
Dave Pierce is also selling stuff too, if you can believe the cryptic information, "Copy Writing, Harper Bros." that I have received.
From Dick Eberhart comes a flock of calendars neatly printed and emblazoned with "Eber" on a carmine heart. "Insurance Broker and Counsellor—214 East 85thStreet, New York City—Maximum Protection at Minimum Cost."
Long, rambling and interesting news from the west coast oracle, Rudy Pacht, now really slaving away at U. of C. Law School. ("This law racket is without anydoubt the toughest thing ") Maury Rapf gave a big stag party for Schulberg's wedding to a fair damsel whom Rudy once admired in French classes years ago.
"In case I'm not 100 late with the news,there arrived December 16, 1936, oneLewis Seager Peck, Jr., about '54 or so, andI'm to be inducted as godfather—or whatever godfathers have done to them—if Ican get down to Los Angeles some weekend."
Rather belated news about Paul "Butch" Cummings: first in the New Hampshire Highway Department, then field representative of the N. H. Unemployment Compensation Division.
ODDS BODKINS: W. Weiching Yen, who finished up in the balmier airs of the University of Virginia, is back at home in Hongkong. John Rockwell, another exthirty-fiver, is in a financial business in Toronto. Colson Hillier is thriving as a paper salesman in Philadelphia. Herb Van Doom is still with Bamberger's, now assistant buyer in the lamp department. Bob Busey also seems to care for the bright side of life selling for the Incandescent Lamp Department of S. E. Cos., Cleveland. Should this be G. E.? Seymour Peyser is teaching at the Gilman Country School in Baltimore. Don Radasch is with the United Fruit Cos. in New York. Hugh Rafferty inspects for the A. C. Spark Plug Cos. in Flint, Mich. They call 'em "sparking plugs" over here. Jimmy Alfring is selling radios for the Interstate Supply Cos. in St. Louis. Dero Saunders is married to Miss Beatrice Nair of Smith and New Britain. They are living on E. Bth Street N. Y., near Boldt. Cheerio .... for the nonce
Secretary, Trinity College, Cambridge, England
