Metropolitan Notes
POPULAR 30 FIFTH AVENUE ISBECOMING AN OLD TRADITION
THE MOST FAMOUS Dartmouth address in New York City, outside of the Dartmouth Club itself, is Number 30 Fifth Avenue, a fashionable apartment house in the Washington Square section. At the moment, "30 Fifth" is the home of no less than eight Dartmouth men, to wit: Dave Hedges '34, Dick Gruen '34, Bud Fraser '35, Ted Wachs '36, Oscar Ruebhausen '34, Hank Rigby '34, Dick Houck '34, and Fritz Beebe '35.
Ex-Hanoverians continue to move into "30 Fifth." Maybe it's because the address is only a five-minute walk from the heart of Greenwich Village; maybe, again, it's because it is the same distance from Union ("Red") Square—we don't know. The best known apartment in the building is the famous "9-K," through which untold numbers of Dartmouth men have passed since the day more than three years ago when the original contingent of Green supporters moved in. That was back in 1935, when "9-K" (not to be confused with "The Little Green House on K Street") was taken over by charter-members Hedges, Fraser, Bud Childs '35, Early Arthurs '35, and Wes Beattie '33. Shortly afterwards Arthurs moved to North Carolina and took to himself a wife, and his place at "9-K" was taken by '34 Class Secretary Marty Dwyer. Beattie then moved upstate somewhere and Dick Gruen moved in, and it wasn't long before Carl Funke '35 supplanted Dwyer, who, joining up with Time magazine, had to make the Time move suburbwards. Childs, after frightening the bar- tenders at the Fifth Avenue Hotel (in the same block), returned to Buffalo to start medical school and Ted Wachs took over his place.
It's not an inexpensive apartment the boys have at "30 Fifth," and the idea is that as soon as one man leaves another must be found to pay one-fifth of the rent. As a matter of fact, a strict rule upon joining the "9-K" bunch is that you promise, should you leave, to find a substitute. The two most recent shifts have been Swede Lindstrom '34 for Funke, and Dick Gilpatric for Lindstrom. Gilpatric is the first black sheep to reach the sacred circle; he's a .... uh .... Yale man, Class of '35. It is understood by those close to the situation that Gilpatric gained entree through his business connections with Hedges at the Bank of New York.
This by no means completes the total list of those who have stayed at "30 Fifth." There have been, explains Spokesman Fraser, many an interloper—some who spent a night and others who spent a month, some who slept on the couch and others who slept in the bathtub. As for Dartmouth visitors, the number easily runs into the hundreds. Among those most frequently seen at "9-K": Al Baldwin '34, Dave Calloway '34, Roily Morton '34, Ray Sulsart '34, Dud Ferguson '3O, Tom Lane '35, Randy Stowell '35, and Bob Sellmer '35. The most gruelling night ever experienced by the other tenants of "30 Fifth" was probably that evening last year when "9-K" celebrated Bob Sellmer's departure for Europe. (Sellmer, incidentally, was last heard of in Helsingford, Finland.) The "9-K" bathtub on that occasion was filled with 350 bottles of beer, and Sellmer showed his accustomed cooperation in such functions by downing thirty-six of the bottles himself, a record which will no doubt stand on the "9-K" books for some time to come.
ROYALTY CONSORTS
Three Dartmouth men—Tom Lane '35 of Young & Rubicam, Kip Orr '22 of TheNew Yorker, and Bill Okie '28, top-notch Fifth Avenue window designer—are reported to have been seen consorting with royalty several nights ago at the Plaza Restaurant in Rockefeller Center. Their companion was none other than Count Theo Rossi di Montelera, Italian nobleman and sportsman whom Lane was interviewing for one of Young & Rubicam's coast-to-coast radio shows. Count Rossi, speedboat champion who recently captured both the Gold Cup race in Detroit and the President's Cup race in Washington, is the active head of the Martini & Rossi winery of Turin, Italy—the biggest vermouth factory in the world. Besides being a multi-millionaire and the highest taxed bachelor in Italy, it seems the Count is also quite a good-will ambassador for his own product. At the Plaza Restaurant he was, with much gusto and summoning of waiters, explaining to Lane, Orr, and Okie the finer points of drinking vermouth straight. This drink (very cold Italian vermouth poured into a fairly large glass, with two lumps of ice and a piece of lemon peel) has long been a European favorite, and is now becoming quite popular at the swankier watering-places here. The Dartmouth men report it's quite a fine thing, especially when you get it straight from Count Theo Rossi di Montelera himself.
OTHER NEWSMEN
Previously in this column we've mentioned the Dartmouth graduates connected with the Herald Tribune, and also those who are with different parts of the Hearst organization around town, but we don't believe we've yet listed the Dartmouth men over at the New York Times. They play, it seems, quite an important part in the production of that very fine paper. There is, for instance, Francis Brown '25, who after graduation taught history at Dartmouth and then became one of the editors of Current History magazine. Brown is now on the editorial staff of the Times, and its' he who writes most of "The News of the Week in Review" which you probably look over every Sunday morning. Brown's good friend and present roommate is Ralph Thompson '25, who does the signed book review column for the Times. His column, called "Books of the Times," is recognized as one of the best daily book columns in the country. Also at the Times are: Shepard Stone '29, who broke into foreign affairs' writing after taking a Ph.D. at the University of Berlin, and who now helps edit the Times' Sunday Magazine section; Joe Gannon '99, who holds the imposing title of "Chairman of the New York Times' Committee on the Acceptability of Advertising" ("just call it advertising censor," he says); Van Buren Thorne '34, a reporter on the city staff; and Mack Burke '37, who recently joined the Times' promotion department. Advertising and athletic notes: Sylvester L. (Pat) Weaver Jr. '30 has recently resigned as manager of Young & Rubicam's radio department to become assistant to George Washington Hill Jr. of the American Tobacco Company. He'll supervise radio advertising for Lucky Strikes Howard M. Chapin '28, associate advertising manager of General Foods, is fast becoming one of the best Dartmouth tennis players in the East. It's reported that he's practiced almost daily for the past three years, and that he enjoys nothing better than to invite Dartmouth friends who used to beat him to his place at Spuyten Dyvil, when he trounces them mercilessly.
