With the D. O. C.
PACED BY GIANT ELEAZAR STATUE, 29TH CARNIVAL SCORES BIG HIT
WITH THE inspiration provided by Dick Brooks' record-setting snow sculpture of Eleazar and by some 1044 fair flowers of the nation, plus a battalion of the East's champion skiers, the D. O. C.'s Winter Carnival couldn't miss this year.
From the moment Brooks piled his first heap of slush in the center of the campus and the Carnival posters went on sale in Robinson, the 1939 Carnival proceeded to its climactic 53-31 basketball victory over Harvard without one tangle in its long string of events. (That is,—without a hitch if you exclude the stunt some of those rowdy Harvard tee-totalers pulled. They made all Hanover's week-end drinking illegal by absconding with the state liquor permit always required to be posted at the Outing Club House on Occom! A photo- static copy of the permit later appeared in a Boston paper, after having been printed in the Harvard Crimsonl)
McClelland Barclay, famous illustrator, Professor Ralph Burns, and Jim Mathes '39 chose Dorothy Gardner of Steubenville, Ohio, as 1939 Queen of the Snows. She smiled for the Wanger and press cameramen in the best Smith College tradition, while her date, Ed Miller '4O of Stamford, Conn., began to wonder if he was lucky or not. Incidentally, Miss Gardner had just two weeks previously recovered from an attack of pneumonia and almost fainted when she saw the slabs of ice which made up her throne seat.
Outdoor Evening had as its theme "Winter Sun," and the multi-colored ice-blocked throne at the north end of the pond set off the snow-banked Hilton Field to perfection. Five thousand students, guests, townies, and visitors saw the program which began at 7:30 and ended about 45 minutes later with the presentation of the Queen's cup to Miss Gardner by Jim Sampson '39, chairman of the Carnival Committee.
Bill Halsey '40 started the evening's entertainment with an exciting ski jump through a spot-lighted paper hoop; he was immediately followed down the west slope by the ski teams of the competing colleges.
SKATERS THRILL CROWD
Then lovely Vera Hruba, 17-year-old Czechoslovakian fancy skater, thrilled the crowd with a series of skating routines, ranging all the way from Viennese waltzes to the latest and swingy Lambeth Walk. The ice was next cleared for Viv Bruce '40 who did the seemingly impossible feat of leaping over eighteen barrels—in spite of the smallness of the pond, he did it twice, the last time when all barrels were set afire.
Comedy relief was afforded by the clever antics of former speed skating champion Alfred Trenkler. Called the Charlie Chaplin on steel runners, Trenkler expertly muddled his way through the Carioca and electrified the crowd by his inane tumbling.
Dwight Parkinson '39 turned wooden soldier on the pond and creditably spun, danced, and pirouetted as a stiff cadet. After his performance, a howling bunch of bear chasers from Jack Durrance's ski school, sped down the golf course slope and tried to protect some cohorts in an igloo from a monstrous polar bear who hadn't eaten before his act. Jack himself skied in for the kill.
The program ended, after the assembly of the Queen's Court, with a blazing fire works display and dancing on the ice.
ICE SCULPTURES
We think it was the inspiration and genius of Dick Brooks that was really responsible for the high caliber of dormitory and fraternity ice sculpture this year. Some say it was the large snowfall. But whatever it was, the 1939 Winter Carnival marked a new high in snow sculpturing at Dart- mouth, and that means anywhere.
Brooks' statue of Eleazar, in the center of the campus, was thirty-six and a half feet tall, not including the base, was estimated to weigh forty tons, and had a mouth large enough to put your head in. It was modeled after the Humphrey murals in the new Hovey Grill, and possessed remarkable detail, from the shoe buckles to the wigged hair. An ordinary beer keg wasn't sufficient to convey the proportion of the upheld ale tankard, so Dick finally secured an immense flour barrel, which, even then, just barely looked the right size.
Delta Tau Delta and Russell Sage dorm won the two first prizes for best ice sculptures. The fraternity winner, executed under the direction of Nat Sample '40 and Dake Horn '39, included Eleazar Wheelock astride a keg o' rum, drawn by two oxen, and a stalking Indian in a bush. Sage won honors by titling their creation "Sunday Afternoon" and placing a monumental Eleazar flat on his back, with one knee bent and a flagon of ale spilled out on the snow.
As the theme of the Carnival was "Keg O' Rum," most of the fraternity and dormitory sculptures reflected this theme. Eleazar on top of kegs of rum, sliding down ski boots, tending bar and mixing cocktails, under lamp posts, embracing and ogling pretty women, or flat on his back could be seen almost anywhere. Snow themes with skiers and a few St. Bernard dogs with kegs of rum in place of the brandy flask were also prominent.
CAMERA!
A photographer from The New YorkTimes who has been up to Hanover on one assignment or another off and on for twenty years, said that more photographs emanate from here at Carnival time than from any other social event in the United States. We can believe it. One look at the Press Room in Robinson and photographers' assistants (not to mention the newsreel men and this year the forty filmers of Walter Wanger) would convince anyone. We shouldn't forget, either, the student cameramen. Every event and statue in Hanover over Carnival week-end was knee- deep in flash bulbs and the latest in candid cameras.
Our personal nomination for the best shot taken of the 36-foot Eleazar is one by Harro Miller '42. Labeled Gargoyle, it is a night picture of the rough and angular unfinished face, with a worker standing near working on the nose. The shadows, angle and comparative size of the worker make Eleazar the most gruesome and hideous founder Dartmouth could ever hope to have. But it's a striking photograph.
WHY IT WAS NO EASY TASK TO PICK THE QUEENThe Court of Beauty from which the judges picked the Carnival Queen. Left to right, front row: Doris Stover, St. Paul, Minn.; Ruth Clark, New Canaan, Conn.; DorothyGardner, Steubenville, Ohio; Patty Gill, Cynwyd, Pa.; Frances Dykman, Short Hills, N. J.;Carol Jones, Richmond, N. ].; Lucy Flaherty, Orange, N. J. Second row: Dolly Maurice,Montclair, N. J.; Annamae Schoonauer, Seattle, Wash.; Barbara Skirm, Princeton, N.Polly Mann, Cheyenne, Wyo.; Doris Meyer, Greenwich, Conn.; Alice Strode, Westchester,Pa.; Ann Eisman, New York City. Back row: Marjorie Daly, Detroit; Jean McGray,Lowell, Mass.; Monnie Douglas, Greenwich, Conn.; Eleanor Crowckett, Hopedale, Mass.;Frances Barnard, South Orange, N. J.; Sunny Conlin, Omaha, Neb.; Betty Hearn, Boston.Also in the Court, but not shown in the picture, was Mary McClintock, Denver, Colo.
