He Makes Faces

THE DARTMOUTH INDIAN MASKS the cheerleaders are wearing at the games this fall—you probably saw them in the newsreel shots of the Big Green's annual press stunt at the opening of practice—are the new product of Gilbert Balkam '36.

In partnership with his brother Robert, Gilbert is experimenting with the manufacture of faces of latex rubber in the barn behind their Wollaston, Mass., home. The desired face is first modeled in clay, then the rubber material is applied. Before the face is "cured," it is sprayed with a rubberized paint. The whole process of manufacturing each individual face takes about five hours but the brothers maintain that the faces, under ordinary usage, will last almost indefinitely. They are washable, won't tear, and, should you decide to take your changed personality for a swim, can be worn in both fresh and salt water.

So far, masks of John Q. Public, President Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie, a monkey, a witch, an old man, and a bartender have been made. Not to mention the Dartmouth Indian!

Making faces can be interesting as well as lucrative. While Robert was demonstrating a face at Hyannis this summer, a woman threatened to have him arrested, insisting he looked intoxicated. An elderly sympathizer took one look at Gilbert when he wandered into a drug store for cigarettes while trying out a new face, murmured "Poor man, what a terrible experience," and fled.