Odyssey of Songsters
Glee Club Enjoys Successful Tour During Spring Recess, Putting Art First but Sparing None of the Fun
ON THE SUNNY MORNING OF March 27 the Glee Club, composed of 36 singers, two managers, and director Don Cobleigh, started out on their annual spring jaunt. Following the impressive blue and white Greyhound bus in their own beachwagons were the eleven members of Dartmouth's best known orchestra, the Barbary Coast; and bringing up the rear of the cavalcade in their car were the Willises, "Buzz," president of the club, and wife, "Ketchy."
Spring was definitely in the air, coats were discarded, and as we journeyed southward to Bridgeport, our first night's concert, the picture of the floating duck-boards of Hanover was quickly erased from our minds. From the outset, the bus ride was not only endurable but downright enjoyable, with enough laughs and horseplay to last the whole 3500 miles. Gagsters in the persons of A1 Dingwall, Ernie Hesser, Red Wilson, and Jake Gidney came into their own and kept everyone from becoming restless.
The Bridgeport concert was the first hurdle, and singing with Paul Robeson before an enthusiastic crowd of 1500 people the whole affair came off very well. Parties galore were held following the concert and after being in school for two months—well, everybody cut loose and had a grand time, even Wilson, the red-headed misanthrope.
Rolling along (the next day towards Reading we were all rather surprised to hear the motor sputter for a few seconds and finally stop, unfortunately right at the bottom of a long hill. Driver Eddy White-incidentally the best darn driver we'd ever seen—swore that there was enough gas but that something had gone wrong somewhere. We applauded his rather profound statement and then, at his suggestion, proceeded to push the blue and white giant up the hill, much to the amazement of passing motorists. An official photographer "Ketchy," who usually does that sort of thing, wasn't there—was assigned the job of recording the phenomenon and of sending the pictures to the Greyhound Cos. as an advertisement possibility, no one being quite sure whether the advertising was for Greyhound or the "granite of New Hampshire" boys.
Both at Reading and Philadelphia the concerts and dances went off with great success. Mr. Schultz had gathered an extremely enthusiastic audience at Reading, and Mr. King did an equally good job in the "Quaker City." By this stage we had all gotten over our "buck fever" and enjoyed giving the concerts just as much as attending the dances afterwards. The only complaints frequently voiced were that so many of the girls were already married. At both these concerts our final "Wednesday night rehearsal" act was ably boosted by eager alumni.
"Good morning, driver White" was the chorus which greeted Eddy as we left Philadelphia at eight o'clock Sunday morning, headed for the sunny south and our eventual destination, Atlanta. That chorus was the key-note of our long trip south, for with Eddy and his Greyhound covering the miles in regular seven-league style and chorused remarks flying between the "back-seat" boys and the rest, the eight hundred miles passed with an amazing rapidity. Of course, seats in the bus weren't reserved, and as there were many "pirates" aboard to whom no one's seat was sacred, the arrangements were constantly shifting. Only Mr. Cobleigh and official navigator Wilson had permanent seats, maintaining them throughout the trip by a sort of "divine right." And there were other reasons necessitating a mad rush at times for one of the "blue-laws" of the trip read, "the bus will leave promptly at the time indicated, and anyone unfortunate enough to miss it must provide his own transportation to the next town." Several times Driver White was obliged to have difficulty getting the gear into reverse so that some miscreant might not be left behind. "Dusty" Rhodes was continually just getting over the line and even Mr. Cobleigh once had a close call.
SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY SCORES
Atlanta, the city of Southern belles, dogwood and coca-cola, was the next highlight of the vacation. True, it was rather an irony arriving in the rain as we had all looked forward to a beating, warm sun, but the minute we arrived at the Piedmont Driving Club and were met by Miss Peggy Dutton, who handled the concert, everything turned bright. Having known "Southern hospitality" in name only, we were all duly impressed with the real thing. Certainly no one could have been more friendly or charming than the people of Atlanta who fed us fried chicken until we were actually worried about the physical possibility of ever reaching the stage, applauded and laughed at our efforts with genuine zeal, and pleased us "Yankees" with their delightful accent. Individual plans are already maturing rapidly to take in the football game with the University of Georgia next year, making Atlanta the base for operations. Numerous subversive movements were started in the bus the next day, all of them opening with more or less the same idea—"Sure I love winter sports but the snow lasts so long and then comes the slush. Now down here "
On the way to Cincinnati, our next concert, we spent the night at Knoxville where everyone took a night off and got some much needed rest. Mr. Cobleigh thought it would be a good idea if we all went to bed by ten-thirty and all concurred with him, but it seems that Knoxville runs on Central standard time, and this proved rather embarrassing to a few persons, notably Ernie Hesser, who during their educational wanderings around the University of Tennessee campus happened to run into some people who volunteered to show them the grounds and the college "institutions." "Very educational" was Ernie's only comment.
Our stop at the "Queen City" was most enjoyable and, as we had an extra day there, gave those of us who had never been "that far west" a chance to look around. It was here in Cincinnati that A1 Dingwall, our pianist and imitator par excellence, by a very excusable mistake, gave the audience the biggest laugh of the trip. A1, in the role of Director Cobleigh, in the Rehearsal skit mentally misplaced and left out several lines called for in the script, and, without giving him his cue, tried to rush one of the participants off the stage. Dead silence, finally broken by Al's very audible mutterings, "Get out of here, Hesser, that was your cue, what are you waiting for?", then in the next breath when Hesser finally did move "Well, where the heck do you think you're going, whatcha-me-call-it." Even the club broke down on that.
The following night we had no concert so Mr. Schott of Cincinnati threw a party for all of us at his country club. Everything was at our disposal and we took full advantage of it. Bowling teams were organized and everyone indulged in the Club's favorite sport, with Bate Ewart proclaimed king by virtue of his continually high scores. Following a gargantuan steak dinner, we made a few informal records of some college songs with various people ad libbing into the "mike," especially Driver White who, in his newly acquired Southern drawl, claimed that "although he'd always lived in the south he would like to see more of Cincinnati," and that seemed to be the opinion of everyone concerned.
Dayton and Detroit were the next and last two concerts of the trip and both cities lived up to the hospitality that we had encountered all along the line. Phil Huffman '39 handled the affair in Dayton and did an extremely fine job. Everyone in the Club knew just where they were staying and where to be at all times, something which was greatly appreciated by all of us.
And so we ended up our tour and headed back for Hanover, spending one night in Syracuse on the way, and arriving back Monday afternoon, the seventh of April. It was a lovely, sunny day and rolling over the hills between Woodstock and Hanover we all decided that after travelling over quite a bit of country there was nothing quite so beautiful as the scenery around Hanover. The duck boards were up, the grass was beginning to turn green, and the Spring that we had been looking for during all the trip finally turned up right in Hanover.
AN UNSCHEDULED WORKOUTGlee Club manpower was equal to the occasion when the bus decided to quit atthe bottom of a long hill near Reading.
FULL PERSONNEL OF THE VARSITY GLEE CLUB FOR 1940-41 Left to right, front row—T. N. Schroth '43, Brooklyn, N. Y.; R. R. Gray '43, Yonkers, N. Y.: J. H. Shaw '43, Pawtucket, R. I.; M. Borofsky '43, Concord, N. H.; C. L. Hopkins Jr. '42, Springfield, Mass.; R. P. Stokes '43, Chatham, N. J.; K. E. Sorlien '43, Englewood, N. J.; H. C. Englert 42, Verona, N. J.; H. O. Bartlett '42, Davenport, la.; K. M. Jones '42, Highland Park, 11!.; P. B. Lanius Jr. '42. Denver, Colo.; J. W. Middleton '42, Utica, N. V. Second row—R. E. Fisher '42, Minneapolis, Minn.; H. H. Palmer '41, Lexington, Mass.; E. G. Hesser '41, New York City; H. E. Bailey '41, Hartford, Conn.; J. A. Ozanne '41, Westerly, R. I.; H. P. Rodes '41, South River, N. J.; C. E. Willis Jr. '41 (President), Roslyn Heights. N. Y.; C. B. Higgins Jr. '41, Hingham, Mass.; C. S. Williams '41, Needham, Mass.; W. C. Galbraith '41, Forest Hills, N. Y.; W. A. Paddock '41, Wolcott, N. Y.; L. B. Gordon Jr. '41, Verona, N. J.; W. K. Hill '41, Washington, D. C. Third row—H. A. Dingwall Jr. '42 (accompanist), New York City; M. M. Fenichell '43, Brooklyn, N. Y.; W. T. Maeck '43, Shelburne, Vt.; D. L. Hagge '42, Wausau, Wis.; W. B. Hammond '41, Springfield, Mass.; L. K. Norton '41, Lansdowne, Pa.; C. B. Ewart Jr. '42, Ardsley-on-Hudson. N. Y.; W. C. Carrington Jr. '41, Short Hills, N. J.; H. C. Bohle Jr. '42, Scarsdale, N. Y.; A. P. Moore '43, Governors Island, N. Y.; F. C. Atwill. II '41, Fargo, N. D.: V. V. Lloyd '43, Montclair, N. J.; E. Hawkridge '42, Newton Center, Mass.; J. D. Le Seur '42, Batavia, N. Y.; F. S. Cushman '42, Shrewsbury, Mass.; V. J. Barringer '43, Washington, D. C.; R. L. Rugen '42, Plainfield, N. J.; J. A. Gidney '41, Ridgewood, N. J. Fourth row—R. C. Grevatt '43, Montclair, N. J.; E. W. Lider '43, New Bedford, Mass.; J. M. C. Olsen Jr. '42, Providence, R. I.; J. J. McManus '44. Medford, Mass.: G. T. Koncevich '43, Ansonia, Conn.; R. W. Kerwin '43, Clayton, Mo.; J. de la Montagne '42, White Plains, N. Y.; D. K. Bortz '43, Lakewood, Ohio; H. D. Rix '42, Randolph, Vt.; W. S. Jenkins '42, Danbury, Conn.; R. C. White '42, Washington, D. C.; D. McCorkindale '43, Holyoke, Mass.; W. S. Bartholomew '43, Essex Fells, N. J.; G. T. Van Petten '43, Milwaukee, Wis.; D. W. Jones '43, Denver, Colo.; F. W. Cassidy Jr. '42, Scarsdale, N. Y.; W. M. David Jr. '41, Germantown, Pa.; W. C. Wilson Jr. '42, Fort Thomas, Ky. Hack row—E. W. Martin '41, Maiden, Mass.; B. L. Brown '41, Glen Ridge, N. J.; E. J. Spiegel Jr. '42, St. Louis, Mo.; G. C. Smith '43, Fairfield. Conn.; J. C. Moore Jr. '43, Governors Island, N. Y.; F. W. Hartmann '43, Huntington, N. Y.; G. G. Grant Jr. '43, Painesville, Ohio: J. C. Naylor Jr. '41, Webster Groves, Mo.
