1923

The season being what it is, here's a wish for a Merry Christmas to you all to you thoughtful guys who write and keep us all in touch with your interesting doings to you preoccupied ones who nevertheless foregather with your kind and of whom we thus gather tidings indirectly and to the few of you who have dropped entirely from sight in the past twenty odd years. Between our pagan devotions to the Christmas tree and the insistent throbbing of a thumb slightly lacerated in the decorating process, our thoughts are with you all.

Presaging the successful revival of the Dutch Treat evenings at the Club in New York, the conversazione on the night of October 16 brought out the following: The Irishman, Clary Goss, Ellis Wilner, Phil Jellison, George Plant, Sol Levine, John Moore, Bob Siemon, Sid Silberman, John Foster, Brooks Palmer, Phil Keigher, Charlie Rivoire, Comdr. John Allen, Mike May, Shiner Beggs, Graham Whitelaw, Dr. Jack Booth, Pat Cavanaugh and myself. Johnnie Allen gave us a swell talk on his recent trip to Japan and way stations in the Pacific, where he was assigned on a naval technical mission. Still on active duty, Johnnie expects to be in and around New York until the first of the year. Jack Booth made the trek down from Danbury, Conn., and led the crowd in some songs of the '20s after dinner. Speaking of Danbury, Jack entered a thoroughbred boxer in the dog show at the Fair earlier in the fall. Clary Goss headed the informal meeting, and there will be a different chairman each month during the season.

On Wednesday, January 15, the Dutch Treat under the Chairmanship of Brooks Palmer will be held in our own Club dining room, starting between 5:30 and 6 pip emma, and will be a bright departure from customary procedure in that 23's wives all of them within traveling distance are invited and will be welcomed with open arms (by their husbands, that is). If you're in the New York vicinity, or planning to be at that time, be sure to come along and bring your wife.

To close the football season with a few interesting facts: the Carpenter playing 1st string tackle on the freshman team is Bus's son; Ralph Duffy's son, George, is a starting forward on the Freshman Soccer Team; and Dr. Ed Hopkins' eldest son is regular full-back on the Groton School Team. Seen or reported in Hanover for the Syracuse game: Sherm and Ellie Baldwin, Ike and Mrs. Coulter and younger son, Irish and Alice Flanigan, Dwight Haigh and son (D 1950), Herb and Mrs. Home, Jim and Ruth Landauer, Babe and Florence Miner, Rusty and Mrs. Sargent. Maybe more.

Rumor says a big group of '23 sons are entered in the classes of 1949 and 1950. If your own son is among them, how about following the example of Pete Howe and telling us about it?

Pete says:

As always, I have just been reading your good Class Notes in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE: and rise to report that Sherm Clough, Bill Gates, Ralph Duffy, Bill Wallace and Sherm Baldwin are not the only '23ers with sons at Hanover this fall. Wallis E. III, son of Louise niece of Dr. and Mrs. Carleton of Hanover, and cousin of Johnnie Carleton and myself, is now ensconced in Lord Hall, and doing O.K. An ex-Navy QM 2/c, he's now '49 P.S. Wallie's old man is fat, slightly bald, vice president of Pocket Books, the 25 cent publishing division of the Marshall Field Enterprises, who will be on deck in '48, so help him God.

Pete's son certainly has a Dartmouth heritage from all sides. And Pete's daughter, Denison, is being squired by Sherm Baldwin's son, Lyon.

Here's the latest from Phil Bowker, who is Massachusetts Representative of the Automatic Voting Machine Corporation:

This business keeps me on the jump but it is very attractive. I deal with politicians, which is right up my alley. At the same time, have been nominated for State Senator in Norfolk-SufFolk District, which is tantamount to election. So looks as if I would serve at State House again. Previously had been there eight years as State Representative in the House and five years as Metropolitan District Commissioner under Governor Saltonstall. So you see I keep in touch with political life.

Good going, Phil! Kully Lundberg is making a lot of dates these days on the California desert, in spite of the übiquitous cactus which decorates the letterhead of his Goldacres Range at Indio. More accurately, he's raising dates the Deglet Noor variety wrapping them as Christmas gifts in 3-lb. and 5-lb. gift packages, and doing a bang-up job of selling them by mail. Kully's ranch sounds like exactly the sort of place where the best dates in the world would like to be raised, and the whole setup looks good.

Cap Palmer's most recent letter arrived during the non-publishing months, then had to be sidetracked for Reunion news. But here it is at long last:

Attached is a Variety review on Tom McKnight's first picture as a producer for Universal. As you know, the producer hires directors, writers, actors and everybody else, controls and coordinates the entire production, and is entirely responsible for the success of the picture Tom is likely to go far. I'm hoping that "Make Mine Music" was my own last feature, and that from here on out I'll be entirely on educational pictures. Only personal news: my daughter Gay just graduated from high school and took the Legion award for "outstanding girl," which made us very proud. College Boards willing, she enters Smith a year from this fall, a year at local Marlboro intervening. Please relay my best to any of the guys you see.

Cap, in a top spot with Disney for some time, encloses a clipping of the "Film Preview" column of Variety on "The Black Angel," a Universal release produced by Tom McKnight and Roy William Neill.

Of Tom's picture, Variety says:

"The Black Angel" is a closely plotted whodunit, tight with suspense, lightened with romance and blessed with that rare element in film murder mysteries a surprise ending that is as plausible as it is unexpected. Roy William Neill.... and Tom McKnight have fashioned a good, entertaining show.

Sounds to us like a must-see, with the added advantage that, during the seven reels of names preceeding the picture, we can point boldly at the screen and say loudly, "See, this picture was produced by my classmate, Tom McKnight!" Remembering Tom's genius with the Winter Carnival shows way-back-when, it's easy to believe that "The Black Angel" will be the first of many pictures to carry his name as producer.

And, now that kully Lundberg and Cap Palmer and Tom McKnight have chopped a big hole in the ice, how about some news from some more of you good '23s west of the Mississippi?

Secretary, 84 Hillside Ave., New Rochelle, N. Y.

Treasurer, 32 Ridgeland Terrace, Rye, N. Y.

Memorial Fund Chairman, 744 Broad St., Newark, N. J.