With the D.O.C.
36TH ANNUAL SNOW FESTIVAL CLOSE TO OLD PREWAR CARNIVAL STANDARDS
THE TRUE SPIRIT OF CARNIVAL returned to Hanover this year on February 8,9 and io, after a lapse of nearly four years. The fact that the fraternity houses were not open and that there was no Outdoor Evening dulled but little the spirit shown by visitors as well as the natives of Hanover.
Outward signs of preparation for the big event appeared a week ahead of time as the "Sachem in a Jeep," typifying the theme, "Return of the Native," began to go up on the center of campus and as the dorms began to mold into ice and snow their variations on this theme. Wednesday saw the statues taking shape and heard everyone begin to wonder who would get the prizes offered by the D.O.C. and Chesterfield cigarettes for the best sculpture. Wednesday also saw the D.O.C. sweating out a short thaw that threatened to ruin the hills and trails which had been so carefully put into shape for the ski meet. Luckily it turned cold again and the work was not in vain.
On Thursday, with preparations nearly complete, the girls began to arrive along with the ten visiting ski teams, the West Point hockey team, the Harvard swimming team, and various newsmen and officials. As usual, living accommodations were at a premium, but the College came through with three dorms to help alleviate that situation. The Players gave their second performance of "The Philadelphia Story" that night to a packed house while the rest of the early arrivals danced in the Hostess House or watched the final touches being put on the statues.
The big outdoor event of the weekend was the ski meet—the biggest Dartmouth has seen in years, with one team traveling all the way from Denver to compete for the Carnival Cup. Friday morning early found the teams out at Moose Mountain for a cold and very fast downhill, while in the afternoon the spectators viewed a colorful slalom on Oak Hill; perhaps the highlight of this being the sight of Dick Durrance '39 weaving through the flags as he fore-ran the course set by Ted Hunter '3B, one of his old teammates. Between races the teams gathered in front of the bulletin board in Robinson Hall to talk over the race and await the final results. On Saturday morning the teams lined up behind Wentworth Hall to start the eight-mile cross-country race, and an hour later the spectators saw the racers begin to come in one by one, a little the worse for wear after the long race.
On Saturday afternoon the largest Hanover crowd in years at the big ski jump watched fifty competitors and exhibitionists make their graceful flights into the air, broken only rarely by the inevitable spills. At the jump President Dickey, Dean Strong, and Paul Sample, the judges for the weekend, picked the "Queen of the Snows" from the thousand or more girls who streamed through the gate with their dates. Their final choice of Mrs. Faye Chase, lovely wife of one of Dartmouth's returned veterans, was wildly acclaimed by the crowd. The long awaited announcement of the winner of the sculpture contest finally came during the intermission, with the Marines of Lord Hall taking the honors with their statue of a Jap pulling a Marine private back to Hanover in a rickshaw.
The big evening event, of course, was the Indian Sno-Ball in the Alumni Gymnasium, with Lee Castle and his orchestra furnishing the music and the Queen presiding. Preceding the dance the Glee Club gave its Carnival concert to a sold-out house in Webster Hall, the highlight being Jim Biggie's rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone," which he had to sing twice before the crowd would let the concert continue.
Sunday saw everybody resting up after the big night by sitting around at the Hostess House or wandering over the campus looking at the snow sculptures which, according to some, were as good or better than those of pre-war days. One of the best (picturing Eleazar rising out of his grave to greet the returning Indian) was done by the graduate medical students at the AKK fraternity house. This statue seemed to typify the spirit of the weekend. Sunday hundreds of visitors toured the town to look at the ice art, creating what Chief Andy Ferguson called the worst traffic jam in Hanover's history; and others watched the couples ride around the campus behind the Eskimo dog team. Finally there came the time for hundreds of visiting girls to get on the trains at White River, hoping to get an invitation next year to Dartmouth Winter Carnival.
We hope that next year we will be able to have a full-size Carnival complete with Outdoor Evening—its fireworks, its skating, its bright lights—but a Carnival is not run easily, for it means many long hours of work in the planning and help from every Dartmouth student in carrying it out.
THE PRIZE WINNER among the statues in the interdormitory snow sculpture contest for Carnival was this striking piece by the Marines of Lord Hall, who depicted a Jap pulling a Marine private to Hanover in a rickshaw. A keg of beer from the DOC and $5O for a party and a month's supply of cigarettes for each man from Chesterfields rewarded the Marines who have won top honors three years in a row.
SETTING THE KEYNOTE for Carnival snow sculpture this year was the center-of-campus statue of a Dartmouth brave returning to Hanover by jeep.
OTHER OUTSTANDING ENTRIES in the interdormitory snow scuplture competition were (left to right) North Mass's second-place statue of a Dartmouth brave thumbing his nose at a bugler blowing reveille, Topliff's third-place statue of an Indan in his easy chair with beer keg held aloft, and Ripley's humorous version of a Dartmouth tepee, with only feet sticking out, the morning after the homecoming celebration.
PREWAR COLOR RETURNS TO CARNIVAL Top right: President Dickey, one of the judges, poses at the ski jump with Faye Chase, Queen of the Snows, who is the wife of Russ Chase '45, a married veteran living in Middle Fayer. Center left: The Queen and her Court of Beauty at the crowning ceremony. Center right: Sonny Drury '4B, son of Francis R. Drury '26, finishes tenth in the downhill at Moose Mountain. Lower left: A Denver University skier races skillfully through one of the gates in the Oak Hill slalom course. Lower right: Fowler of McGill in one of the two jumps which won him top honors in the final thrilling event of the Carnival ski meet.
D.O.C. President
