"It Was a Howling Success"
WHEN the Dartmouth Glee Club takes to the road for its annual spring swing of alumni centers, College officials back in Hanover can confidently count on a steady inflow of enthusiastic mail from those who attended the concerts or had a chance to be hosts to the undergraduate singers. The public relations job that the Glee Club has been doing for the College in recent years deserves a Hollywood adjective - "stupendous" or "colossal.
What happened last month, however, when the Glee Club made its most ambitious tour ever, to the Pacific Coast, was something special, even for Dartmouth's enthusiastic, personable and expertly trained songsters. On the basis of alumni and public praise, and the back-in-Hanover reports of the Glee Club members themselves, the two-week tour was probably the most successful that Director Paul Zeller and his boys have made as "singing ambassadors" of the College.
Here are bits from a few of the letters that reached the College:
"Well, the Dartmouth College Glee Club has come and gone, and I just want to say that as far as I am concerned, it was a howling success. What a wonderful job they did. ... It really put Dartmouth on the map."
"Everyone I've talked to couldn't say enough about the whole venture.... The music was magnificent.... You told me they were all top young fellows, and from the people who met them, and put them up, there has been nothing but the highest praise."
"It's all over now but the shouting and that will go on for a long time. The boys did a fine job here and all who heard them are loud in their praise."
"We had a wonderful concert, and without question Dartmouth has received more favorable publicity here in the last few days than it has in as many years."
"We send our thanks most particularly for the splendid musical accomplishment and good manners of the Glee Club itself."
"As you predicted, the Glee Club made a tremendous impact on this community, and people are still buzzing about it. We who had charge of their appearance are still basking in a rosy glow. I've had scores of people remark to me that they were impressed not only with the musical ability of the group but also by the clean-cut, manly appearance of all these boys.... They have done more for Dartmouth enrollment activities than any number of speakers you could send out here."
In nearly every one of the ten cities visited during its tour (Omaha, Denver, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas and Houston) the Glee Club spent more than one day and thus had time for TV and radio performances, and especially for informal concerts at high schools and visits with the students afterwards. The school concerts were given by the full Club in a few instances, but more often by the Injunaires and other octets.
One of the busier programs, and yet a typical one, was the schedule arranged in Portland, Oregon. The Club arrived at the airport at 1:45 p.m. and with police escort was whisked directly to TV Station KLOR for a 15-minute program. The Injunaires later made a 10-minute appearance on another TV program. Glee Club members were housed in private homes, including some where boys were applicants for Dartmouth, and after dinner they were brought by their hosts to Grant High School auditorium for the concert. This was followed by a reception in the school cafeteria, "attended by practically the whole audience," and this was finally cut short so the boys could get some sleep - highly welcome after late parties in Omaha and Denver.
Next morning the Glee Club appeared at Lincoln High School for two half-hour concerts at 9:30 and 10:30. At the end of each assembly "the entire audience stood and clapped for at least ten minutes before they could be quieted down and sent back to their classes." (Professor Zeller gave the student leader a hand on this.) While the student assemblies were going on, alternate groups of boys interested in Eastern colleges met with Edward C. Lathem '51, who made the full tour as the College's educational and public relations representative. Then the Club walked to the University Club where they were luncheon guests and again sang informally. Picked up at the club by bus, the Glee Club drove to the airport and took off for Tacoma.
Two days in Denver were similarly busy, with a special concert given at the Air Force Academy on Easter Sunday, April 1. The Glee Club members had dinner with the cadets, and on this occasion Mr. Lathem presented to General Harmon, superintendent, a formal, printed and framed greeting from Dartmouth College. April i was the anniversary date of the signing by President Eisenhower of the bill creating the United States Air Force Academy.
The entire trip, starting at New York on March 31 and ending at Boston on April 15, was made in the same Pan American plane, piloted appropriately enough by Alfred H. Bisson '42, who was a faithful concert-goer. A 300-foot drop in an air pocket during breakfast one morning was the only really bad moment in the Club's thousands of miles of flying. Three boys came down with German measles (and still sang) but that couldn't be blamed on air travel, as could one hemorrhaged inner ear.
When the Glee Club arrived back in Hanover, its fifty men could not exactly be described as fresh as daisies. The two weeks were exhausting. But the memories were happy ones. "It was a wonderful experience, all the way," said Dean Sheldon '56. "Everywhere we went we were treated like kings."
And along with happy memories the Club was entitled to the satisfaction of knowing that they had done their job for Dartmouth superlatively well.
ADMIRAL ZELLER: Dartmouth's popular Glee Club director was made an Admiral in the Nebraska Navy by Governor Anderson during the Omaha visit.
