Southern California
Secretary, 193 Tigertail Rd. Los Angeles, Calif. 90049
One of the largest dinners ever held by Dartmouth alumni in Southern California was attended by President and Mrs. John Kemeny in March. Dick Page '54 served as dinner chairman, coordinating reservations, publicizing, and arranging for seating by classes. The Class of 1956 won the award for largest attendance, with the odd statue being accepted by Los Angeles County district attorney John Van de Kamp '56, then in the throes of an election campaign (which he won handily thanks to the efforts of his treasurer and former Dartmouth roommate, H. Flint Ranney '56). More than 250 alumni, wives, and guests enjoyed a Dartmouth evening at the "Top Of The Crock" restaurant, viewing city and mountains from the 40th floor.
Other events since our last report are numerous, including monthly luncheons with interesting speakers. On July 4, event chairman Dave Traber '67, sold 125 seats to alumni and friends in the spectacular musical/fireworks Bicentennial performance at the Hollywood Bowl. Then in August, through the efforts of Stuart Durkee '33, we obtained and easily sold 100 seats to the Laguna Beach Living Festival of the Arts, a grand show wherein living tableaus reenact famous paintings. With both of these events, a slight surcharge on the ticket price benefitted our scholarship fund.
This fund now stands at slightly more than $12,000, from which $1,000 each year helps support a student from southern California at Dartmouth. Fund chairamen Bill Farley '31 and Larry Gotlieb '70 are working on plans to increase the fund's size to over $20,000. If they come up with a raffle or unusual event, we hope that alumni and parents in this area will be generous in helping us increase the capital.
In September we were treated to a talk by David Loye '48, who as research director at the UCLA School of Psychiatry has been studying the effects of television on viewers. October was a busy month with a celebration of Dartmouth Night on October 15, when it was announced that a telegram t-shirt had been sent to Coach Crouthamel from the DCSC rather than the usual mailgram. Club president Vin Burke '47 worked very hard at telephone connections to bring us the festivities from Hanover as broadcast over WDCR. Assistant admissions officer John Elsenhans '72 spent several days in Southern California, working with enrollment director Joe Scott '58 and number one assistant Bob Morris '36 in meeting with high school students and college counselors to acquaint them with the delights and difficulties in applying to Dartmouth. Elsenhans took time to speak at our October luncheon to inform alumni as to college admissions" procedures.
On December 11 we are having our usual enrollment Saturday at the Union Oil Auditorium with assistant coach Jerry Berndt and others telling many prospective Dartmouth applicants all about the College. At our pre-Christmas December 17 luncheon our guest will be Arthur Mayer, the young 90-year-old who lectures on the history of film at Dartmouth, USC, and Stanford. We hope to see his film "Arthur and Lillie," which was nominated for an Academy Award.
To find out what is going on with Dartmouth alumni in southern California, you must be on our monthly mailing list, and to get there you must pay your dues. If you need to know how to do that, call secretary Ranney. Meantime, have a merry Christmas and a Happy 1977.
