Nightlife

Saturday night and the house is full. Tunes from the piano bar drift over the candlelit room as 20 waiters and waitresses hustle from table to table. From ten o'clock until midnight, there is live entertainment a trio of comedians one time, a jazz singer the next. It's "Eleazar's Dungeon," the new bi-weekly transformation of the Collis Center Common Ground into a thriving nightclub.

Manned by volunteers and featuring nonalcoholic tropical drinks, Eleazar's has had to turn away significant numbers of students from each show so far, publicity manager Eric Dezenhall '84 reports. The nightclub limits admissions to 250 to avoid crowding and to assure each guest of seating. The dollar "cover charge" includes tickets redeemable for two drinks.

"We're trying to provide something people can't get at the fraternities. Even gung-ho frat people are realizing they can't spend all their time there," says Dezenhall. All three of Eleazar's co-founders - Collis governing board members Allen Waxman '84, John King 'B2, and Dezenhall himself— hold offices in their respective fraternities, he points out.

The nightclub "was not created to address the alcohol problem, although it happens to address it very gracefully," Dezenhall explains. The idea, conceived last fall, was "to change Collis' image and bring lots of people in," adopting the dungeon theme for its air of mystery. Kept fairly secret during the planning stages, Eleazar's has been publicized as a non-Collis event with witty but intentionally cryptic advertisements in The Dartmouth and Gothic-style posters around campus.

An evening at Eleazar's generally consists of music by a student pianist and a professional act. Dezenhall has started to establish a national network of contacts to draw not-yet-celebrated names to Hanover, top-quality talent that the nightclub can still afford. The cost of a show ranges from $400 to $1200, paid for by the Collis governing board, the dean's discretionary fund, and alumni contributions. Eleazar's currently has sufficient funds to operate through spring term, and Dezenhall feels encouraged by the positive response already received from alumni across the country as well as from the faculty and administration.

Enthused by the rapid success of the endeavor to date, Dezenhall hopes soon to add sandwiches to Eleazar's bill of fare and perhaps to expand to a weekly schedule.

Adventures on the High Freeze": Moby Dick surfaces on the Green as fireworks mark the official start of Winter Carnival 1982.