Short Pants for Adults

In 1930, spurred on by editorials in The Dartmouth pleading for "freedom of the knees," students developed a sudden passion for shorts. Merchants in Hanover and neighboring towns were besieged with orders for short pants of any description. Those who could not purchase abbreviations hacked off their trousers and flaunted legs that had never faced the public eye before. Fox Movietone showed up to shoot a newsreel. Newspapers in Boston and New York covered the new trend.

"Time alone will tell whether Dartmouth has really created a new style," wrote this magazine's Undergraduate Chair. "Certainly at least the idea of comfort is sound."

Students showed some gam and launched a liberating movement.