1949
Bigger is better. That's the byword of the movie I business. Everybody makes $60-million blockbusters. By the time you read this it may be $80 million. But then the Hollywood honchos pull a switch and suddenly smaller becomes better. The byword is screens. The more the better. Multiplexes are the mode. The 2,000-seat rococo palaces of our youth are turned into eight 120-seat mini-boxes. Is this progress? Well, let's look at the Hanover scene.
The old Nugget Alley Nugget that burned down in 1944 just before we arrived had 900 seats. The Main Street Nugget that replaced it in 1951 had about 750. Its 1975 amitosis resulted in 325-seat twins. This spring it became a four-plex with two 200-seaters, a 155, and a 100. What's this got to do with 1949? Well, Jay Urstadt and his brother Jeffrey '62 happen to own the whole Nugget building, though they may rarely if ever catch a flick there. Jay lives in Bronxville, N.Y., and is chairman of HRE Properties, a real-estate trust. So Jay was not among those knocking down walls and hanging sheetrock. The movie house is operated by the Hanover Improvement Society and booked by the College's film department. Coming soon: Hey, Honey, I Shrunk the Nugget.
Bob Weber writes a fact-filled and newsy letter from Santa Barbara, Calif.: "I am one of the original group of '49ers who arrived on campus in the spring of 1945 with Steve Miller, Quentin Kopp, John Adler, Jay Haft, at al and have retained my class affiliation even though I graduated with the class of 1948.
"Just spent a most pleasant 49 days," Bob goes on, "from January through March on a seven-week cruise on the Cunard Vistafjord, which circumnavigated South America. I was aboard as a 'gentleman host' (job: to dance with the unaccompanied ladies), and worked under the supervision of a young man named Bryan Smith, son of James 'Spike' Smith. Bryan, who grew up in Norwich and Hanover, was the assistant cruise director on the Vistaf jord, and it was a treat to work for the son of my Dartmouth classmate.
"The Smith family has a long and intimate association with Dartmouth. Bryan's grandfather, Or ton Hicks '21, was a vice president at the College from 1958-66 and still lives in Hanover. Bryan's other connections include his brother Gregory '87T, his stepfather Bill Clark '41, and uncles Tom Clark '34, Jim Clark '36, and Ort Hicks Jr. During the cruise I tried to convince Bryan to return to Tuck for an M.B.A. Who knows?"
Well, Bob, inquiring minds want to know more about those unaccompanied ladies. Like, how many of them knew the macarena? Did you?
There is still a little time left to pony up for the 1996-97 Alumni Fund. Please respond by June 30. There is also still time to send in your questionnaire. Do it now in case you can't remember later. Can't remember what later? To send it in. Send what in? The questionnaire! Oh, okay.
Bob Nutt, RR #1, Box 215 A, Fairlee, VT 05045;
