Fashion or Fertilizer?
Pity the poor yell kings. Few people cooperate with them
(or so it seems) but plenty are willing to criticize.
L. H. Gregory, sports editor of the Oregonian and long a
favorite of ours, got in the latest punch. He said, in his
^Wednesday column, that our boys didn t look so sharp.
1 But he "did like our rally girls, much improved from the
“sloppy sight" he thought they were last year.
Greg's gripe about the boys was that, dressed as they were,
they didn’t do much of a public relations job for the uni
versity. As he put it:
“'Their white pants flopped baggily and impressed, much
as tliough slept'in; though of course we’re not saying that
they were. No doubt this impression was helped from their
being worn with loose, smock-type sweaters that hung nearly
to the knees like okFstyle nightshirts (virtually the same archi
tecture) ; and shoes one naturally suspected of having been
donned for shoveling fertilizer or milking an obstreperous
goat.”
In his opinion, “not one . . . had assumed the slightest re
sponsibility for his personal appearance."
We shudder to think of what might happen to us if we
disagreed with Greg. But the point here is that we don’t dis
agree with him; we can’t.
He s not the first person to-bring the subject up. it we
recall correctly, many of the same words were tossed around
at the last ASUO senate meeting Thursday before last. Sev
eral people there, including faculty representative E. G. Ebbig
liausen, objected to the tent-sized sweaters and slept-in pants.
A member of the rally board was there at the time and of
fered a partial explanation—that the measurements for the
sweaters were all messed up XH3e said when the measuring was
done, the sweater maker mistook the length from shoulder to
bottom for the length under arm to bottom; we can believe
that.)
And what do the yell kings have to say about this teapot
tempest? Well, apparently they don’t agree with the
critics ... to put it mildly.
Len Krichevsky, number one yell leader, the boss so to
speak, told us Wednesday noon that “as long as I’m yell king”
the sweaters will stay. He said he and the others were satis
fied with their outfits and that they’d received a lot of com
ment on the favorable side from other schools. And he added:
“I feel that the change we have made (from the dress worn
by last year's troupe) has caused lots more comment and
spirit . . . and I feel we have the best looking rally squad on
the coast.” He thought that in time people, including Mr.
Gregory we suppose, would get used to the outfits.
Now the last thing we intend to do here is set ourselves
up as fashion experts. As far as we’re concerned Mr. Kri
chevsky and company can wear sharkskin or burlap and go
barefoot if they so choose.
But in selecting their garb, we do hope they realize that
they’re representing (and very prominently) a few thousand
-other students. It they think they can do their best job by look
ing like models in a bargain basement, they’ve got reason to
stick to it. But as Mr. Gregory puts it, they’re under a special
obligation to make us look good too.
It's Something for You
Something new has been added. And it's all yours.
The Festival of Contemporary Arts could well be the answer
to all those complaints about studying that “dry old stuff.” It’s
culture, of course, but it’s culture with a special significance for
you.
A six-week series of the best in modern painting, sculp
ture, dance, drama, music, literature, and films is offered,
most of it free. Jose Limon, often acknowledged master of the
interpretive dance, will perform and explain. If Mortimer
Adler is any indication of the quality of the persons appear
ing, the festival will be tops in all fields. It should rival the
75th anniversary program of last year.
The art in this festivaHsn’t just art which happens to have been
produced in our time, in the words of Bertram Jessup of the phil
osophy department. It’s art which couldn’t have been produced
jn any other time.
-v That means that the exhibits, lectures, and performances
will put in completed form the things you’ve been thinking
] about.
li We’ve been complaining about activities, and we want to make
jt clear that this isn’t an activity. It’s primarily non-student work.
I It is an opportunity to sample the artistic achievements of
your own age.. We’d like to quote from Dr. Jessup again.
‘Here is new experience. We are invited to share it, to say
what it shall be: Our responses are not charted; our valua
tions are not dictated by the past. • • Contemporary art in
vites us to ourselves, for we alone are the substance and the
conditions cut of which contemporary art comes to be. It is
experience—our experience. We are it.”—H.J.
APPLE-DUNKING IN '23
Beaux Arts Ball at Oregon
Traced Back to 1922 Origin
By I>iok Carter
Emerald Assistant Managing
Editor
Oregon's gay and unique dance,
the Beaux Arts ball, established in
1922, will be presented Friday in
Gerlinger annex. Bob Oringdulph,
junior in architecture anti chair
man of the affair, advises all bud
ding Salvation Dali’s in the com
munity who are members of the
arts school and their guests to
Does It Need Proving?
“I'm tryin’ to prove a theory—that stupid, dumb blonde with the
tight sweater got an ‘A’ from him in American Government last
semester.”
"Dean, deaden,:
As we indicated earlier in the
week, you missed something if
you didn’t hear Dr. Adler's two
part discussion on art, etc. Tues
day.
We may have overshot the
mark slightly by saying he’d
speak in words of one and two
syllables—his subject required
somewhat more . difficult verb
age.
He reminded us, to some de
gree, of an iceberg, seven
eighths of him (or whatever
portion of an iceberg it is) be
ing beneath the water—or a
submarine, where only the
persicope breaks water. Of
course, all this isn’t very flat
tering to Dr. Adler, who we
don’t think would appreciate
being compared to either ob
ject.
And it’s exagerating a bit,
we’ll admit. He was dealing with
things that aren’t always so easy
to talk about. And, of course, he
did a beautiful job.
You'll have to agree that
though a periscope isn't so very
large, it's the important part. Or
are we showing our ignorance
here too ? Maybe they don’t use
them any more.
Dr. Adler said one thing
which we were particularly
glad to hear . . . coming from
him. He said (and we forgot
to take notes so we can’t quote)
that people who can’t appre
ciate fine art aren’t the stupid
oafs that the people who can
appreciate fine art may think
they are.
Fine art is a species of enter
tainment; but so is prize fight
ing. And two different people
can have the exact same expe
rience, one hearing the delicate
strains of a string quartet, the
other the indelicate thud of
leather gloves or bodies falling
on canvas.
So if you still don’t under
stand the wall work in the com
muter’s lunch room in the S. Ik,
quit worrying about it. Maybe
you get your kicks at the ball
game. (J.H.)
rhe Oregon L/aily Emerald published Monday through Friday during the college year
except Jan. 5; Mar. 9, 10 and 11; Mar. 13 through 30; June 1, 2 and 3 by the Student Publi
cations Board of the University of Oregon. Entered as second class matter at the post office,
Eugene, Oregon. Subscription rates: $5 per school year; $2 per term.
Opinions expressed on the editorial page are those of the writer and do not pretend to
represent the opinions of the ASUO or of the University. Editorials are written by the
editor and the members of the editorial staff.
Jim Haycox, Editor Sally Thurston, Business Manager
Helen Jones, Larry Horart, Al Karr, Associate Editors
Bill Gurney, Managing Editor
Jackie Wardell, News Editor
Sam Vaiiey, Sports Editor
Asst. Managing Editors: Paul Keefe,
Dick Carter
Asst. News Editors: Laura Sturges, Len
Calvert, Joe Gardner
Wire Editors: Lorna Davis, Andy Salmins,
Virginia Dailey
Nat’! Advertising Manager: Carolyn Silva
Layout Managei : Jim Solidun.
Classified Advertising Manager: Beverly
DeM ott
dress the part find attend.
"Catastrophe,” dance theme, will
be interpreted by members of the
art school who will design murals
and decorations. Ralph Brevic’s
quartet will play for the dance.
The ball, Oregon’s annual Asso
ciated Students of Architecture
and Allied Arts masquerade, has
evolved by jumps and bounces
since the first art "ball" on the
Oregon campus in 1922.
Tracing back the family tree, the
whole idea stems from merry-mak
ing of the ‘‘Quatz Arts ball," the
annual revel of the art students
of the Ecolc in the Paris of pre
war vintage.
University art students’ first at
tempt to mimic the Parisian festi
val resulted in a Bohemian affair
followed in 1923 by primly smock
bedecked, apple-dunking students
putting their "Quatz Arta bal" to
bed as a Halloween fete.
The next three years saw the ad
dition of music in 1925, the year
the old Allied Arts league was
formed. A three-piece campus or
chestra was brought in, quanti
ties of food took on hearty propor
tions and in 1926 the title Beaux
Arts ball was first applied to the
dance. It was this year that the
ball became a date affair. The or
chestra had grown to 5-pieces and
the costumes were quite elaborate.
A temporary cessation of activ
ities dropped the masquerade out
of sight until 1929 when once
again, heralded by a leap year mo
tive and followed by an airplane
dropping tickets between Gerlinger
and Johnson hall, students realized
that Beaux. Arts time, like spring,
was inevitable and had become re
juvenated.
Another year, 1930, and the mur
al-threshers went exclusively aris
tocratic as they gave up such for
mer sites as the men's gym and
the Anchorage to hold their ball at
the Osburn hotel.
"Night Life of Gay raree" acted
as incentive for 1931 merrymaking
while the 1933 masque and cos
tume-wearers derived their "East
Indian Mardl Gras" theme from
more hybrid origins.
Artists and Models
It was back to Gerlinger hall for
1935-37 beaux artists. Timbers of
the Anchorage rocked and heaved
to and fro once more as the group
invaded as “Artists and Models”
with music a la Benny Goodman
via juke box.
More canned music and decora
tions and costumes depicting "A
Night in the Louvre’ made 1940's
Beaux Arts ball a great success.
During the war years the event
suffered. Next wo look at the year
1946 where a Mirza Baumhover
took first prize for her costume.
From the description, it was sort
of double, half-and-half affair call
ed “Saint and the Sinner.”
Presuming that everyone who
braved the holocaust of last year
has been sturdy enough to recover
physically, it’s ten to one they still
have a vivid mental image. It
seems that old man winter hadn’t
retreated as far as was planned
when the patio of the art school
was chosen as the party site. All
those arms and legs not properly
insulated became so stiff with cold
that the ASAAA decided not to re
ly so heavily on its horoscopes this
year.
UO Professor Wins
Speech Fellowship
Kenneth Wood, associate profes
sor of speech, was awarded the fel
lowship of the American Speech
and Hearing Association at their
annual convention in Detroit, Nov.
20-22, 1952.
Qualifications for a fellowship of
the association are activity in the
group, appearance on the conven
tion programs or service on the
committe2S.