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ALTON F. BAKER
Chairman of the Board
ALTON F. BAKER JR.
Editor and Publisher
EDWIN M. BAKER
. General Manager
ROBERT B. FRAZIER ;
. Associate Editor
A. H. CURREY
Associate Editor .-...
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'4 .
10A
EUGENE, OREGON, SUNDAY, MAY 21, 1961
I-
Biatueisemsw
Another Blow for Voluntary ROTC
.' " Oregon Slate University students, in
a student body election, have gone on
record as opposing the compulsory fea
ture of ROTC. This is in contrast to a
vote of the Oregon State faculty last
winter,. '.The faculty wanted to keep the
first two years 'of campus military train
ing compulsory, with the last two years,
whichnormally lead to a reserve com
mission, remaining elective. University
of Oregon students have not voted for
mally on the question. But the Eugene
faculty is on record as opposing the com
pulsory feature, agreeing thus with the
OSU students but not with the OSU
faculty. The state board of higher edu
cation, which makes the real decision,
backed the Oregon State faculty. So
military training"; remains compulsory
for 'college men in their freshman and
sophomore years.
' : The Register-Guard thinks the OSU
. students show more courage and wisdom
than their teachers show. Compulsory
ROTC is a hold-over from another era,
an era when young men had no univer
sal i military obligation and when the
only time in his life that a young man
might wear a uniform was on those aft
ernoons as a college freshman and sopho
more. Now, either before or after col
lege, every young man likely Will serve
a hitch in one of the services. Compul
sory ROTC cannot be defended on the
grounds, of ."military obligation."
Nor can ; it be " defended on the
. grounds that it provides badly needed re
serve officers, It is the voluntary second
half of the program that provides: the
officers. They are the interested ones,
young men whose first two years of mili
tary training is now impaired because
so many reluctant once-a-week soldiers
are In their basic classes. Experience at
the University of Wisconsin has shown
that the advanced program does not suf-
Make Haste Slowly
In post-mortems on the recent Eu
gene city election, one recurring com
ment was that the City Council lost its
fight for ' unadulterated authority in
street matters because of its off-again-on-agaln
initiation and revision of one
way street patterns. The council, the ar
gument ran, has shown an inclination to
try anything once, or maybe twice, but
hasn't demonstrated ability to see best'
solutions to traffic problems in advance.
Frankly, those arguing this way seem
to oversimplify the task of making an .
outmoded streets system suffice a little
longer. They also seem to be arguing
that a wise council would be one that
(ticks with its mistakes rather than at
tempt to rectify them.
However, there is some basis for
urging the council to move away from a
trial-and-error system of deciding which
streets should be used for one-way traf
fic, and in which direction. In July, or
thereabouts, the council will receive re
sults of an extensive traffic study that
has been conducted here by the State
Highway Dept.
Meantime, suggestions such as Coun
cilman Dan Christensen made this week
for reversal of traffic flows on 11th and
13th Avenues should be held in limbo.
The council's committee-of-the-whole
has approved his motion that an immedi
' ate study be made to determine if this
shift, making 11th Avenue an eastbound
route and 13th Avenue a westbound one,
would be merited.
All the study possible is needed, but
hasty action certainly is not. It may
be that the highway department's sur
vey will lead the council to believe that
a number of changes are needed in our
one-way streets. If so, all these changes
should be made at once in order that the
full effects can be coordlnately planned Bloodthirsty
learning, unlearning and then relearnlng
which streets run which way.
fer when the first two years are also '
voluntary. ( ' ' '
So if compulsory ROTC cannot be.
justified on the grounds that it satisfies
a military obligation, nor on the grounds
that it provides badly needed officers,
then how can it be justified?
The state board of higher education
voted 5 to 2 to keep the compulsory fea
ture at Eugene and Corvallis. Three of
the five who voted to keep it compulsory
'.said their opinions might be changed,
if experiments at other schools show that
the voluntary feature is satisfactory. We
ask again: Why should Oregon not make
the experiment, rather than sitting back
to wait for others to do the pioneering?
Indeed, to be consistent the board
, should now institute compulsory ROTC.
programs at Portland State, Southern
Oregon, Eastern Oregon and Oregon Col
lege of Education. These institutions do
not have ROTC If the board is satisfied
that they do not, why is it not satisfied
to see a modification at the University ,
and Oregon State? If the board really
wants compulsory ROTC, why not make
it system-wide? We do not see how the
board, can have it both ways. Our guess
is that sooner or, later, and-probably
sooner,, the board will come around to
agreeing with Oregon State students and
the University of Oregon faculty.
One final word, however. Nothing
said here is meant to disparage the ROTC
program, nor to suggest that the smart
young man not get in on this program.
He'll find it pays, for as an officer he'll
be better paid, better treated and allowed
more freedom than, fellow soldiers who
serve out their military obligation as pri
vates. Moreover, a young man who takes
seriously his "obligation" will want to
serve out that obligation at the peak of
his capacity. But the choice of how to go
about it should be up to him all the
way. .'',',' . ., .
Colorful Names
The Oregon Journal laments the dis
appearance of colorful place names. It
regrets that in Franklin, W, Va., city
fathers are changing the name of Dog
Alley and Dirty Run to Dogwood Lane
and Walnut Street. We regret this, too, ;
just as we regret that here in Oregon
so many of our ancestors were influ
enced by Sir Walter Scott novels. Too
many of our place names are stolen
straight from medieval England.
' We have a few colorful whisky
-creeks, rattlesnake buttes, and grizzly
peaks. But we don't have as many as we
deserve. We no longer have a Gouge
Eye. That was the name of a friendly
little community in Harney County.
Gouge Eye was so named for obvious
reasons. But the Post Office Department
didn't think the name dignified enough.
So it was called Drewsey, after the
daughter of a rancher, and Drewsey it
is today.
Portland still has its Goose Hollow
and its Slabtown, but those are locally
applied names for neighborhoods and
they have no official standing. Bend now
has a neighborhood with a name some
thing like Westminstershire Terrace or
Bolingbroke Gardens, It used to be
called Home Brew Flats. We liked it
better the old way.
Accolade '
In Portland, Commissioner Ormond
Bean has led the fight, successfully, for
free swimming pools. For this the Port
land Reporter suggests the commission
er bo awarded the title, "Honorary Kid."
It's a title he should wear proudly.
Obvious
The Russian name "Yuri" means
"George" in our tongue. Now we know
why Comrade Gagarin was the one they
let do it first.
One of the big automobile firms has
come out with a new model called the
"Cutlass." Add this to the showrooms
full of cars named Lancer, Dart, Saber,
Fury, and Invicta. No wonder we seem
to be a bloodthirsty bunch of drivers.
We await the unveiling of the new, pow
erful Mayhem-8 and the super Carnage
sedan.
1
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CONEY ISLAND MAGNET - On the theory that the greatest show
is people, George Tilybu turned a rich man's resort into a playground
. (Courtesy of ttt Museum of the City of New York)
for the masses. The enormous success of Steeplechase Park attests
to his abilities as a master showman and inventor of amusements.
Master Coney Island Showman s Formula Still Good
EDITOR'S NOTE: A shrewd
promoter, who recognized peo
ple toouZd pay to make them
selves look ridiculous, built the
madcap town that is Coney Is
land. Still king of them all,
the playground of breathtaking
rides, colliding cars, and tum
bling barrels continues to en
chant summer fun-seekers. A
free-lance writer describes the
formula that makes Coney al
ways a hit show. '
Let People Amuse Themselves
And They'll Pay You for It
By PETER LYON ' ,
On every warm summer week
end on Coney Island, a great
swarm of people may be found
heading for a. slow-moving line
that leads always to the same
entertainment device. Typically,
they will wait nearly an hour to
enjoy a ride that lasts for perhaps
one mildly exhilarating minute.
: It's the most popular attraction
in any amusement park in the
world the Steeplechase Horses,
a lasting, monument to Coney's
greatest showman, the man who
in 1897' installed it as the princi
pal attraction of his 'carnival
grounds. This was George Cor
nelius Tilyou, whose formula was
a matchless mixture of sentimen
tality, shrewd .psychology, and a
suffusion of sophomoric sex.
Coney Island's history falls into
three well-defined periods the
scandalous, the elegant, and the
garish and the Tilyou family be
strides them all.
A PRECIOUS INSIGHT
The first period was dominated
by a political boss, John Y. Mc
Kane, who swaggered to power
at the head of a motley crew of
barkecps, gamblers, pugilists,
thieves and bawds, and was final
ly tucked away in Sing Sing in
1894 for election frauds.
Then came the period of ele
gance, with millionaire sports
men anchoring their yachts in
Coney's waters, racing their
horses at its three tracks, and
squiring their ladies to' Coney's
swank restaurants. The advent of
the subway, about the time of the
First .World War, brought the
garish period: The masses de
scended upon Coney's beach and
boardwalk. '. .-
Due largely. to George C. Til
you, his family has had a hand in
each of these mutations. No one
in the outdoor . amusement field
had a better psychological insight
into what people wanted when
they sought entertainment. He
showed that people will pay good
money over and over again for
the privilege of supplying the
entertainment themselves. During
the season, the Steeplechase pa
vilion resounds with the merri
ment of those who have shelled
out to make-themselves look ri
diculous. In 1865, when ueorge was three
years old, his parents leased a
huge ' ocean-front lot at Coney,
and on it built the Surf House.
Thanks to the elder Tilyou's po
litical connections, the hotel be
came a favorite resort for New
York and Brooklyn city officials.,
By the time young George was
14, lie had already displayed a
precocious insight into the psy
chology of the holiday pleasure
That summer Coney was crowd
ed with Midwestern tourists
drawn to the ocean after attend
ing the Philadelphia Centennial
Exhibition. Correctly guessing
that these simple folk would be
lieve that an article had value
only if it had a price on it,, he
filled medicine bottles with salt
water and cigar boxes with sand,
and sold them by the score at a
quarter apiece.
When he was 17, real estate
beckoned. Though land at Coney
was firmly held by the township,
there was a brisk and piratical
traffic in leases. Presently, young
Tilyou was netting $250 a month,
operating out of an office made
by cleating two bathhouses together.-
But this was just money, and
it bored him. He thirsted to be
a showman. When he was 20, he
and his father put up the island's
first theater. But there were prob
lems with McKane, who held
m
t?.-- " --;.v-t
(Courtesy of Gottscoo-Schletsner)
THE COMPETITION Luna Park by night was a fairyland of soaring minarets.
Built in 1903 for a million dollars much of it borrowed from "Bet-a-Million"
Gates it was a competitor of Steeplechase Park until 1949 when the last of
Coney Island's three greatest fires destroyed it alL
Coney Island in his fist, extract
ing from every businessman a
tithe, and encouraging the most
disreputable elements to open
saloons.
When his misrule became the
subject of a legislative investiga
tion, Tilyou was the only island
resident who dared blow the
whistle on the chief. He named
the houses of prostitution; he
had seen McKane's justices of
the peace in gambling places.
But while the legislative com
mittee could stigmatize McKane,
his friends in the state assembly
were too powerful, and his grip
on Coney for a time stayed se
cure. George found it necessary
to retire from the real-estate bus
iness. His capital dwindled.
In 1893 he married Mary 0'
Donnell and took off on his
honeymoon to see Chicago
World's Columbian Exposition.
There he was captivated by the
Ferris Wheel, and decided . to
borrow money to have one built
on Coney Island. The time was
propitious, since McKane was in
trouble. '
i SURE-FIRE DEVICE :
' Tilyou studded his plaything
with hundreds of incandescent
lamps, and the wheel was making
money before it had been in op
eration 50 days. '
By that time, McKane was in
Sing Sing, Coney Island was part
of Brooklyn and decent people
were again flocking to the beach.
Tilyou decided to branch out. He
imported an Intramural Bicycle
Bailway; he built the Double Dip
Chutes. But these were scattered
all over Coney. When Capt. Paul
Boyton, the first frogman, ar
rived at Coney to open Sea Lion
Park, where his stellar attraction
was a kind of aquatic toboggan
slide in flat-bottomed boats, Til
you was impressed by the idea of
a park enclosed by a fence.
He cast about for a sure-fire
device like Boyton's, and decided
the most popular sport of the
time was horseracing. In 1897, he
opened Steeplechase Park, where
the premier attraction was the
Steeplechase Horses: an undu
lant, curving metal track over
which wodden horses ran on
wheels, coursing down by gravity
and up by momentum.
In 1901, Tilyou went scouting
at the Pan-American Exposition
at Buffalo and came back with
the exposition's most spectacular
attraction, a Trip to the Moon,
plus the Giant See-Saw, having
gone into partnership with the
inventors of these entertainment
innovations.
PROOF OF SUCCESS
The season of 1902 was one of
the wettest in Coney's history.
Business at Boyton's Sea Lion
Park was macabre. But thanks to
A Trip to the Moon, Steeplechase
did handsomely. It did so well, in
fact, that Tilyou's new partners
decided to build a park of their
own that would drive Steeple
chase out of business.
What they built, at a cost of
nearly one million dollars, was
Luna Park, a magic fairyland ,of
spires and minarets and towers,
over which they had strewn a
profusion of entertainments.
Its stupendous success was at
tested by the fact that there was
an immediate attempt to imitate
it. Just across the avenue from
Luna, a real-estate speculator
spent three and a half million to
build Dreamland, where every.,
thing was on an exuberant scale.
There were a million incandes
cent light bulbs shedding radi
ance on flower-topped eolumns,
an esplanade- where a band
played seemingly without pause,
and a great ballroom built out on
a pier.
But all these delights had by ;
no means crowded Steeplechase
into the ocean. George Tilyou en.
thusiastically welcomed competi
tion. His intuition had equipped
him with a different formula:
people. All he needed to do was
contrive the most appropriate
backgrounds for his star perform
ers. By 1905 he had invented fivs
of them:
The Wedding Ring, where as
many as 70 people at a timn
could perch insecurely while four
muscular attendants rocked, it
back and forth.
The Barrel of Love,, wher
passengers were strapped into
seats in a revolving drum that
rolled gently down one incline
and up another.
The Dew Drop, where patronj
were whirled down from a -tall
tower feet first. j :
The Whichaway, a swing that
whirled its passengers eccentric
ally in any of four directions, "but
invariably catapulted a girl into
' her escort's lap.
The Earthquake Stairway,
which was a flight of steps split
down the middle to jerk its pas
sengers erratically up and down.
NO DIFFERENCES YET
In the following half century,
all three of Coney's parks were to'
be ripped by fire. But only at
Steeplechase would there be a
disposition to rebuilid.
The day after an 18-hour fir
in July, 1907, leveled hjs park,
Tilyou set up a large sign whera
the entrance had been: ' -
I have trouble today that I
did not have yesterday.
I had troubles yesterday that
I have not today.
On this site will be erected
shortly a better, bigger, great
er Steeplechase Park.
Admission to the Burning
Ruins 10 cents.
In a sense the fire was a boon,
for it enabled Tilyou to design
a steel and glass pavilion over a
five-acre hardwood floor, called
the Pavilion of Fun. Here hs
concentrated all his earlier de
vices, and added still others.
He evolved the Human Rou
lette Wheel, a whirling concavet
disc of polished wood, a melting
pot in which the ingredients were
laughter, exhibitionism, and sex.
Another addition was the Human
Pool Table, a set of flat spinning
discs. When a girl came whirling
down the polished slide, she came
to rest on one disc, was flung to
a second, her skirts flying, her
squeals rising to the roof, her
friends doubled up with laughter.
And the Barrel of Love was now
a great revolving drum, so that
two or three girls without escorla
might find, before they had ne
gotiated the sliding, slippery,
treacherous 30 feet, that escorU
were thrown into their arms.
With the coming of the subway.
Coney gained millions of patrons
and lost some of its effervescence.
But neither these changes nor
Tilyou's death in 1914 made any
difference in the Steeplechase
formula. Season after season,
thousands flock into the park,
where sooner or later they end
up standing in line to ride on the
Steeplechase Horses, as people
have done now for two genera
tions. (Copyright 1961, -American
Heritage Magazine)
member or
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newspaper.
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tlONN L. ftONHAM City Editnf
JAR!, K. FUGLE, Circulation Maneeer
RORERT K. BERTSCK Promotion
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ARNE STROMMER Prodttttisa