Raiders
of the Lost Archives: the Lost Faculty-Show Tradition
by Amy E. O’Neal
“The applause and laughter are over. Professors have bowed for the last
time; they are no longer Roman statuary or rambunctious Indians. Faculty Show
itself has bowed out for a time, but [that] feeling, the recognition 'This is
our faculty; they are human!' will last for a long time."
Thus a College News editorial in March of 1951. The idea of our faculty gathering
en masse to stage anything wackier than, say, a gender-studies-and-the-media
conference may be foreign to our gray outlook, but the stacks of pictures in
the Archives will testify. There was once a tradition of a faculty-written and
produced musical revue, with Fritz Janschka sets, careful costuming, and an
apparent sheer joy that is hard to imagine these days.
No hint of much faculty levity manifested itself in the days of the stern M.
Carey Thomas, so far as has been discovered. But in 1935, one of the first of
the classic faculty shows, "Much Ado But Not For Nothing," was staged,
to apparent success. The College News review of it spanned six pages. The humor
relied much on professors in drag and Hollywood imitations, but the faculty's
merriment obviously refreshed and delighted the audience. Particularly effective,
it seems, was their Cole Porter rendition:
| You're a May Day banner, you're Alwyn's manner |
| You're ballyhoo |
| You're the pose |
| of the bust of Juno... |
| I'm the Taylor clock; I'm just about to stop, |
| But if, baby, I'm the bottom, you're the top! |
The songs, filled with references to long-forgotten rules, places and teachers like flies caught in amber, have still kept pretty well (at least such as are excerpted) and sometimes were actually sold separately afterwards, their lyrics to become campus catchphrases. E.B. White contributed patter to "Top Secret," the 1947 show. The scripts -- mostly original -- also smacked of a certain pop-culture erudition: the 1951 "Kind Hearts and Martinets" featured a Charles Addams episode, and the 1955 "Profs. in the Pudding" was at least partially set in Walt Kelly's Okeefenokee Swamp.
The '60's and '70's, though the tradition continued, brought a chilly sort of
change. One supposes that faculty and students less and less agreed on what
was funny, and that tastes increasingly jaded by TV and movies contributed to
the gradual decline of the tradition. Academic culture has also changed for
the grimmer. The tradition was revived in February of 1979 with "Curriculi,
Curricula," a fundraiser for work on the Campus Center. Those who remember
it gleefully recall Messrs. Richard Hamilton and Gonzalez, as well as Ms. Sandra
Berwind, in the corps de ballet. Mr. Dickerson contributed lyrics for the opening
number:
| You all are victims of a cruel seduction. |
| (We're full of glee! |
| You've paid your fee!) |
| We need an ample fund for new construction. |
| Financially |
| we're up a tree. |
| So we, the officers of your instruction |
| from A to Z |
| have made you pay to laugh at our production. |
| (You didn't see! |
| In class it's free!) |
[Note: For the last three years, Amy O'Neal has been filling in students on
the finer points of Bryn Mawr's history through her "Raiders of the Lost
Archives" series of articles for the College News. The articles are based
on her research in the College's Archives, where she has also been a student
worker since her sophomore year. Her solid research and wry sense of humor have
made the articles a must-read every issue. With Amy about to graduate this spring,
we thought you would like to see an example of her work. This article was originally
published in the February 1999 College News.]