Before fifteen hundred cheering and jeering Yardlings, celebrities of stage and screen, headed by the original fan and bubble dancer, Sally Rand, did their part to support the 1938 Freshman Smoker celebration.
Sally came up to Cambridge in order to speak on ethics, to the tune of "be intellectual frontiersmen." She bucked the side remarks and questions hurled at her to make a plea for better political and labor union administration.
Rand on Labor
She extolled the theatrical union and labor in general, saying to the Crimson audience, "Upon labor rests democracy. America is a class of laboring people; go out and do something for them and the country. It is up to you to do it."
Sally urged Harvard men to go into labor and politics. "These two fields are the professions that need the most attention," she believed. "They are the intellectual frontiers."
Big Applers Featured
The earlier part of the program was composed of such varied acts as a juggler, two big apple dancers, an aesthetic dancer, and community singing.
The first half of the program also featured a roller skating trio, "The Three Whirlwinds," who inveigled two unsuspecting Freshman to try being whirled around in numerous aerobatics formations.
The second part of the long list of artists was made up of more big apple dancing by the torrid platinum blondes, and talks by Joe Cashman of the Boston American who spoke about the future of the Red Sox and the Bees, contrasted by Frank "Bring 'Em Back Alive" Buck who did not charm the audience by relating his adventures with snakes and other wild beasts in the jungles he has conquered.
Dahl Draws
Cartoonist Dahl of the Boston Herald drew innumerable cartoons, and Felix Adler famous circus clown left his familiar role for the evening to tell the class of 1941 a few jokes.
The long hailed Vera Zorina was unable to appear because of "extreme fatigue." Langdon Marvin, chairman of the Smoker Committee, read to the Yardlings a telegram from her explaining she had to retire on doctor's orders.
"May Roses Blossom"
The show dragged on, however, with a little talk by Margot Grahame of "Lady at Large," who ended with the farewell of, "May roses blossom in your heart, so I may gather them when I come again."
Vivienne Segal, Audrey Christie, and Charles Walter, all from "I Married an Angel," finally ended up the long affair.
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