The University Theater last week advertised its double-bill with a large multi-colored poster which read "ALL CINEMASCOPE SHOW." Jut twenty-five years before, the same theater announced an equally alluring program with a similar billboard. That sign read "ALL TALKY SHOW."

A slower advance of "modernis" is found with an academic comparison involving the same 25-year span. In February of 1930, Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell proudly proclaimed, "There is no such thing as a Harvard type." Today more Harvard men represent the midwest and the far-west, but the University has yet to achieve recognition of its "type." While the movies and cigarettes and coca-cola grow bigger, the College Undergraduate still acts and thinks in his own private little way and a history of the final two years of today's reunion class could easily substitute for the last two of today's graduating class.

For example, during '30's junior year the University Band gained the distinction of possessing the largest bass drum in the country and paraded as the largest marching unit in the East. That year the football team collected its first victory over Yale since 1922. The Crimson's much-publicized line was sparked by James Douglas, Jr. '30, R. H. O'Connell '30, and James E. Barrett '30, captain of the 1929 eleven.

A typical reaction to the College was given that fall by a visiting Oxford student, John Maud: "I had come over here expecting to find Harvard a hot-bed of collegiatism. My disillusionment was most welcome." The English scholar added as explanation, "Oxford, you know, is tremendously amused at the so-called 'College Spirit'."

Despite raccoon coats selling for a bargain $350 at the Coop, the Class of '30 consistently shared the opinion of the exchange student, and the CRIMSON drew this comment from Presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith: "I am highly gratified at the interest being shown in public affairs by the college student of today. . . ."

High Hats for Bobbies

Though Republican Herbert Hoover finally carried the University, all three Presidential candidates in 1928, including Socialist Norman Thomas, were represented among undergraduate organizations--and sometimes violently. The Smith Club petitioned to let the world know "the vital meaning of the world America"; the Republicans announced that Hoover was "well-informed"; and Thomas's Socialists (who accounted for 3.7 per cent of the final College vote) merely pleaded for a "just industrial system."

Before the national election Candidate Thomas visited the College to criticize the Republican and Democratic parties as the "double-headed party of big business." Over 500 Smith and Hoover undergraduate supporters tangled in a parade on election eve although no one was arrested.

The less serious view of the election was evident in the spontaneous organization of the "King-George-For-President Club" which promised high hats for Boston Bobbies if its candidate was elected.

More strictly on the Cambridge scene, a professional wrecking crew began to clear the land at the corner of Winthrop and Dunster Streets and foundation work started on a building eventually named the "Blockhouse."

"Then, on November 9, President Lowell officially announced that $3,000,000 had been donated to assure the inauguration of the "House" system at Harvard. Later it was revealed that the donor was Yale's own Edward S. Harkness '97, America's leading philanthropist. Rumors said that Yale had refused the gift because it could not meet the special time limits set under the conditions of the donation.

Meanwhile, the junior class had elected Guy C. Holbrook, Jr. '20 of Clifton as president to succeed Wallace Harper '30. G. L. Lewis '30 was chosen vice-president, with J. W. Potter '30 as secretary.

On the stage, the individualistic H. D. C. barely managed to present "Fiesta," a play about Mexican peon life, without being banned by the City censors who claimed the show was "crude and immoral." A smash hit at the box office, "Fiesta" included F. K. Smith '30, G. W. Harrington '30, H. G. Meyer '30, P. S. Davis '30, and R. R. Wallstein '30 in its cast.

Rumors of a different sort circulated throughout the Yard and threatened to close the College three months before Spring vacation because of an "epidemic." Dr. P. H. Means '17 revealed, however, that only some fifty boys were actually hospitalized.

After this, the whisperers turned against the Lampoon, announcing that its mortgage was to be foreclosed and that the Old Lampoon Building would be used as a dining room in the new House system. 'Poon President Alan Blackburn answered the attacks with a famous "Revolt of the Masses" issue which eventually provoked a personal apology to donor Harkness from the comic magazine.