The scene was Mayslack's Polka Lounge in Minneapolis. The 67 Harvard men stood before the proud but bewildered Stan Mayslack, former professional wrestler, and the overflow crowd of lunchtime patrons. "Not since the second Dempsey-Tunney fight has a rematch been so feverishly demanded," wrote a local columnist. Four years earlier, the Glee Club had entertained Mayslack and his customers with Renaissance lamentations, and they were back for a return bout. Conductor F. John Adams '66, beer in hand, led the group in Harvard fight songs, and the noontime throng loved it.

Mayslack's lounge was just one stop on the Glee Club's North American tour last summer, a tour that celebrated the group's 120th anniversary. Club members were also saying farewell to their conductor of the past eight years, F. John Adams. In a controversial decision, the position of director of choral activities had been passed to Jameson M. Marvin, former director of choral activities at Vassar College. The transition leaves the Glee Club troubled, as senior members try to guide the group through a difficult passage.

The all-male Glee Club is the oldest college chorus in the country, founded in 1858. The club became the first college singing group to travel abroad when the French government invited it to perform in 1921. The Glee Club was also the first collegiate choral organization to go around the world in the 1950s. The club has since repeated the feat, most recently in 1967. Since 1965, the group has cut 43 records, including four in the last four years.

In the early 20th century, the club changed from a group of unorganized, rowdy musicians to a highly-structured, sophisticated unit, under the advent of their first conductor, Archibald T. Davidson. In so doing, the Glee Club "spawned a revolution in choral music by undertaking the serious performance of classical music," as one current member put it. Audiences, however, were not ready for the new approach. In its first attempts at classical music, the Glee Club was afraid it would be booed off stage.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Glee Club was much larger than it is today, with up to 150 members. "Then there was a freshman Glee Club and an upperclass Glee Club," Robert L. Holz '80 said. "Each performed as separate bodies. Each had its own management; they even cut separate records." In the early '70s, as the number of men in the College dropped due to increased female admissions, officials decided to merge the two groups and reduce the number of members to 60.

Adams was then assistant conductor to Elliott Forbes, who conducted the group throughout the 1960s. When Forbes stepped down, Adams shifted the group's emphasis to Renaissance music. In 1971, when some people began to fear that the Glee Club and the Radcliffe Choral Society would be merged to fill the need for a mixed musical singing group in the University, Adams founded the Harvard-Radcliffe College Collegium Musicum, which he conducted until he left in 1978.

On the North American tour last summer, the Glee Club performed in 24 cities in the U.S. and Canada over an eight-week period. Traveling mainly by bus, the club gave 32 concerts before an estimated 60,000 people and spent $55,000, a figure that William M. Gorjance '79, summer tour manager, said "was a relatively low budget compared to other tours--I was conscious of transportation costs."

Gorjance said the 18-month-long planning of the tour "took a lot of mettle. It's not like I had a single image of it in my mind. There's no model of how to set up a tour, so it's more or less up to the individual manager." Gorjance said he spent the entire summer of 1977 working on the details of the tour, putting in 40 hours a week on concert arrangements while working a full-time job at the post office in the evenings.

Gorjance received no money for his efforts, but said he is playing up the experience on his business school applications.

The tour was not all work, no play, however. "We took half a day off on the Oregon Beach, and we saw Disneyland," Gorjance said. The group also stopped in at Yellowstone ("It snowed on us, can you believe it?"), and the Grand Canyon ("It really made the tour.") Midway through the tour, the Glee Club spent about a week in Southern California, where it performed in the open-air Hollywood Bowl under Mstislav Rostropovich and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Members called the summer tour a tremendous addition to the group's musical experience, exposure and confidence. "F. John was conducting well, and we could feel ourselves improving with each concert." Gorjance said. "In Seattle we felt we could do no wrong. F. John was never one to tell the group they had sung well. At intermission at the University of Washington, he stood up and said, 'Gentlemen, tonight you are professionals.'"

The club can only afford to go on a major tour once every three or four years, according to John T. Cahill '79, club vice president. Three years ago the group went to Sweden for 20 days over Christmas break, staying in an Upsula Summer Palace.

The Glee Club's future plans include a tour down the coast to Florida over spring break. The group will sing seven concerts and one church service, according to Richard Kvam '79, club manager. April 13-15, the group will sponsor the Annual Festival of Men's Choruses, featuring the Glee Club and guest groups from the University of Illinois at Urbana and Union College in New York. David E. Wheadon '79, president of the Glee Club, said the club will release a record of Christmas songs in the near future. The club will not go on a major tour again this summer.

The Glee Club is run by a six-man executive committee plus the conductor and the assistant conductor, Kvam said. Student managers and club executives estimate they spend up to 30 or 40 hours a week organizing and administering the group's activities. Members said the tradition of student management of the group is a vital part of the group's 121-year history.

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