“The ibis was not in great shape,” says Abrams. “It had been a pigeon roost, and we really hadn’t had much of a chance to clean it off.”

When The Crimson reported the next day on the Soviets’ gracious acceptance of the ibis, Updike and the Lampoon set out to retrieve their prized weather vane, penning an explanatory note to the Russian embassy and requesting the ibis’ return.

Media coverage of the prank was pervasive, reaching even The New York Times under the subheadline, “Harvard Crimson’s Gift to Reds Ends Up as Campus Prank.”

Petitions at Harvard and Radcliffe garnering as many as 300 signatures, which Abrams says were not solicited by the newspaper, urged the Lampoon to abandon its attempt to retrieve the ibis “from the Russian people and the University of Moscow,” according to reports in The Crimson.

But Updike persisted in his pursuit of the ibis, telling the rival newspaper, “The Crimson pranksters seem to have forgotten the rights of property. It’s deplorable that they’ve carried college jokes into the arena of international relations.”

In a statement, Maccoby and Abrams admonished “funnyman” Updike for lacking a sense of humor.

The Russian embassy, after a bit of clarification, soon returned the ibis, which had yet to make its way to Moscow. The Lampoon promptly placed the treasured icon back atop their smiling castle, more than two stories above the ground.

Maccoby and Abrams escaped disciplinary action from the University for their prank. As Maccoby recalls, Provost Paul H. Buck, the highest-ranking administrator at the time, gave them a pass because “everyone’s taking it as a big joke.”

And as they approach their 50th reunion this year, Maccoby and Abrams recall the prank fondly, though Maccoby says they have no plans for a reprise of their stunt.

“We’ve gotten beyond that stuff,” he says.

—Staff Writer Zachary M. Seward can be reached at seward@fas.harvard.edu.

LATE-NIGHT SERENADE

In the hours before sunrise on Oct. 18, 1953, the Harvard University Band filled the streets of New Haven with brass melodies and curious crowds, drawing the ire—and handcuffs—of the New Haven Police Department.

Over 100 Harvard band members paraded through the Yale University campus for nearly an hour that morning, drawing a crowd of roughly 1,000 students and residents out onto the street to view the spectacle.

Playing traditional Eli tunes, the band concluded their antics with a 20-minute serenade on the Sterling Quad.