Electronics School

Since many of the officers are regularly eating at the Hasty Pudding--Institute of 1770, we thought you would like to know a little of its past history.

The Club was founded in 1795 by a group consisting of about 20 members of each of the undergraduate classes. Since that time, it has grown to be a social club of large proportions and has for many decades been indigenous to the Harvard atmosphere.

The Pudding is generally known to people outside of the University for its activities in theatricals. This tendency was first marked by staged mock trials prior to 1840 and became a fact in 1844 when a member named Lemuel Hayward, with the help of a few confidants, produced "Bombastes Furiosa." The Pudding has given plays ever since in the early days sometimes as many as seven a year.

Phillips Brooks Played

An early success was "Tom Thumb," given in 1854, in which Phillips Brooks took the part of the huge princess Glumdalka. Musical burlesques with piano accompaniment were later included in the repertoire, and the first full-fledged operetta was produced in 1882--"Dido and Aeneas." This work, based on the "Aeneid," a work which all the undergraduates had to know cold in those days, included both original and borrowed music and went as far afield as Philadelphia. In 1918, the first show on the modern, grand scale was produced--"Barnum Was Right." The author was Robert E. Sherwood.

Among those who have "stirred the Pudding" are Robert Benchley and Vinton Freedley, as well as countless notables who have made their names in fields other than the show business. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the late Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and the late George Baker were grease-paint at 12 Holyoke Street. J. P. Morgan was a show manager, and the walls are lined with posters and mementoes telling the story of other plays and personalities.

'42 Show Cancelled

For some time past the Club concentrated on one show a year. The last was given in 1941 with the successful "One On the House." The war caused the cancellation of 1942's "Hey, Mr. Hays!," but when the lights go on again all over the world, so will the Pudding foots.

The Club is a year round center of sociability regardless of theatricals, and the House Committee wishes to point out that officers eating there are welcome to use the library, recreational facilities, and the pool rooms. The Club has opened its dining rooms for the use of officers attending Harvard with Engineering 270 and 260, and those attending the Army Soil Engineering course.

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Popping of bottles and clinking of glasses are music to many cars, but many like to combine these pleasant sounds with the sweet strains of a fine orchestra. Sunday night, May 23rd, is Officers' night at "Pops," a concert of popular and semi-classical music by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by Maestro Arthur Fielder. The whole gang will be there to sip, relax, and listen; so be sure to see Mrs. Duncan in Craft, Room 324, to reserve a table with your friends.

Spring is in Boston at last, so remember the words of the bard, "If music be the food of love, play on!" And Shakespeare was nobody's fool. We'll see you there.

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A formal Spring From for officers from Harvard given by the Katharine Gibbs School will be held at the Hotel Vendome on May 15th. Ruby Newman's orchestra will play. Admission is by invitation only, so get your tickets at the Navy Office.

A dance for officers is being held by Lover Brothers at the Commander Hotel on May 29th. Get tickets at the Navy Office.