House Chairmen Differ On Dance Ticket Price

Differences among House dance committee chairmen over a reasonable price to charge for football dances were revealed last night, when Thomas W. Tavenner '54, Chairman of the Leverett Dance Committee, defended the price of Leverett's Ohio Dance.

"We charge 40 cents less than the Yale dance last year and supposedly we've charged too much," Tavenner said. "I can't see that it makes any difference whether its' the Yale weekend, the Dartmouth, Davidson, or Ohio weekend. To give a more expensive dance you've got to charge a little more money," he continued.

Samuel E. Shaw '54, Lowell House Committee Chairman, however said he did not agree that a higher price meant a better dance. "You can give as good a dance for $2.40 as you can for $3.20," Shaw said.

He pointed out that Lowell House was not cutting prices by charging $2.40 for this Saturday's Colgate dance. "Lowell's dance committee felt that last spring prices were edging up to a point where they were out of scale. The traditional price of football dances is $2.40, and we will hold to it."

Shaw added that Lowell dances could be priced to give what he termed "a fair break to the students" since the House Committee was not dependent on dance revenue.

"We will charge only $2.00 for our Davidson dance," Shaw continued, "since it is a minor football weekend and the low price can serve to draw students."

Shaw said that a high price for a dance might be justified if it meant a fixed number of admissions. When the dance was still open to any number, however, he could see no extra quality because of a high price.

Tavenner answered that no agreement has been made in the Inter-House Dance Committee to fix prices. He said that though the Ohio dance netted Leverett a profit of between $200 and $500, the House always took losses on their spring dances which about equalled the fall profit.

"We have never priced our dances by what other Houses are charging," Tavenner said.