Serenade Banned By Harvard Band As Tiger Tenses

The Harvard Band rumbled into Princeton by truck, train, and bus in the silent hours before sunlight this morning.

Their arrival was less noticed than is the usual custom for a Band visit, because last minute word of possible Tiger opposition forced cancellation of a predrawn serenade.

Opposition is usually expected, so the Band oftimes carries fire extinguishers and umbrellas for offense and defense. But the group, however, claims little defense against beer cans and bottles, so the members consoled themselves this morning by the thought that, "Well, saved $20,000 in instruments."

At the game the band spelled out "Good Morning" as a small gesture of defiance. Their formations were practiced through the morning on the athletic field, but the band maintained its reputation for being better musicians than marchers throughout their pictoral history of Nassau Hall.

Tonight In Princeton

Leroy Holmes will provide the music from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. for the big crush in the Dillon Gym. The Big Three Spree is sponsored by the Orange Key, in honor of Princeton's football glories.

Other local entertainments include "Everybody Loves Me" at the McCarter Theatre and "Androcles and the Lion," sponsored by Theatre Intime at the Murray. The "Solid Gold Cadillac" is at the Morris Playhouse.

The campus that greeted the band was green and silent, compared to leafy retreat of Cambridge. Even the Ivy was strugling against the cold and the silence was broken by the clatter of a beer can as it rolled down the flagstone walk-ways.

As the day grew older and somewhat warmer, dates began to arrive by train and trickled from local inns, and one more adventurous couple braved the winds and roads to peddle a bicycle built for two about the campus.

By noon the old grads and the benevolent parents began to pour in, the parents bringing potato chips for their sons while the more experienced graduates brought handy six-packs.

Restaurants were overflowing and local novelty shops did a landoffice business on toy tigers. An occasional undergraduate carrying text books could be seen travelling furtively along the edges of the crowd.

Harvard men and their dates generally spent at least five minutes wandering about Nassau Hall. In 1802 Harvard came to the old structure's rescue with $4,000 to restore the building from fire damage.