VMI Cadet. November 8, 1954

              VOLUME XLV VIRGINU MILITARY INSTITUTE. LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA. NOVEMBER 8, 1954 NUMBER 7
Fifteen Firsts Recognized In Who's Who In American Colleges
Institute Was Founded
115 Years A^o Thurs.
In Historic Ceremony
One hundred and fifteen yearsf
ago next Thursday, the ralaing of
the Virginia state flag over bar-racks
marked the founding of the
Virginia MiUtary Institute. An
enormous amount of work and
planning had taken place before
the state arsenal, established in
1818 could be converted into the
Institute.
Although he did not accept credit
for the idea. Col. John Thomas
Lewis Preston, a Lexington lawyer,
gave vigorous encouragement to
the establishment of a military
school at the arsenal. His idea was
to "organize the arsenal to preserve
its uses as a military establishment
and be, at the same time, a Liter-ary
Institution for the educatibn
of youths." Through the support of
influential Rockbridge County re-sidents
in the legislature, an act
was passed in the state legislature
1835-36 session to convert the ar-senal
into a military school.
This act was just the beginning
of a long, slow procedure. In May
1837, the first Board of Visitors
was appointed with Col. Claude
Crozet as president. Well qualified
for the position. Col. Crraet was a
graduate of the famed Ecole Poly-technique
in France, and had been
a soldier in Napoleon's army and
a professor of engineering at West
Point. Legislative action was still
slow, and the facilities available
were greatiy limited. Finally, the
passage of a new act increasing
the membership of the board to 10,
which now included Col. Preston,
gave impetus to more definite ac-tion.
Col. Preston already had given
the school its name: "Virginia—as
a state institution. Military—its
distinguishing feature, Institute-different
from either college or
university." Col. Crozet made up a
set of regulations for the new
school, many of which are still in
use today. In August, 1839, the
Board of Visitors named Francis H.
Smith to be commandant, or chief
professor. General Smith had a
military background and was at the
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Home Game Music
By Commanders
Informal dancing from 9 to 12
next Saturday night to the music
of the VMI Commanders is the
bill for this year's Homecoming
Hops. The dance at Cocke '94
Hall will climax a day of parading
and football for General Clark,
The Citadel and the VMI Alumni.
The Commanders, led by Dan
Brittigan and Sam Marshall, again
this year come up to the high
standards for which the band is
noted.
The group has always been in
high demand for dances and has
already played four dates includ-ing
Hargrave Military Academy.
Upcoming engagements include
Fairfax Halls Ring Figure, Stew-art
Hall, Southern Sem, and Nat-ural
Bridge.
The band's rhythm is by Staff
Balderson, piano; Barney Odend'-
hall, bass; and Monty White,
drums.
The sax men are Marshall Britti-gan,
Pete Riddle, and George Nied-ermayer.
Bill Menfee, Paul Royer, and
H. M. Rose handle the trumpets,
with Scott Haynie on the trom-bone.
Vocalist with the Commanders is
Timmy O'Neil. He's featured on
"Hey There" and the rest of the
days' popular vocal numbers.
Instrumental featured numbers
include Duke Ellington's "Boy
Meets Horn" with Paul Royer
"Marie" spotting Scott Haynie;
and "Tuxedo Junction" with solos
by Marshall and Brittigan.
The band goes dixieland on "Tin
Roof Blues" and South American
on "Siboney" and "Miami Beach
' J . ^ The plans for the proposed ten-
The Commanders demonstrate . piupuacu ici.
U ucmuii!,u«i«5 courts have now become defi-why
the band contmues to become .. „ „„„„ . „ , „
L ' ^te. With the acceptance of the
From left to right: First row: Roby C. Thompson, Abingdon,
Virginia; Norman S. Harris, Lynchburg, Virginia; James L.
McManaway, New York, New York; F. Judson Leech, Lexing-
Lyncli
West Virginia. Third row: Edwin N. Osborne, La "Tuna, Texas-
John L. Morgan, Buena Vista, Virginia; David F. Woolwine,
Abingdon, Virginia; Rudi Ansbacher, Rockville Center, New
York. Fourth row: James P. Hart, III, Roanoke, Virginia;
Knute F. Lawson, Jacksonville, Florida; James W. Robertson,
Lynchburg, Virginia.
Vile Valley Chosen Tennis Site
Five Courts To Be Constructed
more in demand each year. Their
smooth performances will make the
dance one enjoyed by all. '
Corps Featured In Technicolor
For Cinemascope Production
I low bid of $4,470 submitted by Lan-i
ford and Slater, events are now
moving forward the actual con-struction
being begun.
A letter has been sent to the
by F. S. KLINE
If the present trend keeps up,
being a VMI Cadet will be synon-omous
with being a Hollywood
movie star. The corps went into
white ducks, coatees, and shakos
for parade Monday afternoon in
order to make it possible for the
Beeland-King Film Productions of
Atlanta, Ga., to make a technicolor
film of this function, which is the
heart of VMI's military tradition.
The parade of the VMI Corps of
Cadets will be one of the se-quences
in a short subject on the
Commonwealth of Virginia which
is being produced by the Luray
Caverns. Other scenes depicted
will be the restored colonial capi-tal
capital of Williamsburg; fox
hunting, a picturesque Virginia
sport; fishing on the Shenandoah
River, and the Virginia Apple Har-vest.
Jefferson's mansion at Mon-ticello
and the Natural Bridge,
which this famous Virginian once
owned and used as the site of «
summer cottage, also will figure
in this short subject, at will Aut-umn
leaves along the beautiful
Skyline Drive. Scenes in the Lu-ray
Caverns will also be filmed
for the first time in cinemascope.
The cinetaascope process was
developed by the French and was
demonstrated in a crude form in
1936. It was perfected by the 20th
Century Fox Studios which con-trols
the process in this country.
The lens compresses a wide area
into the film without distortion,
and the projector has a compensat-
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oncoming bad weather of winter
sets in. This would facilitate the
settling of the ground on which the
courts are to be built by allowing
the entire winter for the settling.
The excavation will be 303 feet by
140 feet and will be ample space
for .six courts in the future. At pre
Governor of Virginia, Thomas B. | sent, plans are made to construct
Stanley, for his approval of the bid.
Upon the approval of this bid, work
will begin immediately on the exca-vation
work to be done prior to
the actual construction of the ten-only
five courts.
The new courts will be located
in the "Nile Valley" between the
Woods Creek and the Chesapeake
nis courts. and Ohio Railroad. It is intended
It is hoped that the excavation that the first courts be ready for
work can be completed before the usage next May.
Personality Standouts
Recognized For 1955
By Collegiate Almanac
Films of Fine Art
Planned This Week
A fine arts film festival, spon-sored
jointly by Washington and
Lee and VMI, will be staged in
Lexington Tuesday and Wednes-day,
Nov. 16 and 17.
The films will be supplied by
Cinavision, Inc., and the producer
of the films, Walter Lewisohn,
will come to Lexington to person-ally
supervise the festival.
There will be 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.
showings at W&L's Troubadour
Theater on Tuesday, Nov 16, and
2 p.m. and 8 p.m. showings at
VMI's physics building on the
following day.
An outstanding figure in the
realm of color photography, Mr.
Lewisohn began his photographic
career with an expedition to Ecua-dor
to make a film of the Jivaro,
or Headshrinking Indians.
Mr. Lewisohn's latest movie,
which will be shown on Nov. 16,
is called MIRAMAGIC. A critic
who saw its recent New York
showing called it "a unique kalei-doscopic
film technique which
transforms familiar objects into
sensuous and startling visual fan-tasies."
Adrianne Corri, star of
Jean Renoir's THE RIVER ap-pears
in it, and the all-electronics
is by Louis and Bebe Barron.
Admission charge will be 40
cents for each showing and tick-ets
may be purchased from the
Book Shop or Weinberg's Music
Store. They are also obtainable at
the performance to which the
public is invited.
Admission will be free to all
cadets at the VMI performances.
The films shown at VMI will be:
afternoon: PASSAGE TO NIR-VANA,
THE CONSTANT GEI-SHA,
and AMERICAN INDIAN
ART IN THE PACIFIC NORTH-WEST;
evening: MIRAMAGIC,
MEDIEVAL STAINED GLASS,
THE PALIO OF SIENNA, and
STREETS OF VENICE.
> Every year from VMI there are
15 men nominated from the First
Class at large for inclusion in the
annual book. Who's Who in Ameri'
can Universities and Colleges. The
selection is based on leadership
and academic ability, as well as
athletics and excellence of per-sonality.
The selectees from the Class of
1955 are as follows.
Rudi Ansbacher, holder of Aca-demic
Stars; and Lieutenant in B
Company, member of the Virginia
Acaremy of Science.
Charles Frederick Byrd, a
Lieutenant in F Company, Cap-tain
of the football team and stand-out
at tackle, co - captain of the
basketball team, member of the
Mongram Club, letterman in track
as an ace discus twirler, member
of the American Society of Civil
Engineers, and member of the
Honor COurt.
Norman Stuart Harris, President
of the Honor Court, holder of Aca-demic
Stars, member of the Bap-tist
Club, member of the American
Society of Civil Engineers, and
Lieutenant in F Company.
James Potts Hart III, First Lieu-tenant
and Second Battalion S-3,
member of The American Institute
of Electrical Engineers, holder of
Academic Stars and letterman on
the swimming team.
Knute Foley Lawson, First Lieu-tenant
and First Battalion S-3, hol-der
of Academic Stars, member of
the Baptist Club, President of the
Timmons Music Club, and Distin-guished
Military Student.
Frank Judson Leech, holder of
Academic Stars, member of' the
Honor Court, member of the
American Institute of Physics, and
Distinguished Military Student.
James Darroch Massie, Presi-dent
of the Class of 1955, President
of the General Committee, Lieu-tenant
in B Company, member of
the American Society of Civil Engi-neers,
and Dis'tinguished Military
Student.
James Lowry McManaway, Cap-tain
and Company Commander of
A Company, and member of the
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Peter McCrary Will Attend
Neiv York Industrial Congress
Peter Kernan McCrary of Falls
Church, Va., second classman at
V. M. I., has been selected to
attend the 59th annual Con
gress of American Industry in New
Eyes Right
The Coipf
Mary and
right to left, the brass reads: Colonels Butler
s in review for top officials of William and
I iMrevioiu to the game last Saturday. From
and 1
PAS&T and PMS&T, respecuvely;
ton, Superintendent; and Rear Admiral Alva S. Chandler,
Kerlln, President of William and Mary.
York City as an honored guest of
the National Association of Man,
ufacturers.
A physics major, McCrary will
join 51 other students from all 48
states at the nation's largest gather-ing
of industrialists at the Wal-dorf-
Astoria Hotel from Nov. 30
until Dec. 4.
He was selected by a committee
composed of Ray E. Reid, assistant
superintendent of public instruc-tion,
Commonwealth of Virginia;
Colonel C. H. Reed, member of
Board of Visitors, Virginia Poly-technic
Institute, and J. Clifford
Miller, Jr., president of Miller
Manufacturing Co., Richmond.
Students attending the Congress
of Industry will hear addresses by
leading businessmen, industrialists
and statesmen and attend panel
sessions on such management pro-blems
as employee relations, in-dustrial
relations, taxation, re-search,
sales and advertising.
A feature of the program will be
two related panel discussions. In-dustrialists
will quiz classroom
teachers on the subject, "Are the
3R's Necessary for the SC's In
Education?" Industrialists also will
quiz students and apprentices on
the subject, "What Do You Want
from the Industrial Economy in
the Years Ahead?"
McCrary, 20, u a sergeant in the
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