VMI Cadet. May 22, 1950

              1950 FINALS TO1 BE BIGGEST IN HISTORY
Long Brings Famed Band To Finals Widely Varied Fields
Favorite Plays
Three Night
Stand Here
BY MACK BLACKWELL
When Johnny Long and his or-chestra
invade VMI for Final Hops
this year, a reputation for satisfy-ing
dancers and listeners will ac-company
them. Thc suave maestro
is a top favorite with dancers, and
YMI Dramatic Club
Produces Fist Work
O'Neill's One Act Play In The Zone
Surprises Corps With Huge Success
JOHNNY LONG
he is rated among the top three
collegiate orchestras. The Long
band has appeared at every major
theater and location in the nation;
he and his band have one of
the most impressive records for
musical renown ever compiled.
Top Recording Favorite
Johnny has been a top recording
favorite for many years. After his
band left Duke University, Decca
signed it to a long-term contract
that expired two years ago. While
on that label, Long hit his flrst
million-record with "Shanty Town"
and then duplicated that with
"When I Grow Too Old To Dream."
Since then Johnny has been with
Signature Records and now is the
leader on the King label. His new
King records are'3oing even better
than expected and seem sure to pro-duce
still another million-record. All
of his recorded hits plus many new
and outstanding innovations will
be included in the program when
Johnny Long brings his nationally-famous
aggregation here.
The youthful drive of the blonde
bandleader is credited with much
of Johnny Long's success. He aims
his music right at the college-age
crowd and is careful to see that all
his arrangements strike the proper
balance for excellent music. Even
his theme song, "Sweetheart of
Sigma Nu," is of collegiate origin.
Long has Played all Major Colleges
More than three hundred schools
have hired Johnny Long during the
past six years, many to repeat per-formances.
His band has played at
Last Saturday night approximate-ly
two hundred cadets and visitors
saw "In the Zone," a one-act play
by Eugene O'Neil, given by »he
VMI Dramatic Club. This was *he
first production of the club, and
the success of the play was sur-prising.
None of the actors had ever
acted previously, and the producer
and director, Rufus C. Lazzell has
never done any work in this line.
He has, however, worked in stock
theatres during the summer.
No Facilities
The group underwent extreme
difficulties to put on this produc-tion.
The lack of facilities hindered
the progress of this group. The facts
that the stage is small, there is
no adequate lighting or spotlights,
no backstage entrance or passage
way, and flimsy curtains made of
dyed burlap sacks, were discour-aging
factors to all concerned.
The production of the play was
felt to be much better than anyone
had anticipated because of the fact
that the flrst production is always
Cast Listed
The cast included: J. Parker
Cross, Pete Cox, Jack Trigg, Bill
Hand, Joe Weber, Hobart Richey,
Luke Witt, Walter Vogel and
Hubert Rawlins. The play was set
in the forcastle of an ammunition
ship during the first World War.
The jittery crew members sus-pected
one of their fellow seaman,
"Smitty," played by Bill Hand, as
a German spy. Upon their crude
investigation the crew members
found the supposed spy to be a
frusterated lover who had run away
to sea.
Cadet Hand portrayed the sup-posed
spy, while Jack Trigg led
Get Grads of Class of 50
The Class of 1950 will be scattered j 40 To Graduate Schools
from one end of the United States | Graduate Schools throughout the
to the other when school opens for j nation are to receive at least 40
the remainder of the Corps in Sep- members of the Class of 1950, with
tember. The U. S. Army and Air ! Medicine leading and Law second.
Force, Graduate School, Business j Other graduate courses follow with
and Teaching are but a few of the , lesser applicants,
many fields into which the Brother i The future barristers are to be
Rats to be graduated next month { Foster Witt, Tommy Phillips, Robin
will enter. | White, Tommy Harwood, Hugh
In response to countless questions, ! R u d d <al1 S°i n S t o u - V a ) ' J- H'
the Cadet ran an investigation and F l iPPe n - E d ° a s t ( b o t h t o W & L )
came up with thc following infor-mation
concerning the positions to
be held next year by the graduates.
30 To Armed Forccs
Thirty men have chosen to enter
the Armed Forces. The Army will
get fifteen. Buck Buchanan, Willard
Vickers, Harry French, Bob Lynd,
Marcus H a n s e n , and Randolph
Townsend have chosen the Infantry.
The Cavalry is to get Lee Odell,
Bud Fisher, George Mason, Hans
Strohm, and Len Lewane, while
Joe Olivares, Tunstall Strawhand,
Lee Chegin, and possibly Dave
the suspicious crew in their in- j Marble are to take up Artillery,
vestigation. Both of these men are The Air Force has Dick Coup-fourth
classmen and should boost land, Al Volk, Dick Mandt, Tommy
the Dramatic Club far with their
fine talent. All make-up work for
the play was done by Joe Weber
who has had six years of previous
experience in high school and
amateur productions.
The entire play was wire re-corded
by Frank Butler for use in
the hardest. Some people found the English department.
the fact that this was the first pro-duction
of the VMI Dramatic Club,
hard to conceive. Members of ihe
audience made special efforts to
comment to the producer and
director on the success of the play.
Future Plans
Producer and director Rufus Laz-zelle
stated that no definite plans
have bten made for next year, but
it is hoped that at least four one
act plays can be put on.
Kirk, Bill Schaumburg, Ray Ta-malis,
Bill Tuxhorn, M. E. Witcher,
Al Green, Ed Miller, Buddy Skel-ton,
and Harvey Wise signed up.
Most men are reporting to flight
school within a few weeks after
being graduated.
Ken Taft, Tuck Burckell, and
Rawles Fulgham are to be "Leather-necks"
in Uncle Sam's crack Marine
Corps.
PEGGY BARNETT
ALL of the Big Ten schools; his
itinerary will often include as many
as five school dates in a single
week. From this record, it's not
hard to see, then, that in the trade
they call Johnny Long "America's
Favorite."
Featured Stars
To be featured with band Finals
will be Junie Mays, pianist, who
wrote the "VMI Ring Waltz," and
who is considered to be one of the
best dance band pianist, in the busi-ness;
J i m m y Sedlar, featured
trumpeter with the band; the Gtee
Club, comprised of the entire menv
bership of the band. Vocal numbers
Peggy Barnett.
will be handled mainly by Miss
The popular song group, The
(Continued on Page 5)
1950 Bomb Is
To Be Issued
Last Of Week
The long-awaited 1950 Bomb
will be delivered in barracks next
Thursday or Friday, Edward Smith,
Bomb sales chief revealed today.
Room 231 will be the headquarters
of the distribution, and all men
will be notified by turnout in al-phabetical
order. It is requested
by the staff that men report as
promptly as possible when their
group is called
815 in Barracks
The total circulation in barracks
this year is larger than ever before,
with 815 copies being sold here
in barracks. There will be about
twenty extra copies available for
sale at $9.50 each, if anybody would
like to buy more than he signed
up for. Men will have to sign a
receipt for their book, but in the
event that a man is not present,
another may sign for the annual.
It is hoped that all copies can be
distributed by Friday night and
all affairs straightened out at that
time.
Largest
This year's Bomb, in addition to
being the biggest in history, 392
pages, is also the most costly.
Sambo Brown, Business Manager,
has revealed that printing costs for
the book exceeded six thousand
dollars, while engraving costs were
exactly four thousand. The grand
total, then, for publication alone,
was over ten thousand dollars.
It was pointed out that both
printing and engraving costs have
risen, yet the price of the book re-mains
the same, despite advice
from authorities to increase the
cost. Advertising has been cut down,
with more emphasis being placed
on features about VMI and the
Corps. More pictures than ever be-fore
have been put in this year
as a result
It is interesting to note that
ninety Bombs have been sold to
the Alumni Association for the pur-pose
of serving as silent salesmen
for the VMI. One of these Bombs
is to be placed in every high school
in Virginia, with no cost to the
school involved.
Continued on Page 6
and Dave Fleming.
Medicine is claiming Bob Kesler,
Bert Jolly, Frank Tweedy, Cary
Blaydes, Bill Driskill, (all to U.
Va.), Elmore Salley, Lou Lunsford,
Sam Saunders (only dentist in
crowd), all to Medical College of
Va., Bill Muir (Columbia), Howard
Sauder (Western Reserve), J. D,
Jones, (Duke), Ken Carrington,
(Penn), Alex Mitchell, Ash Harri-son,
and Jere Mitchell.
Business School is the destination
of another group, with Jack Nurney,
George Coffman, and Frank Boehrn
going to Wharton, and Erskine
Williams going to Harvard.
Graduate work at several uni-versities
is the goal of Bill Over-man
and Ernie Reinhold both of
whom are to be at Carolina, Ernie
Kritzmacher (Cornell), Jim Goli-ghtly
(Paris), Zack Gray (W&M),
John Davis (Purdue), Bill Lewis
(Duke), Bailey Hurley (Columbia),
Charlie Tewes (Texas), Dan Hal-pin
(MIT), Gene Lopez (Harvard),
Bookie Bond, (W&L), Jack Lyons,
(Georgetown), Fred Silver, and
(Continued on Page 6)
JIM ELLIS—Valedictorian
'Honor Court'
Is Feature In
Final Turn-Out
Jim Ellis, Editor of the Turn
Out, has revealed that the Finals
Issue of his magazine will be one
of the biggest and best of the year
As usual, the publication will sell
for twenty-five cents and will be
available to all interested. Stands
will be provided in the PX, Gym
and other points of vantage to
facilitate the sales.
The theme of this last issue will
be Graduation, with the cover and
perhaps an editorial devoted to
this topic. Perhaps the most in-teresting
feature, according to Ellis,
will be a feature on the VMI Honor
Court. This is to be the main feat-ure
of the issue, and is designed to
be a descriptive essay including a
complete detailed account of pro-cedure
and a description of an
Honor Court Trial.
"I think it will be of considerable
interest to the Alumni and the
Corps," Ellis said. The article was
written under the supervision of
Norris Thompson, President of the
Honor Court, after approval had
been given by the Court for the
publication of such an article.
Photo Feature
The photographic department of
the magazine has also come up with
a big spread; this is on Turnabout
Day and on the festivities that
came off during Easter weekend.
Miss Easters and Miss America are
to be the centers of the pictorial
essay, along with the pictures of
the First Captain and the Alligator
straining for some sassy Fourth
Classman.
The jokes and cartoons are to
be an "Improvement on the last
issue." Short stories, one by Jim
Ellis himself, one by John Gordon,
and still another by Phil Richard-son,
of the second class, who is
making his debut as a writer for
the Turn-Out, will spark the liter-ary
department. The story of the
latter has been termed "excellent'
by the editor of the publication.
Color Cover
A full color front cover is plan-ned
by the staif for the Finals Issue,
in addition to the double page
spread which is to be executed by
Mac Blackwell on the points of in-
Continued on Page 6
Senior Officers of The Glee Club
BILL KELLY, JOHN TAYLOR, ED SMITH and RALSTON BROOKE
Harris Elected President Of
Glee Club; Moncrief, Green,
And Yore Hold Other Offices
4 th. Class
Recognized
Officially
Last Monday, the fifteenth of
May, the rats were officially de-clared
fourth classmen and mem-bers
of the Class of '53. An "Old
Yell" led by Norris Thompson in
the courtyard ended this year's
rat line. Following the "Old Yell"
led for the Class of '53 by Thompson.
Parker Cross, president of the Class
of '53 led his brother rats in yells
for the senior classes.
Preceding the courtyard festivi-ties
the upper classmen had a field
day when they proceeded to paint
the rats with shaving soap, lip-stick,
oil paints, and jet oil. Water
was poured in an on nearly every
rat and the uniforms were in gen-eral
a mess. Eloures were worn
backwards, hats likewise, pants
rolled up to the knees and shoe-strings
tied together.
Last Company Room
Not long after the rats returned
to their roms, the time for the
"Last Company Room" rolled a-round.
Each company met in dif-ferent
rooms and the rats had to
fight their way out of the room,
past all of the old cadets of their
company. During the "Last Com-pany
Rooms" a number of upper
classmen, namely the first class
enjoyed themselves to the utmost
in tearing up rats rooms. Books,
towels, undercloths. sheets, papers,
were thrown on the floor and
where powder was found, that
powder was covering everything.
Bedrolls and blankets of the newly
cadets were thrown oft the fourth
stoop and into the courtyard, the
majority being "dumped" down the
PX stairway.
After the company rooms were
(Continued on Page 6)
Class Of 180
To Hear Gen.
G. C. Marshall
With General George C. Marshall
as the principal speaker, the Class
of 1950 promises to be the class
honored with the biggest finals in
the history of the Institute. Not
only are more men to be graduated
than ever before, but a dozen
classes have planned to have re-unions
in the Finals week.
Johnny Long, the bandleader who
made such a hit with the '50's when
he played for their Ring Figure
two years ago, will be back to
furnish the music for their last
Hop as members of the Corps of
Cadets. The theme of the Hops will
of course be graduation, and ihe
gym is to be decorated accordingly.
The Graduation Ceremony itself
will also be held in the gym, and
members of the first class have
volunteered to take down the dec-orations
which might hinder the
execution of the ceremonies con-cerning
graduation.
No Limit on Guests
A cadet may invite as many
people as he likes to come to the
graduation ceremonies, but Colonel
Barksdale has announced that only
two seats will be reserved up front
for each senior. These seats will be
situated in a position from which
a full view of the exercises may
be seen. The unreserved section
will not be in so favorable a place.
Among the distinguished person-alities
who are slated to be here
for Finals are of course Gene.-al
Marshall, and also General James
W. Moore, of Selma, Ala., class of
1873. The general is the oldest
living alumnus, and is one of the
few remaining Confederate soldiers
alive. He is now Commander in
Chief of the United Confederate
Veterans. The general is between
95 and 100 years old, yet shows re-markable
vitality and exhibits still
a great interest in the VMI.
Reunions
Those classes planning reunions
are 1900, 1904, 1910, 1912, 1915, 1920,
1925, 1934, 1935, 1940, 1945, 1949,
Quartering of such a large group
of alumni has been successfully
accomplished, with some staying in
the visiting teams room in the
gym ('15), others in places about
and in Lexington, (Sigma Nu
houses—1920, Beta house, 1925, Pi
KA house—1940, Phi Gam house—
1949). General Spencer B. Akin,
Class agent of the Class of 1910, is
also Chief of the Army Signal
Corps, while 1912 has a disting-uished
general in th'e person of
Samuel L. Howard, Major General
in the U.S. Marines.
Over 180 men are slated to (let
their diplomas on June 13, marking
the biggest class ever to receive
their degrees from the Institute in
(Continued on Page 5)
Officers to Begin Work
On 1950 Plans
During the evening rehearsal on
Thursday, May 18, the V.M.I. Glee
Club turned to the work-a-day as-pects
of operating such an organ-ization
and elected new officers
for the coming year. By unanimous
vote, Herbert L. Harris of Lynch-burg
was elected to the office of
president. Other new officers who
will comprise the Executive Com-mittee
of the VMI Glee Club are:
Ray Moncrief, vice-president, J.
Russell Green, business manager,
Bob Yore, publicity manager, Luke
Witt, secretary, and George Miller,
Jr., librarian.
New Plans Made
Having recently completed a
spring concert tour of Virginia's
Tidewater Area, which included
programs in Richmond and New-port
News, the club is focusing at-tention
already on the '50-'51 sea-son.
With every indication that
Tidewater Tour Ends
Most Successful Season
On Monday, May 15, the VMI
Glee Club completed what is
thought to be the most successful
concert tour of its entire pre-war
existence. The tour ended the
Club's Spring concert season which
has included concerts at Ran-dolph-
Macon Woman's College, the
Easter sunrise service at Natural
Bridge, services in Lexington
churches on Easter Sunday and
Palm Sunday, a three day trip
to Roanoke, Virginia, and now a
trip to Richmond and Newport
News.
In all, six concerts were given
during hte four and a half days
that the Club was away from
barracks. The high spot among
these concerts was the one given
in the WRVA Theater in Richmond
on Thursday evening. May 11. As
a result of the publicity put out
by the VMI Alumni Chapter of
the scope of activities of the choral, Richmond, sponsors of the concert,
group will continue to expand as and aided by the C. F. Sauer Com-it
has done in the past few years.! pany, whose president is an alum-the
new officers will be even more : nus of the Institute, the Club sang
aware of the serious and often to an almost full house, by far the
tedious work that must be done largest audience that has attended
(Continued On Page 2) 1 (Continued on Page 4) ilUnaurLAV ouuut KHia ...v u.*—