Friday Afternoon Follies, plus Tony Martino

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Melissa Kean

I go to Rice; I must be smart.

And here’s this weeks video from Brandon, featuring Rice Grounds Superintendent, Ron Smith:

Bonus: This is someone’s office window in Lovett Hall. (Yesterday’s bonus was taken at the front entrance to the Mech Lab.)

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14 Responses to Friday Afternoon Follies, plus Tony Martino

  1. Francis Eugene "Gene" PRATT, Institute Class of '56 says:
    June 22, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    Re. the window orchids:
    Enjoy them rapidly. Buy them where there’s a 12 month return guarantee.

    Reply
  2. Sandy Havens says:
    June 22, 2012 at 11:24 pm

    This is long but your photo of the freshman kissing the mule–and the tag, “I go to Rice I must be smart,” prompted this:

    Some many years ago my theatre group, Rice Players, was rehearsing a play in which the actor playing the central character needed to have a different nose. One of our Rice students had spent some time researching how to do that. So, one night after rehearsal he, the actor in question, and several friends gathered in one of the dressing rooms to make the “prosthesis.” I went home to bed. When I came to rehearsal the next evening I looked at the lead actor–he was missing his mustache, his side-burns, his eyebrows. I exclaimed, “What in the world happened to you?”

    This is the story of what happened:

    Everything had been made ready to make the prosthesis nose–plaster of paris to make the negative mask of the actor’s face, the straws to insert in his nostrils so he could breath while the mask hardened, etc. Except, the instructions called for vaseline to coat facial hair. They had forgotten to bring vaseline. However, since there was a plentiful supply of cold cream for the removal of makeup they decided that it would work as well.

    Wrong. When the time came to remove the plaster of paris mask it would not budge. The students attempting this task panicked. They could not remove the mask and the plaster encased student was becoming majorly anxious.

    So they took him to the emergency room at Methodist Hospital across the street from the campus. About 2:00 am now.

    Unable to remove the plaster mask themselves the emergency room personnel wound up calling in a reconstructive surgeon who had the expertise and special tools to cut away the mask.

    In the meantime hospital staff were dropping by in droves and collapsing in hysterical laughter as they viewed the poor actor sitting on a medical gurney.

    He was sitting there with a slab of plaster of paris covering his face while wearing a T shirt with the message, ” I go to Rice I must be smart.”

    Reply
    • Melissa Kean says:
      June 22, 2012 at 11:32 pm

      That is easily one of the greatest Rice stories I’ve ever heard.

      Thanks so much!

      Reply
    • Doug Williams says:
      June 23, 2012 at 2:04 pm

      Boy, does that bring back memories. My wife’s uncle is retired now but worked for many years as a physician in the Medical Center. This is one of his favorite stories about Rice students.

      Another of his favorites is about the students who would sneak across Main to steal the first two letters off the sign for “Diagnostic Hospital.”

      Reply
    • Mike Ross says:
      June 25, 2012 at 4:54 pm

      LOL, Sandy! I wonder if it was one of those shirts we silk-screened at Baker in the late 60s (before the campus store shut us down due to their terrible allergy to competition).

      Reply
    • Francis Eugene "Gene" PRATT, Institute Class of '56 says:
      June 26, 2012 at 11:44 pm

      That is funny, Sandy. Thanks.
      In Sandy’s and my day (’52-’56), the Health Service doctors took people to Hermann Hospital ER.
      At least that’s where we took the girl who pipetted the toluene too vigorously in lab one night.
      (Interestingly, the odor of toluene — which I can still resmell — is given off by the buggy crawlers that invade my willow trees each Spring.)

      Reply
  3. James Medford says:
    June 23, 2012 at 12:18 pm

    Per Fredericka Meiners’ book on the history of Rice, Tony Martino had been Captain Baker’s gardener prior to coming to Rice in 1915, and was known for his bonfire speeches prior to football games.

    Reply
    • James Medford says:
      June 23, 2012 at 12:51 pm

      I just found the article on Tony Martino in the Fall 2003 issue of The Cornerstone. It says he and his wife lived in a house on campus near the present tennis and baseball stadiums, in the area where the mules were kept. Does anyone know if this is true?

      Reply
      • Lillian Garcia-Maas says:
        May 24, 2013 at 9:32 am

        My dad lived there for 5 years, his father, Jose Garcia, was hired by Tony. My father took care of the mules and played on the wild untamed grounds. 1945-1950 or so.

        Reply
      • Lillian Garcia-Maas says:
        May 24, 2013 at 9:34 am

        Jose Garcia worked at Rice for 40 years and did bookkeeping along with Tony. My father knows the whole story! He and his other siblings are living eye witnesses!

        Reply
  4. Wes Hansen says:
    June 23, 2012 at 2:35 pm

    Rice Fight Never Die!
    —Tony Martino

    Reply
  5. jj says:
    June 23, 2012 at 9:33 pm

    tony martino was my great-great uncle, while i am uncertain how long he lived on campus i do know that he had a house off of westhiemer, and that he left everything he owned to rice university, he loved rice dearly from the stories i have been told, the aricles and video at rice have been a treasure and allowed us to learn more about our family

    Reply
    • Carol Martino Cashiola says:
      September 1, 2015 at 3:51 pm

      Tony Martino was my Great Uncle, his home was on Richmond Ave, between Montrose and Shepherd. Its still there, the porch has been enclosed, brick painted and Richmond widened, so the red brick no longer shows and the walk no longer with beds of pansies. I spent many days there in what was the sun room over the porticache, I have the original wicker furniture from that room, it had windows on three sides for cooling. A garage Apt was in the back and he had a glass house in the back yard for his plants. we loved running up and down the stairs. H e was a brother to my Grandfather, Nunzio Martino. He is in one of the pictures with him.

      Reply

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