I got a kick out of this clipping I found in a student scrapbook yesterday. It reads like a message from the Old Rice, that far distant place whose social world was dominated by the activities of classes rather than colleges and whose students took the trolley downtown to watch vaudeville shows. When I saw who was the instigator of this small riot I couldn’t help but laugh. It was Malcolm Lovett, class of 1921 and later chairman of the Rice board of trustees:
That’s Lovett second from left in the front row. He was Rice’s first real basketball star:
Here’s an ad for the the show from the Houston Post:
And just in case you’re burning with curiosity here’s a little review, also from the Post. Sounds like one of those mix-up comedies, which seem to have always existed and which will surely be with us until the very end of time:
Bonus: Sophomore Anah Marie Leland, from whose scrapbook the clipping emerged, was deeply impressed with the near surgical efficiency of the freshmen’s attack.
Malcolm looks a lot like his father.
I never knew Vaudeville had “Story” productions. I have read that “Show Boat” was the first “Book Musical”. (I think Show Boat opened in about 1928.)
How about that, Sandy Havens, if you read this. Or any other musical expert, other than Sid Burris, who couldn’t carry a tune of find a pitch.
Is this the guy, who…as a Graduate and Attorney for Rice, would later try to move heaven and earth to keep Raymond Johnson out of Rice University?
Eh, sort of I guess, but I think a fairer characterization is that he was cautious to a fault. Once the decision to desegregate was made he was on board with it but was too timid about the repercussions that might follow and slowed the process to a crawl with legal research. This was complicated by the fact that the legal theory that we argued was wrong. It was based on the notion that WM Rice meant to found a great university and without opening admissions that could never happen. But that’s not what he meant to do at all–he meant to found a vocational school. This made the whole thing pretty dicey.
I tried to reply, but again, everything has changed and I do NOT know how to do it by the present directions.
gene pratt