This is the last part of Corinne Tsanoff’s letter to her sister about the Rice semi-centennial celebration in 1962. It’s the longest piece and also my favorite, because of the discussion of the wardrobe complications endured by the faculty wives, who had work out what to wear to three separate formal dinners in the days before people just went out and bought new clothes because they felt like it. Honestly, sitting together, sewing and talking, sounds like much more fun than a trip to the Galleria:

If you’d like to see the film on Rice’s history, The Golden Years, that was shown on the Saturday afternoon of the celebration, you can find it here on the wonderful Texas Archive of the Moving Image website. It’s about a half an hour long and if you’ve been paying attention here at all you’ll recognize all sorts of people and places that I’ve talked about over the years. You get to hear Dr. Lovett talk and see a lost world. It’s well worth your time.

I have to confess that I can’t be sure whether this review of the film in the Thresher is correct, although I suspect it is.  I stopped listening very quickly, focused intently on the images rather than the public relations happy talk. Here’s the whole page, since I know you guys like it that way:

Bonus: The ex-Media Center. (Thanks again to a loyal reader.)