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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1979)
Pi ^ \ Cl. ^ 0-*X3 cu o > C ' O ^ ^ Lt3 l"l M Colorful history ’ shows soi (Continuned from cover.) ‘They had advertised for stu dents to stay here during the holidays to be extras,” Kunze said. “Most of the kids that stayed needed the money. This was one way of earning a few extra dollars. Besides, it was more than I could earn at home.” People then didn’t react to celebrities in the way they do today, Kunze said. “Actually, we paid very little attention (to the film crews and stars).” But the mere fact that the pic ture was being filmed on cam pus, affected just about everyone in one way or another. Professor Harry Kidd, Assis tant Dean of the Graduate Col lege, has a story about the movie, too. “I was teaching, I don’t recall whether it was 301 (English) or a literature class. Anyway, the door burst open and there was this Hollywood type in a roll neck sweater. He said, ‘Prof, we got to get ’em outa here, we’re filming.’ I told him I wasn’t going anywhere, that I was teaching. Well, it wasn’t long before I got a note to clear out, that they were in fact going to film there. We sat in the Rotunda (of the Academic Building) for half a day.” Kidd has been, here for “40 years. I came in the Fall of ’39.” Weirus and Kunze agree that the movie does present a slightly exaggerated account of life at A&M then. “I really enjoyed the scenes of the campus,” Weirus said. “But most of us were a little em barrassed by the silliness of the plot, even though we got a kick out of seeing ourselves.” “I guess my intial reaction was they weren’t portraying A&M the way I thought it was,” Kunze said. “However, there are a lot of things of historical value in it.” Kunze said he had friends who walked in the “Bull Ring” on Saturday afternoons to get rid of “rams". A ram is sort of like a demerit, but not as seri ous. And in the movie, Cyanide Jenkins (Noah Beery, Jr.) warns Brad Craig (Richard Quines) that he better watch out or he’d be “paddle-footing around that Bull Ring” after a run-in with Panhandle Mitchell (Robert Mitch urn). And in the Aggie Corps of Cadets, many things are the same today, too. Jenkins tells Craig “you bet ter get hip to the chatter, son, or you won’t eat.” The chatter is the special language used at corps dining tables. Mustard is baby, salt is sand, pepper is dirt. Catsup is blood, meat is bull neck and so on. And the fish still have only four answers to upper classmen: — Yes, Sir. — No, Sir. — No excuse, Sir. — Sir. Not being informed, I hesitate to articulate for fear that I may deviate from the true course of rectitude. In short, Sir, I am a very dumb fish and do not know, Sir. The film treats its audience to a recital of this speech at the beginning. Craig was walking on the sidewalk, a no-no for freshman. Weirus said that then, freshman couldn’t even walk even walk on the curb. Today, the corps wants fish to walk on the sidewalk. It’s the seniors who get to walk on the grass nowadays. Courtesy University Archives The dance scene in Sbisa is also a tradition upheld today. Most of the major military balls are held there. The music for the dance scene was actually recorded in the old Assembly Hall, where the Chapel is today. “They checked out the acoustics,” Weirus said. “Man, they were really good.” And for the dance scene, TSCWites were invited. The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reported on Sunday, Nov. 22, that “next Friday 300 Texas State College for Women girls will come from Denton to become temporary movie actresses. They will dance for half a day with 300 A&M students while cameras turn on a corp dance scene that will be a highlight in the produc tion.” Many girls showed up for screen tests, Weirus said, hop ing to be discovered. The scene showing the women arrive for the dance was factual. Anne Gwynne tells Martha O’Driscoll (they had the two lead feminine roles) that they’ll be put up in one of the dorms. “On the weekends, when the women would come up,” Weirus said, “all the men would move out of a dorm or two, so they’d have a place to stay. If the girl could get here, she fulfil led her end of the deal. The guy would have to put her up and pay for her meals.” Weirus said that was a big thing, if you could get your pic ture made with one of the “girls.” “Look at those dimples,” Weirus said while looking at a picture of Gwynne. “Gosh, you could fall in love with them.” The bonfire is the original thing, too. “That’s what a raunchy bon fire looked like. In those days,” Weirus said, “they were really trash fires. We didn’t have one of those engineered things.” “It was a state supported, land grant, all male military academy,” Weirus said. Times have changed.