“Swarthmore Musicians Give Benefit Program” by J. Russell Hayes (1 – AC and CW) – “Three of Swarthmore’s resident musicians, Mr. and Mrs. Donato Colafemina and Miss Mildred Spencer, gave a recital in the Masonic Temple, Chester, April 18, for the benefit of the Chester Hospital.”
“Worthy of Eggs, Etc.” (1 – AC) – An introduction to two letters expressed “pleasure in reprinting a letter written by J. Russell Hayes, protesting certain recent concerts of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.” Hayes, “Swarthmore College librarian, poet of note and the county’s ‘country fiddler,’ has been roused to indignation by recent Villa-Lobosisms perpetrated by the Philadelphia Orchestra.”25 Hayes’s letter excoriated the orchestra for playing works by Villa-Lobos, writing “One may imagine how in Hogarth’s or Fielding’s robust and outspoken day bold spirits in the gallery might have hurled venerable vegetables and eggs of yesteryear to emphasize their opinion of certain outbursts of strident and appalling discord to those we too often hear at the Philadelphia Orchestra while waiting for numbers by Bach or Franck or Tschaikowsky.” The other letter was by Edna Coates Colafemina, “music editor of the Chester Times.” She commented on Hayes’s letter, arguing that defenders of Villa-Lobos, whom Hayes referred to as “of kindred kidney with the geniuses” [like Villa-Lobos] will argue that it is necessary to hear everything . . . to finally discern something of real worth.” But she added, “fortunately, we are not required to read every spurious book in order to ascertain what may be worth while.”
“Unworthy of Eggs, Etc.” (1 & 10 – AC, JR, and RR) – praise for the Hedgerow Theatre’s “classical repertoire” and its new productions, e.g., by “Sampson Raphaelson, the author of ‘The Jazz Singer’, and of the more recent ‘Young Love’, who has brought out to the Hedgerow Theatre, his play, ‘White Man.’ This play is now in active rehearsal and is promised for early release.”26
“Swarthmoreans Active in Work of Community Foundation” (1 – AC and SL) – on a “nation-wide project being promoted by the Allied Arts Extension sponsored by the National Community Foundation of which Dr. Paul M. Pearson is director.” Foundation personnel asserted that, “the real artistic impetus of the American people comes not from New York, Chicago or Philadelphia, but from Main Street, and the small towns of the United States”.
“Rose Club Head Addresses Women. Woman’s Club Learns How to Create Beautiful Rose Gardens. Local Gardens Show” (1 & 4 – GN and WO) – planting and care instructions
“Frederick J. Libby Talks on Kellogg Pact at Meeting” (1 & 10 – PO and QS) – “Mr. Libby finished strongly by saying that the only way to put war out of the world was to ‘Educate, educate, educate!!'”
Photo: “Speaker Here” with caption “Frederick J. Libby, who spoke at the Friends’ Meeting House last Sunday on the Kellogg Pact”27 (1 – EA, PO, and QS)
“‘Meet the Wife’ Players’ Club Play. Five Local Players to Take Part in Philadelphia Production. Election Opening Night” (1 & 10 – AC and CO)
“Real Estate Talks. Some Observations, Hints and Precautions Concerning Swarthmore Real Estate by William Eastburn Witham, Vice-President, Wm. H. Wilson Co.” (1 – BR, BX, and RE) – Asserting that, “Generally speaking, real estate analysis is Greek to . . . novices”, Witham came out against the Real Estate Board recommended by “A Neighbor” in the April 12th Swarthmorean. “Property owners can do far more to protect the character of the Community than any more or less artificial association of real estate brokers.”28
“Social and Personal” (2 – SL)
“First of Series of Garden Trips Made” (3 – GN and WO) – The Garden Committee of the Woman’s Club visited “Todmorden Farms, where the gardens of Mrs. Arthur Scott are a delight to the eye from early spring till late fall.”
“Needlework Guild to Hold Annual Meeting” (3 – MI)
Ad: “Burglary Insurance” (3 – QA) – offered by Sweeney & Clyde in Chester, with “divided coverage” for $18.15 and “blanket coverage” for $22.69.
“Paulson and Co. Now Offering Oriental Rugs” (3 – BB)
“First Garden Day Trip on May 4” (3 – GN and WO) – The School of Horticulture for Women planned “to visit some of the beautiful private gardens of Delaware, Montgomery and Chester counties” every Saturday from May 4 to June 22.
“The Pride of Ancestry” (4 – ED, BR, and RR) – “The Mayflower carried a wonderful group of people to the shores of this country. The sturdiness of that stock put a backbone into the social structure of New England.” The editorial went on to assert that these people’s ancestors needed “to live so well that our progeny and its children will have a right to pride of our ancestry”, something that the upcoming “May Day Child Betterment Festival” would help bring about. “Let us not allow it to pass as a sort of glorified circus, but make of it a mile-stone on our road to the understanding of children.”
“Church News” (4 – RS)
“The Building and Real Estate Activities of Swarthmore and Vicinity” (4 – RE) – page heading
“More Names of Library Members. Library Open Daily While Books Are Being Sorted; Loan Books Soon. List Not Yet Complete” (5 – BB) – list of members
“Riverview Sales” (5 – RE)
“Modernistic Home Open on City Line Avenue” (5 – MI) – “A house designed on modernistic art lines, believed to the first in America, opened last Sunday (April 21) in Overbrook-Hills-in-Merion.”
“Media Merchants Seek to Serve Swarthmore People – Media Theatre Dope” [sic] (6) – page heading
“Health Society Makes Report. Large Number of Visits Made During March Is Indicated. Attend Convention” (6 – DC and PH)
Photo: “Albert R. Granger who spoke at the Meeting Sponsored by the B. & C. Assn. Last Night” (6 – CO)
“Girl Scout News” (6 – KO)
“Borough Officials Will Address Public Meeting” (6 – WO) – open meeting of the League of Women Voters of Swarthmore
Ad: “Media Theatre” (6 – QA and RR) – “Today See and Hear Richard Dix in ‘Redskin'”29
“School News of the Week – College, High, Prep, Mary Lyon, P. M. C.” (7 – CE) – page heading
“Lacrosse Jubilee at College Saturday” (7 – SC and SS) – U Penn v. Dartmouth and Swarthmore v. Princeton
“Prep School News by Mark Wilson” (7 – CE) – on Swarthmore’s baseball victory over Princeton, the “great success” of the Junior Prom, and Frederick Libby’s speech to the students
“Trackmen Win from Delaware and Drexel” (7 – SC and SS)
“College Campus Comment” (7 – SC, SN, and SS) – includes a description of a food fight and how James Michener (“Little Wilbur Cocoa in Prexy’s chair”)30 gave a speech that launched the student body’s endowment drive
Ad for Chesterfield cigarettes: “Beautiful but dumb” (7 – BS and QA) – drawing of a raccoon-eyed flapper sitting on a couch between two well-dressed men smoking cigarettes. In the caption: “We are reliably informed31 that the above familiar phrase is applied mainly to certain poor dears in whom all the pituitary runs to pulchritude. A gargoyle is ‘int’restin’, at least. Better pick ’em freckled and friendly than lovely but lacking. . . The point is that Chesterfields are also ‘int’restin’. They satisfy – and right there is why they gather in the gang.”
“High School Wins Second League Contest” (8 – SS) – baseball victory “Rose Valley Chorus to Give ‘Ruddygore'” (8 – AC)
“Swarthmore Man in Abridged Compendium” (9 – RR and SN) – The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy “contains the lineage record of Mr. Asa D. Dickinson of 47 Amherst avenue.” His ancestor Gideon Dickinson “came from England to Stonington, Conn.” five generations earlier; another was William Hyde “who came from England with Rev. Thomas Hooker, to Newton, Mass., in 1633, and was an original proprietor of Norwich, 1660.”
“Complaint Filed against Chester Road Crossing” (9 – BB and DC) – Ellwood B. Chapman of Harvard Avenue took the step of filing a complaint against the “Pennsylvania Railroad, the State Highway Department, Delaware county and the borough of Swarthmore” to spur an investigation by the Public Service Commission.
“Lacrosse Team Wins Easily from Stevens” (9 – SC and SS) “Social Service Books Are Now Available” (9 – DC)
“Mrs. Charles Farm” (9 – AD) “Boy Scout News” (9 – KO)
NOTES:
25 According to John Patykula in an August 2, 2017 issue of Classical Guitar Magazine, Leopold Stokowski “became a champion of [the Brazilian Heitor] Villa- Lobos’ music. Under his baton, the Philadelphia Orchestra performed Villa-Lobos’ Danças CaracterÃsticas Africanas in Philadelphia and New York in November of 1928″.
26 I was unable to find descriptions of this play, which seems to have been published along with Raphaelson’s (more successful and better known) “Accent on Youth.” The Internet Broadway Database shows that a production of “White Man” ran at the National Theatre for just seven performances in October 1936. Its settings included “a Courtyard in Harlem.”
27 Signed on August 27, 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was “a frank renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy” that was signed by the heads of state of the United States, Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland, and the Czechoslovak Republic.
28 Like the recommendation for a real estate board itself, this too may have hinted at a way to keep out people of color.
29 This 1929 talkie featured a prep-school-educated Navajo played by Richard Dix. A 1929 ad quoted in IMDB and accessed in August 2020 read: “Behind the cheers of the college crowds urging the athletic hero to victory . . . beat the tom-toms of the Navajos! His own people calling him back from the college campus to the wigwams of his fathers.”
30 This may have some connection to the Wilbur-Suchard Chocolate Company that had factories in Newark, NJ; Lititz, PA; and Philadelphia.
31 Italics in original