Omega's In The News - The Rattle, May 1938
The below stories about Omega, its brothers or by a brother appeared in the May 1938 Rattle
City Greets Assembly with Electric Welcome.
Below is from except written by George W. Chapman - National Marshall
At the Assembly dinner Saturday evening over twenty chapters responded when the roll was called. Interesting stunts and amateur acts were presented by the chapters in the region with Upsilon Chapter of New York University taking first place and the stunt trophy by their glee club singing and their one-act play. Omega Chapter of Penn State took second place with the singing of an original song written by Alumnus Adviser E. B. Cassel and Active J. M. Price. The attendance trophy was won by Omega Chapter, whose members totaling fifteen traveled 3375 miles to attend the Assembly. Short talks by Walter R. Faries, James G. Lewis, George Chapman, A. H. Aldridge, Earl D. Rhodes, Thomas E. Sears, and Frederick W. Ladue completed the evening's program. F. Howard Hosner acted as toastmaster. With the traditional singing of the The-ta Chi song, the Assembly closed until another year.
Spring Initiations Increase Membership Roll
Omega Chapter at Penn State is enjoying a membership of thirty-two brothers and eight pledges. The pledges are Henry Carver, Robert Eberly, Roger Knickerbocker, Thomas Madill, Edward Osterhout, Albert Powell, Franklin Quinn, and George Roth. Brothers initiated on March 6 are Oscar Booz, Edmund Geiger, Philip Kreider, and Glenn Silvis.
Observe Founder’s Day from Coast to Coast
Below is an except from story…
Thirty-six alumni returned to Penn State on the week-end of April 9 and 10 for the celebration of Founders' Day and the initiation of thirteen pledges. Among those present were: George W. Chapman, national marshall, John G. Hottel, counselor for Region 3, and Norman C. Horner, treasurer of the Alumni Corporation and faculty brothers, Carl H. Samans, Ellwood B. Cassel, Francis J. Doan, and David C. Sprague.
And I Get Paid For Having a Good Time
By JOHN L. CARSON, Penn State, '32
Hollywood's Loretta Young and John L. Carson try out the newest method of transportation in autoless Bermuda, the velocar, just imported from France - from May 1938 Rattle
Only 19.9 square miles in area, Bermuda, which within t h e past few years has risen to the Number One island resort in the world, is the biggest little place in the universe, and with only the horse and buggy and bicycle to get around with becomes a little world unto itself from which very few ever wish to escape.
When I arrived in September of 1936 to take over the publicity directorship of the Islands as manager of the Bermuda News Bureau for the Bermuda Government and N. W. Ayer & Son, Inc., with which firm I am associated, the only means of transportation was fast Furness Liners and Canadian National ships from New York, Boston, and Montreal.
Today giant flying boats of Imperial Airways of London and Pan American Airways System take off from Baltimore, Md., during the winter, and Port Washington, New York, in the summer, reaching Bermuda in five hours. Imagine cutting the transportation time from forty hours to five. And recently the Bermuda Clipper, with a 60-mile-an-hour tail wind, roared through the 825 miles of Atlantic atmosphere in four hours and one minute.
Take yourself back to the days of the Bermuda clipper and New England clipper ships which used to sail to Bermuda anywhere from six to fifteen days, all depending on the winds. Quite a difference!
It has been my fortunate experience to be in Bermuda while modern history was in the making with trans-Atlantic flying experiments. As a result, I had the privilege of being the holder of the first commercial flying ticket issued by Imperial Airways for passage o n their 18-ton, four-motored Cavalier in Bermuda.
On June 16, 1937, I made the first official flight on the Cavalier from Bermuda to Port Washington, in charge of press relations. At the same time we took off here, the 21-ton Pan American Bermuda Clipper took off from New York. We had expected to see each other, but due to winds and different flying altitude we never got any nearer to each other than fifty miles.
It was a memorable day, though. More than 1,500 pounds of radio equipment from the National Broadcasting Company was on board in charge of a technician and two announcers, one from N. B. C. and the other from the British Broadcasting Company in London.
Three broadcasts were made: a ten-minute take-off circling the beautiful coral islands; a ten-minute interview series with the prominent Bermuda government officials and British reporters in mid-Atlantic, and then a fifteen-minute broadcast while flying over Manhattan's skyscrapers. All three transmissions were short waved to London and then rebroadcast throughout the Empire, as this was the first time a British plane had pioneered that far west, plus the many other "firsts" connected with the trip.
Munro Leaf reads his best seller, "Ferdinand the Bull" to John Carson's class in journalism, made up of fifteen students of Wildcliff Junior College of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, who enjoyed a winter course in Bermuda - from May 1938 Rattle
Thinking that it would mean good publicity, the writer suggested that all the press representatives, eight of us, should wear shorts and pith helmets—the same as we do in the summer time … but only four went through with it. And several times while flying around ten thousand feet, with the temperature hitting 35 degrees, we wished we had stuck to long trousers. The New York thermometer, however, registered around 85 degrees when we landed, and so our outfits were just right for the atmosphere, but rather amazing to the thousands who had assembled for the first flying boat arrival. Captain William Neville Cumming of London was, and still is, the commander of the Cavalier. His co-pilot is Lieutenant Neil Richardson. To them I owe the greatest thrill I've ever had in being a participant while history was being made.
Since then I have had eight flights over the Atlantic, and have become a firm believer in transoceanic flying service.
Captain R. O. D. Sullivan, now practically rated Pan American's Number One pilot since the death of Captain Musick, is the commander of the Bermuda Clipper, and is one of the pioneers in the first Pacific flights also. Both airlines place safety above all and will not take off if weather is threatening out over the Atlantic.
Returning to Bermuda within five days after being feted in New York, both the Clipper and the Cavalier took off at the same time with many celebrities on board. These included: United States Senator and Mrs. W. G. McAdoo, Colonel Johnson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and one of the greatest flying leaders today in the United States; Roy S. Howard, chairman of the Scripps Howard newspapers; Paul Patterson, president of the Baltimore Sun news-papers; Congressman and Mrs. Ludlow, and James G. Stahlman, president of the American News-papers Publishers Association.
Within six months or a year it is expected Bermuda will be the hub of New York to London flights where one will stop off for an hour to grab a bicycle and take a spin just for old times' sake or have a spot of tea and Bermuda milk punch at the two famous Bermuda drinking clubs, Ace of Clubs and Twenty One, then hurry back into the flying boat for Horta, Azores, 1,200 miles away, thence to Marseilles, and finally to Southampton, England. This will be the winter route. In the milder weather the flight will be straight across in less than twenty-four hours. Hello, London . . . goodbye, New York! It seems incredible, but it's factual.
The publicity job in Bermuda is an unusual one, as there is only one Bermuda in the world, and there are more good will agents for these coral isles than probably any other spot in the world. It is a rare moment when one hears any one speak disparagingly of Bermuda. When that happens, I get to work and find out why.
N. W. Ayer & Son, Inc., of Philadelphia, New York, London, Montreal, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, is one of the two largest advertising agencies in the world. Having the advertising contract for the Bermuda Trade Development Board and the publicity con-tract also, my position in being stationed on the Islands is quite an enjoyable one, especially in meeting the important personages who vacation here.
Banning automobiles many years ago, Bermuda immediately placed itself in an unusual position. Bermuda is one of the few places in the world where blaring auto horns, irate policemen, red and green lights, and crinkled fenders are non-existent.
The only sign of the law is the British bobbies with their striped arm bands to show the public they are on duty. Their main police duty is to keep the Americans pedaling their bikes on the left hand side of the road and to retrieve lost bicycles after the thous-ands of college students who descend upon the Island over Easter have departed for cloistered studies in the States.
For those brothers who are still in college and who have the wherewithal to make a pilgrimage to Bermuda some Easter vacation . . don't miss it. If you have ever thought you were in paradise with the best looking young women in the world on either side of you, bicycles to the front, and horses to the rear, then you must have had a dream about Bermuda.
Bermuda is a haven for the best in the line of feminine pulchritude from finishing schools, junior colleges, colleges, and universities in the States. For one month, from Somerset to St. George's, the Islands are scenes taken out of College Humor.
After being runners-up in the fox-trot and the waltz contests at Bermuda's Coral Island Club charity dance, Countess Saroli, socialite of New York City and Milan, Italy, and John L. Carson are eliminated in the semi-finals of the rhumba contest, by the master of ceremonies, Dr. William Beebe, world famous scientist, who make; record below surface descents in his bathosphere off Bermuda reefs - from May 1938 Rattle
Associated with me in Bermuda has been Henry Clay Gipson, one of the world's leading photographers, who did color ads for the Grace Line in South America, and has published three books.
At present I'm living in a Bermuda cottage over 150 years old, but with all modern conveniences. In case you don't know it, most all t h e drinking water is collect-ed in water catches and tanks from the heavens, thus making Bermuda water the softest water possible. Banana trees and royal palms surround the house, together with poinsettia, sweet peas, paw-paw trees, and other subtropical growths. And it's that way all year around.
Bermuda is not tropical, as it lies in the same latitude as Cape Hatteras which is the nearest point of mainland to the Islands about 560 miles away. It is subtropical, however, and in December, January, February, and part of March fireplaces are used quite often in the evenings when the sun goes down, though when the sun is shining it is quite warm and one wears light suits.
All the sports which one associates with a resort are here, because, as you know, Bermuda is called the sporting isles. But don't bring your skiis. One Dartmouth student did last year as a prank, and proceeded to ski down the sand banks of the beautiful pink and white beaches. It was a natural publicity stunt handed to us.
Loretta Young, movie actress, spent ten days down here, and we became quite good friends. The "publicity" pictures which we staged turned in some notable clippings. A few weeks ago we were in the throes of making her Easter Lily Queen of Hollywood for 1938, with the first lilies, 700 in all, to be flown by clipper ship from Bermuda straight to Hollywood. Perhaps you saw her in the newspapers in that role. Lilies also were sent to China via clip-per ships in the fastest time possible.
The Easter season brings thous-ands of visitors, plus millions of lilies, which make the Islands a veritable land of snow - white. More than 80,000 persons visit the Islands at this time.
Some of the persons whom I've met and interviewed have been Vincent Astor, on board his yacht the "Nourmahal," when he arrived from his exploration into the Galapago Islands with Louis Mowbray, curator of the Bermuda Government Aquarium. Mr. Astor has one of the show places of Bermuda, with his own tropical fish tanks and a toy railroad on his property.
Father Coughlin sailed to Bermuda right after the last presidential election, and after five days of maneuvering, I managed to get the first interview which he had given since his candidate had been so badly beaten. Sinclair Lewis comes here at least once a year to write and get away from it all. He is a most interesting talker. Leo Kieran, the New York Times aviation editor of last year, who had just flown around the world in twenty-four days, came to Bermuda for a rest.
Frederic March, who sailed from here recently, was an idol of the young women and was liked by all the Bermudians. I was giving a class in journalism to the winter school of Wildcliff Junior College i n February. With sixteen young ladies clamoring to see if I couldn't get him to address them, we man-aged to persuade him, but an illness in his family called for an immediate return, thus cancelling his lecture and their fondest hopes.
Munro Leaf, author of that famous best seller "Ferdinand the Bull," however, gave them a most interesting talk and read chapters of his new book, "Listen Little Girl Before You Come to New York." The picture of the class being addressed by him made more than two hundred newspapers in the United States, plus Life magazine.
Thomas E. Dewey, this year right after he was elected New York City's attorney, came to Bermuda for a three weeks' holiday.
Lord Rothemere, o n e of the greatest British publishers of newspapers, was not a willing subject for an interview, and would only give out a few words. Wesley Stout, editor of Saturday Evening Post, came to Bermuda before he took over his new du-ties. Others I have interviewed recently include: Thomas H. Beck, president Crowell Publishing Company; Babe Ruth and Lefty Gomez; United States Senator Gibson from Vermont, a Theta Chi, by the way.
Two months ago the longest over water fashion show ever staged we put on in the Cavalier while flying from Baltimore to Bermuda, with N e w York's five prettiest models. A fashion show then was staged at the Belmont Manor Hotel, and the models remained there twelve days. It was a tough job to take care of all those young ladies. But then there are compensations in this publicity job. Here's hoping that one will be seeing some Theta Chi brothers in Bermuda.