Some excerpts from the past hundred years of the University Press Club: we have compiled a hefty amount of achievable material, impossible to fit it all here we have picked some of the more interesting articles/letters to the Press Club for your viewing.
PRESS CLUB ORGANIZED
The Daily Princetonian
Saturday, April 7, 1900
A meeting of the students of the University who are correspondents for daily newspapers was held yesterday afternoon in the Lit. office, and an organization effected to be known as the Princeton University Press Club.
A constitution and by-laws, setting forth the objects of the club and regulating the actions of its members with a regard to University interests, were adopted. The following officers were elected: President, H.L. Bowlby 1901. Vice-President, E.A. Fowler 1902, E.B. Wilson 1901.
LETTER RECEIVED BY ROBERT ALFORD FROM PAUL ?
March 24, 1937
Dear Bob:-
You did not miss very much staying over another two days for the Duce came out on his balcony for only ten minutes or so, and then the whole thing was over. Of course, it gave me a certain thrill seeing and hearing him speak for the first time, but a number of things he said turned my stomach completely. And then when he made a few cracks about the English clergy, which has recently been carrying on an anti-Fascist and anti-Italian campaign from the pulpit relative to the current massacres in Abyssinia, the whole crowd just cheered wildly as they could. Then there was the usual bull-shit about peace and preparedness. He reminded them that they should on this famous day not forget the past and that they should always be prepared. "Ricordare e prepararsi!"...
When you spoke to me over the phone I forgot to tell you that you should see certain friends of mine in Munich. It was terribly thoughtless of me, but I hope that you shall take advantage of the opportunities offered when you get there...Then an anti-Nazi German friend of mine named Dr. Lorenz Miller, Sendlinger Strasse 76/III you should definitely look up. If you get him in a dark corner, you can probably get him to talk, but by no means let him think that I called him an anti-Nazi or even unsympathetic to the present regime, for it might get him into trouble and I might also lose a very good friend. He speaks broken English. Drop ihm a card from the American Express and give him your telephone and address and tell him that you know me well...
Yours,
Paul
WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM, DEC 5, 1941, 7:48 PM
DOUBLE BREASTED SUIT
PIN STRIPE
IMPECCABLE YOUGHT
AND BLOND CURLY LOCKS
BUT THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG.
HE LEANS
AND WAVERS IN THE WIND
THE WINDS BLOW
THE DRUMS BAT ON
I CANT THINK
BEAT SLOWER
THANKS
AND NOW ALL IS CLEAR
HELLO
HELLOW, GYROSCOPE COMPANY
SEND ONE RIGHT OVER
THAT IS WHAT HE NEEDS
A GYROSCOPE TO BALANCE HIM
AND NOW HE WILL
SUCCEED
I
KNOW
IT
PRESS CLUB CEASES WORK FOR DURATION
Because of a shortage of manpower, the University Press Club will cease operations tomorrow for the duration of the War, Robert C. McGiffert, president, announced today.
In recent weeks, the association of undergraduate newspaper correspondents has been cut to five members by losses to the armed forces. Three of the remaining men are members of the ROTC and do not expect to be able to continue their work, McGiffert said.
Founded in 1900, the Press Club was the first college organization of its kind in the country. In 1912, a system of competitions was organized andthe old system of selling correspondents' rights was abolished.
The club came near collapse in World War I, but with the help of Dean Gauss and a few undergraduates exempt from military service, it managed to weather the storm. The Press Club was reorganized along its present lines in 1919 and has dispensed Princeton news to metropolitan newspapers and press associations since that time.
Red Hot Lovers Plays Princeton
The Daily Register
By David Remnick
Attention Ms. Foderaro
July 2, 1979
PRINCETON -- No matter how hard you act, a bad play is a bad play.
Despite skillful performances by Nancy Bleemer and John Whitesell, Theater Intime's production of Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" proves the point.
The three-act show describes the Woody Allen-like development of New York City restaurant owner Barney Cash's extra-marital foibles.
Barney, played with well-timed clumsiness by Whitesell, invites three women to his mother's vacated apartment and yearns for, but never succeeds in having, a "beautiful and meaningful" experience.
A kind of everyman "nebbish," Barney's first attempt at seduction is with a world-weary Elaine, portrayed by Nancy Bleemer, a Princeton graduate and veteran of many Princeton productions.
Elaine has come to the apartment for sex and feels no guilt about it but Barney feels it is necessary to "get to know one another."
Bleemer beautifully undercuts his self-righteous speech about casual affairs with comic savvy. She nibbles a huge pretzel, looks to the skies in desparation and drinks his thimblefuls of whiskey for more comic effect than is found in any of Simon's dialogue.
In short, Bleemer makes something out of very little.
In the second act, Barney has progressed: he no longer wears a blue, shiny suit, he makes sure there are ample supplies of cigarettes and liquor and seems more at ease.
He is determined to have an affair and this time the object of his affections is a desperately paranoid actress, Bobbi, played by Theresa Doucette.
Bobbi shares an apartment with a vocal coach who she claims is a whip toting, leather clothed Nazi. Barney blanches.
Barney's new found poise is quickly dissolved as Bobbi lights up some marijuana. He is 47 years-old and looking to score, not to get stoned but he has little choice and closes out the act singing "What the World Needs Now."
Unfortunately, neither Simon's material nor Doucette's frenetic acting are very funny and one imagines that the actress has little alternative but to try and create comedy out of sheer energy.
Enter Jeanette, a close friend of Barney's family. The play begins to wax philosophical as Jeanette, instead of falling into bed with Barney, challenges him to name three "decent people" in their suburban Sodom and Gommorrah.
Michelle Ferber plays the pill-popping suburban house-wife with control and panache.
Jeaneatte sees a psychiatrist four times a week, gleans her life's philosophies from Look magazine and has grown estranged from her husband in the past eight months.
"There are only indecent people and idiots in this world," she says as she clutches her pocketbook feverishly throughout the entire act.
Barney has gained something through all of this, certainly not a mistress but perhaps a little self-assurance. He no longer sprinkles his fingers with after-shave after he has spent the mornings opening clams.
Somehow, Barney is able to help his wife's friend and the curtain only falls after Simon has provided us with a suburban, marital sermon.
Director Alan Langdon has done the best job possible with the play by quickening the pace through the more laggard scenes and is able to squeeze the audience for laughs.
Final performances of Intime's first summer show are July 5, 6, 7, and 8 with a matinee on the 8th.
Editor's Note: Mr. Remnick is currently the Editor-in-Chief of The New Yorker.
PRINCETON TRADITION FROZEN OUT
Associated Press
January 21, 2000
By Richard Brand '02
Princeton University students, heeding warnings from University officials that streakers would be suspended for a year, refrained from romping in the buff overnight to celebrate the season's first snowfall - an annual event that had come to be known as the "Nude Olympics."
Only a few students clad in boxer shorts and T-shirts ventured outside into the 25-degree chill overnight to carry on a semblance of the tradition.
A large, highly visible contingent of campus security and emergency medical personnel kept a close watch on the Ivy League campus.
There was one report of a streaker, but the individual wasn't caught, said University spokesman Justin Harmon this morning.
Harmon said no one was charged with violating the ban.
"It didn't really surprise us," he said. "What we set out to ban was an organized event that we considered a threat to the health and safety of our students, and that didn't happen."
The Nude Olympics tradition began in the 1970s when students streaked across the campus on the year's first snowfall. It became an annual event confined to one of the school's oldest courtyards.
University trustees called for the event's end after 10 participants were hospitalized with alcohol poisoning last January, and officials said there were reports of women being sexually groped, nude runners urinating in public, and couples engaging in sex.
Administrators say they would not tolerate any streaking this year, even if done off campus.
Sophomore class proposals for an alternative to the naked run - including a tropical party, and outdoor dance and a snowball fight - were all nixed by administrators. Students decided against the only plan that was approved - to burn an administrator in effigy.