Today's Forecast:
Warmer,
Humid
VOL. 1. No. 4
400 Attend
Conference
On Reading
The "what-if" school of writ
ing was introduced yesterday
afternoon when author Louis
Slobodkin addressed members
of the 21st Annual Reading
Conference which began Mon
day at the University.
More than 400 teachers, read
ing consultants, school adminis
trators and book publishers are
enrolled for the week long con
ference. The sessions are held
to keep teachers and other pro
fessional people infoijmed on the
newest and most effective tech
niques in the teaching of read
ing.
Roma Gans, professor emeri
tus at Teachers College, Colum
bia University, spoke at the
opening session. Reading for
living should be an individual
ized program, she said, and the
reader should proceed at his
own speed.
The Monday afternoon speaker,
Eason Monroe, who is chairman
of the American Civil Liberties
Union, Los Angeles, Calif., ex
plained how and why the Bill of
Rights should be included in
classroom procedure.
,Today's speaker will be Laura
Zirbes, professor emerita at Ohio
State University. She will speak
at; both the afternoon and eve
ning sessions and take part in
the discussion groups.
Tasha Tudor, famed chil
dren's author, spoke last night
in Mill Hall High School, fol
lowing a dinner at the Dutch
Inn. Mill Hall.
Discussion leaders include Mar
garet Lay, teacher at Antioch
College, Yellow Springs, Ohio;
Molly Wild, teacher at Platts
burg, N.Y. State Teachers Col
lege; Gloria Mattera, instructor
at Genesco, N.Y. State Teachers )
College; Tony Amato, visiting
professor at Temple University; l
Mrs. Lelia Farrell, a member of
the State College public school
system; M. Jerome Weiss, assist
ant professor of education at the
University; and Dr. George E.
Murphy, professor of education
at the University and director of
the conference.
A combined book exhibit and
a Cadmus book exhibit, as well
as elementary and secondary
school materials have been on
display all , week.
Review
O'Neill Play Has Successful Opening
. By WILLIAM ,LLEN
Collegian Dram . Critic
Led by the dynamic per
formance of Lydia Br u c e
as Abbie Putnam, Eugene
O'Neill's "Desire Under the
Elms" opened the Mateer Play
house season on a successful
note Monday night.
Miss Bruce ,the young wife of
Ephraim Cabot, played by Leon
B. Stevens, recorded a powerful
and moving enactment of
O'Neill's Abbie. She was strong
In her part and portrayed the
love scenes with deep emotion as
well as affection,
"Desire Under the Elms" is an
American classic, telling of an old
and hardened New England farm
er who takes a- young wife and
brings conflict to his three sons.
The youngest son develops a deep
affection for his 'young step
mother, who wants to bear a son
so her husband will leave her
the farm property.
The play, which will continue
the rest of the week at the play-
......_„,„,
...
#antint q.
,
,
•\:, - -. , i
Toll
.., ..
...„,
STATE COLLEGE, PA.. THURSDAY MORNING. JUNE 25. 1959
MISS LOIS PIERCY is crowned Miss Pennsylvania by last year's
queen, Miss Rosalie Samley. Both girls are Penn State students.
'3 Men on a Horse'
Will Open Monday
Erwin Trowbridge has a
problem. He can pick the win
ning horse before any race.
What makes this wonderful
intuitive gift a problem is
explained in Mateer Playhouse's
comedy production, "Three Men
on a Horse," by John Cecil Holm
and George Abbott, which begins
Monday at Standing Stone.
The play, which opens for a
week's run Monday, is directed
by Max Fischer and casts Esther
Benson and Leon B. Stevens in
leading roles. It concerns Erwin
Towbridge, played by Kenneth
Evans, who is a greeting card
writer with a flair for picking
winning horses.
Erwin soon runs afoul of
some Damon Runyan type
"hoods"—chiefly Patsy, played
by Leon Stevens: and his moll,
Mable, played by Esther Ben
son. The hoods discover Erwin's
amazing talent, which leads to
house at Standing Stone, is
slow moving in the beginning
and it takes th e audience
awhile to get used to the "corn
ballish" talk of the three sons
and their antics in and about
the farm house. But once Ste
vens and Miss - Bruce make their
appearance, the play's tempo
picks up considerably.
The youngest son—Eben, play
ed by Don Petersen, is torn be
tween his mother's untimely
death and love for the farm on
one hand; and his love and af
fection for his step-mother. Peter
sen seemed unnatural in the first
few scenes but finished strong,
especially in his dramatic love
scenes in the - last act.
A son is born to Abbie and
everyone knows it is Eben's child
except his father. This produces
tension unmatched in the best
"western" thriller and leads to
Abbie's killing of .the baby and
a confession to Ephraim of the
hoax.
Stevens. as the father, por
trays an old, bearded farmer
who pldns to live to 100 years
of age and who marries Abbie
only to have her -bear him a
FOR A BETTER PENN STATE
1
4
1
el :
*,,,,
~ _
many zany situations as the
plot progresses.
Included in the supporting cast
are: Don Petersen, who plays
Erwin's brother-in-law; Ronald
Bishop, acting the part of a
harried greeting card company
president in the Mother's Day
Rush; and Nancy Alinkoff, a,
University student, who plays the
part of a newspaper reporter.
Mason, set designer for the
playhouse, has created a novel'
staging arrangement for the play.
The stage is constructed with a
revolving platform at each end
of the set on which are two panel
backdrops.
Changing scenes will be only
a matter of revolving these
platforms to present the op
posite panel face.
Mason describes his overall de
sign as a "cartoon type" setting
in which outlines of windows,
doors and furniture are drawn in
bright colors on the revolving
panels.
son and keep the farm within
the family. Stevens fits the part
very well and was a true pro
fessional on the stage.
Probably the weakest charac
ters in the play are Ephraim's
two oldest sons Simeon and
Peter. Simeon, played by Ron
ald Bishop, seemed to overplay
his lines and forces his part upon
the audience, Peter, played by
Mike G. Matoin, was a loud
drunkard who was forever yell
ing "California" and "gold."
The directing of Max Fischer
was most evident when the two
'sons bid farewell to the farm yard
and house and.dance a jig before
hitting the trail which would
take them to California and gold.
Another scene which showed-off
'the talents of Fischer was the
raging crying part enacted by
Miss Bruce after she kills her
baby to save her romance with
Eben.
The set was ideal for the play
—but the naturally rustic effect
of the playhouse greatly aided the
on-stage scenery. Although the
area is very small, the actors
moved about well and only once
did anyone bump into or jar a
piece of scenery.
rgiatt
Lois Piercy
Awaits Finals
Lois Piercy, 1959 Miss Pennsylvania, eagerly awaits the
Miss America pageant to be held in September at Atlantic
City.
Miss Piercy was crowned Miss Pennsylvania last Satur
day night at West Chester—winner over 23 other statewide
beauties.
The 21-year old, dark-haired University graduate from
Springfield, who doesn't like to
wait in lines—waited in line twice
last Saturday night, in an eve
ning gown and swim suit—and
came away as the Common
wealth's representative to the
Miss America Pageant.
Lois was crowned by Rosalie
Samley, the retiring Miss Penn
sylvania. Miss Samley, a junior
in sociology from Bethlehem,
is a sorority sister of Lois at
the University.
Another of the five finalists
chosen in the Miss Pennsylvania
pageant was Margaret McPher
son, junior in home economics
from New Park. She represented
Greater York in the state finals.
The third University coed to
participate in the pageant was
Miss Judith Ann Criste, who re
ceived her associate engineering,
degree at the Altoona Campus
earlier in the month. She pre
sented a piano and song routine
from "Kiss Me Kate" for her
talent entry. She represented
Miss Central Pennsylvania.
Miss Piercy was a standout
in the pageant from the very
start. She walked off with
talent honors the opening night
of the pageant on Thursday,
and copped the bathing suit
title during Friday night's com
petition.
Although not a winner in either
the talent or swimsuit compe
tition in the preliminaries, Miss
McPherson ranked high enough
in all to be chosen as a semi
finalist and one of the top five
in the pageant.
Miss Piercy's talent rendition
featured a flute solo and a dis
play of an oil painting she did
that was recently acquired by the
University. Although Miss Piercy
seemed short of breath in her
solo rendition, she still grabbed
top honors in talent.
Miss McPherson gave a dra
matic reading as her part of
the talent competition. It was
based on a portion of "The
Diary of Anne Frank." Begin
ning with the quotation, "I be
lieve in the goodness of man"
from Miss Frank's diary, Mar
garet went on reciting the por
tion describing "fear" from the
work.
Ten semi-finalists in the pag
eant were announced at the be
ginning of Saturday's portion of
the pageant. Miss Piercy's name
was the fourth name released. It,
was almost a certainty that she'
would be among the ones in the
finals because of her showing in
the earlier parts of the pageant.
Miss McPherson seemed almost
shocked when her name was
read as a semi-finalist. Both
showed little emotion when they
were named in the group of five
finalists toward the end of the
411ageant
' The other three finalists in
(Continued on page nine)
International Speakers
To Attend Symposium
Speakers from all parts of the
world will participate in an Inter
national Symposium on Stress
Wave Propagation in Materials to
be held June 30 to July 3 at the
University.
The program includes discus
sions of broad areas of theoretical
and experimental research in the
general field of stress wave propa
gation.
By 808 THOMPSON
Special to the Collegian
Photo-Feature
(See Pages 6 and 7)
Registration
To Be Held
At Rec Hall
Registration for the 6-week-long
mid-session will be held from 8
a.m. to noon and 1:30 p.m. to 5
p.m. Monday in Recreation Hall.
Mid-session classes will begin
at 8 a.m. Tuesday. The session
will last until August 7.
Students must register accord
ing to an alphabetical time list
which is printed in the Summer
Sessions catalog. A student must
register for himself.
Fees will be assessed at regis
tration, and they must be paid
at the Bursar's Office in Willard
Hall the same day.
Students who register late must
pay a $2 fee. The fee assesor may
decide if the student's excuse for
registering late is valid for waiv
ing the fee.
All those who are pre-registersd
for courses must complete their
registration on Monday, but they
are assured of getting the courses
they have pre-registered.
DOC Sponsors
Tutor Program
The Division of Counseling is
sponsoring a tutoring service dur
ing the summer sessions for stu
dents who wish to employ a tutor
and for those wishing to work
part-time as tutors.
The Division of Counseling
will serve as a clearing house for
the program. Tutors may register
in person at 110 Old Main or call
Extension 2584 before noon Mon
day.
Persons interested should spe
cify by number the courses in
which they are qualified to offer
help and the sessions they will
be available. Undergraduate tu
tors should have obtained a grade
of "B" or higher in courses they
list.
All arrangements concerning
rates, times, and places are han
dled by the individual tutors and
the students who request their
services. The Division of Coun
seling will not supervise the ser
vice beyond compiling the list
and making it available when
students request help in finding
supplementary instruction.
Riley, Beam, Taylor
To Attend Meeting
Three staff members will par
ticipate in the 44th general con
ference of the American Alumni
Council from Sunday to July 2
at Mackinac Island, Mich.
Those attending will be Ber
nard P. Taylor, director of the
Penn State Foundation; Robert
E. Beam, associate foundation
director and director of the Alum
ni Fund; and Ridge Riley, execu
tive secretary-treasurer of the
Alumni Association.
Safe Conduct
Pass
See Page-4
FIVE CENTS