27)  Denison University

1941 and 1998 – Contrasting Impressions

(Dick Mahard)

The impression of Granville and Denison in 1941 is in great contrast to the impression that one gets today.  In 1941 the village was a typical small Ohio rural village -- surprisingly rural compared to the present.  And the college was smaller and very much more a part of the village.  There was more interaction between the college and the village.  One of the reasons for that was that in 1941 there were four fraternity houses in the old village area.  And therefore there was the back and forth movement of the students from their houses to the hill and back again.  And when they were in their houses, they were often out on the porch singing their songs.  They were inhabiting the local restaurants and in many ways they were much more a part of the village.

Another thing that mixed the villagers and the students was the fact that there were no recreational dining facilities on the hill.  There were no hamburgers available, no ice cream.  And therefore there flourished within the village several student hangouts that were widely used by the villagers as well.  And so, once again, there was interaction between the students and the village.

A Prominent African-American Granvillian

(Dick Mahard)

One of the most notable black personages in Granville was the famous Aunty Jack, who was the cook at the Sigma Chi House when the College Townhouse was the Sigma Chi House.  And Mrs. Jackson, who later became Aunty Jack to all those Sigma Chis of that period, was a cook but she was much more than that.  She was a housemother absolutely par excellence and to this day the legend of Aunty Jack is still pretty fresh in the minds of the Sigma Chis,  They had a wonderful picture of her in the house on the hill with an appropriate biblical reference  -- I think it’s something like “and they will rise up and call her blessed “or some such thing as that.

Woody Hayes as a Denison Coach

(Jim Gordon)

I went to all the Denison football games when Woody Hayes was the coach.  He came in the fall of 1946 -- I was still in the service then.  And the stories I hear are kind of interesting, although I can’t verify them, but I’m told that he came with an attitude.  Having been in the Navy and a commissioned officer, Woody treated the football players like they were raw recruits and a lot of them that fall dropped out and the morale was terrible.  They were having a losing season.

Then somewhere near the end of the season, he called everybody together, even those who’d dropped out, and basically apologized.  He said his attitude had been poor and he asked for another chance.  The team had one game left to play and it was at Wittenberg, which was always a challenge.  Wittenberg certainly wasn't undefeated but they had a winning season going and Denison had nothing.  But the Denison team went down there and beat Wittenberg and they beat them handily, I’m told.  And from that point on Woody Hayes never lost another game here.  Over the next two years they were undefeated and untied.

Below the Stage at Denison’s Summer Theatre

(Greg Dixon)

Denison had a summer theatre that most people probably don’t have any idea was ever here.  They used to put a tent up every year about where the parking loop is for Burke Hall, right down there on the president’s lawn where the sculpture, the big red circular thing is.  Although I honestly don’t remember seeing any of the productions but we used to go in and avail ourselves to the ice cream bars that they had.  The stage was built up and we’d sneak underneath there and sometimes while we were under there they’d come in and be practicing and of course, we were thinking we were really getting away with something.  As it turns out we weren’t quite so sly because we always left our wrappers under there and when they tore down the stage at the end of the summer they knew somebody had been under there.  We got caught the next year but that’s all right.  They didn’t do much to us.

The Blue Tent Theatre and Its Famous Alumni

(Eric Jones)

Probably the biggest single thing when I was growing up was the Blue Tent Theater at Denison.  It was located on the lower quad, off of West Broadway just north of, I think they call it the conservatory now.  As a kid growing up, my first summer job (other than being a newspaper boy) was to work as a volunteer at the Summer Theater. 

That tent theater was a lot of fun.  They had a dress rehearsal every Tuesday night and then performed Wednesday through Saturday, and then started on the next play on Sunday.  So it was pretty much the same people would have to go from a musical like “Brigadoon” on Tuesday through Saturday and then switch roles and be in a dramatic play or something the next week. That was a great breaking ground for talent and it was very inexpensive and a lot of fun to be associated with.  William Brasmer was the director of that theater for many years.

And little did I know that I was coming in contact with people that later became prominent in Hollywood.  Hal Holbrook, for one.  Now he had come and gone by the time I was working there, but his presence was still felt and he was still just becoming famous in his character as Mark Twain. And so everybody that was associated with the Summer Theater knew who Hal Holbrook was.  John Davidson was one of the lead actors in almost every play and he later became well known in television and entertainment in Hollywood.  And a guy by the name of John Schuck who I still see.  In fact I was flying on a plane two months ago coming back from Phoenix and I saw him in a movie that also had Helen Hunt and George Clooney.  I rubbed shoulders with him every night at the Denison tent theater.

Dress Codes and Cigarettes in 1958

(Dom Consolo)

In 1958 when I first came to Denison, we had compulsory convocation and voluntary chapel.  But students had to go to eight convocations a year and if they didn’t fulfill that, a half hour credit was added on to their graduation requirement.  We had a dress code, where students had to wear coat and tie!  And shirt and shoes at dinner every night.   And there was no smoking on slant walk.  But there was smoking everywhere else.  We used to smoke in the classrooms, oh my God, like fiends!.  Sometimes I used to have two cigarettes going at the same time!

Social Protests in the 1970s

(Dom Consolo)

We had a difficult time at Denison in the early seventies with the black demands – the black movement.  Denison was very conservative -- always about a student generation behind what’s happening in the rest of the country.  Remember Mario Salvio made that great speech to the graduate college of Berkeley?  He broke into the faculty meeting, seized the microphone, and asked for something relevant from the college, and that became the key word -- relevancy.

Anyway, when the black demands hit upon us and the Viet Nam War – there were splits in the faculty.  Some thought that we ought to go on strike – I don’t know whether you remember that there was a period when students boycotted classes and even professors boycotted classes.  I was always the kind of guy where I tried to fulfill what I contracted for, at the same time not violating whatever principles that I stood for.  And I was behind hiring a diverse faculty -- knowing what it was like to be in a minority, being the only Italian there. 

Joel Smith was president at the time and I was on the faculty advisory board and he had us in individually.  Back when he was being interviewed as a candidate for president of Denison, he asked me what kind of a place Denison was.  And I said, “We have our differences.  We are a bunch of free thinkers who believe that Denison can be made into a better place.  So when it comes to making decisions, we band behind the consensus.  So you’ll find a diversity of opinion, but consensus of opinion will allow the college to go forward and any ideas you have, as long as they have to do with the betterment of education at Denison and freedom of expression and so forth, and liberalizing the courses and enlarging departments and expanding the curriculum.’ I said, ‘we’ll be behind you a hundred per cent.”  A year after he was here the whole thing just blew up in his face.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Benefits of Living in a College Town

(Robert Kent)

I think living in a college town makes a huge difference?  First off, it attracts of a lot of brain people.  And that’s good for the area.  Denison faculty and administration are good people to have in the community.  But the other thing I like about it is the young people, the college students.  There’s always a lot of young people around and for the most part they’re a huge plus for the community.  Not only intellectually but a lot of them are involved in the community, whether it’s helping out the fire department or working on some social project in the community.  I would never want to live in a community of old folks like myself.  Without the college we might just be another small town like Alexandria, which is a nice little town, but it doesn’t have the stimulus that you find in Granville.  And there’s a lot to avail yourself of, whether it’s a concert or the lectures or the library up on the campus.  There’s just a lot of things that you can use to stimulate you.  And you have a lot of faculty involved in the community, which is good.  But it’s the young people -- they’re great stimulators.

Famous Performers and Politicians

(Carol Apacki)

[ At Denison ] we can walk up and see some of the best in the world.  Pinchas Zukerman, world-class violinist, came to Denison and we were invited to go to a reception afterwards at the president’s house, Bob Good, Bob and Nancy Good.  And I’m sitting talking to Dick Lucier, a friend of mine and Pinchas Zukerman comes over and says, “May I join you?”  And the three of us sit down with our coffee cups and we just carry on a conversation.  You know this wouldn’t be possible in a big city.

I get on the elevator up at Denison and William Fullbright, famous senator from Arkansas in the ‘60’s who was one of the few voices against the Vietnam War, gets on the elevator with me you know.  And the two of us are there on the elevator going up to the third floor where he was going to make a presentation.

Kathleen Battle, famous Metropolitan Opera star, came to sing at Vail Arts Series.  My husband and I are in the first row.  I think we paid $15 for our tickets and she wears a satin red dress that spreads across the stage.  I mean it was just spectacular.  And here we are in the front row hearing this amazing woman sing.  About two weeks later we turn on our television for the New Year’s celebration on public television and she’s in Vienna, wearing the same red dress, singing on world coverage TV and here we had just seen her in the same dress in Granville a couple weeks earlier. And that’s what I think with Denison it provides that opportunity to mix with the big timers and it just couldn’t happen anywhere else. 

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