Word: billiards
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...great hallway is a Gothic arch of wood ribs with gilded bosses representing the heads of such men as Shakespeare, Socrates and George Washington. The stairway, lighted with bronze statues holding a gaselier on each newel post, led to the private upstairs chapel, later converted into a billiard room...
...freshman's attitude toward the Harvard Union could be generalized into one word, that word would probably be "indifference." The solid building on Quincy Street serves his meals on cartwheel trays, houses his dances, and corrects his Gen. Ed. papers; but between these events only the click of billiard balls, the slap of a pingpong paddle, and a kitchenbroom's swish break a sluggish silence in the building. He ignores its pictures of old athletes on the walls, hangs campaign posters from mounted buffalo heads, and ties bibs around John Harvard's bust in the dining room...
...building itself, decorated with Teddy Roosevelt's African game trophies, oak paneling, and coat of arms, there was opportunity for a real Harvard club. Its basement held a large room with eighteen billiard tables where a member could obtain free instruction from a "well-known professional." A kitchen, a printing office, and rooms of The CRIMSON completed this floor. Above, in the hall now used as freshman dining room, was a living room. An athlete's training table occupied what is now the Union kitchen. Upstairs, a library of 25,000 volumes filled one room while on the third floor...
...firm hand of the University itself to bring order from chaos. A rejuvenation of dues-paying membership followed the move, since confident student officers now ran contests, sponsored concerts, and offered a number of exciting war heroes and stimulating politicians as speakers. Prizes were offered for the best billiard player, pool player, and "that freshman member who at midyears, has achieved highest standing in studies and activities." Democratic Presidential Candidate James M. Cox stopped by to speak on his "whirlwind tour of New England" in 1920. The Union's University overseers had to stamp down student requests for Socialists Debs...
...overcome Toscanini's dislike of recordings (he was infuriated by their failure to reproduce the sound of his orchestra as he remembered it), Walter Toscanini built a sound studio in the billiard room in the basement of Toscanini's house in Riverdale (the Upper Bronx), piped tape-recorded music up to a giant speaker in the living room. When the spirit moved him, the old man sat in the living room listening to and judging the full-volume thunder of his orchestra. If a note or a phrase displeased him, he moved his head almost imperceptibly from side...