• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1957-12-07_Vol22_No07_03

Mark VI Combo Had Trouble Getting Started; Is Now Recognized Widely For Its Music Western Carolina College's own little dance band, the Mark VI Combo, is fast becoming one of the best known music providers in the western part of the state and they are a fixing to venture forth into the more eastern Tarheelia. This lively crew was organized three years ago. At that time they had no capital and very little equipment. But they did have a great faith in the future and in their own abilities to provide a type of dance music that high school and college students would like and enjoy. The six at that time were Mark Rogers, leader, Gene Ellis on the trumpet, Gene Bates with his trombone, Jim Cantrell and his guitar, Harold Higgins at the piano and Ray Fentriss as drummer. The group sought help from students and faculty but were given a cold shoulder by both groups. So, instead of accepting personal payment for their efforts, each member of the band agreed to sink the proceeds from their playing back into the band to buy music and equipment. According to Gene Ellis, those were pretty tough days financially speaking. They began to play in high schools in this area and by the Spring of that year they were pretty well booked solid. Things began to look a little brighter for the band. The 1956-57 college year rolled around and the group again got organized for the year. By this time, Tommy Ginn had replaced Higgins at the piano and Bob Allen was on the drums. Neil Watson was there most of the time to play the bass. During the year, they made sev eral appearances on campus at such events as an orientation week dance, other dances throughout the year, and they were hired to play for the annual May Day Dance last spring. During the spring quarter there was hardly a weekend in which the band was not booked up. They played for dances at Hayesville, Franklin, Waynesville, Canton, Brevard, Morganton, Hen dersonville, and others. Every where they went they were asked to return. Meantime, they also made several benefit performances for the Red Cross and other non profit organizations. This year, Mr. Robert Travar then, WCC's band director, has taken over the piano pounding operations and Ray Medford is at the bass. Already, they have made six appearances here on the campus with the major one being the annual fall formal sponsored recently by the Women's House Government. During the Christmas Holidays, they plan to play in the Charlotte-Gastonia area and come winter and spring quarters, they'll be off on many more jaunts to high schools and other organizations. According to Ellis, who is the leader this year, being in the combo has its interesting moments. For instance, there's the time they were returning from an engagement in Morganton and everyone had fallen asleep except Gene Bates who was driving. Bates wasn't too familiar with the roads and at Marion he took the wrong road. After awhile, he woke Ellis up and asked him if they were on the right road. Half asleep, Ellis answered, "oh sure, go ahead." After awhile they came to a sign which said "Boone - 15 miles." Returning by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway, they arrived back on campus after breakfast the next morning, a tired and bedraggled bunch. In Hayesville one night, the heating system went out in the gymnasium where they were playing and they had to perform in overcoats. Ellis says the girls in evening gowns like to of froze. One night at Brevard, the teenage crowd kept calling for "rock and roll" numbers so the band decided that they'd just play that type until the kids had had enough of it. Over an hour later, the students were still going strong and the band was about to drop. Over in Bethel, James Cantrell, who also serves as vocalist, got up with a big smile and began to sing. Quite a few of the young females came running forward with their little flash units to take pictures Cantrell's smile became bigger. They passed him right on by and began to take shots of Neil Wilson. Playing in a dance combo entails a lot of worry, work, and travel but it has its brighter moments too. All six of the musicians agree that it's one of the grandest experiences of their lives. Ellis is a senior and a transfer student from Mars Hill College. He's noted for his polished trumpet playing and his impersonations of the great Satchmo, Louie Armstrong. Allen hails from Hampton, Virginia and is a sophomore here at WCC, majoring in pre-engineering. Prior to enrolling here he played in his high school band and in dance bands around Hampton. Bates, a transfer from East Carolina, is a junior and calls Murphy his home town. He played with the dance band at ECC and served as a counselor at the Transylvania Music Camp. Cantrell's home is in Hendersonville, N. C. He has played with dance bands all over the southeast and was once connected with Red Foley of radio fame. At one time, he had his own radio show. Medford, who joined the group this year, is from Weaverville, N. C. where he played in the high school band. He's also quite noted for his vocalizing. Travarthan is a graduate of Duke University where he played with the Duke Ambassadors, a well-known dance combo. He has received his matser's degree in music from the University of Michigan. He once toured Europe with a group sponsored by the state department. The Mavk VI combo is making quite a name for itself. WCC students can well be proud of them. Green Room Notes By Jim Thomas — Drama Editor The final curtain has fallen on this quarter's Little Theatre production, THE RAINMAKER. The cast and director have been listening breathlessly for signs of "yea" or "nay" from the many reviewers and viewers of the play. Parker Lyda, a freshman from Hendersonville, graciously consented to write a review of THE RAINMAKER for this column. Parker has had much experience in drama from the viewers angle. He has attended many productions of the Vagabond Players, who perform in the Flat Rock Playhouse in Hendersonville. THE RAINMAKER—Parker Lyda Last week I had the pleasure of seeing THE RAINMAKER staged here on campus. I can truly say it was time well spent. The story of a drought striken family and their personal problems reminded many of us of similar situations at home. For this reason, Charles Barrett's choice was a very good one. I would like to commend Mr. Barrett on the directing of the play. At no time during the entire performance was there a lag in the action. Nor was there any question as to the ideas which the actors tried to get across to us. duction, you're missing quite a character. He's the new drama instructor—straight from Chapel Hill. He's six feet tall, has dark hair, villainous eyebrows, and is THE WESTERN CAROLINIAN Saturday, December 7, 1957 Coffee College, U. S. A. Mr. Barrett always complaining about the mere 24-hour day which we have. He says that it's just not long enough. Mr. Barrett is originally from Greensboro, N. C. He's married and has one little girl. He went to Davidson College for two years, I must add that I believed there after which he spent several Health And Safety News According to Mrs. Richard Grace, secretary of the Health and Safety Committee, the following information is immediately pertinent to all operators of motor vehicles on campus: 1. All 1958 license numbers are to be turned in to the Health and Safety office as soon as they are known. There is a penalty involved for failure to do so. Blanks for this purpose are available at the Health and Safety office in Joyner Building. 2. All delinquent tickets for fall quarter must be paid before registration on January 3, 1958. Grades of persons failing to attend to this matter will be withheld until such time as the fines are paid. 3. Those persons with more than one car registered must return the last number assigned to them and pick up their new tags with the original number. These persons have been notified and should attend to this as soon as possible. 4. Students are not permitted to park their cars near the new gymnasium on nights when a basketball game is being played You are asked to park behind Stillwell Building in the parking lot provided or leave your car on campus. 5. Students should make sure that they have the proper sticker for their car and that it be displayed in he proper place. (Fresh- were several times when the action should have been slowed down so that the actors could get the seriousness of their parts over. The play shouldn't have been a comedy all the way through. When Lizzie tried to get across to me how she felt when her brother told her she wasn't pretty, I could feel nothing. I was very surprised at the scenery. The way the changing of sets was handled and their arrangements was very good. This not only helped in getting the play across, but made it more interesting. The acting was excellent. I was completely carried away by everyone, Lizzie. What disturbed me about her was the fact that she was supposed to be ugly. Neither her acting nor her makeup led me to believe this. From where I sat, she looker very marriageable. Noah and Jim were just great. I don't see how the play could be any better as far as they are concerned. The whole play was a great success. I have been around actors, and have seen over 30 professional plays in the last five years. I can truthfully' say in comparison, it was very well done. As I said before, I am surprised at the quality of the Drama Department. I am looking forward to many more productions here on campus. If they are as much of a success as THE RAINMAKER, I know they will be very enjoyable. months in the Air Force. While in the Air Force, Mr. Barrett was with the Special Service Branch, where he wrote and directed several dramatic shows for hospital and troop entertainment. Barrett entered the University of jSlorth Carolina upon his discharge from the Air Force. He received the A.B. degree in English from UNC in 1956. In 1957 he received the M. A. degree in Drama and Television. Barrett participated in the Carolina Playmakers' productions, the Durham Theatre Guild, acted in and directed several radio and TV shows, and during his last year at UNC he was on the UNC-TV staff as Assistant Director. Thank you, Parker Lyda! For those of you who may not be familiar with Mr. Charles Barrett, director of this quarter's pro- men who live on campus use a green rectangular sticker. Upperclassmen use a yellow one. Day students also have their own design.) Mrs. Grace said that students should read carefully pages 19 and 20 of the Student Handbook. In these pages, a full summary of the traffic rules and regulations is given and the fines for breaking the rules are listed. ALPHA PSI OMEGA—There's" a fraternity on campus that I'll bet you didn't know about. That's the Western Carolina College Chapter of the Alpha Psi Omega, a national honorary dramatic fraternity. The WCC chapter of this national fraternity—Theta Iota—met in the dining room of the Methodist Church on October 25 for a wonderful spaghetti dinner. The culinary feats were performed by Bill Stone, who was reported by his wife to be an accomplished chef. Any Alpha Psi Omega member will vouch for this fact now! A short business meeting was held around the table following the dinner. Dues were collected and Beatrice Burrell, the Cast Director, appointed an entertainment committee. If you are interested in any phase of Theatre, come on down to the Little Theatre next quarter! There will be presented three one- act Lab plays and the usual full- length major production. We need electricians, make-up artists, stage crews, stage managers, house managers, actors, directors — just anything you can name. Come down. You'll be welcomed — and needed! WCC Symbol WCC might well stand for We Consume Coffee, if the results of a recent poll taken by The Western Carolinian is any indication. On Wednesday of this past week, we talked the folks at the cafeteria, The Townhouse, The College Shop and the snack bar at Still well into keeping a record of how many cups they sold in a day. While our statistics are not completely accurate due to difficulties in undertaking such a project, we did come up with a fairly accurate total of 1,972 cups bought at these four places. Figured in gallons, it amounts to 99. In dollars and cents, it's $98.60. Winford Ashe at The Townhouse said that he usually sold more than he did on Wednesday because, it being such a cold day, not as many students walked the distance to The Townhouse. Win- ford sold a total of 720 cups between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. to be high scorer. The College Shop was second with 560 cups between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. The snack bar racked up 413 cups before it closed at 3:00 p.m. and 269 cups were served in the cafeteria Wednesday morning. We did not have the Cullowhee Cafe count their coffee sales nor are we taking into consideration the coffee drunk by day students off campus or that was made and served at the several club meetings that were held Wednesday night. If you take these into consideration, it would be safe to say that over 2,600 cups of Java are consumed daily by WCC students and faculty. Who knows, we might be the biggest per capita bunch of coffee drinkers in the country. There are lots of things we could do without, but without our coffee we're a pretty unhappy lot. Other College Papers At Western Carolinian Office Exchange papers from colleges throughout North Carolina and several schools in South Carolina and Tennessee come to The Western Carolinian office each week. We also subscribe to the Asheville Citizen. Students are welcome to come, by the office and read these papers. The office is open every day at 11 a.m. and 'most every afternoon from 3 to 5. Newspapers coming to this office include the student publications of the University of North arolina, Wake Forest, Appalachian, East Carolina, Catawba, Guilford, Elon, Mars Hill, Brevard, But Tennessee, Wingate and others Laugh! Darn It! When it comes to making love, a girl can always listen so much faster than a man can talk. 0 Our high school teacher, trying to impress upon us the importance of a large vocabulary, said that if we used a word 10 times it would be ours for life. At that, the girl sitting next to me closed her eyes and began chanting, "Jack, Jack, Jack . . ." 0 • Man to friend: "Last night I was talking to my wife—you know how you do when the TV set's broken . . ." The USS Princeton, the first Navy warship to have propeHiiux machinery below the'waterline out of reach of enemy shot, w» launched at Philadelphia Dec. 10, 1843. WCC On Canton Station "Western Carolina College Presents" is a weekly radio program broadcast every Sunday over station WWIT in Canton. Produced by Mrs. Lillian W. Hirt, publicity director of WCC, the programs deal with a wide variety of subjects, ranging from musicals to talks given by faculty members. On December 8, a Christmas program will be presented by the Home Economics Department of WCC. The program will consist of decorating ideas and other topics of interest to the homemaker. The program for December 15 will be a tape recording of the j Moore Dormitory Christmas Party. RECORDS FOR SALE Fabulous 45 RPM record offer* Ail the latest currently popular HI-FI quality hit recordings can be yours now at a fraction of their retail price during the Hollywood Record Club membership drive. During this membership drive, in order to acquaint you with our records, we will send you four currently popular hit records of your choice, eight sides in all for the low price of only $1.00 plus 15* to cover the cost of postage and handling. You must be completely satisfied with your records. If not, simply return to us the records and your $1.00 will be refunded. Below is a list of ten different categories from which tt ...»^o your first four records. Each cats- gory consists of four records. ( ) Rock and Roll ( ) Popular ( ) Rhythm and Blues ( ) Honky Tonk ( ) Latin American ( ) A Tribute to Tommy Dorsey ( ) Country and Western ( ) Square Dance with calls ( ) The Talking Bible (St. Matthews ( ) Family Hymns Please add $10 plus postage for each edditional four records requested. MAIL TO: RECORDS. 6625 DELMAR BLVD. UNIVER8ITY CITY 5, MO. (Pair Advertisement) KURT GANS - The Home of Fine Diamonds •>i your personality • It ( ~^Lauxe as Jung' ] \ as you. &eL! / You SAVE 30% to 40% On Diamonds at Kurt Gans Because We Buy Direct. Evening Appointments Gladly Arranged wtt- j I W « L ( * WAYNE8VILLE You Can Get Budget Terms At Kurt Gans YES NO 1. Do you let the opposite sex make up your mind for you when you're buying clothes? 2. Do you always ask to see the menu, even when you know what you want? — [ | | | 3. Do you choose your brand of cigarettes because of the package, rather than what's inside? _ ..... 4. Do you agree that "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world"? _ .._ Q 5. Do you look upon the sports car craze as kid stuff? 6. Do you consider puns the lowest form of humor? T~ 7. Do you disagree with this statement: "The best tobacco makes the best smoke"? 8. Do you think TV will ever replace bundling as an indoor sport? _... □ WIN $25 CASH! Dream up your own questions for future "Personality Power" quizzes. We'll pay $25 for each question used in this college ad campaign. Send questions with name, address, college 3nd class to: Camel Quiz, Box 1935, Grand Central Station, New York 17, N. Y. It. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Wlnaton-tialnn, N. C. If you answered "No" to all questions, you obviously smoke Camels — a real cigarette. Only 6 or 7 "No" answers mean you better get onto Camels fast. Fewer than 6 "No's" and it really doesn't matter what you smoke. Any thing's good enough! But if you want to enjoy smoking as never before, switch to Camels. You'll find nothing else tastes so rich, smokes so good and mild. Could be that's why more people today smoke Camels than any other cigarette. Love that Camel! Have a real cigarette- have a CrcHlflGl

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University’s student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina Teachers College
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 1957-12-07;
  • Date digitized: 2017-09-26
• Extent
  • Dimension: 21.5" x 16"
  • Pages: 6 pages
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1957-12-07_Vol22_No07
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library