VARSITY VARIETIES OF 1955

It is amazing in an old brain how many memories can be dug up when you look at something as insignificant as a “ticket.”

When you see the words “Pepperdine College,” the first thing you have to do it to wipe out of your mind what Pepperdine University in Malibu is today and then listen when I tell you that the Pepperdine I went to was at 79th and Vermont in Los Angeles. It was a tiny private Christian college, founded by George Pepperdine who was still living when I attended this college, and most of the kids who went there were active in the Church of Christ denomination. There were 900 students.

Presented and promoted entirely by students, Varsity Varieties had been developed a few years earlier in an effort to combine all the charity collections into one annual event. Money raised went to five charities – American Heart Association, Community Chest, Red Cross, Save-the-Children Foundation and World Student Service Fund. The ticket, which you will notice costs $1.00, is how the money to be donated was raised. Imagine!

What kind of memory does this ticket bring back to me? I was on the PR committee and I arranged for a former boyfriend who worked for a print shop to print the tickets as a donation to the college. I had jilted him within two months of starting college in September of 1953, and I don’t know how I had the chutzpah to go back to him and ask for this favor. I did, because I knew how good he was in what became his profession, and I wanted my job on the committee to be perfect. It was.

The picture below shows the committee. The director, Dick Shoulders, was a bit older than the rest of us, because he had started college after serving in WWII. In this picture, I am the one he is consulting with. What memory does this picture bring back to me? Under the caption it states “All photos by Lawrence Schiller.” It was obvious even at that early date that Larry Schiller was going to be famous. His work was already professional then and he was only a freshman in college. If you run a Google/Images search on him you will see that he took photos of Marilyn Monroe that have become icons. His work appeared on the cover of Life Magazine. He has co-authored books with famous writers, as well as written books himself. Oh, he has done so much more. But back then, he and I were kind of “buddies” in the journalism classes we took together. I’ve always felt kind of proprietary about Larry, because “I knew him when.”

The last picture is of my active part in the production. In addition to working on PR and then working backstage during the production itself, I sang in a trio with two of my good friends. The girl on the right was Cathy Ottun. She had a marvelous voice, a real stage presence and was really funny to boot! On the left is Gloria Houston, who was a very talented musician, and she arranged all our songs. She worked out the most amazing arrangements, all because she knew what she was doing, rather than just letting the three of us “harmonize.” And I am in the middle. I had no real talent other than having a good ear for pitch and a good ability to blend well in a group. For Varsity Varieties of 1955, we had three songs: “Hoop Dee Doo,” “Dream,” and “You Call Everybody Darlin’.” What does this picture remind me of? More than anything else, it reminds me that this was a very special year, and I had some very special friends.

And these are very special memories!