5p mimeograph on matte off white paper
BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE COMMUNITY BULLETIN
College year 11 Summer Bulletin 6
Monday, August 7, 1944
CALENDAR:
There will be a meeting of the Faculty this evening at 7:15 o’clock in the Kocher Room.
This evening at 8:15 Bernard Rudofsky will give a lecture in the College dining hall on the subject: “How Can People Expect to Have Good Architecture When They Wear Such Clothes?”
On Wednesday evening, August 9, at 8:15 o’clock Amedee Czenfant will give his first Summer Art Institute lecture at Black Mountain College; it will be on the subject: “Why Mankind Really Needs Art.”
There will be an all-Bach concert on Saturday evening, August 12, at 8:15 o’clock in the College dining hall. The Orchestra, directed by Heinrich Jalowetz, will play the Brandonburg Concerti Numbers 3 and 6. Yella Pessl and the Orchestra will play the Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra in A Major. Lette Leonard, accompanied by Miss Pessl and the Orchestra, will sing a group of arias. Miss Pessl will play five preludes and fugues for the Well-Tempered Clavier.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Chiefly because of fire insurance regulations students are urged not to spend the nights in the Studies Building unless they have had officially assigned to them the special rooms in the building as bed rooms.
PUBLICITY:
Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt wrote for her column “My Day” from Lake Junaluska on July 25: “Lake Junaluska…is a really lovely place and has a cooler summer climate than the Hudson River. I have been quite bust while here, and if I had had more time I could have visited many more nearby places. One thing I regretted very much not being able to do. I was asked to visit Black Mountain College. I have long been interested in this college and would have liked very much to see it, but I wanted to get home, for it is only during the summer that I can really have any consecutive time at Hyde Park…”
LAST WEEK IN REVIEW:
On Monday evening Joseph Breitenbach gave his second of two slide illustrated lectures on photography. He spoke on the subject “The Human Face in Photography.”
On Wednesday afternoon a group of students went down to the Moore General Hospital to read aloud for and with the patients in the neuropsychiatric ward Noel Coward’s “Fumed Oak.”
On Thursday afternoon Herbert and Bessie Miller left for Philadelphia, where, for the next six weeks, Dr Miller will give courses at Temple University.
On Thursday evening in the Lowinsky living room, there was an informal recital of compositions by Lional Nowak, professor of music at Converse College. More than fifty College people attended the concert. Mr Nowak played his Variations in C and his Nocturne and Toccata. Lette Leonard, accompanied by Mr Nowak, sang “Sabbath”, “Lullaby” and “There Come a Wind”. Rudolf Kolisch and Mr Nowak then played Sonatina for Violin and Piano. A discussion followed the concert.
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On Saturday morning a College group led by Bas Allen left with food and blanket packs for weekend trip to Mt Mitchell. In the group were Jagna Braunthal, Charles Buchanan, Ernest Coasta, Esther Coppock, Ted Dreier V, Emily Frey, Jack Penley, and Rose Penley.
On Saturday evening there was a recital of compositions written for the viola. Marcel Fick and Yella Pessl played a Sonata for Viola and Harpsichord by William Friedmann Bach. Then Mr Dick played an unaccompanied Sonata for Viola by Paul Hindesmith. After an intermission, Mr Dick, accompanied by Lionel Nowak, played a Suite for Viola and Piano by Ernest Blech.
WITH FORMER STUDENTS:
In the Mail:
Lieutenant George Hendrickson writes from Calcutta, India: “When I was in Delhi, it was too hot to do much sightseeing. I did manage to see the ‘Red Fort’ which is situated in Old Delhi, the seat of the ancient Muslom government. Here I spent some truly wonderful hours…The fort was built by the famous Shah Johan, known as ‘the Great Builder’. It was started in 1630 and completed ten years later. Quite a stupendous feat. The Shah later moved his court to Agra where he built another fortress-palace and the famous TAJ MAHAL, the tomb for his favorite wife. It is an interesting side note that the Shah contemplated a ‘Black TAJ’ right across the river as his own tomb, but his son, known as the Great Destroyer’, murdered him before the building got beyond the foundations…The Red Fort, which is now partly a British garrison, is roughly an octagon, encompassing the area of several square miles. Each section of the wall has a gate named from the direction in which it faces: Delhi Gate, Kashmiri Gate, etc. Within the walls is a small village. Where once artisans lived are now curio shops restaurants and so forth. From this center defense one passes through a gate into the Palace itself. A broad walk by his advisers an courtiers. He sat on a marble dias which faced the main gate. The dias is domed and enlayed with mosaics of birds and plants. These were done by French and Chinese artisans. The architecture is of Muslem influence. The arches were hung, in the days of the Shah, with rich tapestries and the stone floors shrewn with Oriental carpets. All of the columns were inset with precious and semi-precious stones which have since been looted. The ceilings still retain traces of painting and guilding, though age has weathered much of this…..In back of this hall is the palace proper, a series of connected buildings. One is a private audience hall which is open on four sides. Here the Shah would receive his nobles and the lesser kings. In this hall once rested the famous ‘Peacock Throne’ made of solid silver and surmounted by the famous Kohinoor diamond. There is an artificial marble waterfall that looks something like a fireplace. The water runs over the ‘mantle’ and down to an artificial ‘stream bed.’ In the falls here are many niches used for putting candles which, at night, would shine through the falls….The marble channel at one time was set with stones and precious metals. It runs to a large tank in which many fountains at one time played- some thirty-six, I think….In the middle of this central tank the Shah built a summer house after the manner of Kashmir. Here he would sit with his wives, while coolies would wet down the ‘Kus-Kus’ which was over the doors and windows. This method of air-conditioning is in use throughout Delhi today. (Kus-Kus is made up of a matting of roots and kept wet through the daylight hours)…The layout of the palace is roughly rectangular in plan. One side of it is taken up by the central tank, the audience chamber and the series of fountains. In the centre of this ‘rectangle’ is the ‘Pearl Mosque’, a very splendid mosque of white marble and simple design. It is, in reality, a miniature, having three domes and tiny minarets. This was built by one of the Shah’s sons-whether by ‘the Destroyer’ or not, I do not remember…Forming the back of the Palace Rectangle is the Royal Compartments, harm and baths. These are all built in a rambling fashion similar to the Rancho style. The baths have a room for hot, for cold, for perfumed water and for steam. All are elaborate with translucent
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Marble walls, marble floors and pillars, all of which at one time were encrusted with jewels and gold or silver. Nothing remains but the tracery…From one end of the series of buildings to the other is another marble stream bed. It is called the River of Paradise. It flows through each room. It, too, was inlaid with gems and precious metals. Fish once swam in it. The Shah had jeweled ornaments put into the noses of the fish. One can almost see the splendour of the apartments with their rich hangings, rugs, and vividly dressed menage…The main compartment has a huge fountain carved like a gigantic lotus blossom. This compartment has a mirrored ceiling which reflected the fountain from many angles. Upon the walls, above an elaborately carved and pierced marble screen is an Arabic inscription. Translated roughly, it says: ‘If ever there was a Paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.’ Even today, with the palace looted- parts of it renewed after being used as a military kitchen for British NCO’s- it is certainly a beautiful thing. It takes but little imagination to recall or picture what it must have been like three hundred years ago. I doubt if any western court ever achieved such beauty or luxury. Time and hoards of plunderers have carried off everything movable, but they haven’t destroyed the grandeur of conception. The Stream of Paradise is dry, the fountains no longer play- all is empty. It is the mute evidence of a lost civilization. No doubt India groaned under famines then, as she does now. I can’t say whether the Muslem yoke was harder or easier than that of the Empire. I do know that more beauty was left by the Shah than will ever be left by his Majesty’s Government…’
Private Isaac Nakata, hospitalized several weeks ago because of wounds sustained in battle, writes on August 1 from somewhere in Italy: “This locality is so far removed from the front in distance and effects that it could be any army camp in Georgia. It is an interlude and a lucky break for me. After all the tension of the last few weeks this is a soothing tonic. I’m not a maniac at any work of any kind, and I like to take time off now and then whenever I feel the need of it, regardless of all else. Of course, one has no choice in the matter at the front, and the effect of the strain is only too evident. There are few rules and conventions in the ways of battling armies. How can we speak of merey? How can we speak of international law that condemns atrocities, yet speak in a vein that war for power is sanctioned and is legal. There are different methods of killing and decimating populations and cities but I have yet to find an answer as to what is scrupulous and what is unscrupulous in war…I grant the right to fight for liberty and freedom. How far can we go along these lines of ‘rights’ of nations? There must be some overall agency to determine and to administer the rights and duties of nations in order to have international peace….On my passes I go swimming. The water is very cool, but the beaches are crowded with soldiers and civilians. The beaches are short since much of the shore is rocky. People sunbathe on the rocks. The trains, run by AMG, are jampacked. We get free rides, naturally…Food prices are pretty high. An egg costs twenty cents; a small dish of spaghetti costs sixty cents, pretty delicious. Drinks are not too expensive, but the quality is poor….It is very warm during the day but cools off to a pleasant degree at night, and I’m getting lazier and lazier and duller and duller. But this is paradise compared to the front and I will enjoy every bit of my stay here, about a month more.”
Sergeant John M Stix writes from somewhere in France on July 27: “We beached on the Normandy coast some weeks ago…We are participating, but our life has not been drenched or even stained by the Battle which now is in full swing just ‘up the line’. Needless to say, there have been moments of excitement; we’ve been subjected from time to time to bits of harassing interference, but our role has necessarily been a passive one and we can only bask in the glory—the bloody glory—of the fightin’ mad infantry. Our life of the past few weeks makes dull reading indeed alongside the daily vivid accounts of front line fighting. Instead of a grand, all-out assault, we feel more as if we’re part of a gigantic coup de grace. However, in spite of these tender rumors from the
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Hinterland, provoked by ‘that ludicrously small group of conspirators’ (as the German radio calls them), the German military machine is still in front of us, even though it may be in reverse….I hope it’s over soon. We don’t like watching France blown and torn asunder, no more than do the French. Families straggling bravely along the highways, old women poking about amongst the ruins, the shambles that were their homes, old men carrying bits of bedding or wheeling carts of salvaged houseware. One of the more grotesque sights is wire. Just wire, in all shapes and sizes, twisted, tangled or strung systematically from any accessible support. (La Haye de Puits looked like a weaver’s nightmare)…Time carried a sort of dubious report on the welcome given the liberating troop by the Normans. Coolish , they thought. Well, no doubt it is true that the Normans enjoy better health than French people in the interior. But this they owe more to themselves than to the Germans; they are clever and resourceful and were able to circumvent many decrees of the occupation army. They love France no less than any of their countrymen and they recognize the need for the destructive measures which, although they are laying waste the towns and villages, are after all pushing the Nazis back. We have not found them bitter towards Americans. And the few whose record is more or less traitorous- collaborationists- are quickly looked after and taken out of circulation…”
WITH FORMER MEMBERS OF THE STAFF:
New Addresses:
Dr and Mrs Fritz Moellenhoff
4752 Ellis Avenue
Chicago 15, Illinois
COMMUNITY WORK REPORT:
(Week of July 22-July 29)
The entrance fence is finished, good looking and ready for painting.
The terrace filling was delayed, as Lady Hough had the sulks again and sat waiting to be welded, but the stone work went on and now lacks about three more days’ work.
At the Farm it is good to know that the corn had its last hoeing this season, and that except for a few beans and cabbages, the crops are laid by, ready for harvesting. At the finish of the hoeing the Farm Crew graded the dirt floor of the Beef Shed, and Ross finished building the manger and hay rack.
Dish washing continued apace. The other jobs included finishing the bridge by Roadside, plumbing, some new lighting in North Lodge, hauling, and cleaning up the debris left by the Merchant Construction Company. The sewer ditch of the new Service Quarters was filled in.
A new bed for the International truck is being built, and the Dump truck is beginning to show the strain.
A frame for a large “double-sheet-size” projection screen was built in the shop and five carving benches for the sculpture classes were cut out and partly assembled.
--Mary Gregory
(week of July 31- August 5)
Gradually the “petticoat”- or border curtain- in front of the stage was raised and fixed to the ceiling; and the stage lights were shifted. One coat of paint was put on the entrance fence, and the posts were creosoted. Work on the Studies Building terrace was continued- the terrace should be finished during the week.
Trash was hauled from the regular barrels and other less regular area in the front of the shop and around the new buildings and near South Lodge.
The cement floors of the new Service Wing were treated (with lapidolith) and the cellar was graded.
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On the farm the electric fence was straightened to make up for the fact that it is no longer electric. The fence of the barn pasture was removed. Weeds were mowed and the tomatoes and cabbages were hoed.
In the shop the carving benches for the Art Department were finished, and a small new shed was built and a forge was set up in it.
--Mary Gregory
Community List as of August 7, 1944
Students:
A Richard Albany
S Adele Albert
A Virginia Avery
S Barbara Banks
M Abby Barnett
A Raymond Barnhart
S Marilyn Bauer
A Gloria Beckman
A Mrs N Bedrossian
M Lillian Berger
A Roberta Blair
A Jane Bland
W Jagna Braunthal
M Mrs Breeskin
M Dorothy Breeskin
M Gloria Breeskin
M Mary Jane Brennan
S Mary Brett
W Zoe Broadwain
S Sam Brown
A Katherine Comfort
A Ernest Costa
A Irene Cullis
S Gwen Currier
A Mary Lou Derryberry
S Dan Dixon
M Gabrielle Fischer
W Charles Forberg
A Mrs Oliver Freud
W Emily Frey
M Ruby Gervertz
S Lorrie Goulet
W Ati Gropius
M Phyllis Gross
M Alberta Halstead
M Just Horowitz
M Robert Isaacson
S Betty Kelley
A Margaret Kennard
S Mary Kriger
S Liese Kulka
A Hazel Larsen
M Paula Lenehner
M Ursula Lewis
S Harriette Lyford
A Mary Ruth Lyford
S Patsy Lynch
M Monica Mann
S Helen Wright Marden
W Joan Martison
A MRs H Maser
M Jane Mayhall
A Marie McCall
S Arlyn McKenna
S Archie McWilliams
S Ruth Miller
S Faith Murray
S Neal Nathanson
S Ruth O’Neill
M Iris Okun
S Ginger Osbourne
S Carol Ostrow
A Virginia Parker
M Josephine Pater
M May de F Payne
Sec Viera Pevsner
M Jennie Pitcoff
S Barbara Pollet
Sec Janet Rees
A John Reiss
S Gloria Rosenfield
M Simon Rosenfield
M Simon Sadoff
S Laille Schutz
M Louise Schmidt
A Betty Schmidt
W Harold Schuyler
M Jeannette Siegel
A Irene Simon
Sec Olga Schwartz
S Jane Slater
A Nancy Smith
S Tanya Sprager
A Joan Stack
M Kathryn Stein
M Alma Stone
S Jane Stone
S Margaret Strauss
M Jean Swanson
A Katherine Swartzbaugh
A Hilda Torry
A Sarah Towery
A Ann Tredick
M Muffie Vaughn
S Jeanne Wacker
M Phyllis Warnick
A Edna Way
A Lou K Weber
M Jane Woodruff
Staff:
Henrietta Barth
Mrs Billig
Babe Brown
Peggy Emery
Mimi French
Gerda Hagendorn
Nell Rice
Mrs A D Stone
Esther Coppock
Faculty:
Anni Albers
Josef Albers
Eric Bentley
Joseph Breitenbach
Jean Charlot
Fred Cohen
Jose de Creef
Frances de Graaff
Marcel Dick
Theodore Dreier
Lorna Freedman
Nikolai Gradudan
Joanna Graudan
Molly Gregory
Fritz Hansgirg
Heinrich Jalowetz
Elsa Kahl
Rudolf Kolisch
Marianne Kopp
Kenneth Kurtz
Lotte Leonard
Edward Lowinsky
Amedee Ozenfant
Yella Pessl
Bernard Rudofsky
Erwin Straus
Trudi Straus
Robert Wunsch
Families:
Mrs Charlot
Ann Charlot
Johnny Charlot
Martin Charlot
Mrs Dick
Suzie Dick
Barbara Dreier
Ted Dreier Jr
Maria Hansgirg
Johanna Jalowetz
Helen Kopp
Henry Leonard
Gretel Lowinsky
Naomi Ruth Lowinsky
Maja Bentley
Kitchen and Maids
Margaret Dougherty
William Dougherty
Malrey Few
Kathleen Gardner
Willie Gardner
Jack Lipsey
Gertrude Lytle
Jessie Lytle
Maude Roundtree
Will Smith
