Page Four

Campus' Biggest Operators Reveal
Secrets of ‘Connections' and ‘Pull'

by Dick ’l‘haililtg

The noisy black object; out in the hall connects you
with tile rest of the calnpllsiand the rest of the world.

There are over 200 telephones on campus. Each one
of them would remain the st ‘tnd of wire and hunk of metal
that it is if it \l'el'eli‘t for all operator with the god-like

ability to give it lite.
you talk to this person many
times a day, you probably don't
realize what an important cog
the college operator is- in the
"campus machinery.

It. takes ll college operators
alternating with a permanent—
1y employed town woman to
keep switch “alive" around
the clock, The town woman
works during classes, girls
take their turns in late Lifter-
iioon, and the men take over
at is pm. One of the male
operators sleeps all night on
a cot near the switchboard,
which is located on the sec-
ond t'loor oi the heating plant.

How do the operators be—
have when they hold this power
of liie-and-dcath over your
telephone? They seem cori-
genial enough 7 even in thc
face or a constant stream of
questions; What time is it?
what's tor dinner? what was
the score of the game? What
are women’s hours? or When
does the dance start?

Monitoring

Do operators violate a strict
campus rule tor dding them to
listen in on private conversa—
tlons? After promising not to
reveal any names, 1 learned
from reliable sources that girl
operators otten {air an urge to
listen in on telephone convcn
sations if a man were calling
their floor, or maybe even If
it was just their hall he was
calling. One girl mentioned

unhappily, I might add)
usually happens when
you’re too busy to listen,”

I was told that it you turn
a certain key on the side oi
the switchboard,» you can
hear everything that is said.
However, the reverse is also
true. The people carrying on
the conversation can tell
when the operator is listening
it he makes any sound. Since
the switchboard is so noisy,
the operators usually decidc
that it’s not worth the risk
to eavesdrop, unless the ins
trusion has been announced
beloreliond.

thn a male operator was
asked it he had over monitored
private calls, he ,retorted that
yes, he had, but he didn't iind
“other people's conversations
particularly intcrcstmg,"

However, the some opcrator
thinks he has iound a cure tor
the big dcad spot 0( tho wcck
——Fridoy nights, when most of
the Would-be callers arc out on
dates. He throws open the key
on one side or the switchboard
and starts calling people. Every~
one can hear everyone else.
Soon thcy have a pretty good
bull session going. A friend of
his who was in the room at
the time mentioned that he had
been included in a seven-way
“party linc" one night,

Emergencies

Monitoring is the rule rathcr
than the exception on

Although ~—

hoiu calls These pccial calls
arc not put through uiilcss the
caller swears that is an emer-
gency, and the operator is re-
dun-ed to lislcn to ascertain it
was really an cmcrgcncy. 1i it
isn't an emergency, the call is
cut oli.

One or the all-night men
could recall an emergency call

from North Younker last; year
to .one of the women’s hulls.

\VIIen the right girl answer-

ed, the group oi men im—
inediiltely launched into what
the operator termed a
drunken serenade," accom-
panicd by a trombone and
banjo. lle round the scrcnude
so amusing that he let it
continue until the musicians
hung up.

Another operator recalls the
limo be let a north campus
casanova talk him into connec—
trons for a short after-hours
tzilk with thc objcct oi his af-
icction. It was when his Juliet
answercd and asked how- he got
through central so late at night
that he boastcd, “because I’m so
good.” ,

“The heck you are," she said
—and hung up Scrvcs him right
7hr probably got her out ol
bed, anyway.

Bad Switchboard

The college operators all
seem to like their jobs, al»
though they sav they'd like them
a ,whole lot better if they had
a dependable switchboard to
work wllh, It seems that (his
one has been in service a long
tune and the connections have
been redone so many times that
they just won't hold together
any more. This, I’m told, is the
reason [or bad service, inter-
fel'ellce, and static. They say a
ncw switchboard would takc
calc of it,

Another thing they can
agree on is that it's a good
, thing that this kind oi situa—
tion doesn’t come up more
oiten that it does: The college
operator was surprised to
hear a student call tron. one
oi the women’s balls to say
that a messagc had been lci't:
for her to call a number in
the Canadian province oi Sass
ketchewan. It took college
switch 45 minutes oi trantic
searching over thousands oi
miles or costly telephone
connections heiore he iound
that there was no such num-
ber, The prankstcr who had
leit the message was doing
his chuckling in Newton, 18
miles llnd 35 cents away.

In case you’re wondering who
thc operator was that you talk
ed to last time, maybe this list
will help you: The girls are
Chris Cochran, Liz Halvorson,
Bobbie Segrest, and Jean
Stl'ight. Malc operators are
Chuck Adams, Wilbcr Baker.
Mike Goodrich. Hod Greeley.
Davc Hagstroin, Dick Lehrcr,
and Tom Skornia.

 

while Selections

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December 9, W55

_ New Gifts to Aid

Lilo Assurance

Phil Spelt and Barbara Sheets watch as Dan Toit looks sky
ward during a scene train “The Shewing-up oi Blanco Posllet"
third play in the three ploy Actors Showcase

 

Osborne Examines Showcase,

Says: Keep Pur

Actnls
while production. in
comparativcly small
the iii-st two nights, ncw ar—
tois on the Gum-tell campus
wcrc able to pciioim well and
gain an cxpcricncc probably im—
possiblc had not such a produc-
tion been instigated last year
with Freshmen Showcase.

it's wrsc to examine this past
\ieek's cndcavor with its ptll’»
posc always in mind; so, ii the
rcadcr s expecting a critical
icvicw of the production as
such, he may be disappointed
Freshmen Showcase uas estab
lishcd last year (with the hope

or its becoming a pcrniancnt
icaturc of the dramatic pro.
duction calendar) to give unv-
oiie ncw at Gl'lnnell a chance
to "show thcir stuff" acting-
wisc. in addition, the new stun
dent could discover (or his own
beneﬁt it this extra and intras
curricular activity was to his
liking, He would not have to
compete with upperclass “estab-
llslled” actors (though sometimes
the competition might not prove
too stilt).

Freshmen Not Only Actors

Last year’s turnout oi fresh»
men was good but not ovcr
whclmmg tcxccpt perhaps on
the female sidc), This scars
tlli‘nrout was about the same
but ditiicultios in grades exclude
ed a [ew oi the applicants and

spite of
audiences

DON’T SMOKE
lN BED!

DON'T

GIVE

FIRE A

PLACE TO START

Showcasc is a \volllh

pose In Mind

uppciclassmen were recruited
Thus the title “Actors Show
case. On the whole, hoii-cvcr,
the maroi roles of the three
one acts were cariied by fleshr
men _ or at least uppeiclass
men with little Grinncll act.-
ing experience.

A run of tour nights and act-
ing in such close proximity to
thc audience, oiicrcd
lengc to inexperienced
and this year’s Showcase im—
proved to a Ceilail‘t extent llom
Monday to Thuisday in that the
actors gained couiidencc.

Snndel and Vandeanald

The iii-st show, "The Tenor"
by Frank Wedekind, was di-
rected by Sharon Sandcl with
Joan Vandel’Naald's assistance.
Potentialities not fully devclopr
cd characterized most of the
acting. The script is dated, in
tho iirst place, and its intcrpre
tation is debatable. Professional
acting and directing would be
nccdcd to carry this oil
truly melodramatic style and
Actors’ Showcase doesn't prc-
tend to be professional. Prob
ahlv a heavier emphasis on the
s ire of the script and cxaggci»
ation to the point of larcc would
have carried the show off to
the audiences cnjoymcnt

Kelly
"In the Shadow
the Glen" offers another pos—
sibility tor debate as tar as
classirication gocs and could he
called ”tragicomcdy.” Perhaps

(Cont'ﬂ Pg. 5, Col. 2)

Syllge's of

Prescriptions

Is
The MOST
Important part
of our Business.

i Filling
l

FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE

“’5 can analyze and
glasses at no charge to
Our public school t

register the Ex oi your
You.
eaching background and

professional experience at your service (or cor»
iection or visual difficulties thru glasses ol train—

ing

HAROLD SUE

CHTING, OD.

011 Broad — 2 Dears South 01 Leeper’s Music

a chair .
actor-5:"

inl

Faculty, Students

Picsidcat Bowen has announce
ed that gtfti limit the Equitable
sacicty or the
United States and Union chi-—
hide and Carbon Colp. have
bccn l‘ci'cll'etl by Grinncll,

The Society donated storm
under its systematic plan tor
improving faculty salaries in
privately supported liberal
arts colleges. Equitable is dis-
tributing a total ot' $100,000 to
eligible colleges and nniver.
sitic- this year.

Griiiucll also received $8.040
this year trom the Union Cal'v
hide and Carbon Education
fund, which will apply toward
school awarded scholarships for
.i niunhcr at students who plan
to outer husincss or industry.

Chase Appears in Play

Rowland Chasc, assistant pro-
lcssor or speech at Griniicll clit—
lcgc, appeared in a major
role in Shakespeare's The wint-
er‘s Tale with the Northwestern
University Theatre. He pcrlorin-
rd thcrc previously us There-
mencs in phcedre and directed
the summer production at
rliaedrc in 195-1.

FRATERN W

l
1 TO FIGURE YOU’LL HAVE

EXTRA CASH

for CHRISTMAS
GOING HOME

BY GREYHOUND

l, Des Doines
{Davenport .

i Chicago
Newton

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iMinneapolis
Cedar Rapids
i Iowa City
St. Louis

MONROE HOTEL PHONE 13

GREYHOUND

 

 

