Bits & Pieces of Greek Life at the University of Kentucky in the Early 1930s

Before I launch into stories of student life at the University of Kentucky in the 1930s, let me add new information to last week's post about the Salyers family's time in Richmond (1927-1929). It's true that the scrapbooks don't tell us much about the Madison High senior year of twins Mary Alice and Jim. I commented that, because they were new in the school, maybe they just focused on their classwork. Wrong!  I recently received new info by mail. Mary Alice's son sent materials about his mother's senior year. She was on the school's debate team, which made the final round in state competition in1927-28. She also was elected treasurer of the senior class. She must have made quite an impression on her new classmates, most of whom hadn't met her until school started. In fact, her son recalls that she considered her senior year "a special time in her life."

Also, I learned that Jim was on the high school basketball team. The Madison High Royal Purples won the 25th district championship that year and advanced to a regional tournament but did not advance to state-level competition.

Now on to their time at UK. Mary Alice and Jim were sophomores when they transferred from Eastern to the University of Kentucky in the fall of 1929. Much of the memorabilia they saved in scrapbooks during their UK years pertain to their fraternity/sorority activities. One of the first surprises was a picture of Jim behind bars! A clipping from a Kappa Sigma magazine explained: On Jan. 11, 1930, UK's Beta Nu chapter hosted a "Jail-House Dance" at the Lafayette Hotel in downtown Lexington. The band dressed in prison garb, and couples rode to the dance in Lexington Police Department  patrol wagons.

Mary Alice's sorority, Kappa Delta, hosted dances at the Phoenix. This article, publication unidentified, describes a Valentine-themed formal event on February 14, 1930 or 1931. Mary Alice is listed as by the surname "Sawyer." Those of us with the Salyers surname have learned to live with misinterpretations and misspellings of the name.

On the scrapbook page with the article is the invitation:

The scrapbooks have many printed invitations and other ephemera about formal dances, teas, initiations, and ceremonies. I speculate that this image shows Mary Alice dressed up for one of those sorority events – or maybe for a fraternity dance. I did see at least one Lambda Chi Alpha dance invitation in her scrapbooks.

I'm surprised and disappointed that so far the scrapbooks haven't yielded more memories about their time in college. It could be that everybody was too busy with classes, fraternity/sorority, and part-time jobs to keep scrapbooks! Sarah created a few scrapbooks during that time, so they may provide some stories I can share in the future.

In the meantime, please scroll down for a few tidbits pertaining to Jim's fraternity. We'll get back to early 1930s Greek life if and when I come across more information. I'm finding that the scrapbooks are becoming less year-specific, so details about their time at UK could pop up anywhere!

Last, a bit of humor. I don't know what newspaper published this story (probably a campus or fraternity paper), and I don't know why the address above differs from the story's mention of the Kappa Sigma house being on Maxwell Street.

Coming soon: A look at high school life in the early 1930s as the youngest Salyers makes a name for himself at Henry Clay High.

The Salyers Twins Move to the University of Kentucky – and Take Their Parents and Little Brother With Them

Mary Alice and James R. Salyers, c1930

While most students leave their parents to go to college, twins Jim and Mary Alice Salyers took their parents – and their little brother – to college with them (well, at least to the town where the college was).

The scrapbooks for 1927-1929 had little to say about the family's time in Richmond, just a few pages of tidbits shared in last week's post. Suddenly, without preface or preamble, the scrapbooks show the family living in Lexington, and Jim and Mary Alice are enrolled as sophomores at the University of Kentucky. The whole household had once again picked up and moved!

The "college years" scrapbooks are full of stories, letters, and photos about their life in Lexington and at UK. Let's start at the beginning of the 1929-1930 school year.

Right off the bat, Mary Alice applied for a job on campus at the Margaret I. King Library. This letter  of recommendation from her library science teacher at Eastern was a treat to find, because it includes both history and foreshadowing. Margaret King was UK's first librarian. The campus library named in her honor continues to be respected throughout the region. Mary Alice got the job and started working with Ms. King, and she eventually became a professional librarian herself. Jim also worked for various employers on campus and in town, mostly at jobs involving sales.

Both Mary Alice and Jim participated in Greek rush. Jim was initiated into Kappa Sigma in the fall of 1929 with eight others, including another young man from Jim's home town of Carrollton, Kentucky.

Mary Alice pledged Kappa Delta. The sorority accepted 13 pledges on a Friday, a circumstance that, by superstition, caused an ominous start to Greek life for the pledge class. The story in this unsourced, undated clipping probably appeared in Kentucky Kernel, the UK student newspaper. Other items in the scrapbooks confirm that the year was 1929.

Big brother Bob, now a graduate of Eastern and the advertising manager for Moore Brothers Company in Illinois, supported his younger siblings in their quest for fraternity/sorority membership. This note to Bob, its sender unknown, indicates that Bob may have lobbied with the fraternity chapter's pledge master on Jim's behalf.

Mary Alice, who had been considering several sororities, wrote to Bob a few times asking for advice. Once she settled on Kappa Delta, she informed him by telegram.

By December, both Mary Alice and Jim were sending Christmas cards emblazoned with Greek insignia.

The following card indicates that mother Sarah Eva Howe Salyers, true to form, welcomed her children's fraternity and sorority friends into the Salyers home and became more or less a "mom" to those whose families lived far away. At least once she sent Jim to the fraternity house with a cake. No wonder she got this card from her "Kappa Sig boys." 

Both Mary Alice and Bob also got involved in the Kentucky Kernel student newspaper. Here is one of Mary Alice's first story assignment slips:

In the next image, Mary Alice (standing in front of the light-colored wall) is surrounded by others on the Kernel editorial staff. Most of the students look so serious!

I cannot say whether or not Jim ever wrote for the Kernel, but I know he joined the paper's business staff. Because he had experience in selling, I suspect he sold advertising space in the Kernel. He was involved enough to be elected treasurer of the Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association, an organization that is still an active supporter of college journalism. (Note that UK was then known as "State.")

So began a busy student life for Jim and Mary Alice at the University of Kentucky. The scrapbooks are full of notes and letters, dance and party invitations, clippings about Greek events, and other mementos of college days the early 1930s. Stay tuned!

Go, Wildcats! UK Football Memorabilia From the Early 1930s

While neither William L. Salyers or his wife Sarah Eva Howe Salyers had college degrees, all four of their children attended the University of Kentucky.

• Robert King Salyers II, The eldest, apparently attended UK for two years before transferring to Eastern Kentucky State College and receiving his diploma there in 1929. He later worked as a research assistant to UK President Frank McVey.
• James Richard attended UK and, like his three brothers, was active in Kappa Sigma fraternity. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees there.
• Mary Alice was a UK graduate and was a member of Kappa Delta social sorority and several honorary and leadership societies.
• David Hillis II spent his years at UK participating in various choral and drama groups. He got his diploma in 1937.

No wonder I find so much UK-related items in Sarah's scrapbooks! Here are a few of the pieces that surfaced today, all related to UK sports. While I've found no evidence that any of Sarah's children played varsity sports, we know that at least one of the boys played football and basketball at Carrollton High, and the youngest played tennis for Henry Clay High after the family moved to Lexington.

The following picture of the UK marching band, probably clipped from the UK student newspaper The Kernal, has a caption that by today's standards is a little flowery. Note the comments about the female sponsor of the band.

The next clipping includes a photo of the band sponsor in a later year. (As you may remember from previous posts, Sarah too often neglected to put dates on items in her scrapbooks.) Note under the photo on the far right that only male students had a vote in naming the prom queen.

UK Sophomore Harrison Elliott composed a march for the UK band titled "Our Sponsor March," dedicated to band sponsor Elizabeth Jones (on far left in the clipping above). Elliott gained a fair degree of acclaim for his music. In Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity, a book by Richard A Peterson, a promoter refers to 19-year-old Elliott as a "French-Huguenot-Scottish-Irish Kentucky mountaineer, [and] authentic mountain composer [of] America's first folk opera, "The Call of the Cumberlands." Newsweek reported that the opera was performed over the NBC radio network in August 1935.

The scrapbooks are full of tickets to football and basketball events. Below are a few samples. The first photo (which may also appear in a previous post) shows student ticket books for both semesters of 1932-1933. Below that is an image of a supplementary pass into the cheering section. Apparently, getting into a game didn't automatically include the right to sit in the cheering section.

Note the prices for reserved seats at UK football games in those days. For comparison: The 1932 dollar is comparable to $16.89.

People who know UK will recognize some familiar names in this 1930s clipping about the university's Athletic Council. Various campus facilities and programs still bear their names today.

People with Carrollton, Kentucky roots may recognize at least one of these players. Kipping was a prominent name there starting in the late 1800s – and perhaps still is. Sarah Eva Howe's sister Leonora Alice Howe married Charles Kipping.

 Also in the scrapbooks, many game programs. This is one of the more colorful. In spite of the listing of Kentucky first on the program (usually the visiting team is listed first) this was a UK homecoming game played at McLean Stadium in Lexington. UK lost the game 19-0, and Alabama continued on to post a perfect 10-0 season and win SEC and national championships.

While this image isn't specific to UK, it illustrates the public's enthusiasm for football in the 1930s. Notice that everyone wore their Sunday best to the games. I remember dressing up for athletic events when I was in college way back in the 1960s. I think today's sports fans take a more casual approach.

I include this image because it is part of a sports-focused scrapbook. Smoking was popular – even "stylish" – in the 1930s. I knew the Salyers men to be pipe smokers, but maybe they smoked cigarettes in those days. I can't even imagine Sarah or Mary Alice smoking! Maybe they just liked the dress in this ad, which probably appeared in a magazine or maybe in a football program.

The scrapbooks contain so many items related to UK sports that I could probably create a blog just on that topic. I'll include a few more in future posts. Let me know if you'd like me to watch for specific kinds of images or information about UK athletics in the 1930s. We have stacks of scrapbooks yet unexplored.




For UK football memories from the early 1890s, see the post dated Sept. 3, 2016: "Get Ready for Some Football! Sarah Remembers the Wildcats of 1893."

Bits & Pieces: Sports, Politics, Advertising, Groundhog Day – More Scrapbook Ephemera from the 1930s

As we would expect, the scrapbooks Sarah Eva Howe Salyers put together in the 1930s reflect her family's activities and interests. The Howe-Salyers clan was interested in just about everything, so the scrapbooks are full of bits and pieces about this and that.

Sports

The Salyers males participated in sports, all of them as fans and some of them as players. (I found proof in the letters they wrote to each other and in these bits of memorabilia in the scrapbooks.

Students used books of tickets to attend UK athletic events. 

One ticket from the first-semester student admission book

Fans who were not students could use this form to apply for reserved seats at home football games. They would have paid a whopping $9.90 per person, plus the 20-cent fee, to attend all five games.

In the fall of 1932, the Henry Clay Blue Devils traveled to Louisville to meet opponent Male High.  The Lexington Herald ran this story:

I've heard family stories about Sarah's son Jim playing football and basketball and son David playing tennis, but I'm still looking for verification in the scrapbooks.

Politics

If you've read posts about Sarah's childhood, you know that she, her parents, and her extended family paid close attention to political issues. Several of her relatives in Carrollton ran for public office. Her children continued the interest in local, state, and national politics. I rarely turn more than 10 pages in most scrapbooks before I come across a mention of political campaigns, platforms, speeches, or elections. 

These two items are from 1932. The first appears to be a clipping from a magazine (not identified in the scrapbook). I think the second is a leaflet.

Advertising

Sarah saved many ads. I don't know why she did that, but I'm glad she did. They provide insight into her life and times. 

Sarah did the household shopping, and I can picture her checking the grocery ads before venturing to the store. These prices seem low to us, of course, but consider that the average annual salary for those lucky enough to have jobs in Depression-era 1933 was (according to various online resources) about $1,370. Renting a 3-bedroom apartment cost $15 a month, on average. A gallon of gas cost about a dime. Also remember that in 1932-33 Sarah was buying groceries to feed a family of 3 adults, 2 college students, and one teen-age boy.

Notice the half-cent prices. The only references I've found to a U.S. half-penny say the coin was minted from 1793 to 1857. Maybe the half-cent amounts were totaled at the cash register and consolidated into the final price. Apparently, there was no half-penny coin, so I don't know how the clerk handled a single purchase priced with a half-cent amount. 

 This is one of several ads for retailers marketing to high school boys and college men. In the 1930s (and until not so long ago), men wore suits to athletic events. The Kaufman's store in Lexington ran an ad in the early fall of 1932, offering a Hart Schaffner & Marx suit for $25. 

Sarah's husband William Levi Salyers and her son Robert King Salyers worked for the Moore company. Will's job was to find retailers who would display and sell Moore products in their stores. This ad is a sample he showed to prospective sellers. Note the "Your Name and Address Here" near the bottom, with a space for a retailer to promote his own store.

The item at left was on the same scrapbook page as several others advertising an event at the Kentucky Theatre in Lexington. The event brought several nationally-known radio stars to town to perform for a live audience. The event may have been broadcast live to the nation, but I'm hazy on that detail. 

The person in this ad appeared in small parts in a few Hollywood movies before he became a radio star at NBC. Jimmy Wallington  was the announcer or master of ceremonies for several popular radio shows in the 1930s through the 1950s. The Salyers clan no doubt found radio programs both entertaining and informative. Sarah probably kept this clipping because she often heard Wallington's voice – and possibly because he was part of that event at the Kentucky Theatre.

I speculate that Sarah saved the ad below not because of the product – I don't think she or her daughter ever smoked cigarettes and I saw her sons smoke only pipes and cigars – but because she liked the dress. Ultimate 1930s!

Last but not least, this tribute to Groundhog Day. The item below is a newspaper article clipped from a newspaper, probably published in an afternoon paper, the Lexington Leader, on Feb. 2, 1932. 

Based on current weather predictions, I'd say a groundhog who leaves his burrow in Lexington this Friday, Feb. 2, probably won't see his shadow. Will that mean the end of Winter 2018? We can only hope!

 

Was Sarah Eva Howe Salyers America's First 'Helicopter Parent'?

In September 1925, Robert King Salyers started his sophomore year at the University of Kentucky. He lived at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house at 430 E. Maxwell in Lexington.

The scrapbooks yield several letters from Bob to his mother, Sarah Eva Howe Salyers, and from Sarah to Bob. What a treat to discover some things in this world are the same 92 years later! In excerpts from one letter (transcription below the image), Sarah pines for Bob and mentions other parents who are missing the young people who left Carrollton, Kentucky to attend college. Sarah also offers advice, entreats Bob to keep promises made (with no mention of what those promises were), and urges him to continue with medical treatment for an ailment not disclosed in the letters. I was amused to find that our precocious, inventive, fiercely independent Sarah had become a bit of a “helicopter parent,” today’s definition of one who hovers over a child to the point of micromanagement.

Dearest Bobby;
I was so sorry not to get to talk to you tonight –- I long to hear your voice, my Bobby! The town is full of bereft mothers tonight, tho. Mr. Harry and Miss Grace say they are missing the girls so terribly –- I haven’t talked to Miss Mabel, but I know how she feels; Roman [Browinski, a 1923 graduate of Carrollton High and Bob’s distant cousin] leaves tomorrow, and Doug Vest on Wednesday. I have tried to get you on the telephone at least six times! Especially when Roman was here at dinner yesterday, and again today at dinner, so you could talk to Giltner [possibly surnamed Salyers; another distant cousin].

I’m afraid you were cold tonight, without your covers. I sent them today; I hope you slept in your bathrobe and put your overcoat over you!

. . . [Referring to making pumpkin pies] I’ll save one till you come home, or perhaps I can send you one in a box. Please write and tell me about everything. Can’t you write me a letter as long as the ones you used to write to little Thomy? You don’t have to write [those] any more. Please don’t put off the inoculation and lose the effect of the first! Please tell me about the courses you are taking, what studies, etc. About the [Kappa Sigma] House, and what boys are there. Don’t forget what you promised me to do –- and don’t forget to go to church. 

With deepest love, Mother.

A letter from Bob to his mother responds to a few of her inquiries:

Dear Mother,

. . . I got my suit yesterday, also my laundry, for which I thank you very much. I’ll send you some more soon. I got a letter from Dad yesterday and he said he’d be thru here about next Thursday. I’ll certainly be glad to see him.

Well, it cost me $38 to register, and I have my schedule fixed up, but it does not suit me. To begin with, I changed into the college of commerce and had to take 11 hours of freshmen requirements which I did not have last year. I have college algebra, 3 courses in economics (3 hours each), psychology, military science and 2 hours of psychology lab, every Tuesday.

. . . We have all of the old boys back, except the ones who graduated, and ten good pledges. There are 24 living in the house now. Everything looks good for a big year.

Give my regards to everybody.

Your son, Bob

In a later letter, Bob named the Kappa Sigma pledges of 1925:
Dave McNamara and Eggy Marshall from Frankfort
T. Newman from Ashland
Bill Matheny from Stanford
R. Dycus and J.H. Adams from Smithland
George Penn of Lexington
Ed. Davis from Berea
George Broadus’s brother (no other information)
Joe Thomas from Hopkinsville

Like any college student, Bob wrote home about money:

I wrote a check on you for $3.50 and perhaps you had better send me $7 or $8 as I still have some books to get. Books cost $5 apiece or thereabouts once in a while $2.50 or $3. I am not going to write any more checks now.

Of course, college can’t be all work and no play. There’s football! Bob writes home to his brother:

Jim, old boy, I’ll be glad to have you come up to the Centre game if we can get seats and a way over, both of which will be pretty difficult. I’ll let you

Ticket stub, 1925 (found for sale on eBay)

know right away so you can come up to some other game if I can’t get seats for the other. Really, the best game will be the one with W&L [Washington and Lee] this Saturday. . . There is one with Sewanee the next Saturday and one with Tennessee on Thanksgiving – the Homecoming day. Maybe that one will be best.

To his mother, he mentioned going to a couple of college parties and the football game. He also wrote home about an achievement:

. . . I am enclosing a clipping [gone now from the scrapbook] announcing the pledging of the SuKy Circle, considered by many the foremost honorary [fraternal organization] on the campus. . . . To make a long story short, your little boy was among the lucky ones to be pledged at the exercises tonight. I have worked pretty hard for it but now I realize it was worth it.

He also reassured her:

I have been to church both Sundays, once at the Presbyterian church and once to the Baptist. Will go to Park [a Methodist church] this Sunday.

Sarah, an active member of the Carrollton Methodist Church from childhood, must have been pleased to read that!