Proof of the Pudding

In the 1790s some Harvard students met on Saturday nights, held mock trials, wound up by slapping together a mess of corn meal and molasses called hasty pudding. Named after the mess, the Hasty Pudding Club went on holding mock trials for 50 years, then in 1844 launched its first play, has offered shows every year since except during the War, is the oldest college dramatic society in the U. S. Former members include Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Harvard '61, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge '71, Novelist Owen Wister '82, Banker John Pierpont Morgan '89, Radical John Reed '10, Humorist Robert Benchley '12, Producer Vinton Freedley '14, Playwright Robert Sherwood '18.

This year's show, So Proudly We Hail, had Humorist Benchley's son, Nathaniel, for one of its authors, Assistant Secretary of State Sumner Welles's son, Benjamin, for another, Producer Freedley's son, Vinton Jr., for female lead. A musical free-for-all, So Proudly We Hail told of Manhattan's cafe society receding from the U. S., setting up as the monarchy of Cafeteria, forming an unhappy alliance with Mussolini & Hitler. With tunes that didn't seem too reminiscent, chorines that didn't sing too deep, ingenues that didn't look too muscular, So Proudly We Hail spurted fastest when it shook off its plot and bounced into revue.

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