ADMINISTRATION

Edwin C. Norton Names WESTWAYS Magazine

In December, Pomona's first Dean of the College, Edwin C. Norton, won $250 from the Automobile Club of Southern California (commonly referred to as AAA) for submitting the winning title WESTWAYS for its magazine. That fall, in an article in TOURING TOPICS, the magazine's prior name for 25 years, the Club announced a contest for a new name as it was changing the magazine's focus to features of interest for the entire West. More than 10,000 entries arrived. Norton was Pomona's first dean and served the College from 1888 until his retirement in 1926.

ACADEMICS

Third Rhodes Scholar

Murray D. Kirkwood ’33 became Pomona’s third Rhodes Scholar and second in two years, following in the footsteps of David M. French ’31.

STUDENT LIFE

All Women in Dorms

Effective September 1933, the College discontinued the practice of placing women students in private homes and began to require all women students to reside in College-owned houses on the campus and in the Harwood Court residence hall. This was made possible by the lower enrollments during the Depression but was continued as the College’s fortunes recovered in later years.

FINANCES

Student Loans

To help cash-strapped students during the Depression, the College increased the student loan fund by $1,500 and reduced the minimum room and board charge by $25 per year. 

ATHLETICS

Hammer Record

Peter Somfeld set a school record in the hammer throw at 152’ 5 ¼”, which still held when he was inducted into the Pomona-Pitzer Hall of Fame 41 years later.

CONSORTIUM

Artist Series Launched

With the new Bridges Auditorium as a venue, The Claremont Colleges organized a “Claremont Colleges Artist Course,” bringing choirs, musicians, orchestras and singers from around the world to perform. The 1933 Metate notes that the artist series, along with guest lectures, “is rapidly making Claremont the center for cultural life of the region, including some twenty-five communities east of Los Angeles.”

ALUMNI

Robert Taylor

The son of a country doctor in Nebraska, Spangler Arlington Brugh ’33 originally came to Pomona College to study music. He joined a campus theatre group and, in 1932, was discovered by an MGM scout, signed to a seven-year contract and given a new name—Robert Taylor. Dubbed “the man with the perfect profile,” Taylor starred opposite such leading ladies as Greta Garbo, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Stanwyk. His movies include Magnificent Obsession, Camille and Quo Vadis.

ELSEWHERE

• Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany.
• To forestall runs on banks, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a “bank holiday,” closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions for one week.
• The 21st Amendment was passed, repealing Prohibition.