I fell in love with the place right then and there and came to the immediate conclusion that I didn’t want to go anywhere else. I can’t remember the plot, but the show was a lark, very funny, full of good spirits, and of course wildly applauded at the curtain.Īmherst was beautiful that week-end. We toured the campus, heard talks by the Faculty, saw a ballgame which Amherst won, and went to College Hall in the evening to see the Masquers in a musical extravaganza written by a student. Sub-Freshman Day was a great success with an elaborate program run primarily by the students themselves. He also became a member of the great Class of 1925, but flunked out, as did so many of our Class, at the end of Freshman year. Incidentally, Jack Van de Water was the owner of the Cadillac. They were Clifton Wishart, Elbie Bailey and Goddard Lawrence, and when I looked them up on arrival they had no trouble persuading me to be their guest for the week-end. I did know that three friends of mine from High School were in the Sophomore Class and lived at the Phi Kappa Psi House on Amity Street (now a Funeral Home). I knew something about Amherst, but not much. It seemed to me a very pleasant idea and the new Cadillac in itself was hard to resist, so I accepted. He said it was a good time to look the College over because it was the Sub-Freshman Week-end devoted to showing interested candidates around to see what college life was like. Then, quite unexpectedly, a classmate met me coming out of class and said he was driving up to Amherst the next day with a friend of his from New York who had a brand-new Cadillac convertible, and would I like to join them. I had visited Yale, Harvard, and Rutgers but was still uncertain where to enroll. It was still possible to be accepted even if you didn’t have all the required courses, as I discovered. At Amherst, as I gathered later, your chances for admission were good provided you could satisfy the college’s own rather stiff entrance requirements and could pay the tuition. Few places demanded entrance examinations, and as far as I know there were no College Boards. Getting in was no big deal in those days. HWH: I’d be interested in how it happened.ĬANFIELD: It was the middle of May 1921 and I was a Senior, just one of many who hadn’t made up his mind yet about which College to choose. Do you want the long or the short version? HWH: How did you happen to come to Amherst College?ĬANFIELD: The same way a lot of things have happened to me. I believe you were born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and went to High School in White Plains, New York? We are at his home, 36 Dana Street in Amherst, and the date is February 12, 1979. Curtis CanfieId, former Stanley King Professor of Dramatic Arts and Director of Kirby Theatre at Amherst College. HWH: This is Horace Hewlett chatting with Professor F.
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