A look back at All-College Night held at Adelphi where students and faculty put on a show.
鈥淚t was sort of the poor man鈥檚 Saturday Night Live,鈥 said Sally-Ann Cohen 鈥55, who was her class鈥 co-chairman of the event for four years. 鈥淓ach class put on a skit, and there was a sing-off. Each class wrote an original song or original lyrics to a well-known tune.鈥 The event was an annual Adelphi tradition from 1923 to 1957.
The faculty usually entered too, and everyone competed for best skit and best song. As juniors, the Class of 鈥55 won for a skit called 鈥淧rod the Groom.鈥 The sophomore class took second that year with a skit featuring a cancan line.
It was also the night when the freshman class would introduce their mascot to the rest of the school. 鈥淭he big thing for us as kids had been a TV show called Kukla, Fran and Ollie. Ollie was a dragon,鈥 Cohen said. 鈥淥ur class named our mascot Argyle Ollie: a little dragon with a large argyle sweater.鈥 Ollie was two feet tall, made from paper-m芒ch茅.
Cohen ran the skits, and credits the experience with shaping her career in live variety television鈥攕he was a talent booker for The Dinah Shore Show, among others, and knew many of the biggest stars, including Carol Burnett and Betty White (鈥淲onderful women,鈥 she said). 鈥淚 became a grownup and continued doing All-College Night because I had no real talent,鈥 she said, laughing. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 act; I couldn鈥檛 write; I couldn鈥檛 do anything, but I was wonderful at crazy skits.鈥
When the skits required props, the students made them themselves. 鈥淥ne year, we need – ed a large cloud. Somebody was going to walk the cloud across the stage; all you would see was the cloud and their feet,鈥 Cohen said. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 allowed to have boys in our dorm. My friend, Lee Cassidy, was helping me make the prop, and we used to sneak him in so that at night we could hammer and cuss and saw and do the whole thing, and then sneak him out. The damn cloud was such a production that my roommate and I kept it and used it as a bulletin board. When we left, we had to decide what to do with that plywood cloud.鈥
Making what Cohen called 鈥済entle fun鈥 of familiar figures on campus, such as deans, professors and coaches, was another feature of the evening, and all were usually in attendance. 鈥淭he student body never topped 2,000鈥攁nd that included the school nurse. It was a very small school.鈥 Everyone packed into the gym to see the show. 鈥淚t was standing room only.鈥
Every year she was at Adelphi, Cohen鈥檚 class took a prize at All-College Night. 鈥淭he Class of 鈥55 was a knockout,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 graduated magna cum laude, but I鈥檓 more proud of my student activities than that.鈥

Cinderella from All-College Night, 1956. Ruth S. Harley 鈥24, 鈥01 (Hon.), dean of women with William J. Condon Jr., dean of men.

Cinderella from All-College Night, 1956. Professor Revis Frye (physical education and band), Ruth S. Harley 鈥24, 鈥01 (Hon.), Professor Betty Leonard (education) and Professor Helen Clement (French).

All-College Night, 1957

All-College Night, 1955.
For further information, please contact:
Todd Wilson
Strategic Communications Director听
p 鈥 516.237.8634
e 鈥 twilson@adelphi.edu