Little time was left until the opening ceremonies of the 1948 Winter Carnival, but some of Dartmouth's men were still scrambling for dates to accompany them during the winter festivities.
Just one week before the Carnival, an article in The Dartmouth offered two possible solutions to the prospect of a womanless Carnival.
"No date yet?" the article asked these dateless men, and the proceeded to profile "two lush lovelies" who were "panting" to see some Dartmouth men.
"Anne weighs in at 128, with a 26-inch waist and 34-inch bust," the article reported. It futher stated, "All on a five-five frame, no less."
Virginia, the other available "nymph" in search of a Dartmouth man, described herself coyly.
"I don't want to brag, I'll just say I'm attractive,"she said.
Evidently, much as changed since that Winter Carnival weekend 50 years ago.
But despite the changes -- even amidst snow sculptures and keg jumps -- no aspect of Winter Carnival has played such a prominent role than the women who flocked to campus for over 60 years of its 88-year history.
Women by the 'load'
The Dartmouth, in 1968, deemed the Winter Carnival a weekend of "skiing and wenching."
Special trains with extra cars ran to White River Junction and Norwich from Boston and New York on the Friday of Winter Carnival -- and the men of Dartmouth eagerly crowded the station upon arrival of their dates.
In addition, women hailed from all over New England by the the busload -- including Smith College, Wellesley College and Colby Junior College, among others.
In 1955, a record 1,728 women ascended the Hanover plain for the Winter Carnival. The College enrollment that year was 2,850 -- nearly two-thirds of Dartmouth students had dates that year.
Fraternities and residence halls were vacated to accomodate the surge of female guests. All students living in those buildings were required to move out from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon.
Chaperones patrolled the houses -- the women's rooms upstairs were off-limits to the men -- and some women's colleges even required room confirmations from the College to ensure their female students would not be staying in dormitory rooms with male students.
The tradition of importing women by the busload was so firmly entrenched by the 1940s that The Dartmouth featured beauty tips from female guest columnists.
"Don't wear ski pants unless you can stare yourself down in a rear view mirror," Wellesley College student Dorothy Halsey advised Carnival guests in 1946. "Broad on the beam may be a Navy expression, but if you aren't careful it may mean you."
'Boobs' and beauty pageants
One of the most central events of old Dartmouth Winter Carnivals was the selection of the Carnival Queen.
In its heyday, the Queen of the Snows pageant was staggeringly popular. For the 40 to 50 women who entered the contest each year, snagging the Carnival queen crown was a chance to receive national attention.
The pageant was so accepted and celebrated by the administration, even former College President John Sloan Dickey served as one of the judges during the 1946 Winter Carnival.
That year, Dickey and other judges crowned Faye Chase, wife of Russel Chase '45, as Queen of the Snows.
"All the publicity that went with it was amazing," Faye Chase told The Dartmouth in 1996. "It was truly a wonderful experience."
She appeared in dozens of publications, including The Boston Globe, The New York Times and Life Magazine, and photographs of the event still hang in her home.
"It is an event that has followed me through my life," she said. "It has made me a celebrity -- at least among our friends."
The Queen of the Snows was only one of the thousands of women who visited the College during the Carnival, but its surrounding frenzy meant the winner was always at the center of attention. The Queen endured endless camera sessions and incessant questions from reporters.
The Carnival queen's win also served as a "huge ego trip" for the date and his fraternity, former Associate Director of Alumni Programs Jim Tonkovich '68 told The Dartmouth in 1985.
For the 1968 Winter Carnival, the brothers of Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity pooled money to fly one brother's date in from California. They sold their blood for $15 a pint to obtain the funds.
That year, the Tri-Kap brother's date was selected Winter Carnival queen.
Despite the popularity of the beauty pageant, the tradition ended in 1973 with the advent of coeducation.
The headline in the Jan. 15, 1973 issue of The Dartmouth declared the death of the 43-year old tradition.
The Winter Carnival council eliminated this once nationally famous contest, saying ranking women on physical beauty was becoming increasingly unpopular.
The last Queen of the Snows was crowned in 1972.
That year, the Dartmouth described the winner as "eminently brainless and beautiful, carrying her full bosomed body with grace and perfect ease." She was entered as the "property of Kappa Kappa Kappa" fraternity.
Members of the audiences greeted her with "What a lay!" and "Jesus Christ, what boobs!"
A flier circulated the dormitory that year which read: "Intelligence isn't necessary, as this year we are concentrating on beauty."
The end of an era
With the start of coeducation in 1972, the face of Winter Carnival weekend changed forever.
Although women still visited Dartmouth for Carnival by the busload during the early 1970s, that culture was on the decline.
One of the first visible changes was the abolishment of the Winter Carnival queen in 1973 -- when women, for the first time, took part in the winter festivities as students of Dartmouth, not as dates.
"The time when being crowned Queen of the Snows was the big point of any sensible girl's college life was most certainly on the decline," The Dartmouth wrote in 1973.
Some of the men of Dartmouth, however, refused to date their female classmates, whom many viewed as intruders.
"It would be like dating your sister for the biggest college weekend in America," a male student wrote The Dartmouth in 1973.
Richard Zimmerman '76 said the early years of coeducation was a "difficult time" for many of the women at Dartmouth.
"Upperclassmen would sit down in lawn chairs and rate the women as they came off the buses with rating cards," he said. "Women were incredibly offended by that."
