Binghamton North High School 1947 Yearbook (Binghamton, NY) - Full Access

Commencement 1\{prth High Style Commencements at North have never followed the conventional pattern; instead they have set a tradition of their awn, namely the elaborat1on of a central theme through varied dramatic devices, some of them totally new to the high school stage. "P1oneering," theme of January '39, was a series of pantomimes clim:~x i ng w1th a final tableau of an Indian, sym– bolic of North's spirit. A film entitled "Dawn to Dusk," produced by the students and faculty and made possible by the comb:ned gifts of the June class of 1940 and Ansco, ran about thirty minutes and told the story of a student's typical day at North . A dramatic poem por– traying the rise of Hitler and his destruction of good education influences, "They Burned the Books," was given by the January '43 class. The following January came the startling drama, "The Strange Case of Johnny Black," which turned a stage character into a Negro right before the unbelieving eyes of the audiences and pointed up the race problem in America. Radio scripts and space stage plays such as "A Throne of Bayonets" revealed what the graduates were thinking and what they conceived their problems to be 1n the war effort, and "We Are Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On" characterized the three types of dreamers : the fanatical dreamer, the day dreamer, and the "Toyland Thinker." Graduations at North from year to year have taken their place on the school calendar as major product :ons. S::>ear headed by the classes' best actors, they hove interpreted the progressive spirit and goals of North in particular and of American education in general and have maintomed a superb standard of craftsmanship under the direct1on of Mr Raymond Merchant.