Now That's Entertainment . . . Volume 3, Issue # 7

Who can forget AMS president Raghbir Basi leading 40,000 Canadian students as the new president of the National Federation of Canadian University Students, which, at the time, was highly involved in international student issues. Or the UBC Engineers snatching up Ubyssey writer Allan Fotheringham and chaining him to Birk's clock downtown for their less-than-flattering portrayal in the Ubyssey. Or opening night at the newly converted Frederic Wood Theatre with a dramatized reading of Professor Earle Birney's new play, "Trial of a City"? Of the ten actors involved, all but two were former members of Professor Wood's Players' Club. 1953 truly was a year to remember.


	Volume 3 Issue # 7 July 15, 2003 "UBC and Vancouver circa 1953, Part Two"
	Let us not forget about UBC's varsity teams! Despite the valiant efforts by UBC Sports Hall of Famers Bobby Hindmarch and George Puil, and brilliant coaching from "Jelly" Anderson in his last year of coaching, the UBC Football team went winless in the 1952-1953 season. Playing in the Evergreen conference, the football squad faced stiff competition from their primarily American opponents. In brighter news, the Rugby squad had a fantastic season. The Golden Bears of the University of California at Berkeley were considered "the best in the U.S." at the time, but the Thunderbirds managed to pull out of the four-game World Cup series as champions with a final score of 27-26. This rugger squad also won both the McKecknie Cup and Miller Cup. Allowing only 40 points against over the course of the season, this team scored over 200 points; they also went undefeated in McKecknie Cup action.
		The events of 1952 – 1953 were overshadowed by the Cold War. The United States added the hydrogen super bomb to its arsenal in November 1952. Gerard Filion, a journalist from the Vancouver Sun, during his excursion to Prague and Peking, discovered sharp contrasts behind the Iron Curtain. “They are the democracies; we are the dictatorships. To them, the seizure of power by the Communists was liberation; we are under the oppressive heel of capitalism." With Josef Stalin's death in March 1953, Chairman Mao of China became arguably the most powerful leader of a communist country. Chairman Mao was just beginning the radical reforms within China, with all private businesses being brought under state control in 1953.p>
	While I Love Lucy and The Bob Hope Show broadcasted from the United States, Canada got its first television stations, CBFT (Montreal) and CBLT (Toronto), in September 1952. Vancouver opened the first television station in Western Canada the following winter in December 1953. Popular CBC programming at the time included The Big Revue - the new network's first flagship variety program, Let's See - a modest puppet show whose main purpose was as a program guide and weather report, and Sunshine Sketches - the first dramatic production on English CBC television. And on June 3, 1953, CBC-TV scooped U.S. networks with footage of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. This was the first time that an event was televised the same day in the United Kingdom and North America, establishing CBC as a prominent television network.

Site Promotion			Who can forget AMS president Raghbir Basi leading 40,000 Canadian students as the new president of the National Federation of Canadian University Students, which, at the time, was highly involved in international student issues. Or the UBC Engineers snatching up Ubyssey writer Allan Fotheringham and chaining him to Birk's clock downtown for their less-than-flattering portrayal in the Ubyssey. Or opening night at the newly converted Frederic Wood Theatre with a dramatized reading of Professor Earle Birney's new play, "Trial of a City"? Of the ten actors involved, all but two were former members of Professor Wood's Players' Club. 1953 truly was a year to remember.