Other dramatic societies preceded Ram's Head and others have followed. (They include the redolently named Sword and Sandals.) But Ram's Head, with its emphasis on humor, Stanfordiana and original writing, is the one that endured. Here are some highlights from its first century.
1911 Seven students and three faculty members start the all-male Ram's Head Theatrical Society. Unlike campus dramatic groups that perform extant plays, Ram's Head "encouraged original work in the production of sketches, songs, musical comedies, and the like." The first of the annual shows now known as Big Game Gaieties is performed two months later on the night after a Cal rugby victory.
1922 The Football Frothies of 1922 "surpasses all campus records in the number of specialty acts," including clog dancing, a xylophone virtuoso and a chorus who appeared on a darkened stage in "radiolite costumes."
1937 Memorial Hall opens. Theatricals at Stanford get some standardization: The new speech and drama department will produce three shows a year; student-run Ram's Head gets custody of Gaieties, a Winter Show and the Spring Musical.
1938 A letter from President Ray Lyman Wilbur's office tells Gaieties to stop projecting a lantern slide on Memorial Hall. It is "undesirable to carry on such forms of publicity here."
1939 Women are permitted to become full-fledged members of Ram's Head.
1942 The administration declines a request to expand Gaieties performances to Thursday night, fearing "further weakening of the academic schedule."
1943 There is no Big Game, but Gaieties goes on. Rehearsals for Stanford Goes G.I. are held on Sundays so 30 soldiers in the Army Specialized Training Program can participate.
1950 Ram's Head becomes an administrative board in the ASSU, giving it greater charge of student dramatics. The Cold War makes its presence felt in Gaieties with "Three Bomb-Toten Bolshies Are We" and a skit in which Robin Hood is said to be "corrupting American children just as surely as if he were actually giving them membership into the party."
1953 Warren LeRoy, '56, directs a particularly elegant Gaieties that featured a revolving set and an onstage fountain. Designer Dick Hay, '52, MA '55, goes on to a distinguished scenic-design career at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
1957 Director Mark Hammer, '58, wonders about being scooped on an idea for an upcoming show. He writes to colleague Serguey Kondratieff, '58: "Have Romeo and Juliet in California, son of a bitch Bernstein has already started releasing publicity on his Romeo and Juliet which may help us or hurt us." (Ram's Head performs Bernstein's West Side Story in 1981, 1987, 1993 and 2003.)
1958 Spearheaded by Ram's Head president William "Tuie" Kinsolving, '59, the cast and crew take their production to Los Angeles for additional performances. Among the acts: a "manic-depressive ballet" called "Mayhem in Marrakesh" and a mashup of Gilbert and Sullivan with monster movies called "Les Ghouls."
1959 The skit "Indian in a Gray Flannel Suit" takes place in a public relations firm hired to improve Stanford's image after a tuition hike from $250 to $335 per quarter. One suggestion: spread the word that tuition had been marked down from $350.
1968 Ram's Head script writers and producers have a failure to communicate over the summer that results in the cancellation of Gaieties for the first time in 57 years. Ram's Head members help a company of MFA candidates put on A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum instead.
1971 A production of Dracula: A Type A Musical proves financially ruinous. Ram's Head folds.
1976 Interested students revive Ram's Head with a spring production of Guys and Dolls.
1977 Gaieties is reborn. Admissions dean Fred Hargadon makes his first of seven annual cameo appearances. The Band takes the stage in the finale—as it has every year since.
1984 The song "Prayer to the God of Partial Credit," composed by Kyle Kashima, '82, MS '85, with lyrics by Bambi Haggins, '83, MA '85, debuts at Gaieties. (It has a long second life with Fleet Street.)
1991 Two Gaieties are produced this fall. Centennial Gaieties, part of the University's 100th anniversary celebration, revives skits of the past. In Full Frontal Gaieties, President Don Kennedy—aka Don Don, "the Quadfather"—tangos in the spotlight with his wife, Robin, for his final cameo.
2005 Video trailer and vast flyer campaign promote Kill Julie, a Gaieties that solves the "murder" of Julie Lythcott-Haims, '89, dean of freshman and transfer students.
2010 In The Last Temptation of Cal, Jesus Christ enrolls at Stanford. Cal loyalist Lucifer tempts this innocent freshman to commit all seven cardinal sins on a single night. Long on politically incorrect stereotypes, the show prompts a mid-performance walkout by audience members from Ujamaa.
2011 Ram's Head celebrates its centennial with alumni during Reunion Homecoming. Gaieties 2011 will take place November 16-18.
