News

Cambridge Residents Slam Council Proposal to Delay Bike Lane Construction

News

‘Gender-Affirming Slay Fest’: Harvard College QSA Hosts Annual Queer Prom

News

‘Not Being Nerds’: Harvard Students Dance to Tinashe at Yardfest

News

Wrongful Death Trial Against CAMHS Employee Over 2015 Student Suicide To Begin Tuesday

News

Cornel West, Harvard Affiliates Call for University to Divest from ‘Israeli Apartheid’ at Rally

NAME "HARVARD" ON TRIAL THIS MORNING

Plaintiffs Claim Phonograph Records Advertised as Played by University Band Are Fraudulently Sold

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

That the phonograph records of the University march songs, "Up the Street" and "Our Director", purporting to have been recorded by the University Band, have been fraudulently made and fraudulently sold will be the claim presented to the Middlesex County Superior Court at the Equity Session at 10 o'clock this morning.

The President and Fellows of the University, and Addison Simmons '24, director of the University Band together with the band's 74 other members, will be the plaintiffs, against the University Book Store Inc. of Cambridge and the American Record Manufacturing Company of Framingham, sellers and manufacturers of the records respectively.

The University Band never made the records, the plaintiffs maintain, and in offering them for sale, the defendants are guilty of knowing deceit, "calculated to cause disrepute to said Harvard University and to said Harvard University Band."

Does the word "Harvard" belong to Harvard University, or is it general property to be bestowed at random on subway stations, cigars, squares, lunches, and phonograph records alike? This appears to be an important issue in the case.

Plaintiffs Charge Deceit

The hearing today will be for the purpose of determining whether or not the defendants shall be enjoined from continuing the manufacture and sale of the records during the pendency of the suit. The objects of the latter are to secure a permanent injunction, to have the profits from the sale of the records turned over to the plaintiffs, and to have the unsold records destroyed.

Mr. William F. Carmichael, director of the University Book Store, alternated between indignation and jubilation over the institution of the suit, when a CRIMSON reporter interviewed him Saturday. "Why I call myself the father of the Harvard University Band," he declared. "I was leader of the band during the war, and responsible for getting their permanent set of instruments. I've played with university bands off and on for the last 29 years, and I helped compose 'Up the Street'. I put the jig in it. Do you suppose that I would have anything to do with taking their records?"

Is Indignant Yet Jubilant

Mr. Carmlehael saw the brighter side to the case, however. "Why it's the biggest advertising I've ever had in this store," he declared. "And it's all free. I'm getting ready for a large sale of records after Monday."

As to the facts in the case, he stated that the words "Harvard University Band" do not appear on the records and also that they were made years ago when the band was under the direction of F. L. Reynolds '21.

The bill in equity states that the American Record Manufacturing Company was incorporated on April 7 1922.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags