What’s Going on Here?
Who, what, where, when, and why….we’d appreciate any information that will help us identify what’s going on in this photograph plucked from the archives of Baker Library.
Please contact us at bulletin@hbs.edu, or HBS Alumni Bulletin, Teele Hall 361, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163.
We’ll update you on what we have learned in the next issue. Thank you!
LAST ISSUE’S LAST LOOK: Surprisingly, members of two different MBA sections recognized themselves in these Groucho Marx disguises. Thanks to MBA ’78I sectionmates Scott Wilson and Rick Phelps, who thought they recognized Section I in the photo. Alas, close but no cigar! And thanks to classmates Mark Bell, John Davis, Melinda Muth, Jeremy Silverman, and Bruce Young, who identified MBA ’81, Section A, in the photo. Davis recognized Barbara Apple in the top row and Stacey Snider, Eric Kim, Mitch Gordon, and himself in the next row down. Young recognized Mark Bell in the center without a mask and Apple in the Skydeck. And Bell identified the maskless Dave Bloedoorn sitting in front of him.
Steve Knabe (MBA ’81A) set the scene: “It was a prank orchestrated by Rick Johansen one day in the first semester (late 1979) on all the professors we had that day. At the beginning of each class, Rick hid behind the blackboard wearing a Groucho Marx mask and started smoking. Each professor finally noticed the smoke and moved the board, only to discover Rick. The rest of the section donned our masks while the professor’s attention was on Rick, so the professor received another surprise after turning around to the class again and seeing rows of students in Groucho Marx masks.” Greg Zorthian (MBA ’81A) added that one of the professors that day was Len Schlesinger (see his update in “Where Are They Now?”).
