The University of Southern California is
rich with story. Its buildings, its faculty, its eminent
benefactors and alumni — all are the subject of urban
legends that are passed along from student to student,
year after year.
You may have heard about Widney Alumni
House nearly burning to the ground in summer 1922,
when chemistry student Robert Vivian — later dean
of engineering — was alone on the second floor, conducting an experiment involving a flask of absolute
alcohol that suddenly cracked and burst into flames.
Or about the donors of the University Park
campus's Bing Theatre and Eileen L. Norris Cinema
Theatre being so fiercely competitive that they had
an inverted fountain constructed between their namesake buildings so they could keep a figurative eye on
each other with an unobstructed view.
While generally alleged to be true, urban legends
such as these may or may not be rooted in fact. But
even when exaggerated or sensationalized, the stories
contribute to the vibrancy of campus life, helping
connect us with one
another as members of
the Trojan Family.
The Architects' Revenge.
High above the
entrance on the east facade of Gwynn Wilson Student
Union are three sculpted panels that have become
the stuff of USC legend. Two depict people who
would have
been recognizable to any student gazing
upward when the building was completed in 1928:
USC President Rufus Bernhard von KleinSmid and
Vice President Warren Bradley Bovard.
But to their right, perplexingly, a monkey
brazenly thumbs his nose in the direction of the
Trojan luminaries.
The story goes that the architects put the
monkey there to let the president know what they
thought about him — although the source of the
controversy remains a matter of debate. Some say the
builders got tired of von KleinSmid's commentary
and advice during the course of construction, while
others hint at a financial dispute.
Another explanation points to a disagreement
concerning the placement of the front door. The
architects purportedly wanted it to face Childs Way
so students wouldn't have to enter from a busy
thoroughfare, while von KleinSmid insisted that the
entrance face University Avenue (today's Trousdale
Parkway) so he could park his car in front and
walk right in.
Whatever the argument, the gargoyles are a
testament to von KleinSmid's sense of humor and
goodwill. When all was said and done, he let the
monkey stay.
The Hunchback.
Trojans have long held that the
famous tower scenes in the 1939 film The Hunchback
of Notre Dame, starring Charles Laughton, were shot
in the bell tower of USC's Seeley Wintersmith Mudd
Memorial Hall of Philosophy.
This oft-repeated claim, however, is false. The
movie was filmed entirely on location in the San
Fernando Valley. And the 1923 silent version, featuring
Lon Chaney, was released before Mudd Hall was
even built. Ironically, a movie that does feature the
Mudd Hall tower —
Big Man on Campus
(1989) — had the working
title of The Hunchback
of UCLA.
Pipeline from the Sea.
Named for one of USC's
most multifaceted trustees, the Allan Hancock
Foundation building was constructed to house a
concert space, a radio broadcasting studio and a
museum, in addition to impressive natural history
collections and scientific laboratories.
According to campus lore, Hancock — always
the innovator — commissioned a pipeline to bring seawater from the Pacific Ocean into the research labs.
State-of-the-art when it opened in 1941, the building
was fitted originally with elaborate fresh- and saltwater circulating systems, including huge storage
tanks buried under the lawn on the facility's west side.
But there's no evidence of the storied pipeline.
The Patriotic Trees.
A tale that may have originated with a campus tour
guide contends that the
university planted a tree for
each state in the country
in Founders' Park. This
particular guide, who hailed
from Arizona, was especially fond of pointing
to a petrified stump and lamenting that lightning
had killed the Arizona tree.
In fact, the campus does boast a section of
petrified tree from Arizona. It now resides wear the
southeast corner of Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial
Library — but it was turned to stone long before the
Class of 1887 presented it as a gift to their alma mater.
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