Last summer, I had done extensive research into the Yale singing groups of the last 100 years looking at the yearbooks at the Sterling Library Manuscripts and Archives. It was the record of the Yale Banner which convinced me the Spizzwinks did not re-form until the spring of 1947. They did indeed re-form at that time after filling in for the Whiffenpoofs during the War. But they had actually started up a few years earlier in 1940 without any mention in the Yale Banner. More on this later.
Barry McMurtrey, '88, was continuing research into the history of the SOB's , and when he read my blog he considered there was more to the story than I'd uncovered. Barry dove into the Yale Daily News which is archived in Yale's Sterling Library of Manuscripts and Archives. It turns out the moment of our founding is really a number of moments, more like a series of sparks that eventually produce a real fire.
Barry found the first mention of the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus in the Yale Daily News 152 from April 23, 1940. The group had sung an impromptu concert at the Conn. College Prom which apparently took place on April 19, 1940. This article explicitly mentions the 5 guys who I knew had comprised the Orpheus and Bacchus Association from the 1939-40 academic year. According to the article, these core 5 guys had added another 5 voices and had learned up a bunch of songs. They reportedly reeled these off to the delight of the Conn. College women, calling themselves The Yale Orpheus and Bacchus Society.
The astute reader will realize this group was getting into full swing during Irv Walradt's junior year, it would seem, under his very nose. The first concert of this group would have occurred when Irv was forming his octet. From everything Irv has told us, these groups operated without any overlap of members in two consecutive school years, under pretty much the same name! Our alumni records of the men from the 1939-40 and 1940-41 groups also shows no overlap. In essence, we have continuity with the 1939-40 group, but only because Irv formed his octet for the 1940-41 school year and was bequeathed a similar group name. The 1939-40 group did not try to perpetuate itself. So it was indeed Irv who envisioned and installed the original structures to ensure the group's continuity.
Again, it's probably very likely that Marshall Bartholomew gave the names to each of these groups, naming Irv's group the "Sons of O & B" to differentiate them. The eventual reversion to "Society of O & B" was pretty much inevitable.
So we have the birthday: April 19, 1940 was the group's first public performance, although it clear the group had been together rehearsing for some months. This puts the origins pretty much squarely into 1939.
But What About them Spizzwinks?
Now, at the same time Barry was able to complete more research into the origins of the Spizzwinks. First, he found a video which was made at the Spizzwinks' 95th anniversary celebration featuring Bill Oler, '45E who at that time was the oldest living Spizzwink. He speaks about the Spizzwinks being completely defunct from 1915 until maybe sometime around 1940 when some guys from the class of 1943 began a singing group and adopted the name of the 1914 group pictured in the Yale Banner. You can watch the entire video here:
If you forward to 2 minutes and 35 seconds into the video, you will find Bill Oler's comments on the nearly 30 year gap in their existence.
Barry found the first mention of the Spizzwinks in the Yale Daily News, from October 4, 1940 in what appears to be the notice of their first rehearsal; the announcement reminds folks to bring their songbooks. From that day forward, the Spizzwinks published a daily announcement of each rehearsal. You'll find the announcement in the Miscellaneous section of the University Notices, very near the bottom:
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