Before launching into his favorite Theatron anecdote, alumnus Martin Dawson smiles and explains that in his youth he was “a bit of a horseman” (i.e., fond of horses and familiar with the stables in lower Manhattan). The tale that follows explains Dawson’s quirky introduction:
During his undergraduate years at City College/Baruch in the late ’30s and early ’40s, Dawson was active in Theatron, the long-running student theatrical society, and in his junior year, was Theatron president. During his presidency, the club was mounting a drama for which furniture was needed. With no budget for furniture, Dawson needed to get entrepreneurial fast.
A fellow Theatronite worked in the midtown store of the Sachs Furniture Company (now defunct), and through that connection, the students were able to get loaner items for their production. The only hitch? The students would need to transport the furniture from the store on 66th Street to the Pauline Edwards Theater (now Mason Hall) at 17 Lexington Avenue.
Here’s where Dawson’s horse sense came to play: He arranged for a horse-drawn wagon (these conveyances were used through the early ’40s in N.Y.C. to deliver fruits and vegetables, milk, and other commodities).
His strategy worked fine, almost without incident. However, on the way to the Pauline Edwards Theatre, Dawson was accosted by a couple burly men, who informed him that he needed to use union members for carting and hauling. The young man diffused the situation by saying that the next time he found himself on such an errand, he would. Fortunately for him and generations of Theatronites, the horse-drawn transportation was a unique occurrence.
Martin Dawson is a retired colonel from the U.S. Army and was deputy commissioner of health for Nassau County.
—Diane Harrigan
PS The alumnus is also especially proud of the fact that during his Theatron years the club mounted the first amateur production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Dawson played the key role of the Stage Manager. (Theatron produced Our Town again in 1975.)