WILLIAM TIVOL INTERVIEWED BY CHARLOTTE E. ERWIN May 19, 2012 Bill
Tivol SEMINAR ARCHIVES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena,
California 1891 КОТЕСИЛОГО Subject area Seminar Day, alumni, students,
pranks Abstract On Seminar Day - Caltech’s annual reunion event —May
19, 2012, for the first time the Caltech Archives and Library offered
alumni/ae the opportunity to record mini-interviews with Archives’
staff. Nine people participated, including one alumni spouse and one
daughter. These alums held bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees
across several divisions, with engineering marginally in the lead. One
former student who transferred out of Caltech came back to relate how
well his Caltech years had served him in his later studies and career
in psychology. Ranging from 10 to 15 minutes in length, the interviews
typically relate stories or episodes from student years. Favorite
topics include pranks and traditions, some of which have died out.
Alumni also reflect on professors and classes which were memorable and
on the unique intellectual stimulus that a Caltech education provides.
Readers will find that the transcripts of the short interviews reflect
the personal and colloquial tone at which the event aimed.
http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tivol_W_alum Administrative
information Access The interview is unrestricted. Copyright Preferred
citation Tivol, William. Interview by Charlotte E. Erwin. Pasadena,
California, May 19, 2012. Oral History Project, California Institute
of Technology Archives. Retrieved [supply date of retrieval] from the
World Wide Web: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tivol_W_alum
Contact information Archives, California Institute of Technology Mail
Code 015A-74 Pasadena, CA 91125 Phone: (626)395-2704 Fax:
(626)395-4073 Email: archives@caltech.edu Graphics and content © 2013
California Institute of Technology.
http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tivol_W_alum 1LnÉ ASSOCIATION
Bill Tivol ’62 Dabney SEMINAR COMANDOL WILLIAM TIVOL
http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tivol_W_alum CALIFORNIA
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW WITH
WILLIAM TIVOL BY CHARLOTTE E. ERWIN MAY 19, 2012 CALTECH ALUMNI
SEMINAR DAY PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Copyright © 2013 California Institute
of Technology http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tivol_W_alum
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Interview with William Tivol BS 1962 by Charlotte E. Erwin Pasadena,
California May 19, 2012 Begin Tape ERWIN: So, we’re going! TIvOL:
Okay. Bill Tivol. Class of’62. I wanted to say something about one of
the student life things that was going on in our era that I know the
traditions have since disappeared. And I don’t want them lost forever
to antiquity, so I figured I’d record them. ERWIN: Yes. Very good.
TIVOL: One of the social events that our house used to hold two or
three times a year— ERWIN: And your house was? TIVOL: Dabney House—was
barn dances. And, in fact, it wasn’t just our house, all of the houses
when I came here—so there were only four—held these. There were two
events of entertainment that occurred during the barn dances that, in
particular, I wanted to discuss. One of them was called “crew races.”
Now, the crew team was selected for how rapidly they could down twelve
ounces of beer. And there were people who had developed this technique
called the “inverse belch,” who could down twelve ounces of beer in
slightly less than one second. And somebody, of course, did the
experiment. If you take the beer mug— filled with twelve ounces of
beer— and invert it, it takes seven-tenths of a second for the beer to
fall out. So, in any event, you had ten people that were a part of the
team, and then you had a couple of alternates. And these people would
arrive at the barn dance sufficiently early to pour out their beer and
then they would sequester their mugs off to the side for a couple of
hours and let all the carbonation
http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tivol_W_alum Tivol-2
disappear, which was essential in this process. The way the race
worked: The first person—as soon as somebody said “Go!”— the first
person would chug down the beer, raise the mug over his head—and it
was always his in that era— as soon as the bottom of the beer mug
cleared the top of the first person’s head, the second person would
start drinking. And there was a judge to make sure that nobody jumped
the gun, and you were allowed to spill at most a shot glass full of
beer. The judge also looked to see how much beer actually made it into
your mouth. If either of these were violated, the team had to drink an
alternate. Now, I think my best time was a little under two seconds
and I probably was on the team once perhaps, or twice. But I never did
perfect the inverse belch and so I was not a strong member of the
team. ERWIN: So you had to qualify each time before the contest?
TIvoL: Well, you practiced. You practiced. And so we would all sit in
one of the restrooms with lots of beer in our beer mugs and pour out
bunches of these things and practice chugging them down. You wouldn’t
do more than one or two a night because, of course, you had problems
that [resulted], and so forth. [Laughter] ERWIN: Yes, right, right.
TIvOL: And then the members of the team would wear T-shirts and would
wet them down to disguise how much beer actually got spilled on your
shirt. So there was some strategies involved. Anyhow, that was the
crew race. ERWIN: And that was always at the barn dance? TIVOL: It was
always at the barn dances. The second bit of entertainment at the barn
dances was “flamers.” Now, I did drink at least one flamer, but I was
never good enough to make the team. ERWIN: I see. So you’ll explain
what this is. TIVOL: Now, what a flamer is, you take a shot glass. You
fill it with something that’s at least 100 proof; light it on fire-
http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tivol_W_alum Tivol-3 ERWIN:
Yeah, I was afraid of that. TIVOL: And you turn down the lights— this
is why people with beards should never demonstrate flamers— you turn
down the lights. And there’s your second, who’s sitting there with a
wet towel in case of disaster so he’s ready to blot you out. Then,
there were various kinds. There was the straight flamer, where you
just drank it. There was one that worked from about six inches; one
from about a foot; the full flamer where you arm is more or less
extended; and the extended where your elbow is locked. And then there
were fancier variations where you’d pour it from one glass into
another into your mouth, and so there were cascades and things like
that, degrees of difficulty and so forth. And, actually, the best one
I ever saw was only of moderate difficulty. It was an extended flamer,
where, of course, the man is standing there with elbow locked, pours
the flaming beverage, got it all into his mouth, and then stood there,
and you gargle a little bit and that maintains the flame. And he
maintained the flame as, one by one, three flaming drops dropped off
the rim of the glass into his mouth— ERWIN: Oh my goodness! TIvOL: And
then— ERWIN: Quite spectacular! TIVOL: Quite spectacular! And as I
say, that was the best one that I saw. [Laughter] ERWIN: Now, did
anyone ever sustain injury from this? TIVOL: Nothing serious. That’s
why the guy was there with the wet towel. [Laughter] Preventing, you
know, anything other than, you know, maybe a blister on your lip or
something. And it was a good idea - well, alcohol you can burn a
little bit on the palm of your hand, but if it sits there too long,
the heat will start to transfer through the liquid— ERWIN: I’ve never
tried that. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tivol_W_alum
Tivol-4 TIvOL: Yeah, and so you can hold something in your mouth for a
couple of seconds while the flame goes— ERWIN: Oh, you can! So the
flame eating is— the traditional flame eaters, or whatever, they
actually are doing it. TIVOL: Yeah, they’re actually doing it. So, in
any event, those are the two traditions that we used to have that
have, as I say, since sort of faded into obscurity, and I don’t want
them to disappear completely from the lore of Caltech. ERWIN: Well,
thank you for nailing this down. This is very, very good. TIVOL: I’m
glad nobody else did it first. ERWIN: No, no! Now, can you speculate
for a bit on why you think those events disappeared from student life?
TivoL: Things sort of evolved from year to year, and I’m not—I have no
clue as to why flamers seemed to have disappeared. But, maybe twenty,
twenty-five years ago, when I brought up the subject, nobody knew what
they were about. ERWIN: I’ve never heard of them. TIVOL: Yeah, a lot
of people [hadn’t], of course. Now, at that same time, people had
heard of crew, but that had evolved. And the idea was you had ten
people sort of sitting around in a U-shaped configuration, with two
mugs of beer, which had not been de-carbonated. So they would drink
one, the other, the other, the other, the other, and then when they
got to the tenth, it would go back around the table to the first
person. So that evolved into something slightly different and now, as
far as I know, has disappeared. I’m not sure whether barn dances still
occur. We used a facility up in La Canada-Flintridge, which was
basically this big open space that you could sprinkle hay on the
ground. It wasn’t a working barn, of course.
http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tivol_W_alum Tivol-s ERWIN:
The flames in the barn do sound a bit risky. TIVOL: Space was cleared.
We were safe enough. ERWIN: So, why was it called “crew?” TIVOL: Oh,
because there was a crew of people, I think, more than anything else.
ERWIN: It had no inspiration from the sport of crew? TIVOL: From
rowing? No. No inspiration from rowing other than that both involve a
liquid. [Laughter] ERWIN: Okay. Okay, well, that’s very nice. Was
there anything else you wanted to add or are you—that’s your story?
TIVOL: No, that’s- that’d be about it. ERWIN: Okay! TIvOL: Okay, thank
you very much. (Tape ends]
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