FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1952 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE Opera's Past Recalled By BOB APPLE Way back in 1907 a group of University students got together, formed an all-male club, and named it the Michigan Union. To start this club on the road of financial stability the members decided to produce an all-male musical comedy, and so the Union 1 Opera was born. In 1908 the first show, "Michigenda," got under way at the new Whitney Theatre. After this came "Culture" followed by "Koanza- land" in 109, which left the University with 'the immortal song, "College Days."{ * * * * UNION OPERA WAS NOW becoming tradition and strengthenedf its hold even more with "Contrary Mary" in 1913 when the first at-r tempt of a road tour was made. Fdur more smash hits were produced during the years 1914 to 1917.. So far all these shows were successfully played without- the . use of women. However, in 1918 the United States went to war and the male enrollment dropped sufficiently so that that year's .:.... musical, "Let's Go," employed women in the cast. With things back to "normal" again in 1919, women were ig-} nored in the production of "Come on Dad." '* * * * THE OPERA CONTINUED successfully through to 1930. In 1923 it played the New York Metropolitan Opera House, copping $8,500 with "Cotton Stockings." Valentine Davies, who wrote the book, is now jbetter known for his motion picture, "Miracle on 34th Street." Opera road tours had off-the-scene humor as -well as that displayed on the stage. In "Top 0' The Morning" of 1924, in; which Tom Dewey starred, a waterfall set up on the stage soaked the first four rows of the audience. 174 When "George Did It" was in Cincinnati one of the cast wandered -"- ......\= # into a saloon across from the theatre and had 17 beers plus a few E n =