HSA 65th Anniversary Book

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64
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65
SEPTEMBER 1, 1963 –
AUGUST 31, 1964
Revenue and the number
of agencies hit an all-time high
SEPTEMBER 1, 1964 –
AUGUST 31, 1965
HSA launches first
fundraising campaign
PRESIDENT
Bradford
Perry
OFFICES
4 Holyoke St.
993A Mass. Ave.
HSA’s offices at 12 Garden St. were demolished to make
way for a parking lot, forcing a move to a new haven. HSA
found refuge halfway to Central Sq. in the basement of
993A Mass. Ave., beneath the offbeat, avant-garde Orson
Welles Cinema.
The number of agencies reached an all-time high (36),
as did gross revenue (once adjusted for inflation): $12.5
million in 2022 dollars. IGS led the pack in growth: after
little more than a year, the agency had contracts worth
over $20,000 and employed nearly 150 students from the
college, business school, law school, and Graduate School
of Arts and Sciences. New agencies on the block included
Furniture, which resold the furniture the university sold to
HSA after purchasing the Ambassador Hotel; Lawn Care,
providing green, grassy goodness to its customers; and Fruit
Basket. Europe by Air changed its name to Charter Flights.
So many genteel Cantabrigians relished the opportunity
to have their parties catered and bartended by erudite
Harvard men and women in their sartorial red frocks that
the Harvard Bartending Course held its first class, training
the next generation of servers for the Catering agency.
The venerated course has ever since taught pupils how to
remain dignified yet uncondescending at parties, how to keep guests in that happy
medium between “sociable” and “wrecked,” and how to make numerous drinks
running the gamut from “scotch, straight up” to a “Polynesian Paralysis.”
PRESIDENT
Lee
Archer
OFFICES
4 Holyoke St.
993A Mass. Ave.
HSA weathered some unpleasantries in the Charter Flights department, as mechanical difficulties and a
university investigation filled the Crimson headlines. After celebrating Christmas and New Year’s, passengers
returning on HSA’s charter flight from San Francisco peered out their windows to see smoke billowing from
one of the jet engines. Since the fuel leak responsible had occurred shortly after takeoff, the plane quickly
turned around and landed safely back in San Francisco. The frazzled passengers had the luxury of returning
to Boston the next day on a four-engine propeller plane. The next month, continued complaints by students
over high flight prices and never-ending Crimson antagonism toward HSA prompted the university to
undertake a thorough investigation of the charter-flight operation. Although there were brief Crimson hopes
that the “HSA behemoth” would be dealt a crushing blow, the university left the investigation “entirely
satisfied with the HSA operation.”
Other highlights included IGS performing well enough to gain national attention with a September article
in Business Week, the death of the first version of the Entertainment agency, and the launch of HSA’s first
fundraising campaign in an attempt to raise $150,000 in capital for new entrepreneurial efforts.
Let’s Go became a real book for 1964, stepping out of the
back pocket and into the backpack. Another student couple
and seven editorial assistants spent the summer in Europe
updating the 1964 edition. As in previous years, the book
was massaged into editorial splendor during the fall and
completed in December. Each of the 20,000 copies printed
cost $1.95.
Thirteen traveling editors. Two hundred and forty pages. A cover price of $1.95. A guide to wine-tasting
in France. Bizarre abstract art. What a book. Yet the 50,000 copies produced were not all sold. So 15,000
libraries across the country received an unsolicited copy — invoice included. Most paid.
LET’S GO TITLES
• A Student Guide to Europe
LET’S GO TITLES
• The Student Guide to Europe
AGENCIES
• Linen
• Let’s Go
• Catering
• Information Gathering
Service
• Charter Flights
• House Painting
• Fall Concessions
• Student Calendar
• Refrigerator Rental
• Europe by Car
• Rings
• Refreshment
• Union News Stand
• Moving
• Typing
• Summer Calendar
• Stationery
• Birthday Cake
• Fall Blotter
• Novelties
• Magazine
• Beer Mugs and Banners
• Newspaper
• Watson Rink
• Summer Blotter
• Fall Programs
• Sampler
• Summer Guide
• Entertainment
• Furniture
• Foodmaking
• Spring Street Stadium
• Lawn Care
• Import
• Fruit Basket
• Radcliffe Bus
AGENCIES
• Linen
• Let’s Go
• Catering
• Information Gathering
Service
• Charter Flights
• House Painting
• Fall Concessions
• Student Calendar
• Refrigerator Rental
• Europe by Car
• Rings
• Refreshment
• Union News Stand
• Moving
• Summer Calendar
• Stationery
• Birthday Cake
• Fall Blotter
• Novelties
• Magazine
• Beer Mugs and Banners
• Newspaper
• Watson Rink
• Summer Blotter
• Sampler
• Addressing and Mimeograph
• Spring Street Stadium
• Import
16 HSA 65th Anniversary History Book 17