Interview with Frank C. Davidson, May 19, 1976

Interview Summary

In this interview, Dr. Frank C. Davidson is introduced as a current Professor of Speech and Drama at City College of New York. He enrolled at the University of Kentucky in 1926, and states he was from Barbourville, Kentucky. He was a U.K. graduate and a member of the U.K. Alumni Association's Board of Directors. He considered a career in journalism and said that Dr. Marguerite McLaughlin was one of his best professors. Davidson was president of a student theater group called the "Strollers", which chose a play from Broadway, and produced one in the fall and one in the spring. He also talks about Frank Fowler, an English professor who supported this group, and was in charge of the Guignol Theater. He recalls attending Dr. Frank L. and Mary Frances Jewell McVey's open house once a week. He received the Distinguished Service Award from UK and notes that he is a Kentucky Colonel. Davidson remembers U.K. helped him get into the Yale School of Drama, where he received his Master's in Fine Arts. He later received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from New York University and an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky.

Davidson talks about Sarah Blanding, the Dean of Women at U.K., how she disciplined the women students, and recalls a visit with her at Vassar College. He mentions his membership in a junior honorary group called the Mystic 13, and recalls the group was kicked off campus for burning new members with silver nitrate. The group was later called the Lances. Davidson recalls his membership in two senior honorary groups, Omicron Delta Kappa and Lamp and Cross. Davidson describes his experiences of doing American plays overseas for one year with the State Department, and one year in South America on a Princeton grant which he says "was a neat trick for a Yale man". He emphasizes that "UK taught him things about living and about himself that he would not have learned if he had initially attended Yale, or any larger university "up East".

Interview Keyword

University of Kentucky

Interview LC Subject

Davidson, Frank C. Davidson, Frank C.--Interviews University of Kentucky University of Kentucky--History

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.