Courtesy of Western Regional Archives
FOCUS
ROLE
ATTENDANCE
George Randall was a student from fall 1938 to spring 1941. While a student, he participated in drama productions, such as Waiting for Lefty and Julius Caesar, where he was listed under stage manager and scenery.
Asheville Art Museum Collection
Writings about George can be seen in digitized college bulletins on Asheville Art Museum's collection website: collection.ashevilleart.org. They can be found by searching these accession numbers:
2017.40.257 December 1940 bulletin,
"The first dramatic presentation of the year, attended by over 150 guests, was Stton Vane’s “Outward Bound”. The scenery was designed by Lisa Jalowetz, a former students who is now working in New York City with Harry Horner, the well-known stage-designer. “Outward Bound” will be given during the year at several places in Western North Carolina at the request of dramatic groups. Two other plays, “The Cherry Orchard” and “Julius Caesar” have been cast, and production has begun. The sets will be designed by George Randall. The performance of “The Cherry Orchard” is scheduled to take place during Visitor’s Week in April, while “Julius Caesar” will be ready for presentation in May."
2017.40.118 August 9, 1943 bulletin,
"George Randall writes from Camp Edwards: “One thing (in the Bulletins) that is most impressive is the reports of the program of the farm and the community. Somehow I can’t help but remember the days of a struggle with the moving of the pigs from Blue Ridge to Eden. How it appears that things definitely are preparing ad for that my heartiest congratulations. That the College is proving one of its oldest theories (and on that up to now had remained unproven) is something for which you all should be proud. We always thought it could and should be done but when I am writing that you are eating your own vegetables, drinking your own milk, making your own butter, I say a strong ‘Good Work’... Pete Hill is still working with us here at the Training Group. He’s been moved into the S-2 section (Internal Intelligence, to you civilians).... I got a promotion last month, so now I am a Technical Sgt. My job, originally the Sgt Major of a small separate training unit has now greatly expanded…. We are training recruits for overseas replacements and it is not only interesting wor, but very intensive as we have only a limited time in which to prepare them for shipment. However, our Commanding Officer just came back from Africa where he was in charge of one of the landings last November, and he really knows what a man to be trained to do in order to be properly equipped for amphibian landings….”"
2017.40.119 August 16, 1943 bulletin,
"George Randall and Pete Hill recently sent donations to the College with the suggestion: “Changing our minds for utilitarian (rather than artistic) uses on which the enclosed funds might be expended, we recall (how could we forget?) that the roof and shower of South Lodge, North Attic, were always in agitated competition as to which could leak most effectively. Perhaps something could be done to avert further disaster caused by this unnecessary competition.” George and Pete are at Camp Edwards in Massachusetts."
2017.40.026 January 1944 bulletin,
"Master Sergeant George Randall, stationed at Camp Gordon Johnston in Florida, is in a unit that is at present training thousands of men to drive amphibian trucks. Sergeant Randall is in charge of the entire office staff of fifty secretaries."
2017.40.185 January 11, 1945 bulletin,
"Sergeant George Randall writes from Oaku, Hawaii, on December 31: “Since we have been here, we have carried on our training; it has been much the same as it was in the States. Of course, no one knows just how long we’ll stay here but it should be for a few more weeks anyway….One night recently I took my whole group to see Major Maurice Evans in an Army production of ‘Hamlet’. It was a really fine show. Evans had done an outstanding job of editing the play, and it seemed to me to be superior in every respect to the full-length job he did in New York. He had women from the University of Hawaii to play the Queen and Ophelia, and both were good….Christmas here was a beautiful day with the sun bright, clear and warm. We all went for a swim. Hibiscus and plumbago, instead of snow and holly, were the decor, but that didn’t seem to alter the spirit. It was a fine day…”"
2017.40.214 March 1946 bulletin,
"George Randall writes from Berkeley, California: “Now that I have my discharge, I am planning to carry on my work in dramatics with emphasis on radio and television either at Yale or the American Academy in New York. Both places want full accounts of the work I did at that last ‘peculiar’ college in North Carolina.”"
Amanda Hartman is the creator of BMC Yearbook, serving as the lead director, engineer, and researcher. She holds a MLIS in archive/ collections management, MA in art/ museum education, and BA in design. After working in museums and archives for a decade, she made the transition to tech and is now a software developer specializing in applications for museums, archives, and higher education.
Her interest in Black Mountain College began while working as a digital archivist with the Asheville Art Museum's BMC archive collection. She transcribed and digitized over 1500 documents created by the college. While working closely with these archives, she began independent research on the interracial program and Negro Week activities BMC, writing biographies of lesser known students and staff members. That research transformed into this BMC Yearbook project.
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