Modern Fable: Lions and gazelles (Dan Montano 1985 July 6)

[Garson O'Toole]

Below are some unverified matches from Google Books in the 1950s
apparently. The first example has a GB date of 1957 and the text
suggests that the cliche scaremongering occurred up to a decade
earlier. Of course, the attrition rate of the era provided a basis for
student trepidation.

Pennsylvania Bar Association quarterly: Volumes 29-30
Pennsylvania Bar Association - 1957 - Snippet view
[Begin extracted text]
It was true even ten years ago that deans could say - as one
purportedly did - "Gentlemen, look to the right of you, look to the
left of you; one of the three of you will not be here next year.
[End extracted text]

The University of Leeds review: Volumes 5-6
University of Leeds - 1956 - Snippet view
[Begin extracted text]
"Look carefully at the man sitting on your right and then at the man
sitting on your left ", a lecturer at the University of Ohio remarks
each year at the first meeting of his freshman class." Only one of the
three of you will be here this time next year. [End extracted text]

College admissions: Volume 5
College Entrance Examination Board - 1957 - Snippet view
[Begin extracted text]
I have heard the story told of the University of Chicago and of
Harvard College (and it was doubtless not unique with them), that in
those days the dean would say to the freshman class at an early
meeting, "Take a good look at the student on your left and the one on
your right. Shake hands and get acquainted now, for by spring one of
the three of you will no longer be here.
[End extracted text]

The student-physician: introductory studies in the sociology of ...
Robert King Merton, Columbia University. Bureau of Applied Social
Research - 1957 - 360 pages - Snippet view
[Begin extracted text]
... existed in the majority of both medical and law schools a policy
of winnowing; this, so tradition has it, found pungent expression in a
stern admonition to entering freshmen: Look to the gentleman on your
left, sir, and look to the one on your right. One of the three of you
will not be here next year!
[End extracted text]


On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 9:43 PM, George Thompson
<george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Modern Fable: Lions and gazelles (Dan Montano 1985 July 6)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have a very vague memory of this line being used in a late 1940s-early
> 1950s comic movie.  Out of the fog, I have a vision of Donald O'Connor.  It
> was in the context of the freshman class being welcomed to college.
>
> GAT
>
> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 7:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> >"Look to the left of you.  Look to the right of you.  One of the three of
>> you will be gone before the year is out."
>>
>> I don't have a source at hand, but phrases to this effect were also
>> (allegedly) in use during WWII in a more dire and immediate context.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 7:05 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
>> > Subject:      Re: Modern Fable: Lions and gazelles (Dan Montano 1985
>> July 6)
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> >        In the old days at Harvard Law School, incoming students were told
>> >
>> >        In recent decades, few students flunk out, so some other way had
>> to be found to intimidate the newcomers.  Dean James Vorenberg was
>> notorious for telling them the story about the bear on the first day.  I
>> remember hearing it in 1981, which may have been the first time he told it
>> (ISTR that the student newspaper the next year had a story about it and the
>> fact that he had told it for two years straight).  I had heard the story
>> before when I first heard it from Vorenberg in convocation.
>> >
>> >        As given on page 82 of Quote It Completely,
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=kjwVASsTUm0C, the story goes as follows:
>> >
>> >        <<Two hikers looked out of their tent one morning and saw a
>> large, hungry, and athletic-looking bear waiting for them.  After some
>> discussion they decided they might as well make a run for it.  One of them
>> sat down and started putting on his running shoes.  The other said, "Don't
>> you know there's no way you can outrun that bear?"  To this the first
>> replied, "I don't have to outrun the bear--I only have to outrun you.">>
>> >
>> >
>> > John Baker

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