Harvard Lampoon Names the Worst
Comedian Eddie Bracken was not the only one to get the thumbs down from the sophomoric (t)wits at the Harvard Lampoon this week. According to Time, the widdle boys of Harvard, when the undergraduate student body was known as much for parental wealth and social connections as for intellect, named Joan Crawford (38) the Oldest Actress, with Joan Bennett (36) receiving honorable mention in the category. Variety noted that Miss Crawford was also named Worst Actress, along with June Allyson and Alexis Smith. Van Johnson, who had shared Worst Discovery honors with Frank Sinatra the prior year, was honored again, this time for Worst Single Performance (Male) for “Thrill of a Romance.” On the other hand, the Harvard would-be comedians singled out those dramatic heavyweights Esther Williams, Johnson's co-star in "Thrill of a Romance," and Maureen O’Hara for excellence, inviting them to campus to be drooled over by the prep school crowd. The Lampoon's worst movies of the year list included classics like Hitchcock’s “Spellbound” and the MGM Sinatra/Kelly musical “Anchors Aweigh” as well as "Weekend at the Waldorf," "Music For Millions," "This Love of Ours," "The Enchanted Cottage," "Where Do We Go From Here," “Guest Wife," "She Wouldn't Say Yes" and "Uncle Harry." Most of these films were musicals or romances. Apparently the adolescent Laddie Boy culture was thriving among the preppies of Cambridge in 1946.