Reflection #20 (Only 1056 to go!): A Turning Point(Pt. 1)
The Saturday evening of Dec. 18, 1976 at the Auditorium Theater was a magical evening. Bob Hope did a benefit performance for Saint Ignatius College Prep, entitled "Hope For Ignatius". Most of the time, when the phrase "magical" is used, it refers to a prom or a concert that is particularly well-done. I have to say that this event had a greater element of magic than just being good.
In mid-December of 1976, not only did Bob Hope do a benefit for us, but he brought Andy Williams and Dyan Cannon along. Williams was a big name singer in his own right, and host/star of his own variety TV show. Hope had talked him into appearing that night, and Williams was the headliner for the benefit the following year. Diane Cannon was a beautiful multi-talented actress who had earned several academy award nominations, but was probably more well-known for having been married to Cary Grant.
To put it mildly, Ignatius was going through a rough patch financially at that time. I am not privy to all of the details or causes (although I have some thoughts on the matter), but, as I understand it, we were not far from closing. As tuition necessarily increased, the enrollment dropped. If one looks at the class pictures for the years of the late '70's, the size of the graduating classes were significantly smaller than before or after those years.
I’ve heard a few variations about how the benefit came to be, but essentially the story seems to be that Father Bowen, the president of Ignatius, had placed an ad in a magazine saying that St. Ignatius was “looking for an angel”. At about the same time that Hope saw the ad, he received a letter from Father Bowen asking for help by way of a benefit on behalf of the school.
Hope contacted Irv Kupcinet, the very popular newspaper columnist of the time, and asked him if we were worth the effort. Kup vouched for us, and, in fact, was the MC for the event. Mayor Daley (the 1st) was the “honorary chairman” of the event. For younger readers, I'm not sure that Bob Hope's style would have been all that entertaining, but for people of my generation and older (Raispis), he was great.
Now why do I say that this night was "magical" beyond just being a great show? Because the fortunes of the school seemed to turn on that event. Not only did the concert bring in (by Ignatius' standards) a lot of money, but the whole atmosphere of the place changed. Suddenly there was an optimism and new-found spirit that had been dwindling at that time.
Many will argue Ignatius going co-ed was the critical turn-around moment, and I won’t deny its impact, but from the moment of the “Bob Hope Benefit”, the energy of the school jumped dramatically. We had real traction. All of a sudden the school had vitality. I truly wonder if we would have survived until the year young ladies were accepted (1979) into the school, had it not been for that “magical” night.
The story I always heard was the Hope benefit was a "Eureka" moment for those running SICP when they realized they had a deep, wealthy influential alumni base that would provide serious bucks--more than students could raise with their Walks for Ignatius. The alumni who were providing large donations were all men, but their children were boys and girls; the donors started saying things like "it would be really great if my daughter could attend Ignatius like her older brother" and it quickly came to pass.
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