The Class of 1946 dealt with extraordinary tensions their senior year as conflict enveloped the nation.

Many of the soldiers had yet to return, a railroad workers' strike paralyzed the country's transportation system and prisoners took over Alcatraz.

The turmoil of the nation, however, was not the only conflict for this year's 50th reunion class.

With their lives forever changed by the circumstances of World War II, students at Harvard and Radcliffe found themselves involved in another form of conflict--a beauty contest.

The episode began when a vaudeville impresario questioned the beauty of college women.

Billy Rose, who was married to Ethel Williams, a famous singer, concluded after much searching that "with very few exceptions, beautiful girls just don't go to college."

According to an article from the April 16, 1946 Crimson, Rose made his comment while judging a contest of Mississippi State College's most beautiful women.

For the next four weeks, many at Harvard were involved in what gradually turned into a lively--and sometimes bitter--debate.

Instead of giving a simple account of Rose's statement, The Crimson decided to engage in the debate itself by running the story under the headline, "No Wellesley Women Here to Refute Rose's 'Pretty Girls Don't Go to College.'"

Not satisfied with a text-only story, The Crimson also included a sketch of a homely woman and labeled her a "demure lass" from Radcliffe (see graphic, this page).

The next day, the Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Bow Street social organization that occasionally publishes a so-called humor magazine, also decided to enter the fray.

The Lampoon challenged Rose to a beauty contest between non-college women selected by Rose and those the Lampoon would choose from area women's colleges. Rose signed on within hours, and each party agreed to pick six women who would appear in evening gowns and swimsuits for the competition.

With the contest set for May 18, 1946, in the Oval Room of Boston's Copley Plaza Hotel, the Lampoon sent out letters to 50 women's college newspapers requesting two beautiful representatives from each for a preliminary contest.

But some people did not forget about The Crimson's sketch, and while the Lampoon was looking for contestants, members of Radcliffe's Edmands Cooperative House responded in a letter to the editor.

"We were surprised to find a sketch of a Wellesley undergraduate misnamed 'A Radcliffe Girl,'" they wrote. "We realize of course this is a typographical error."