Brothers Four perform for "Rowdy" and "Rude" crowd

On April 1, 1967, the folk country band, "Brothers Four" performed in the Dining Hall of the Holland Union Building.

The Brothers Four, Bob Flick, John Paine, Mike Kirkland, and Dick Foley met as former fraternity brothers at the University of Washington, and started their career in 1956 with "Greenfields." and had since gone on to record and perform popular folk country songs for Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy, Princess Margaret, Lord Snowden, and several hundred schools and colleges.

Following their performance, sophomore Anne Hardegan, who had been managing lights for the show, discovered a letter to the Dickinsonian editor in the "Brothers Four" dressing room that read: "In eight years the Brothers Four have given over fifteen hundred performances. Tonight's audience was the most rude and the least sensitive that they have ever encountered."

Director of the Student Union Building Jimmie Ferrell and president of the Union Social Committee Jerry Carpenter described Mike Kirkland as being "disgusted" by the "general disorder" of the audience. This included incidents of shouting from the audience, students walking in and out of the hall during songs, and "general noise" from the Snack Bar during the performance.

Mort Lewis, the manager for the group, verified the letter, saying "they [The Brothers Four] did send the letter, and they meant every single word of it."