Holbrook reflects on years at CMA

By JENNIFER MACK
Tribune Staff Writer

CULVER -- With wistful, faraway glances and musings about how he was "not a good cadet," Hal Holbrook reminisced Monday about his time at Culver Military Academy in the early 1940s.

"You've got it easy here," Holbrook joked. "You've got girls."

Culver Military Academy did not admit girls when Holbrook attended. Now known as the Culver Academy, the first graduating class of girls was in 1972, according to an academy spokesman.

The 77-year-old actor, who has performed his one-man stage show "Mark Twain, Tonight" more than 2,000 times since it opened in 1954, pondered his time at the then military school and later chided the country's educational system.

He spoke to students and staff as part of Culver Academy's Montgomery Lecture Series. On Tuesday, Holbrook visited individual classrooms for more time with students.

Holbrook, who graduated from the school in 1942, recalled a December Sunday in 1941 heading back to his room in the South Barracks from chapel service.

When Holbrook got back he said he heard a radio from a buddy's room across the hall, noting the voice on the radio sounded serious.

" ' ... a day that will live in infamy,' " Holbrook said he heard come from then President Roosevelt that Dec. 7th day.

"I realized my whole life was changed, and so will yours be maybe."

Prior to that story, Holbrook told students how he walked the campus, remembering his days as a teenager at the school Monday afternoon.

"When I realized I was coming back, my brain started going over feelings that rise up," said Holbrook, who also related stories about his time on the cross-country team and as a boxer at the school. "A lot of feelings have risen up."

He kept those feelings to himself, but declared later that attending Culver Military Academy saved him and is the place he discovered acting.

Holbrook said he had flunked algebra and as a senior needed extra credits to graduate. A friend suggested he try dramatics.

Holbrook said he wanted nothing to do with drama students because in those days it wasn't manly to show off a creative side.

"I wanted to be an athlete," Holbrook said.

Then he was told there would be no homework.

"I had no choice," said Holbrook, who was also Culver Academy's first Man of the Year. "I gotta become an actor. After a couple of sessions I really enjoyed it. They (acting students) weren't real military. It was wonderful."

Holbrook admitted he believed attending the school saved him since he was abandoned by his parents and sent away to boarding schools at the age of 7 by his grandfather.

At 12 years old, Holbrook said he promised his grandfather while the man was on his deathbed that he would attend Culver Military Academy.

He called students at Culver Academy lucky to have as many educational opportunities offered to them, noting education is the cure for many of the world's ills.

He also seemed to be appalled at statistics he recently discovered from the U.S. Department of Education in which students in 1,100 public and private schools were tested on American history. He said 57 percent of those tested could not perform at the basic level of knowledge, while 32 percent could only perform at the basic level. Other levels included proficient and advanced performance.

"These people are going to vote with you in three years," Holbrook said. "They're going to run the country with you in 20 years. Your vote is your opinion. There's a celebration of ignorance in our nation right now."

Holbrook responded to a student question asking why he believes the country's education system has gone downhill by saying he likes to deal in common sense.

He called America a big, beautiful country with a democracy that has invited people from other nations to live. He said the educational system has had to open up to accommodate children not as well prepared in speaking English and other subjects including American history.

"Common sense says that the bar has to be lowered a little bit," Holbrook said. "(That) is where the problem gets serious."

He reiterated that Culver Academy students have it easier than he did in that students then were not allowed to leave campus except for the holidays, and they had no televisions.

"That's why I say this school saved my life," Holbrook said.

"It made me find a way to want to succeed and to not leave things undone."