Under
Dr. Ethel McCormick, the U-M's social director of women, the League nonetheless
became exactly what its founders had wanted: the center of women's activities
on campus. Mary Marsh Matthews, who attended the university in the 1950s,
remembers McCormick as "a small person, energetic, funny, fierce, but
lovable. She made the League part of our lives." The building hosted
orientation, teas, dances, meetings, and recreational classes (such as bridge
and ballroom dancing), but the real bonding was the annual play put on by
each class: Frosh Weekend, Soph Cab (for cabaret), the Junior Girls' Play,
and Senior Night.
Drama Season actors stayed at the League's fourth-floor hotel, as did many musical performers appearing at nearby Hill Auditorim. Aileen Mengel-Schultze, who worked in the League while a student in the late 1940s, recalls seeing Danny Kaye, Skitch Henderson, and Eugene Ormandy. Another alumna remembers sitting in the lounge and hearing some wonderful piano music in an adjoining room. The pianist turned out to be Van Cliburn.