Old Missoula

 

Mrs. Macleod and De Loss Smith Give Splendid Entertainment

 

The largest audience that has yet attended any of the university lecture course numbers last evening heard Mrs. Alice Macleod, head of the elocution department, and Professor De Loss Smith, instructor of music at the university. The entertainment was good and the spectators left the hall pleased at the entertaining and profitable evening spent.

 

Mrs. Macleod read Galsworthy’s “Strife” in a dramatic and effective manner. She used no manuscript whatever, giving the whole piece without once referring to a copy of the play. The presentation of the various acts and scenes of the play were interpolated with vocal selections by Professor Smith. All of his songs were good. Some were dramatic, some humorous and some love songs. The song which scored the biggest hit of the evening was a love song written by Professor Bateman of the university faculty.

 

Mrs. Macleod was handsomely gowned and when she came onto the stage a ripple of “ahs” swept over the house. This was followed by applause. During the course of her readings Mrs. Macleod was presented with a handsome bouquet of pink tea roses. This act was heartily approved by the audience for several minutes.

 

From the expressions of the audience as they left the hall last evening, the entertainment offered by Mrs. Macleod and Professor Smith made the biggest “hit” of any that have been offered on the university lecture course.

 

 

The article above appeared in The Missoulian on April 15, 1914.

 

Alice Macleod’s son, Norman Macleod, was a novelist and poet whose work included ‘The Bitter Roots’, a tale of his youth in Missoula, published in 1941. The novel is available online from the link below:

 

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015054402782;view=1up;seq=7

Below is an article from the Iowa City Press Citizen on Norman Macleod in 1941. It is accompanied by a photo of him and his mother, Alice Mills.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/19049196/