Crooks Pilfer Wigs and Cash at Loeb

The thievery which has plagued the Loeb Drama Center since its opening in 1961 erupted again last week.

Two wigs which cost a total of $300 were taken from an actor's unlocked dressing room during a rehearsal of Eastward Ho Wednesday night. Four wallots with over $70 in them were stolen from the dressing rooms of two actresses Friday night.

Neither the University police nor the Cambridge police have been notified of either theft.

Robert H. Chapman, Director of the Loeb, said yesterday he did not think there was anything the police could do. "The Cambridge police would laugh in our faces if we told them we've lost two wigs," he said.

"We lose things all the time," George E. Hamlin, Assistant Director of the Loeb, said Saturday. "We try to keep track of the people who come into the building during performances by opening the front doors," he continued, "and we plead with students every day to put any thing of value in lockers that we provide."

"But the staff of the Loeb just can't be everywhere at the same time, and students don't always lock things up," Hamlin said.

According to Hamlin, the Loeb has lost chairs, make-up, costumes, cigarette urns, pointings, a motion picture camera, a sofa, and many wallets, over the post four years.

Neither Chapman nor several members of the Harvard Dramatic Club had any concreto idea about who was doing the stealing. John H. Anderson '66, a member of the HDC executive committee, said, however, that the thought the thieves were people who live in the neighborhood of the Loeb. Hamlin emphasized that the thieves were probably "people who don't belong at the Loeb."

One University policeman said Saturday he thought the police could help. "We probably can't catch the thieves in the act," he said, "but if we were asked, we could at least check on the people who don't belong and who persistently hang around the Loeb."

The policeman said that the theft of the motion picture camera which occurred three years ago, had not been reported to the police until six months after it occurred. "We certainly can't help the Loeb people if they wait that long to inform us," he said.

Chapman said that the Loeb has had to absorb the theft losses, which have averaged about $200 per year in the past in its regular budget. He said that the University has no Insurance to cover thefts.

He emphasized that the Loeb wasn't the only Harvard building which loses a lot to thieves. "Most of the open buildings--Memorial Hall and Longfellow, for example--are constantly being victimized," he said.