{"id":19051,"date":"2023-03-29T12:08:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T16:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=19051"},"modified":"2023-03-29T12:09:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T16:09:12","slug":"prankster-troy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/prankster-troy\/","title":{"rendered":"Prankster\u2019s Legendary Exploits Enthralled Cornellians for Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hugh Troy 1926 played epic practical jokes on campus and elsewhere, painted murals\u2014and went on to join the CIA <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was an accomplished artist and a prolific writer\u2014authoring children\u2019s books and penning many humorous pieces for Esquire,<\/em> Life<\/em>, and The New Yorker<\/em>. He served in World War II as a combat intelligence officer, and spent more than a decade at the CIA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Hugh Troy 1926 is best remembered\u2014on the Hill and beyond\u2014as an unrepentant prankster and practical joker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Some of Troy\u2019s campus pranks were elaborate, like adding a fake pipe to the Bailey Hall organ and filling it with various items\u2014including a live duck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others were fairly simple (and, in retrospect, rather meanspirited), like setting up phony \u201cclass photo\u201d shoots, only to have the posers drenched with water as he clicked the shutter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his heyday and for decades afterward, Troy was lauded by many as the \u201cworld\u2019s greatest practical joker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1983, his legend was bolstered by a biography penned by his cousin, Con Troy 1928\u2014titled, aptly enough, Laugh with Hugh Troy<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\""Laugh<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But nearly a century after his time on the Hill\u2014and almost 60 years after his death in 1964, at age 58\u2014Troy is no longer remembered by most Cornellians, and it\u2019s hard to parse fact, exaggeration, and fiction from the decades-old tales of his exploits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Ithaca native and the son of a dairy science professor (Hugh Troy Sr. 1895), Troy first studied architecture and then fine arts on the Hill, while building a reputation for an ambitious and varied series of japes and pranks, often with the help of co-conspirators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stole a well-known professor\u2019s boots, painted them to look like bare feet, then covered them in lampblack and returned them. The next time the man wore them in the rain, the lampblack washed off, creating an amusing spectacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of his most famous practical jokes gave rise to the short-lived legend of the Beebe Lake rhinoceros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
As an alum, Troy illustrated Big Red game programs, like this football one from 1947. (Provided)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n

Using a professor\u2019s wastebasket made out of a real rhino foot (yes, this was a thing back then), Troy made tracks in the freshly fallen snow early one winter morning. The footprints went across campus to a hole in the Beebe Lake ice, making it look like the animal had fallen in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A zoologist examined the prints and confirmed they were, indeed, that of a rhinoceros; some avoided drinking the campus water, complaining of a rhino-like aftertaste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tragically, though, the story may be fabricated; no newspapers mentioned it at the time. Even Morris Bishop 1913, PhD 1926, in his A History of Cornell,<\/em> noted that \u201cno one in Ithaca remembers hearing the tale until long afterward.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Troy was said to have written sports stories for the Daily Sun<\/em> about a fictional student, Johnny Tsal, who always came in last\u2014his surname spelled backward\u2014at track meets, but there\u2019s no trace of them in the Sun<\/em> archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think Hugh Troy\u2019s greatest talent was storytelling, given that many of the pranks he\u2019s become known for seem to have never actually happened\u2014but he was undoubtedly a larger-than-life personality,\u201d says Corey Earle \u201907, who teaches a popular course on Cornell history and includes tales about Troy in a lecture on campus pranksters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Ithaca exploits attributed to Troy include: painting a series of black ovals (resembling toilet seats) on the bench of a trolley car waiting booth; tricking local police into letting him and his friends steal every barber pole in town; scaring a professor with a trompe l\u2019oeil<\/em> artwork of a hole in a \u201ccrumbling\u201d classroom ceiling; and painting, in Greek, a phrase akin to \u201cand so\u2019s your old man\u201d in a mural that included real quotations from classical playwrights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

He was undoubtedly a larger-than-life personality.<\/p>\nCornell history expert Corey Earle \u201907<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t sit around and think up a practical joke and then go out and buy all the things to do it with,\u201d Troy said during a panel discussion on campus in 1960, where he explained that most of his pranks were based on spur-of-the-moment ideas. \u201cA situation presents itself, and you just can\u2019t help doing something about it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(When not engaging in practical jokes, Troy found time to paint conventional murals\u2014including in Willard Straight Hall\u2019s Ivy Room, a fraternity house, and the Ithaca Yacht Club.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Troy managed to evade serious consequences for his cheeky exploits\u2014until the end of his senior year, when he and a few friends produced a satirical newspaper as part of the traditional Spring Day festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Front
The infamous newspaper. (Rare and Manuscript Collections)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Called The Globe & Square Dealer<\/em>, it described a student being given arsenic in the infirmary and poked fun at the honor system with a story headlined \u201cAll Seniors But One Ousted from Arts College.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was a page 4 headline\u2014\u201cPresident Breaks Wind for New Aeronautical College on Upper Alumni Field\u201d\u2014that got him into hot water. (\u201cBanquet Lends Festive Air to Occasion,\u201d the next line jovially observed.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

A situation presents itself, and you just can\u2019t help doing something about it.<\/p>\nHugh Troy 1926<\/strong>, on his inspiration for pranking<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Administrators tried to buy up all copies of the offensive issue, even as it garnered real-life media coverage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(As the Syracuse American<\/em> reported: \u201c\u2018Bad Taste\u2019 Causes Ban on Naughty Cornell Magazine.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group was hauled before a faculty committee; most had their credits for the term canceled. Troy\u2014listed on the masthead as \u201cUnmanageable Editor\u201d\u2014took full responsibility, and was additionally suspended for the next semester. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

He never did return to complete his degree\u2014though he did occasionally come back years later, as an invited speaker recalling his adventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After moving to NYC\u2014where he worked as a muralist and writer\u2014Troy continued his pranks. In a twist on his Ithaca barber pole jape, he purchased a park bench and, with friends, would carry it out of city parks; when police would stop them for theft, he\u2019d present the bill of sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and some cohorts also donned work clothes and gathered shovels, pickaxes, and road signs, then dug a large hole at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 54th Street\u2014leaving it blocked off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reportedly took the city three weeks to realize that the authentic-looking worksite was fake.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"1941
Troy, an award-winning illustrator and author of children\u2019s books, created this 1941 postcard to advertise his latest. (Rare and Manuscript Collections)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And, in what may be the ultimate mashup of life and art, Troy crafted a human ear out of dried beef, mounted it in a velvet-lined shadow box, and surreptitiously installed it in a Van Gogh exhibit\u2014labeling it as the organ the artist had cut off in 1888. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSoon a large crowd was gathered around the ear, ignoring the paintings,\u201d observes hoaxes.org<\/a>, where a few of Troy\u2019s alleged exploits are chronicled. \u201cTroy, meanwhile, was able to examine Van Gogh\u2019s works in peace.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top image: Photo illustration by Cornell University.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published March 29, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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