85th anniversary of Brother Rat

A Virginia Military Institute (VMI) cadetship can be described as many things. Boring is, however, not an appropriate descriptor for the four years one spends in the walls of barracks. Fred F. Finklehoffe and John C. Monks matriculated in September 1928. The two were far from model cadets. They had a long disciplinary record encompassing minor infractions like late return from furloughs to attempting to deceive the guard team's officer-in-charge doing his routine midnight status checks by having rats sleep in their hays while they were off on the town. Their determination to make their cadetship anything but boring coupled with their participation in the theater club gave them an idea. Finklehoffe and Monks, taking inspiration from their own antics, took to writing a play about an outlandish conundrum; a cadet that can't stay out of trouble, whose secret bride is pregnant, and who is trying to do avoid mishaps in order to graduate. Brother Rat premiered on stage December 17, 1936 at the Biltmore Theatre in New York City. The play follows troublesome cadets Bing Edwards, Billy Randolph, and Dan Crawford as they try to tame their rambunctious ways in the weeks leading up to graduation. Seeing the success of the play, Warner Brothers Entertainment approached the two for a possible film adaptation. Monks and Finklehoffe agreed to the project, and the movie began production soon after. It was released in theaters on October 29, 1938 to an overwhelmingly positive reception, mostly praised as an excellent screen adaptation of an already loved play. The film starred Eddie Albert, Wayne Morris, and Ronald Reagan as Edwards, Randolph, and Crawford respectively. The last project the two collaborated on was a MGM musical "Strike Up the Band" in 1940, going their separate ways after graduation. Monks commissioned into the United State Marine Corps during World War II and wrote a book about his perspective of the Bougainville campaign, titled A Ribbon and a Star: The Third Marines at Bougainville. After his time in the Marine Corps, he got back to writing. Finklehoffe, medically disqualified from an injury he sustained during his cadetship, continued to write and produce plays and movies under contract from MGM Studios. On 5 October 1977, Finklehoffe passed away. A year later, presumably motivated by the death of his Brother Rat and co-writer, Monks decided to pursue a revival or musical adaptation of Brother Rat. A series of letters between Audrey Wood, the head of the drama department at a stage production company called International Creative Management, and Monks show his attempts to garner interest in a reboot. Wood was a strong supporter of the idea, however she appeared to be alone. No one that Wood or Monks reached out to appeared to be interested in a reboot of the classic film. Burton Lane, a famous composer in Hollywood and Broadway; contemporary and friend of Wood said, "In Brother Rat, the mental attitudes involving the breaking of rules, Kate being pregnant, the baseball game, and the relationships between the boys and the girls, belong to another period, not today. And, indeed, this play was written in 1936, which explains why I don't think it would work for today's theatre." As mentioned previously, Wood was a strong supporter of the revival effort until she suffered a stroke on 30 April 1981 that left her comatose until her death on December 27, 1985. Monks continued to search for support up until 1986, where he began to move onto other projects he had been working on. However, fate would have a surprise for John C. Monks. For his class's 50th reunion, the VMI Cadet Theatre group put on a production of Brother Rat on April 21, 1989, and wanted him to see it. He was formally invited by the Superintendent Major General John W. Knapp. The production was in honor of the 150th founding of VMI, and the late Fred F. Finklehoffe. The experience was something Monks cherished for the rest of his life. Fifteen years later on 10 December 2004, John C. Monks passed away at the age of 94. Finklehoffe and Monks created a play that left a legacy at the Institute. Surely Brother Rat is dated more today than ever, but it's worth shouldn't be taken at face value. It is a cherished piece of VMI history and a looking-glass into the past, allowing us to reflect on the customs and traditions of an "I" gone by. The attitude of the Corps and the world shaped the setting and story and although the humor or references might fall on our own deaf ears, we can appreciate our rich and cultured history.