Presidents' Pyjamas

The origins of this tradition are lost in the depths of antiquity, though one theory has it that the Presidents had gotten together, in the days before even AICSA existed, and, while they sat talking of inter-varsitorial things, and passing between them a port bottle in a private, exclusive, presidentially elitist sort of way, some Choro-Proto-republican – or perhaps a Pseudo-Choratic-Marxist – as a gesture of solidarity with the common chorister stole the Presidents’ pyjamas (yes, the very same ones that they actually used for sleeping in those dim dark days) and installed them in a suitably public, embarrassing and yet inaccessible location, called all their fellow common choristers together, and sat back to watch the fun. In an early article purportedly intended to attract choristers to the next IV, QUMS used the admittedly sensationalist headline “Riotous Proceedings at Choral Festival: Presidents’ Pyjamas Removed in Broad Daylight” in a student newspaper in 1956. Their explanation gives some insight into the early days of this activity:

"It is here [at camp] that the riotous proceedings will proceed. It would be highly unnecessary (and indeed quite tactless) to mention any details, but since the Presidential Pyjamas has been aired in the headlines, the theme had better be enlarged. It is customary to remove the Presidents’ (i.e. Presidents of the three Choral Societies) pyjamas, often with great difficulty and at great personal risk, from the Presidential Boudoirs, and to suspend them at even greater personal risk, from the highest point in the neighbourhood. Rumour has it that a meteorological balloon is to be used this year." (B.D.L., “Riotous Proceedings at Choral Festival”, Semper Floreat, 16 April 1956, p.6.)

There is evidence to suggest that the perpetrator of this nefarious deed made a small fortune in sales of flour, toilet rolls and general gunge, to what end and purpose, I leave to your own vivid imaginations. The time for the 1956 IV camp duly arrived, and the:

"Presidential pyjamas somehow climbed a gum which had two diverging trunks and a smooth skin and not too many branches. A display of daring and agility by David Tolmie [QUMS President] brought them down – they were a scrumptious red – with a few half-way stops on lower branches and electric wires for some Melbourne pyjamas which kept them company." (Annette Hill and Judith Green, “Doin’ What Comes Natch’rally – with the Choir Down South”, Semper Floreat, 18 June 1956, p.7.)

The pyjamas even made page nine of the Courier-Mail during [:BIV1961:Brisbane IV] 1961, when a short note stated that “Ceremonial pyjamas will be hoisted again at Tallebudgera Fitness Camp on May 27. The hoisting of choir president’s vividly-coloured ceremonial pyjamas is held regularly as part of the annual inter-university choral festival”. (“Varsities Hoist ‘Flag’”, Courier-Mail, 22 May 1961, p.9.) Commenting upon the same Brisbane festival in her thesis on the history of QUMS, Jenny Dawson relates the following reminiscence:

"Misfortune was to strike the QUMS historic pyjamas, however, made specially for Mr Hal Davis in the mid-fifties and embroidered with the names of “people of good will”; puritans in the camp, perhaps objecting to the suggestive fact that these names were all feminine, burnt the offending garment. (See QUMS Annual Report, 1960-61, p.2, QUMS Archives, Brisbane.) This unfortunate act of vandalism was only partly made good by the construction, within the next decade, of a new nightshirt – embroidered, more circumspectly, with a retrospective list of executive committee members." (Jenny Dawson, A History of the Queensland University Musical Society, 1912-1980, p.45.)

In these early years, it appears that it was sometimes necessary to remind presidents to bring their sleeping garments. At the SUMS committee meeting held on 29 March 1962, in preparation for the upcoming Sydney IV, it was “resolved that we are in favour of the presidents bringing pyjamas”. (Minutes of SUMS Committee Meeting, 29 March 1962, University of Sydney Archives, SUMS Papers, box 1.)

At some later stage, these shenanigans formalised into an end-of-camp frivolity in which the assembled choristers could see their leaders debased and defiled in the most sordid, dirty and disgusting ways able to be conjured from the depths of dastardly brains. Each society must nominate its President and a Second (proxies are allowed for small societies; a society president refusing to attend an IV is unheard of, especially one simply trying to avoid having to compete in the Presidents’ PJs) who must compete against the other choirs’ repre-sentatives in order to reign victorious thought a serious of obstacles. Contestants are put through the usual array of iron-gut eating trials, blindfolded taste-tests, egg throwing, mud/jelly/honey/custard wrestling, three-legged sack races, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Points are awarded for artistic merit as well as gratuitous displays of enjoyment, no matter how irksome the task at hand. At the completion of these antics, the designer of the adventure, along with the convenor of the festival, invariably find themselves fallen upon by the now thoroughly disgruntled Presidents’ PJs participants, much to the natural amusement and encouragement of the assembled spectating choristers.

A report of the 1968 Hobart PJs was given in the next issue of the SUMS magazine Ovos. The winner that year was the redoubtable Bob Gilbert of SCUNA. The trials of the Presidents’ Pyjamas were described in detail as having to complete the:

"time-honoured activities of eat, drink and be merry if you still can after digging in the sand of Sandy Bay for beer which you have to skull on the spot before you run an obstacle race which ends in your appearing before ABC (Tas.) Channel 6 T.V. cameras in your pyjamas and then guzzling a National Pie (“the pie with the superior interior”), topped off with a race to the pub, a leap onto the counter of the bar, and another downing of a schooner of beer, all of which Gilbert did while wearing Jenny Browne’s mini petticoat and Chris Gailey’s lacy panties and nothing else, except for when he put on the President’s pyjamas which were decorated with a toilet seat which despite its function still managed to be in the shape of a heart." (Ovos, vol.3, no.4 (June 1968), p.2.)

Needless to say, the PJs themselves have evolved into society icons, to be worn proudly by teams of persistent presidents and seconds at every opportunity. Accidents can happen, however, and there is one famous incident from the 1987 Adelaide IV camp at the Roseworthy campus of Adelaide University when the SUMS PJs, having been buried in sand the night before, along with all the others, were never found again! When it came time for the Presidents’ PJs the following year (1988 in Sydney), SUMS was still without a pair and so their President, Tim Mathies, performed the entire race naked. Then there were the TUMS PJs which were found, a year after they were last ‘used’, languishing in the boot of the President’s car, having been left there, wrapped in a plastic bag, damp and covered in indescribable gunge, since the previous IV! The Intervarsity Choral Festival Presidents’ Pyjamas Trophy is a mounted female worker with shovel. The following table lists the past winners.

Winners of the Intervarsity Choral Festival Presidents’ Pyjamas Trophy