It hasn’t been a good week for the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. It hasn’t, for that matter, been a particularly good few years. On Sunday, national fraternity officials abruptly closed the University of Oklahoma chapter after a racist video surfaced. In 2013 Bloomberg reported that SAE had the most fraternity-related deaths of all fraternities. And SAE is not the only fraternity being asked to answer for a culture in which allegations of sexual assault are disproportionately high and photos from racist parties leak.
When LIFE went to an SAE circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946, shenanigans ruled the night. Fraternity members transported sorority girls to the party in a 30-foot mobile lion cage pulled by a sad-eyed elephant. Guests dressed as cowgirls, sailors and bearded ladies, with at least one dancing couple sporting blackface. The night concluded with the “capture” of three students from rival University of Southern California, who were “soundly paddled and had their heads shaved.”
LIFE’s tone was lighthearted, reporting on revelers’ “carnival spirit” in the final pages of the last issue of 1946. Photos that might give readers pause today—women in cages, elephant as chauffeur and white faces painted black—would have been standard fare for readers then. Al Jolson had appeared in blackface just one year earlier in the Gershwin biopic Rhapsody in Blue.
Times have changed, to be sure, but Greek life, as an institution, seems to lag behind.
Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. A long-legged coed gets hoisted atop a circus wagon which will take her to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon circus masquerade party at U.C.L.A. The inside of the wagon, which normally is used for lions by a local circus, was already full of other guests. Halfway to the party the wagon broke down and the girls and their hosts continued on foot.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. Bonnie, a mournful elephant, provided a lift to the party for two co-eds.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. Delighted dates were carried off to the wagon by boys in bears' heads.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. Sideshow "Barker" chivies coeds about their costumes as he hands out admission to "main tent." Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. Make-believe rabbits, Bud Jones and Muriel Goodwin in ordinary campus life, made the most startling and effective appearance at the masquerade party. The costumes were sewn together by Miss. Goodwin from old bed sheeting of dark felt and cotton batting for less than a dollar. The entire party cost a little under $400.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
