The beginning...

"In the fall of 1980, four Duke sophomores were having lunch in the East Campus cafeteria when the conversation turned to music and singing. Until that conversation, although they were friends, they had never realized that they all shared a love of a cappella and had each been in a cappella or close harmony groups in high school prior to coming to Duke. Discussing Duke's lack of this kind of group for women (the Pitchforks were several years old at the time), these women decided to form a group of their own. They each knew one or two other singers who might be interested and agreed to invite them for the first organizational meeting shortly thereafter. "Shortly thereafter" somehow became early the next semester, and OOTB (although yet nameless) was born.

"The four founders were Elisa Buono Glazer ('83, first pitchpipe), Mary Pat Evans ('83, second pitchpipe), Harriet Cann Connolly ('83) and Loa Heymann ('83). Three of them lived in Jarvis that spring, and the fourth, Elisa, in Aycock, back in the days when East Campus was not just for freshmen.

"The first organizational meeting was held in Aycock. It was at that meeting that we established the group and brainstormed for a name. Although it was a great brainstorming session, with suggestions flying and people building on the suggestions of others, etc. we credit Nancy Covington with blurting out 'Out of the Blue!'

"Also at that first meeting, we decided that we must open up the group for new members by audition (instead of just word of mouth) because we knew that there were others like us out in the greater Duke community who would be interested. We also decided not to exclude graduate students if they could make the time commitment. Boy did we underestimate the demand! At our first audition, so many interested women showed up that we had to scramble to get additional meeting room times and ask a fair number of them to come back on other days. Obviously we were onto something big.

"One of our first concerts (aside from some impromptu after-rehearsal singing in the quad, and yes, under the arches) was at Duke President Terry Sanford's house for a Friends of Duke and Duke Alumnae party. The next year, OOTB was on the billing of "An Evening of Close Harmony" sponsored by the Pitchforks, for a December 5, 1981 Concert which included the UNC Loreleis. In the spring of that same year we performed in Baldwin Auditorium for another Pitchfork-sponsored event called "Jambo-82," the first a cappella jamboree gathering ever at Duke, which was not yet on the map for this kind of music. The well-attended show featured the Pitchforks, OOTB, the Clefhangers (UNC), the Smiffenproofs (Smith College), the Pennsylvania 6-5000 (U-Penn), the Loreleis, and the Society of Orpheus and Baccus (Yale).

"Our only road trip that year was to a Duke Founder's society dinner held in Charlotte, NC on April 16, 1982. Also in the spring of 1982, we were among the first to provide entertainment in the brand new Bryan Center. The only known video recording of us at that time was made during that mini-concert and was included in the Duke Video Yearbook of 1983. OOTB has gone such a long way since then. . . "