Flashback
45 years ago
Pranks, planes and potentates
UB students greeted the arrival of the “Thallus of Marchantia” at the Buffalo airport.
Late-night cramming for a Biology 119 final exam launched the most infamous hoax in UB history. Intrigued by the tongue-on-palette sound of “Marchantia” (the moss-like liverwort plant) and “thallus” (a stalk with a role in reproduction), a sleep-deprived, dazed student dreamed up an Arabian potentate, the “Thallus of Marchantia,” and his upcoming royal visit to Buffalo.
“Let’s call The Buffalo Evening News,” the exam crammers chirped, and the News took the bait, publishing on Dec. 15, 1964, an account of the “dignitary’s” impending landing in Buffalo on the following afternoon. With the headline, “Ruler Due Here from Marchantia,” the brief announcement stated that “Aveillugd Urubod, the thallus or ruling monarch of the principality of Marchantia,” would arrive at 1:48 p.m. on Dec. 16 at the Greater Buffalo International Airport for a two-day State Department-sponsored tour.
Fueled by their successful ruse of the News, the students’ prank quickly boiled over. Occurring during a fall semester marked by student anti-war protests at the University of California and elsewhere, a mock “protest” quickly gained steam, sending 600-2,000 students to the airport to greet the potentate with signs proclaiming “Thallus return to your palace,” and to keep things in balance, “No malice towards Thallus.”
The pranksters’ coup de grace was to buy a round-trip ticket to Newark, N.J. on American Airlines for fellow student Arthur Schein. On Dec. 16, he deplaned on his return trip to Buffalo sporting a linen keffiyeh, the traditional Arabian headdress. As he stepped on the tarmac, Cheektowaga police, fearing for the “potentate’s” safety, whisked him away in a cruiser. Meanwhile, the energized UB student contingent, responding to their bugler’s “charge,” collectively ran amuck through the airport, breaking some ashtrays, cracking a window and collapsing a snow fence.
Schein, “thallus” for an afternoon, admitted all at the lockup, was charged with disorderly conduct and released on bail reportedly paid by then UB Dean of Students Richard Siggelkow. The Buffalo Evening News and airport officials, not amused by the hoax, initially somewhat exaggerated damage estimates but settled on $600, which was promptly paid via a collection organized by UB students. Schein’s initial conviction for disorderly conduct was overturned by an Erie County judge on the technicality that he never was actually part of the marauding crowd. His dethroning included painting of the UB dean’s house the following summer.
—Judith Adams-Volpe, University Libraries
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