Laura Barton The Girl who Measured Up

February 2, 1974. As a performance of Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," came to a close, Laura Barton, 18, a freshman at Carelton College in Northfield, Minnesota, waited in the wings. A long coat covered her lack of attire and she held a ski mask in her hand.

"I didn't think I was going to make it. It seemed like hours back there." Carelton streakers in the past had always been men, and she thought that was bad. She talked about the idea with her friends and decided it would be exciting. Her friends supported her.

"Misgivings went through me mind in the last second before the appointed time. What would I tell my kids when I'm forty?"

When the curtain call came, she dashed onto the stage before several hundred people in the in the round theatre. The house turned up highlighted the fact that she was wearing nothing but the ski mask, white and blue socks, and white tennis shoes.

"It was the kind of streak where you had to look at your neighbor to see if it was real. That is a real streak."

With the aid of six female accomplices she dashed off stage where she was covered with another big coat and ran out the back door into the cold night to another building. The leading man was carrying a girl on his shoulders. He dropped her and chased after Laura.

"I wouldn't have streaked the play if It hadn't been a comedy."

She later learned that the school's president, dean, 40 prospective students, and some Alumni were in the audience. "The dean called me in after the streak and asked me about my state of mind. I expected to be expelled ... but she proceeded to congratulate me on a fine streak."

She had considered streaking the Sunday Service at a nearby college, but decided it would be in bad taste. "I heard later that the audience that Sunday went up about 100 per cent."

It seems Laura needn't have worn the ski mask because she become a celebrity for doing the stunt and her short dark haired visage appeared in newspapers.

One downside is her stunt cost her a boyfriend and gained her a cold. She said she really didn't need either one. "The guy I'd been dating must have been pretty embarrassed. I haven't heard from him since. But anyone who gets that embarrassed wouldn't be worth dating, anyhow."

"I was the first girl to streak at Carleton. And I was the first to streak a play. I got a double notoriety." Actually she got triple notoriety by also becoming the first recorded female streaker ever, as far as I have been able to find. And she seems to be the only recorded incident of streaking a play.

Laura is now 54. She wondered what she'd tell her kids at forty. Like every other streaker on this site I'd love to track her down and ask some questions.

The Pittsburgh Press - Mar 3, 1974
Tri City Herald - Mar 1, 1974