Although early issues carried an illustration of the eponymous bird on its cover, at the turn of the twentieth century “pelican” was actually an uncomplimentary term for female Berkeley students.
[2] Goldberg recalled in later years that he “had great admiration for Earle Anthony, the editor of the Pelican, a tall, gangling young man who wore his floppy senior stovepipe at a jaunty angle and took long strides across the campus like one who had the past, present and future all wrapped in a nice secure package.
When he accepted one of my drawings it gave me a greater thrill than a good mark in calculus or geology.”[3] Additionally, science fiction author Ron Goulart wrote for the magazine and later republished one of his Pelican articles professionally.
The magazine was given the rare privilege of its own building on the UC Berkeley campus in 1957 after Earle C. Anthony donated money to the university to provide a home for the publication he had created.
Still exhibiting the sense of humor that had led to the magazine's founding more than a half-century before, Anthony fittingly arranged for a live pelican at the dedicatory ceremonies over which Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr presided.
The opening editorial explained, “The old PELICAN has waddled on unsteady legs since around 1963, and this fall, the last editors quietly packed up their negatives of Miss Pelly Girls and left.
While several members of the editorial board were involved in a voter registration campaign in the south, Business Manager Robert Laubach produced an issue composed of work from the late 1960s, including several cartoons by Joel Beck.
Rather than remaining the straight magazine of last year, I have decided to resurrect the old idea of being funny.” He called for all interested persons who shared his vision to come to an organizational meeting at Pelican Building on November 9, 1972.
Although Monroe McBride took the business manager's post with the Pelican, Cutler Durkee, Don Goff, and he resolved to launch their own humor magazine, The Berkeleyan, which published its inaugural issue in the fall of 1974.
Citing several years of unsustainable red ink, the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) acted in May 1973 to cease funding not only Pelican but also the yearbook, Blue and Gold, and the venerable literary magazine, Occident.
Under the driving leadership of Professors Josephine Miles and Leonard Michaels, English, and Bernard Taper, Journalism, a new ASUC publications committee took a firm hand and, among other things, restored Pelican’s funding as a feature magazine.