The Fairmount Park Motor Races, 1908-1911
The Fairmount Park Motor Races, 1908-1911

Author: Michael J. Seneca

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 9780786416653

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For four years, early in the last century, the Fairmount Park Motor Races were run on an eight-mile course in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park. They drew half a million spectators the first year, but surprisingly they have been overlooked as part of automobile racing history and as part of the history of Philadelphia. In contrast to other racing events, such as the Vanderbilt Cup, there were never any serious injuries and not a single death, but after four years of spectacular racing, the event was banned, with safety concerns cited. Opening with a brief look at automobile racing prior to 1908, the book covers the events leading up to the first race. It discusses the proposal to have a race in Fairmount Park and the reasons why Philadelphia, and the park in particular, was such an unlikely place. Both the on-track action of the races and the off-track events that affected them are described. Dr. J. William White's successful crusade, following the 1911 outing, to stop the races is examined, as are attempts to revive the race in the following six years, including Philadelphia's attempt to compete with Indianapolis by constructing a two-mile oval speedway, and the city's eventual exit from automobile racing.

The First American Grand Prix
The First American Grand Prix

Author: Tanya A. Bailey

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-05-29

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 0786476974

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This book provides an in-depth look at the great motor races that took place in Savannah, Georgia, in the golden era of early road racing: the Grand Prize of the Automobile Club of America and the Vanderbilt Cup. By examining Savannah's earlier fame in national bicycle racing competitions and its ties to the powerful dynasties who controlled the racing world, the book explains how and why Savannah was chosen. It details the construction of the course, reveals why the races and course were considered "America's greatest" by international racing experts of the period and includes many biographies of the drivers who came to Savannah. Finally, the book explores the theories and complexities of why Savannah's races and road racing in general came to an end.

The Bergdoll Boys
The Bergdoll Boys

Author: Timothy W. Lake

Publisher: Casemate

Published: 2023-10-31

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 1955041091

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A biography of a German American family who grew wealthy from their Philadelphia beer brewing company in the late nineteenth century. Heirs to the renowned German-American Bergdoll Beer fortune at a young age, the Bergdoll boys used their millions to become champion race car drivers and pioneer aviation heroes in the early 1900s. Grover, the most notorious, is celebrated for his daring record-setting flights in a Wright Brothers airplane. Erwin drives a powerful Benz to win a prestigious motor car race, the equivalent of the Daytona 500. Then, just as Grover is trying to buy a bigger plane to set more records and attempt to fly to Europe a decade before Lindbergh, they’re snared by vengeful local military draft officials. Running and hiding from their war duty, the fugitives are so reviled by nationalistic Americans that two older brothers change their names to avoid infamy. Eluding capture for years with financial help from their wealthy German Mutter, the Bergdoll boys are entangled with kidnapping and murder, federal agents and bounty hunters, Nazis, and Congressional investigators, and an incredible story of release and escape from an Army jail with bribery, all the way up to the White House to search for buried gold. Hounded by the unsympathetic press and public, and congress, the Bergdoll fortune is confiscated by the federal government. Their doting mother gets into pistol shootouts with agents trying to search their mansions and country estates. Grover remains one step ahead of bungling lawmen by hiding in Germany and secretly traveling into and out of America on fake passports and producing kinderreiche Familie with his attractive German wife.

The Politics of Street Trees
The Politics of Street Trees

Author: Jan Woudstra

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-03-18

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 1000556492

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This book focuses on the politics of street trees and the institutions, actors and processes that govern their planning, planting and maintenance. This is an innovative approach which is particularly important in the context of mounting environmental and societal challenges and reveals a huge amount about the nature of modern life, social change and political conflict. The work first provides different historical perspectives on street trees and politics, celebrating diversity in different cultures. A second section discusses street tree values, policy and management, addressing more contemporary issues of their significance and contribution to our environment, both physically and philosophically. It explores cultural idiosyncrasies and those from the point of view of political economy, particularly challenging the neo-liberal perspectives that continue to dominate political narratives. The final section provides case studies of community engagement, civil action and governance. International case studies bring together contrasting approaches in areas with diverging political directions or intentions, the constraints of laws and the importance of people power. By pursuing an interdisciplinary approach this book produces an information base for academics, practitioners, politicians and activists alike, thus contributing to a fairer political debate that helps to promote more democratic environments that are sustainable, equitable, comfortable and healthier.

City of Champions
City of Champions

Author: Stefan Szymanski

Publisher: The New Press

Published: 2020-10-13

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 1620974436

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The changing fortunes of Detroit, told through the lens of the city's major sporting events, by the bestselling author of Soccernomics, and a prizewinning cultural critic From Ty Cobb and Hank Greenberg to the Bad Boys, from Joe Louis and Gordie Howe to the Malice at the Palace, City of Champions explores the history of Detroit through the stories of its most gifted athletes and most celebrated teams, linking iconic events in the history of Motown sports to the city's shifting fortunes. In an era when many teams have left rustbelt cities to relocate elsewhere, Detroit has held on to its franchises, and there is currently great hope in the revival of the city focused on its downtown sports complexes—but to whose benefit? Szymanski and Weineck show how the fate of the teams in Detroit's stadiums, gyms, and fields is echoed in the rise and fall of the car industry, political upheavals ushered in by the depression, World War II, the 1967 uprising, and its recent bankruptcy and renewal. Driven by the conviction that sports not only mirror society but also have a special power to create both community and enduring narratives that help define a city's sense of self, City of Champions is a unique history of the most American of cities.

Game Faces
Game Faces

Author: Thomas H. Pauly

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2012-04-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0803240511

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This compelling blend of biography and cultural history depicts five important yet nearly forgotten athletes from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who had a transformative effect on their sports and on the evolution of sports in general. Tom Stevens was the first man to ride a bicycle, "a high wheeler," around the world (1884-87). Fanny Bullock Workman completed seven expeditions into the Himalayas between 1898 and 1912. Bill Reid, a Harvard football coach and one of the game's first professionals, played a key role in saving the sport from a national movement to abolish it in 1905. May Sutton became the National Champion of women's tennis at the age of sixteen and was the first American woman to triumph at Wimbledon (1905). Barney Oldfield was an early champion of motor car racing (1902) whose aggressive pursuit of crowd appeal and "outlaw" style rankled his competitors but won him many races. Although they participated in different sports, these five athletes were central to the evolution of sports from casual leisure recreations into serious, commercialized competitions and recognizable approximations of our sports today. Game Faces tracks the powerful influence of money, rules, and mediating organizations on this transformation and examines pitched battles between these champions and their archrivals. The outcomes determined not only the winners but also the future of their sports.

Thunder at Sunrise
Thunder at Sunrise

Author: John M. Burns

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2022-12-23

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 1476606994

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Concentrating on the years between 1904 and 1916 and featuring a wealth of photographs, this book examines America's first three races of international stature: the Vanderbilt Cup, the International Grand Prize and the Indianapolis 500. Researched in great part from contemporary sources such as newspapers and automotive journals, the book covers not only these races, but also the ways in which each spurred development of the American automobile industry, making it at last a true competitor for that of Europe.

Philadelphia's Fairmount Park
Philadelphia's Fairmount Park

Author: James D. Ristine

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2005-06-08

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 1439632413

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Philadelphias Fairmount Park focuses on the more than four thousand acres of land along the east and west banks of the Schuylkill River and into parts of the Wissahickon Valley that comprise one of the worlds largest urban parks. Historically and architecturally important structures and buildings are chronicled, such as the famous waterworks, the many bridges that span the parks waterways, the Zoological Gardens, and Boathouse Row. Numerous fountains, monuments, and artistic sculptures that dot the landscape are also documented. Rich in natural beauty, the parks meadows, gardens, lush vegetation, rugged ravines, and wooded areas will capture the eye. Philadelphias Fairmount Park is a nostalgic view of the park as it was enjoyed by visitors during the first quarter of the twentieth century.