Olympics

OLYMPICS

American Olympics

The Depression was, in part, a result of lack of confidence in the American system. The popular song "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" was written to protest the attack by fellow American troops on World War I veterans camped in Washington, D.C. The Olympics Games, scheduled to take place in the United States in 1932, actually helped stimulate the economy as well as revive the national spirit.

1932 Winter Games

The 1932 Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York, were the first games broadcast on radio and the first Winter Games in which the United States captured more medals than any other nation: six gold, three silver, two bronze. Seventeen countries participated. Canada won the ice hockey tournament for the fourth game running. Speed skating was a big American event, with Jack Shea winning the 1500-meter race and Irving Jaffee taking the 5000-meter, The United States also commanded the bobsled races with its speed-enhancing, iron V-shaped runners, which were barred from international competition following the Olympics. Karl Schafer of Austria and Sonja Henie of Norway, who continued to dominate figure skating through the decade, won their first and second Olympic gold medals, respectively.

1932 Summer Games

In the 1932 Summer Games in Los Angeles, California, Mildred "Babe" Didrikson, destined to become the greatest woman athlete of the twentieth century, broke world records—some her own—in three events. She won a gold medal in the javelin throw and the 80-meter hurdles, and a silver medal (after an illegal headfirst dive) in the high jump. Lillian Copeland won the gold in the discus throw. American women won half of all the medals in track-and-field events. American men were just as spectacular. In a controversial heat Finland's Lauri Lehtinen and the American Ralph Hill tied in the 5000-meter run. Americans beat out Americans in other races, some of which were sweeps. Eddie Tolan bested his friend Ralph Metcalfe and set a world record in the 100-meter. Tolan was also the winner by a big margin in the 200-meter. Bill Carr outran rival Ben Eastman for the gold medal in the 400-meter run. Other significant American victories were the 400-meter relay, anchored by Frank Wykoff; George Saling in the 110-meter hurdles; Ed Gordon (an African American) in the long jump; Helene Madison in the 100-and 400-meter freestyle; Eleanor Holm in the 100-meter backstroke; and Clarence "Buster" Crabbe in the 400-meter freestyle. Japanese men surprised everyone by winning eleven of the eighteen total swimming medals.

1936 Winter Games

The 1936 Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, were uneventful from an American standpoint. The United States won only one gold medal, in the two-man bobsled. In other respects it was both ominous and fascinating. The Germans invited Rudi Ball, the Jewish hockey star of the 1932 bronze-medal-winning team, to play in the 1936 games. Ball returned from exile in France. Karl Schafer and Sonja Henie, with whom Hitler became infatuated, again won gold medals in figure skating. As the games were under way, the Rhineland crisis was unfolding. German remilitarization had begun.

1936 Summer Games

What the "master race" termed the American or black "Auxiliaries"—America's black athletes—ruled the 1936 Summer Games, winning eight gold, three silver, and two bronze medals. Blacks won the following events:

Jesse Owens—100-meter dash

Jesse Owens—200-meter dash

Archie Williams—400-meter run

John Woodruff—800-meter run

Cornelius Johnson—high jump

Jesse Owens—long jump.

In addition Owens and Ralph Metcalfe were on the winning 400-meter team.

Two Myths Dispelled

Owens was not snubbed by Adolf Hitler, who had congratulated two German victors and one from Finland on the first day of the events. It was Cornelius Johnson, the black high jump gold medal winner, whom Hitler ignored by leaving the stadium shortly after Johnson's victory. Hitler was later told to shake everyone's hand or no one's, so he opted to wait until the end of the games to hold a celebration for German victors. Also, the German Lutz Long, who matched Owens in the high jump every step of the way until his last jump, which Owens beat by seven inches, did not, as the popular story went, give Owens the special bit of coaching Owens needed to win the event. Long, nonetheless, agreed to be photographed with Owens, shook his hand, and showed him courtesy, friendship, and respect.

Symbolic Victories

American men also won gold medals in the 110-meter hurdles, 400-meter hurdles, discus throw, and pole vault. Glenn Morris won the decathlon. A controversy, never resolved, accompanied the American victory in the 400-meter relay race, as the track team's only Jewish stars, Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman—world-class runners both—were scratched from the race in favor of Owens and Foy Draper, whom the U.S. track coach had known at the University of Southern California. The 1500-meter race was won in world-record time by New Zealand's Jack Lovelock, defeating Glenn Cunningham, who also broke the world record. Helen Stephens was the female star of the Olympic Games. She won the 100-meter dash against her old rival Stanislawa Walasiewicz (whose name was shortened to Stella Walsh by reporters) and anchored the 400-meter team relay, which the Americans won when the German team dropped the baton. Canoeing and basketball joined the Olympic program for the first time in 1936; Americans won the latter sport. Japan again dominated the swimming contests, though Jack Medica won a gold in the 400-meter freestyle and Adolf Kiefer did the same in the 100-meter backstroke. Both American men's and women's diving teams took home most of the gold, but Germany captured more medals (101) than any other nation (the United States was second with 57), giving Hitler the symbolic victory he sought. As to his larger claims of Aryan superiority, the games were a failure. Hitler had put on a great show, but anti-Semitism, which had resumed after the close of the Winter Games and intensified after the Summer Games, reached its dark apotheosis in the years to come.

THANK YOU FOR NOT SMOKING

In the 1930s sports and smoking seemed to go hand in hand. Cigarettes were prime endorsements for some athletes, though a familiar stereotype was that of the clean-cut sports hero who "did not smoke or drink." Fans, on the other hand, lit up at sporting events as a matter of course.

Even though he won in smoke-filled arenas, track star Glenn Cunningham was often bothered by cigarette smoke, which affected his breathing. Fans thought him eccentric to begin with. He would jog up and down the track to warm up. He was also an unorthodox runner who could surge to a finish even if it didn't look pretty (unlike his rival Bill Bonthron, whose form resembled that of a Greek statue).

Cunningham was one of the first athletes to insist that fans refrain from smoking. When a crowd at Dartmouth University obliged him by not puffing, Cunningham set a new record for the indoor mile. In future events, such as the Pennsylvania AC indoor meet in Philadelphia, Cunningham would request in advance that people planning to attend the event leave their cigarettes at home. The Kansas miler, in more ways than one, was way ahead of his time.

Political Olympics

Germany spared no expense in bringing the Winter and Summer Olympics to the world. It had always been the case that the games could be used for nationalistic as well as propagandistic purposes. Germany took it to the extreme. The 1936 games were a turning point in the history of the Olympics in more ways than one, though. Avery Brundage and other hardliners who vigorously opposed the boycott of the 1936 games consolidated their power in the organization; supporters of the boycott were voted out. Athletes were expected to follow orders without regard for their feelings or individual concerns; moral and political issues were not to interfere with or impede Olympic sport, which took on a neoreligious significance to men such as Brundage. The 1936 games were no doubt on the minds of U.S. president Jimmy Carter and the U.S. Olympic Committee when in 1980 they decided to boycott the Summer Games in Moscow as a protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

SPORTS FILMS OF THE 1930s

Prizefighting, in one form or another (usually melodrama), was the most prevalent theme of sports movies during the decade:

1930—Hold Everything: Comedian turns prize-fighter; features French heavyweight champion Georges Carpentier

1931—The Champ: Washed-up boxer Wallace Beery and his adoring son

The Iron Man: From the W. R. Burnett novel; gold digger Jean Harloweggs on prize-fighter husband Lew Ayres

1932—The Crowd Roars: Racetrack driver dissuades younger brother from taking up the sport

Horse Feathers: Crooked college football, with the Marx Brothers on the gridiron

1934—Death on the Diamond

1935—Alibi Ike: From the Ring Lardner story; travails of a middling pitcher

1936—Cain and Mabel: Prizefighter falls in love with showgirl

1937—The Kid Comes Back: Tenderfoot turns prizefighter with the help of a former champ; features light heavyweight champ Maxey Rosenbloom

Kid Galahad: Trainer does too good a job of turning a bellhop into a fighter

1938—Campus Confessions: film debut of Hank Luisetti, and the end of his film career

The Crowd Roars: Young boxer gets mixed up with gangsters

Hold That Co-Ed: Girl dresses up as boy to play football, win the game , and save the governor's hide

1939—Ex Champ: Twist on The Champ, only retired fighter, now a doorman, has a reckless and thoughtless son

Golden Boy: From the Clifford Odets play; man must decide between boxing and playing the violin

Indianapolis Speedway: Remake of The Crowd Roars.

Sources:

Alan Guttman, The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992);

Bernard Postal, Jesse Silver, and Roy Silver, Encyclopedia of Jews in Sport (New York: Bloch Publishing, 1965);

David Wallenchinsky, The Complete Book of the Olympics (New York: Viking, 1984).