Fast Digs: An Update and a Question
To start, the question: I am forwarding this from a reader who is looking for a photo of Harold Ade. Ade was a member of the four-rider Pursuit squad that raced at the Rose Bowl during the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics - it is a bit of a long shot, but you have figure as prominent as the Olympics have always been, there should be a photo somewhere. Anyway, if anyone knows of a photo, or a good lead on one, let me know so I can pass on the information.
Next, while conducting my own little search, I came upon a 1988 oral hisotry interview, conducted by George Hodak, with Russell Allen, another member of that same 1932 Pursuit quartet. The interview was one of a series made under the auspices of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles. In the interview Allen is asked numerous questions about the bicycle racing scene in southern California leading up to, and after, the 1932 Games, and then during the time of the 1984 Games.
After commenting on the importance of San Jose as the center of cycling in California and the West, Allen was asked about promoters in the Los Angeles area. His reply noted Tom Gallery, a fight promoter, who after the Olympics "staged the first six-day race in Southern California at the Winter Palace at Melrose and Van Ness. He promoted several races at the Winter Palace. There were sprints on Wednesdays and Saturdays and six-day races twice a year."
Allen then goes on to talk about racing before the Olympics: "In 1929 I belonged to a club called the Crebs Cyclists Club of Long Beach. Our trainer and promoter was "Musty" Crebs, a professional cyclist from Salt Lake City, who took over the Culver City board track and held races there every week."
For the Olympics "the sprinters were selected from the East and from the West. They had the tryouts at the track built in the Rose Bowl. For the four-man pursuit team, they picked the four best of all the riders." Those four were Eddie Testa, Ruggero "Red" Bertie, Harold Ade, and Allen. *Note that official USA Cycling records record Jack McCoy as being on the team, not Bertie.
This is just a small snippet of the fourteen page interview in which Allen also talks about track racing in the United States and Europe, what it was like to be a track racer, the bikes, and some family information as well. If the history of track cycling is of interest to you, this oral history is is worth the read.
Canadian cyclists at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics
As I have done in the past, this information is being presented in its own post, before being added to the Fast Digs.
By the way, if you have not seen it this short 1:08 clip showing the Italian cyclists training at the Bowl in 1932 is vintage cool.
After commenting on the importance of San Jose as the center of cycling in California and the West, Allen was asked about promoters in the Los Angeles area. His reply noted Tom Gallery, a fight promoter, who after the Olympics "staged the first six-day race in Southern California at the Winter Palace at Melrose and Van Ness. He promoted several races at the Winter Palace. There were sprints on Wednesdays and Saturdays and six-day races twice a year."
Allen then goes on to talk about racing before the Olympics: "In 1929 I belonged to a club called the Crebs Cyclists Club of Long Beach. Our trainer and promoter was "Musty" Crebs, a professional cyclist from Salt Lake City, who took over the Culver City board track and held races there every week."
For the Olympics "the sprinters were selected from the East and from the West. They had the tryouts at the track built in the Rose Bowl. For the four-man pursuit team, they picked the four best of all the riders." Those four were Eddie Testa, Ruggero "Red" Bertie, Harold Ade, and Allen. *Note that official USA Cycling records record Jack McCoy as being on the team, not Bertie.
This is just a small snippet of the fourteen page interview in which Allen also talks about track racing in the United States and Europe, what it was like to be a track racer, the bikes, and some family information as well. If the history of track cycling is of interest to you, this oral history is is worth the read.
Pursuit team from Great Britain at the Rose Bowl, 1932
As I have done in the past, this information is being presented in its own post, before being added to the Fast Digs.
By the way, if you have not seen it this short 1:08 clip showing the Italian cyclists training at the Bowl in 1932 is vintage cool.
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