Fast Digs: Strange Fellows at the Olympic Auditorium

If you remember from the original Fast Digs post, Los Angeles played host to a Six Day Race in 1935. In that post I noted that the race was held at the Olympic Auditorium but that I had not yet been able to find any photo from that competition. The above photo shows the rather short track set up for that event, infield crowded with tables and chairs, and the "boxes" for racers to rest and sleep in, relative, seclusion. This photo, one of three in the collection, gives the most complete view of the track. The race was won by Americans Jimmy Walthour Jr. and Alfred Crossley. Additional notes on the nitrate negative sleeve note that the races began on the 8th of March.

The Los Angeles Times covered the opening of the 1935 Six Day with the following words: [Saturday March 9, 1935] "Those strange fellows, the six-day bike riders, launched themselves on their dizzy race to nowhere as the clock struck nine last night at the Olympic. Nine teams, among them the featured combination of Piet Van Kempen of Holland and Henry (Cocky) O'Brien of Los Angeles, pedaled furiously away as Sheriff Biscailuz fired the starting gun."

Title: Olympic Auditorium, set up for a six-day bike race, Los Angeles, 1935

Collection: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Owning Institution: UCLA, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library

Source: Calisphere

Date of access: July 25 2017 02:31

Permalink: https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/21198/zz00254dxq/?_pjax=%23js-itemContainer