Fast Digs Update: Gus 'Terrible Swede' Hackansen
Hackansen, Hanckanson, Hackanson, Hanchanson, Hakanson - like a smorgassbord of surnames, but all for the same person. The more I delve into stories of these local old time racers the more I realize that the reporters of the time must not have asked the riders about the spelling of their last names. Sometimes they varied from one day to the very next. The five variations of Hackansen were all found within a two week period of the same daily newspaper.
Anyway...
Digging into various resources, naturally, uncovers the names of people who were racing through different periods of time. For the most part, these were not the Greg Lemond's, nor the Chris Froome's, nor even the Leon Scieur's (1921s Tour de France Champion) of their time, but they were among the best local, and sometimes regional or state, riders at the time. One of the more commonly named Los Angeles area racers who bridged into the period of the 1920s was Gus Hackansen, popularly known as the Terrible Swede. I would be interested to know where the nickname came from since he looks anything but a "terrible Swede."
On 6 March 1921 Hackansen raced at the downtown stadium at Hill and Washington where he won the main event, "showing his heels to the crowd of stars in the feature event." Trackside at that race was Douglas Fairbanks who asked Hackansen to represent him at the upcoming film studio championship, to be run as an "Australian pursuit race." As you may know, many actors took a keen interest in bicycle racing frequenting, not just the big six day races, but small, local events as well. The film studio championships was a special event, to be held at the downtown stadium, in which racers would represent different actors; Charlie Chaplin was to be represented by Otto Zeigler, Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran were to be represented by George Vigliani, and George Palmier would represent Charles Ray.
On Sunday morning the 20th of March, spectators at the stadium were to have the opportunity to view special gold and silver plated wheels brought in by "Doug" Fairbanks for "his" rider, Hackansen. The pursuit race would declare its winner as the one rider to be u-passed by the others. After seventeen laps, in a time of 4:57, Hackansen was declared the victor.
On the 22nd of March 1921, the Los Angeles Herald printed the following story under the headline, "Hackanson to Have finest Bike Racing Outfit on Coast":
"From Mexico City came a wire this morning from Douglas Fairbanks to "Terrible Swede" Hackanson congratulating him on winning the studio championship at the bike track Sunday afternoon. Fairbanks also wired Bennie Zeidman to see that Hackanson is provided with anything necessary to make his racing outfit the finest on the track. The great little rider already has a gold-plated, hand-made bike given him by Fairbanks and now will have his racing wardrobe classed up to surpass the sartorial elegance of Harrison Cassell's adopted rider, "Red" French."
On 6 March 1921 Hackansen raced at the downtown stadium at Hill and Washington where he won the main event, "showing his heels to the crowd of stars in the feature event." Trackside at that race was Douglas Fairbanks who asked Hackansen to represent him at the upcoming film studio championship, to be run as an "Australian pursuit race." As you may know, many actors took a keen interest in bicycle racing frequenting, not just the big six day races, but small, local events as well. The film studio championships was a special event, to be held at the downtown stadium, in which racers would represent different actors; Charlie Chaplin was to be represented by Otto Zeigler, Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran were to be represented by George Vigliani, and George Palmier would represent Charles Ray.
On Sunday morning the 20th of March, spectators at the stadium were to have the opportunity to view special gold and silver plated wheels brought in by "Doug" Fairbanks for "his" rider, Hackansen. The pursuit race would declare its winner as the one rider to be u-passed by the others. After seventeen laps, in a time of 4:57, Hackansen was declared the victor.
On the 22nd of March 1921, the Los Angeles Herald printed the following story under the headline, "Hackanson to Have finest Bike Racing Outfit on Coast":
"From Mexico City came a wire this morning from Douglas Fairbanks to "Terrible Swede" Hackanson congratulating him on winning the studio championship at the bike track Sunday afternoon. Fairbanks also wired Bennie Zeidman to see that Hackanson is provided with anything necessary to make his racing outfit the finest on the track. The great little rider already has a gold-plated, hand-made bike given him by Fairbanks and now will have his racing wardrobe classed up to surpass the sartorial elegance of Harrison Cassell's adopted rider, "Red" French."
Comments
Post a Comment