Fast Digs: Will the Real Otto Zeigler Please Stand Up
It is 1921 and action on the track at the downtown Stadium at Washington and Hill Streets is in full swing. The jazz band is playing in the Parisian Garden portion of the infield where drivers from the auto race track in Beverly Hills mingle at tables with Hollywood celebrities such as Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. Suddenly the crack of Fred Wagners' starting gun silences the hum of the crowd, conversation ceases and all eyes turn to watch another group of racers shoot from the start line.
Eight laps later the frantic pedaling comes to an end with a flourishing sprint finale, and the announcer shouts the name Otto Zeigler, the San Jose rider, into the air to be met with a round of applause from the assembled throng.
But... wait a minute... what do you mean Otto Zeigler? Do mean the San Jose Otto Zeigler who raced to international renown in the 1890s? After two and a half decades, that Otto Zeigler? Could there really have been two racers named Otto Zeigler separated by twenty-five years? And who the heck is this Babe Zeigler? And then, since I'm on the topic anyway, what about Oscar Zeigler? Ugh, leave it to those old time newspapers to make things more confusing than they should be. Will the real Otto Zeigler please stand up?
I didn't know what to make of all these Zeiglers; were they one and the same, relatives, juniors, or several coincidences all wrapped up in one surname?
Finally I found the explanation. Well, except for Oscar; I still don't know how Oscar fits in. As it turns out the 1921 Otto Zeigler and the 1921 Babe Zeigler are indeed one and the same; the problem is his / their real name is Arthur Zeidler. Arthur is related to the 1894 Otto Zeigler and apparently, according to many who have seen him race, rides with a style similar to his older relative. Because of that, the Los Angeles newspapers have decided that they are going to call him Otto Zeigler rather than refer to him by his real name. If that is not enough, and since he is younger... well, why not just call him Babe Zeigler too. Just to confuse people one-hundred years in the future.
Anyway, one mystery of the past solved. The real Otto Zeigler has stood up, and he is exactly who I expected him to be.
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