Vintage shots from days gone by!

I've been doing some work over on the North Coast, I go through Booneville (they have their own language, no joke) it would be interesting to know where the crash site is.

 

Commercial Aviation, Lockheed, Burbank, CA.

 

#161 Norman Teleford
1948 Daytona Beach, FL

 

Bridgehampton race
Long Island, NY 1951




owner John Perona with winning driver and mechanic

 

Birmingham, AL - 1955

 

In blistering heat, July 4, 1910, Reno, retired but undefeated
world heavyweight champ Jim Jeffries comes out of retirement
attempting to reclaim the belt from Jack Johnson, who had
reigned since a 1908 TKO over Tommy Burns in Sydney.
Quick, young, and with a 74-inch reach, 6',1" and 210-pound
the "Galveston Giant" toyed with past-prime Jeffries for 15 rounds,
knocking him down twice (a first) before Jeffries corner threw
in the towel. Ever controversial, Johnson was world champ
from 1908 'til facing Jess Willard in a brutal 26-rounder in
Havana, 1915. This photo is THANKS to WikiMedia Commons!

 

Thanks to the U.S. Library of Congress, here's the crowd
of over 25,000 that saw Johnson and Willard battle it out
in Havana. A wicked counter-puncher, Willard forced
Johnson to do all the leading. Johnson's potent jabs were
answered by Willard's heavy body blows. Though knocked
out in Round 26, Johnson went on to win 17 fights in a row
after this. In his long ring career, he won 73 out of 101 pro
fights, though every source seems to disagree on actual totals.

 

As flamboyant as he was controversial and famous,
Johnson loved fast cars, a fact few today realize. Most
of the time, it was speed that ran Jack afoul of the law,
though his fondness for dating and marrying white
women, twice or three times, made him the object
of added ire for many who already didn't like having
an African-American heavyweight world champ. Sincere
THANKS goes to AmericanRenaissance.com for this great
historical image!

 

Here's B314 over the Newly finished Golden Gate bridge...

From my understanding... this was the "California's" maiden flight (?)

 

Jack Johnson with his missus, circa 1911. Both of these
photos are illustrating a site by a Mr. Marc Lozier, media
artist and researcher in Toronto, who is doing his Master
of Fine Arts thesis in Documentary Media at Ryverson
University. Marc states that his blog is dedicated "to
HEALTHY debates and critical analysis of popular culture,
race, politics, and sport through artistic and media repre-
sentations." Sounds like an admirable approach to updating
a man who, like Babe Ruth, generated legends bigger than
any actual flesh-and-blood man! Thanks, as well as good
luck, in the project, to Marc!

 

New Salem, ND

 

1926 cigarette-pack card & back side, from a great
site called RumbleDrome dedicated to Barney.

​

It would be absurd to say Jack Johnson wasn't motivated
and an unabashed showman. After finally winning the
heavyweight boxing crown, he set his sights on testing
his skills in his OTHER sporting passion: motor racing. And
whom else to challenge but the then-best racer in the
country, Barney Oldfield? By 1910, Oldfield had gained
notoriety, among other things for being the first human
to cover a mile in under one minute.

To make a long story short, Oldfield really didn't want a
part of any circus like this, but he told the New York Times
that he'd rather face Johnson as an inexperienced race
driver than to turn down a match -- thereby possibly
encouraging him to gain track experience -- and then
have to face him a couple of years down the road. Oldfield
made no bones about it. He'd seen past-prime Jim Jeffries
come out of retirement and get thrashed by Johnson.
He effectively said he would beat Johnson while he himself
was still in good racing form.

Oldfield handily won two five-mile heats. Johnson himself
was outwardly jovial, saying that -- though he was an
admitted auto lover -- racing was apparently not his sport.
But many of the population at large saw significance in the
defeat of the fellow who had beaten "The Great White Hope"
months earlier. Coverage in the New York Times of October
26, 1910, bluntly put the significance of the race into the
social context of the time. Their headline was phased [sic],
"Jack Johnson Beaten.; Oldfield Makes a Show of Negro in
Match Automobile Race." The lead paragraph punctuates
the point [sic]: "Barney Oldfield, driving a 60 horse power
Knox car, defeated the champion heavyweight pugilist, Jack
Johnson, who drove a 90 horse power Thomas Flier, with
ridiculous case at Sheepshead Bay track yesterday after-
noon before a crowd of 5,000 people. Oldfield, skilled and
experienced at track racing, left the big negro far behind
in the first two five-mile heats."

Well, those were real quotes from the press, and that's
the way is was a century ago. One need not be an historian
nor sociologist to know that attitudes, and times, have
changed! I could find no photos of Oldfield and Johnson
from that day, nor of the Knox or Thomas race cars.

 

Jack Johnson in his adopted hometown of Chicago
about 1910. Looks like the same car he was driving
above with his wife. Anybody recog the make???
I'm guessing Thomas. Sincere THANKS goes to
AmericanRenaissance.com for this great historical
image! <!-- / message -->

 

Waukesha, Wisc.