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Post by administrator on Jul 10, 2011 16:27:07 GMT 1
I am posting a series of extracts from a 1948 article in a West Coast USA newspaper which carries Frank Brewer's vies on the tour. I am sorry it is in this format but I have been unable to "knit' the sections together. Admin, Midget Car Panorama. :::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::: Part One: ![]() 1 Brewer 1 1948.jpeg[/img] Attachments:
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Post by administrator on Jul 10, 2011 16:28:52 GMT 1
Part two::: ::::::::::::: ![]() 2 Brewer 1948.jpeg[/img] Attachments:
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Post by administrator on Jul 10, 2011 16:30:14 GMT 1
Part three::: ::::::::::::::: ![]() 3 Brewer 1948.jpeg[/img] Attachments:
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Post by administrator on Jul 10, 2011 16:31:35 GMT 1
Part four:::: :::::::::::::: ![]() 4 Brewer 1948.jpeg[/img] Attachments:
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Post by administrator on Jul 10, 2011 16:32:51 GMT 1
Part five::::: ::::::::::::::: ![]() 5 Brewer 1948.jpeg[/img] Attachments:
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Post by administrator on Jul 10, 2011 16:33:59 GMT 1
Part six:::: A reader of the newspaper's response to Frank Brewer (continues to part seven):: ::::::::::::: ![]() 6 Brewer 1948.jpeg[/img] Attachments:
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Post by administrator on Jul 10, 2011 16:37:27 GMT 1
Part seven:::::: The continuation of the newspaper reader's response to Frank Brewer:: :::::::::::::::::(final part)::: ![]() 7 Brewer 1948.jpeg[/img] Attachments:
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Post by haflinger121 on Jul 10, 2011 18:56:48 GMT 1
Nice one John, it's very interesting to see the American take on what happened here in '48. There seems no doubt that the track surfaces were not suitable - and a retrospective "thanks" to Frank Brewer for finally proving that my eyes do not deceive me when the Walthamstow pix I've seen appear to show a tarmac track.
But I had never previously considered that much of the hostility in the press could have been a hangover from war time. The 'Over paid, over sexed and over here' attitude to the Yanks by the general populace would not have been helped by their having to bail us out financially in the post war period. They would, of course, have been right in the midst of all that in 1948. Coming here with their glamour (Lana Turner) and spendthrift ways probably got up a lot of people's noses and clearly had the opposite affect on post-war-austerity Britain than that which the organisers envisaged.
Incidentally, my parents were in the crowd on that opening night at Stamford Bridge. Both were serious motorsport fans and both claimed the racing was instantly forgettable. However, the Pathe news reels I've seen suggest it wasn't all that bad.
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Post by administrator on Jul 11, 2011 13:58:11 GMT 1
Nice one John, it's very interesting to see the American take on what happened here in '48. There seems no doubt that the track surfaces were not suitable - and a retrospective "thanks" to Frank Brewer for finally proving that my eyes do not deceive me when the Walthamstow pix I've seen appear to show a tarmac track. But I had never previously considered that much of the hostility in the press could have been a hangover from war time. The 'Over paid, over sexed and over here' attitude to the Yanks by the general populace would not have been helped by their having to bail us out financially in the post war period. They would, of course, have been right in the midst of all that in 1948. Coming here with their glamour (Lana Turner) and spendthrift ways probably got up a lot of people's noses and clearly had the opposite affect on post-war-austerity Britain than that which the organisers envisaged. Incidentally, my parents were in the crowd on that opening night at Stamford Bridge. Both were serious motorsport fans and both claimed the racing was instantly forgettable. However, the Pathe news reels I've seen suggest it wasn't all that bad. One must wonder how much of the adverse publicity in the UK may have been generated by speedway promoters through the reporters who were mainly speedway-minded? They probably saw it as a threat to their speedway sport. The reaction is soemthing akin to what happened when stock car racing reached the UK in 1954 - I remember stories about the so-called "five day wonder" then. Did the speedway bosses in 1954 see midget car racing as a threat to the bike sport in the UK? |
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Post by haflinger121 on Jul 11, 2011 18:51:03 GMT 1
Well, I'm sure you're right about the speedway promoters perceiving the midgets to be a threat. They certainly did with our own home-grown midgets in the early 1950's so I don't see why their attitude would have been any different a couple or three years earlier. So it could be that the American newspaper reporters' perception of the hostility was simply imagined, I suppose. But, looking back over sixty years later, I can only go by guesswork or gut feel. In light of your comment my "feel" today is that you are probably right about the speedway-minded press and that they didn't need much encouragement to slate the midgets due to the austerity/Marshall Plan/war time hangover of the 'Over paid, over sexed and over here' attitude.
What would be interesting (and I realise I'm dreaming here) is to see what would happen if the importation of a troupe of US midgets were to be repeated today, assuming we had some suitable tracks, of course.
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Post by administrator on Jul 14, 2011 17:14:58 GMT 1
I think the comments by Frank Brewer dispel one myth - that the match race at Walthamstow between midget driver Art George (who won the race) was NOT against Billy Murden but almost certainly was Allen Briggs (for details check the caption to the photo of the race start in this section).
The confusion has probably arisen because Murden had a midget car match race at Stamford Bridge against Brewer which the latter won 3-0 with $US4,000 to the winner.
Over they years, this has become a perpetuating error but has now been virtually clarified in Brewer's comments where Murder - perhaps harshly - is described as a leadfoot.
My further understanding is that when the match race was first suggested, both Frank Chiswell and Walter Mackereth offered to race against Brewer, but their offer was rejected because they wanted to use their 4wd Skirrows while the Americans were using rwd midgets.
In such a race, a Skirrow would almost certainly have wion easily.
On the other hand, Murden (luckily for the Americans perhaps?) had a car nearer to their specs and his offer was accepted - and so there was no embarrassing defeat of the top American team driver.
The speedway rider almost certainly is Allen Briggs, who lived near to Walthamstow Stadium.
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