arthurpelkey

The January 8, 1914 date inscribed on the Bain News Agency's negative is confusing, because the fight in San Francisco [Daly City] between Gunboat Smith and the Canadian newcomer, Arthur Pelkey, took place on January 1, as reported in the New York Times, in a story that appeared in the January 2 edition:
query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D02E...

Another Bain/LOC photo of the Gunboat Smith vs. Arthur Pelkey fight shows Pelkey knocked to the canvas in the fifteenth round, as the referee begins his count:


"After thirty seconds figiting in the fifteenth round Smith feinted with his left, then swung his right with lightning-like rapidity. The blow landed with a crash on Pelkey's unprotected jaw. Pelkey dropped with his eyes glassy. Mechanically he struggled to his feet at the count of nine and unsteadily assumed his fighting pose. A left and right applied similarly toppled him and he was out when Referee Griffin awarded the fight to Smith."

Note to LOC: Your caption on this photo is incorrect. Correct spelling of name is "Pelkey." Correct date is January 1, 1914.

Gunboat Smith
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunboat_Smith

Wystan,

Thanks for the information on this fight. We will expand and correct the information regarding the date and other details.

I saw your note on the photo itself: "There appears to be a message here, printed in capital letters over the water."

That white area along the back is actually a fence enclosing the ampitheater, and the text is an advertisement for Kissel Kars, it turns out. Kissel Kars was opening a new salesroom and service station in San Francisco not long after this fight, so they were advertising in the area. The text on the fence is straight from their ad in the San Francisco Chronicle, though it is quite hard to make out:

Kissel Pleasure Kars
Kissel Kommercial Kars
Federal Trucks
Ford Cars

That link to the Kissel ad in the San Francisco Chronicle goes thru ProQuest, and evidently (unless we obtain a note from teacher) is unavailable to us of the hoi polloi.

lov

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called La foto imperfecta., and we'd love to have this added to the group!

Another Bain/LOC photo of the Gunboat Smith vs. Arthur Pelkey fight in San Francisco [Daly City] on January 1, 1914: "After thirty seconds figiting in the fifteenth round Smith feinted with his left, then swung his right with lightning-like rapidity. The blow landed with a crash on Pelkey's unprotected jaw. Pelkey dropped with his eyes glassy. Mechanically he struggled to his feet at the count of nine and unsteadily assumed his fighting pose. A left and right applied similarly toppled him and he was out when Referee Griffin awarded the fight to Smith." --From NYT report, 1/2/14. Story in New York Times, January 2, 1914: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D02E...

Note to LOC: The correct spelling of the name is "Pelkey." The date of the fight was January 1, 1914 -- not January 8.

Wystan, Thanks for the further information on this fight. As you can see in the record, and on the negative, Bain recorded the date of Jan. 8, 1914, and we qualify those dates as possibly later than the event and sometimes the date of publication or acquisition by Bain. We will also add the date of the event itself (Jan. 1, 1914) to the record when we expand the descriptive details, and clarify the difference between those two dates.