dc:identifier=httphdllocgovlocpnpggbain15113

Gunboat Smith & Pelky [i.e., Pelkey] (LOC)

from The Library of Congress

• 4 older comments, and then…
• Wystan said:

  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."

• Wystan said:

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

• Roger said:

  Gunboat Smith
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunboat_Smith

• Kristi (LOC P&P) said:

  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

• Wystan said:

  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.