mckimmeadwhite

Philadelphia Jack O'Brien In December 1920 Tex Rickard announced he was building the world's largest gym in Madison Square Garden (including, in the summer, the world's largest pool) and that Philadelphia Jack O'Brien would be the "physical director". The 1/5th mile track ran around the roof of the old MSG.

Seuss. Thank you for the information on O'Brien and Rickard. Would you have a source that shows the construction date of the track as 1920? I'm able to confirm everything else for the catalog record, but that would allow us to establish a better date for the photograph.

This photo appeared in the Boston Evening Globe, Wednesday, December 29, 1920 - Page 13. In the accompanying picture Harvey Cohn and Philadelphia Jack O'Brien are seen ready to start off on a long jaunt" Cohn was a former member of the Irish Amateur Athletic Club who competed in the Olympics in St. Louis in 1904, 1906 in Athens and 1908 in London. He coached at Indiana and Colby. He coached the Japanese team at the Antwerp Olympics in 1920. His gig atop the Garden didn't last long, as by the summer of 1921 he was announced as the new coach at New Hampshire. O'Brien announced in 1922 that he was ending his association with the Garden and opening another gym on Broadway.

Seuss. Thank you! The additional identification of Cohn is greatly appreciated.

See:

Family, friends, and others (see notes added to photo) greeting US Navy aviators Lt. Louis A. Kloor, Jr., Lt. Walter T. Hinton, and Stephen A. Farrell at Pennsylvania Station, New York, on January 14, 1921. Kloor, Hinton (a veteran of the Navy's Curtiss NC-4 transatlantic expedition), and Farrell crewed a US Navy hydrogen-filled free-flight balloon (BuNo A-5598) on a training flight that departed from Naval Air Station Far Rockaway, Long Island, on December 13, 1920. The intention was to land the balloon in northern New York State the following day. However, due to unexpected weather, the balloon would end up landing almost 20 miles north of Moose Factory, Ontario, near Hudson Bay, resulting in an epic story of survival and rescue taking place over two weeks in the Canadian wilderness. This brief description only barely scratches the surface of this story, and what subsequently followed. See: "Three Men In A Balloon," The Literary Digest, Vol. LXVIII No. 5, Whole Number 1606, January 29, 1921, Pages 44-48. Ordeal - Lost and facing death in a remote frozen forest - by Bob Martin Wikipedia - Walter T. Hinton (1888-1981) See also: New York Times - "Airmen's Clash Amazes Friends" - January 21, 1921 "Magic Casements" - VITAPHONE VARIETIES - OBSERVATIONS ON FILM, MUSIC & IMAGERY OF THE PAST - February 17, 2007 Here's a link to one contemporaneous photo (among others) of the occasion, belonging to the Hagley Digital Archives: Hagley Museum Digital Archives - Lammot du Pont, Jr. Aeronautical Collection - "Wives at Pennsylvania Station to Greet Naval Airmen on Their Arrival in New York" Here's another photo of the occasion in the LoC's Bain Collection: www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/42867125710/

See also photo in The evening world., January 14, 1921, Wall Street Final Edition, Image 1 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1921-01-14/ed-... Louis Alexander Kloor (1898-1971) www.findagrave.com/memorial/119030529/ Alexandra Flowerton was the fiancée of L. A. Kloor, but they did not marry, s. timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/07/12/10702026... She was the sister of actress Consuelo Flowerton (www.imdb.com/name/nm0283223/), s. timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/07/16/10981275..., and an aunt of Nina Foch, actress (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Foch). Anna Louise Kronholm Farrell, former concert singer, died in 1942, aged 55, s. August 17, 1942 - The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York · Page 7 www.newspapers.com/newspage/52701551/ Eugene George Farrell (1905-1996) prabook.com/web/eugene_george.farrell/548624 www.findagrave.com/memorial/101782640/

Walter Hinton (1888-1981) www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7965149 Louis Alexander Kloor (1898-1971) www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q99411257 Stephen Andrew Farrell (1878-1946) www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q99411504

Thanks for the added details, Richard Norton . We will add some of the info from these comments to the online record.