Transcript

8.14.26 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome. This is RADIOI is History Show, and
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Speaker 1: I'm your reader and host once again, Joseph Bolt. So
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Speaker 1: happy to be with you for today. And before we begin,
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Speaker 1: as you know, we always need to remind you that
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Speaker 1: RADIOI is listener driven and that means you, so we
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Speaker 1: welcome your comments or suggestions if you have any thoughts
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Speaker 1: or just want to talk make some suggestions. If you
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Speaker 1: have any history topics that you would like for me
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Speaker 1: to cover, call us and I'll look into it, and
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Speaker 1: that number would be eighty five nine four two two
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Speaker 1: six three nine zero. As you know, RADIOI is a
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Speaker 1: reading service that's intended for people who are blind or
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Speaker 1: have other disabilities to make it difficult to printed material.
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Speaker 1: I'll cite the sources as we go along, and today
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Speaker 1: I thought we would cover a little bit of the
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Speaker 1: competitive world and in particular the Olympics, and then we'll
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Speaker 1: talk about some strange other competitions around the world here
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Speaker 1: toward the end. So let's get to reading about someone
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Speaker 1: I know you've heard of before back in history that
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Speaker 1: set an amazing amount of records, and that is the
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Speaker 1: man of Jesse Owens at the nineteen thirty six Berlin Olympics,
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Speaker 1: African American track star Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold
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Speaker 1: medal of the Games in the four by hundred undred
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Speaker 1: meter relay. His relay team set a new world record
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Speaker 1: of thirty nine point eight seconds, which held for twenty years.
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Speaker 1: In their strong showing in track and field events at
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Speaker 1: the thirty six Olympics, Jesse Owens and other African American
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Speaker 1: athletes struck a propaganda blow against Nazi leader Adolph Hitler,
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Speaker 1: who planned to use the Berlin Games as a showcase
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Speaker 1: for supposed Aaron superiority. James Cleveland Jesse Owens was born
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Speaker 1: to Alabama sharecroppers Henry and Mary Emma on September twelfth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen. By the nineteen twenties, the Owens family was
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Speaker 1: participating in the Great Migration and settled in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Speaker 1: On Jesse's first day at Bolton Elementary School after moving
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Speaker 1: to Cleveland at the age of nine, the teacher misheard
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Speaker 1: his Alabama drawl and thought he said his name was
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Speaker 1: Jesse instead of what he said, which was JC, short
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Speaker 1: for James Cleveland Well. Owens was too shy to correct
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Speaker 1: his new teacher in front of his new classmates and
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Speaker 1: he was called Jesse for the rest of his life. Owen's,
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Speaker 1: the tenth and last child of Henry and Mary Emma,
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Speaker 1: was a sickly child. The day after his fifth birthday,
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Speaker 1: he developed a large fibrous bump on his chest that
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Speaker 1: began to painfully press against his lungs. Unable to afford
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Speaker 1: a doctor to remove it, his parents decided to perform
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Speaker 1: the surgery on their own. As Owen's bit down hard
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Speaker 1: on a leather strap, his mother used a sterilized kitchen
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Speaker 1: knife to carve into her son's chest and remove a
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Speaker 1: golf ball sized growth. Owen's suffered a great loss of blood,
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Speaker 1: but obviously survived. Owens's interest in running track came while
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Speaker 1: attending middle school. His gym teacher, Charles Riley, encouraged Owens
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Speaker 1: to join the track team. Riley taught Owens to train
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Speaker 1: for longer races, such as the one hundred and two
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Speaker 1: hundred yard dashes. Riley continued to work with Owens while
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Speaker 1: he was a high school student, and with Riley's guidance,
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Speaker 1: Owens was able to win every race he entered. In
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Speaker 1: his senior year of high school, Owens was elected president
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Speaker 1: of the student council and captain of the track team
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Speaker 1: that year, Owen also placed first in seventy five out
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Speaker 1: of seventy nine races that he entered. He also set
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Speaker 1: a new record in the long jump at the Interscholastic
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Speaker 1: State Finals. Owens chose to attend Ohio State University, where
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Speaker 1: he demonstrated himself to be one of the greatest athletes
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Speaker 1: in the world. There, he continued to train and work
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Speaker 1: part time as a freight elevator operator at the State House.
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Speaker 1: Barred from living in OSU's dormitory because he was African American,
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Speaker 1: Owens lived in a boarding house with other African American students.
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Speaker 1: Owens trained with Larry Snyder, who helped the runner perfect
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Speaker 1: his starting time in altering his long jump style. In
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Speaker 1: one single day, on May twenty fifth, nineteen thirty five,
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Speaker 1: Owens set world records in the two twenty yard dash,
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Speaker 1: the two twenty yard low hurdles, as well as the
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Speaker 1: long jump, and equaled the world record for the one
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Speaker 1: hundred yard dash at the Big Ten Finals held in
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Speaker 1: Ann Arbor, Michigan. While smashing records for the Ohio State
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Speaker 1: Buckeyes track team, he became known as the Buckeye Bullet.
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Speaker 1: Owens was the first black man elected captain of the
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Speaker 1: Ohio State varsity team. The next summer, in three hundred
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Speaker 1: and eleven, other American athletes, including seventeen African Americans, traveled
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Speaker 1: to Nazi Germany to represent the United States at the
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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six Olympics. In nineteen thirty one, the International
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Speaker 1: Olympic Committee awarded the nineteen thirty six Summer Olympics to Berlin.
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Speaker 1: The choice was meant to signal Germany's return to the
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Speaker 1: world community after defeat in World War One. Well two
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Speaker 1: years later, Adolf Hitler came into power, and he transformed
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Speaker 1: the Democratic German government into a one party dictatorship, purged
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Speaker 1: political opponents and suspected dissidents, instituted anti Semitic policies, and
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Speaker 1: began the remilitarization of Germany. Hitler initially held the Olympics
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Speaker 1: in low regard because of their internationalism, but became an
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Speaker 1: avid supporter after Nazi propaganda Propaganda Rather Minister Joseph Goebels
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Speaker 1: convinced him of their propaganda value. Seen as an opportunity
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Speaker 1: to advance Nazi ideology, Hitler provided extensive funding for the
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Speaker 1: Berlin Games, which promised to be the largest modern Olympics
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Speaker 1: to date. The Nazi government used sport as part of
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Speaker 1: its drive to strengthen the air and race and non
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Speaker 1: Errands Jewish, part Jewish or Gypsy athletes were systemically excluded
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Speaker 1: from Nazi sponsored sports facilities and associations. By nineteen thirty five,
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Speaker 1: a number of athletic groups in the United States were
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Speaker 1: pushing for a boycott of the Berlin Games, but after
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Speaker 1: a heated debate, US participation was narrowly approved. In December
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Speaker 1: of nineteen thirty five, a number of prominent Jewish athletes
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Speaker 1: in the United States and other countries decided to independently
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Speaker 1: boycott the Games in protests of Nazi oppression of Jews.
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Speaker 1: Spain also planned an alternate People's Olympics to be held
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Speaker 1: in Barcelona in July of nineteen thirty six, but the
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Speaker 1: outbreak of the Spanish Civil War forced its cancelation. In
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Speaker 1: the end, forty nine nations sent some four thousand athletes
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Speaker 1: to the Summer Olympics in Berlin. Under international pressure, the
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Speaker 1: Nazis agreed to allow one part Jewish athlete on its
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Speaker 1: Olympic team, fencer Helene Mayor. However, Joseph Goebels forbid the
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Speaker 1: Nazi controlled German press from discussing the ethnicity of the
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Speaker 1: blond haired mayor. On August first, nineteen thirty six, Adolf
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Speaker 1: Hitler opened the Olympiad. The Olympic ritual of a runner
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Speaker 1: arriving bearing a torch carried by relay from Olympia Greece
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Speaker 1: occurred for the first time. The Nazis advertised this ceremony
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Speaker 1: as a symbol of the myth that German civilization was
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Speaker 1: the inheritor of the glorified culture of ancient Greece. Olympic
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Speaker 1: flags and swastika bearing Nazi banners hung everywhere in Berlin.
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Speaker 1: To prevent controversy, the anti Jewish signs hung throughout the
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Speaker 1: city were removed during the games, and Jewish athletes and
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Speaker 1: visitors from other countries were not subjected to anti Jewish laws.
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Speaker 1: Gypsies were cleared off the streets and in turned in
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Speaker 1: a camp at the edge of Berlin. A festive and
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Speaker 1: hospitable atmosphere pervaded the German capital, and most tourists left
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Speaker 1: the city with positive memories of their stay there. With
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Speaker 1: three hundred and forty eight athletes, Germany had the law
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Speaker 1: largest national team and captured the most medals overall, greatly
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Speaker 1: pleasing Hitler. The Americans, however, dominated the popular track and
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Speaker 1: field events. On the first day of competition, Hitler, who
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Speaker 1: had been congratulating German and select other winners, left the
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Speaker 1: stadium shortly after three African Americans swept the high jump event.
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Speaker 1: Whether Hitler left to avoid shaking hands with non errands
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Speaker 1: is unclear. In the aftermath of the incident, Olympic organizers
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Speaker 1: asked Hitler to either receive all the medal winners or none,
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Speaker 1: and he chose the latter. Contrary to the popular myth,
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Speaker 1: Hitler never directly snubbed Jesse Owens, but he did continue
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Speaker 1: to privately receive German winners throughout the games. With his
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Speaker 1: four gold medals, Jesse Owens was the star of the
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Speaker 1: Berlin Olympics. He equalled the world record of ten point
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Speaker 1: three seconds in the one hundred meter race and broke
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Speaker 1: the world records in the two hundred meter race at
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Speaker 1: twenty point seven seconds and in the broad jump at
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Speaker 1: twenty six feet five and three eighth inches. He was
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Speaker 1: enthusiastically applauded by the largely German crowd and developed a
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Speaker 1: friendship with German long jumper and silver medalist Lu's Long. However,
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Speaker 1: he and other African American Olympians were demeaned by a
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Speaker 1: Nazi newspaper that wrote of them as the black auxiliaries
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Speaker 1: of the American team. On August ninth, Owens won his
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Speaker 1: fourth medal as a member of the mixed race for
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Speaker 1: by one hundred meter relay team. The world record breaking
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Speaker 1: triumph was tainted by the revelation that US coaches had
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Speaker 1: benched two American Jewish relay runners the day before the event.
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Speaker 1: Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller were replaced with Owens an
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Speaker 1: African American Ralph Medcalf, the two best US sprinters. However,
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Speaker 1: both Stoler and Glickman had outrun Foy Draper, a white
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Speaker 1: American who remained on the team, in a practice race.
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Speaker 1: The coaches said Draper was more experienced, but Glickman and
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Speaker 1: others thought that anti Semitism was involved. Stoler, however, thought
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Speaker 1: favoritism was to blame, as Draper and the fourth runner,
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Speaker 1: Frank Wykoff, had trained under one of the Olympic coaches
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Speaker 1: at the University of Southern California. Despite the embarrassment of
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Speaker 1: seeing his best errand runners bested by African Americans. Adolf
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Speaker 1: Hitler hailed the Berlin Olympics as a great success. He
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Speaker 1: commissioned a German architect to design a colossal four hundred
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Speaker 1: thousand seat stadium at Nuremberg that would host Olympics for
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Speaker 1: all time to come. The outbreak of World War II
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Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty nine prevented the building of the stadium,
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Speaker 1: and by nineteen forty five, Hitler's plans for Nazi world
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Speaker 1: domination had ended in absolute defeat. In the decades of
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Speaker 1: Cold War that followed, the United States and the Soviet
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Speaker 1: Union exploited the propaganda potential of the Olympic Games as
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Speaker 1: freely as the Nazis did at Berlin in nineteen thirty six,
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Speaker 1: although only twenty three, Jesse Owens retired from amateur competition
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Speaker 1: shortly after the Berlian Games and returned home to the
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Speaker 1: United States with not much fanfare. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Speaker 1: never met with Owens, a tradition usually afforded Olympic champions.
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Speaker 1: Yet Owens was not surprised by the lackluster celebration, saying quote,
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Speaker 1: when I came back to my native country after all
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Speaker 1: the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front
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Speaker 1: of the bus. I had to go to the back door.
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Speaker 1: I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to
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Speaker 1: shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the
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Speaker 1: White House to shake hands with the President either. Owens
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Speaker 1: found work racing against cars and horses. He also played
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Speaker 1: for the Harlem Globetrotters. He engaged in boys' guidance activities,
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Speaker 1: made goodwill visits to Asia for the United States Department
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Speaker 1: of State, and served as secretary of the Illinois State
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Speaker 1: Athletic Commission. Owens also found success in the field of
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Speaker 1: marketing and spoke at conventions and business meetings. In nineteen
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Speaker 1: sixty five, the downtrodden New York Mets hired Owens as
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Speaker 1: a spring training running instructor to improve the player's base
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Speaker 1: running techniques and foot speed. Not even an Olympic champion, though,
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Speaker 1: could help the nineteen sixty five Mets, who stole only
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Speaker 1: twenty eight bases while being caught stealing forty two two
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Speaker 1: times on their way to a last place finish. In
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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty five, Owens married many Ruth Solomon. The couple
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Speaker 1: had three daughters. Owens died of lung cancer on March
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Speaker 1: thirty first, nineteen eighty, at his home in Arizona. As
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Speaker 1: a postcript to this story, German shoemaker Adolph Addie Dassler
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Speaker 1: didn't view the Berlin Games as a vehicle for Nazi propaganda,
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Speaker 1: but as a chance to launch his humble athletic shoe business.
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Speaker 1: He successfully lobbied not only German athletes, but Owens as
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Speaker 1: well to wear his personally hand crafted leather track shoes
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Speaker 1: for extra long spikes. The American triumph helped to launch
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Speaker 1: his business, and a decade later, Dazzler would start his
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Speaker 1: own company, Adidas. Sources for that story came from History
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Speaker 1: dot com. Jesse Owens wins fourth Gold Medal written by
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Speaker 1: History dot com editors and May of twenty twenty five,
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Speaker 1: and Thought dot com Jesse Owens full time Olympic Gold
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Speaker 1: Medalist written by Fame Lewis in May of twenty twenty five,
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Speaker 1: and History dot com. Ten Things you may not know
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Speaker 1: about Jesse Owens written by Christopher Klein in May of
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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. If you are a fan of the
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Speaker 1: weird and wonderful, the world is full of destinations where
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Speaker 1: we can witness some pretty outlandish sports. Let's read about
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Speaker 1: a few of those. The Crying Baby Festival. Every year,
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Speaker 1: babies all over Japan face off in a daring competition
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Speaker 1: to see who cries first. Don't worry, it's a sign
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Speaker 1: of good health. The Knaki Sumo festival, related to a
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Speaker 1: proverb that translates as crying babies grow fast, dates back
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Speaker 1: more than four hundred years. Part of the idea is
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Speaker 1: that a loud cry from a baby will scare off demons,
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Speaker 1: allowing the child to grow up strong and healthy. The
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Speaker 1: tradition works a little differently in different areas, but the
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Speaker 1: basic idea is that two babies enter a sumo ring,
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Speaker 1: sometimes carried by sumo wrestlers, sometimes dressed as adorable little
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Speaker 1: sumo wrestlers themselves. Then the wrestlers try to make the
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Speaker 1: babies cry by making faces and sometimes wearing masks to
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Speaker 1: make themselves look like demons. In the event of a tie,
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Speaker 1: victory goes to the loudest baby. Most people try to
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Speaker 1: avoid bees if they can. Bee bearders, on the other hand,
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Speaker 1: one who attract as many bees as possible to land
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Speaker 1: on their bodies. The bees are mellowed out first with
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Speaker 1: a steady diet of sugar syrup. The queen is placed
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Speaker 1: in a vial and placed around the neck of the bearder.
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Speaker 1: Then the docile bees start gently swarming, attracting attracted rather
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Speaker 1: by her pheromones. Because it's hard to count that many bees,
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Speaker 1: winds and records are recorded by weight. One winner at
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Speaker 1: a festival in Canada and Rather twenty thirteen ended up
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Speaker 1: with three point eight pounds of bees on him an
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Speaker 1: estimated fifteen thousand insects. It seems like a lot, but
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Speaker 1: it's only a fraction of what a bee keeper in
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Speaker 1: China accomplished during a twenty eleven competition with fifty nine
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Speaker 1: pounds of bees covering his body. The world record was
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Speaker 1: set in twenty sixteen when a bee keeper used sixty
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Speaker 1: queens to attract more than a hundred and forty pounds
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Speaker 1: of being of bees getting wrapped in a big bee
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Speaker 1: hug is not a competition for everybody, but it's sometimes
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Speaker 1: used as a teaching tool to show that bees can
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Speaker 1: be friendly. The source for those stories came from interesting
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Speaker 1: facts dot Com Ten weird competitions from around the World,
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Speaker 1: written by Sarah and Lloyd with no date. Well, that
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Speaker 1: about does it for this chapter of a Radio Eye History.
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Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did
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Speaker 1: reading it and researching it for you. I'll be back
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Speaker 1: for another chapter of Radio I history, and until then,
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Speaker 1: happy trails to you.