|
DATE OF ** ORIGINAL ** INSERT PHOTO / COVER / PRINT: 1935 CITY / TOWN-STATE: ARTIST: ROSENFELD PHOTOGRAPHY THEME: EXTRA INFO (TEXT & IMAGE): BLACK AND WHITE INSERT PHOTOGRAPHY CAN EVOKE MANY MOODS / EMOTIONS.... WHEN FRAMED FOR DECOR USE. THESE INSERT PHOTO'S COME FROM VINTAGE PERIODICALS AND MOST OFTEN ARE THE *ONLY* GIVEN SOURCE OF THAT PHOTO. HAVING NEVER BEEN AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE IN OTHER FORMATS THESE INSERT PHOTO'S ARE UNIQUE IN THIS FORM. THEY MAT AND FRAME UP WONDERFULLY WELL FOR THE WALL DECOR OF ANY HOME OR OFFICE. BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY HAS THAT DISTINCTIVE TOUCH OF ROMANTICISM AND NOSTALGIA THAT, THEREFORE, MAKES THEM BASICALLY TIMELESS IN STYLE. CONDITION: CLEAN, PERFECT FOR FRAMING AND DISPLAYING. ADVERT SIZE: SEE PHOTO - DIMENSIONS AT SIDES ARE SHOWN IN INCHES DESCRIPTION OF ITEM: A GREAT VINTAGE ORIGINAL B/W INSERT PHOTO. INSERT PHOTO'S ARE CAREFULLY REMOVED FROM VINTAGE PERIODICALS AND MAY BE TRIMMED IN PREPARATION FOR DISPLAYING. MARGINS ARE INCLUDED IN ADVERT SIZE. PACKARD MOTOR GOLD CUP RACE LAKE GEORGE NEW YORK No two men could have been more unlike the other. One fastidious, the other extravagant. One looked like a movie star, the other yearned to be one. What united them was a shared love of engines and boats and the common desire to be the fastest man on Lake George. Indeed, they would have been competitors had they not become collaborators, combining their skills and talents to make one boat the most famous in America. The boat was three-time Gold Cup winner El Lagarto and the collaborators were, of course, George Reis and Anderson Bowers. Jon Bowers, Anderson Bowers’ grandson, tells the story of their collaboration – and friendship – in a new book, “Legend of Lake George: El Lagarto and the Men who Made her Great.” “Nobody who has written about El Lagarto has any idea of the actual story, or so I believe. So I decided to find out for myself what was true and what was false,” said Bowers. In the process of researching the book, said Bowers, “I learned so much about my grandfather that I hadn’t known, as well as much about George Reis, whom I called Uncle George because he was such a huge presence in my life.” Both Reis and Bowers came from towns near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Reis’s grandfather amassed a fortune in the steel industry. Bowers began life in more modest circumstances, though his drive would ultimately take him to Cornell, MIT, the US Navy and Wall Street. According to Jon Bowers, the two met at the Lake George Club in 1913, during one of the many events celebrating Count Casimir Mankowski’s Gold Cup victory on the St. Lawrence River, the victory that would bring the Gold Cup races to Lake George in 1914. (Reis’ family first came to Lake George in 1901, taking suites at the Sagamore until 1914, when the house that became famous as George Reis’ boathouse was finished. Bowers was introduced to Lake George through a family friend, who was building a children’s camp on Pilot Knob.) “The two became friends pretty quickly,” says Bowers. “They started helping each other, working on each other’s boats and engines. George was always impressed with my grandfather’s meticulous attention to detail. George did things differently. He just wanted to get the job done. My grandfather would always say, ‘George, it has to be done correctly.” The partnership that ultimately brought El Lagarto to international acclaim began in the early 1920s, when both men purchased 26’ Hackers from the owner of Buffalo’s Peerless Marine Motor Company, both named Miss Mary, both registered as G-8. According to Bowers, this has led to some understandable confusion, since history records that it was a 26-foot Hacker previously entered in Gold Cup races as Miss Mary that became the famous El Lagarto. “People say that the Miss Mary that entered the Gold Cup races of 1922 became El Lagarto. That’s not true. That boat became my grandfather’s, which he renamed Miss Kittanning. Reis’ Miss Mary was entered only in the Gold Cup races of 1924,” said Bowers. One favorite tale, recounted by a young Andy Rooney in an article that appeared in the March, 1949 issue of “Motor Boating” magazine, is true, says Bowers. A local, Lake George rivalry, rather than an ambition to become the world’s greatest speed boat racer, inspired Reis to acquire his Miss Mary. Reis told Anderson that he would buy the boat only if he was convinced that it could beat Jonathan Moore’s Jolly Roger. He dispatched Bowers to Buffalo to inspect the boat and, if it met the criterion, purchase it for him. “Bowers got a bicycle, measured the distance one wheel revolution covered, then, counting the bike’s wheel turns, he rode off a mile… The boat clocked close to fifty miles per hour and Bowers bought it for Reis,” according to Rooney’s article. In 1930, Bowers became Reis’ racing mechanic (earning him the sobriquet “the Mechanic of Wall Street” in the popular press.) That year, the two witnessed the victories of Hotsy Totsy, whose owner, Victor Kleisrath, had added steps to hull. Back in Bolton Landing, the two discussed doing the same, and in 1931, “five … overlapping steps (shingles) were applied and thoroughly screwed to the bottom,” writes Bowers. It is commonly believed that it was these shingles that made El Lagarto America’s fastest speedboat, enabling the boat to leap across the surface, gaining speed by staying above the water, as former Adirondack Museum cboat curator Hallie Bond has noted. Does Bowers share this belief? “George was often asked what made El Lagarto such a winning boat,” writes Bowers. Bowers then proceeds to enumerate the features that contributed to the boat’s superiority, as stated by Reis. The shingles are not among them. In his conclusion, Bowers lists six individuals, in addition to Reis and Bowers, responsible for El Lagarto’s success. Omitted from the list: the Gates brothers. Local historian Bill Gates credits his uncle Walter “Smokey” Gates, at least in part, with the redesign and reconstruction of the boat’s bottom. (For his part, Gates deprecates Anderson Bowers in his book “Lake George Boats and Steamboats,” by describing him as Reis’ “summer friend from Pilot Knob,” invited to “ride along” during Gold Cup races.) By 1933 (and for whatever reason) El Lagarto was known as “the leaping Lizard of Lake George.” That year, Reis and Bowers won the Gold Cup races on the Detroit River and brought the event back to Lake George, where the races would be held again in 1935 and 1936. From 1931 to 1937, El Lagarto won three President’s Cup victories, one National Sweepstakes race and three Gold Cup titles. On an autumn day in 1935, Reis and Bowers took El Lagarto to Northwest Bay, where it was clocked at a top speed of 72.727 mph, breaking existing records. El Lagarto was retired from competition in 1937. Anderson Bowers died in 1966, four years after Reis’ death in 1962. According to Jon Bowers, Anderson Bowers and George Reis’ son, George Jr, scattered Reis’ ashes from El Lagarto near the spot in Northwest Bay where the speed record had been broken. According to Bill Gates, his uncle, Bob Gates, was given that solemn duty. “Bob Gates, who cared for El Lagarto after Walter Gates retired, didn’t have the heart to start El Lagarto after George’s death, so George’s ashes were spread from El Lagarto as it was being towed by El Lacayo (Reis’ Gar Wood),” Gates writes in “Lake George Boats and Steamboats.” The most prominent Gold Cup boat of the 1930s was EL LAGARTO, "The Leaping Lizard of Lake George" (New York). Owned and driven by George Reis, EL LAGARTO was the first three-time consecutive winner of the APBA Gold Cup in 1933, 1934, and 1935. The popular "Lizard" did much to focus positive attention on powerboat competition during the years between the World Wars. Owner/driver Reis was a veteran boat racer whose career dated back to 1916 when he took third-place in the Gold Cup at the wheel of A.L. Judson's HAWKEYE. EL LAGARTO's remarkable career began inauspiciously with an eleventh-place performance in the 1922 Gold Cup at Detroit as MISS MARY II. Designed and built by John Hacker as a V-bottom displacement-type of boat, she measured 25 feet 10 inches in length with a 5-foot 6-inch beam and used a 150-horsepower Peer! less engine. The Gold Cup boats of 1922 were restricted to the use of monoplanes without any "steps" or shingles" on the underside and a top piston displacement of 625 cubic inches. Prior to 1922, the Gold Cup had been a wide-open event with virtually no limits on hull or engine size. Reis purchased EL LAGARTO from original owner Ed Grimm in about 1925. He named the craft after his brother's estate in Palm Springs, California, which was named "El Lagarto" because of an abundance of lizards in that vicinity. George installed a rebuilt 621 cubic inch Packard engine and used her as a pleasure craft on Lake George for several years. He occasionally entered her in free-for-all races against such local contenders as JOLLY ROGER, FALCON, and HAWKEYE. The Gold Cup rules were amended in 1929 to allow hydroplanes with "stepped" hulls to compete for the American Power Boat Association's Crown Jewel. Reis ordered a single-step hydro from the Purdy ! Boat Company of Port Washington and christened it EL LAGARTITO--"Littl e Lizard." With Reis at the wheel and his Lake George neighbor Anderson ("Dick") Bowers along side as riding mechanic, EL LAGARTITO was trounced in the 1930 Gold Cup contest at Red Bank, New Jersey, which was won by HOTSY TOTSY, a V-bottomed old-timer that had been "shingled" by owner Vic Kliesrath. Back to Lake George trekked Reis and Bowers with ideas of fitting a series of shallow hydroplane steps to the bottom of a displacement-type boat. Early in the summer of 1931, Reis applied five steps to the underside of EL LAGARTO and trotted her out as a trial horse for EL LAGARTITO. With Bowers at the helm of the old boat and Reis handling the new one, they squared off in the middle of the lake for a comparison of speed. There was none. The old "Lizard" ran away from her younger sibling. Reis retired the $12,000 EL LAGARTITO on the spot. He never campaigned her again. The TITO was eventually sold to E.A. Guggenheim who renamed her MISS SARANAC. Fr! om then on, Reis and Bowers concentrated all of their efforts on the old rig that, for years, had been little more than a runabout, errand boat, and fishing vessel. When the Gold Cup participants assembled at Lake Montauk for the 1931 race, they were surprised to see EL LAGARTO instead of the one-year-old EL LAGARTITO. The reason for the change became quickly obvious. EL LAGARTO grabbed the lead in the first heat and showed her transom to the entire field for the first 28 miles, until she dropped a valve and drifted helplessly, while HOTSY TOTSY breezed to an easy repeat victory. Later in the season, EL LAGARTO triumphed in the National Sweepstakes at Red Bank--her first major win--and then annexed the President's Cup on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. In 1932, Reis modified the after-shingle. As a result, she ran faster, but the formerly smooth-riding EL LAGARTO became the legendary "Leaping Lizard"--although her porpoising action obvi! ously did the trick. George's explanation as to why his boat was swift er around a race course than its contemporaries was due largely to its controlled air vents. The 1933 Gold Cup in Detroit is sometimes recalled as "The Year of the Dodge Navy." No fewer than five DELPHINE boats were entered by Horace Dodge, Jr., of the Dodge automotive family and four of these were among the seven actual starters. EL LAGARTO ironed the Dodge Navy flat with the fastest 30-mile heat speed since the 625 cubic inch piston displacement limitation: 60.866 miles per hour in the first round. Bill Horn, the 1932 champion, made a race of it with DELPHINE IV--and actually outdistanced "The Lizard" in the Final Heat--but lost the Cup on points--1322 to EL LAGARTO's 1361. By season's end, the team of Reis, Bowers, and EL LAGARTO had claimed the Triple Crown of powerboating: the Gold Cup, the President's Cup, and the National Sweepstakes--a performance every bit as impressive as that which Gar Wood was accomplishing at the time in the Harmswor! th International (Unlimited) Class. After the close of the 1933 season, the rule makers decided to pep up a category that was being dominated by an eleven-year-old museum piece, resurrected from obscurity. So, they voted to permit superchargers on Gold Cup engines. Nevertheless, George Reis decided to fight out the 1934 Gold Cup race with his unblown Packard. Defending the title on home waters, EL LAGARTO established a Lake George 30-mile competition record of 58.064. But she really wasn't extended except for a few laps when Bennett Hill was on top with HORNET, which set a terrific pace. But EL LAGARTO took over the lead and claimed the victory. HORNET fell by the wayside and faded to fourth in the overall standings behind "The Lizard," DELPHINE IV with Horn, and IMP with Jack Rutherfurd. At the 1934 President's Cup, EL LAGARTO leaped along to its third Potomac River triumph in four tries over six other contenders. "The Lizard" averaged 53.776 for th! e 45-mile distance, dominating the first two heats and taking a safe t hird in the final go-around. Rutherfurd's LOUISA took a trio of second-places, while MISS SARANAC (nee EL LAGARTITO) handled by Bob Purdy won the last heat for an overall third. For the 1935 campaign, the rule makers went to work again and approved the use of power plants up to 732 cubic inches--thereby putting the American Gold Cup Class on a level with the International 12-Litre Class, which was quite popular in Europe at the time. They further resolved to banish virtually all hull restrictions after the 1935 Gold Cup Regatta. The low weight per horsepower ratio possible under the new rules would soon sound the death knell for such storied old campaigners as EL LAGARTO. Undaunted, "The Lizard" made it three Gold Cups in a row with her tried and proven 621 cubic inch unsupercharged Packard. She annihilated the hopes of Kliesrath in HOTSY TOTSY II, Horn in DELPHINE IV, and Clell Perry in NOTRE DAME. And, in the Fall of 1935, EL LAGARTO ran an ! official mile trial of 72.727 miles per hour. This was the highest straightaway speed ever recorded by a Gold Cupper of the 625 cubic inch restricted hull variety. Reis finally re-powered "The Lizard" for 1936 with a 732 cubic inch 12-cylinder Curtiss aircraft engine. But EL LAGARTO lost the Gold Cup to Englishman Kaye Don, driving Horace Dodge's IMPSHI, after "The Lizard" conked out in Heat One. At the 1936 President's Cup, EL LAGARTO led in the first heat until an oil line broke and she was passed short of the finish line by NOTRE DAME. In the milling around prior to the start of Heat Two, NOTRE DAME rammed "The Lizard's" starboard side and smashed her so badly that she had to withdraw after completing one lap. EL LAGARTO was repaired during the winter of 1936-37 and entered the 1937 Gold Cup at Detroit. For three quarters of Heat One, she ran close behind Perry in NOTRE DAME and Harold Wilson in MISS CANADA II until "The Lizard's" oil pump gave ou! t and she was withdrawn from her final race. It was back to home port for the last time for EL LAGARTO. For the next several decades, Reis kept "The Lizard" as a pleasure boat on Lake George. According to columnist Mel Crook, as late as 1956, she still looked fit and traveled in the 70 mile an hour range. Reis, who passed away in 1962, estimated that he averaged 2000 miles of running time with EL LAGARTO during each of the first 30 years that he owned her. That adds up to more than 60,000 miles--the equivalent of 2-1/2 times around the Earth at the Equator. From the standpoint of history, George Reis, Dick Bowers, and "The Lizard" established a standard of excellence that was a tough act to follow. Not until 1947 did another boat score victories in each of the Gold Cup, President's Cup, and National Sweepstakes events during the same calendar year. That's when Danny Foster turned the trick with the Dossin brothers' MISS PEPS V. And not until 1965 did another boat (Ole Bardahl's MISS BARDAHL, driven by Ro! n Musson) match EL LAGARTO's feat of winning three successive Gold Cup championships. **NOTE** : PAGES MAY SHOW AGE WEAR AND IMPERFECTIONS TO MARGINS, WITH CLOSED NICKS AND CUTS, WHICH DO NOT AFFECT AD IMAGE OR TEXT WHEN MATTED AND FRAMED. THE ADVERT OR ARTICLE YOU RECEIVE WILL BE CRISP AND LEGIBLE, WE HAVE PURPOSEFULLY BLURRED THE IMAGE A LITTLE. At ADVERTISINGSHOP (DIVISION OF BRANCHWATER BOOKS) we look for rare & unusual ADVERTISING, COVERS + PRINTS of commercial graphics from throughout the world. ALL items we sell are ORIGINAL and 100% guaranteed --- (we code all our items to insure authenticity) ---- we stand behind this. As graphic collectors ourselves, we take great pride in doing the best job we can to preserve and extend to you wonderful historic graphics of the past. PLEASE LOOK AT OUR PHOTO'S CLOSELY AS THEY ARE IMAGES OF THE PRODUCT BEING SOLD..... NOT STOCK PHOTO'S We ship via United States Postal Service. We have a 3 day handling time not including weekends or holidays. **Import taxes, duties and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying on items. These charges are normally collected by the shipping company or when you pick the item up, this is not an additional shipping charge. We do not mark merchandise values below value or mark items as GIFTS, US and International government laws prohibit this so please don't ask us to. We are not responsible for shipping times to international buyer's. Your country's customs may hold the package for a month or more. **We pride ourselves on quality products, great service, accurate gradations and fast shipping.**  
YOUR AD WILL BE SHIPPED ROLLED IN A PROTEctive PLASTIC BAG IN AN 80mm (TWICE USPS RECOMMENDED) THICK, 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER (SO AS NOT TO STRESS THE PAPER) SHIPPING TUBE WITH PRESS TIGHT PLASTIC END CAPS (TAPED FOR EXTRA PROTECTION). --If you cannot give 5 star rating please contact us so we may attempt to remedy the problem, Thank you.-- --Add ADVERTISINGSHOP to your seller favorite list today! We will be adding vintage and unusual advertising almost daily.-- Please visit our EBAY STORE: to find more vintage collectibles. Just click on the BOOK below. |
 |
| Branchwater Books and Ephemera |
30058
Powered by SixBit's eCommerce Solution