Dan Boyne's Kelly in Film Development!

Jack Kelly, Sr., is teaching his son, Jack 'Kell' Kelly, Jr., age 8, how to scull. Kell would later win the Diamonds at Henley twice, 1947 and 1949. Jack Kelly, Sr., had sent an entry for the 1920 Diamonds which was rejected by the Henley Stewards. Dan Boyne's book about the Kellys will now be a film.

In 2008, Dan Boyne came out with the hardcover copy of Kelly: A Father, A Son, An American Quest, and 2012 the paperback edition came out. At Christmas, Dan revealed that his book has been optioned for a film. HTBS caught up with Dan to ask him some questions:



HTBS: How has the sale gone with your book?



DB: I haven’t kept track of the exact sales figures, but I think Kelly has gone through its first printing in the paperback, which came out a few years ago. The hardcover is such a beautiful limited edition that I’m not sure will get printed again, so people should grab a copy before it goes out of print! More recently, with the announcement of the film option, the paperback has been selling so fast that Amazon can’t seem to keep enough copies in stock!



HTBS: Flashlight Films has now optioned to make your book into a film. Please tell us more about it.



DB: Flashlight Films is an independent motion picture company specializing in screenplay development. It was founded in 2009 by partners Allyn Stewart and Kipp Nelson. Stewart comes from Warner Brothers, where she was a senior executive for several years and worked on the academy award winning films Driving Miss Daisy and Dangerous Liaisons, among others; Nelson comes from the financial world, and was a former partner at Goldman Sachs. They specialize is acquiring stories from a wide range of sources and developing high quality screenplays with top filmmakers attached.


HTBS: Who is writing the script? 



DB: The script is being written by Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson, who were nominated for an Academy Award for David O. Russel’s celebrated film The Fighter (2010). It is probably a very good fit, since Kelly himself was quite a boxer as well as an Olympic oarsman.



HTBS: As you are the author of the book, and a rowing expert, will you have any influence on the script?



DB: I have been shown some early versions of the script and provided my input, but I have yet to see the finished product. I’ve been told by the producers that the Kelly story has been something of a challenge to render into an acceptable screenplay. Partly I think this is due to the complexity of Kelly’s life, which covers many fields of endeavor--sports, romance, politics, business, and even Hollywood. 


On the latter front, of course, the temptation is to “play the Grace Kelly” card, and include her in the story. But this story really isn’t about her; it’s about her dad and her brother, the Irish and English, and the power of one man’s will to succeed. Grace, however, did seem to have her father’s drive—it was just directed in another field of endeavor. And, of course, it is ironic that one of the Kellys married into a royal family, after coming from such modest roots!

HTBS: Armie Hammer, who played both the Winklevoss brothers in the film The Social Network, is one name that has popped up playing Jack Kelly Sr. Any other names that you can mention playing other characters? Any good English actor playing Kelly’s 1920 Olympic rival Jack Beresford Jr.?



DB: Jake Gyllenhaal is the other name that was mentioned to me to play Kelly. I haven’t heard anything about the Beresford character, but there are plenty of great British actors who could take on that role. I just hope the rowing is authentic, which is not an easy thing to pull off!



HTBS: You were the “rowing consultant” for The Social Network, and you have now been asked to take on the same position for the Kelly film. Is the Kelly film going to be a “rowing movie”, or a movie with some rowing scenes?



DB: At this point, since I have not seen the final script, I can’t say how much rowing will be involved. Certainly there will be a lot more than in The Social Network, where the rowing was really just used as window dressing. In one of  the earlier drafts of the Kelly script I read, there was a nice scene of Kelly watching a sculling race on the Schuylkill as a boy, which is how he originally got interested in the sport. And of course, there will have to be a scene for his duel with Beresford at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp. Lastly, they will have to show Kell, or Jack Kelly Jr., winning the Diamond sculls in 1947. This is the tricky part, I imagine; to show the lapse of time between the two generations.



HTBS: You are the director of recreational sculling at Harvard, will you also teach the actors how to scull and row?



DB: I’d love to, of course! I’ve worked on a number of rowing films and commercials, and been an extra in others. I worked with Josh Pence and Armie Hammer quite a bit in The Social Network, and they seemed to manage the rowing scenes quite well. Of course, Josh had already rowed before, at Dartmouth, so he didn’t need much attention. It was pretty challenging to set them loose in a pair, however; especially when the director wanted them to keep switching sides!



HTBS: Are you looking forward to getting back to Henley to shoot scenes – after all, there was some marvellous scenes from Henley Royal Regatta in The Social Network, and Jack “Kell” Kelly Jr., won the Diamonds at Henley in 1947 (and 1949), a race that was denied his father in 1920.



Photo: Mystic Seaport

DB: It was great fun to be at Henley during The Social Network shoot; and at Dorney Lake, where much of the filming also took place. As many people who read my row2k.com columns know, it was quite a coup to be allowed to film during the actual regatta. There were weeks, if not months, of negotiation prior to the shoot, and no one believed it would actually happen. But once the Henley Stewards finally gave director David Fincher the nod, we were all treated remarkably well.  


Filming, of course, it not all fun and games, and there was a lot of stress with Henley shoot, mostly due to the fact that we were on such a tight time table. We were only allowed one or two takes, so the oarsmen had to be managed very precisely (which is not always an easy task). Then, one of the guys broke an oarlock just before we were set to roll, which could have been a complete disaster! Luckily, we were able to swoop in from the umpire’s launch and get it fixed with just seconds to spare. Needless to say, it is not an experience I would ever care to repeat!



HTBS: Do you have any idea when the movie is going to be released?



DB: I have no idea, but hopefully in the next few years. These Hollywood projects can move very slowly or very fast. Hopefully this one will be the latter!



HTBS: If I remember it right, you yourself has actually been in a “rowing movie”. Which movie was that, and what was the scene/s?



DB: I was a rowing extra in a pretty awful version of David Halberstam’s book, The Amateurs. The film was called Rowing Through, and you can probably rent it on DVD if you want a good laugh. The rowing scenes, and much of the acting, are awful. Xeno Muller was an extra, too, and he was hilarious to be around—always making jokes and teasing the actors. I was also in a Denzel Washington film called The Great Debaters, where I very briefly row up the Charles. Lastly, I was in a PBS documentary called the Irish in America, where I also scull a bit. 



HTBS: Thank you, Dan, for taking the time, and good luck with the film. We at HTBS are keeping our fingers crossed that Kelly will be a good rowing movie.



DB: My pleasure!

Dan Boyne Interview and Old Film Clips of the Kellys

Just before Christmas I received an e-mail from Daniel Boyne, author of some famous books on rowing, among them The Red Rose Crew (2005) and Kelly: A Father, A Son, An American Quest. I am proud to say that I played a small part in publishing the latter, and that is why Dan was kind enough to send me an e-mail with a link to a video clip with an ABC interview of Dan just when the book was published the first time in 2008 – watch the interview with him above; it also has some interesting film clips of both Jack Kelly Sr. and Jr. Below find some words that I wrote about the Kelly book on 1 May 2012, when Lyons Press published the book as a paperback:

In 2008, Mystic Seaport published Daniel Boyne’s book Kelly: A Father, A Son, An American Quest, a rowing biography about Jack Kelly, Sr. and Jack Kelly, Jr. As I happened to be involved in the production at that time, yesterday I received an ‘advance copy’ of the book now when it will soon be published in a new edition. The 2012 soft cover (paperback) edition will be published by Lyons Press, which is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press in Connecticut, at a price of $16.95. Lyons Press has earlier published Boyne’s Essential Sculling (2000) and the soft cover edition of The Red Rose Crew (2005).

 Not only is the new edition of Kelly smaller in format and has a lower price than the hard cover edition, of course, some minor corrections have also been made of earlier lapsus calami. Although, I really like the first edition, with its airy design and beautifully reproduced black & white photographs, the Lyons edition sits very nicely in your hand and the illustrations are equally gorgeously reproduced.

This is truly a book for all of you who are interested in rowing on the Schuylkill River, Olympic rowing, and rowing at the Henley Royal just after the Second World War. It is also a book for those of you who are fascinated by Irish-American history in the Philadelphia area, the sometimes estranged relationship between the English and the Irish - and the English and the Americans. Dan Boyne has managed to write a remarkable story about an Irish-American family whose members were all special characters, not only Olympic champions or a princess of Monaco.

Greg Denieffe: Jack Beresford – In His Own Words, Part 3

Here is the third, and last, of Greg Denieffe’s installments about Jack Beresford:

In September 1964, World Sports, the official magazine of the British Olympic Association, published an article ‘How I Won Gold’. In the article, four Olympic gold medallists from the past: Anita Lonsbrough, Harold Abrahams, Jack Beresford and Harry Mallin, recall their greatest triumph.

Jack Beresford had no hesitation in picking his victory in Berlin in 1936. Here is a transcript of the article for HTBS readers who might not have seen it before.

With Blades Almost Clashing

It was in 1920 that I had my first lesson of race technique – beaten by John B. Kelly of the United States by one second for the gold medal in the sculls. That final made me decide to prepare for 1924 and I got my first gold medal in Paris. Four years later I was captain of the British eight in Amsterdam and we won a silver medal behind the Americans. Then four of us in Thames Rowing Club got together for Henley, went to California for the 1932 Games and won gold in the coxwainless fours.

In 1935 Dick Southwood teamed up with me in a double-sculler – object Berlin, 1936. By that time we were both pretty tough and mature, with the confidence and will-to-win well ingrained in us. In those days there were no open double-sculling races in England, but with 10 months’ practice behind us and 2,000 miles in the boat plus daily early-morning running and exercises, we were strong and fit.

In our first race in Berlin we met five other countries, including the Germans, European record-holders. They were very fast off the mark and their tactics were to get ahead and then edge over and “line” us up, i.e. scull dead in front of us, giving us their wash. They succeeded in doing that the first time and the other four countries were so much behind that the single umpire in the launch wasn’t able to control the course of the two leaders. At the finish we had to ease up or we would have bumped them and damaged our boat. So we just smiled and made no comment after the race.

Next came the repêchage heat, which we won very easily and so got back into the final. By then we had the “Indian sign” well and truly on those Germans, at least so we reckoned, and it worked out that way. In that final, beside Britain, were Germany, Poland, France, USA and Australia. We were determined to stay with those Germans but even at halfway (1,000m) they led by 1½ lengths, with the other countries out of the hunt.

At that point we challenged for the lead and went on doing so until they “blew up”. We literally gained foot-by-foot for the next 800m until at the 1,800m mark we were dead level. And so we raced to the 1,900m mark with blades almost clashing, for they had tried the old game of trying to line us (up) but not again! Right in front of Hitler’s box the Germans cracked and we went on to win by 2½ lengths.

The air was electric, for until we broke the spell Germany had won five finals off the reel. Yes, the last win in the doubles was the greatest and the sweetest, for we had come out to Berlin without a race and beaten the world.

JACK BERESFORD

New Edition Of "Kelly"

In 2008, Mystic Seaport published Daniel Boyne’s book Kelly: A Father, A Son, An American Quest, a rowing biography about Jack Kelly, Sr. and Jack Kelly, Jr. As I happened to be involved in the production at that time, yesterday I received an ‘advance copy’ of the book now when it will soon be published in a new edition. The 2012 soft cover (paperback) edition will be published by Lyons Press, which is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press in Connecticut, at a price of $16.95. Lyons Press has earlier published Boyne’s Essential Sculling (2000) and the soft cover edition of The Red Rose Crew (2005).

Not only is the new edition of Kelly smaller in format and has a lower price than the hard cover edition, of course, some minor corrections have also been made of earlier lapsus calami. Although, I really like the first edition, with its airy design and beautifully reproduced black & white photographs, the Lyons edition lays very nicely in your hand and the illustrations are equally gorgeously reproduced.

This is truly a book for all of you who are interested in rowing on the Schuylkill River, Olympic rowing, and rowing at the Henley Royal just after the Second World War. It is also a book for those of you who are fascinated by Irish-American history in the Philadelphia area, the sometimes estranged relationship between the English and the Irish - and the English and the Americans. Dan Boyne has managed to write a remarkable story about an Irish-American family whose members were all special characters, not only Olympic champions or a princess of Monaco.

To go to Lyons Press website, click here.

Paul Costello: The Triple Olympic Champion

Paul Costello, three-time Olympic Champion.

One of America’s most famous oarsmen is without doubt Jack Kelly Sr., father of Jack Kelly Jr., ‘Kell’, and actress turned princess, Grace Kelly. Kelly Sr., took altogether three Olympic gold medals, in the single sculls and double sculls in 1920, and again in the double sculls in 1924. His partner in the double was his cousin, Paul Costello. In the grand book about Kelly, Kelly: A Father, A Son, An American Quest (2009) author Dan Boyne writes about Costello:

“He was a dark-haired, dour-faced young man, with sloping eyebrows that made him look like he was always wincing. Unlike Kelly, Costello wasn’t always comfortable in the public eye, and most of the photographs taken of him were less than flattering. He had one of those sad, serious faces that had probably always made him look old, despite the fact that he was actually two years younger than Jack. […] In reality he was an amiable man with a generous heart, but his modesty prevented him from playing to the crowds as his cousin did. When reporters asked Costello how he would do during a race, or how he had done afterwards, his standard response was, ‘I let my oars do the talking.’”

In August 2009, a local newspaper in Philadelphia, The Fallser*, published under the header ‘East Falls Past’ a piece about the Olympic oarsman, Paul Costello, where he seemed to have opened up during an interview in 1983 by gerontologist Cherie Snyder. The article, which was some excerpts from the interview, states that Costello, then 89, “an East Falls native who rowed for Vesper Club, was understandably proud as he remembered his athletic achievements”. The article goes on:

When did you start rowing?
My early 20s. I started out like anybody else—a nobody. I won one race the first year. After that, it was rather discouraging to think you’re going to go back and try to win some more.

What happened?
The next year I won three or four. I was motivated terrifically by that. I had a beautiful physique built up from gymnastics and I had the right type of ego that I was going to win.

Was the 1920 Olympics your first?
1920 was in Antwerp. Jack (Kelly, Costello’s cousin) won the singles, and Jack and I won the doubles. In 1924 in Paris I won the doubles with Jack. I was scheduled for the singles the same day so I told Jack “I’m going to scratch it...We can always challenge the champion to rowing.”

Didn’t you also break the world record in single sculling—the 2000 meters?
I rowed a challenge race on the Schuylkill for 2000 meters (5/26/24). It went down as a world record. I won the Gold Cup – the (solid gold) cup was beautiful and was under strict bond. We drank champagne out of it. I had it a couple of days before it went in the vault. I am the only American athlete to win the gold three times and I could have made it four. Could have gone to California [1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles]; Kelly and I would have won out there. (Costello was the first person to win the gold in the same event – the double scull – at three consecutive Olympics).

Why didn’t you try for four?
I fell in love. I had to get some money together to get married. When you’re an athlete you don’t care.

What work did you do?
I was the leading Ford salesman in Philadelphia.

What made you win?
I shouldn’t say this but, as a competitive sport, rowing is one of the toughest. You’re rowing with all your body. You get a terrific amount of power from your legs. Naturally, your arms. Some people, I guess, they never really get the proper timing, they get discouraged and they stop.

It was a tremendous thrill. In the third Olympic (Amsterdam, 1928), we won as though we owned the canal. Charlie (McIlvaine) and I, weight-wise, were the lightest double. We heard the Canucks were hoping to get us in the finals so I said to Charlie: “When the gun goes off, we’re going up the line like as though we’re rowing 100 yards. We’re never going to be second. When we get out in front we’re going to stay there. That means we’re going to bang it all the way down. So we won the finals by 10 boat lengths. The Canadians were second.”

I fell in love with rowing. The Schuylkill River is one of the outstanding rivers to row on.

*Warm thanks to The Fallser newspaper for allowing HTBS to republish this article, which was first published in The Fallser, August, 2009.

Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 6 - The Poem

Here is part 6 and the final ‘chapter’ of Ben Spock’s letter to Rusty Wailes. I am uncertain if Spock is the actual author of the poem, or if that was someone else in the crew. After the poem, you will find all the previous installments, which form Spock’s 9-page letter.

ON THE OLD SEINE YESTERDAY
The Stars and Strips still swept the sky,
How could the old flag fail?
When far away there came the cry,
“Costello and Kelly and Yale!”

There came the dip of mighty oars,
And then with conquering hail
The shout goes up from well-lined shores,
“Costello and Kelly and Yale!”

When great Olympic heroes meet
To find the Holy Grail,
Let all the booming sagas greet
Costello and Kelly and Yale.

See also:
“Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 1 – Prelude”
“Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 2 – Comparisons”
“Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 3 – The Trials”
“Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 4 – In France”
“Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 5 – The Race”

Ben Spock’s letter is posted on HTBS with the permission of the NRF, which is the owner of the letter. Thank you NRF for making this letter available to the HTBS’s readers!

Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 5 - The Race

Here follows part 5 of Ben Spock’s letter to Rusty Wailes, from one ‘7’ to another. Spock, seven-seat in the Yale’s eight which took a gold medal at the Olympic rowing regatta in Paris, wrote to Wailes, the seven-seat man in the Yale crew, who was on their way to the Olympic of 1956. The bold text parts are Spock’s text, while the italicized text parts are my comments.

12. Race – The actual place for the race was some miles away from where we practiced. It was a very hot spell of weather in Paris that year and where the race was rowed the sewers emptied out and it was unpleasant. The other countries represented were Canada (whom we beat in the first heat and then qualified for the finals), Great Britain, Holland, Belgium, Argentina, Italy, Spain, France and Australia. At the time of the first heat we had good weather and established what was then a new Olympic record, the 5:51 and rowed part of the race at 29. On the day of the finals there was a hard headwind and our time was somewhat slower. The U.S.A. won the rowing events with a score of 33 and Switzerland was second with a score of 32. Among those participating in the race were Jack Kelly in the singles and Kelly and [his cousin Paul] Costello in the doubles. [Thereby, Kelly and Costello repeated their Olympic victory in the doubles from 1920; see below.]

13. General – Due to our separate locations we really had no chance to see anything of those from other countries. The French were annoyed because they asked us down for a champagne party two days before the race and we refused. For the three days that we were staying outside the stadium we had some interesting times. On one of the hottest days I can remember I saw Nurmi, the Finn [Paavo Nurmi was called 'the Flying Finn'], establish two world’s records in the 1,500 and 5,000 meter races within twenty-five minutes of each other. It was very interesting to watch the training for the various events. There was much more newspaper publicity over rowing than there is today. Both the New York Times and Herald-Tribune carried front page articles – and some poetry.

14. Schedules – We had quite a hectic time meeting the Olympic trials and we lost out on the trip with the Olympic teams and our training in Europe was very much like a continuation of Gales Ferry. On the other hand, the timing insofar as the actual Olympics was concerned worked out superbly with just the right amount of rest and change on the boat and just the right amount of time in Europe. While it had made a long season it was all concentrated and then over with. We were an extremely congenial group and although we broke up into various sized units there had been no difficulty whatever. For those of us who were seniors it had been a wonderful climax to college rowing because our sophomore year the Yale varsity was unquestionably the second slowest varsity eight in the east, the slowest being Harvard. Your difficulties of the long summer layoff and the interference with your plans for this year are very substantial. Your financing I am sure will be easier and fairer. I am sure the long summer layoff will be a difficulty. It is probably one which some of the European crews will not have faced.

15. Speed – Undoubtedly, there have been crews in the intervening 32 years which were faster than ours. This, however, cannot be proven. I must admit that our competition was not as keen in 1924 as it was in some subsequent Olympic years. In this intervening time there have been no substantial improvements in shell design, oars, riggers (except in rough water), etc. Unless my memory plays me false, this year’s Cornell crew had a style very much like ours and, of course, they showed themselves to be pretty competition on occasion. Having seen your crew a week ago, however, it does not disturb me in the least to say that you must be a faster crew. This enters the realm of axiomatic argument. You may not have 32 years at your disposal before you have to admit the same but I would think you would have a good many years when you could all secretly think it.

Let me urge all of you to extent that time permits to make a hobby of rowing.

See also:
"Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 1 - Prelude"
“Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 2 – Comparisons”
“Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 3 – The Trials”
“Ben Spock On 1924 Olympic Eight: Part 4 – In France”

Spock’s letter is posted on HTBS with the permission of the NRF, which is the owner of the letter! Ben Spock’s letter, Part 6, will continue tomorrow with the final part, a poem, “On the Old Seine Yesterday”.

Sport et Style: On Jack Kelly

A week ago, HTBS's special correspondent in France, Hélène Rémond, very kindly sent me a copy of the French magazine Sport & Style, the December issue. It just arrived and after I eagerly flipped through the pages I found the article, "Un Roman Américain" [An American Story] by Paul Miquel, (pp. 100-105). The article is about Jack Kelly, Sr., and Jack Kelly Jr., or "Kell" as he was also known. Miquel, who is basing his article on Daniel Boyne's book Kelly: A Father, A Son, an American Quest, which was published in America in 2008. Miquel draws parallels between the Kelly family and another "immigrant" family from Ireland, the Kennedys, calling the Kellys "des 'Kennedy du sport US' ". Boyne, who is briefly interviewed in the article, agrees that there were some similarities between the two families, although, of course Jack Kelly Sr.'s political career was only on a local level in Philadelphia. So all you readers living in France, Switzerland, and Belgium, or in a country where you will be able to get hold of the December issue of this beautiful magazine, Sport & Style, run and get your copy right away!

My warm thanks to Hélene for sending me a copy of the magazine and an English translation, which made it easier to read the article as my French is terribly 'rusty'.

The Famous Sculling Kellys

After several days of English rowing history, it might be time to throw in something about rowing across the pond. In this photograph, taken on 4 June 1935, famous oarsman Jack B. Kelly Sr., is shown giving instructions in the noble art of sculling to his son, Jack Kelly, Jr., or “Kell”. “Kell”, who was born in 1927, was 8 years old when this picture was shot. Daniel Boyne tells the story about this picture and the father’s and son’s outing on the Schuylkill River in his eminent book Kelly: A Father, A Son, An America Quest (2008).

Jack Kelly Sr., Olympic gold medalist in the single in 1920 and in the double in 1920 and 1924 (both years with his cousin Paul Costello) was never allowed to compete in the Diamonds at Henley Royal Regatta, but Jack Kelly Jr., would not only race in the Diamonds, he would actually win the cup twice, in 1947 and 1949; the latter year also becoming the European champion. He competed in four Olympic Games, in the single in 1948 London/Henley; 1952 Helsinki; 1956 Melbourne/Ballarat, and in the double in 1960 Rome. His bronze medal from November 1956, it is said, he gave to his sister Grace in a belated wedding gift as she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in April the same year.

The Kellys & Jack Beresford At Corbis

To continue on Tim's marvellous find, corbisimages.com I went through a lot of images searching both this and that. I found some great photographs of Jack Kelly, Sr., and Jack Kelly, Jr., ('Kell'), and some pics with the most beautiful member of their family, Grace Kelly. In one of her first stage performances, in the theatre programme there was more facts about her brother Kell's first victory in the Diamonds at Henley Royal Regatta 1947 than about her. (Well, that would change a couple of years later.)

The three famous Kellys, pic No. 1 No. 2

I found a few photographs of Kelly, Sr's British rival, my rowing hero, Jack Beresford, Jr., too. Here is one from 1925. To see the photograph, click here.

More Great Rowing Pictures

For some weeks now, I have been busy with research and writing pieces for the British magazine ROWING & REGATTA and the Swedish rowing magazine SVENSK RODD. Parallel to this I have begun a writing project that, actually, has nothing to do with rowing. It is too early to say how big of a task this is, and if I can pull it through, but thanks to Tim Koch in London, I still have something to post here on my blog.

True to his habit, Tim has found another wonderful photo archive, corbisimages.com which, he writes “is a commercial one, so I’m not sure about the legal issues of reproducing the pictures (though they all have spoilers).”

If you go to corbisimages.com and type in ‘rowing’ you get thousands of results, most not relevant to the sport, Tim writes. Some of these you might have seen for sale on eBay, but most of them are not. To be able to watch the pictures below you have to click on the underlined number.

Here are some of Tim’s favourites (with his captioning). Enjoy!

Nice crew picture 1890: No. 1

In place of a firm handshake 1920: No. 2

Wellesley Women 1922: No. 3

1950s sexist caption: No. 4

American coaches, big horns, great clothes: No. 5 No. 6 No. 7

Third class, smoking? (This is one of my favourites, too): No. 8

Wartime spirit: No. 9

Minnesota Boat Club: No. 10 No. 11

The history of African American rowing in the USA: No. 12

Interesting early women rowing: No. 13

Nothing is new: No. 14

Nice rowing kit: No 15

A good student: No. 16

Twelve years later: No. 17

Again, many, many thanks to Tim!

The Philadelphia Challenge Cup

At the 1920 Olympic rowing event, John “Jack” B. Kelly of Vesper Boat Club, Philadelphia, won the single scull race defeating Jack Beresford Jr., of Thames Rowing Club, London with one second. To celebrate the first American to take an Olympic gold medal in the single sculls, a group lead by J. Elliot Newlin, the Commodore of the Schuylkill Navy, raised $2,500 among the rowing community of Philadelphia to establish a prize, the Philadelphia Challenge Cup. The Schuylkill Navy wanted the Cup, which sometimes has also been referred to as the Philadelphia Gold Cup, to be regarded as the Amateur Single Sculling Championship of the World, and the first sculler being awarded the title was Jack Kelly.

For the years in between the Olympic single sculling races, the Schuylkill Navy would authorize a challenger to race the champion for the title. This happened in 1922, when Walter M. Hoover, of the Undine Barge Club, won a match race for the Cup in Philadelphia, overpowering Paul V. Costello of Vesper BC. Costello was Kelly’s cousin and they had won the gold in the double sculls in the 1920 Olympics (and they would do so again in 1924).

The year after, in 1923, W.E. Garrett Gilmore of the Bachelors Barge Club, beat Hoover, now of Duluth Boat Club, at Duluth, Michigan. Back on the Schuylkill River, on 26 May 1924, Costello defeated Gilmore in a race for the Cup. Later that year, at the Olympic rowing races at the Argenteuil, Paris on 17 July, Jack Beresford became the holder of the Cup by beating Gilmore in the final of the single sculls. The following year, on 13 July 1925, there was a challenge race on the River Thames between Putney and Hammersmith where Beresford successfully defended the Cup by easily overcoming Hoover.

By clicking on the following link, you will be able to watch one and a half minutes of this race on the Thames. Please click here.

Later in July 1925, Beresford returned the Cup to the Schuylkill Navy as he did not want to defend it. After that the world’s top scullers have been holders of the Philadelphia Challenge Cup, the last one being the Russian sculler Vladimir Ivanov in 1964. Thereafter, the Cup mysteriously disappeared, but was found in June 1996 in an antique store in Philadelphia. You can read the story about the Philadelphia Challenge Cup, its disappearing and re-surfacing, on the following link, please click here (there you will also find a list of all the holders of the Cup).

The photograph above, showing Beresford and Hoover, is from the Thomas E. Weil Collection of the National Rowing Foundation. It is now on display at the rowing exhibit "Let Her Run" at Mystic Seaport Museum. Below the photograph is Beresford's famous saying: "There is no disgrace in being beaten when you are trying to win."