The 1924 Olympics

Today's Graphical History Tour celebrates the Olympic Spirit by revisiting the Paris Olympics of July, 1924, the games best remembered as the setting for Chariots of Fire.

Basí (?), official program of 1924 Olympics

I haven't been able to identify the artist of the official program, so I'm doing my best to read the signature in the lower right corner. I also came up short in my hunt for work by the sports cartoonists of U.S. newspapers, which I had hoped to include today. 

But I did learn that competitions in the VIIIème Olympiade included art.  Luxembourg painter Jean Jacoby won a gold medal for his triptych Étude de Sport depicting young men competing in soccer, hurdles, and rugby. I've seen at least two of the paintings on line, but not how the three were meant to be displayed together.

There were also competitions in sculpture (Greek sculptor Konstantinos Dimitriadis won the gold for "Discobole Finlandais"), literature (France's Géo-Charles, a.k.a. Charles Louis Proper Guyot, won gold for his poem "Jeux Olympiques"), architecture, and music. The Olympic judges decided that none of the contestants merited medals for music, and awarded only silver and bronze medals for architecture.

"Mademoiselle Athène" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, August 17, 1924. Source: https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ 

Arthur Johnson's cartoon on the cover of Kladderadatsch is certainly a parody of the Olympiade program cover. Marianne, the traditional characterization of France, is cast as the Greek goddess Athena, with the American financier J.P. Morgan, widely resented in Germany, directing her aim.

Suffice it to say that the Germans and the French had some serious issues, and we'll get back to them again some other time. 

Over here in the States, the Paris Olympics were a pleasant diversion, even without wall-to-wall TV coverage.

"Good News" by Milton R. Halladay in Providence Journal, July, 1924

American medalists at the games included Johnny Weismuller (the future Tarzan actor), who won three gold medals in swimming and a bronze in water polo; and long jumper William DeHart Hubbard, the first Black American to win an Olympic gold medal for an individual event. Hubbard was not allowed to compete in the 100 meter dash and high hurdles competitions in spite of qualifying for them; those events were restricted to whites only.

"The Victor" by O.P. Williams for Star Company, ca. July 25, 1924

The U.S. led the medals count, taking home 94 in all, largely in field events.

Another such track and field winner was Harold Osborn, whose high jump stood as the Olympic record for twelve years.

"Aux Jeux Olympiques" in Le Petit Journal Illustré, July 20, 1924. Source: Bibliothèque National de Paris

Text: "Le Stade de Columbes vient d'enregistrer d'admirables performaces. Parmi les plus sensationnelles, on compte le record olympique du saut en hauteur qui a été battu de 4 centimètres par l'Americain Osborn. Cet athléte, en effet, franchit 1 mètre 98 dans un style impeccable. Cependant, il ne faut pas dédaigner le bel effort de notre représentant, le Francais Lewden. Bien qu'handicapé par sa petite taille, il parvint à franchir 1 mètre 95."

"Columbes Stadium has just recorded some admirable performances. Among the most sensational, we can count the Olympic record for the high jump which was beaten by 4 centimeters by the American Osborn. This athlete, in fact, cleared 1.98 meters [6'6"] in impeccable style. However, we must not disdain the fine effort of our representative, the Frenchman [Pierre] Lewden. Although handicapped by his small size, he managed to clear 1.95 meters."

Osborn also set a record in the 1924 Decathlon, with a score of 7,710.775 points earning him the title of "World's Greatest Athlete." The Petit Journal cover illustration doesn't look much like him; he had a big shock of sandy blond hair in a photograph taken at the games (and I assume he would have removed his glasses for the jump). The artist may have drawn the black-haired Lewden, who won the bronze, instead.

"Once Again" by Douglas Rodger in San Francisco Bulletin, August 18, 1924

18-year-old tennis phenom Helen Wills won Olympic gold in women's singles (over French player Julie Vlasto) without once losing a set along the way. With her coach Hazel Wightman, she also took gold in women's doubles (over British players Phyllis Covell and Kitty McKane).

Tennis was dropped as an Olympic sport in the 1928 Amsterdam games, not to return as a medal sport until the 1988 games in Seoul, South Korea. 

Douglas Rodger drew the above cartoon after Wills, a California native, won the U.S. Open Women's Tournament on August 16. She won 31 grand slam titles during her career, including 19 singles titles and a 180-match winning streak from 1927 to 1933, and remains among the greatest in her sport.

"The Olympiad" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, July 30, 1924

The games did not go off without controversy. The "Puliti Affair" centered on unsportsmanlike conduct by the Italian fencing team and provoked this cartoon by Arthur G. Racey. Mud drips from the laurel branch with the words "unsportsmanlike action" "vulgarity" "disorder" "jealousy" and "abuse." The cut line reads: "Why sacrifice the Olympic Games instead of regulating, or suppressing, the mud-throwing canaille who do not know what sportsmanship is?"

The namesake of the affair was the Italian fencer Oreste Puliti. The other fencers on the Italian team were accused of intentionally losing to him in order to inflate his score. Accounts differ: either Puliti physically attacked the Hungarian judge, György Kovács, who ruled that Puliti was disqualified from the finals match, or he merely threatened the judge. The rest of the Italian team withdrew in protest, singing the fascist Italian anthem as they left.

According to olympics.com, 

Two days later, when he saw Kovács again, Puliti punched him in the face and a formal duel was proposed. The two combatants met again four months later at Nagykanizsa in southwestern Hungary, near the current Serbian border. The duel lasted for an hour, at which time the two were stopped by spectators who were concerned about the many wounds the two had received. Puliti and Kovács then shook hands and honor was restored.

The gold in saber ultimately went to Hungarian Sándor Pósta; Hungarian fencers would dominate that Olympic category for decades to come. Roger Ducret of France took silver, and another Hungarian, János Garay (a Jew who would perish in a Nazi death camp), earned bronze. 

Rea C. Irvin, Life magazine cover, July 10, 1924

The 1924 Olympics closed on July 27, with ceremonies featuring the bugle corps of the French Republican Guard, and the awarding of all the medals won — including those from the Winter Games at Chamonix earlier in the year. 

"Less than half the nations which received awards for the performances of their athletes were personally represented," according to the reporter for the Washington Evening Star. "The ranks of the athletes and officials of all nations had been rapidly depleted last week, and it was a small band of survivors that marched into the stadium behind the flags of the victorious nations, most of which were borne, in the absence of their nationals, by French marines."