Mystery Friday Foto #30 Solved : Five officials at the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race
Did you identify this weekend's Mystery Foto?
Answers to the Mystery Foto questions:
Identify
- The five officials (yes, there are 5) and their official positions (from left to right)
Fred J. Wagner (starter), Willie K. (referee), Reginald Vanderbilt (assistant referee), A.G. Batchelor (commissioner), Jefferson De Mont Thompson (chairman, Vanderbilt Cup Commission)
- The date of the photo and the Vanderbilt Cup Race
October 6, 1906-The 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race
- The location of the photo
View looking west, Jericho Turnpike, Westbury
- Kudos- Which official did Jackie Gleason parody?
Reginald Van Gleason III
Comments (2)
Congrats and kudos to Corey Geske for solving this weekend's Mystery Foto.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Close-Up
Reginald Van Gleason III- Reginald Van Gleason III and his Flea Circus
From: jackiegleason.com
He's rude. He's debonair. He's arrogant. He's the one and only Reginald Van Gleason III. This character is so powerful and hilarious that he still resonates with today’s comics and actors. No matter what the predicament, you can rest assured that he will be sardonically irreverent and completely unpredictable. Never shying away from an insult or his favorite “booze,” Reggie Van Gleason III also happened to be Jackie’s personal favorite character.
Comments
Here’s my best identification, based on VCR blogs—Photo from the October 6, 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race, with the Grandstand on Jericho Turnpike in Westbury, LI, NY, where this photo was taken.
(1) Far Left: Fred J. Wagner, Starter (although it doesn’t look a lot like Fred, the VCR site says it is at https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/the_residence_of_the_starter_of_five_vanderbilt_cup_races_rediscovered_in_s);
(2) William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., Referee;
(3) (his cousin) Reginald Vanderbilt, Associate Referee (?) unlisted in 1906 Program, grandfather of CNN’s Anderson Cooper and inspiration for Jackie Gleason’s “Reginald Van Gleason III;”
(4) A.G. Batchelder (?), Vanderbilt Cup Commission (also AAA Racing Board);
(5) Far Right, with binoculars: Col. Jefferson De Mont Thompson, Chairman of the Vanderbilt Cup Commission.
Left to right could be Louis Chevrolet?; Willie K. Vanderbilt, Jr., referee; Reginald Vanderbilt (Willie K.’ s cousin and assistant referee); Elliot Shepherd?; Jefferson DeMont Thompson, Chairman of The Vanderbilt Cup Commission and Chairman of The AAA Racing Board. Photo was taken on October 6, 1906 on Jericho Turnpike in Westbury at the grandstand for the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race. Jackie Gleason based his character “Reginald Van Gleason III on Reginald Vanderbilt.
An interesting aside, Jackie Gleason tried unsuccessfully to buy the Blueblinds estate just north of where Fred Wagner had lived in his home, designed in 1912 by Gustav Stickley, a leader of the America’s Arts and Crafts Movement. I’ve attached a map posted on VCR by Art Kleiner (at the link in my first comment here) showing the location of Wagner’s home (blue arrow), and added the green arrow showing the location of Blueblinds on Edgewood Avenue. It’s the present-day Elks Lodge, which was an addition to the original house now gone. Today’s structure was built by Eila and Robert Tittle McKee in 1929 as their in-home ‘art gallery’ that could be shared with the public while they initiated their North Shore revival of the Arts and Crafts Movement. They planned to bring their family art collection to all the people of the area, while encouraging people of all ages to develop cottage industries in the arts by entering their work in annual competitions at Blueblinds (the McKee collection became the Haggin Museum of Art in California. Gleason tried to buy the property after the 1940s McKee and subsequent 1950s sales—