WHEELS OF FORTUNE & FAME

The bicycle. It doesn’t make smoke, it doesn’t make smog and it never makes a bad picture. In the 1880′s the bicycle was young then; it antedated the automobile by only a few decades. it is hard to believe now, but bicycles bewitched America in the 1880′s and ’90′s. Everybody rode them. The League of American Wheelmen swelled to over 100,ooo members, intimidated legislatures, lobbied for better roads, free transport for bicycles on trains and steamboats, and equal rights with carriages, and paraded behind buglers blowing ”Boots and Saddles”. Then it was all over. The motorcar swept the land like the plague.

Marilyn Monroe as a svelter version of the late Lillian Russell, photographed by Richard Avedon in 1958. The bike is a famous gold-plated one given to Miss Russell by an admiring manufacturer.

Marilyn Monroe as a svelter version of the late Lillian Russell, photographed by Richard Avedon in 1958. The bike is a famous gold-plated one given to Miss Russell by an admiring manufacturer.

Bicycling has a long, eccentric history in which pride has gone steadily before a good many falls. Leaving aside a few crude ”hobbyhorses,” or aids to walking, the first real bicycle, that is, a two-wheeler propelled with both feet continuously off the ground, was built by the Scottish blacksmith, Kirkpatrick Macmillan, in 1839; its rear wheel was driven by treadles and levers. He soon knocked down a child with it, paid a five shilling fine, and fades from history.

Getty Images. This dapper type won first prize in the New York Evening Telegram Cycle Parade in 1896. The reason, according to Grace M. Mayer in her book ''Once Upon a City'' : his costume, he made it himself, and all in one piece.

Getty Images. This dapper type won first prize in the New York Evening Telegram Cycle Parade in 1896. The reason, according to Grace M. Mayer in her book ''Once Upon a City'' : his costume, he made it himself, and all in one piece.


In Paris about 1862, one Pierre Michaux, who never heard of Macmillan, devised the pedal and thus what became the boneshaker. France built him a large memorial. America’s great contribution was ”Mile-a-Minute” Murphy, who made his mile in 57 4/5 seconds on June 30,1899, riding on a board path laid between the Long Island Railroad tracks and behind a special car used as a windbreak.


1965. Paris. Look Mao no hands! The bicycle got to China in 1900. getty images

1965. Paris. Look Mao no hands! The bicycle got to China in 1900. getty images

When the bicycle appeared in the Orient, the local artists were carried away by the beauty of it all. In the China of Mao, everything had to be he ”great leap forward” . As to bicycling itself under Mao, official pamphlets observed that ‘, the art now blooms again because the government is kind to it” . Certainly, no one could accuse anyone in the U.S. and Canada during this time of this particular Communist tendency, for the bicycle languished.

''Competitive roller racing, which was commonly held from the 1880s-1920s, was to be revived in Lancaster last winter but the planned competition was cancelled.  Local race promoter Rich Ruoff, of All that is Good cycling, is trying again in conjunction with other promoters in Allentown, Doylestown, Princeton, N.J. and New York City. There will be a series of eight regional roller races, with winners competing in a final competition in New York on Saturday, March 6.''

''Competitive roller racing, which was commonly held from the 1880s-1920s, was to be revived in Lancaster last winter but the planned competition was cancelled. Local race promoter Rich Ruoff, of All that is Good cycling, is trying again in conjunction with other promoters in Allentown, Doylestown, Princeton, N.J. and New York City. There will be a series of eight regional roller races, with winners competing in a final competition in New York on Saturday, March 6.''

In a letter to his son, Einstein wrote:  “Life is like a bicycle, to keep your balance your must keep on moving.”

In a letter to his son, Einstein wrote: “Life is like a bicycle, to keep your balance your must keep on moving.”

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2 Responses to WHEELS OF FORTUNE & FAME

  1. Marìa says:

    Very good article, gorgeus photos and video; bicycles have helped to impress girls and win their hearts; excellent transportation means now in vogue again, have heard are being mass produced in this very moment.

    Katharine Ross, the actress in the video, the same young actress of The Graduate, dissappeared from films since very young.

    • Dave says:

      thanks for reading. Article was a bit short, but otherwise pretty good. the video was great. its funny, but those basic bikes can be made extremely cheaply.

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