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Avery Brundage – the Man Who Would Be King

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Avery Brundage – the Man Who Would Be King Avery Brundage – The Man Who Would Be King By Anthony J. Wall Avery Brundage hardworking newspaper boy who made good.1 A strong wearing the man and exceptional athlete, Brundage was also blessed US Olympic uniform with sharp intelligence and became an athlete­scholar in 1912. At the in the classic mold. Garnering an engineering degree at Stockholm Olympics the University of Illinois, he went on to represent the USA he came sixth in the in the pentathlon and decathlon in the 1912 Olympics, pentathlon, but after competing against the legendary Jim Thorpe.2 the disqualification Brundage was not only smart and athletic, but was of Jim Thorpe he also a striver. He pursued wealth throughout his life. moved up a place. Contrary to the standards to which he later would hold In the decathlon he Olympic athletes, the young Brundage actively sought was so disappointed to parlay his athletic achievements into wealth. Using by his performances his notoriety as an Olympic athlete to gain financing,3 that he did not start Brundage built a respectable fortune in the rough­and– in the final event the tumble Chicago construction industry during the boom 1500 m. As a result years of the 1920s.4 He solidified his new­found wealth he was not ranked. and social status by marrying a wealthy Chicago socialite, Elizabeth Dunlap, in 1927. Capitalizing on his Olympic, Photo: Avery Brundage Collection business and social achievements, in 1929 he secured the prestigious presidency of the American Olympic Committee (AOC).5 As quickly as Brundage’s construction business grew in the boom years of the Twenties, it just as quickly went bust with the Great Crash of 1929. He found himself back in the penniless status of his youth.6 But resourceful as always, Brundage again used his notoriety as a sportsman, AOC connections and creative financing to aggressively enter the hotel and real estate market, opportunistically buying foreclosed properties at Depression Era prices.7 He rebuilt his lost fortune, though the roller­coaster ride would not be over before he died. In the annals of Olympic history, much has been written about Avery Brundage, the long­time President of the Brundage’s ascent to Olympus International Olympic Committee (IOC). He was perhaps best known for holding Olympic athletes to a strict Brundage was not satisfied with merely being a wealthy standard of amateurism, a rule now long abandoned. Midwestern American businessman. The burly former His insistence that Olympians receive no material newspaper boy yearned to enhance his class standing benefits and endure Spartan living conditions while and personal prestige. Brundage once remarked to they pursue their Olympic careers was in sharp contrast to how Brundage himself lived his life. Starting from Anthony J. Wall | is a executive and general counsel of a modest background, Brundage not only ardently The Walking Company Holdings, Inc. (“TWCH”) based in Santa pursued wealth and luxury throughout his life, but also Barbara, California. TWCH is the parent of a group of companies engaged in the manufacture and sale of footwear and apparel the trappings of royalty. throughout the United States and in certain foreign countries. Avery Brundage was born to humble circumstances He lives in Montecito, California. in Detroit, Michigan in 1887. He was the proverbial 18 JOH 2.18_[1-80]_RZ.indd 18 04.07.18 15:37 an associate, in jest the associate thought, that his such criticism by praising the Nazi regime at a Madison ambition was to marry a princess.8 There was no better Square rally.12 In thanks, Nazi authorities sent Brundage opportunity for Brundage to hobnob with blue­blooded a letter recognising his pro­Nazi sympathies, and his royals than to move up from the U.S. Olympic Committee construction company later was awarded a contract to to the IOC. The members of the IOC then included Prince build the German Embassy in Washington, D.C.13 Axel of Denmark, Comte Albert Gautier Vignal of Monaco, To show the Berlin Olympics as a Aryan race triumph, and Baron A. Schimmelpennick von der Oye of the the Nazis hired filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, fresh from Netherlands.9 making the notorious Triumph of the Will glorifying the Brundage’s courting of aristocracy was regarded as “Nuremberg rallies”, to make a film of the Berlin Olympics. sometimes embarrassingly obvious.10 But he was man Her OLYMPIA was released in 1938, by which time events who got what he wanted and, embarrassing or not, his like so­called Kristallnacht left little doubt about the ardent pursuit of royals paid off when in 1936 he was Nazi’s Jewish agenda. With its slow­pan shots of Hitler elected to the IOC. Brundage had also by this time begun and smiling Berlin crowds proudly giving Nazi salutes, to use his now­considerable wealth to build a serious art American movie theaters refused to show OLYMPIA. collection, a hallmark of any aspiring aristocrat. Shrugging off growing anti­Nazi sentiments in the USA, No sooner had Avery Brundage ascended the Brundage breathlessly praised the propaganda film and peaks of fi nancial and social prestige than, in almost­­ even organised private screenings at his own expense.14 Shakes pearian fashion, cracks would begin to show in the great man. The dark whispers about Brundage A Chicago businessman in California had always been that he was an anti­Semite and Nazi sympathizer. There is unfortunately much evidence to After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and WWII support those accusations. followed, property values in the West Coast areas of After the Nazis assumed power in Germany in 1933, the United States plunged, as fears of a sea invasion by calls arose in the US for a boycott of the upcoming 1936 the Japanese and other economic concerns spread.15 Olympics in Berlin. Brundage brusquely dismissed Brundage began buying California coastal properties such concerns as the work of “a Jewish/communist at depressed prices.16 He chose the pretty coastal town conspiracy.” However, when Germany then began of Santa Barbara, California as his focus, particularly its holding the Nazi version of Woodstock at its extravagant wealthy enclave of Montecito. “Nuremberg rallies,” it became obvious to many that the Berlin Olympics would be used as a propaganda tool to celebrate the “Master Race.” Spurring the calls for a US boycott were reports that Jews would not be allowed to compete in Berlin. To head­off the boycott threat, Brundage assured US officials that he had pressured the Nazis officials into dropping their exclusionary policy. He had successfully averted the boycott, but allegations later arose that Brundage had done so by cutting a backroom deal with the Nazis, at the expense of Jewish athletes. The only Jews on the 1936 US Olympic track team were Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller. To show there would be no exclusion, Glickman and Stoller traveled with the US team to Berlin. Their race was the 400­metre relay, which was to be run in Berlin Stadium on a day Adolf Hitler happened to be attending. However, on the morning of the relay, when it was then too late to re­ignite a boycott threat, US officials without warning removed Glickman and Stoller from the relay team, denying them the gold medals their team would go on to win. Glickman would later attribute the decision to pressure from Brundage.11 After the Berlin Games, many in the USA were disgusted that Hitler had been allowed to debase the Olympics by making them a political showcase for the Nazis. Brundage – the building speculator: a company brochure. His organisa- Upon returning to the US, Brundage sought to counter tion helped change the skyline of Chicago. Photo: Avery Brundage Collection JOH 2 | 2018 Avery Brundage – The Man Who Would Be King 19 JOH 2.18_[1-80]_RZ.indd 19 04.07.18 15:37 sentiment as always, Brundage pushed through a re­ admission by the IOC of South Africa for the upcoming 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Widespread protests ensued. Déjà vu of 1936 and Berlin, the now 80­year­ old Brundage found himself again fighting calls for a boycott of the Olympics, this time by black US athletes. While Brundage had been able to work skillfully behind the scenes in 1936, the “King of the Olympics” was now put front­and­center in the 1968 controversy. Black US civil rights leaders and black­owned magazines like Ebony went after Brundage personally, publicly exposing that he owned a business that excluded Jews and African­Americans, the Montecito Country Club.19 Such exclusionary policies unfortunately were not rare in the US social venues when Brundage bought the Club in the 1940s. However, under Brundage’s ownership, the Montecito Country Club was seen as maintaining its racist walls long At the 1932 Olympics In 1946 he purchased a large property there called after many other private clubs had torn theirs down.20 in Los Angeles Avery Escondrijo (the Hidden Place) and built a lavish estate Publicly branded a racist and hypocrite in the press, Brundage took part he would rename La Piñeta (the Pines). Brundage filled Brundage reluctantly yielded to disinviting South Africa in the art competi- the Spanish­style mansion with his by­then­extensive from the ‘68 Games. However, this public humiliation tions. He was award- Asian art collection. The estate’s formal gardens were apparently did not embarrass him enough to open up ed an “Honorable regarded as spectacular, with manicured hedges, the Montecito Country Club to Jews or blacks. Mention” and walkways, pools, a fountain and sculptures.17 Following Brundage’s cave on South Africa, almost received a diploma Brundage used La Piñeta not only for social all black athletes on the US Olympic team would go to for his piece entertainment of IOC blue bloods, but also as a base Mexico City.
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