Olympic Games
In Berlin's huge Olympic Stadium, packed by 110,000 spectators, Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler stopped chatting with his good friend Cinemactress Leni Riefenstahl, official Olympic photographer, long enough to discharge last week his sole function at the XIth Olympic Games. Said he: "I proclaim open the Olympic Games of Berlin, celebrating the XIth Olympiad of the modern era." Trumpets sounded across the arena. On a flagpole, the Olympic Flag--white with five interlocking circles representing the five continents--was slowly raised. Outside the stadium, guns boomed. Atop the staircase at the East gate appeared the last runner of the 3,000 who had relayed the Olympic Flame from Olympia in Greece. He scampered down the steps, paddled across the arena, trotted up the west stairs to a platform, dipped his torch. The Olympic Fire flared up from its bowl and the Games were under way.
Parade. First item on the program was the parade. The Olympic Bell tolled and into the stadium marched 5,000 athletes. Leading, because their country started the Olympic Games in 776 B. C., were the Greeks. Next, at the head of the German alphabetical list were the Egyptians. Loudest applause went to Austrians who gave the Nazi salute, to goose-stepping Bulgarians, to a Swiss flag-bearer who did juggling tricks. English athletes got few cheers. Next to last, the U. S. team members saluted Realmleader Hitler by placing their straw hats over their hearts. The crowd shouted, whistled, clapped in unison. The noise was soon drowned by the ovation for the German team which, as host, entered the arena last of all. When all the athletes had lined up neatly on the green infield, Dr. Theodor Lewald, head of the German Organizing Committee, made a 20-minute speech to introduce Herr Hitler, who, dressed in a brown uniform, had arrived an hour before.
Oath. After the ceremony of the Olympic Torch came the Olympic Oath. Gnarled old Spiridon Loues, Greek marathon runner who won the Olympic race in 1896, wobbled out of the ranks to present Herr Hitler with an olive branch. The 50 flag-bearers formed a semicircle in front of the reviewing stand. German Weightlifter Rudolf Ismayr mounted a tiny rostrum, recited through amplifiers so everyone could hear: "We swear that we will take part in the Olympic Games in loyal competition, respecting the regulations which govern them and desirous of participating in them in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the honor of our country and the glory of sport." A German choir sang Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, the athletes marched slowly out.
Biggest and noisiest in history, the 1936 Olympics were scheduled to last for 16 days. Five thousand athletes from 50 countries will compete in 22 sports, watched by 3,500,000 spectators, recorded by 1,500 reporters. To accommodate all this, Berlin, cheated of the 1916 Olympics by the War, spent $24,000,000 on municipal improvements; a 325-acre Reichssportfeld including four stadiums, an outdoor theatre, basketball courts, pools, a polo field, a gymnasium; and an Olympic Village conveniently close to Staaken Airport which can use it for barracks when the Games are over.
Relay. Last week's opening ceremonies were the last stage in a concentrated year-long ballyhoo which made the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, loudest previous sports event in history, seem, by comparison, as quiet as a race between two trained fleas around the brim of a felt hat. Climax was the Torch Relay from Olympia to Berlin which started fortnight ago, after the sun's rays had been used to kindle a fire in the ruins of the Temple of Zeus. At Paracin, Yugoslavia, last week, the flame went out when a runner got a defective torch which burned only two minutes. Faced with the absurd prospect of continuing the Torch Relay without a torch, he scrambled quickly into an automobile, rode on to the next relay point. Re-lit, the flame crossed the Hungarian border at 6 a. m., reached Budapest in the evening. Next day, its progress through Austria was the occasion for a great Austrian Nazi demonstration (see p. 24). At Prague, Czechoslovakian President Eduard ("Europe's Smartest Little Statesman") Benes found in a change of runners the theme for a speech about Olympic Ideals and World Peace. Scrupulously photographed during its progress by members of the staff of 150 cameramen who are helping Cinemactress Riefenstahl make a prodigious Olympic Film to be released next year, the torch crossed the German border at the village of Hellendorf in Saxony. At noon on the opening day of the Games it reached Berlin.
While the ceremonious procession of the Torch Relay made big news in Europe, it was overshadowed in the U. S. Press last week by other doings in Berlin. Unwilling to permit the approach of the Olympic Games themselves to dampen their enthusiasm, U. S. athletes and their keepers continued to behave as unpredictably as ever.
Royalty. Ruled off the U. S. swimming team for drinking last fortnight, Eleanor Holm Jarrett last week went for a sight-seeing stroll with a friend, met onetime Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor August Ernst at Netherlands Palace. Their chat in English: Prince: Is that the famous swimmer? ... I have heard so much about you.
Swimmer: Gee, I just can't grasp that I'm in a palace talking to royalty. Why Prince, you're so human--just like we other folks. I never thought you looked so young or could act so natural. I came into this room trembling all over. You made me feel at home immediately.
Won't I high-hat those other Olympic girls! I'll tell them: "You just go on and do your swimming. You can win the gold medals. I'm meanwhile being received by royalty."
Prince: You certainly know how to take life from the bright side. . . .
Swimmer: . . . Now I'm here seeing all these nice paintings of your father and your mother and your ancestors, I quite forget all about the Olympics. Why, Your Royal Highness, you ought to go into the movies. You have an ideal face for pictures.
Prince (to Mrs. Jarrett's escort): Die junge Frau ist zu komisch.
Two days later in an article about the Olympics for Hearst's International News Service, Swimmer Jarrett reported that the onetime Crown Prince had sent her flowers. In New York, her husband, Crooner Art Jarrett, suddenly took ship for Germany.
Sex. Firm-chinned Chairman Avery Brundage of the U. S. Olympic Committee got himself into the spotlight by putting Mrs. Jarrett off the U. S. team last fortnight. Last week busy Mr. Brundage had equally momentous things to deal with. First he read the Press a telegram from one Gregory Vigeant Jr. of Kansas City, which said: "Mrs. Jarrett's example to young Americans is deplorable." Next he announced that two boxers, Joe Church and Negro Howell King, had been dismissed from the team for "homesickness"' because "homesickness is a contagious disease." Finally, as a grand climax, he was elected to the International Olympic Committee to replace New Orleans' Ernest Lee Jahncke, onetime (1929-33) U. S. Assistant Secretary of the Navy, who had loudly objected last autumn to sending a U. S. Olympic team to Nazi Germany.
Next day International Olympic Committeeman Brundage, at his first Committee meeting, roundly recommended that all women athletes entered in the Olympics be subjected to a thorough physical examination to make sure they were really 100% female. Reason: two athletes who recently competed in European track events as women were later transformed into men by sex operations.
Tokyo. Bidders for the 1940 Olympic Games were Italy, Japan, Great Britain and Finland. Last week, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1940 Games to Japan. Stocks on the Tokyo Exchange immediately zoomed. The municipality announced that it would start work promptly on a $3,000,000 plant, including a 120,000-seat stadium.
Games. Wildly excited crowds watched four track & field events run off the first two days. Winners: U. S. Negro Jesse Owens (100-metre dash); U. S. Negro Cornelius Johnson (high jump); Germany's Hans Woellke (shot put); Finland's Ilmari Salminen (10,000-metre run).
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