Pedestrianism : when watching people walk was America's favorite spectator sport / Matthew Algeo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Algeo, Matthew.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Walking--United States--History--19th century.

Walking.

Spectators--United States--History--19th century.

Spectators.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (276 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago, Illinois : Chicago Review Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Strange as it sounds, during the 1870's and 1880's, America's most popular spectator sport wasn't baseball, football, or horseracing-it was competitive walking. Inside sold-out arenas, competitors walked around dirt tracks almost nonstop for six straight days (never on Sunday), risking their health and sanity to see who could walk the farthest-more than 500 miles. These walking matches were as talked about as the weather, the details reported in newspapers and telegraphed to fans from coast to coast. This long-forgotten sport, known as pedestrianism, spawned America's first celebrity athlete

Contents:

Front Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Preface; 1 Wiskey in His Boots or He's the Man; 2 Walking Fever or Perhaps a Foreigner Could Do It; 3 The Expo or Not an Absorbingly Entrancing Sport; 4 Coca or Nature Should Not be Outraged; 5 Rematch or Not Silly Little Female Cigarettes Either; 6 The Astley Belt or More Talked About Than Constantinople; 7 Pedestriennes or Pioneers; 8 Terrible Blows or A Crackling Was Heard; 9 Comeback or A Game Old Ped; 10 Black Dan or A Dark Horse; 11 Anti-Pedestrianism or Bodily Exercise Profiteth Little; 12 The National Pastime or King of Harts

13 Hippodroming or The Suspicion Was Very General 14 Bicycles and Baseball or Too Free Use of Stimulants; Epilogue: The Last Pedestrians or Now About Everybody Rides; Acknowledgments; Chronology; Sources; Bibliography; Index; About the Author; Back Cover

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-61374-398-X