File - Richard Rothrock

A
DIVING INTO HISTORY:
CELEBRITIES
&
SCANDAL AT
THE TOLEDO CLUB
POOL
10
FEBRUARY 2012
s you step out of the locker
room, you feel the cool of the tile
against your bare feet. There seems
a slight chill in the air. The thump
thump of a jogger on the running
track is heard overhead. But ahead
lies the pool, its blue-green surface
inviting you forward. Some mornings
a slight whiff of steam rises into the air.
You dip your toe in the water and the
temperature is warm, warmer than
you thought it would be. Not like
swimming in the bracing chill of the
Maumee River or whatever summer
camp lake your parents exiled you to
in your youth. The water feels more
like cool bath water: inviting you in.
So you slide yourself in; or jump.
The water envelops you and you
swiftly feel at home. You surface and
look around. The water feels warm
and welcoming. The pool has 5 lanes.
You start to swim; backstroke or
crawl or whatever stroke you find
most comfortable. It’s 25 yards long;
up and back 36 times equals a mile.
And as you swim, your thoughts
might begin to wander.
One can visit The Toledo Club many
times over and never venture into its
home in the athletic wing, but during
its first 10 years of operation, The
Toledo Club pool was the center of
the club’s social world. Some of the
world’s best divers and swimmers,
national and Olympic champions,
celebrities and movie stars have all
tested the waters in which you glide.
Some are famous, some infamous.
But they all are an illustrious part of
the history of our Club.
The Toledo Club pool opened in 1926,
as part of the athletic wing expansion.
While many jokes have been made
that the first leak was reported in 1927,
it quickly developed a reputation
for being a “fast” pool.
Getting a swimmer to define what
makes a pool fast turns out to be as
difficult as swimming the English
Channel, but a fast pool seems best
defined as one that makes a swimmer
feel fast. Temperature plays a factor,
as cooler water feels less thick. Lane
lines are also important, as the
proper ones cut down on the wave
action of the pool.
However it gets defined, The Toledo
Club pool was the “it” pool in
Northwest Ohio. On March 1, 1927,
the first national aquatic event ever
staged in Toledo took place at the
Club: the University of Michigan vs.
the Detroit Yacht Club. In what would
become a trend, tickets cost $1 and
that included dinner and dancing in
the Main Dining Room.
A year later, the Club hosted its first
Olympians as four U.S. women’s
champions graced the pool and
demonstrated their prowess: 14 yearold Eleanor Holm, the world individual
medley champion; “America’s Diving
Queen” Helen Meany; Agnes Geraghty,
world breaststroke champion, and
Martha Norelius, billed as the fastest
woman swimmer ever.
Hosting Olympic champions soon
became a common event at the Club.
Exhibitions normally ran about two
hours and were always followed by
the obligatory dinner and dance in
the Main Dining Room where the
swimmers mingled with the members.
Tickets continued to be $1 throughout the 1930s.
In 1931, champions Helene
Madison and Georgia Coleman
showed off their talents with Ms.
Madison attempting to break the
200-yard freestyle record. This was
not beyond the realm of possibility
as she set 16 world records in 1930-31.
“Queen Helene,” as she was known
in the press, went on to win 3 gold
medals in the 1932 Los Angeles
Summer Olympics.
Often the exhibitions featured
supporting appearances from some
of the Club’s junior members. A
1934 exhibition by Olympic diver
Katherine Rawls also featured two 4
year-old tots displaying their swimming abilities. Another 1934 exhibition headlined by diving champ
Dick Degner (“The Fred Astaire of
diving” and inventor of the full
layout) also featured the Detroit
Athletic Club’s 13-year-old girls
champ Halina Tomski taking on her
Toledo Club rivals.
Besides celebrity and Olympic
demonstrations, our pool regularly
hosted Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)
and National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) competitions.
continued on page 12
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The 1935 Women’s City Swimming
Championship was held here though
entry forms indicated that the Club
reserved “the right to reject any entry.”
Tickets were to be sold to “Toledo Club
members, parents and friends of the
contestants only.” A vibrant Toledo
Club Junior Boys swim team often
competed against their counterparts
at the Detroit Athletic Club.
Of all the illustrious people to jump
into our pool, three individuals
stand out:
JOHNNY WEISMULLER
is remembered today as the most
popular movie Tarzan ever. Debuting
in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Tarzan
the Ape Man (1932,) he introduced
the famous Tarzan yell, which he
credited to his training in yodeling.
Prior to putting on the loincloth, his
swimming record more than justified
his appearance at the Club. In a decade
of swimming, he never lost a race on
FEBRUARY 2012
his way to winning 52 U.S. championships and 5 Olympic gold medals.
Weissmuller appeared at The Toledo
Club on June 19, 1931, courtesy of
the Lasalle & Koch department store
as part of a national tour promoting
BVD swimwear.
ELEANOR HOLM – Probably
BUSTER CRABBE – Following
Eleanor had first leaped into the club
pool in 1928, when she was a teenager.
When she returned in 1936, she was a
22 year-old celebrity who had already
won gold in the backstroke event
at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.
Screen tests with major studios
followed and that same year she
was named a future star, along with
Ginger Rogers and Gloria Stuart.
in Weismuller’s wake, Hawaii-raised
Buster Crabbe amassed similar
swimming credentials (an NCAA
title and Olympic gold medal.) In
1932, he appeared at the Club as
part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club
Men’s team, along with national long
distance swimmer Tom Blankenburg
and the Hawaiian sprint swimmers
Miola and Manuella Kalili.
In the late 1930s, he also starred
as Tarzan in several movies before
branching off to play Flash Gordon
and Buck Rogers in Universal Studios’
classic Saturday morning serials.
the most infamous swimmer ever to
break the surface of our pool was
Eleanor Holm, who spent a decade
reigning as America’s premier female
aquatic star before an Olympic scandal
derailed her athletic career.
And yet, Eleanor already showed a
mischievous streak that drew the ire
of U.S. Olympic officials who often
viewed her behavior as unbecoming
for a lady and amateur athlete. In
1933, she married Art Jarrett, the
bandleader at Los Angeles’s
Cocoanut Grove nightclub, where
Eleanor enjoyed singing with the
band. Wearing just her white bathing
suit, high heels and a white cowboy
hat, she’d croon Johnny Mercer’s
“I’m An Old Cowhand From the Rio
Grande,“ not the demur feminine
image expected to be cultivated by
a U.S. Olympic athlete. Still, she
remained the world backstroke
champion and was expected to win
again at the 1936 Summer Olympics
in Berlin.
On March 27, 1936, she joined high
diver Elbert Root in a Toledo Club
demonstration in which she attempted
to set a world record in the pool,
followed by the usual dinner and
dance. No word on whether she took
a turn at the microphone.
That July, Eleanor sailed to Europe
with the U.S. Olympic team. While
crossing the Atlantic, chaperones
spotted her sipping champagne at a
cocktail party. When reminded that
it was past curfew, Eleanor retorted,
“Did you make the Olympic team or
did I?” Accounts vary as to what
happened next. Some claim champagne
was tossed in various faces. Others
claim the chaperones were drunker
than Ms. Holm. Either way, U.S.
Olympic head Avery Brundage took
a dim view of her attitude. He accused
her of “extreme alcoholism” and
kicked her off the team. Her teammates
lobbied on her behalf, but the officials
held firm. Eleanor was a spectator
in Berlin.
Her transgression pales in comparison
to today’s athletes but her misbehavior
made national headlines. The negative
publicity only made her more famous
In 1938, she played a Jane figure
in the movie Tarzan’s Revenge. The
next year she divorced Jarrett and
headlined Broadway producer Billy
Rose’s Aquacade water show at
the 1939 New York World’s Fair,
receiving top billing above Johnny
Weissmuller, Esther Williams, and
Buster Crabbe.
Soon afterwards, Rose divorced his
wife, Funny Girl Fanny Brice, and
married Eleanor instead. They divorced
too, in the 1950s. Eleanor was married
for a third time to an oil tycoon. She
always maintained that her Olympic
disqualification resulted mainly from
her turning down an unwanted
proposition from Mr. Brundage,
rather than excessive drinking.
When Holm and Crabbe and
Weismuller starred together in the
Aquacade, did they ever reminisce
about their times at The Toledo Club?
Of the glories of Northwest Ohio’s
fast pool? Of dinner and dancing?
Of champagne and cocktails? Or
the clink of glasses and crystalline
laughter? Time does not record these
facts, but I’d like to think they did
between stories of movies and music
and swimming.
So the next time you take a dip in
our pool and feel the desire to either
dive like Fred Astaire, belt out a Tarzan
yell, save the planet from Ming the
Merciless, or toss champagne in
someone’s face, you are merely
following in the path of past celebrity
guests at The Toledo Club pool.
Everybody in the water!
R
The author gratefully acknowledges Nathalie
Helm’s assistance with the club archives.
FEBRUARY 2012 13