1957 Providence Rhode Island Motorcyclist Walt Brown - 3-Page Vintage Article for Sale

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1957 Providence Rhode Island Motorcyclist Walt Brown - 3-Page Vintage Article For Sale

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1957 Providence Rhode Island Motorcyclist Walt Brown - 3-Page Vintage Article:
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1957 Providence Rhode Island Motorcyclist Walt Brown - 3-Page Vintage Article
Original, Vintage Magazine ArticlePage Size: Approx. 9\" x 12\" (22.5 cm x 30 cm) each pageCondition: Good
Walt BrownPersonalitiesIn Our SportOver THE YEARS we have interviewed a lot of fine people in differentsports and when we were given the assignment by the management ofAmerican Motorcycling to do a series of articles on prominent indi-viduals in the sport of motorcycling, we, frankly were rather skeptical. Ourfears were unfounded as in no sport have we found so many swell fellowsas has been our lot in working on these various research adventures. Wehave never seen such enthusiasm or real down to earth men who have madethis sport their career and the next \"Personality in Our Sport\" is a realguy, personality plus and a credit to his chosen field of endeavor. WaltBrown of Providence, R. I., and lately of Nutley, N. J.His first motorcycle was in 1926, a 1919 Pope, twin cylinder model.Can’t say that it was the first machine he rode .as he had to push it mostof the time, because it would not start. The previous owner had brokenhis foot on the kick starter and had evidently broken off the kick starterwith a heavy hammer in a fit of anger. His first highway job was a 1925Indian Scout and the bug had really bitten to a point where in 1928 hestarted a back yard repair shop in his Dad’s barn and in a few months hehad five machines of his own including an Ace, Harley-Davidson, Excellsior,Indian and a Pope. This was a start in a field that would take him intoevery phase of motorcycling; tuning motors, road testing, engineering andeven sales. Like all motorcycle enthusiasts, he had to compete in everythingthat came along. He just had to ride and enjoy that something that comesonly to a real motorcycle rider.In 1929, 30, and 31, he played motorcycle polo on the Rhode IslandRamblers team, composed of his brother Hank, Al Arnold, Babe Tancredeand Jimmy Lang. What an outfit to ride against! This gang of roughriders won the N.E. championship two years in a row.In 1931 he took up hill climbing and won his first event at NorthAndover, Mass, on Chick Remington’s old 80 Harley-Davidson. The prize,a trophy! Walt observed that in those days, one didn’t win much moneyand the fellows rode for the sport.After a few years, he felt he was good enough to get into some of theJimmy Hill, Ed Kretz and Walt Brown at Lang-horne in 1947 after Kretz had won the mainevent.Brown at Langhorne in 1939big AMA events. He rode in the first 200-miler at Savannah,Ga., later to be transferred to Daytona Beach.In 1933, he won a 200-mile race on the mile track atReadville, Mass. He won SI00.00 prize money and spent mostof it before he got home, treating the boys who helped him win.In 1938, he finished seventh in the 200-miler at Laconia, N. H.This was the only 200-miler at Laconia and was won by EdKretz. In 1939 he finished fourth at Laconia and was justbeaten out for third place by Johnny Hostetter, now head of afinance company in Washington, D. C.In 1937, \"Red” Armstrong got him a job with Indian as aroad tester. In 1937, 38 and 39, he rode all of the new ex-perimental models, riding thousands of miles, day in and dayout, rain or shine. He did such a good job that the late JoeHosley, the President of Indian, put him in charge of the RoadTest Department and late in 1939 was sent to Camp Hollabirdto supervise testing of Indian military motorcycles. In 1942, hewas sent to a desert test camp, Camp Seeley at El Centro, Calif.,where he represented the Indian Engineering Department in theArmy. After six months in the desert, he went to Fort Knox,Ky., where they were testing Indian and Harley-Davidson shaft-drive machines. John Harley was a Lieutenant in charge of amotorcycle school. For almost three years, he instructed soldiersto ride and service motorcycles in all of the big Army camps.After the war, he returned to the Indian factory as ServiceManager and also had charge of competition activities and underhis guiding hand came Johnny Spiegelhoff, Floyd Emdee, EdKretz, and others. Later came Bill Tuman, Bobby Hill andDick Klamfoth. In 1952 and 1953 he was placed in charge ofdevelopment and was in charge of production when the lastIndian motorcycles were manufactured in this country. In 1954,Ted Hodgdon, who had been with Indian during the earlythirties took over the distributorship of BSA for east and middlewest and one of his first organization steps was to grab WaltBrown for his service manager.There is the background of a motorcycle career that hasendured for thirty years—thirty years of making friends andkeeping them.Getting Walt to talk was a problem, but we finally got thismuch out of him:\"Earle \'Red’ Armstrong, Al Arnold, Frank Long, Hap Alzina,E. C. Smith and Ted Hodgdon are only a few of the many finepeople who have made it possible for me to get started, pro-gress and continue in a combination of business and sport whichI feel has no equal in America or any other country. The AMAhas done a wonderful job of building the sport and keepingthe motorcycle road riders and competition riders organizedand certainly has given the fans plenty of motorcycle activitiesto attend each year.\"I am proud and happy to be on the AMA Technical andCompetition Committees because (See PERSONALITIES, page 40)During the late 30’s Walt spent his time testing experimentalmodels for Indian. This was taken on the highway betweenHoltville, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz.Walt tries the hill on one wheel during a climb at DiamondHill, R. I. in 1937.An old Indian flat head entered in the 1956 Daytona 200 bringsback many memories for Walt Brown. The machine ridden byClaud Mook (extreme right) finished the race in 18th place.Walt Brown of Indian. Otto Wolfer of Firestone, Martin Riggsof Goodyear, and Bonneau of Harley-Davidson making testsduring the development of desert motorcycle tires....14609-5712-23