The Lengths Some Will Go to Sell a Paper
Long before reality TV or even 1963’s It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World about a race to find a treasure, three New York newspapers created a globe-trotting event that would capture their readers’ attention. In September 1936, reporters from three competing papers left their newsrooms and began a race around the globe. They had no private jets, no film crews, and no immunity challenges. They had tickets, deadlines, and the determination to get back to New York ahead of their competitors.
Today’s Trivia Question
Why did rivals dispute Elkins’s win under passenger rules?
(pick one to reveal the answer)
Bonus if you know just how long it took the fastest reporter to make it all of the way around the world.
| A Few More for Fun… |
The original concept behind the contest included reporters circling the globe using only ordinary transportation readily available to standard paying passengers. The first controversy arose from Elkins getting a bit creative with the word “ordinary.”
Joining at the last minute, 23-year-old Dorothy Kilgallen (of the New York Evening Journal) hadn’t had time to make reservations like her fellow competitors. What did her newspaper do to help her find seats along the way?
(pick one to reveal the answer)
Crossing the International Date Line, Kilgallen wrote about an event she experienced between Wake Island and Midway. What was it?
(pick one to reveal the answer)
| A Few More Trivia Questions Before You Go… |
This race involved a doomed airship, the International Date Line, and even a bit of Hollywood.
Science
History
What was the name of the earlier female journalist who had raced around the globe in 1889-1890 and done it in 72 days?
(pick one to reveal the answer)
Movies
Kilgallen’s round-the-world adventure helped inspire which 1937 movie about the reporter named Torchy Blane?
(pick one to reveal the answer)
Answers
| TODAY’S QUESTIONAnswer: B. He joined a Pan Am flight before regular passenger service had begun. Elkins traveled across part of the Pacific route by serving as a crew member on a Pan Am flight before that service officially welcomed traditional passengers. This prompted The New York Times to later claim that its reporter, Leo Kieran, had followed the rules much more closely. Even then, contestants battled about the rules of the race, and some faced harder challenges than others. | |
| 01 | Answer: B. Asked travelers to give up their reservations to her. Widely read, the Evening Journal published a plea asking Americans traveling abroad in Asia and Europe to surrender their seats if Kilgallen needed one. She then ran into some unusual issues with her calendar… |
| 02 | Answer: B. She left on Thursday and arrived on Wednesday. By crossing the International Date Line eastward, the calendar page moves back a day. She had traveled so far, and so fast, she arrived yesterday! |
| 03 | Answer: B. Hydrogen. The Hindenburg had gas cells full of hydrogen, which offered excellent “lift,” but which was also incredibly combustible. The year after the race, the airship was destroyed by a fire at the same spot the race had set out. Although it had been the epitome of glamour and modern transportation at the beginning of the journey, history had other plans. |
| 04 | Answer: A. Nellie Bly. Inspired by Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, Bly had left such a lingering impression that more than forty years later, Kilgallen was being called the modern-day Nellie Bly, even if she beat Bly’s record by more than a month! |
| 05 | Answer: B. Fly Away Baby. The American Film Institute credited Kilgallen with the idea, adding that contemporary sources connected the movie to her race around the globe. So, without cameras, a million-dollar prize, or even a dramatic host waiting at the finish line, the three newspaper reporters captured the headlines and imaginations of millions. Turns out reality TV was the one late to the game! |
|
How did you do?
Score 1 point for each correct answer and 1 point for the bonus if you knew it. Perfect score: 7.
|
