02965nam 2200517 450 991046368820332120200127212735.01-61374-398-X(CKB)2670000000530929(EBL)1643144(SSID)ssj0001132717(PQKBManifestationID)11627954(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001132717(PQKBWorkID)11155628(PQKB)10913832(MiAaPQ)EBC1643144(EXLCZ)99267000000053092920140314h20142014 uy 0engtxtccrPedestrianism when watching people walk was America's favorite spectator sport /Matthew AlgeoChicago, Illinois :Chicago Review Press,2014.©20141 online resource (276 p.)Description based upon print version of record.1-61374-397-1 Includes bibliographical references and index.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 Harts13 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 CoverStrange 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 athleteWalkingUnited StatesHistory19th centurySpectatorsUnited StatesHistory19th centuryElectronic books.WalkingHistorySpectatorsHistory820.90091Algeo Matthew867940MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910463688203321Pedestrianism1937547UNINA