Post by Sue on Nov 17, 2023 15:06:08 GMT -5
Harry Benson is a world-renowned photographer famous for his iconic photographs of the Beatles, chess professional Bobby Fischer, the Robert Kennedy
assassination, Johnny Carson, Ronald Reagan, and so many more!
Benson's father, Sydney, told a strange story about Hauptmann to journalist Jack Webster. Webster was a well-respected newsman from the Glasgow
Herald, and Sydney founded the Calderpark Zoo in Glasgow, Scotland.
In his autobiography, Webster recalls the story that he heard from Sydney Benson:
"If son Harry has notched up some high dramas in the land of Uncle Sam, his father once told me a story to match most of them."
"With the same adventurous spirit as his son, [Sydney] Benson left Glasgow for the Brooklyn district of New York in 1929 and soon found himself playing
football for the Scottish team in the local ethnic league."
"The match against the German team took on a special excitement when it was learned that the great Max [Schmeling], in New York for a big fight and
about to become the heavyweight champion of the world, was coming along to cheer on the Germans."
"In the course of a match, a Scot who had been fouled by a German got up in retaliation and clocked him an uppercut which would have done justice to
the champ himself. As the poor fellow lay cold, [Schmeling] could not control an appreciative outburst and was heard to say, from the little grandstand
near the touchline, that that was the best punch he had seen in years."
"[Sydney] Benson observed it all and somehow, the name of the unfortunate German was to stick in his memory. It was Bruno Hauptmann."
"A few years later the world was shocked by the first of many kidnapping stories--that of the baby son of Charles Lindbergh, famous airman who had
captured the headlines with his first-ever solo crossing of the Atlantic, from New York to Paris."
"Several years later, when they eventually caught, tried and executed the man who murdered the baby, [Sydney] Benson was sure he knew the face
in the press photographs."
"It did not take long to verify that it was the same Bruno Hauptmann who had felt the full force of a Scottish fist those few years earlier."
"[Sydney] Benson returned to Scotland to become a well-known name in zoological circles and these tales of the New World may have played some part
in turning the footsteps of his son, a generation later, towards the American beat."
"If young Harry had been around in his father's Brooklyn days, you could bet your bottom dollar he would have come away with a prize-winning picture
of that stupendous uppercut."
The Herald Years
Jack Webster
1996
assassination, Johnny Carson, Ronald Reagan, and so many more!
Benson's father, Sydney, told a strange story about Hauptmann to journalist Jack Webster. Webster was a well-respected newsman from the Glasgow
Herald, and Sydney founded the Calderpark Zoo in Glasgow, Scotland.
In his autobiography, Webster recalls the story that he heard from Sydney Benson:
"If son Harry has notched up some high dramas in the land of Uncle Sam, his father once told me a story to match most of them."
"With the same adventurous spirit as his son, [Sydney] Benson left Glasgow for the Brooklyn district of New York in 1929 and soon found himself playing
football for the Scottish team in the local ethnic league."
"The match against the German team took on a special excitement when it was learned that the great Max [Schmeling], in New York for a big fight and
about to become the heavyweight champion of the world, was coming along to cheer on the Germans."
"In the course of a match, a Scot who had been fouled by a German got up in retaliation and clocked him an uppercut which would have done justice to
the champ himself. As the poor fellow lay cold, [Schmeling] could not control an appreciative outburst and was heard to say, from the little grandstand
near the touchline, that that was the best punch he had seen in years."
"[Sydney] Benson observed it all and somehow, the name of the unfortunate German was to stick in his memory. It was Bruno Hauptmann."
"A few years later the world was shocked by the first of many kidnapping stories--that of the baby son of Charles Lindbergh, famous airman who had
captured the headlines with his first-ever solo crossing of the Atlantic, from New York to Paris."
"Several years later, when they eventually caught, tried and executed the man who murdered the baby, [Sydney] Benson was sure he knew the face
in the press photographs."
"It did not take long to verify that it was the same Bruno Hauptmann who had felt the full force of a Scottish fist those few years earlier."
"[Sydney] Benson returned to Scotland to become a well-known name in zoological circles and these tales of the New World may have played some part
in turning the footsteps of his son, a generation later, towards the American beat."
"If young Harry had been around in his father's Brooklyn days, you could bet your bottom dollar he would have come away with a prize-winning picture
of that stupendous uppercut."
The Herald Years
Jack Webster
1996