Kleiner’s Korner: Fred Wagner Hosting a 1915 Party
Beginning in 1911, Vanderbilt Cup Race starter, Fred Wagner, hosted an annual party on his Smithtown farm for those associated with the automobile industry. In 1915 over 100 invitations were given out. Food, sports and fun were the name of the game. All documents except as noted courtesy of The Motor World, September 29, 1915.
Art Kleiner
The First "Big Village Boosters" Event
The first outing in 1911 boasted several racing officials and drivers including Arthur Pardington and George Robertson. Committees included: transportation, water sports, baseball, athletic, shell games, meals and rooms and publicity. (Automobile Topics, Aug. 19, 1911)
1915 Outing
Party goers gathered at 7am in NYC and traveled 3 hours to Wagner's farm in Smithtown via the Motor Parkway. Once there "dignity was thrown to the winds and everybody romped and played . . .".
Events included baseball, various races including a wheelbarrow race, the "fat man's" 50-yard dash, "three legged" races, the "shoe race" and a "sack" race.
Automobile races included the "guessing time" contest in which participants tried to drive 100 yards in a pre-determined but secret amount of time, the "forward and reverse" race, the "slow speed" contest and a "gymkhana" (driving a car around a baseball diamond and completing various feats).
After the days activities a clambake was held and prizes were given out including gold cuff links, gold scarf pins, and a 15 jeweled flush type Walthan automobile clock.
The list of attendees included a who's who of the automobile dealer and supply industry including Goodyear, Firestone, Maxwell Motor Sales, General Motors, Oldsmobile, White, General Auto Supply and many more.
Comments
In 1915 if you weighed more than 200 pounds you were considered “fat”? I guess obesity really is a serious problem in modern America!
Art, Did you notice that no officials of the Vanderbilt Cup Races were in attendance at his parties ? Hmm. Also, Wagner never purchased any Motor Parkway stock.
What a blast; thanks muchly, Art! The list of names is fab., but what struck me most was NOT automotive; it was Messrs. P(rosper). Clust and (Col.) C(harles). J(oseph). Dieges! Bet they furnished the cuff links and scarf pins (and maybe the bronze statue); Dieges & Clust was the firm that made all my grade and high school and college (and association) rings and pins! They were famed for medals and plaques. Wonder if they also made car emblems and badges. Sam, III
Art, missed your great post in the summer of 2020 during the pandemic and Just (2023) came across it. Fred Wagner’s picnics ‘happened’ in Smithtown at his 1912 home, Sunnybrook Farm, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019 after I identified it as owned by the famous Fred Wagner and ‘rediscovered’ its architect as Gustav Stickley, facts previously unrecognized in Smithtown. See Vanderbilt Cup Races (2018) at https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/the_residence_of_the_starter_of_five_vanderbilt_cup_races_rediscovered_in_s
Thanks Corey. Congratulations on having Fred Wagner’s home listed on the National Register, of which I’m happy we were able to help (especially Howard!). With so many posts on vanderbiltcupraces.com its hard to keep up with all the information provided. But its good to go back and revisit as one never knows what new bits of data will be revealed. And often times I forget what I’ve already researched and reported on. Thanks for the providing the link back to 2018 which refreshed my memory of Wagner.
Thank you, Art! Glad you illustrated Fred’s picnics! There wasn’t enough room to include those images in the 100-page Nomination, edited from my original draft that had a full biography on Fred, plus details of every event he hosted and participated in nationwide while living in Smithtown. Fred’s home was adjacent to the 1909 home (now with an historic inventory I prepared with pictures from the picnics and filed with NYS) of William and Annie Spurge, owners until 1908 of the Riverside Inn. The Inn was the destination for dinner hosted by Fred for the ‘first’ Smithtown outing in 1911 (before Fred’s home was built) and LI Auto Club tours run by his future neighbor A.R. Pardington in 1905 and 1911. Fred and A.R. also appear to have been responsible for the first auto dealership (extant for now) built in Smithtown in 1911 and according to my research, photographed at the time of the 1912 picnic. That story is in my Facebook posts and ST News article at https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=700009381503955&set=pcb.700011258170434 and https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=709913797180180&set=p.709913797180180&type=3 and https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=709913797180180&set=p.709913797180180&type=3