Sport - Racing - The pushmobile race 1911 - Side by Side

by Mike Savad

Title

Sport - Racing - The pushmobile race 1911 - Side by Side

Artist

Mike Savad

Medium

Photograph - Colorized Photo

Description

Hand colored photo from 1911
Original title: Pushmobiles lined up for the race in Germantown
Photographer: Marriott Canby
Location: Germantown, PA

there really wastn't a lot to go on with this kind of race. i found just one car that was from this era and it was brightly colored. i'm assuming they painted things in bright colors to make it more fun. i tried all sorts of searches to try to find this location and couldn't find a thing.

I tried really hard to find this location, and I just couldn't. I can almost make out a sign in the background, which barely reads: Sherwood Beach maybe, Sherwood blues, its a hotel. And those terms do lead me to this town, but nothing I tried let me find this place. Weird how they didn't mention it, yet took the time to make it into a panorama.

A pushmobile is a car that has a bar in the back that allows a child to push it forward much like a shopping cart. The boy in the front steers it, they switch places now and then. After some research, this particular pushmobile race was in Germantown, PA, it was the first Thanksgiving race and was held in 1911, but I'm not sure where exactly. This children looked chilly, everyone in their child sized driving goggles.

Now I did find information from a race in this area from 1914, it was sponsored by a baking company. Teams of kids had to collect a great number of product labels that the company made. If they got that certain amount, the first 50 kids won the prize of one of these cars, they were worth $50 (about $1500 today). I don't know if it was just the bottom and they added their own hood or if they came like this and they painted them. They would have to go up and down certain streets a few times before ending. They didn't mention what the prize was other than being mentioned in the paper.

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June 24th, 2024

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