Even though I am no mechanic, at one time I used to work with motorcycles every day. Not to fix them, but put them on display. The New York City-based Guggenheim Museum opened two satellite museums here in Vegas. It was all very daring, an oasis of culture where none existed before, or so the many people believed.
The first show in the large gallery was The Art of the Motorcycle. This was an amazing collection of privately owned motorcycles, art and innovation on wheels. I was on the crew that uncrated, cleaned, and placed the bikes on display. It was during this time that I met many of the art installer/artist friends that I have here in Vegas. Unfortunately, hubris towards attracting locals, low tourist attendance due to post 9-11 travel worries, and a lack of interest in general doomed the expensive venture, and it closed a year and a half later. Sometime in the near future I will post pictures of that exhibition.
In the meantime enjoy this picture, from the Library of Congress' American Memory website. If my dad and his friends rode motorcycles instead of going golfing, this is what I could see them doing. The online collections have loads of great images, audio files, and movies. There is the option of purchasing the images in the collection. To find this image and its page, go to the American Memories site, and search for "DN-0089272", the number noted at the bottom of this entry.
This picture makes me want to start a band so I can make this the cover art.
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CREATED/PUBLISHED
1929.
SUMMARY
Image of a policeman riding a motorcycle performing a jump on the field at Soldier Field, located at 1600 South Lake Shore Drive in the Near South Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, during practice for a police meet. Policemen are sitting on motorcycles on both sides of the policeman.
NOTES
This photonegative taken by a Chicago Daily News photographer may have been published in the newspaper.
Cite as: DN-0089272, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.
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