London 2012, Chariots of Fire resurrected and Colombes Stadium today: hype, history and Olympic realities

Abstract

The London 2012 Olympics resurrected Chariots of Fire as a theme and symbol for the Olympic ideal, glorifying the story of how Harold Abrahams, a British Jew of Lithuanian origin, and Eric Liddell, a Christian Scot, overcame religious and personal obstacles to win Olympic gold at Paris 1924. Unfortunately, the film is no more valid now than it was three decades ago when critics universally berated its historicity. It stands as a hollow reflection of the actual events – much like the real Colombes Stadium, where Abrahams and Liddell achieved their Olympic immortality, does today in Paris.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Ms Lee Keeling, History Department, University of Louisville, for her help in preparing this article.

Notes

^1. ‘London 2012: Chariots of Fire Set for Cinema Return’. BBC News: Entertainment & Arts, March 23, 2012.

^2. Hocking, Caroline. ‘Is Chariots of Fire a Good Running Track?’ BBC News Magazine, July 13, 2012.

^3. 13–14 August, 2012. Sponsored by Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group; University of Oxford Club; University of Central Lancashire (uclan); and Sport in Society.

^4. Stated by Abrahams in his memorial lecture for his older brother Sir Adolphe Abrahams entitled, ‘The Changing Face of International Sport’, delivered on May 31, 1968, 167.

^5.Ryan, Running with Fire, 335. Ryan does not list the source of the quote.

^6. In what Ryan describes as a ‘flippant’ remark, Harold later said, ‘I took some tonic called Easton's Syrup which had some strychnine in it, so perhaps I would have been disqualified for taking “drugs” today’. After taking it, he equaled the Olympic 100M record of 10.6 in the second round of heats. Whether it helped or not is debatable. Strychnine, of course, would become a banned substance, but it was not restricted in 1924. Although strychnine is a poison, it was used (in the right amounts) as a stimulus by early athletes. See discussion in Ryan, Running with Fire, 123–4.

^7.Abrahams, ‘The Commonwealth at the Olympics’.

^8. ‘Britain's 1924 Olympic Champs Live Again in “Chariots of Fire” – and Run Away with the Oscars’. People Magazine, May 10, 1982, Volume 17, number 18.

^9. Ryan, Running with Fire, xiii. In his ‘Acknowledgements’, on p. 356 of Running with Fire, Ryan unabashedly states, ‘Lord Puttman made time for me and very generously gave my project his blessing. This was something that also meant so much, coming as it did from the man who captured the essence of the young Harold Abrahams so memorably by producing the wonderful Chariots of Fire’. Lord Coe (‘Seb’), the individual most responsible for the 2012 London Olympics, was also involved in Ryan's project and was thanked in the same acknowledgement section – and indicated that he ‘would also have been willing to write a foreword for the book’.

^10. Ryan, Running with Fire, xiv. Ryan later repeats the comment in context on p. 341 of Running with Fire, when he explains how Lord Puttnam related to him that his original idea for the film involved only Eric Liddell. He knew, however, that he could not make a movie based solely on Liddell, so it became a story ‘about a group of men’, including Abrahams, that was to be called, Runners. If that was his intention, it did not work out that way since, arguably, most viewers identified more with Harold: the film began and ended with his memorial service; his circumstances were presented much more compellingly than Liddell's; and his romance with Sybil and association with Sam Mussabini were central to the story line.

^11. In the ‘Foreward’ to Keddie's, Running the Race, 11.

^12. See, Dee, ‘“Too Semitic” or “Thoroughly Anglicised”’, 5 [online version]. In the Daily Telegraph, 22 November 1989, Mohammed Al-Fayed stated (in regard to Abrahams) that he was ‘inspired by a man who was the victim of severe racial prejudice’, and that he was ‘fascinated by the story of a man subjected to grave prejudice and English snobbery’. Some in the British Jewish community held similar sentiments.

^13. Ryan's observation, p. 342, towards the end of his book that ‘Part of Harold must have known that the film would give him a kind of sporting immortality’, was certainly made in hindsight because there was nothing to indicate at the time (Harold died before Chariots was made) it would ever be made. In fact, its prospects were dismal until the Al-Fayeds decided to bankroll it.

^14.www.alfayed.com.

^15. It may have been auctioned to help with the trial expenses of Pat Pottle, Abrahams’ adopted daughter Sue's husband, who, in 1966, had helped a Soviet agent escape to Russia before their marriage. She did not know about it at the time, and it appears that Harold never knew about it. The full story did not become known until 1987, after his death. Sue Pottle denies the money was used for the trial, but, if not, one wonders why the collection was sold at that particular time. See discussion in Ryan, Running with Fire, 353f., and the full incident on pp. 324ff.

^16. A few years after Dodi Al-Fayed's death in an auto accident in Paris with Princess Diana, I asked one of the Al-Fayed ‘associates’ at Harrods where the collection was. He knew nothing about it and had to check further up the line. What was interesting, however, was that he spoke of Chariots as ‘Dodi's film’ – and when he finally realized what I was inquiring about, he also connected the medal collection more with Dodi than Mohammed.

^17. Ryan, Running with Fire, 19.

^18. The family name was originally Klonimus, but Harold's once poor and brutish immigrant father changed it when he moved to Britain – naming it after his father, Abraham. See, Ryan, Running with Fire, 9–10.

^19. Ryan, Running with Fire, 29. Ryan sums up what he thinks to be Abrahams' views on religion toward the end of his book (p. 338): ‘But the truth was that Harold Abrahams was neither a committed Christian nor Jew in the second half of his life. If he firmly believed in anything, it was that he didn't want religion to restrict him in life’.

^20. Ryan, Running with Fire, 28.

^21. Ibid., 41.

^22. Ibid., 27, 349.

^23. Ibid., 30.

^24. Puttnam should also have been more sensitive to the reality that in today's atmosphere of ‘political correctness’, Cambridge, like any other university, would fear the slightest hint of its committing any social or political faux pas that might lead to the loss of much-needed money. Nonetheless, he ultimately had the ‘last laugh’ since Cambridge and Caius paid the price for their reluctance to let him film when Chariots became a resounding success.

^25. I have been privy to similar remarks at Cambridge, in Scotland, and by British subjects in Australia, so such banter is not frozen to a particular period of time. In the 1984 miniseries, The First Olympics—Athens 1896, the character of Teddy Flack, who won the 800M and 1500M at Athens, may have been modelled to some extent on Chariots. Not only is he given ‘the outsider’ role at Oxford, but his treatment there inspires him to excel for Australia. Flack's awards are now prominently displayed in the Australian Olympic and Sport Museum at the new Cricket Grounds Stadium.

^26. References are collected in notes 10 and 13 of Dee's article.

^27. Quote from Dee, ‘“Too Semitic” or “Thoroughly Anglicised?”’, 4f [online version].

^28. Ryan, Running with Fire, 41. One of the incidents that probably would have caused Harold to perceive he had suffered from anti-semitism was his rejection by the Hawks Club. The Club was one of Cambridge's most prestigious, and Harold's athletic success should have made him a shoe-in for membership. However, even Harold's close friend, Norris McWhirter, who authored the article on Abrahams in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, believes it was more Abrahams' immodest behaviour, something the socially conscious Club did not find attractive, that was mostly responsible. Interestingly, the popularity of Chariots of Fire, as well as its prominence in the 2012 London Olympic preparations, prompted the Hawks Club to claim Harold as a member, anyway. See, Ryan, Running with Fire, 39–41.

^29. Ryan, Running with Fire, 39–41.

^30. See, Dee, ‘“Too Semitic” or “Thoroughly Anglicised?”’, 2, 3, 14 [online version]. Abrahams' comment about sport and religion not mixing is from a 1927 speech, quoted by Dee on p. 14 of the online version of his text (cited in note 12). Cf., also, Ryan, Running with Fire, 82f.

^31. Adolphe, the eldest, a prominent physician and pioneer of sports medicine, and Sidney, an Olympic athlete and high-ranking civil servant who served throughout the Empire, were both knighted. Harold's third brother, Lionel, a lawyer, also appears to have attended Cambridge. Central student records mention a Lionel Martyn Abraham (a variant spelling of the name), who studied law at Pembroke College and graduated BA 16 July 1915. Ms Jacqueline Cox, University Archivist, kindly provided the information. Prof. Dorothy Thompson of Cambridge also assisted.

^32. Ryan, Running with Fire, 12–13.

^33. Birmingham University Special Collections, Birmingham (BUSC) HA/2, Harold Abrahams, ‘Competing at the Olympic Games’, used by Dee, note 30. Harold was speaking of the Cambridge pale-blue blazer, a symbol of sporting excellence that his brother Sydney had received in 1904. He says that he thinks he was six when he determined he was going to get one himself. See, Ryan, Running with Fire, 12–13.

^34. Ryan, Running with Fire, 81.

^35. Ibid., 351.

^36. Quoted by Ibid., 140.

^37. On Liddell, see appropriate passages in Ryan, Running with Fire. Biographies of Liddell include, Keddie, Running the Race; McCasland, Eric Liddell; and Magnusson, The Flying Scotsman. Major earlier works were by Thomson, Eric Liddell; Thomson, Scotland's Greatest Athlete; and Thomson, Eric H. Liddell, Athlete and Missionary.

^38. See Keddie, Running the Race, 50ff.

^39. Ryan, Running with Fire, 113.

^40. See Keddie, Running the Race, 46ff., for a fuller discussion of Eric's Christian convictions and athletics.

^41. Keddie, Running the Race.

^42. Keddie, Running the Race, 46.

^43. Ryan, Running with Fire, 85ff. See, also Keddie, Liddell, 89ff.

^44. Ryan, Running with Fire, 109f.

^45. Ibid., 352.

^46. See discussion, Ibid., 101f. Keddie, Running the Race, however (pp. 102f.), thinks because Eric was seasick on the trip over and had little time to prepare for his races, he actually would have been encouraged by how well he matched up with the American runners. However, as Ryan correctly observes, mostly US secondary sprinters at the Penn Relays beat Liddell.

^47. See discussion in Keddie, Running the Race, 101f, 103f. Liddell also had a professional coach to help him. See references to Thomas McKerchar in the text.

^48. So observes Keddie, Running the Race, 99.

^49. Ibid., 111f.

^50. Ryan, Running with Fire, 153, 155.

^51. On the date and participating countries, see Wallechinsky and Loucky, Olympics, 79. Chariots includes a Scotland/Ireland meet, but it is a rain drenched affair where Eric afterward gives one of his inspirational talks. See also Keddie, Running the Race, 94ff.

^52. See Keddie's discussion, pp. 94ff.

^53. See, Ryan, Running with Fire, 16.

^54. This is unquestionable. See, Keddie, Running the Race, 44f. Until that time, there was no doubt about his faith – he simply had preferred to keep it to himself.

^55. Unlike Chariots, Liddell frequently talked about McKerchar and attributed ‘much of his success … to the training his coach had devised’. However, this would not have set well with the film story. See, Ryan, Running with Fire, 84, and especially, discussion in Keddie, Running the Race, 55f.

^56. Keddie, Running the Race, 93.

^57. Mentioned in a contemporary quote used by Keddie, Running the Race, 91.

^58. Quoted by Keddie, Running the Race, 117.

^59. Quoted by Ryan, Running with Fire, 159. Wallechinsky and Loucky, Olympics, 79, record the time as only an Olympic record.

^60. E.g. Wallechinsky and Loucky, Olympics, 66f.

^61. Keddie, Running the Race, 120ff.

^62. See full discussion and relevant passages from which quotes were taken in Keddie, Running the Race, 120ff.

^63. Keddie, Running the Race, 131.

^64. Ibid., 110.

^65. Quoted by Ryan, Running with Fire, 121ff., from the St Bartholomew's Hospital Journal.

^66. A number of online sources, in particular, were used for information here and may be consulted under such entries as, ‘Stade Olympique de Colombes’, ‘Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir’, ‘Chariots of Fire’, ‘Racing Métro 92’, ‘Rugby Stadiums Around the World’ (e.g. www.wasps.co.uk/Rugby Stadia.ink?Country = France&type = p) and similar sites. Information was also personally collected at some locations by the author. The 1924 Paris Official Report was also consulted.

^67. Comité Olympique Français, Les Jeux de la VIIE Olympiade.

^68. Excessive heat, reminiscent of but not equal to the unbearable temperatures at the Stadium during the 1924 Games, dissuaded me from taking another turn around the circuit a few weeks after Calder did when on a quick trip to Paris during the London Olympics.

^69. Ryan, Running with Fire, 308f.

^70. Ibid., 5.

^71. For discussion, see Ryan, Running with Fire, 165f.; Wallechinsky and Loucky, Olympics, 1320f.; and Ecker, Olympic Facts and Fables, 43–7.

^72. Ryan, Running with Fire, 246f.

^73. Ibid., 349.

^74. See, especially, Ibid., 154f.