THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN ROWING tremes, various other possibilities were con- sidered.”1817 Yale 1956 3-man John Cooke1818 got to know that first Yale Olympic crew while he was training for his own trip to the Olympics thirty-two years later, and he adds some additional details: “Indeed, James Still- man Rockefeller, the 1924 4-man and captain, did meet his future wife, Nancy Car- negie, on the Homeric dur- ing the voyage. “Gloria Swanson, how- ever, was a favorite of the crew, and she of them. Stillman said they frequently dined with her, and danced with her (White tie and tails, don’t you know!), but that her real favorite was John Miller, the handsome 5-man. “Stillman said they had something go- ing! “He also said that Swanson had a rather biting comment about Ben Spock . . . “‘Big Ben, but no alarum!’ “ . . . which may have something to do with Spock’s somewhat dismissive comment about Gloria! “Ha! Anyway, you can read a lot into his expression: ‘between these two ex- tremes, various other possibilities were con- sidered.’” 1819 Ed Leader was not happy having to wear “a God-damned waiter suit”1820 to din- ner, but one time “the stag line persuaded him to cut in on Gloria Swanson.”1821 1817 Spock, p. 4 1818 See Chapter 67. 1819 Cooke, personal correspondence, 2005 1820 Mendenhall, op.cit., p. 347 1821 Ibid, p. 344 1924 Olympics On July 7, 1924, Time Magazine, taking its cue from the name of the ship carrying the crew to Europe, absolutely outdid itself in literary flourish as it re- ported the Yale crew’s arri- val in France: “Natives of Cherbourg are accustomed to seeing a towering ocean liner anchor off their low-lying shore. Familiar to them are the fussy tenders that cuddle under the great ship’s flanks to receive issuing streams of scurrying men. “But unfamiliar are the Gauls, seeing the much- laden tenders labor shore- ward, with hearing a mighty shout go up to Heaven, with hearing an an-swering roar from a ship ap- propriately named the Homeric, this ship bearing America’s cohorts to Olympian con- flict in the distant land. “On her decks lounged the famed Yale crew who, with their slender octoreme, had been rushed aboard still panting from victo- rious exertions against Harvard on the Thames. “Other passengers on the Homeric fo- cused much of their attention upon the chief- tain of those eight blue-broidered heroes. “Ed Leader, crafty coach, did not pass unobserved. Al Lindley, brainy, bespecta- cled stroke-setter, moved tall and silent down the decks. “But the cynosure was James S. (‘Jass’) Rockefeller, Yale and Olympic crew cap- tain. “Great-nephew of the wizard-of-oil, son of William G. Rockefeller, grandson of James Stillman, this stalwart scion of honor- able American lines gazed, brooding, on the horizon. 483
