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Photo courtesy The
Pat Hathaway Collection
In Cannery Row,
Henri the painter leans his chair against the men's room here
while watching the flagpole skater across the street at Holman's
(Chapters XVII and XIX).
"Henri the painter was occupied, for
Holman's Department Store had employed not a flag-pole sitter
but a flag-pole skater. . . . Henri had taken up his post across
the street at Red Williams' gas station. Henri was fascinated.
He thought of doing a huge abstraction called Substratum Dream
of a Flagpole Skater. . . . Henri sat in a chair, leaned back
against the lattice which concealed the men's toilet at Red Williams'."
(Cannery Row, Chapter XVII).
In the early 1930s, a real daredevil named "The Mysterious
Mr. X" did indeed flagpole skate for more than 50 hours.
The escapades 120 feet above the crowd on Lighthouse Avenue inspired
the episode in Steinbeck's work, and were also captured by a
newsreel photographer. The 30 seconds of footage showing the
stunt and the throngs below are now part of the National Archives'
collection. Here are a few images from that newsreel: |
