The Jazz Age was a time of ballyhoo, of flagpole sitting and dance marathons, of endurance stunts and record setting competitions. In 1927, Louise Brooks met one of Canada’s leading contributions to the era’s ballyhoo in the person of George Young, a 17 year old marathon swimmer. In January of 1927, Young stole headlines across North America when he became the first person to swim the channel between Catalina Island and the mainland of California. He did so during the . In fact, Young was the only person to complete the 35-kilometre (22 mi) swim, which took nearly 16 hours. In doing so, he beat-out more than 100 of the world’s leading marathon competitors.
The Wrigley Ocean Marathon came about when William Wrigley, Jr., the chewing gum magnate and owner the Santa Catalina Island Company, was looking for way to bring more attention to the island’s mild winter climate. In the summer of 1926, news broke that Gertrude Ederle had swum across the English Channel; Wrigley took note of Ederle’s accomplishment, and also noticed the ticker-tape parade and worldwide press coverage that followed. Hoping to emulate the acclaim Ederle drew, Wrigley, Jr. organized his own competition, and what’s more, he offered a winning prize of $25,000 (which was more than five times the median household income).
When the starter’s gun fired, one-hundred-and-one swimmers leaped into the inviting Pacific waters. An account of the much ballyhooed event on the Swimming World Magazine Hall of Fame stated, “But a few hundred yards from shore, the 54 degree temperature water offered whitecaps and fog in the distance. Olympian Norman “Moose” Ross and George Young, a pennyless 17-year-old amateur from Toronto, Canada, quickly emerged from the pack. After about a mile, Young grabbed a lead of about 150 yards, doubled that lead after two hours, and stretched it to a mile by sunset. Gradually, swimmers began to drop out of the race, until Young and Ross were alone to fight against the icy depths, the intense exhaustion, and even the occasional shark. As Young neared the mainland with Ross closing the gap, thousands of people lined the shore with car headlights and bonfires, shouting encouragement to the solitary swimmer as he battled the force of the incoming tide. The triumphant Canadian stepped onto shore to claim his prize after an incredible and grueling 15 hours and 45 minutes.” [A long account of the historic event can be found on the Sports Illustrated website.]
Young’s remarkable feat earned him not only the the $25,000 prize but also a nickname, “The Catalina Kid.” It also garnered him interest from various Hollywood studios, and just a week later, a screen test for a possible role in a forthcoming Paramount production about a group of athletic youngsters called Sheiks and Shebas, later titled Rolled Stockings. The young Canadian’s screen test, under the direction of John Waters, took place at the Paramount studio in Hollywood. It was there that Young, riding a tidal wave of publicity, met Brooks (then working on Evening Clothes), and presented her with one of his swim suits as a memento of the occasion.
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| George Young meets Louise Brooks. | The reverse of the publicity photo, with its snipe. |
The reverse of the publicity photo is stamped “Reference Department” and dated January 25, 1927 – which may of may not be the exact date the photo was taken. It is also stamped N.E.A., which is the name of the wire service that would have syndicated the image to newspapers or magazines. The snipe on the back of the photo reads, “GIVES CINEMA STAR BATHING SUIT – George Young, 17-years-old Canadian, who last Saturday defeated scores of seasoned record-holding swimmers in the great Wrigley 22-mile marathon from Santa Catalina Island Isthmus to the mainland, took a screen test at Famous Players-Lasky studio, Hollywood, yesterday when officials considered him for an important role in a forthcoming ‘youth picture’ entitled Sheiks and Shebas. After the test he thanked Louise Brooks, featured screen player, for her aid in the test and presented her a bathing suit he used in training for the victorious swim.”
Two weeks later, Young recalled his screen test in a syndicated article which appeared in a few Canadian newspapers. “I didn’t feel timid or nervous about it until they took me over to a girl who had come in quietly, and introduced me to her. It was Miss Louise Brooks, they told me, and she was small and had her dark hair cut in a very sport bob which curled in little ringlets all over her head. If her appearance, with her make-up on, was different from that of the girls I had known, she was not otherwise different from any of the pretty and well bred girls I had met in Toronto or in the United States. She was very gracious and seemed anxious to help me do my best in a test. She told me she had only been in pictures for a rather short time, I think it was a year or so, herself, and that she liked it very much. I talked to her for a moment and they asked us to step before the camera and told me that I was to play a love scene with her. Well this, I must confess, did set me back somewhat, being asked to put my arms around a girl I had known less than five minutes and to pretend to make love to her – especially in front of a number of other strange people. . . .”
Just days after the swim marathon, Young appeared on stage at Grauman’s Theater, where he spoke for a reported fee of $1,000 per night. One of his appearance at Grauman’s, during which he received his $25,000 check, was broadcast locally over KFWB. Footage of Young swimming in the Wrigley Ocean Marathon was also included in a newsreel released by International News, which was shown in theaters around the country.
However, Young’s shyness likely hampered his chances of working in front of the camera, and his film career never really materialized. The closest he came to the movies and a career in entertainment was during a proposed 20 week personal appearance tour in which he swam on stage in a glass tank prior to the showing of a featured film. When he appeared at the Publix / Paramount controlled Metropolitan Theater in Los Angeles, his act proved popular and was held over. On January 27, 1927 — just a couple of days after the above publicity photos were shot, the Los Angeles Times reported, “As a result of the enthusiasm with which George Young, Catalina Channel hero has been received, he will be held over for a few more days. Young appears at each show in a specially constructed tank on the stage, where he gives an exhibition of his swimming technique.”
At one point, Young’s manager turned down a reported $250,000 offer, believing more could be got from another studio. However, there weren’t any offers, and Young never recaptured the fame he once enjoyed as “The Catalina Kid.” Young also had an ambition to swim in the 1928 Olympics, but that too seems not to have come about. Nevertheless, he is still considered a great swimmer and a leading Canadian sports figure. More about George Young can be found on his extensive Wikipedia Page.
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