History Through A Camera Lens
While John Grady may not be the man with the most name recognition at this past weekend¹s SpeedwayEXPO, the annual racing trade show that takes place each March in West Springfield, Mass. He certainly seems to have the most fans, who all flock to his booth to see his photos. A Schenectady, New York resident, Grady’s life work has borne a vast collection intrigues generations of racing fans, both young and old. A quick flip through the albums on display and one can find virtually anything their heart desires. Middle-aged racing fans are there to rekindle a childhood memory of a bygone racing hero or to add to their collection.
There are photos from tracks in the 1950s right through to the current decade. Even better is the ability to reminisce about past drivers, whose attire and safety equipment pale by today’s standards.
Eastern States Exposition, the venue for SpeedwayEXPO, itself has an important role in racing history because it hosted auto racing from the first fair in 1917 through 1968. Midget racing stars like Dutch Schaefer and Bill Schindler won on the ½ mile oval as well as future Indianapolis 500 winner Bob Sweikert in Big Car competition. By the time Grady arrived as track photographer in 1963, the Modifieds and Stock Cars ruled the roost. The two classes ran on consecutive weeks every September. The only protection for the spectators was a 2×6 wooden board that served as the retaining wall.
Harvey Tattersall of the United Racing Club was a promoter for the races at Eastern States. Grady recalls Tattersall during one of the 200-lap Late Model Stock Car shows. “He was (timing the race) doing the laps and he would say 15 laps. He was using a wristwatch! … It would go 128, 129 then 146 and they chopped whole sections of it out. They probably ran a little over 100 laps. But Harvey was the pragmatic individual that took all those unnecessary laps out of there.”
Grady respected Tattersall, a Hall of Fame promoter whose organization was larger than NASCAR in the region. He said, “Harvey Tattersall was probably the finest promoter I have ever seen. He was also a great showman. The track to succeed is the promoter is a showman rather than a penny counter. You do it right then the money takes care of itself.”
Racing at the old track could be treacherous for both competitors and fans. “Booker Jones, he came on the inside and he ran into the hedge, stopped cold. He said, ‘I never hit anything as hard in my whole life,’ and he went to the car ‘I must get some nerve medicine’ (and he took a drink). A picnic in the pits was hosted by Harvey Tattersall when a girl was hit by Danny Galullo’s car. He compared the bouncing baby to a basketball being bounced by the Harlem Globe Trotters. Fortunately, she is married now. “God was working with her that day I got news for you,” said Grady.
By the end, the track had bomb threats. “They had them all over. It was a pandemic,” according to Grady. People were not worried about the bomb threats. “There was never a bomb there but the attitude they took was completely out of the ordinary.”
Fire was always the top fear of drivers in the post-war era. With t-shirts and jeans as their uniform, a fiery crash could prove deadly. He called Skip Varner’s terrible fire one of his fondest memories of all racing at Eastern States. “Why there wasn’t a major catastrophe, I don’t know. Maybe God was looking down at the speedway and gave us a spare on that one because if they ever broke a car loose in (could get into) those stands.” Another terrible fire made the cover of the Speedway News paper. While the driver wasn’t hurt, Grady described the conflagration as, “The devil was going to come out of the hole.”
He points across the aisle to the customers at his booth, noting the draw that his booth is and the fact that people are happy and smiling when they leave. “I still sell pictures that I took at Eastern States. Standing here now in the year 2008, I’m still selling pictures and making money on pictures I took in the 60s. And look over there, these people want the pictures.” John Grady even sent some photos recently of Greg Zipadelli as a child at Eastern States, long before he would go onto becoming a NASCAR champion crew chief. “He will call me when he gets them. I guarantee you he will call me. They love it. They always remember.”
A racing photographer for some fifty-seven years throughout New England and New York, Grady gave some insight into his philosophy. “To me it’s very simple. Photography is a vocation and an avocation and a disease and I have it all. I like these people. Look at them laughing at the work I did before. And I have one thing in life: when I die I want to make sure those negatives keep going. I don’t want them to stop.
Sources: Nicholas Teto