A different view of Jim Thorpe
I’m a word person.
No surprise there, right?
While I love a compelling narrative or an interesting tale as much as anyone, it is the photographs in a new book at Jim Thorpe that have caught my attention.
“Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe” hit shelves today, and author Kate Buford, who spent Monday at Oklahoma City University, stopped by our video studio to discuss the book. While her research provides the bulk of the book, the photos that she selected for it tell their own powerful story.
There are, of course, the shots of Jim Thorpe during his athletic days, but in his home state, we are accustomed to seeing images of him as a football player, a baseball player and an Olympian.
But photos of him as a Hollywood extra?
There is a striking shot of Thorpe as a Hollywood Indian from 1935. He is dressed in a headdress, a fringed vest and a plaid shirt. It’s not much more than a mug shot of Thorpe dressed for a movie part as an Indian, but he is smiling broadly and his eyes are even twinkling a bit. The compelling thing about the photo is that his softened, smiling face is such a contrast to the stern-looking Thorpe that we normally see from his athletic days.
And what of that smile? Was it genuine or not?
Thorpe, after all, lived such an public life, always being watched, always being pulled in so many directions, that you are left to wonder if he is truly happy in the photo or if he is acting.
There are also some other wonderfully interesting shots of Thorpe in Hollywood. One of him with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Another of him with Burt Lancaster and director Michael Curtiz. Those aren’t images of Thorpe that we see all that often in Oklahoma.
All of the photos tell offer a fascinating pictorial of Jim Thorpe, telling a story that even a word person can appreciate.
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