The Woman Behind the Indy 500 Winner's Wreath

Yorktown, Indiana about an hour's drive northeast of Indianapolis seems an unlikely birthplace for one of the most iconic floral arrangements in motorsports! 

With a population of 9,405, the town is roughly a third the size of the Paddock seating section at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Here, a block away from the town's single main road, is a small flower shop called Buck Creek Bloom.  It is here Julie Vance can be seen through the front windows piecing together the intricate wreath for that Sunday's Indy 500 winner to wear on the victory podium as every champion has since 1960.

Vance, who crafted her first 500 wreath when she was only 22 years old, isn't the first person to have the job; Bill Conin, the original florist, did the honors until his death in 1989.  The torch then passed to Dan and Joyce Purifoy, who made the wreath for two years before giving the job to Vance.

But Joyce Purifoy had to persuade the BorgWarner committee to let Vance have the time-honored assignment!  

"Joyce had to convince them that I could handle it, that I was capable.  It was a .. I know she's young, but she can do this type of thing. I was excited, especially for my Dad's sake because he's a big race fan.  He's been to the Indy 500 ten times."

Julie Vance

Making that first wreath wasn't easy.  According to Vance, it took longer than seven hours to construct as she struggled with the wreath's previously "busy" design.  She and the Purifoys gave the wreath the look we recognize today:  cocculus, pittosporum, salal leaves, 33 white cymbidium orchids (one representing each driver), red/white and blue ribbon and a base inscribed with the words, BorgWarner.   The durable cymbidium orchids can last for a few weeks before withering and Vance chose a neutral color so they wouldn't clash with whatever fire suit the winning driver might be wearing. 

Crafting the iconic Indy 500 prize brings more than just enjoyment and prestige to Vance.  It's also good business:  Couples looking for a wedding florist often come to her because they know she builds the wreath!  But keeping the gig has involved overcoming obstacles as well.  When several of the materials Vance uses were set to be discontinued, she stockpiled enough to last for at least another 15 years!  

"I hope I can build it for as long as I can or until I can't do it anymore."

Julie Vance 

What's in the Wreath?

33 white orchids

33 mini water tubes

24-inch polyurethane base

30 feet of red, white and blue ribbon

70 feet of green floral tape

60 small checkered flags

1.5 pounds of hot glue

Total weight:  30 pounds!  

Pat Locke

Maestro Muse

 

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines, Part Two

                                              

All the way from the beginning, the signal to start the engines had been the latest in a morning-long succession of aerial bombs exploding at various intervals. The sound of a starting bomb had apparently been the only signal until perhaps the last of the 1940s, when it is understood to have been accompanied by the visual gesture of flagman, Seth Klein holding up a green flag, still furled, and then twirling it, furled, above his head.  

In 1948, a friend of track president Wilbur Shaw's named John "Irish" Horan had come onto the public-address system staff.  A longtime showman who had once been a circus barker and had recently formed a traveling auto thrill show, Horan was approached by a number of participants who had been feeling for quite some time that this dramatic of moments at which the engines fired really "needed something".  Irish Horan agreed with them.

Although he may have complied as early as 1949, he is credited for the first time in Floyd Clymer's Indianapolis 500 Yearbook in 1951 with having made an announcement over the public address, believed to have been little more than "opening the mike" upon the sounding of the bomb and uttering quietly and almost as an afterthought, "Gentlemen, start your MOTORS".  Whether he actually said "motors" or was misquoted and really said "engines", he definitely said something! In 1952, a command definitely was delivered, but it clearly was not yet an established tradition because one version states the final word as being "engines", while another records it as "motors". 

The first time that the term, "Gentlemen, start your engines" appeared in print on the race morning "countdown" schedule was in 1953 and while the claim in Wilbur Shaw's memoirs is that he had said it every year since 1946, it appears that he did not do so until 1953.

Shaw definitely issued the command in 1953 and in 1954 with Tony Hulman assuming the duties and making it his own in 1955 after Shaw perished in a private-plane crash on October 30, 1954.

Pat Locke, Maestro Muse

 

Photo above:  From Left, Tony Hulman, Wilbur Shaw and John "Irish" Horan on race morning of the 1953 Indianapolis 500 reviewing what could be the race morning "countdown" schedule the first year that the command to start engines was featured in the "countdown".

The 37th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 30, 1953. The event was part of the 1953 AAA National Championship Trail, and was race 2 of 9 in the 1953 World Championship of Drivers.

The 1953 Indy winner was Bill Vukovich.  After falling short a year before, earned the first of two consecutive Indy 500 victories.  With the temperature in the high 90s and the track temperature exceeding 130 degrees, this race is often know as the "Hottest 500".  Due to the extreme heat conditions, several drivers in the field required relief drivers and some relief drivers even required additional relief.  Vukovich, however, as well as second-place finisher Art Cross, both ran the full 500 miles solo.

In 1953, the attendance number was 190,000 spectators!

Indy 500 Traditions: The 'Gentlemen, Start Your Engines' command can be traced back to the late 1940s at Indy.

While this famous command sounds for all the world as if it would have been intoned from the very earliest days by Carl Fisher* holding a megaphone, it apparently was not uttered until either 1949 or maybe 1950 and then almost as an afterthought rather than a planned and much-anticipated feature of the pre-race ceremonies.  The beginnings of this ritual are rather clouded and, as with several other traditions, it appears to have evolved, rather than been created.

*Carl Graham Fisher was an American entrepreneur who helped make automobiles a viable form of transportation.  He was born in Greensburg, Indiana in 1874 and co-founded Prest-O-Lite Co. in 1904 which developed acetylene gas vehicle headlights distributed nationwide. Fisher was a seemingly tireless pioneer and promoter of highway construction and of real estate development in Florida.  He is widely regarded as a promotional genius. The headlight patent made him rich as an automotive parts supplier whe he and his friend, James A. Allison sold their company to Union Carbide in 1913 for $9 million (equivalent of approximately $240 million in 2020).

Fisher operated in Indianapolis what is believed to be the first automobile dealership in the United States and also worked at developing an automobile racetrack locally.  After being injured in stunts himself and following a safety debacle at the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway, of which he was a principal, he helped develop paved racetracks and public roadways.  Improvements he implemented at the speedway led to its famous nickname .. The Brickyard. 

In 1952, Fisher was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame.  In 1971, he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame and in 2018 he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.  He passed on July 15, 1939 at age 65 in Miami Beach. Fisher was one of the best known and active promoters of the Florida land boom in the 1920s.  By 1926, he was worth an estimated $100 million.  His fortune was lost in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.  Although he had lost his fortune and late in life considered himself a failure, Fisher is widely regarded as a decidedly successful man in the long view of his life.  "Montauk was Carl's first and only failure," wrote Jane Fisher in a biography of her late husband, who died with only $40,000 to his name.  

In a 1998 study judged by a panel of 56 historians, writers and others, Carl Graham Fisher was named one of the Fifty Most Influential People in the history of the State of Florida. PBS labeled him "Mr. Miami Beach".  Just south of Miami Beach is Fisher Island which he once owned and is named for him.  That island became one of the wealthiest and most exclusive residential areas in the United States.

Gentlemen Start Your Engines, Part Two will follow this article.

Pat Locke, Maestro Muse

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Part Nine

 

We rocked with Rockin' Robin

The Magic that is the Pops

"Mark Twain" and Bemus Point Mayor, Brian Dahlberg

Smile for the Camera

Photo Credit to Joe Gustafson 

When the Chautauqua Lake Pops season ended after Labor Day weekend in 2019 none of us could have possibly imagined the changes in our social lives that was about to descend upon us 6 months later.  As we begin to see some light at the end of a very long tunnel with vaccines being distributed into arms across our Nation we realize how much we have all missed the Pops and its uplifting presence in our lives.  It is where the music meets the water.  It is where friends and family will, once again, see and greet each other. 

We will welcome Summer by raising our glasses and we will be thankful because .. Fun Matters .. for all of us who love music and the season we call .. summertime. 

Pat Locke, Maestro Muse