Back from Berlin last month on the world's fastest liner, R. M. S. Queen Mary, came the world's fastest blackamoor, Jesse Owens, with four Olympic crowns in his valise. With very little money in his pocket, Sprinter Owens made no secret of the fact that he was returning to the U. S. to cash in on his athletic reputation for all it was worth. Bug-eyed Radioclown Eddie Cantor, whose recent offer of a college scholarship ended in an unfortunate cribbing fiasco (TIME, April 20), was said to be offering Owens $4,000 a week just to take him on a personal tour. A Manhattan theatre was said to be clamoring for the dusky speedster's services at $10,000 a week. Hotfoot to a radio telephone trotted Bill ("Bojangles") Robinson. "Don't do anything till you see me!" implored the world's greatest tapdancer. When the Queen Mary docked, "Bojangles" took Jesse up to Harlem, lined up a bevy of Lenox Avenue high-yellow girls on a nightclub stage, posed for photographs and hoped that he and Owens would soon have an act together.
Up to last week nobody had actually exploited a cent's worth of publicity out of the season's most publicized black man. when all of a sudden the valuable name of Owens appeared on a testimonial for the Republican Party.
In Manhattan, Jesse Owens announced that he was ready to stump for Alf M. Landon, was quoted as saying: "This country was built on the sweat and blood of the Negro race and this fact hasn't yet been recognized. I believe Governor Landon will recognize it. . . . His election will be good for America and for the people of the colored race. . . . I want to meet Governor Landon personally." Shocked at Owens' ingratitude were Democrats. At Ohio State, Jesse Owens has been drawing $3 per day since February 1935 as a non-working page in the Democratic Legislature of that currently Democratic State.
Shocked at Owens' lack of commercial acumen was Marty Forkins, who signed a one-year contract with Owens to handle all his business and personal affairs. Snapped he: "Owens made his political statement without my permission. I did not know he was going to Republican Headquarters or I would have stopped him. He absolutely will not enter into any political campaigning."