Lewis Fenno Moulton

Moulton Parkway is a super highway in Orange County, California, that runs from Crown Valley Pkwy near Laguna Niguel north to Irvine where it becomes Irvine Center Drive. It was named after Lewis Fenno Moulton, a wealthy cattle rancher who owned 22,000 acres of land that was much of the area where Moulton Pkwy. runs today. 

I was surprised to learn that the Moulton Ranch was still operating as a cattle ranch in the Aliso Viejo area as late as 1968, (See picture below.)

As early as the mid-1700s the Moulton family were prominent in Colonial affairs in New England, and Lewis F. Moulton’s great-grandfather was General Jeremiah Moulton who served with distinction during the Revolutionary War.

The General’s grandson J. Tilden Moulton who practiced law, moved to Chicago in the mid 1800s and later became Editor of the Chicago Tribune. His position at the newspaper brought him in touch with many prominent politicians of the day. Abraham Lincoln was said to be a personal friend.

J. Tilden Moulton had two sons, the youngest being Lewis Fenno, the subject of this story, who was born in Chicago in 1854. Lewis F. Mouton’s mother was the former Charlotte Harding Fenno. (Hence her son’s middle name.) She was a descendant of Samuel Fenno was directly involved in the Boston Tea Party that sparked the Revolutionary War.

According to this account which is quite old and published while Lewis F. Moulton (Picture right.) was still living, so therefore I think more accurate.

Lewis Moulton’s father died when he was quite young and his mother moved the family back east to Boston.

At 20 years old, in 1874, Lewis F. Moulton took the long trip to California. He didn’t go across land like most, he took a boat to Panama, crossed the narrow strip of land by train. He then took another boat to San Francisco.

He later moved south to Santa Ana where he worked on a ranch. He prospered and in time began sheep ranching in partnership with another man. In 1895 at the age of 41 he bought the 22,000 acres that would become the Moulton ranch in the Laguna Hills. Lewis Fenno Moulton died in 1938, he was 84.

A hard working man, who built his own empire, but no doubt coming from such a prominent family he had help along the way, if only by his credentials alone. His elder brother, Irving F. Moulton was Vice President of the Bank of California.

(Above.) Alicio Pkwy in 1968. This road intersects Moulton Pkwy. 

(Below.) The next 3 pictures are Moulton Pkwy. in 1977.

Footnote: I am no direct relation to this Moulton branch of the family, as far as I know. Moulton, (Pronounced Molton.)  is a fairly common English name. There are at least three towns in England named Moulton, translated from the old English it means simply, “A place where mules are kept.” This is probably where the name originated. So people get named after places, and later places get named after people, like Moulton Parkway.

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Remembering Tommy Godwin

British cyclist Tommy Godwin died last Saturday just two days short of his 92^nd birthday. He was a track cyclist who won two Olympic Bronze Medals in the Team Pursuit and the 1,000 meter (The Kilo.) Time Trial.

This was in the 1948 Olympics; the first Olympics after WWII and held in London. This Olympics was run on a shoe-string budget of around 700,000 British Pounds. Some of the athletes were housed in old army camps; others were taken into people's homes.  

When the Olympics returned to London this year Tommy was an Ambassador for the Games, and also at the age of 91, carried the Olympic Torch as it passed through his home town of Solihull, a district of Birmingham.

Tommy Godwin was born in Connecticut, USA in 1920; his British parents had emigrated there a few years earlier, but were forced to return to the UK in 1932 due to the Great Depression that hit the US at that time.

The family settled in the Birmingham area where Tommy remained for the rest of his life. At that time Birmingham was the center of the bicycle manufacturing industry in England, if not the world. When Tommy left school he went to work for the BSA Company; one of the larger bicycle factories.

In 1950 Tommy Godwin opened a retail bicycle shop in Kings Heath, Birmingham. A successful business that he would run for the next 36 years. It was a visit to this bike shop that I would first meet Tommy Godwin in 1952.

I was 16 years old and racing my first season; I rode my bike 70 plus miles from my home town of Luton, (About 30 miles north of London.) to Birmingham. I rode with two more experienced riders who were in their mid 20s.

On the ride there my two companions filled me in as to who Tommy Godwin was, so when I arrived I was somewhat impressed to be in the presence of an Olympic Medalist; but I think what intrigued me most was his Birmingham, or “Brummie” accent.

I had spent my childhood in London then moved to Luton in 1949; the deference between the two regions was not that marked.  But traveling over 70 miles to the West Midlands the dialect was completely different and strange to my ear.

I remember I bought a couple of very nice tubular tires and we rode back to Luton the same day. Years later as an adult I moved to the West Midlands area myself in 1969. I settled in Worcester, just 25 miles south of Birmingham.

In the years that followed I would meet up with Tommy Godwin again several times.

He was always present at various track events and BCF meetings in the Birmingham area.

Tommy had moved on from competitive cycling, to bike business entrepreneur, to the administrative side of the sport of cycling.

He was the first paid British Cycling Coach in 1964 and managed the British Olympic Cycling Team at the Tokyo Summer Games. He was also President of the British Cycling Federation for a period. I think it is safe to say that the success of British cyclists in recent years, especially on the track, was due in part to the initial coaching started by Tommy Godwin.

Tommy was not a close friend, but was someone that was always approachable and a pleasure to meet. I admired him as a teen, and when I met him again in the 1970s. I admire his memory today for all that he has given to the sport of cycling.

Footnote: This Tommy Godwin is not to be confused with another great cyclist with the exact same name. The other Tommy Godwin was a long distance legend who lived from 1912 to 1975 and holds the world record for miles covered in one year; over 75,000 miles, which is over 200 miles a day for a year

                        

Fiorenzo Magni: 1920 – 2012

Italian cyclist Fiorenzo Magni died early last Friday morning; he would have been 92 in less than two months.

Often referred to as the “Third Man,” because he raced in the late 1940s, early 1950s with the other two Italian greats, Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali.

Sometimes on the same national team, sometime rivals, Magni was capable, and often did, beat the other two.

In a period when the sport was less globalized, he won the Tour of Flanders three consecutive years in 1949, 50, and 51. At that time the second non- Belgian to do so.

The press named him, "The Lion of Flanders." He won the Giro d’Italia three times, the last time in 1955 at the age of 35, which to this day stands as a record for the oldest person to win the Giro.

This era is sometimes called the “Golden Age of Cycling.” In the decade following the end of WWII, cycling was the main sport on the European Continent with Italy, France, Belgium and Switzerland being the main players.

Italy had been on the other side during the war, so there was little love lost between Italy and the other countries. But all these nations had suffered a terrible beating, and the exploits of these great riders once again instilled national pride.

I started racing in 1952 so Fiorenzo Magni was one of my heroes, Just as today’s teen racing cyclists would follow the likes of Phillip Gilbert, Tom Boonan, Bradley Wiggins, and Taylor Phinney.

On rare occasions I got a glimpse of my heroes in action in black and white news reel footage, but mostly I just read about them, and studied photographs.

Surely one of the most famous photos of Magni is the one at the top of this piece; he had fallen in the 1956 Giro d’Italia and broken his collar bone. He refused to quit the race, reason being, this was to be his last Giro a race he had won in 1948, 1951, and 1955.

He would rather suffer the immense pain of a broken bone, that to give up on the last opportunity he would have to finish a race that was obviously dear to his heart. The photo shows Fiorenzo with a piece of inner tube around his stem which he held in his teeth because he could no pull on the handlebars due to his broken clavicle.

The amazing end to this story is that Magni not only finished he placed second in the General Classification, beaten only by a younger Charly Gaul, incidentally one of the greatest climbers of all time. How could such courage not go unnoticed by a young cyclist like myself? Fiorenzo Magni taught me a valuable lesson in life; push on, never give up.

Later in more recent years, while researching to write about him here on this blog, he taught me another lesson. This time one of humility.

Let one’s achievements speak for themselves, while accepting life’s disappointments, and realizing that this is the way it was meant to be.

I speak of the 1950 Tour de France. Magni won the Giro three times but the TDF eluded him. Magni was wearing the yellow jersey when the Italian team pulled out en masse after Gino Bartali was threatened by French supporters on the Col d’Aspin.

In an era of national teams, and with Fausto Coppi in his prime, Magni would never again have such an opportunity. (Magni leads Coppi, picture below.)

In recent years he spoke of the 1950 Tour in an interview:

Of course I felt bad about that but I believe that there are bigger things than a technical result, even one as important as winning the Tour de France.

Team manager Alfredo Binda and the Italian Federation made the decision, on Bartali's suggestion. I stuck to the rules and accepted their decision. In my life, I have never pretended to have a role that was not mine.

When asked did he feel he could have won the Tour? His reply was:

That's another story. Hindsight is easier than foresight! I think I had a good chance of winning. But saying now that I would have won would not be very smart.

Rest in peace, Fiorenzo Magni; you will be remembered by me and many others I’m sure.

                       

Guy Stevens

My two passions in life have been bicycles and music; strange combo really, totally unrelated. I have often written here on cycling history, here for a change is a little Rock n’ Roll history, concerning a man named Guy Stevens.

Guy Stevens was a behind the scenes man, a record producer with Island Records in the 1960s. He had a tremendous amount of knowledge of obscure American Blues artists, and was responsible for supplying the Rolling Stones with cover songs before they started writing their own hits.

He also had a flair for coming up with great names for bands and albums. Sticky Fingers, now famous album by the Stones was one of his. He once had a cat named Procol Harum that would become the name of a band he would manage with the hit record, Whiter Shade of Pale in 1967.

When Whiter Shade of Pale became a hit, Guy Stevens missed out because he was in Wormwood Scrubs Prison in West London, serving a short sentence for a drug related offense.

While in prison Stevens read a book by Willard Manus titled Mott, the Hoople, and thought what a great name for a band. Two years later the band would become a reality under Guy Stevens direction.

Here in the story we have to go back to a little known band called Silence, a somewhat strange name for a rock band. Silence originated in Hereford in the West of England, and incidentally next to Worcester, where I had my bicycle business.

They band consisted of Stan Tippins (vocals), Mick Ralphs (guitar), Pete "Overend" Watts (bass), Dale Griffin (drums) and Terry Allen (Organ.) The band paid their dues around the clubs and pubs of England, as well as doing the Hamburg, Germany circuit as the Beatles had done.

In 1969 Overend Watts went to London to audition as a bass player for the band Free, managed by Guy Stevens. He didn’t get the job but was highly impressed with Free and their manager. As a result Mick Ralphs went to see Stevens armed with his demo tape of the band Silence.

Guy Stevens eventually signed the band, but dropped the lead singer, Stan Tippins, and replaced him with Ian Hunter. This line up became Mott the Hoople. Strangely, the band never did well with their record sales, either in England or in the US, where they later toured.

However, their live shows were always a sell out and many big name bands of that era would not have them as an opening act, because they were too good an act to follow.

Mick Ralphs left the band around 1973, and went on to great success when he joined Paul Rodgers formally lead singer with Free, to form Bad Company.

Mick Ronson took over as lead guitar with Mott the Hoople. They are still relatively unknown outside of the UK, but do have somewhat of a cult following in the US and elsewhere. Had it not been for Mott, Mick Ralphs may well have remained in obscurity and Bad Company as we know it would not have followed.

Guy Stevens, the man who started it all, dropped out of sight for a short while after Mott the Hopple broke up sometime in the mid to late 1970s.

He reappeared in 1980, producing the highly-acclaimed album London Calling by The Clash. Sadly, he died shortly afterwards, having overdosed on prescription drugs he was taking for his alcohol dependency. He was only 38 years old.

Guy Stevens is one of those people, who although he was never a performer or rock star himself; he was instrumental in molding the way the music scene went. Had it not been for his untimely death, he may well have contributed much more.

Einstein letter sold at auction

A letter in which Albert Einstein dismissed the idea of God as the product of human weakness and the Bible as collection of honorable but "pretty childish" stories, has sold at auction in London for more than US $400,000.

Einstein wrote the hand written letter in German on January 3 1954 (A year before his death.) to the philosopher Eric Gutkind who had sent him a copy of his book Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt.

The letter went on public sale a year later and has remained in private hands ever since.

Einstein, who was Jewish and who declined an offer to be the state of Israel's second president, also rejected the idea that the Jews are God's “Chosen” people.

He wrote, "For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups.”

Einstein’s parents were not religious but he attended a Catholic primary school and at the same time received private tuition in Judaism. This prompted what he later called, his "religious paradise of youth", during which he observed religious rules such as not eating pork. This did not last long though and by 12 he was questioning the truth of many biblical stories.

He later wrote, “The consequence was a positively fanatic [orgy of] freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression”

In his later years he referred to a "cosmic religious feeling" that permeated and sustained his scientific work. In 1954, a year before his death, he spoke of wishing to "experience the universe as a single cosmic whole". He was also fond of using religious flourishes, in 1926 declaring that "He [God] does not throw dice" when referring to randomness thrown up by quantum theory.

John Brooke of Oxford University, regarded as a leading expert on the scientist, said. “His position on God has been widely misrepresented by people on both sides of the atheism/religion divide but he always resisted easy stereotyping on the subject.

Like other great scientists he does not fit the boxes in which popular polemicists like to pigeonhole him," said Brooke. "It is clear for example that he had respect for the religious values enshrined within Judaic and Christian traditions ... but what he understood by religion was something far more subtle than what is usually meant by the word in popular discussion.”

Despite his categorical rejection of conventional religion, Brooke said that Einstein became angry when his views were appropriated by evangelists for atheism. He was offended by their lack of humility and once wrote. "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."


Footnote:

I post this piece because it is current, and because Einstein is one of my heroes. He was not only brilliant but he was “cool.” I also draw comfort from the fact that people disagreed with his views, and still do.

It serves to make me realize that if people argued with Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds of all time, what chance do I have. A humble artisan who made a few bicycle frames.

People talk of “Reality.” What is that? You can point to the “Empire State Building” or “The Whitehouse,” and say, “That is reality.” However, when it comes to abstract things, like the mind, thinking, God, (whoever He, She, It might be.) I feel one should keep an open mind.

I think it is highly probable that people experience different realities. I do not mind that others disagree with me, but when people tell me outright I am wrong, I shake my head in amusement and say to myself, “Do you walk in my shoes, are you inside my mind, can you see what I see?”

Story USA Today
Partial translation of the letter