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| Unofficial Celebrity Report: Jim Marshall | | Date Created: Oct 13, 2004, 02:47 PM |
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As a celebrity and one of the top-10 "most liked athletes in America," Dale Jr. receives gifts of all sorts nearly everywhere he goes. From the sweet to the macabre, from kids and adults, you never know what (or who) will show up next.
One of the more memorable - at least to me - was a photo left at the Bud hauler for Dale Jr. at a Cup race in Sonoma. The vast majority of the instances someone drops off a photo at the track, it's for Dale Jr. to autograph and return. Sometimes, those are lost or damaged, which is why - other than the overwhelming demand - we don't accept items to be signed at the track.
But this one was different. It was an a framed. museum-quality print of one of the greatest rock-and-roll photos ever. And it was signed by the man who took the photo, Jim Marshall.
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 Marshall, it seems, (perhaps inspired by a Racer Magazine pic of Junior flipping the bird at his hapless publicist?) had dropped off the gift of his shot of Johnny Cash with bird-in-full-flight. The photo was taken prior to one of Cash's famous concerts at San Quentin Prison. Legend has it Marshall asked Cash to give him a pose "for the warden" and the resulting moment was forever captured.
Marshall, rumored to be the inspiration for Dennis Hopper's eccentric photographer character in Apocalypse Now, has taken countless legendary (primarily black-and-white) images of jazz and rock legends, including the Beatles' final concert, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and more than 500 album covers.
Marshall's work can be purchased here, or you can check out several of his books such as Not Fade Away and Jim Marshall: Proof.
However, we were never able to set-up a meeting with Mitchell, so Jim, if you're out there, drop us an e-mail! |
 Bird is the Word: Some legends say "the finger" goes back many thousands of years to ancient Rome. If you'd like to see many celebs flashing the bird, check out Famous Finger Fotos. What is not included there is a shot of Junior flashing the middle digit at Bristol in 2003 after Robby Gordon had crashed into the Bud machine on pit lane following the race. Despite legends to the contrary, Junior was not giving the finger to Robby, but rather to a crewmember who believed Junior had instigated the contact. To the left, yours truly is trying to prevent any further fines or fisticuffs by taking my best possible grip on the epaulettes of Junior's uniform. |
 The Euro Version: I tend to believe the U.S. single-fingered salute is actually a streamlined variation of the British version of the dual-finger gesture (seen here being given by Steve McQueen in Le Mans). In the 1400s, King Henry the V took his troops across the channel to fight the French. When the French would capture an English archer, they would cut off the index and middle fingers, making the archer unable to ever again properly shoot a bow-and-arrow. (And it's why I was never able to be a successful left-handed archer. See "why the bad finger jokes?" for full details..) Following that conflict, the two-fingered salute became a defiant "up yours" from the Brits. And that's your lesson for the day.
Speaking of Old-School: Dale Jr. gave a lengthy and entertaining interview to Rick Minter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution regarding his appreciation and love of the history of NASCAR, and particularly his tendency to cheer for the longest of long-shots. The story is slated to appear in the Atlanta paper the week of the race at AMS.
Among the many anecdotes offered by Junior was one detailing his days cheering for Jimmy "Smut" Means, an always-underfunded underdog who made more than 450 Cup starts without a single victory. Junior told of hanging out with Jimmy's son at the track, and at places like Talladega, the two kids would scour the empty garage area while the race went on, picking up any stray spark plugs, brake cleaner or other bits and pieces left behind by the major teams, then leaving the box behind at Means' truck so he'd have at least a few new bits for the following race.
"I don't know if Jimmy ever knew we did that or not..." Junior laughed.
Should be an entertaining story. As usual, we'll let you know when it appears.
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