These four fair athletes of the Los Angeles, Calif. Athletic Club prove how easy it is to hurdle the 1932 barrier. The figures also stand for the Olympic Games, which are to be held in Los Angeles next summer. These four, training under the supervision of the California Olympic Contest Association, are, left to right: Marion Fitting, Anne O'Brien, Lois Welch and Evelyn Furtsch.
AP
Organizers of the 1932 Summer Games in Los Angeles thought it would be easy to get President Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou Hoover to kick off the ceremonies because they both went to Stanford, and the First Lady grew up in Whittier. But the President wanted to focus on his re-election. “For him to be away from Washington for three weeks would be a national disaster,” White House aide Lawrence Richey said, according to Bill Watterson’s The Games Presidents Play. President Hoover sent Vice President Charles Curtis to read a message at the Games, which turned out to be an enormous success. However, none of that success rubbed off on Hoover: he lost the state of California and the 1932 election.