Auto Polo?

Okay, this is just funny.  I mean, how many of you have ever heard of a sport called Auto Polo?  I never had either, but as I'm preparing to start the actual biographical section of the blog, this is what I found leading up to it.

I found a few hits on this fascinating sport via Google search, but then I came across these incredible photos, completely by accident while looking for some info on an unrelated car.  Don't read any further, seriously go get a good laugh.  Cars, men, giant polo balls, and giant polo mallets flying!  Safety apparently hadn't yet been invented.

There are also a few photos of family friends scattered across the pages in between the Indy 500 of 1913, and the racing photos and newspaper clippings which are coming soon.  Since I have no biographical details on these photos (other than my grandmother and great-aunt Corinne), they'll be passed over, and none of them is particularly interesting in composition.  I'll post some family photos, since family is reading this as well, but in a future post.  However, we do have a couple of photos of Ivan in wonderful automobiles.  

This car was what I was attempting to research when I stumbled on the Auto Polo photos. My first car was a 1964 Dodge Lancer, affectionately known as "The Kurtmobile".  Ivan's apparently was a Chalmers, if my research is correct.  They paid more for that car in 1914 than I did for my first two cars starting in 1976.  Isn't it gorgeous?  My Dodge was not.

I also found Ivan in this Chalmers racer, in all it's muddy glory, just prior to the racing photos.  They will be coming very soon!  I'm not sure how often we'll see this, but the Wheaton family garage can be seen in the background with another automobile in it.  Considering that automobiles are so new, I suppose garages are as well.  There must have been stables nearby.  I see horses in quite a few photos at this home as well.  The photography business must have been very kind to Van Benschotten Wheaton.

I've never seen, nor heard any family history regarding Ivan or Van B. having been in the automobile business, but this letterhead is tucked away in the collection, and I have another letterhead of the Wheaton Automobile Company with a Pierce Arrow header.  Actually, Ivan wrote in his journal of 1920 that he had taken a position as a used car salesman, in southern California.

-kpw