h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"It was on film"

Sorry Taff!

Can't resist that, but sadly cannot pick a connection!!

"I Was A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" with Paul Muni sounds right but isn't silent. There is a Laurel and Hardy set in a jail where they attempt to escape disguised as foreign visitors to the jail. That's silent but I can't remember the name.

Actually there probably is a Laurel and Hardy set in every possible location!

Possibly isn't a film star as having a record bad enough to get you into San Quentin would probably blight your prospects? Unless you were Johnny Cash who must have made more than one bad record

Keystone Cops?

Thanksgiving Day....I'll risk a klaxon by mentioning turkeys. Was it a turkey race? And "Run for your life" - the origin of the presidential turkey-pardoning tradition?

The link to silent films is to do with what is Quite Interesting about the race - which so far no-one has come close to guessing, but thanks for digging up a fair number of my klaxons - The setting of the prison is kind of irrelevant to the movies link.

However in terms of the OP question itself the prison in highly significant.

So no keystone cops (though I did consider klaxoning that)

and not

Laural and Hardy

Now what did I say? Don't be obvious?

"The turkey won the race and won a reprieve!"


There really is so much in this question it was a struggle to alight on just one part of it: the prison, the race, the date definitely significant, all of it but so far no-one has really focussed on what was really Quite Interesting about it.

We still haven't ascertained who took part. Was it just prisoners? No prisoners? All of the prisoners?

Quiet right.

Just prisoners.

I feel I've been quiet generous with clues or do you need more?

What was unusual about the 1923 50 yard dash is that it was completely different from any 50 yard dash held at St Quentin before or since.

Run for your life. One prisoner competed in the 50 yard dash every year from the beginning of his incarceration until he lost his last stay of execution and failed to make the start for the 1924 race, making 1923 his last.

Or: this has nothing to do with athletics but relates to an event which happened at the time the annual track and field tournament was taking place. It sounds like a good time to try to escape whilst the events were taking place.

1923 is significant because it was the time of hyper inflation in Germany and the failed coup by the Nazis leading to the imprisonment of A Hitler.

Did the annual St Quentin games include international events with teams of convicts representing other countries? I am just chortling imagining Adolf in the 50 yard dash, although the Nazis were more suited to football. They were great at appealing for offside decisions.

>What was unusual about the 1923 50 yard dash is that it was completely different from any 50 yard dash held at St Quentin before or since.<

I'm no expert, but I think a 50 yard dash is a 50 yard dash no matter which way you slice it.

>This has nothing to do with athletics but relates to an event which happened at the time the annual track and field tournament was taking place.<

I'll give that a cautious DGI +1, it's not what you think I can guarantee that, but your not wrong this is about events outside the prison as much as it is about what was significant about the race, that's true.

>Run for your life. One prisoner competed in the 50 yard dash every year from the beginning of his incarceration until he lost his last stay of execution and failed to make the start for the 1924 race, making 1923 his last.<

Nope, but I was tempted to give you a DGI for a part of this but feel you need to develop it more. There's a theme buried in there somewhere ....

You said (wrote, actually) "buried"?

Did a ghost win the race?

That would be impossible.

>Is 1923 significant<

Yes in a broad canvas sort of way.


>Did the annual St Quentin games include international events with teams of convicts representing other countries? <

Not that I am aware of.

Re: buried. Made a rod for my own back with all this wordplay haven't I?

I meant theme is partially obscured by the noise of the irrelevant bits.

>It sounds like a good time to try to escape whilst the events were taking place.<

Do you think they did?

This is a marvelous learning curve.

When I am silly I get .

But when I am VERY silly I Get DGI's.

I do hope your sense of humour will hold out.

I think it's probably because just occasionally truth is stranger than fiction.

And in this case the truth is very strange indeed.

I've spent weeks researching this, I could scarcely believe it when I found out, but it makes perfect sense.

"I'm no expert, but I think a 50 yard dash is a 50 yard dash no matter which way you slice it."

Have you never seen Monty Python's 100m sprint for the directionally challenged?