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M O R E T H R I L L I N G
T H A N F I C T I O N
The extraordinary life of legendary polo-player Tommy Hitchcock led to him being celebrated
as an exemplary American hero in a series of comic books, as Nigel à Brassard discovers
It is said that the illustrious American
polo-player Tommy Hitchcock Jr was so well
known he could walk up Park Avenue, from
the New York Racquet Club to his apartment
on 84th street, and at each corner the
policemen would say ‘Good evening, Mr
Hitchcock,’ and stop the traffic for him.
Arguably America’s greatest ever polo
player and an aviation hero of the First and
Second World Wars, Hitchcock – a true
immortal of the 1920s ‘Golden Age’ of sports
– is celebrated through a number of
mid-20th-century children’s non-fiction
comics that give illustrated accounts of
his achievements.
True Comics
is a series of graphic
non-fiction stories published by George
Hecht between 1941 and 1959, created to
educate American children with the idea
that ‘Truth is stranger and a thousand times
more thrilling than fiction.’ ‘Ten-Goal Tommy’
– the cover story of the July 1946 issue –
provides a four-page narrative of Hitchcock’s
character, highlighting his time as a teenage
pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille (a French
unit made up of American volunteers) during
WWI; his polo-playing career, including an
illustration of his greatest shot – a goal he
scored from 170 yards to win the inaugural
Copa de las Américas against Argentina in
1928; and his time served as a US Army Air
Forces test pilot, picturing him with the
P-51B Mustang fighter plane that he was
involved in developing during WWII, and in
which he was killed in 1944.
A June 1945 comic in
True Sport
featured
a four-page cartoon that tells the story of
‘Tommy Hitchcock – Man of Wings and
Mallets!’, describing him as the man ‘who
became a world war hero and the greatest
polo player in the history of the game.’ The
comic strip compares Hitchcock’s 10-goal
rating as equivalent to a .400 baseball hitter,
an ‘All-American’ in football or a golfer
playing in the sixties, championing his
credentials in the context of other popular
American sports.
Real Life Comics,
which documented the
adventures of the world’s greatest heroes,
included a four-page comic strip story titled
‘Tommy Hitchcock – Prince of Polo!’, which
draws comparisons between Hitchcock and
the baseball player Babe Ruth, the boxer
Jack Dempsey and the golfer Bobby Jones –
other great sportsmen of the 1920s
Golden Age. Additionally, the story highlights
Hitchcock’s heroic exploits in the two world
wars that ensured he ‘carved a lasting niche
in the hall of fame.’
The weekly comic
Argosy
contained
a cartoon column called ‘Men of Daring’ and
the October 15 1932 issue included a piece
by Stookie Allen on Tommy Hitchcock – ‘The
greatest polo player the world has ever seen
and the youngest aviator to bring down an
enemy plane in the war.’ It also triumphantly
records Tommy’s success scoring as many
goals in the 1921 Westchester Cup matches
as the entire British team combined.
Hitchcock’s fame and prominence was
so great, his influence extended beyond the
sporting community. The author F Scott
Fitzgerald is said to have modeled the
characters of both Tom Buchanan in his
novel
The Great Gatsby
and Tommy Barban
in
Tender is the Night
on him. Hitchcock is
also the subject of Nelson Aldrich’s
biography
American Hero
, and he featured in
advertising for an array of products, such as
PMWhiskey. Indeed, there has been much
written about Tommy Hitchcock and his
achievements. Writing about his performance
in the 1927 Westchester Cup matches,
Polo
magazine concluded that ‘No one who has
not seen a ten-goal player play fifteen-goal
polo can imagine the stark power of this
youth.’ An inspiring legacy indeed.
H I T C H C O C K ’ S P R OM I N E N C E WA S S O G R E AT ,
H I S I N F L U E N C E E X T E N D E D B E Y O N D S P O R T
