The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-02-12
BARNEY OLDFIELD NEARLY BROKE TAKES OFFICE JOB
Famed Knight of Speedway Sunk in Stock Crash
Seeks to Retrieve His Fallen Fortunes,
Working as Clerk for Broker

ings just before that crash of No
vember, 1929. he would have
owned a fortune estimated at
more than a quarter million
dollars.
TODAY Barney Oldfeld is
i broke, SO far as ready cash is
concerned. But he still has some
thing to show from his earlier
successful days.
There's a beautiful home at
Beverly Hills, Call which he val
ues at between $125,OOO and $780,
600. He has been living there
with his wife, whom he married
six years ago, and with his Is
year-old daughter, Betty, whom
the present Mrs. Oldfeld had
adopted previous to their mar
riage.
He still owns several other
pieces of real estate in Beverly
Hills and he holds 1000 shares of
one stock, although not outright.
But these aren't bringing in any
thing right now, and so Barney
has had to go to work.
Barney doesn't feel bad about
that at all. In fact he likes the
idea of buckling down after a
rather carefree and liberal exist
ence. And he's glad he's starting
over again in Detroit, the city
that gave him his start back in
1902.
ID BARNEY is SO now, no longer
D the reckless muscular young
man who would do anything any
one dared him to do. His speech
and actions are quite opposite to-
day. Imagine him, twenty years
ago, saying this:
II don't believe in any driver
going fifty to sixty miles an hour
on the highway, hogging the road
and breaking all traffic laws.
"In fact, I wouldn't have
enough nerve to do it myself.
Furthermore, it's setting a bad
example for young America. I take
no chances on the road"
Barney says if it hadn't been
for him, Henry Ford might never
have entered the automobile game
This incident of how he made
Henry Ford still rankes in Barney
Oldfield's mind, for the old-time
racer feels Ford, on his part, could
have given him start.
st was a bicycle racer with the
late Tom Cooper in those days, -
Oldf1eld recalls. 1--WE heard of
Henry Ford and his efforts to
build an automobile that would
go.
He had built two cars and
neither would bulge because the
fuel wouldn't move up hill to the
engine.
"EORD, disguised, left his cars
l. in a barn on the track at
Crosse Point, near Detroit, and
would have quit right there hadn't
Tom and I come down to take a
try at it.
tom bought one Of the cars
from Ford for $3.50. Ford wouldn't
have his name mentioned with
it, SO Tom called it the Cooper
Special IT,"
That was in the fall of 1902.
Oldf1eld and Cooper took the car
out, looked it over and decided to
make few changes in the engine.
Backed by Carl Fisher, now
famous millionaire auto race pro-
moter, the two pioneer racers con-
tinued to work on the original
Ford racer, further improving it
in preparation for five-mile race
at Crosse Point.
1t needed plenty of muscle to
steer and control that car, so
Oldf1eld was picked to drive.
That was on Oct. 2, 1902.
II Il n
"Eord was still doubtful about
II the performance of that car
Barney recalls, land even let it be
known to others that he couldn't
be held responsible if anything
happened to me or the machine
Alexander Winton, I remember
was in that race, too.
''WeH, I made the five miles in
the record time of minutes 2e
seconds, and one of the men who
carried me off the track on. their
shoulders was Henry Ford!"
That's what started Barney
Oldf1eld on his great racing career
and that, says Barney, is what
really started Henry Ford on his
way to fame and fortune.