Professional pedestrianism, or professional foot racing, was an immensely popular worldwide Victorian spectator sport on par with modern-day sports like soccer,
American football and cricket. Held in huge indoor arenas on 8-lap to the mile sawdust tracks, the blue riband event, the 6-day
“go-as-you-please”
race, attracted the best ultra long-distance athletes to compete for astonishing prize money and an array of spectacular diamond encrusted gold belts that were offered by ruthless promoters.
Contestants, who were entered by backers and attended by trainers during the gruelling races, were expected to make at least 450 miles during the 142-hour period to even be considered for prize money.
The screenplay, based on the book King of the Peds, is set in 1879 at the height of the so-called Pedestrian Mania when the sport of pedestrianism hit its zenith in a world where hundreds and thousands of its fans fell over themselves to watch it in spectacular events in cities like Melbourne and Sydney, Australia; Birmingham,
Sheffield and London, England; Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, and Boston,
Chicago, New York and San Francisco, USA — to name but a few.
Pedestrianism was a brutal sport — much more brutal than bare-knuckle boxing! It attracted off-course and track-side betting with bookmakers attending these events in great numbers. The inside of the tracks resembled funfairs and bars offered alcoholic drinks with bands entertaining both spectators and competitors with popular numbers.
The sport required hard and dedicated individuals to compete in it and the following are the main characters in the screenplay in alphabetical order:
Frank Hart: ‘Black Dan’ was the world’s first black sporting superstar. The Bostonbased grocery store assistant from Haiti was adored by the fans of the sport.
George Littlewood: Considered to be the best ultra-endurance foot racing athlete of all time, the ‘Sheffield Flyer’ ran a world record 623 miles in six days in 1888. The steelworker’s 1882 walking world record of 531 miles in the same time still stands.
Charlie Rowell:
The ‘
Cambridge Wonder
’ won two races at Madison Square Garden, in 1879 securing prize money to the modern-day equivalent of one million dollars!
Daniel O’Leary:
The Irish-American champion pedestrian of the world from 1874 to
1879 would go on to promote races and compete in them.
Edward Payson Weston: The first man to walk 500 miles in six days, the eccentric
American, aka ‘The Pedestrian’ , was the world’s first-ever sporting superstar. He was hugely popular in America and Britain where he was mobbed wherever he went.
The exciting sport of pedestrianism has never, ever, been brought to the attention of movie-goers on the big screen. The King of the Peds screenplay has been written to introduce the people of the world to this incredibly hugely popular sport in a way which they will find both amusing and shocking…
For a copy of the screenplay, please contact the author at kingofthepeds@hotmail.com