The Promotional Mind of Ernie Moross

Virtually forgotten, Ernie Moross was indisputably one of the more ingenious creative promotive minds in auto racing during the early years of the 20th century. No surprise, America's first auto racing superstar, the attention-seeking Barney Oldfield, hired Moross in 1905 to help ballyhoo his infamous barnstorming tours into the American hinterlands.
 
The two men fed off each other in a tempestuous on-again, off-again relationship that generated a lot of income. It was an impressive flow of cash that both men spent faster than they could make it - and they lived large. Some of Oldfield's spendthrift lifestyle included buying "rounds for the house," fueling an alcoholic daze that contributed to his unpredictability. It fit with his diamond jewelry, the thick, hand-rolled stogies and fat, ankle-length fur coats.
 
There was a volatility to their relationship. Oldfield's alcohol self-medication accompanied - or triggered - mood swings. He believed fans were vultures who attended races to see men die in spectacular accidents and just beneath the surface of his blurred consciousness was the pursuit of another highly compensated, attention-generating career. He tried acting on Broadway like his world champion boxer drinking pal Jim Jeffries but found it tedious and beyond the reach of his meager talents.
 
While Oldfield constantly vacillated between retirement and full-bore record runs a third variable in his life was the American Automobile Association (AAA). They took a dim view of his unsanctioned races. Here's the reality: the nation's largest sanctioning body wrestled with a single man for control of the sport. They repeatedly banished him which aggravated his mercurial nature.
 
Meanwhile the more stable - relatively speaking - Moross constantly hatched schemes of motorsports daring, with or without the cigar chomping Oldfield. He eventually landed at the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Well acquainted with Ernie's success presenting Oldfield to the "weed benders" of the American countryside, Track Founder Carl Fisher prevailed upon the master of broadsides to join his team.
 
At first it was a marriage made in heaven. The two kinetic, out-of-control attention deficit minds bounced like basketballs from one impractical stunt to another. Both in a mad rush to recover the four Speedway founders' in the purchase and development of 328 acres of farmland, they dreamed up a balloon race, an aviation show and motorcycle racing to fully utilize the facilities.
 
One of Moross' brainstorms was the creation of a "Hazard Course" event at the track's first Memorial Day weekend event in 1910. Sponsored by Overland, a car manufacturer with a huge Indianapolis presence, drivers the press dubbed "wood plank motor cowboys" scaled and descended from giant, mobile wood ramps before launching off an a marked, circuitous path through the grounds, including a dip into the creek at the south end of the track. It remains one of the most wildly imaginative events in the mighty Speedway's century of history.
 
While the May 1910 event was a good success, other race weekends throughout the year failed to attract the desired attendance. The June aviation show and a balloon race in September were particularly disappointing. Fisher challenged Moross to attract European factories to the upcoming Brickyard auto races. A July visit across the Atlantic by Moross yielded no takers.
 
In all fairness, cutting deals with foreign factories wasn't Moross' forte. He was a man inspired by Barnum & Bailey, a huckster by the assessment of the judgmental. He loved to bark of daring deeds, new world records and dream of making the implausible seem perfectly normal.
 
Once Speedway founders decided to dispense with their plan to stage myriad auto races and focus on one massive, 500-mile sweepstakes Moross no long fit the plan. He was the magician of rapid-fire stunts, not the slow roll of project one annual massive classic. Less than two years after signing on with the Speedway Moross and Fisher parted ways.
 
After Oldfield was banned yet again by the AAA Moross bought him out and started campaigning the giant "Blitzen Benz" with daredevil Bob Burman. In addition to setting a world land speed record, they stormed the country dazzling spectators and yes, making a lot of money.
 
In 1913 Moross was back at it again with Oldfield and staging with car-airplane races with pioneering aviator Lincoln Beachey. Throughout that summer they staged "The Championship of the Universe" at county fair horse tracks throughout America. The three of them earned over one million dollars.
 
At some point I am guessing Moross "jumped the shark." He ran for congress in Michigan as a communist and at one point protested property taxes by locking himself in his car with his wife. Police had to break in to extract him.
 
Like Oldfield, Fisher and many of their colleagues, Moross financially unraveled in the Great Depression. He ended his life penniless in Long Beach, California in 1949.
 
Okay, so I really went off on this one. Still, that doesn't stop you from enjoying some amazing history if you click thru to the picture you'll find here. Think of what you can find at First Super Speedway as a peek inside a pretty amazing imagination - back in 1910. Don't forget to click thru every link on the page you find. Just take the day off and keep on drilling!