Trivia From the First Indy 500

Sorting through a month's worth of newspaper coverage of the first Indianapolis 500 reveals some relatively obscure but interesting facts. This is the kind of detail that usually has to be edited out of published feature story copy to accommodate space restrictions. Here's a sample:
 

• Patrons of Indianapolis cafes in May 1911 formed betting pools to wager on the number of deaths that would occur in the first Indianapolis 500.
• 30 telegraph operators "broadcast" (the papers actually used that exact word) the first Indianapolis 500 to the world (via newspapers) from the press stand at the young Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• Firestone sponsored a giant crown worth $10,000 that was presented to Bob Burman, who set the world land speed record at Daytona in March 1911 as well as speedway records for the flying mile, half-mile, quarter-mile and kilometer the day before the first Indianapolis 500.
• The Cole Motor Car Company used the first Indianapolis 500 as a platform for corporate hospitality for their dealers and suppliers.
• Balloonist Captain George L. Bumbaugh had an aerial view of the first Indianapolis 500 when he ascended in his 80,000 cubic foot gas balloon from the IMS infield at the end of the race.
• Drivers Louis Disbrow and Ralph Mulford drove their race cars to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mulford came from Detroit and Disbrow came from Hartford, Connecticut.