Los Angeles County Fair Ski Jumping 1951

As I continue to digitize my parents photo collection and explore my family history, I thought I would share these photos I found of a ski jump that was built at the Los Angeles County Fair in 1951. These pictures also include shots of my dad, who had been an avid ski jumper since a young age, and got the "opportunity" to jump this faux hill. I believe he was among the volunteers that helped pack the artificial snow for the jump and in return he got the chance to jump the hill.

The scaffold construction was 225 feet high and from some accounts was not the most stable.

very rickety scaffold that resembled a standard ski jumping profile.

Sepp Benedikter was the mastermind behind this creation. He was born in the Austrian Alps and migrated to the USA in the 1930's. More on the specs of the jump can be found here.

Here is my dad at the top of the jump preparing to launch himself into the air.

Mid-flight down the hill to a hopefully a successful landing.

The view from the top.

And another view of a jumper in mid-flight. Looks like there were some days with when there were some good sized crowds.

A tandem jump. Judging by the width of the in run from the pictures above, just getting in the air had to be a little scary.

I guess going shirtless is one of the perks of ski jumping in LA.

All photos except one (fair logo) were taken by Charles Kassler. He has an interesting story involving a mural he painted in the 1930's. Some of his history and that story can be read here.

Please feel free to make comments or ask me any questions about this post.

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Thanks for looking and enjoy your day!

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