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4.14 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 7 3 E verybody acquainted with Ken- tucky Derby history knows 1957 as the year Willie Shoemaker, think- ing he had won aboard Gallant Man, misjudged the fnish line and stood up for an instant in the stirrups, allowing Iron Liege to stick his nose in front. It was the frst of two times that Calumet Farm horses won Derbies they really should have lost. (In 1968, winner Dancer's Image was disqualifed and Calumet's Forward Pass eventually took home the trophy.) But the notoriety of the stirrups incident, used time and again to encapsulate that dreary, cold Derby, obscures just how riveting that May event was to Louisville and the horse-racing world. Te class of three-year-old Toroughbreds running preps that year was unusually fast and competitive — unlike, say, the next year, when Calumet's Tim Tam would blow away the feld in the Fountain of Youth, Everglade and Flamingo stakes as well as the Florida Derby and the Derby Trial before taking the Kentucky Derby. Te 1957 contend- ers included future Peter Pan, Belmont and Travers stakes winner Gallant Man; Flamingo Stakes (track record) and Wood Memorial winner Bold Ruler; Forerunner Stakes winner Iron Liege; Round Table, winner of the Bay Meadows Derby and Bluegrass Stakes (track record); Gen. Duke, frst in the Everglade Stakes and Florida Derby (world record for a mile and an eighth); and Louisiana Derby (track record) and Derby Trial winner Federal Hill, owned by Louisville's own Cliford Lussky. Bold Ruler, Round Table (both of whom were foaled on the same April night at Claiborne Farm) and Gallant Man would all earn places in horse racing's Hall of Fame. Asked by Courier-Journal columnist Earl Ruby about his horse's chances in the Derby, 82-year-old Bold Ruler trainer "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons said, "Bold Ruler has to break a track record every time he goes to the post just to be in the money. All Nashua had to do was beat Swaps." Tree of the top six horses carried Hall of Fame riders: Eddie Arcaro on Bold Ruler, Willie Shoemaker on Gallant Man and Bill Hartack on Iron Liege (after his origi- nal mount, Gen. Duke, developed a hoof problem and was scratched late in the week). Between 1955 and 1965, the three jockeys would grab seven Kentucky Derby trophies and this year would split the Triple Crown three ways. Te scratching of Calumet Farm's Gen. Duke, stablemate of Iron Liege, had a huge impact on the race because of the way he had burned up the track in the Florida Derby. Heading into Derby Week, the coupled entry of the two Calumet colts made it the betting favorite. After Gen. Duke's injury emerged while fnishing second in the Tuesday Derby Trial (it wouldn't be bumped back three days until 1982), Bold Ruler — considered high-octane but headstrong — took over the low-odds slot and Iron Liege dropped to ffth favorite, right behind Federal Hill. You might wonder why a trainer in his right mind — unless he was desperate for a Derby-qualifying purse — would run his horse four days before the Derby. But it wasn't unusual back then. Calumet's Citation, Hill Gail and Tim Tam won both the Derby Trial and the Derby. So full of promise, Gen. Duke — his name abbreviated because a horse named General Duke won the 1868 Belmont — became a tragic equine fgure. He did not return to the track as a three-year-old and developed a balance-afecting neurological condition called wobbler's syndrome and died at four. H orse racing aside, the nation was rap- idly — and radically — changing in 1957, and not just because the frst frozen pizza was introduced that year. (Just kidding, but can you imagine a world without frozen pizzas?) Te Russians were about to send up Sputniks I and II, the latter includ- ing a dog "cosmonaut," embarrassing the Eisenhower administration and Congress and racheting up fears of missile-based thermo- nuclear war. Attack from within, initiated by Elvis Presley's loose-limbed performance on the Milton Berle Show in summer 1956, met with resistance by media critics (the New York Herald Tribune's John Crosby called Elvis "un- speakably untalented and vulgar") and by the '57 debut of the anti-Elvis Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, during which many a Boone- covered rhythm-and-blues song sufered death by milktoast. You could easily see the drawing of the battle lines between youth as much of it was naturally developing versus youth as corporate America wanted it to develop. Suddenly we had Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" butting heads with Father Knows Best and the frst episodes of the squeaky-clean Leave It to Beaver. It's worth noting, too, that American Bandstand entered national TV syndication that year. And another form of division took place in '57: On the heels of the book release of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, the "Beat Generation" announced its arrival. Conversely, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged also was released, easing the minds of capitalist wealth-seekers around the country. Ten throw in a third book release: Dr. Seuss' Te Cat in the Hat, the children's book that thumbed its nose at the stilted, conventionalized communication of the Dick and Jane books. More Kerouac than Rand, Seuss was, says his editor, Michael Frith, "someone who delighted in the chaos of life, who delighted in the seeming insanity of the world around him." Other frsts and peculiar occurrences from the year: U.S. Surgeon General Leroy Burney warned, for the frst time, "It is clear that there is an increasing and consistent body of evidence that excessive cigarette smoking is one of the causative factors in lung cancer." American Motors' Rambler American became the only U.S.-made compact car, turning a corner in the area of improving gas mileage and recognizing auto air pollution. Surpris- ingly, given the sparsity of the technology now, going on six decades years later, the frst solar-powered building was introduced in Albuquerque, N.M. In addition, the frst nuclear-powered power plant went on line in Shippingport, Pa. And if it makes any diference today, Commie-hunting Sen. Joe McCarthy died on Pegasus Parade day and the Ku Klux Klan opened membership to Roman Catholics. Te debut of the nuclear power plant is of particular interest, seeing as the downside to commercial use of the atom was little under- stood at the time. A Derby-morning article in the Courier-Journal quoted a branch manager Elvis and Jerry Lee versus Pat Boone and the Beaver: You could easily see the drawing of the batle lines between youth as much of it was naturally developing versus youth as corporate America wanted it to develop. 64-81.indd 73 3/19/14 5:27 PM