The Summer Olympics are across the ocean this year, but that doesn’t stop us from remembering our past ties to these games:\u00a0 the Davenporters who were counted among the world’s finest athletes.<\/p>\n
One of these was Nat Pendleton, who was born in Davenport on August 9, 1895.\u00a0 We can\u2019t locate his Scott County birth record, but his parents, Nathaniel and Adalaide, do appear in the State Census for 1895 and Mr. Pendleton is listed in that year\u2019s city directory as the secretary treasurer for the Davenport Gas Light Company.\u00a0 The little family lived in a nice neighborhood at 1011 Main Street.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, by the next year\u2019s directory, the company had disappeared.\u00a0 The Pendletons had moved to an apartment at the Kimball House, but soon moved east, eventually settling in New York by way of Ohio\u00a0and New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Nat attended Columbia College, where he showed himself to be champion wrestling material.\u00a0 In 1920, he was chosen to wrestle freestyle, heavy weight division, in the Summer Olympics, which were held in Antwerp, Belgium.\u00a0 After beating Sweden\u2019s Ernst Nilsson in the semi-finals, Nat won a silver medal in the finals.<\/p>\n
His\u00a0only loss in the Olympics was to Robert Roth of Switzerland, who took the gold.<\/p>\n
Nat later became a well-known character actor in Hollywood, usually playing strong silent types.\u00a0 He appeared in many diverse films\u2014if not always diverse roles\u2014such as the Thin Man<\/em> series, the Doctor Kildare<\/em> series, and, most notably The Great Ziegfeld <\/em>as circus strongman Eugene Sandow.\u00a0\u00a0 He died in California on Oct 12, 1967.<\/p>\n Nat Pendleton may have spent only a few years in Davenport, but he\u2019s one of us by birth,* and we\u2019re keeping him in our minds and memories as we watch this year\u2019s Summer Games.\u00a0 We may even\u00a0rent the Thin Man<\/em> series as well!<\/p>\n (posted by Sarah)<\/em><\/p>\n _______________________________________________________<\/p>\n *We\u2019d claim cyclist Christine Thorburn if we could, except Bettendorf probably wouldn\u2019t let us get away with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Summer Olympics are across the ocean this year, but that doesn’t stop us from remembering our past ties to these games:\u00a0 the Davenporters who were counted among the world’s finest athletes. One of these was Nat Pendleton, who was … Continue reading