Frank Turano

Joe E. Brown and Frank Turano 1934

Frank Turano understood better than anyone that an athlete’s job is to be an entertainer.

During the decades of his cycling career, Frank competed in 55 Six Day events, worked as a stuntman in the movies, sang, clowned around, and played to the crowd when he raced.

As the stunt double for star Joe E. Brown in the 1934 film “The Six Day Bike Race” Frank took the risks, and made it look easy.

In one scene the villain of the film, Harry St. Clair (played by Gordon Westcott), was to come out of the north turn and ride the hero right off the upper railing of the track.
As Turano told it: “The fellows were rather worried about it.  You see, I was to ride right over the top of the track… Crash through the rail and drop into one of the boxes.  Before starting they placed a fat extra in the box and I was told if I could crash through and fall on him it would be all right.”

Frank Turano with his bike

The star and stunt cast of the 1934 film The Six Day Bicycle Race

Frank takes bit of a spill, October 1928

“He was to be a shock absorber.  I circled the track three or four times and then hit the back turn where Westcott was to shove me through the fence.  He did the job perfectly and I headed for the rail.  They had taken all the nails out of the fence and placed matches in the holes just to hold it together.  Well, I hit that rail at an awful clip… Smashed through and started to drop.  I saw the fat man underneath and I hit him head first…  They carried him to the hospital with a broken collerbone.”

Mr. Turano broke quite a few bones in the course of his racing career (including a dozen collarbone fractures), but that portly film extra provided enough padding for Frank to walk away from this particular stunt unscathed.