Word: ak-sar-ben
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Last year, he rode (and lost) his first race at Ak-Sar-Ben track near Omaha. He struck his stride last winter at Santa Anita, where Oldtimer Eddie Arcaro decided during a race one day that the kid needed taking down a notch. Said Arcaro later: "I rode up even with him and looked him in the eye. He looked right back at me, cold as you please-and first thing I knew I'd been beaten." Glisson won the $100,000-added Santa Anita Derby on Old Rockport, became the long-shot darling of the California bettors, then...
...Beam. In Omaha, John Staskiewicz, suing Ak-Sar-Ben race-track officials, charged that the beam of light from the electric camera at the finish line caused the horse he was backing to bolt, lose the lead and finish third...
...Showman. But when Jeffers became U.P. president in 1937, Big Bill developed a broad streak of Hollywood showmanship, a liking for lavish dinners -and the publicity and good will they brought the U.P. When he was crowned King Ak-Sar-Ben (Nebraska spelled backwards), an honor given each year to a leading citizen of Omaha, he decked himself out in silk knee breeches, a 35-lb. train, and a crown perched on the side of his head. His own battery of cameramen were on hand to take his picture. So attired, Jeffers presided over, and paid for, a dinner...
...likes testimonial dinners. Behind the scenes, he managed a mammoth (7,500 guests) dinner given him when he became U.P. president. It was run on railroad time. The grapefruit was served at 6:07, the steaks at 6:18, etc. In 1940 Jeffers, no socialite, was king of AK-SAR-BEN ("Nebraska" backwards), Omaha's big annual blowout, a sort of civic triumph which the city awards to its sons who are outstandingly successful...
Elected King of Ak-Sar-Ben ("Nebraska" backwards) at Omaha's fall festival was bald, bulging William Martin Jeffers, 50 years ago a Union Pacific roundhouse callboy, since 1937 Union Pacific's president...