Ads From the Past: Yankee Go Home (Lange, 1968)

This ad, running in the September 1968 editions of SKI and Skiing magazines, represents one of the most successfully misleading messages ever foisted upon ski racing fans. It promulgated the lasting impression that Bob Lange’s plastic ski boot had created a revolution and already dominated elite ski racing.

The truth was more modest. Twenty-four medals were awarded at the Grenoble Alpine events: the usual 18 Olympic medals in slalom, GS and downhill, plus six FIS World Championship medals for combined. French skiers in fiberglass-reinforced leather Le Trappeur and Heschung boots won 12 of those medals: Four to Jean-Claude Killy, three to Annie Famose, two each to Isabelle Mir and Marielle Goitschel, and one to Guy Perillat. Eight medals went to Swiss and Austrian skiers in leather boots.

Two skiers accounted for all five of the medals claimed by Lange. Canada’s Nancy Greene won gold in GS and combined, and silver in slalom. Austria’s Heini Messner won bronze in slalom and combined. As for the claimed World Cup championship at Heavenly Valley, California, that’s valid. Credit goes to Nancy Greene, who wrapped up her second overall World Cup globe with 191 World Cup points. French women won French women won 583 points in leather boots.

Who is responsible for spinning a message of world domination from such thin results? Blame should probably rest with Bob Lange himself, with photographer Norm Clasen. The slogan “Yankee Go Home” originated as a protest by Communist students in East Berlin against the build-up of NATO and Marshall Plan strength in 1950.

Coming Up In Future Issues

• Hollywood Heights:1935 ski jumping at the Hollywood Bowl
• Vintage Visuals: Swann Galleries Annual Travel Poster Auction
• Resorts Then & Now: St. Anton, Austria
• Fast Company: The enduring legacy of the Buddy Werner League
• Behind the Label: Pat Doran fashion retrospective

PLUS

• Dispatches from Skiing History Week
• The CCC and the American Ridge Ski Bowl

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