Help Our Pal Lisa with a Special Project

Before there was Jeff Gordon or Richard Petty or Mario Andretti and long before Danica Patrick, there was Barney Oldfield.

Barney Oldfield not only put auto racing on the map; he helped to etch cars into the American psyche. As a young bicycle racer, he helped Henry Ford launch his fledgling company. As a rising star in the then-emerging world of automobiles, he was the first man to drive a car a mile a minute. He wrote a book about the rules of the road before there were many roads. He traded on his growing celebrity by appearing on Broadway and in the movies and by endorsing products and making public appearances for which he was paid thousands of dollars.

If you know about Barney Oldfield, or if you have any artifacts that bear his name, I'd love to hear from you. My name is Lisa Napoli. I'm a reporter for a public radio show called Marketplace, but this is an extra-curricular project I've for years vowed that I would research. As a journalist, I'm accustomed to talking to people who have actually witnessed or experienced a particular event. I know it's unlikely to find anyone who may have encountered Mr. Oldfield, who passed away in 1946, but I thought this might be the best place to try.

Many thanks in advance for your help. You can email me here.