This little film is interesting as an early example of Max Sennett, while still a second-string director at Biograph, just before setting up on his own, already using a film to publicise a sporting event (the Santa Monica races), a device frequently used later at Keystone and in Max Sennett Comedies - The Kid Auto Races for instance (famously featuring Chaplin) or Catalina, Here I Come (MSC 1922) which advertises the Wrigley Chewing Gum sponsored cross-Channel swim.
It was not an entirely original idea even in 1912. Max Linder is sometimes credited as having similarly sponsored an international cross-country race in 1906 but this does not seem to have been the case. He did however personally organise and present the prize in 1910 for a filmed cross-country race for Max Linder impersonators (evening dress, top hat, pipe, umbrella, a dog on a lead and a pair of roller skates all obligatory) although sadly the film in question does not seem to survive.
It was not an entirely original idea even in 1912. Max Linder is sometimes credited as having similarly sponsored an international cross-country race in 1906 but this does not seem to have been the case. He did however personally organise and present the prize in 1910 for a filmed cross-country race for Max Linder impersonators (evening dress, top hat, pipe, umbrella, a dog on a lead and a pair of roller skates all obligatory) although sadly the film in question does not seem to survive.
