Promoting the Rhode Island State Police in the 1950s



Welcome to history adventuring, this is episode number 472, I'm Brad Hall, and today we're promoting the Rhode Island State Police in the 1950s.

Let's time-travel back to Rhode Island in the 1950s and give a boost to the fine men of the State Police. The life he saves may be yours!

I found this photo on the Duke University site ROAD (Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions) and it caught my eye because of the cool old motorcycles. They're interested in historic advertising, but I'm interested in vintage motorcycles. Let's take a look.

Now calm down there, I'm no expert on motorcycles, in fact I don't even know how to ride one. But I still like looking at them, and these are worth looking at. If you know more about them, please let me know. I'm gonna say that the bikes are early fifties, although they might even be late forties. Again, please tell me if you know.

The first things that catch my eye are the crash guards. I always see them on motorcycles in old movies, but I don't recall ever seeing one in real life. I wonder when they went out of style? It looks like they had radio communication, because I'm guessing that those things that look like the speakers from an old drive-in movie there on their handlebars are radios.

Dang, those are cool uniforms that those guys got to wear. I wonder when helmets became mandatory for motorcycle cops? I suppose the old-timers resisted it, considering it to be not very manly to wear a helmet.

By the way, I'm trying to figure out if that's Rhode Island Governor Dennis J. Roberts there. I looked him up on Wikipedia, but I'm not really sure which one it is. My best guess is that it's the man standing there on our left, and that's probably John T. Sheehan next to him. I wonder who the other two guys are? Nice topcoats!

Anyway, let's take a closer look at the billboard. The life he saves may be yours sounds like they're trying to convince Road Islanders to show some respect for these guys. I've never heard of the Green Cross?

Thank you for helping to promote the Rhode State Police in the 1950s!

This has been history adventuring. I'll talk to you later.

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