Polo in Popular Culture

Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond, which was first published on January 7, 1934. The strip, created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip, has since surpassed Buck Rogers for longevity. It is a little known fact he was created as a polo player.

The Flash Gordon comic strip has been translated into a wide variety of media, including motion pictures, television and animated series. The latest version, a Flash Gordon TV series, is currently airing on the US Sci Fi Channel. The comic strip follows the adventures of Flash Gordon, a handsome polo player and Yale graduate, and his companions Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov. The story begins with Earth bombarded by fiery meteors. Dr. Zarkov believes the meteors are from outer space, and invents a rocket ship to locate their origin. Half mad, he kidnaps Flash and Dale, and the three travel to the planet Mongo, where they discover that the meteors are weapons devised by Ming the Merciless, evil ruler of Mongo. The 1980 film Flash Gordon stars Sam J. Jones in the title role, where Flash Gordon begins the film as the quarterback of the New York Jets instead of a polo player.

In the animated television series My Little Pony the Baby Sea Ponies The rivers of Ponyland are inhabited by brightly colored musical fish with a love of underwater polo and elaborate song and dance numbers. Each Baby Sea Pony wears a colored float shaped like an aquatic animal. Episodes in which they have major roles include The Ghost of Paradise Estate, Sweet Stuff and the Treasure Hunt, The Magic Coins and Baby, It's Cold Outside. Pictured is Ripple (without her float). Beachcomber may be considered an extra who never speaks. The polo ponies lnclude Baby Sea Ponies, with the names Beachcomber, Ripple, Sea Shimmer, Sunshower, Surf Rider, Water Lily.

Blue Murder at St Trinian's Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957) is British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School. Directed by Frank Launder and written by him and Sidney Gilliat, it was the second of the series of four films with well-known British actors: Alastair Sim as Miss Fritton, George Cole. Chaos reigns as the St. Trinian's girls run amok in Europe, leaving a string of victims in their wake as they attempt to win by underhanded means at hockey in France and at water polo in Italy.

The Woman in Red is a 1935 film directed by Robert Florey and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gene Raymond. Shelby Barret is a stable hand who rides show horses for snobbish wealthy widow Mrs. Nicholas, called Nicko. She meets Johnny Wyatt, the destitute son of a once wealthy Long Island family who plays polo for Nicko. Nouveau-riche Gene Fairchild, a horseman who rides his own entries, is in love with Shelby, while Nicko is in love with Johnny, who has curried her favour. However, despite their efforts, Shelby and Johnny fall in love, and Nicko and Fairchild are jealous of their relationship.

Trouble Along the Way is a 1953 film starring John Wayne and Donna Reed, with a supporting cast including Charles Coburn and Marie Windsor. It contains a part for one actor playing a Polo Grounds manager

Once Before I Die is a 1965 war drama starred by Ursula Andress and John Derek, then his husband and director. In this film, a band of American soldiers and one woman get trapped behind enemy lines in the Philippines after Pearl Harbor attacks. In harrowing circumstances, they struggle for courage and fight to stay alive. Shortly after Pearl Harbor the Japanese attack the Philippine islands. A group of Polo playing soldiers and their families are surprised far off in the countryside. Lt. Bailey (John Derek) leads them back to Manila, but the streets are jammed with fugitives.

Run a Crooked Mile is a made-for-TV thriller in which Louis Jourdan (in typically suave form) stars as Richard Stuart, an ordinary schoolteacher who, whilst on holiday, is a witness to a murder in a private secluded mansion.

When he reports this however, no evidence of any murder can be found, only a key on the floor. When he tries to investigate further he is knocked unconscious. He wakes up in a hospital room (after an apparent polo accident) and is astounded to discover that two years have elapsed during which he has been unhappily married to a beautiful woman (Mary Tyler Moore) and living a rich and extravagant life in Europe under the name Tony Sutton.

In a Donald Duck cartoon Donald's Nephews
The boys play polo on tricycles in Donald's living room, breaking vases, lamps, and windows.

The events surrounding the murder of Lord Erroll were the basis of James Fox's non-fiction book White Mischief (1983). The book investigates the murder of Lord Erroll and consists of a large gallery of characters, mainly members of the Happy Valley set, including Alice de Janzé. With Sarah Miles as Alice de Janzé.The book was later made into a 1987 movie by Michael Radford, starring British actress Sarah Miles as Alice. In 1988, while at Cannes Festival, Miles claimed that Alice was a difficult character to pin down. As such, upon arrival on Kenya for the filming of White Mischief, she searched out people who knew Alice, although she wasn't able to learn anything substantial, due to people's extremely confused perceptions of her, some of them even being uncertain of her true nationality. The film adaptation itself focuses heavily on Alice's eccentric traits. As such, Miles' character was among the most memorable of the film. There are numerous memorable scenes involving Alice's character, such as watching polo match with a python draped around her shoulders or the encounter with Lord Erroll's corpse, as well as (arguably the most famous line of the movie)

Pretty Woman is a 1990 romantic comedy film. The film centers around the title character, down-on-her-luck prostitute Vivian Ward, (Julia Roberts), who is hired by an exceedingly wealthy businessman, Edward Lewis, (Richard Gere), to be his escort for several business functions, and their developing relationship. During the movie Edward and Vivian attend a corporate polo match in the movie, Curious to know more about Vivian, and suggesting she might be a spy for the Morses, Phil pesters Edward until he reveals that Vivian is actually a prostitute he picked up the night he borrowed Phil's car. This causes an argument between the two main characters at his revealing of her work.

The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Manhattan, New York City used by baseball's New York Giants from 1883 until 1957, New York Metropolitans from 1883 until 1885, the New York Yankees from 1912 until 1922, and by the New York Mets in their first two seasons of 1962 and 1963. It also hosted the 1934 and 1942 Major League Baseball All-Star Games.

Mickey's Polo Team is a short animated film, directed by David Hand and first released on January 4, 1936. The short featured a game of polo between 4 of Disney's animated characters and four animated caricatures of noted film actors. Spectators included regular characters of the Mickey Mouse series, notable characters of the Silly Symphonies series and several film actor caricatures. The short is considered notable for featuring a large number of 1930s entertainment figures. The "Movie Stars" team included Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Harpo Marx, riding an ostrich, plus Charlie Chaplin.

The Polo Lounge is located inside the Beverly Hills Hotel at 9641 Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA. It has appeared in muerous movies such as American Gigolo (1980) , Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Vince Flaherty is an American film producer, actor, songwriter, musician and recording artist. He started in show business as a child actor in The Texan starring Rory Calhoun, and in the recurring role of a schoolboy on The Donna Reed Show. he his credited in a move called produced a movie called Championship Polo.

The Delhi Durbar, meaning, "Court of Delhi", was a mass assembly at Delhi, India to commemorate the coronation of a King and Queen of England which took place three times between 1877 to 1911 at the height of the British Empire. On the first day, the Curzons entered the area of festivities, together with the maharajahs, riding on elephants, some with huge gold candelabras stuck on their tusks. The durbar ceremony itself fell on New Year's day and was followed by days of polo and other sports, dinners, balls, military reviews, bands, and exhibitions.

Philo Vance is a fictional American amateur detective who appeared in twelve novels written by S. S. Van Dine (the pen name of Willard Huntington Wright) published in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, movies, and on the radio. He was portrayed as a stylish, foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent. The novels were chronicled by his friend Van Dine. Vance was highly skilled at many things: an "expert fencer," a golfer with a three handicap, a breeder and shower of thoroughbred dogs, a talented polo player, a master poker player, a winning handicapper of race horses, experience in archery, a patron of classical music, a connoisseur of fine food and drink, knowledgeable of chess and of several foreign languages.

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is a 1930 book, a memoir by Francis Yeats-Brown (1886-1944), and a 1935 movie loosely adapted from the book. Yeats-Brown served in India 1905-1914 and briefly after the Great War. He was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for the book which has chapters entitled "Polo" and "Pig-Sticking" and emphasizes cantonment life at and around Bareilly in present day Uttar Pradesh. According to a BBC Documentary this was one of the NAZI dictator Adolf Hitler's favourite movies. Other sources suggest that he preferred King Kong.

Damien Thorn is the main fictional character in The Omen series (The Omen, Omen II, Omen III, The Omen: 666 2006 remake). He is the Antichrist and the son of the Devil. He attended Yale University, and was a Rhodes Scholar, captaining the Oxford Polo and Rugby teams

Brooks Brothers is the oldest surviving men's clothier in the United States, founded in 1818. The privately owned company is owned by Retail Brand Alliance, a spinoff of Luxottica, and is headquartered on Madison Avenue in New York City.

Though today many people consider Brooks Brothers a very traditional clothier, it is also known for having introduced many clothing novelties to the market. In 1870, the store was the first to sell seersucker suits in the U.S. In 1896, John E. Brooks, Henry Sands Brooks' grandson, invented the button-down dress shirt after seeing the non-flapping collars on English polo players. Between 1875 and 1998, Brooks Brothers did not make an off the rack black suit, because Abraham Lincoln wore a bespoke black Brooks frock coat when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth (and as a result, the traditional American rule is that black suits only are proper for servants and the dead). President Theodore Roosevelt was fond of Brooks Brothers clothes.

Sean Bean and Pierce Brosnan , both attended the Cartier International Polo match at Guards Polo Club on Sunday 29th July 2007.

The Thief and the Cobbler (released as The Princess and The Cobbler in Australia and South Africa, and Arabian Knight in most other countries) was the twenty-six-year animated feature film pet project of Canadian animator Richard Williams. It tells the Arabian Nights fantasy tale of a thief in the city who tries to make sure a evil tyrant does not marry the princess. In one section of the cartoon Princess Yum Yum attends a polo match with her father.

The Smart Set (1928) is a silent film released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, directed by Jack Conway, and starring William Haines, Jack Holt, and Alice Day. Haines plays a self-centered polo player who has to redeem himself after he is kicked off the US team.

Brotherhood of War is a series of novels written by W.E.B. Griffin about the United States Army from the Second World War through the Vietnam War.

"Foxxy vs. the Board of Education" is the ninth episode of the animated series Drawn Together. In one episode Foxxy Love is found to have been solving crimes without a license, and consequentially refuses to arrest the criminals she captures. Foxxy decides to try to finish college to get the license, but has a difficult time with the SAT, exam is found to be racially biased when some of the questions are found to include including what SPF sunblock one would wear while playing polo at the country club with her fellow Klan members.

Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author, famous for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

By the early 1990s Thompson was said to be working on a fictional novel called Polo Is My Life, which was briefly excerpted in Rolling Stone in 1994, and which Hunter himself described in 1996. The novel was slated to be released by and was assigned a ISBN , but was never published.

Banjo Paterson was a famous Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He also saw horsemen from the Murrumbidgee River area and Snowy Mountains country take part in picnic races and polo matches which led to his fondness of horses and inspired his writings.

Jilly Cooper, OBE (born February 21, 1937) is an English fiction author. Riders and the following books are characterised by intricate plots, featuring multiple story lines and a large number of characters. Although the books do not always follow each other sequentially - Rivals and Polo chronologically overlap, for example - they are linked by recurring characters (chiefly Rupert Campbell-Black, Roberto Rannaldini, and their families) and later books make reference to events of previous books.

In the novels one of the characters Colonel Craig W. Lowell, USA
Craig Lowell is an extremely wealthy Harvard drop-out who was drafted and sent to the US occupation forces in Germany. Because of his polo skills, he, as a Private First Class, was assigned to manage a polo team for the commanding general "Porky" Waterford. Since he was essential to the general's team and a game against the French could only be played by officers, Mac MacMillan figures out how to get him commissioned before the game. When the general dies during the polo match, General Waterford's replacement hates his guts and he is sent off to be an advisor to the Greek Army in the Greek Civil War.

Fashion Star Fillies are a group of toy model horses created by Kenner Toys in the 1980s. One of the original ones was Nikki: a Polo Pony - Purple with silver tips and pink w/purple hair

Some other famous celebrity polo players or people who have been involved with the sport

Winston Churchill the PM of the UK in world war two.

George Smith Patton GCB, KBE (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a leading US Army general in World War II in campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, France, and Germany, 1943–1945. In World War I he was a senior commander of the new tank corps and saw action in France. After the war he was an advocate of armored warfare but was reassigned to the cavalry. He sufferred head injuries from a lifetime of numerous auto and horse related accidents, especially one suffered while playing polo in 1936.

Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an Academy Award winning American actor and director.

He has a Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in The Fugitive (1993) and a nomination for
Best Supporting Actor, JFK (film) (1991) and best actor. In the Valley of Elah
He was nominated for Best Actor, In the Valley of Elah (2007)
Tyrone Power an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s,

William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was a Cherokee-American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor. Best know for the saying "I never yet met a man that I didn't like".

Tom Steele (12 June 1909-30 October 1990) was a stunt man and actor, best remembered for appearing in serials, especially those produced by Republic Pictures, in both capacities.

Michael Curtiz (December 24, 1886 - April 10, 1962) was an Academy Award-winning Hungarian-American film director. He directed The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy and White Christmas.

Hal B. Wallis (September 14, 1899 – October 5, 1986) was an Academy Award-winning American motion picture producer.

Stefanie Powers is an Emmy Award nominated American stage and film actress and singer, who's best known for her role as Robert Wagner's wife and crime-fighting partner, Jennifer Hart, on the popular 1980s crime drama, Hart to Hart.

Robert Langford Modini Stack (January 13, 1919 – May 14, 2003) an American stage and movie actor. He was perhaps best known for his film acting as well as his role in the television series The Untouchables and as host of Unsolved Mysteries.

Reginald ("Snowy") Leslie Baker (born 8 February 1884 – died 2 December 1953) was an Australian athlete, sports promoter and film actor, who was born in Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. He died in Los Angeles, California (United States)

Robert Alastair Addie (10 February 1960–20 November 2003) was an English actor who was best known for playing Sir Guy of Gisburne in the television series Robin of Sherwood.

Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was a Hall of Fame baseball player and is regarded by historians and journalists as the best player of the dead-ball era and as one of the greatest players of all time.

Porfirio Rubirosa Ariza, (January 22, 1909 in San Francisco de Macorís, Dominican Republic - July 5, 1965 in Bois de Boulogne, France) was a Dominican diplomat, polo player and race car driver who competed in the 1950 and 1954 24 Hour of Le Mans, but was best known as an international playboy.

Claudia Schiffer presented Prince William with a polo trophy in 2002.

Steele Rudd was the pseudonym of Arthur Hoey Davis (14 November 1868 – 11 October 1935) an Australian author

Susana Giménez, née María Susana Giménez Aubert (born January 29, 1944 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine actress and diva, and was married to the famous Huberto Roviralta 1988-1997 Polo player. Married 1988, divorced 1998.

James Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin (born as James Nally Ryan; March 22, 1907-February 23, 1990) rose to the rank of Lieutenant General in the United States Army. He was also referred to as The Jumping General, because of his practice of taking part in combat drops with the paratroopers he commanded.

Trevor John Eve (born 1 July 1951 in Birmingham, England) is a British film and television actor. In 1979 he gained fame as the eponymous lead in the detective series Shoestring, and is currently best known for his role as Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd in BBC television drama Waking the Dead.

Maxwell Boyce, MBE, (born 7 September 1945 in Glynneath) is a Welsh comedian, singer and former coal miner. He rose to fame in the United Kingdom during the mid-1970s with an act that combined musical comedy with his passion for rugby union and his origins in the mining communities of South Wales. In 1985 the following year, Boyce took part in the World Elephant Polo Championships near Kathmandu, Nepal, with an all star team sponsored by the jewellers and watch-makers Cartier.

Princess Daisy is a 1980 romance novel by American author Judith Krantz. It tells the story of a young girl, Princess Margeurite "Daisy" Valensky, who is sent to England to live with her father, Prince Valensky. Stash Valensky is a Russian-born, wealthy polo player and former playboy, who meets Francesca Vernon, a beautiful and talented American actress, at a polo match in Deauville.

Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson (1890-1968) was American pulp magazine writer and entrepreneur who pioneered the American comic book, publishing the first such periodical consisting solely of original material rather than reprints of newspaper comic strips.

Heino Ferch (b. 18 August 1963, Bremerhaven, Germany) is an award-winning German film and television actor.

General Paramasiva Prabhakar Kumaramangalam (July 1, 1913 – March 13, 2000) was the 7th Chief of Staff of the Indian Army in the period (1967 - 1970). He was the last of the King's Commissioned Indian Officers trained at Sandhurst in the Indian Army.

Nathaniel Lande, born of Canadian parents, is an award winning journalist, author, and filmmaker with a multifaceted career spanning several decades. He is the author of ten books including the critically acclaimed Cricket , and was the creative force behind TIME Incorporated during his tenure.

Sandra Mihanovich (born April 24, 1957) is an Argentine singer, musician, and composer of Rock, Blues, and Tango rhythms. A daughter of Iván Mihanovich a polo player.

Sir John Reginald Hornby Nott-Bower KCVO KPM OStJ (March 1892–3 October 1972) was Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the head of the London Metropolitan Police, from 1953 to 1958. He was the first career police officer to hold this post.

John Cheever Cowdin (1889 - September 16, 1960) (also known as Cheever Cowdin or J. Cheever Cowdin) was an American financier and sportsman who was a head at Standard Capital Corporation of New York City and Chairman of Ideal Chemicals. He was termed by Esquire Magazine not only one of the best-dressed men of his era, but one of the Big 4 of polo.

Stewart Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is a prominent US born musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police and is an influential drum stylist. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007..

Peter Brant (the well-known art publisher, art movie producer, polo player and husband of Stephanie Seymour) had his leading collection of contemporary works on paper exhibited at the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science.

Charlotte Reather (born June 10, 1979) is an English comedy writer and actress. Educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College she went on to study English Literature at Kingston University.

Louise Treadwell Tracy (July 31, 1896 – 13 November 1983), wife of actor Spencer Tracy, was born Louise Treadwell in the Pittsburgh suburb of New Castle, Pennsylvania. In 1942 she started the John Tracy Clinic, a private, non-profit education center for the deaf. During the 1930s, Louise and Spencer both began playing polo and became accomplished polo players.

Jodie Kidd (born 25 September 1978 in Canterbury, England) is an English fashion model, sports woman, television personality and sometime actress.

John Hay Whitney (August 27, 1904 - February 8, 1982), colloquially known as "Jock" Whitney, was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and a member of the Whitney family.

Jerzy Kosinski, orig. Kosinski (spelled with Polish diacritic sign), birth name: Josek Lewinkopf, (June 14, 1933 – May 3, 1991) was a Polish-American novelist, best known for his novels The Painted Bird (1965) and Being There (1971), adapted into an Oscar winning film in 1979.

Richard Hack (March 20, 1958) is an American writer best known for his biographical books and screenplays. He is a frequent guest on talk shows and an outspoken critic of bias in television news. InMaui, he has kept stables for polo ponies.

Martha Vickers (May 28, 1925 - November 2, 1971) was a film actress who appeared in the 1946 film The Big Sleep playing Carmen Sternwood, younger sister to Lauren Bacall. She married Chilean polo player-turned-actor Manuel Rojas.

Alexandra Neldel (born February 11, 1976) is a German actress from Berlin. Neldel worked as a dental assistant before she was discovered by the boss of a Berlin casting agency during a polo competition.

Richard W. Farnsworth (September 1, 1920–October 6, 2000) was an American actor.when he was seven years old. He worked as been working as a stable hand at a polo field in Los Angeles for $6 a week during the depression.

General Sir Richard McCreery, GCB, KBE, DSO, MC (1898-1967), was a career soldier. Appropriately for a man who was associated all his adult life with a cavalry regiment, McCreery was a highly accomplished horseman. He twice won the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown Park Racecourse (in 1923 and 1928), and represented the Army at polo. He commanded the British 8th Army in Northern Italy during 1944-45.

Cesare Danova (March 1, 1926 - March 19, 1992), born Cesare Deitinger in Bergamo, Italy, was a television and screen actor. He adopted the stage name Danova when he turned to acting in Rome at the end of World War II.

Jim Mather (born Nov. 28, 1942) is an American karate teacher and founder of the United States National Karate Association. He is probably best known to many as The Arrow Catcher, owing to his many appearances on major network TV shows. His Uncle Tom was one of the top three polo players in the world in the twenties and thirties and captain of the Texas Polo Team for 30 years

Rita Mae Brown (b. November 28, 1944) is a prolific American writer, most known for her mysteries and other novels (Rubyfruit Jungle). She is also an Emmy-nominated screenwriter. She enjoys American fox hunting. She has also played polo and started the Blue Ridge Polo Club. So animal rights people might be against her fox hunting.

Massimo Girotti (18 May 1918-5 January 2003) was an Italian film actor whose career spanned seven decades.

Born in Mogliano, in the province of Macerata, Girotti developed his athletic physique by swimming and polo.

In Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, the area called Rustic Canyon features post-war homes located on the former polo field of The Uplifters, the original site of The Uplifters clubhouse (now a city park) and the "cabins" developed as second homes and weekend retreats. This area is also known as Uplifter's Ranch. Located off Sunset Blvd. between The Riveria and Huntington Palisades.
Every summer in the second week of July, Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. hosts the Sheridan, Wyoming Rodeo. During Rodeo Week, events include a parade, the "Sneakers and Spurs" run, a rubber duck race on Big Goose creek in Kendrick Park, a carnival at the fairgrounds, and a golf tournament at the country club. A polo game is held on the last day of Rodeo Week.

Polo Park is Winnipeg's largest retail and entertainment district. Largest mall out of the eight malls (counting itself) in the city. Situated on the former Polo Park Racetrack, the Polo Park Mall was one of the first enclosed shopping malls in Canada.
Will Rogers State Historic Park is the former estate of American humorist Will Rogers. Although not dedicated to location shoots, the property has been used for filming at various times, and a point of particular notice is its regulation polo field.

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