Flagpole Sitting

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   OED has "flagpole sitting" from 1931.  There are a lot of flags out now, and it's a good thing this fad ended some time ago.
   From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 12 October 1952, pg. 66, col. 2:

_Shipwreck Kelly Dies in Street;_
_Made Career of Flagpole Sitting_
   Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly, avowed originator of the profession of flagpole sitting, collapsed at 7 o'clock last night on 51st St., eat of Ninth Ave., and was dead when a physician reached him.  For the last six months he had been living near by at 338 W. 51st St. on home relief.
   Mr. Kelly was carrying a bulky volume of newspaper clippings concerning his exploits.  They agreed in giving his age at fifty-nine, but the police said that more official papers which he had in a wallet indicated that he was sixty-seven.  In the summer of 1930 Mr. Kelly sat for fifty days and one hour on a flagpole on the Steel Pier at Atlantic City, a feat which he said made him champion flagpole sitter of the world and completely eclipsed the effort of a rival in Baltimore, who descended after only forty-two days and one hour from a flagpole in that city.
   _Served in Navy_
   Mr. Kelly served in the Navy in World War I and his nickname is said to have derived from the repeated reports of the loss of whatever ship he happened to be serving on.  He felt himself called to the profession of flagpole sitting because of his devotion to the cause of health.  It was his confirmed opinion that human beings ate too much.  People sitting on flagpoles, he argued, can't eat much, and if more people did it the public health would be considerably improved.
   Nevertheless, on Friday, Oct. 13, 1939, Mr. Kelly consented to eat thirteen doughnuts standing on his head on a plank extending from a fifty-fourth floor window of the Chanin Building.  In this case Mr. Kelly was benefiting the cause of Doughnut Week, a commercial (Col. 3--ed.) enterprise.  He had higher things in mind, however, for he insisted on doing it on Friday the 13th and consuming thirteen doughnuts in thirtten minutes in an attempt to combat superstition.
   Mr. Kelly began sitting on flagpoles about 1924 or 1925.  It was at the time of the marathon dance and followed close upon the era of tree-sitting.  Mr. Kelly not only set an example to voracious humans, but generally got several hundred dollars from whatever commercial enterprise thought it would profit by the publicity he got.
   _Others Copied Career_
   As a result, a good many persons decided that flagpole sitting was an easy way to make a few hundred dollars.  At least two of them either were named Kelly or adopted that name for business reasons and, in no time at all, were being biled as Shipwreck Kellys.  Mr. Kelly was indignant and once shinnied down a flagpole in Toronto and rushed to a New Jersey town to confound a flagpole sitter who was doing business under the name of Shipwreck Kelly.
   It is a long time, however, since any one tried to advertise his wares by retaining Mr. Kelly to sit on a flagpole, and his health had been failing, besides.  He was taken to Polyclinic Hospital for treatment last Sunday.  It was within a few doors of the hospital that he collapsed last night.
   His room was littered with ropes and tackle whic he had used in his profession.  His landlady, Mrs. Frank Davis, said that Mr. Kelly had been confined to his bed by illness for several weeks before he went to the hospital.  His son, Alvin Kelly jr., who is about twenty-four, was in the Army, she said, and was overseas.