Four Minute Fever

Using newsreel footage this Sportscope entry chronicles the race toward runnings fourminute mile highlighting several important contests It starts in the 1920s when Finlands Paavo Nurmi set the record for the distance at 4 minutes 104 seconds It continues through Roger Bannisters first run under 4 minutes in 1954 and ends in spring 1956 when Australias Joe Bailey became the first to break 4 minutes on US soil