The 1932 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the X Olympiad, was a major world wide multi-athletic event which was celebrated in 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. No other cities made a bid to host these Olympics. Held during the worldwide Great Depression, many nations and athletes were unable to pay for the trip to Los Angeles. Fewer than half the participants of the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam returned to compete in 1932. US President Herbert Hoover did not attend the Games, becoming the second sitting head of government not to appear at an Olympics hosted in that country. This was Hoover's second time not attending an olympiad held in the US during his presidency, as the Olympic winter games were held in Lake Placid, New York, earlier the same year. The first US president who did not attend a games was President Theodore Roosevelt, at the 1904 III Olympiad held in St. Louis, MO. His absence was due to the fact that David R. Francis, Mayor of St. Louis, refused any help officiating the Games.

The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad are an international multi-sport event, occurring every four years, organized by the International Olympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that started in 1904. The Winter Olympics were also created due to the success of the summer Olympics.

The olympics have increased from a 42-event competition with fewer than 250 male athletes to a 300-event sporting celebration with over 10,000 competitors from 205 nations. Organizers for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing expected approximately 10,500 athletes to take part in the 302 events on the program for the games.

The United States has hosted four Summer Olympics Games, more than any other nation. The United Kingdom will have hosted three Summer Olympics Games when they return to the British capital in 2012, all of them have been (and will be) in London, making it the first city to hold the Summer Olympic Games three times. Australia, France, Germany and Greece have all hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice. Other countries that have hosted the summer Olympics are Belgium, China, Canada, Finland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the Soviet Union and Sweden. In the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro will host the first Summer Games in South America. Four cities have hosted two Summer Olympic Games: Los Angeles, London, Paris and Athens. Stockholm, Sweden, has hosted events at two Summer Olympic Games, having hosted the games in 1912 and the equestrian events at the 1956 Summer Olympics—which they are usually listed as jointly hosting. Events at the summer Olympics have also been held in Hong Kong and the Netherlands (both represented by their own NOCs), with the equestrian events at the 2008 Summer Olympics being held in Hong Kong and two sailing races at the 1920 Summer Olympics being held in the Netherlands.

Edward "Eddie" Patrick Francis Eagan (April 26, 1897 – June 14, 1967) was an American sportsman. He is one of only two persons to have won a gold medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

Eagan was born into a poor family in Denver, Colorado. He studied law at Harvard University and later at the University of Oxford. In 1920, Eagan competed as a boxer at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, and won the gold medal in the light-heavyweight division. Eagan's other boxing awards include the 1919 AAU title and a British amateur title. He also competed at the 1924 Summer Olympics, but failed to medal, having lost in the first round to Arthur Clifton (see Boxing at the 1924 Summer Olympics - Men's heavyweight).

Eagan returned to the Olympics eight years later, this time as a member of the bobsleigh crew of Billy Fiske, who steered to victory at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Eagan became the first of four Olympians to medal in both Winter and Summer Games, followed by Jacob Tullin Thams (Norway), Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany), and Clara Hughes (Canada). He remains the only competitor to win gold medals in both seasons.

Lambertus "Bep" van Klaveren (September 26, 1907 – February 12, 1992) was a Dutch boxer, who won the gold medal in the featherweight division at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. Born in Rotterdam as Lambertus Steenhorst, he adopted the name of his stepfather Pieter van Klaveren when he was eight. His nickname was The Dutch Windmill.

In 1931 he became European champion in the lightweight division and in 1938 he won the same title in the middleweight division. Van Klaveren contested his last match at age 48, on March 19, 1956. His younger brother Piet competed as a boxer for The Netherlands at the 1952 Summer Olympics.

In 1992, a memorial statue was dedicated for van Klaveren in Rotterdam, which was designed by Dutch sculptor Willem Verbon. To this day, van Klaveren remains the only Dutchman to have ever won an Olympic Gold Medal in boxing.

Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu. Chan is a detective for the Honolulu police, though many stories feature Chan traveling the world as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes.

Chan first appeared in Biggers' novels, but went on to be featured in a number of media. Over four dozen films featuring Charlie Chan have been made, beginning in 1926. The character was at first portrayed by Asian actors, and the films met with little success. In 1931, the Fox Film Corporation cast Swedish actor Warner Oland as Chan in Charlie Chan Carries On; the film was a success, and Fox went on to produce 15 more Chan films with Oland in the title role. After Oland's death, American actor Sidney Toler was cast as Chan; Toler made 22 Chan films, first for Fox and then for Monogram Studios. After Toler's death, six more films were made, starring Roland Winters.