Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-10

DAY is Dig business,
Once the pariah of sports
a boxing now stands out as the
kingpin of them ALL
Whereas in the old days-days that
even l can remember, the old both
members Of this club" days-it was
considered a crime, nowadays the
sport commands not only the interest
and respect of big business, but 1t Is
actually part of it.
Wall Street takes more than pass
ing INTEREST," takes a financial in
terest, a mighty big financial interest
In boxing. y
Wall Street interests made possible
the creation of New Madison Square
Garden and Wall Street retains GER
tain ownership in the imposing ampi.
theater.
War Increased Interest.
What is responsible for this change
IN the standing of boxing? The first
answer which suggests itself is the
<sKNorld War. 1t is true that the war
did have a great deal to do with rails
ing the prestige of boxing. The in
terest aroused in boxing as a result
of the war had much4o do with cloak
ing it with responsibility. But the
preliminary groundwork of creating
widespread interest in the sport was
done before the war.
/ do not want to seem to be taking
any undue credit to. myself, but the
boys who were boxing in the days
when l was a youngster first coming
out in the profession did yeoman work
in selling" boxing to the public. In
other words. they created the fight
fan.
Boys like Leach Cross, Sammy
Smith, Joe Wagner, Johnny Dundee
and many others, including myself,
actually acted as statesmen in sell
ing the fispht game to the public.
When we got a match we were re-
ouired to take a certain number OF
tickets and sell them for the boxing
show in which we were billed to APP
pear. Naturally we were eager to get
rid of these tickets and we took them
out among our friends, acquaintances
and their friends and acquaintance,
and sold them just as If we were book
agents trying to sell books.
In those days the clothing district
was mostly confined to the lower East
Side I went among the cloak and
suit manufacturers, many of whom
never had seen a prize fight or box
ing match, and what's more didn't
want to see one. However, we boxers
would plead and wheedle our prospec-
tive customer until we sold him at
least one ticket and sometimes two
or three.
How the Scheme Worked.
This sort of put it up to the ticket
purchaser to take in the show and
when he would see his friend in the
ring win he would feel sort Of pro-
prietary interest and on the next &C.
casion would prove a more susceptible
customer or prospect.
There were only certain number
OF fight fans in those days. They con-
sisted mostly Of men who knew boxers
and boxing and who were In one way
or another identified with the game.
There was not much money IN them
for the promoter. NOSE OF them had
WAYS and means of y crashing the
gate" And so every time we wanted
3 new customer, or rather every time
we sold a new customer We made a
new fight fan.
In this way the number of persons
interested in boxing gradually grew.
But sometimes we overreached our
selves in our anxiety to rake in new
customers. / remember one time.
when l had a rather important battle
on, but still was far from big card.
went out and sold $50 worth Of
tickets. So eager was I to get Gus
toners" that left practically the en-
tire $50 worth of tickets on credit and
after the fight / was able to collect
only $40 of this money. Inasmuch as
was working on a $3.50 basis with
the club my fight Melted me exactly
nothing.
In this way fellows like Cross,
Smith, and even myself built up per-
sonal followings. Some of the men
who would come to see me fight, for
nstance-fellows whom / really had
educated to be fight fans-used to
bring out-of-town statesmen and buyers
along with them. Naturally they
would root for the boy they knew and
this helped to make me box Office
attraction. OF course, ! realize that If
/ did not win now and then this fol-
lowing would have dropped off, but
they We're loyal bunch and / can't
help thinking that l owe a great
measure of my success in the ring to
their friendly loyalty.
Same True OF Cross.
1T was the same way with Leach
Cross. Cross became tremendous
drawing card; in fact, he was about the
biggest card or box office attraction OF
his day. But even so, Leach Cross,
fighting Willie Richie, the world
AANSASnA AAdAttp4OA4s AOA A4AO SASA|
drew a gate of only $4,000. The rea-
son for this was that that amount
represented the number of actual
fight fans within a certain radius in
the city at that time.
Only the other night in Madison
Square Garden % 900 people paid adj
missions to see a set of amateur bouts
in which the rawest novices were COM
peting. 1t was not the caliber of the
u. Al,
drew that enormous house. 1t was the
fact that today there are hundreds Of
thousands of fight fans whereas is
years ago there were only thousands,
not hundred thousands. In those old
days even when boxing was supposed
TO be in quite a fourishing condition
So was the top price for boxing show,
even championship. Today SIS rep
resents only the war tax on a ringslde
seat for a championship battle.
With the preliminary work of selling
boxing to the public completed along
came the war and this actually put
boxing over the top. Boxing was made
compulsory in most of the training
camps. Millions of young men saw
boxing or boxed themselves and these
fellows, of course, became fight fans
after the war. This boxing in the
training camps brought the customers
into close contact with the professional
boxer. Men So whom names like
Johnny Coulon, Johnny kilbane,
Tommy Ryan. Tom Gibbons, Packy
Mcfarland, JEFF Smith, Benny Leon
ard, Jimrny Barry and others well
known in fisticuffs, had been names
merely, came actually TO know these
men personally. And this kindled their
interest in professional boxing.
remember in September, 1918, a
crowd of the boxing instructors gath
cred at Camp Gordon in Atlanta, Ga,
where we were TO receive instructions
as to how we should instruct the rock
e.. r,l,nra ,,.nre mite few ring celeh.