The Wilmington morning star., 1946-06-24
Fair Enough
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1916,
By King Features Syndicate, Inc.)

NEW YORK, June 23.-I have seen better
fights between man and wife than the clash of
the 1.-the, lean, finely-conditioned bodies dis
coursed by Joe Louis and Billy Conn. But, in
concurring with my learned brethren of the
sport-side, I have to file a separate opinion in
sisting that nobody was cheated, even though
some of the $500 clients lost sight of Conn when
he went down and had to rely on hearsay in
deciding whether he couldn't get up or just
didn't want to. This obscurity was caused by
the sudden uprising of the people in the for
ward rows who shut off their view down to the
second strand of the ropes. 1t always happens
at the expensive championship fights and any
one who wasn't foreWarned that the closing
spectacle would be denied him in that area,
should have been.
I recall that, although I often found issues
which commanded my inexhaustible indigna-
ton when l was doing sport in the era of Won
derful nonsense, and carried on stridently over
enormous trivialities of the hour, | never vast
ed any sympathy on the customers, even when
the production was a mockery, or fake, as
some of them were.
A prizefight ticket is a luxury, paid for, I
have heard, in some cases, by the old, reliable
common man, through his taxes, where firms
or individuals entertain customers or cultivate
profitable connections and charge OFF this nos
pitality as business expense in their income
tax returns. Though the fight be dull and even
inconclusive, the fight, itself, is the occasion
for much social activity and a gratifying in
diligence of vanity.
There are those among the carria ge-trade
who feel, that they must have seats in the ring
side section, and nowhere else, as a means of
advertising to their rivals il the arts, COM
merce and society that they are still prosper
Gus. Actors, producers and politicians make it
an occasion to be pointed out, always a pleas
ant experience to those who enjoy being point
ed out and personal mention in the running
stories is an extra dividend on the price of
admission, and there is a strange excitement
in these shows which I never was able to &C
count for, quite apart from the excitement
actually caused by a good fight such as
Dempsey's colossal brawl with Luis Angel Fir
pc and the astounding impudence of Gene Tun-
ney in walking straight across the ring at the
first bell to hit Dempsey a right smash on the
left cheekbone which gave him an eye like an
eggplant. I always went early and left late.
at Philadelphia, l brought a raincoat and rain
began in the first round, but was so absorbed
in the demolition of Dempsey by a fighter I
had under-rated, that I remembered it only
when 1 folded my mechanical writer into the
casket about midnight and got up, soaking, to
discover the coat under foot.
Jim Kilgallen. of the International News,
sitting beside me, was violently sick just be-
fore ring-time and when I gave him a sort of
look, he said: don't look at me that way. l
haven't had a drink in weeks. The excitement
got me-"
That was a newspaper man of great expert
ence at large events and this was before the
fl GIT began.
Two of the mockeries that I covered were
so artistic and dramatic that l remember
them distinctly whereas most of Paul Beren-
bach's great and honest performances and
some of Johnny Dundee's, but none OF Harry
Greb's or Dempsey's, are blurred. In one,
which ended in the twelfth with a champion trl-
umphant, I thought, and so did the customers,
that we had seen a good, clean knockout for
the other fellow went down twitching and his
lolled for several minutes after his host
lers took him to his corner.
Several weeks later, Patsy Haley, the ref
cree, told Jim Farley, then chairman OF the
prizefight commission that, in the last seconds
of the eleventh, he heard the champion grunt,
next round" and the other one grunt, yen"
In the other, a light heavyweight who was
one of the most beautiful men ever exposed to
pubic view but an ihcorrigible drunkard, came
the garden ring soused and went out in
rounds. beaten by a fellow who couldn't
have split his lip under straight conditions. l
smelled this one at the time and called 1t a
mockery but not in anger, for l had enjoyed
an unusual sight. This may have been wrong of
me for most of the patrons thought they had
a great fight and wanted to believe they
had. 1 notice the same pathetic obstinacy in
many citizens nowadays who want to enjoy
illusions of political heroes and re-
sent proof that they gave their trust, amount
ing even to adulation, to trifling imposters.
If a cient has a price, he has had his mon
ey's worth when he has seen Joe Louis not on
ly as a fighter but as a sportsman VINO must
be, first of all, a gentleman. Chance is al
ways throwing him into positions in which his
fineness is tested and he never fails. Even
when Schmeling hit him, accidentally, AFTER
the bell and shook him so badly that ne lost
the fight by a knockout, he claimed no foul
and excused it as an accident. Only once has
he shown rancor, when Schmellng, now adopt
ed by Hitler, came back to fight Louis again
and said Louis knew he couldn't win because
he was a 'nicker'' and recognized Schmeling
as a member of the master race.
That night in the stadium, Louis fought in
anger. not merely to beat an opponent but
to crush and humiliate an enemy and he did.