Classic American West Coast Boxing

Rick Farris
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Post by Rick Farris »

dagosd2000 wrote:
Rick Farris wrote:
dagosd2000 wrote:The San Diego Coliseum was like a lot of little boxing arenas. There was more going on there than boxing. The wrestling matches,political rallies,religious revival meetings,auctions. Even the great alto player Charlie Parker played jazz there. Archie Moore fought there in the 30's against the popular Mexican middleweight Johnny"The Bandit" Romero. Fights that had racial overtones as Romero was the "established" fighter taking on the "intruder" and "colored" fighter,Moore. Fighters on their way up. And fighters on their way down. And some who fought when their careers were on the upswing,and then ended their boxing professions at the old arena. Maybe a coat of paint once in a while,but that was about the only renovations to the old place. You parked on the street. There wasn't a bad seat in the house. And the same familiar faces could be seen each week enjoying their favorite sport.

Then it ended. Just like that it was over. Was it Cable TV? Did Jerome think he could make more money expanding his furniture business by closing down the arena and turning it into a warehouse? We had nowhere to go on a regular basis. I've never been back since it become a furniture store.

The San Diego Coliseum transformed into a furniture store. I hope, at least, Jerome gave Archie Moore a deal on a dinette set.

Sad to see the small clubs go, however, as you know Dagos, despite the little Coliseum's glorius past, and the greats who fought there, for every brilliant career that came out of that little cockpit, dozens more ended there. In L.A. most regarded it as a graveyard for L.A. fighters. It was a place where pigeons went to die. I fought in some holes in my life, but the bottom of the barrel was the San Diego Coliseum. I was sorry to see Mickey Davies career end there.

Of course, my own bad memories of the place were my own fault. I recall laying on a bench, as commission doc wearing inch thick glasses stitched a cut I'd gotten in a match. Then the shower leaked all over the floor and drained down the corridor like a river, out into the arena, down the stairs, where it formed one giant puddle at ringside after a boxer would shower. It was like a shallow waterfall of shower water, spilled beer, blood, and anything else that might come in on the bottom of a person's shoes.

That's boxing however, and I love boxing. I just hate that damn little arena in S.D. and you'll never catch me in the place shopping for a sofa or dining room table. No way! :x


-Ricardo

Rick
I'd change my clothes in there. How about the mold and that moldy smell? The locker room was always getting bombarded with the fighters' cologne. But if you wanted to get out of there and fight in the big time you had to win. But you're right buddy, a lot of great fighters wound up finishing there also. Denny Moyer always comes to mind. But you know Rick,if they left boxing with their faculties,they got out of boxing OK. Who cares if they finished up at the Coliseum? Look at Ali. He never finished his career there.
Very true, Dagos. It really doesn't matter. I do respect the little club for what it was, a real fight arena. A friend of mine & Frank's, former boxer Rudy Orosco, grew up in the place. As a boy, he took a photo class in school and then started a business while just in jr. high school. Rudy would get into the arena on fight night, take pics of all the boxers, develop them, and then sell them to them later. Pretty smart for a kid. After his boxing career, Rudy moved up to Long Beach, with his beautiful wife Lupe, who is from T.J. and they have a couple boys, the oldest, Moses, is one of the world's top junior amateurs. Remember the name, Moses Orosco, he's already been featured on local TV relating to his accomplishments. He's a multi-national champ at just 11, a throw back to the Baltazar era of Jr. amateur supremecy.

-Rick
Last edited by Rick Farris on 18 May 2008, 15:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Rick Farris »

dagosd2000 wrote:
Rick Farris wrote:
kikibalt wrote: Or pushed... :roll:

More likely than not, Frank. Consider this, four heavyweights from the same era, Eddie Machen, Zora Folley, Roger Rischer and Sonny Liston (all fought Liston, by the way) end up dead of strange curcumstances within a year.

Machen was a "sleepwalker", or so it was reported. Eddie must have been dreaming of the the left hook that Joe Frazier bounced off his chin a few years earlier, when he just sepped off his 2nd floor balcony (must have stepped over the railing (?). Found dead on the driveway below.

Zora Folley? Zora was agreat guy and very popular in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, Arizona. Zora was a big man in a small town, he worked for a local Chevrolet dealership, and he'd sell cars just by answering questions about his career. One day, Folley, an avid swimmer, drowned in his backyard pool. The case was listed as an accidental death, seems the accident left him with a bullet like wound to the head, that might have contributed to his sinking to the bottom of the pool???

Liston? Plain and simple, a contract hit on a guy who was scared to death of needles (go figure?) Sonny may have been a difficult individual, with a few social challenges, but he was not a drug addict. Liston's poison was "double vodka rocks", and women, very simple.

Rischer? Found in the front seat of a car with three bullet wounds to his face, gun laying by his side. Listed as a "suicide". Damn, that Roger Rischer must have been one tough SOB, shot himself in the head three times? I believe if I shot myself in the head once, it would be a little hard to pull the trigger a second time, let alone a third. That's a fighter for you.


-Rick Farris
Rick
Wasn't Machen institutionalized for mental illness also? You're right about Folley. From what I read, he was a devoted father and husband. I've read on the night he died,he was with a strange woman. Sounds like they wanted to disparege his character. And Liston? The stuff he must hsve had on people like Ash Resnic. Then he'd get plastered and threaten to snitch. Count ten over that guy.
Dagos, this is pretty much what the late Johnny Tocco told me when I met him in Las Vegas, while shooting the movie "Electric Horseman", quite awhile back. Liston was doing lots of drinking and gambling on the house and creating a lot of bad energy. He, of all people, should have known better.

-Rick
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Post by Rick Farris »

dagosd2000 wrote:
Rick Farris wrote:
kikibalt wrote: Or pushed... :roll:

More likely than not, Frank. Consider this, four heavyweights from the same era, Eddie Machen, Zora Folley, Roger Rischer and Sonny Liston (all fought Liston, by the way) end up dead of strange curcumstances within a year.

Machen was a "sleepwalker", or so it was reported. Eddie must have been dreaming of the the left hook that Joe Frazier bounced off his chin a few years earlier, when he just sepped off his 2nd floor balcony (must have stepped over the railing (?). Found dead on the driveway below.

Zora Folley? Zora was agreat guy and very popular in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, Arizona. Zora was a big man in a small town, he worked for a local Chevrolet dealership, and he'd sell cars just by answering questions about his career. One day, Folley, an avid swimmer, drowned in his backyard pool. The case was listed as an accidental death, seems the accident left him with a bullet like wound to the head, that might have contributed to his sinking to the bottom of the pool???

Liston? Plain and simple, a contract hit on a guy who was scared to death of needles (go figure?) Sonny may have been a difficult individual, with a few social challenges, but he was not a drug addict. Liston's poison was "double vodka rocks", and women, very simple.

Rischer? Found in the front seat of a car with three bullet wounds to his face, gun laying by his side. Listed as a "suicide". Damn, that Roger Rischer must have been one tough SOB, shot himself in the head three times? I believe if I shot myself in the head once, it would be a little hard to pull the trigger a second time, let alone a third. That's a fighter for you.


-Rick Farris
Rick
Wasn't Machen institutionalized for mental illness also? You're right about Folley. From what I read, he was a devoted father and husband. I've read on the night he died,he was with a strange woman. Sounds like they wanted to disparege his character. And Liston? The stuff he must hsve had on people like Ash Resnic. Then he'd get plastered and threaten to snitch. Count ten over that guy.

Dagos . . . Many years back, when when I was in Las Vegas working on the movie "Electric Horseman", I met Johnny Tocco for the first time, and had an opportunity to learn a lot about the Sonny Liston people can't read about in even the most sensationalistic publications. What Johnny said was pretty much what you just posted about Liston, he was out of control. He was gambling and drinking on the house all over town, grabbing hookers and holding them hostage for days at a time, and, for a quiet, sullen personality, suddenly opening his mouth and saying the wrong things. Of all people, Sonny Liston should have known better.

-Rick
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Post by Rick Farris »

Sorry about the multiple posts. I had a problem with the system for a moment.

-Rick
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Post by dagosd2000 »

Rick Farris wrote:Sorry about the multiple posts. I had a problem with the system for a moment.

-Rick

Rick
This came to mind the other day. Remember a heavyweight by the name of Chuck Haynes. He was a little small even then for a heavyweight and needed more of a wallop,but I thought his skills were pretty good. He seemed a little unmotivated. Any memories of this guy?
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Post by Expug »

bennie wrote:
Expug wrote:
dagosd2000 wrote:Hey Pug 'Ol Buddy
Been back to that place called "Taylor Street"? That's all I heard when I was growing up. The pool room on Taylor Street. The guys that hung out on the corner on Taylor Street. The dice games they had on Taylor Street. And the general comment:That's how they would have done it on Taylor Street. I think if you would have taken Taylor Street out of the Italian neighborhood,the bottom would have dropped out.
Yes Dagos. I go in there quite a bit.
Mickey is a good guy and a former trainer and manager of some local fighters.
He had Jumbo Cummings , Alan "Muleman" Alexander and a few others.
He took Jumbo over to England to fight Frank Bruno,
Maybe Bennie knows more about this fight.
Ive never seen it , but Mickey claims Jumbo had Frank in trouble early and that the ref shouldnt of stopped it later on when Cummings was down.
Taylor Street is alive and well.
Still a popular area for tourists to get good Italian food.
I think alot of Italians still live there.
Ive always maintained that to get great Italian food and get a flavor of Italian culture, its just as good to go to the area around 26th and Oakley or the neighborhood around Grand and Ogden.
Some great resteraunts, La Bacanalia, La Fontannela some others whos names escape me.
Cummings nailed Bruno with a huge right a split-second before the bell to end the first round. If ever the bell saved a man, it was here. Bruno was out on his feet, supported back to his corner, where they woke him up, and showed all his power and fitness to force his way back into the fight. Question Frank's chin and natural ability: never question his power and fitness.
The stoppage did look a bit 'iffy'. Bruno dropped his man in the seventh by the ropes and referee Mike Jacobs, later to lose his Star Class refereeing licence, stopped it without even counting.
I remember it was still pretty even-Steven at the stoppage.

Image
Thanks Bennie.
Thats the way Jumbos trainer told it also.
He said Jumbo was looking at the ref waiting for the count to start , and the ref just waived it off.
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

East L.A. getting a long-overdue face-lift
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Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

The arch is an iconic structure on Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, which is an important thoroughfare in the development of the Latino community. There is an effort under way to redevelop blighted areas of the historic boulevard.

Millions are being spent in the area along Whittier Boulevard that in its heyday was a center of Latino pride and activism.
By Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

The padlock swinging from the gate suggested that there was once something special in this place, something to keep, something to guard. But whatever magic there might have been was long gone by the time Frankie Firme arrived this week, stepping through a hole in the fence into weeds so dense they muffled the bustle of his beloved East L.A.

In the back of the lot, arsonists had gotten to one abandoned shack and gang bangers to another, peeling back its corrugated walls to paint their hieroglyphics inside.

"Sad," Firme said. He's 52 now, an influential disc jockey and Chicano music historian. He sees urban blight here like anyone else, but at least his view comes with a soundtrack. Even now, with his shoes crunching on broken bottles, he can't help but hear it: "Let's take a trip down Whittier Boulevard!"

That introduction, shouted by an East L.A. band called Thee Midniters, was the opening of the instrumental song "Whittier Boulevard." In 1965, cruisers, low-riders and brown-is-beautiful pioneers made the song an Eastside anthem -- and cemented Whittier Boulevard itself as a defining pathway in the development of Latino Los Angeles.

Today, at long last, the boulevard is getting a face-lift.

It would be a stretch to call it a revitalization project because much of the street -- a 16-mile thoroughfare stretching from downtown Los Angeles through Montebello, Pico Rivera and Whittier and into the northern tip of Orange County -- was never much to look at.

Still, tens of millions of public and private dollars have begun filtering in along the boulevard, targeting unkempt medians, crumbling curbs, abandoned lots. There are dozens of condos, apartments and houses going up, and officials have hatched plans for nearly a dozen mixed-use projects in coming years, with European-style, street-level shops and restaurants below homes.

If it all falls into place, it will be the largest civic commitment to the boulevard since the first asphalt was poured. Perhaps the boulevard -- long maligned and neglected but arguably as important to El Movimiento as any school walkout or farmworker rally -- is finally getting its due.

Rebuilding the boulevard will be a daunting task. Evidence of that is everywhere.

It's in the bathroom of a McDonald's near Atlantic Boulevard, in East L.A., where competing gangs have put graffiti on the door, floor, walls, sink, soap dispenser, toilet seat and toilet paper dispenser.

It's down the street at the Golden Gate Theater, glorious when it opened in 1927 and now empty, stripped of its ornate facade and browned by age and smog.

It's in the city of Whittier, near Whittier Boulevard and Colima Road, where development is so uneven that there is a sex-toy shop next to a children's furniture store.

It's in the abandoned lot that Firme walked through this week. In the early 1960s, he said, the lot was one of a handful of hot spots where a new culture was developing around the twin pillars of Chicano music and cars.

It might not look like much now, he said, but back then one of the little buildings on the lot -- the one since torched by arsonists -- was home to a thriving bootleg business that churned out tapes and eight-track recordings of Chicano bands. They included Thee Midniters -- two E's in "Thee" to avoid litigation with The Midnighters -- Cannibal & The Headhunters and The Premiers.

The other building was a makeshift garage. Cruisers brought in cars to get them souped up, sometimes with "cherry bombs" -- a reverse muffler of sorts that gave cars a loud and illegal brap-brap-brap sound -- or by lowering the bodies of cars nearly to the ground.

Those who could not afford to lower their cars in a garage did it the old-fashioned way: by driving with chunks of concrete in their trunks.

Every weekend, cruisers would gather -- many of them at a staging area around Calvary Cemetery in East L.A. -- and then "take a trip down Whittier Boulevard."

Similar cultures existed elsewhere, of course. Here, though, cruising meant far more than a mere distraction. Firme noted that when he was young, his father -- a butcher -- could not secure financing to buy a new car because of his ethnicity. So fixing up older cars became an exercise in pride. A nice car represented freedom, and promise.

"The whole thing was about mobility," said Carlos Montes, 60, who cruised back then and went on to become a prominent Latino leader and activist. "You might live in the barrio -- but you had a car."

Pride in cars inspired pride in ethnicity and heritage, and the boulevard took on a seminal role in the development of the Eastside.

It was the site of numerous protests and rallies, including an infamous day in August 1970 when a protest against the Vietnam War turned violent. By the end of the day, three people were dead, including Los Angeles Times columnist Ruben Salazar, who also was news director at Spanish-language television station KMEX-TV.

The 1980s brought the installation of a landmark steel entry arch over the boulevard in East L.A., still a powerful symbol of pride.

You can map the effort of Latino families to chase down prosperity and stability along Whittier Boulevard; many of them started in downtown Los Angeles around World War II, then moved to East L.A., then to Montebello, then to Whittier, then, perhaps, to the hills of La Habra or deeper into Orange County.

"This was the spot," Firme said. "This was the migration route."

Today, Whittier Boulevard is like an old man's spine: still prideful -- exhibited in tiny shops whose signs say Lolita's Tamales, Vasquez Shoe Repair, Armando's Bakery -- but bowed from the weight it has carried over the years.

Past efforts at rehabilitation along the boulevard have failed, but there is enough of a critical mass of face-lift projects and development proposals this time to offer hope.

In East L.A., county officials are preparing a $4.5-million project. Workers will repair curbs and sidewalks, add palm trees and new bus benches.

Separately, code-enforcement officials are conducting a scrub of stores along the boulevard near the 605 Freeway; dozens of shopkeepers have been asked to correct signage, parking and other problems.

Montebello has hatched an ambitious overhaul. Toward the eastern city limit, boxer Oscar De La Hoya is backing the development of 80 Mediterranean-style condominiums.

The city recently spent nearly $12 million on a beautification project, and construction was completed recently on a project at Whittier and Montebello boulevards that includes 55 senior-housing rental units and 23,000 square feet of commercial space.

In Whittier, between Virginia and 1st avenues, officials held a groundbreaking two weeks ago for a $40-million, 96-unit town house development. The city also is preparing to bury power lines and make other improvements along a stretch of the boulevard between Santa Gertrudes Avenue and the La Habra city line.

"People are rediscovering these communities," said Jeff Collier, Whittier's head of community development. "A lot of people are realizing that this can be a wonderful place to be."
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

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New book by Tracy Callis and Chuck Johnston
Image
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

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BOOK DESCRIPTION

BOXING IN THE LOS ANGELES AREA
1880-2005
By Tracy Callis and Chuck Johnston


417 photographs
162 pages
Softcover (8.5 x 11)
Price : $29.95


Description
Los Angeles has been regarded as one of the greatest boxing cities in the world for over a century. With a large fan base, Los Angeles has also been the home of many of the best and most exciting boxers.

Los Angeles area boxers such as Jim Jeffries, Solomon “Solly” Smith, “Mexican” Joe Rivers, Bert Colima, Fidel La Barba, Ace Hudkins, Jimmy McLarnin, Henry Armstrong, Enrique Bolanos, Art Aragon, Armando “Mando” Ramos, Bobby Chacon, Danny “Little Red” Lopez, Armando Muniz, Oscar De La Hoya and “Sugar” Shane Mosley became famous both locally and throughout the rest of the world.

In addition, there were many boxers who were not residents of the Los Angeles area who became popular among local fans. They included Tommy Burns, George Godfrey, Alberto “Baby” Arizmendi, Ricardo “Pajarito” Moreno, Jose Becerra, Raymundo “Battling” Torres, Ruben Olivares, Jose Napoles, Carlos Zarate, Jose “Pipino” Cuevas and Julio Cesar Chavez.

The Los Angeles area has been the site for a number of notable bouts. In 1906, Tommy Burns won the heavyweight title from Marvin Hart. Ad Wolgast retained the lightweight title when he won a very controversial bout from “Mexican” Joe Rivers in 1912. In a bout of local boxers during 2000, "Sugar" Shane Mosley won the welterweight title from Oscar De La Hoya.

Boxing in the Los Angeles Area 1880-2005 is a general history of the sport in Los Angeles County and features the mentioned boxers and boxing events in a book with many great illustrations.

To purchase, send $29.95 money order, payable to -- Pastime Memorabilia

Mail to --

Pastime Memorabilia, Publisher
P.O. Box 808
Salem, Virginia 24153

Tracy Callis has been researching boxing history and the records of boxers for 45 years and has produced rare, updated records for many boxers. He possesses an outstanding knowledge of boxing history and has a strong interest in boxers of all weight classes from every historical period.

Callis is the Director of Historical Research for The Cyber Boxing Zone (http://www.cyberboxingzone.com) internet website and an Elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) and a contributor to the British Boxing Board of Control Yearbook.

In the past, he was a contributing editor to the Ring Record Book for a number of years and a member of the World Boxing Historians Association (WBHA). In 2002, Tracy co-authored the book, Philadelphia’s Boxing Heritage 1876-1976, and was a historical consultant on the Jim Jeffries book, A Man Among Men.

Charles E. “Chuck” Johnston developed a strong interest in boxing and its history when Muhammad Ali made his storied comeback during the early 1970s. While attending the University of California at Santa Barbara in the middle 1970s, Chuck became interested in doing research on the history of boxing with a great emphasis on his home state of California. He would go on to find unrecorded bouts of numerous boxers who were active from 1880 to 1945.

Chuck is a member of the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) and an editor on the Boxing Records internet website (http://www.boxrec.com). In the past, he was a contributing editor to the Ring Record Book for a number of years and a historical consultant on the Jack Johnson biography, Unforgivable Blackness, The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, by Geoffrey C. Ward.
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by scartissue »

Frank, that's the book I had mentioned to you earlier. Can you ID anyone on that cover?

Scartissue
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

scartissue wrote:Frank, that's the book I had mentioned to you earlier. Can you ID anyone on that cover?

Scartissue
Scar,

About 6 months ago, Don Fraser send me that photo, asking if I could ID any of the fighters on the photo, no I couldn't and neither can he, and he been around boxing about 15 years longer then me.
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

Image

Buster Mathis Sr. and trainer Joe Fariello

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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

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Bill McMurray vs Floyd Patterson
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

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Bruce Woodcock
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

kikibalt wrote:New book by Tracy Callis and Chuck Johnston
Image
Working out in the gym;
A group of Los Angeles boxing hopefuls took time out and posed for a picture in the Manhattan gym in Los Angeles (Circa 1946) left to right they are.
Chuck Cruz, Dave Loiga, Kobie Scott, Leo Flores, Al Medrano, Silver Rodriguez and Johnny Murray
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

kikibalt wrote:New book by Tracy Callis and Chuck Johnston
Image
I received this book today from Tracy Callis, and just browsing throught the book I think its worth the 30 bucks. stories and lots of pictures from the 1880's to 2005.

I want to thank Tracy Callis for the book.
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by Chuck1052 »

Frank, thanks for posting the information about the book on L.A. boxing history
by Tracy Callis and myself.

- Chuck Johnston
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

Chuck1052 wrote:Frank, thanks for posting the information about the book on L.A. boxing history
by Tracy Callis and myself.

- Chuck Johnston
Chuck; you are more then welcome.
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

Image
Frankie Baltazar, Frank Baltazar and Tony Baltazar
Circa..1980
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by Expug »

kikibalt wrote:Image
Frankie Baltazar, Frank Baltazar and Tony Baltazar
Circa..1980
That picture of your boys is just exactly how I remember them.
Its strange how time can stay the same in ones mind.
Maybe I cant articulate it so well, but when you watch a good fighter in his prime, you picture him always the same.
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

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ANOTHER IRISH BOB MURPHY STORY
as told to me by Tough Tony Panza

"I'll have a beer Tony."
"The usual?"
"Yep"
Tony popped off the cap and set the bottle on the counter in front of me. Never a glass, unless you asked for one. The Arizona was empty except for me and Tony. Tony was wiping the bar with a towel.
"Rog,what have you got goin' for New Years?"
"Nada. No drivin' the streets on that night."
Tony continued wiping the bar with slow circling motions.
"Did I ever tell ya' the night Murphy drove out of here on New Years?"
"No,but I think I'm gonna' hear a good one. Let me have it."

Tony laid the towel on the bar.
"Well it was back in'55 New Year's Eve. Just me and George."
"George always was good at letting his bartenders off on holidays", I said.
"What are you talkin' about? Radovich knew what he was doin'. He knew those guys would be in here drinkin' it up. Why pay 'em a shift,when they'd empty their wallets buying drinks for the house?"

Tony looked at the wall in back of the piano. They didn't play the thing anymore. Too much hassle. The piano player either didn't know a song,and then there'd be a beef. Or George had to pay the piano player even though no one wanted to hear him play. And then there was the dance license George had to spring for in case anyone wanted to "hoof' it around the dance floor. Anyways.in back of the piano,on the wall,were the series of Bob Murphy photographs. It was when Georgw had him in the amateurs just after Murphy got out of the Navy.

"Around eight thirty the place was filling up pretty fast. I'm in the back handling the bowling alley," Tony went on.
Radovich had about six lanes in the back before he dismantled the bowling alley to make space for a printing company so he could rent the space out. George was the last one to install automatic pinsetters until his insurance got so high from pin boys getting hit in the head from flying pins.that he relented.

"Well around nine, Murphy and Hatfield come rollin' in.They'd been drinkin' all day."
"I know George didn't like Murphy in here when he'd had too much to drink."
"No Rog. So me and Radovich formulated a plan."
"I can imagine."
"George rang me on the back phone."
Tony shook his head a little and smirked.
"That was the signal to send Crazy Shirley over to the bar,"
"I can see it coming."
"Well I move close to Murphy. Shirley starts yappin' about how there's a party on Santa Monica Street up the block."
"So where's the hook?"
"Shirley's tellin' me loud enough for Murphy to hear, that the Portugese had got in from fishing a got this party going up the street. And as a bonus,they hired a bunch of strippers."
"Murphy went for it?"
"You know Murphy. He hated greasers and throw in the broads, and it was a no brainer."
Another customer came in and sat on the opposite end of the bar. Tony went over and drew him a draft.

Tony had that right. When Murphy was drunk.it was fightin' and f----n,not necessarily in that order.
"Murphy was out of here faster than the second Marciano/Walcott fight."
We were both laughing at that one.
"Me and Radovich figured Murphy would be driving around lookin' for the party on Santa Monica Street before a cop would pull them over and take them downtown to sleep it off."
"So they never found the party?"
"It got so busy in here,we had forgotten about them. Until we got a phone call a little after midnight."
"Murphy?"
"Yep. What do you think that dumb Irishman did? He drove up to Santa Monica looking for that party."
"Santa Monica,California?That's over a hundred miles."
"How he made it in one piece is anyone's guess."
"And the phone call?"
"Murphy wanted to know the address."
We both busted up.
"That sounds like something Murphy would do", I said.

Tony picked up the towel again and started cleaning off the counter .
"I see you need another beer, Rog. How about one on me....and Murphy?"
"How can anyone refuse an offer like that?"
kikibalt
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

Image
kikibalt
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

Image
diego,

Two photos of Convict Lake, where we'd our fishing.

Image
dagosd2000
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by dagosd2000 »

kikibalt wrote:Image
diego,

Two photos of Convict Lake, where we'd our fishing.

Image
Where you do your fishing, and reflecting on life. I'm going to email you some photos of Jiquilpan. I wonder if "Gato" ever thinks of retiring there?
kikibalt
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Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing

Post by kikibalt »

diego,

Send the pics. anytime you want, and I'll post'em as soon as I can.
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