Classic American West Coast Boxing

[kikibalt]

Bob, Bing and the Rock, who is the babe?

[Rick Farris]

Bennie . . . James Garner is the best! During my 32 years working in the film industry I've met a few actors whom I truly like and Jim Garner is one of them. In the 50's, my grandfather was the lighting gaffer on "Maverick", a popular TV show at the time, with Garner. Years later, in the mid 70's when I started out I was at Universal and assigned to the "Rockford Files". Jim Garner remembered my grandfather and took a liking to me, eventually helping me become the shows lighting gaffer. I would eventually work on hundreds of TV & movie productions, but not until I hooked up with Michael Landon would I work for anybody as professional as Garner. Jim is "our" type of a guy. He'd fit in here. No BS with Jams Garner. I'll share a few personal James Garner stories later, they are worth remembering.

-Rick

Rick, James Garner is another of my favorite actors. Like Michael Landon , he is a class act. Of course I don't know him personally, but from what I have read and from interviews that I have seen, he appears to be the real deal. On the Maverick show, he was the best of the Maverick's, but he was at his best as Jim Rockford. I've always felt that Magnum PI was somewhat of an updated version of Rockford. Noah Beery jr. was perfect as "Rocky, his father. Beery must have been a character. Did you meet him?

Maybe it's just me Rick, but as in boxing, they just don't make them like this any more. The new actors and the television shows as well as the movies just do not compare.

Randy

Tom Selleck (whom I don't particularly like) was actually in an episode of Rockford Files, and he and James Garner pair off as private detectives. There is no doubt Selleck got his break in Rockford.

Bennie . . . I worked on that episode. Actually, Selleck was paired with James Whitmore Jr. as a couple of bumbling private eyes working with Garner. That was shot during the last season of Rockford (1979). Selleck would go on to star in Magnum PI the following season. I was asked to go to Hawaii to do the pilot, (Like Rockford, it was a Universal production) but turned it down to work on a feature film in New Hampshire, "On Golden Pond". I made the right choice. As for Selleck's "Rockford" co-guest star, James Whitmore Jr., today he's a top TV director (a good one) and earlier this year I worked with him on "The Cleaner". As for Noah Beery Jr. he was a very nice man. He was a quiet film veteran, son of a legendary old time actor. He would come to the set with a smile on his face, do his job in "one take" (that was the goal with the real film pros), then wave good bye to all and leave. For the record, When Garner returned to revive Rockford in the mid 90's Noah Beery Jr. had passed. However, Garner hired Beery's grandson to work on the project as a PA (Production Assistant)

You are so right about the TV world. For one thing, like boxing has lost all it's great trainers, the world of film has lost ALL of it's true pros. Today the excess is sickening, people don't know basic stage direction, or reasons why we do somethings and don't do others. It's like 100 years of experience lost. They keep trying to reinvent the wheel. Today, computor animation and high tech film systems bring great innovations to the move world which seems to cover the ineptitude of those who call themselves creative genises. I've worked with most of the great film directors of the past three decades, Spielberg, Sydney Pollock, Billy Wilder (in his last film circa 1981), Blake Edwards, too many to name. These guys can make a film interesting using just an old super 8mm and an empty room with two true actors. Then you have your Brett Ratner's who need a lot of explosions and stunts and the computors to make a film. The best, most efficient director in the feature film world is Clint Eastwood. I know about Eastwood, having worked with him on "Any Which Way You Can", "Firefox", "Bronco Billy", "The Drowning Pool" and "In The Line Of Fire." Like Landon and Garner, Eastwood is just a "regular guy" who happens to make great movies. Ironic that all were 50's-60's Western TV stars. Bonanaza, Maverick and Rawhide . . . all great TV productions.

Clint Eastwood and Michael Landon were cut from the same piece of cloth. Landon hired the best, paid us the most and finished what normally would be a 12 hour day in eight hours. Eastwood is the same. With these guys you bring a film in ahead of schedule and under budget. The result is always QUALITY. One take! Nothing was better than working "Highway To Heaven" with Michael Landon, Vic French and one of Mike's hand picked guest stars such as Dick Van Dyke, Leslie Nielson or Eli Wallach. Such a combination of talent backed by a great production crew equalled "One take an outta there!" Hope I do another Eastwood Film again, one day. Who knows?

Today we just go with the flow. When the kids get lost, we point them in the right direction, things will work, they'll believe that they "fixed it" and then resume their stupidity, get lost, we point 'em in the right direction, it works, they take the credit, screw it up again, we fix it, they take the credt and on and on and on and on.

Today, I want my own art. I want to put it in dramatic interviews with those I like and respect, the fighters. Dan Hanley and I have a pretty good thing when we put our heads and skills together. You'll see!

-Rick Farris

[raylawpc]

Bob, Bing and the Rock, who is the babe?

The genie I always dreamed about . . . Barbara Eden.

[Rick Farris]

Bob, Bing and the Rock, who is the babe?

The genie I always dreamed about . . . Barbara Eden.

One of my ex-wives (I have more than one) was Eden's make-up artist. She also was Bob Hope's make-up artisit and traveled with Bob to Viet Nam for a couple of those USO shows in the late 60's. The stories she can tell, WHOA!

-Rick

[raylawpc]

Bob, Bing and the Rock, who is the babe?

The genie I always dreamed about . . . Barbara Eden.

One of my ex-wives (I have more than one) was Eden's make-up artist. She also was Bob Hope's make-up artisit and traveled with Bob to Viet Nam for a couple of those USO shows in the late 60's. The stories she can tell, WHOA!

-Rick

Well, please don't tell anything that would burst my bubble about wholesome, girl-next-door sexy Barbara Eden!!

But dish out all the dirt you want on Bob Hope!

[Rick Farris]

Well, please don't tell anything that would burst my bubble about wholesome, girl-next-door sexy Barbara Eden!!

But dish out all the dirt you want on Bob Hope!
[/quote]
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My ex didn't have anything negative to say about Barbara Eden (Sally Field, a different story). She was also pretty warm in her memories of Bob Hope, although he has a rep in the film world as a cheap, cold blooded bastard that would sell his own mother for a laugh. Michael Landon dispised Bob Hope. Both were major personalities in the early years of NBC TV. I think Landon didn't like the way Hope treated his people. Hope had a writer who'd been with him for three decades. In the early 70's, Hope wanted to try a different direction, something to attract the younger, liberal audience. The writer had left his office on friday afternoon happily employed. On monday, when he arrived for work at his NBC office, he was met by a security guard who helped him clean out his office. Hope axed the guy coldly. No thanks for the years of hard work and success, no thanks for the memories. Just a pink slip and get the hell out. Mike handed out bonuses to each and all of us, to top bottom, artists, technicians, the guy who swept the floor.

Landon and Bob Hope made a bet (I don't know what it was) and Hope lost. Hope's end of the deal was to appear in an episode of "Highway To Heaven" if he lost, and he did. We had Hope for one scene, in which he would play God. With Hope, he would arrive on the set and do no more than one take. If we didn't get it I one take, too bad. He arrived in full make-up, the set was already pre-lit and ready to film. Bob Hope does not read scripts, he worked entirely off of cue cards, so did Marlon Brando. He did one rehersal, as always we got it in one take, and then he was gone.

One thing my ex said about working with Hope, he was very powerful politically. At one point, his wife Dolores was the most powerful woman in the country, far more so than any of he first ladies. She said during her years with Hope she would also do make-up on several Presidents including Nixon, Reagan, Ford, and Carter. The Secret Service stories were quite interesting.

In the 70's, Bob Hope came out with a book, "The Women I love", which chronicaled his USO tours of Viet Nam and the women who joined him, The McGuire sisters, Phyllis Diller, Joey Heatherton. He referred to my ex as his "doll make-up girl Patty". In the beginning they would go right into Viet Nam and stay in Saigon. However, when the hotel came under a bombing attack they wisely changed their hotel to one in nearby Thailand. They would take copters into Viet Nam, land near the stage and then do their performance. In one such show, Hope and gang were suddenly moved off stage by Military Police and put into copters. Nobody knew what was going on, Patty said that as their copter lifted off, they could see the North Vietnamese soldiers converging on the stage. From high above they could see all the lights shut down, and the streaks of tracer bullets flying below. Close call. She said that she and Joey Heatherton were picked up by MP's and literally tossed into the copters. "I lost Joey's wig", Patty complained. It fell right out of the Helicopter as it flew away. What do you expect from a woman?


-Rick

[kikibalt]

Bob, Bing and the Rock, who is the babe?

The genie I always dreamed about . . . Barbara Eden.

Thats what I thought, but wasn't sure, thanks Clarence....

[kikibalt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60uAfXFqcRM
Pachuko Hop

The Chuck Higgins's version is much better, I have the Higgins's
version, but I don't know how to upload to you tube,btw its not
on you tube, the Higgings's version that is

[Rick Farris]

Bob, Bing and the Rock, who is the babe?

The genie I always dreamed about . . . Barbara Eden.

Thats what I thought, but wasn't sure, thanks Clarence....

But who is that soft looking Italian guy with the bad rug on his head? Has smaller gloves than Bob Hope, probably can't fight????

-Rick

[kikibalt]

Seaman Tommy Watson Prepares to Sail to America for
Championship Fight with Kid Chocolate
December 29, 1932

[Rick Farris]

Seaman Tommy Watson Prepares to Sail to America for
Championship Fight with Kid Chocolate
December 29, 1932

Tommy Watson caught Fidel La Barba at the end of a great career, however, he went 15 rds with a prime Kid Chocolate. If Mel Epstein were handling Watson, he'd have blamed his loss to Kid Chocolate on the fighter's wife. "What's that broad doing in camp?", he'd ask. By the way, the Kid Chocolate-Tom Watson fight was for both the world featherweight and jr. lightweight titles. Chocolate, the defending champ weighed only 123 1/2 lbs. to 125 for Watson. When I think of Kid Chocolate, I also think of two that would soon follow . . . Ray Robinson and Ike Wlliams. All three were class boxers that could bang, beautiful to watch in action.

-Rick Farris

[kikibalt]

Kid Chocolate vs Seaman Tommy Watson
May 19, 1933

[kikibalt]

Just like to wish everyone and their families a happy, healthy and peaceful 2009.

Happy New Year to you and yours, Rob, same to the gang here.....

[Randyman]

Just like to wish everyone and their families a happy, healthy and peaceful 2009.

Happy New Year to you and yours, Rob, same to the gang here.....

The same from me. Happy New Year. One of the highlights of my year was getting to know you guys and meeting some of you at the Hall of Fame Banquet, courtesy of Rick. Thanks again my old friend!! Meeting all of you was through Frank! My kinda guys!

Jeri and I will be leaving for downtown in about an hour. We're going to the new Nokia Theater at the L.A. Live center to see George Lopez .

See you next year and God Bless!
Randy

http://www.lalive.com/

[iskigoe]

Happy New Year to all.

Kevin

[Rick Farris]

Just like to wish everyone and their families a happy, healthy and peaceful 2009.

Happy New Year to you and yours, Rob, same to the gang here.....

The same from me. Happy New Year. One of the highlights of my year was getting to know you guys and meeting some of you at the Hall of Fame Banquet, courtesy of Rick. Thanks again my old friend!! Meeting all of you was through Frank! My kinda guys!

Jeri and I will be leaving for downtown in about an hour. We're going to the new Nokia Theater at the L.A. Live center to see George Lopez .

See you next year and God Bless!
Randy

http://www.lalive.com/

Randy . . . Have a great time. Wishing you and the rest of the gang a happy new year. Me, I'm hangin' close to home.

-Rick

[Rick Farris]

Kid Chocolate vs Seaman Tommy Watson
May 19, 1933

Seaman Tom Watson was the first British Featherweight champ to fight on American soil in 23 years when he upset favored Fidel La Barba. The Brit was impressive in scoring a one-sided decision win in the Garden. This led to a title shot with Kid Chocolate in the same arena. The British Seaman was inactive during 1926 due to a stint in the Royal Navy, however, was able to buy his way out of the service to resume his boxing career, leading to a world title fight with the Cuban great in 1933. (Info courtesy of Boxrec)

BTW, the son of Tom Watson was interested in selling some of his father's memorabelia earlier this year. A pair Championship English Rose Boxing Gloves was among the items. I have no interest or contact info regarding the gloves, just an odd fact I dug up while studying the career of Watson.

-Rick Farris

[Rick Farris]

Rafael Herrera

September, 1969. I'm 17, a senior in high school, been boxing for more than five years, now an amateur, former Jr. Golden Gloves champ, Golden Gloves and AAU champ, fought in two Nat'l tournaments, would turn pro in eight months. Nothing more, nothing less. Worked with a lot of good pros in the gym, some world class.

I decide to skip school. Grades were good, didn't matter. I was going to be a pro boxer, no education required, at least not what the Burbank School District could provide. I was heading to the Main Street Gym for an early mid-week workout. Larry Soto talks to Johnnie Flores and I'm set to box with this top bantam, Rafael Herrera. Three rounds. I pressed him, he let me work myself out and then, with about thirty seconds left, when I'd spent my rounds worth of energy, he'd lower the boom with some hooks that I shall never forget.

Three rounds. He played me, wore me out, the let the bombs fly. I defied him by staying on my feet, but I'll never forget his blurry image kinda floating from side-to-side in my altered vision. You kinda float into a weird feeling of deja vu, for lack of a better word. If this equates to a concussion (?) then I probably picked up a couple that day. I survived, enjoyed watching Bobby Chacon kick his ass in the gym, but never got my own revenge. Now he wants to be inducted into the WBHOF.

Just kidding, he'll be on the ballot again in '09. He was a helluva fighter.

-Ricardo

[Expug]

Rafael Herrera

September, 1969. I'm 17, a senior in high school, been boxing for more than five years, now an amateur, former Jr. Golden Gloves champ, Golden Gloves and AAU champ, fought in two Nat'l tournaments, would turn pro in eight months. Nothing more, nothing less. Worked with a lot of good pros in the gym, some world class.

I decide to skip school. Grades were good, didn't matter. I was going to be a pro boxer, no education required, at least not what the Burbank School District could provide. I was heading to the Main Street Gym for an early mid-week workout. Larry Soto talks to Johnnie Flores and I'm set to box with this top bantam, Rafael Herrera. Three rounds. I pressed him, he let me work myself out and then, with about thirty seconds left, when I'd spent my rounds worth of energy, he'd lower the boom with some hooks that I shall never forget.

Three rounds. He played me, wore me out, the let the bombs fly. I defied him by staying on my feet, but I'll never forget his blurry image kinda floating from side-to-side in my altered vision. You kinda float into a weird feeling of deja vu, for lack of a better word. If this equates to a concussion (?) then I probably picked up a couple that day. I survived, enjoyed watching Bobby Chacon kick his ass in the gym, but never got my own revenge. Now he wants to be inducted into the WBHOF.

Don't worry, just kidding guys, he'll be on the ballot again '09. He was a helluva fighter.

-Ricardo

Rick, man, I love these memories of yours from the gym.
Ive had similar experiences with established pros.One was with a guy named Louie Mateo who I mentioned a little earlier.He fought Randy Shields and Pipino Cuevas.
He unloaded some bombs on me in the gym when I first turned pro.He had already fought Shields and was too much for me at that point. But just as you did with Herrera,I hung in there.
I never forgot it though.
Anyway, I gotta mention, Im in Vail, Skiing with the family and have been spending time with some local ski people.I love the time with my wife and kids so its all great.
But,the locals who we are spending time with , bore the hell out of me with ski talk.
The more I listen , the more I appreciate the time sitting in that Hotel bar with you and the rest of the crew talking about boxing and other more pertinent subjects.
Out here, the heros are freakin ski instructors.
That aint the way it is in our world my friend.

[Rick Farris]

Joe Louis and Hoyt Porter

Hoyt gave me this photo about 30 years ago, Hoyt have since passed away, I'll alway be grateful for him putting such trust in me.

Frank . . . Didn't Hoyt Porter train you early in your amateur days?

-Rick

[bennie]

This is a US amateur team from 1977. Sadly I can only identify 2 (I think). Alex Ramos is beaming in the middle and I think that is Curtis Parker just below him. Hopefully you guys can identify more.

Nice shot, Rob. I should know more of these guys and it bugs me that I don't. Milt McCrory is there in the background...

[bennie]

Happy New Year to all.

Kevin

Thanks, Kevin.

[bennie]

Well, please don't tell anything that would burst my bubble about wholesome, girl-next-door sexy Barbara Eden!!

But dish out all the dirt you want on Bob Hope!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My ex didn't have anything negative to say about Barbara Eden (Sally Field, a different story). She was also pretty warm in her memories of Bob Hope, although he has a rep in the film world as a cheap, cold blooded bastard that would sell his own mother for a laugh. Michael Landon dispised Bob Hope. Both were major personalities in the early years of NBC TV. I think Landon didn't like the way Hope treated his people. Hope had a writer who'd been with him for three decades. In the early 70's, Hope wanted to try a different direction, something to attract the younger, liberal audience. The writer had left his office on friday afternoon happily employed. On monday, when he arrived for work at his NBC office, he was met by a security guard who helped him clean out his office. Hope axed the guy coldly. No thanks for the years of hard work and success, no thanks for the memories. Just a pink slip and get the hell out. Mike handed out bonuses to each and all of us, to top bottom, artists, technicians, the guy who swept the floor.

Landon and Bob Hope made a bet (I don't know what it was) and Hope lost. Hope's end of the deal was to appear in an episode of "Highway To Heaven" if he lost, and he did. We had Hope for one scene, in which he would play God. With Hope, he would arrive on the set and do no more than one take. If we didn't get it I one take, too bad. He arrived in full make-up, the set was already pre-lit and ready to film. Bob Hope does not read scripts, he worked entirely off of cue cards, so did Marlon Brando. He did one rehersal, as always we got it in one take, and then he was gone.

One thing my ex said about working with Hope, he was very powerful politically. At one point, his wife Dolores was the most powerful woman in the country, far more so than any of he first ladies. She said during her years with Hope she would also do make-up on several Presidents including Nixon, Reagan, Ford, and Carter. The Secret Service stories were quite interesting.

In the 70's, Bob Hope came out with a book, "The Women I love", which chronicaled his USO tours of Viet Nam and the women who joined him, The McGuire sisters, Phyllis Diller, Joey Heatherton. He referred to my ex as his "doll make-up girl Patty". In the beginning they would go right into Viet Nam and stay in Saigon. However, when the hotel came under a bombing attack they wisely changed their hotel to one in nearby Thailand. They would take copters into Viet Nam, land near the stage and then do their performance. In one such show, Hope and gang were suddenly moved off stage by Military Police and put into copters. Nobody knew what was going on, Patty said that as their copter lifted off, they could see the North Vietnamese soldiers converging on the stage. From high above they could see all the lights shut down, and the streaks of tracer bullets flying below. Close call. She said that she and Joey Heatherton were picked up by MP's and literally tossed into the copters. "I lost Joey's wig", Patty complained. It fell right out of the Helicopter as it flew away. What do you expect from a woman?


-Rick[/quote]

These are fascinating revelations. I once heard that Hope and Crosby would 'jump' anything that stood still.

[bennie]

You lived through a golden era, Rick. You know, over here TV is TERRIBLE, I've never known it so bad. If I do watch anything, it is classic 1970s stuff.

[dagosd2000]

LOOKING FORWARD

He picked up the phone. It was Danny.
"How was the New Year kid?",asked the voice on the other end.
"OK with me. I slept through it",answered the young man's voice. "Didn't want to break training with the fight coming in two weeks."
"Good boy. Monday we'll be up at camp again,"said the gruff old guy.
"I hear they got snow during the week."
"Yeh ,there's plenty of snow on the ground. Jesse and Mario will drive up there Sunday."
"Good,"said the young fighter."I need a little more work."
"You'll be fine. They'll help you around,"said the manager.
"I'll beat him this time. I started too slow the last fight."
"You know what to do now."
"The last fight keeps me up at night."
"That's behind us now. It's a new year.A second shot."
"When I look back,I think of what I did wrong."
"Now you know what to do. You see it now,"said the old manager.
"Yes,"responded the young fighter."Maybe that's why they put your eyes in front of your head."