AKRON'S KING OF RINGS - BOXER GORILLA JONES CONQUERS THE WOR

[slakka]

AKRON'S KING OF RINGS - BOXER GORILLA JONES CONQUERS THE WORLD ANDLIVES THE HIGH LIFE Akron Beacon Journal (OH) - Monday, June 8, 2009 Author: Mark J. Price, Beacon Journal staff writer Outside the boxing ring, Gorilla Jones was an unforgettable personality. He wore impeccable suits, flashed diamond rings, drove a Lincoln coupe,consorted with a Hollywood vixen and walked a lion cub on a leash. Inside the ring, stripped of all excess, he was equally memorable ?except perhaps to the dozens of fighters he knocked out. They wereexcused for not recalling a thing after Jones ' right glove crateredtheir faces. One of the greatest boxers in Akron's history, Jones won the worldmiddleweight title twice in the 1930s. He will be inducted posthumouslythis weekend into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota,N.Y. Jones fought in 138 professional bouts, winning 101, losing 24 anddrawing 13. He KO'd 52 opponents, but never suffered a knockout orserious injury. ''I have been blessed with a mind that works rapidly in the ring andhands that work as rapidly as my mind tells them,'' Jones told theBeacon Journal early in his career. ''I think I can figure fight moves abit faster than can the fellows I am fighting, and once figured out, myhands move as they should to carry me to victory.'' The nickname '' Gorilla ,'' politically incorrect in today's world, wasattributed to Jones ' long reach ? 75 inches ? in the ring. In 1932,Beacon Journal sports scribe Jim Schlemmer said the Gorilla monikerdidn't fit ''in looks or actions,'' and called Jones ''as classy a pieceof fighting machinery as the game has known.'' ''He is an unusual type of fighter,'' Schlemmer wrote. ''He doesn't liketo hurt anybody. He wishes every fellow he fights could be as good ornearly as good as himself.'' William Landon Jones was born in 1906 in Memphis, Tenn. He confessed todoing a lot of things wrong in his youth, such as giving up on educationafter grammar school. He worked for a bootlegger, ran with a tough crowdand learned to fight. The ring was his way out. At age 18, Jones started boxing for $7.50 a bout. He stood 5 feet 9inches and tipped the scales at 145 pounds. Jones ' first fight outside Memphis was at the Akron Armory in 1927. Hebeat welterweight K.O. Kelly and won $100. Unfortunately, Jones tried toadd to his earnings in a late-night dice game and lost everything. He begged Akron boxing promoter Suey Welch for another fight so he couldbuy a train ticket to Memphis. Jones won the rematch, but stayed in Akron after the promoter offered tobe his manager and train him at the Welch Athletic Club at 219 S. MainSt. Welch called Jones ''the greatest fighter in the world, pound forpound.'' The two made a fortune together. Jones pummeled his way through a long line of foes: Sailor Maxwell,Mickey Fedor, Tommy Freeman, Bucky Lawless, Al Mello, Izzy Grove, JackieHorner, Nick Testo, Meyer Grace, Jock Malone. The purses grew larger,and soon he was fighting as a middleweight at Madison Square Garden inNew York. In 1929, Jones earned $100,000 ? about $1.2 million in today's money ?and went on a spending spree. He bought his parents a Ford sedan and$10,000 home in Memphis, then rewarded himself with a $5,400 Lincoln. Hebought three suits after each bout, giving away older outfits to pals.He added a diamond-collared lion to his act, walking the cub on a leashto matches and personal appearances. ''In 1929 when I was in the so-called 'big' money, I spent too much,''he later recalled. ''I liked fast horses, fast autos, fast airplanes. Ihad too many friends who helped me spend.'' Jones hit the big time in January 1932 with a sixth-round knockout ofItalian boxer Oddone Piazza in Milwaukee for the National BoxingAssociation middleweight crown. A cheering crowd greeted him at UnionDepot as he returned to Akron. Five months later, he lost the title to Marcel Thil before 70,000spectators in Paris, but regained it in 1933 by knocking out SammySlaughter at Cleveland Public Hall. He declined to defend the titleafter that. Jones boxed for seven more years, but his right punch lost its sting.His final fight at the Akron Armory was a 1938 loss to Babe Risko. Jonesretired in 1940 after losing a bout in Idaho. '' Gorilla Jones will never stay in the fight game until he's ready tocut paper dolls,'' Jones vowed. In many respects, the next chapter of his life was flashier than boxing.He went to work as Hollywood legend Mae West's chauffeur and bodyguard. He first met the wise-cracking actress at a New York nightclub in 1928.West's father had been a prizefighter, and she enjoyed bankrollingboxers. ''The boxers had a hard time, even some of them who were pretty good,''West told biographer Charlotte Chandler in 1979. ''There was one Ibacked named Gorilla Jones . I don't know why he was called ' Gorilla .'He wasn't that kind of fighter. I saw he was getting pounded too much,and he really didn't like fighting anymore, but he didn't know what elseto do.'' She asked him if he could drive a car. Sure, he could. Even with a lioncub in the back seat. ''So I hired him as my chauffeur,'' West said. ''He turned out to be avery good driver, and he was also protection.'' West also employed Jones ' mother, Daisy, as a wardrobe assistant whenthe actress traveled. She bought homes for the boxer and his mother inLos Angeles, and served as Jones ' financial manager and personalmanager. Biographers agree that the relationship wasn't all business. West andJones remained close companions for 40 years. In public, he referred toher as ''The Lady,'' never by her name. One time, a heckler made a bawdy remark to the actress, and the boxerthreatened to rearrange the man's face. ''Let 'em talk,'' West told him. ''It's good for business.'' According to Hollywood lore, West got aggravated when house managerstried to block Jones from visiting her sixth-floor suite in theRavenswood apartment complex. She bought the building and hired newstaff. ''A motion picture company offered me a quarter-million to film mystory, but they wanted to make me say I was her lover,'' Jones told Jetmagazine in 1974. ''That would be a lie because she was my manager andmy friend. All the money in the world would be no good without a friendwho has done everything to keep me on top and let me live the life Iwanted to live.'' When Jones began to suffer from diabetes and lose his eyesight, Westkept him on the payroll and handled his bills. Jones was devastated in 1980 when West died in Ravenswood at age 87. Sheleft him two apartment buildings and three houses. Acquaintances said Jones gave up the will to live after ''The Lady''passed away. As his health deteriorated, his weight plunged to 102 pounds. In 1982,William '' Gorilla '' Jones died of arteriosclerosis at age 75. The final bell sounded for an Akron boxing legend. GORILLA JONES STORY A VIRTUAL KNOCKOUT - MAE WEST FAN PLEASED TO LEARNABOUT AKRON BOXER'S ROLE IN LIFE OF ACTRESS Akron Beacon Journal (OH) - Monday, June 29, 2009 Author: Mark J. Price, Beacon Journal staff writer History never sleeps. Here are some interesting updates from the world of This Place, ThisTime: GOING WEST Hollywood musician Ram Diaz, 47, called to say he loved our story aboutAkron boxer William '' Gorilla '' Jones (1906-1982), a formermiddleweight champion who was posthumously inducted into theInternational Boxing Hall of Fame this month. Diaz is a big fan of screen legend Mae West (1892-1980), who employedJones as a bodyguard and chauffeur after he retired from the ring. Jonesand West were close companions for 40 years and might have beenromantically involved. ''I didn't know much about Gorilla Jones because she was so secretiveabout her men,'' Diaz said. ''Mae West didn't kiss and tell. She mighthave given you a clue here and there.'' He believes such a clue can be found in West's 1932 movie Night AfterNight, in which George Raft plays an ex-boxer. It was the same year thatJones won the middleweight title. In one scene, West remarks: ''Hey, Gorilla . Come here.'' ''She was given full right to rewrite her scenes in that movie,'' hesaid. ''So I know for a fact that she put that name in there.'' A lifelong collector of memorabilia, Diaz has been enamored with Westsince he saw My Little Chickadee on TV as a boy in the 1960s. He livesin a building near the late star's Ravenswood apartment complex. ''I can actually see her bedroom window from my bedroom window,'' hesaid. Since 1988, Diaz has thrown a Hollywood birthday party in West's honorevery Aug. 17 on the roof of Gramercy Tower in Hancock Park and in histop-floor apartment. The potluck dinner, which is open to the public,includes some of West's inner circle of friends, including Kevin Thomas,Tim Malachosky and Chris Basinger. Not all guests are acquainted with West's work, though. ''There's a lot of people that really don't know much about her, butthey get educated when they arrive,'' Diaz said. He praised the Beacon Journal article for teaching him something new. ''That's the fascinating thing with Miss West,'' he said. ''There'salways something new.'' BEAN COUNTER Our recent story about the Summit County Infirmary in West Akron sparkeda childhood memory for Marjorie Straight, 84, of Cuyahoga Falls. She remembers when she and her sister used to ride in the car with theirparents in Munroe Falls and see the Summit County Home, which replacedthe infirmary in 1919. ''In the summer, every day there were residents sitting outside in thefront lawn on benches and the picnic table,'' she recalled. Elderly residents with canes would stroll along the road. She called it''a sight to behold.'' ''There was a man sitting there with two jars ? one with navy beans. . .. Every car that passed, he would keep count by putting a bean from onejar into the other. . . . ''We enjoyed seeing him sitting there counting.'' Straight said she hopes the Beacon Journal will continue to ''tell usmore of the history of Akron, long forgotten or unknown to people.'' Memo: This Place, This Time / Local History / Mark J. Price is a BeaconJournal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail [email protected].