Anyone got any links to any footage of the legend Harry Wills?
I've read a few books and articles but have yet to locate a biography or any footage of the great man other than the usual Paolino Uzcundon reel when Wills was 38.
here is some rare footage of "the Black Panther"along with"The Manassa Mauler"
and the"Galveston Giant"together.
A 56 year old Harry Wills refs an exhibition between Jack Johnson and Joe Jeanette at a Liberty War Bonds drive
at the Henry Hudson Hotel in NYC in 1945.
The only fight footage of Wills that definitely exists is the short Uzcudun clip. I've heard rumors that a brief HL film of Wills vs Bartley Madden exists but never seen confirmation. He probably had other fights filmed (I would suspect his fight was Firpo was) but they are lost to time.
Only hope is that some old fight fan has a private collection and when he goes to seed the family release it and it has some unseen footage. I really hope so, I can't get enough of the McVey/Wills/Johnson bouts.
What became of Harry Wills Estate after he died in 1958?
He was in the Real Estate buisness in NYC and died very wealthy.
Im sure he probably would have been interested in collecting
films of his old fights.
Harry Wills owned and lived in at least two houses in Upper Harlem during the 1920's.
One was in the Sugar Hill area on west 147th Street near the Rockefeller Apartments
the other one that can still be seen at Striver's Row
245 West 139th Street.