Boxing Booths

[nobleart1978]

Just been reading about Jimmy Wilde and his time at Jack Scarrotts boxing booth.

How much credence do you give to Wildes' claim that he knocked out 23 men in a 4 hour stint. And his claim that, even though he weighed 7 stone (88 lbs), he KO'd men who were 12 stone (168) and heavier.

[prewarboxing]

I know a lot about boxing booths, and quite a lot about Jack Scarrott's booth in particular.

You must realise that the vast majority of the 'men' who Wilde beat were not boxers at all but were local tough guys who fancied themselves against a boxer, probably on a Friday night and probably whilst p*ssed. It is very easy to see how Wilde, a well-trained and hard-hitting flyweight could despatch some bloke who had never been in a ring in his life and may have been 12st because he was aged and overweight.

Regarding the claim that he KO'd 23 men in 4 hours, I can believe that as well. On a bank holiday afternoon in the height of summer a boxing booth might run two or three shows an hour. That is 8 to 12 shows in 4 hours. Wilde would knock these guys out for fun and people would pay to see it.

Two things to consider:

1. I myself visited Ron Taylor's booth between 1975 and 1978 when it visited Newcastle Town Moor. This was long past the heyday of booth boxing. Ron had the last booth in Britain and he finally packed up in the 1990s. Even though the booth mainly ran wrestling events I can remember Jackie Turpin, who boxed professionally in the early 1970s, when he was an unlicensed boxer taking on all-comers much as Wilde had done 60 years before. I can easily see how Wilde's claims could be true.

2. Some booth boxing was legit and much of it was reported in the press if two professionals boxed against each other, as they often did on Scarrott's booth. Most of it however was not and this was because the events largely consisted of people like Wilde (and Benny Lynch, Johnny King, Jock McAvoy, Freddie Mills etc) bowling over non-professionals for the fun of it. Because it was not reported it could easily be exaggerated.

So Wilde's claims can never be substantiated but they may very well be truthful, albeit a little exaggerated.

I would be interested to hear from anyone else on this forum who can remember the booths. They were something else.

Finally, here is a picture of Jack Scarrott




Miles Templeton.

[goose 5]

Very interesting post ! I believe Randy Turpin once fought at a booth while he was World champ.

[nobleart1978]

Thank you for the reply prewarboxing.

I am currently in the process of researching everything to do with Jimmy Wilde as I am hoping to put it all together to be part of a definitive biography of the great little man.

The photo of Jack Scarrott was welcome. It is nice to put a face to the name.

As you can appreciate, there is a lot of work for me still to do. Visiting Tylorstown, tracking down living relatives, researching JW's opponenets etc...

[prewarboxing]

Thank you for the reply prewarboxing.

I am currently in the process of researching everything to do with Jimmy Wilde as I am hoping to put it all together to be part of a definitive biography of the great little man.

The photo of Jack Scarrott was welcome. It is nice to put a face to the name.

As you can appreciate, there is a lot of work for me still to do. Visiting Tylorstown, tracking down living relatives, researching JW's opponenets etc...

In which case you definitely need to pm me. I can really help. If you want to call me my number is easy available via my website, boxinghistory.org.uk

Miles Templeton.

[nobleart1978]

Thanks Miles.
I'll be in touch.

[prewarboxing]

Here is a report of Jack Scarrott and his booth at Treherbert in April 1923. It is the start of the summer season and as is shown, he has just moved up to Treherbert from Tonypandy, a few miles further up the Rhondda Fach Valley. Although there is a railway line available he may have moved his pitch by horse and cart, who knows!

Old Jack had run shows at Tonypandy on Mar 31, Apr 7, Apr 14 and then on Apr 21 and here he is at Treherbert on Apr 28. For those who know the area (where Tommy Farr came from) he pitched his booth for three weeks on the Pandy Field at Tonypandy. He ran another show at Treherbert on May 5th and then moved back down the valley, through Tonypandy, to Porth, where he ran a show on May 19th. This was how things were with the booths, some nights he would run a legitimate show with professionals and then on other nights he would have professionals taking on all-comers. If you could stay three rounds with the professional then you could earn £1. Not many did, hence Jimmy Wilde's many knockouts against these men. Jimmy did have very many legitimate contests on the booths that have been lost to the midst of time as they were never reported

By the end of 1923 Jack was in Caerphilly.

Inicidentally, the first reference I can find for his booth was in 1906 at Llanelly. I think he finished in 1932 after a summer tour which included Ynysboeth, Gilfach Goch and Trebanog. He seemed to like the area around the Rhondda Fach and the Rhondda Fawr.

Miles Templeton

[Steveh583]

The man who taught me the fundamentals of the game came from that lineage of booth fighting. He told me that they would rub their feet in a sandlike substance between rounds to improve your ability to grip the canvas (this is obv before modern boots etc), but they would load the challengers box with itching powder in order to distract them and interfere with their balance mid way thru the round.

I have some very old original copies of wildes the art of boxing as well as hitting and stopping.

[orbtastic]

Rosin, right?

[HomicideHenry]

I believe it. A real trained guy no matter his size is going to beat up and knock out or cut up a regular person regardless how tough they believe themselves to be. Almost always the hard case tires out in 30-60 seconds. That's why Toughman contests were 1 minute rounds, to make obviously pitiful non-athletes look halfways decent.

[prewarboxing]

4 minutes in. These are the booths in the 1960s when there was no proper boxing, but they are the same booths that had toured the UK back in the 1930s. The Barker, Matt Moran was an ex professional himself

Miles Templeton

[HomicideHenry]

I think the only traveling booth in the world still in operation is Fred Brophy's tent shows in Australia. He's produced a few good (decent) pros.