kikibalt wrote:Rick Farris wrote:Willie Vaughn . . .
Does anybody know if he's still alive? I believe he is. I know that he fought for Hap Navarro at the Hollywood Legion Stadium quite a few times.
-Rick Farris
Vaughn worked at the Forum for a number of years, he was the tunnel
gatekeeper, you know, where all the freebies come in.....
Getting In Free . . .
Frank . . . Very likely that Willie Vaughn was the guy who'd open the gate for Mel Epstein and I, when we'd catch the early 70's Forum cards that Don Fraser promoted. Remember the ramp that went down to the floor of the Forum from the parking lot? That was the gate where our names were on the list. I don't remember who was at the gate?
Do you remember doing that at the Olympic? Thru the back door on the west side of the building, right by the dressing room tunnel. We'd sit up in back by the beer stand, at the end of the aisle the fighters would go down to the ring. Of course, we'd eventually slip down to the unoccupied ringside seats.
I was accustomed to one or two pro cards a week in L.A. when I was fighting. You fight on the cards, you get in free when you attend the fights. We never pay to see a fight, any fight. A few years later, you want to see a fight and you know you have to pay, and you do, but you think back to when you were a part of the picture, not just an observer. You can feel the distance, if you haven't remained active.
I remember attending a fight at the Olympic in the mid-90's, about twenty five years after I made my pro dbut there. It was the same old house, but different people lived there. They'd even changed the furniture around. What the Hell? The dressing room was in a different place, not as many seats . . . I didn't recognize the place. I'm sitting ringside with my father, and he taps me on the shoulder, "Look over there." I turn to where he's pointing and see four familiar faces . . . Jackie McCoy, Don Chargin, Benny Georgino and Archie Moore, all sitting together right under the balcony, where the TV cameras were once mounted. We knew the first three personally, and everybody knew who Archie Moore was.
We walked over and said "hello" to everybody, and Benny introduced Moore, who was wearing a multi-colored knit cap. These guys literally ran boxing in L.A. at one time. They'd all grown older, Jackie looked unusually weak, didn't seem to have his old "spark". I knew he'd lost his wife, Shirley, not long before, and I know that can break a man's heart. Little did I know that he had cancer, and would soon pass. Don Chargin was just the same as always and, of course, so was Benny. Just a little older, as were we all. The great Archie Moore, he still looked fit and sharp, but he would not be around much longer. I've shook the hands of a lot of great fighters over the years, but none of those hands scored as many knockouts as the "'Ol Mongoose".
When we returned to our seats, I looked up into the rafters of 70-year-old arena, I remember how the microphone was attached to a cord and lowered down to announcer Jimmy Lennon, whenever he was in the ring. When he finished, it would be reeled back up into rafters. I could see the old reel attached to one of the beams, but it was no longer in use. The ring announcer of the 90's had a remote wireless mike, no cord, slipped into his pocket when not in use. And the old electronic time clock, that showed the time of each round- Gone. In the 90's, the "Grand" Olympic had "Budweiser Girls" to carry cards that told you what round was coming up.
When we left, I saw the sign had been changed, it was no longer the Olympic Auditorium, but the "Grand" Olympic Auditorium. I suddenly understood why the name had been changed. There was a time when you didn't have to tell anybody that the Olympic was Grand, everybody just knew. In the 90's, a reminder was necessary. Different people lived there.
-Rick Farris
