Classic American West Coast Boxing

[Rick Farris]

You are right, Rick. That area had always been upper middle class from the time I was a kid and lived at Barnard Park street, a short lane that ran from Washington Blvd. to the fenced field of Poly High. Later, that street was closed and the school took over the whole schmeer. Eventually, Poly High was relocated to the San Fernando Valley.

Just east of Grand, at Washington, the old Washington ball park had stood for years, and when baseball moved out of there, it became the site for carnivals, the circus and revival meetings. As kids, we would comb the grounds after a carnival and hunt for coins or other valuables that had been dropped on the sawdust grounds.

Much later, a high rise merchandise mart was built on the corner of Washington and Broadway, on the street--front portion of the old ball park. By the way, many boxing shows were planned for Washington Park but I do not think they ever materialized. I believe Jim Jeffries was interested in promoting there in the early 1900sm but finally decided to show at Vernon.

Some of my fondest boyhod memories are from that area and incidentally, both Don Fraser and I grew up living on Grand avenue, me at 20th and Grand, Don around 30th and Grand. We both attended John Adams Jr. High, at 31st and Main streets.

hap navarro

Hap . . . to further the point relating to the area today, also around the corner for years has been Los Angeles Trade Tech College. Across from the arena is a "Burger King". Food corps don't deliberatly invest in a dangerous location. The place was a drive-in diner called, "The Olympic" in the mid-60's, when I first got to know the Olympic.

That arena sits on some valuable real estate in any economy. But it has a lot of competition as a sports venue today.
The Staples Center, of course, is the premier L.A. venue, then you have a rarely usedForum across town in Inglewood, and the rarely used Sports Arena, just blocks away.
All freeway close and accessable, just like the Olympic. It's days as a major venue, aside from an old school boxing or MMA promotion (which is not realistic), are over.

At least the church maintains the original building. It is still standing.
But it's first days and it's best days revolved around boxing and wrestling. Roller Derby also was a televised weekly draw.
God bless KTLA Channel 5. Boxing every Thursday. Wrestling every Wed. and Roller Derby every Tuesday.
Dick Lane was a big part of Olympic TV history as well as Jimmy Lennon.

Thanks for info on Don Fraser, as well.
As for Ploy High in the Valley, when I was in high school, an amateur heavyweight stablemate and I worked together at a Jack-In-The-Box stand located on Roscoe Blvd, directly across from Poly High in Sun Valley. I was unaware that it had once been located downtown.

Hap, all of your info about the area when you were growing up, is quite interesting and adds more color to era as I understand it.
Off hand, I don't recall the exact year they broke ground for the Olympic. Of course, I have the info but it escapes me at the moment. My friend Karl was born in the area, around Arlington, in 1918. So much of what he taught me of the area as he grew up is expanded on with your inside boxing information.
To know boxing you have to understand the era, what people valued and considered important in life.
Look how society reflects upon boxing today.

Thanks again.


-Rick Farris

[Rick Farris]

More on the old neighborhood:

Washington and Grand was one busy intersection. A drugstore on the southwest cornerk, an area telephone company on the southeast corner.
Just a few yards south of the intersection, I was hit by a car when I darted out into its path. Luckily, the deiver had just turned the corner at Washington and had not picked up much speed. But the impact bounced me onto the street car tracks, scared hell out of me and the driver, who was white as a ghost when he tried to pick me up. No harm, no foul, i ran home to tell my uncles and they didn't even look up from their eternal card game.Just another close call for an airheaded kid.

hap navarro

There are still tracks going east & west on Washington for L.A.'s Metro Rail.
In fact, I believe there is a station right at Grand & Washington.
Hap, Gene LeBell tells of stories from his youth, when his mother was running the Olympic and he climb thru every square inch of the Olympic.
He talks of the sewer system underneath the Olympic and how it connected him underground to other parts of the City including Olvera Street.
Just things that kids do, I used to know the sewer connections for most of Burbank.

Gene had some interesting memories of his own.
His mother would send him off to the L.A. Athletic Club where he'd learn to grapple from Strangler Lewis.
He'd box later at the Main Street Gym.

Thanks for the memories.


-Rick Farris

[Dongee]

Rick:

When we lived in the area there was no street car running on Washington, but only on Grand, north and south. The trade school you mentioned was originally named Frank Wiggins Trade School. Until my dad and mom separated we lived at 117 West 18th street, a half block west of Main street, and just that far from the first movie theatre i ever attended, called the "Royal". In those days 18th street dead-ended at that theatre.

When I lived with my grandmother on Grand near Washington, there was a "Stan's Drive In" on the northeast corner of Washington and Grand amd almost directly across the street (Washington) there was a diner shaped like a chili bowl called.......what else...."The Chili Bowl" where they served fabulous bowls of chili.
That was, to me, the Golden Era in Los Angeles, where you had breakfast at a Thrifty Drug Store lunch counter for 49 cents, and dinner there for 89 cents, and where you paid 7 cents to ride the street car from downtown to Manchester (86th street and paid only $1.00 for a street car pass that was good fpr a whole week.

Good old days, of course.

Rick: what can you tell me about the old classic Carthay Circle Theatre that was only used occasionally at inflated prices for super-duper movies?

hap navarro

[kikibalt]

Rick:

When we lived in the area there was no street car running on Washington, but only on Grand, north and south. The trade school you mentioned was originally named Frank Wiggins Trade School. Until my dad and mom separated we lived at 117 West 18th street, a half block west of Main street, and just that far from the first movie theatre i ever attended, called the "Royal". In those days 18th street dead-ended at that theatre.

When I lived with my grandmother on Grand near Washington, there was a "Stan's Drive In" on the northeast corner of Washington and Grand amd almost directly across the street (Washington) there was a diner shaped like a chili bowl called.......what else...."The Chili Bowl" where they served fabulous bowls of chili.
That was, to me, the Golden Era in Los Angeles, where you had breakfast at a Thrifty Drug Store lunch counter for 49 cents, and dinner there for 89 cents, and where you paid 7 cents to ride the street car from downtown to Manchester (86th street and paid only $1.00 for a street car pass that was good fpr a whole week.

Good old days, of course.

Rick: what can you tell me about the old classic Carthay Circle Theatre that was only used occasionally at inflated prices for super-duper movies?

hap navarro

Hap, I remember the "Stan's Drive In" on on Grand and Washington from my early days of going to the Olympic, I too remember riding the bus for 7 cents, and of paying 14 cents to enter the "Royal" theatre, but not the one you mention, the Royal theatre I used to go to was on Whittier Bvld. in E.L.A. one block west of Atlantic Bvld. The Royal showed two B-Western movie all week.

[kikibalt]

More on the old neighborhood:

Washington and Grand was one busy intersection. A drugstore on the southwest cornerk, an area telephone company on the southeast corner.
Just a few yards south of the intersection, I was hit by a car when I darted out into its path. Luckily, the deiver had just turned the corner at Washington and had not picked up much speed. But the impact bounced me onto the street car tracks, scared hell out of me and the driver, who was white as a ghost when he tried to pick me up. No harm, no foul, i ran home to tell my uncles and they didn't even look up from their eternal card game.Just another close call for an airheaded kid.

hap navarro

There are still tracks going east & west on Washington for L.A.'s Metro Rail.
In fact, I believe there is a station right at Grand & Washington.
Hap, Gene LeBell tells of stories from his youth, when his mother was running the Olympic and he climb thru every square inch of the Olympic.
He talks of the sewer system underneath the Olympic and how it connected him underground to other parts of the City including Olvera Street.
Just things that kids do, I used to know the sewer connections for most of Burbank.

Gene had some interesting memories of his own.
His mother would send him off to the L.A. Athletic Club where he'd learn to grapple from Strangler Lewis.
He'd box later at the Main Street Gym.

Thanks for the memories.


-Rick Farris

Rick, When I was a kid ,12-13 years old, my friends and I used to ride our bikes in the under ground flood control system that was/is under the City of Angels, with a flash light tie to the handle bars, we would enter at the river bed in Montebello and ride the system to where ever it would take us.

[Rick Farris]

Rick:

When we lived in the area there was no street car running on Washington, but only on Grand, north and south. The trade school you mentioned was originally named Frank Wiggins Trade School. Until my dad and mom separated we lived at 117 West 18th street, a half block west of Main street, and just that far from the first movie theatre i ever attended, called the "Royal". In those days 18th street dead-ended at that theatre.

When I lived with my grandmother on Grand near Washington, there was a "Stan's Drive In" on the northeast corner of Washington and Grand amd almost directly across the street (Washington) there was a diner shaped like a chili bowl called.......what else...."The Chili Bowl" where they served fabulous bowls of chili.
That was, to me, the Golden Era in Los Angeles, where you had breakfast at a Thrifty Drug Store lunch counter for 49 cents, and dinner there for 89 cents, and where you paid 7 cents to ride the street car from downtown to Manchester (86th street and paid only $1.00 for a street car pass that was good fpr a whole week.

Good old days, of course.

Rick: what can you tell me about the old classic Carthay Circle Theatre that was only used occasionally at inflated prices for super-duper movies?

hap navarro

Hap, I remember the "Stan's Drive In" on on Grand and Washington from my early days of going to the Olympic, I too remember riding the bus for 7 cents, and of paying 14 cents to enter the "Royal" theatre, but not the one you mention, the Royal theatre I used to go to was on Whittier Bvld. in E.L.A. one block west of Atlantic Bvld. The Royal showed two B-Western movie all week.

Hap . . .

Interesting you mention Carthay Circle Theatre. To be honest, I only have one clear memory of it.
My grandfather had some business in the mid-wilshire area one saturday, about a year before he died.

It was a saturday, and he had driven me to the Main Street Gym.
Afterwards, we headed down Wilshire and after attending to his business, we passed the Carthay Circle Theatre.
My grandfather pointed the place out and mentoned that he and my grandmother had seen "Gone With The Wind" there nearly thirty years previous.

I could see it was closed at the time, or inactive.
My grandfather passed away the following year.
Shortly afterwards, the Carthay Circle Theatre was demolished.


-Rick Farris

[Dongee]

Rick:

I never got to see a movie there in all the time I lived in L.A. and as a child it was prohibitive to pay a high price for a picture show. I remember they played Duel iln the Sun, Gone with the wind and Fantasia there, always for a limited time only and at steeper prices.

Of more interest to me was knowing that the stage curtain, the translucent one, had a huge painting by one of America"s greatest artists, Frank Tenney Johnson, who was a master at painting night scenes of western art. I often wondered what happened to that unique curtain. Also, the exact location of the theatre always escaped me.
Thanks Rick.

hap navarro

[Rick Farris]

Rick:

I never got to see a movie there in all the time I lived in L.A. and as a child it was prohibitive to pay a high price for a picture show. I remember they played Duel iln the Sun, Gone with the wind and Fantasia there, always for a limited time only and at steeper prices.

Of more interest to me was knowing that the stage curtain, the translucent one, had a huge painting by one of America"s greatest artists, Frank Tenney Johnson, who was a master at painting night scenes of western art. I often wondered what happened to that unique curtain. Also, the exact location of the theatre always escaped me.
Thanks Rick.

hap navarro

Carthay Circle Theatre . . .

Hap . . . Last year I spent six months working on a TV series on the Disney Studios lot, which also is now ABC.
It's my understanding that "Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs" opened in L.A. at the Carthay Circle Theatre.
To memorialize this, the Disneyland Park in Anaheim is going to recreate the Carthay Circle Theatre at Disneyland, I believe to showcase legendary Disney films.
I wonder if they will recreate that curtain?

Like you, I can't exactly remember exactly where it was. I know it was in the mid-Wilshire area, somewhere between Wilshire & Olympic?


-Rick Farris

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

Matt Weinstock, June 23, 1959

A NEWSMAN talking to a first-time visitor to L.A. said, "It's this kind of a town. You can go downtown at 8 a.m. and the sun will be shining and the birds will be singing, then suddenly around 3 o'clock somebody will say or do something and you'd swear everybody had gone crazy. You never know what's going to happen around here."

[Dongee]

LKiki:

My dad introduced me to Matt Weinstock in 1949 of all places at La Golondrina in Olvera street. He was one popular guy in L.A.

Rick:

I sure hope they salvaged that historic curtain and install it at the new theatre location.....it would be worth seeing, I am sure.

hap navarro

[Chuck1052]

Before the Olympic Auditorium was built on 18th and Grand, I think St. Vincent's College and Church were located there. St. Vincent's College later became Loyola Marymount.

- Chuck Johnston

[Rick Farris]

More on the old neighborhood:

Washington and Grand was one busy intersection. A drugstore on the southwest cornerk, an area telephone company on the southeast corner.
Just a few yards south of the intersection, I was hit by a car when I darted out into its path. Luckily, the deiver had just turned the corner at Washington and had not picked up much speed. But the impact bounced me onto the street car tracks, scared hell out of me and the driver, who was white as a ghost when he tried to pick me up. No harm, no foul, i ran home to tell my uncles and they didn't even look up from their eternal card game.Just another close call for an airheaded kid.

hap navarro

There are still tracks going east & west on Washington for L.A.'s Metro Rail.
In fact, I believe there is a station right at Grand & Washington.
Hap, Gene LeBell tells of stories from his youth, when his mother was running the Olympic and he climb thru every square inch of the Olympic.
He talks of the sewer system underneath the Olympic and how it connected him underground to other parts of the City including Olvera Street.
Just things that kids do, I used to know the sewer connections for most of Burbank.

Gene had some interesting memories of his own.
His mother would send him off to the L.A. Athletic Club where he'd learn to grapple from Strangler Lewis.
He'd box later at the Main Street Gym.

Thanks for the memories.


-Rick Farris

Rick, When I was a kid ,12-13 years old, my friends and I used to ride our bikes in the under ground flood control system that was/is under the City of Angels, with a flash light tie to the handle bars, we would enter at the river bed in Montebello and ride the system to where ever it would take us.

Underground . . .

Frank . . . That's what we did, we'd ride our bikes thru the tunnels where we could, but some of them required walking, and as you mentioned, a flashlight. I recall not knowing exactly where were at times, then we'd come to a storm drain and you could look up thru the grating and recognize the area. We were so small that a couple of us could climb out thru the storm drain to the street. We'd enter the flood control system right next to NBC Studios in Burbank. I hadn't tought of that in years.

Speaking of kids traveling thru the Flood Control systems of L.A. reminds me of what I discovered many years back while working at 20th Century Fox Studios many years ago. I was working on a TV seres, "Moonlighting" and we had a night shot outside on a New York Street set. I had my crew prelight the shot during the day and as they rigged power cable for the lights, they found a way to hide the cable in a tunnel that crossed under one of the back lot streets. As I was looking at the set-up, I was shown the tunnel. Later that night, during a long scene one of my co-workers and I went down in the tunnel and started to explore. We discovered that one tunnel led to another, and another, and soon we were a long way from where we had entered. I would talk to one of the Studio's old timers who explained to me that the tunnel netwok went thru the enitre studio underground. The tunnels had a long history and a variety of uses over the years. The same was true of Disney Studos, there is a world beneath the world of film making.


-Rick Farris

[kikibalt]

More on the old neighborhood:

Washington and Grand was one busy intersection. A drugstore on the southwest cornerk, an area telephone company on the southeast corner.
Just a few yards south of the intersection, I was hit by a car when I darted out into its path. Luckily, the deiver had just turned the corner at Washington and had not picked up much speed. But the impact bounced me onto the street car tracks, scared hell out of me and the driver, who was white as a ghost when he tried to pick me up. No harm, no foul, i ran home to tell my uncles and they didn't even look up from their eternal card game.Just another close call for an airheaded kid.

hap navarro

There are still tracks going east & west on Washington for L.A.'s Metro Rail.
In fact, I believe there is a station right at Grand & Washington.
Hap, Gene LeBell tells of stories from his youth, when his mother was running the Olympic and he climb thru every square inch of the Olympic.
He talks of the sewer system underneath the Olympic and how it connected him underground to other parts of the City including Olvera Street.
Just things that kids do, I used to know the sewer connections for most of Burbank.

Gene had some interesting memories of his own.
His mother would send him off to the L.A. Athletic Club where he'd learn to grapple from Strangler Lewis.
He'd box later at the Main Street Gym.

Thanks for the memories.


-Rick Farris

Rick, When I was a kid ,12-13 years old, my friends and I used to ride our bikes in the under ground flood control system that was/is under the City of Angels, with a flash light tie to the handle bars, we would enter at the river bed in Montebello and ride the system to where ever it would take us.

Frank . . . That's what we did, we'd ride our bikes thru the tunnels where we could, but some of them required walking, and as you mentioned, a flashlight. I recall not knowing exactly where were at times, then we'd come to a storm drain and you could look up thru the grating and recognize the area. We were so small that a couple of us could climb out thru the storm drain to the street. We'd enter the flood control system right next to NBC Studios in Burbank. I hadn't tought of that in years.

-Rick

Ah! to be a kid again!....

[Rick Farris]

My kind of guys . . .

I've truly enjoyed getting to know Armando Muniz again after many years.
This goes for reuniting with a lot of special fighters who were on top of the world back when we are all young.
I'm talking about the guys who went "all the way", as far as they possibly could have back in our day.

This morning Mando and I were planning our meeting on Monday, when we count the ballots for this years WBHOF Induction.
The selection committee will meet, and then we shall count.
When finished, I'll make sure this thread gets the results as many of you are involved.

Before Mando and I finished, he mentioned having a little "get together" at his home soon.
He wanted to invite just a few of the boxers we knew, not the wives, just the guys for a couple of beers and talk, memories.
"I'll invite Palomino, Danny Lopez, Albert Davila, Gato Gonzalez, maybe a couple others." Mando said. "Just a few of us."

I told Mando if he wants to arrange it, I bet I could turn the day into a nice story.
The names above equate to a lot of championship quality.


-Rick Farris

[Rick Farris]

Two Mules and a Television . . .

With all the cable TV stations available, and an absence of true quality apparent in many of today's television productions, I rarely look at the flatscreen unless it's a sporting event, or special DVD.
My wife watches the educational shows, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, etc.

Monica is into science, health, languages and art & culture.
I just passed her watching TV and noticed two mules on the screen.
They are being led onto a horse racing track.
I ask her what's going on?

She tells me that they were about to show the first ever race between two cloned mules.
This is on an educational show? A race between two man-made jack asses!
Kind of reminds me of something we'd try when we were kids. Matching a rat with a hampster in a race.
The moment you let go of the rat and hampster, they don't race, they run in opposite directions.

The point is, matching a rat and hampster made sense to me when I was ten. I had nothing better to do.
I think the guy who decided to match the two genetically-created mules had nothing better to do. If he were ten, I'd understand.

I just asked Monica, "Did you watch the cloned mule race?"
She said she turned the TV off. I was happy she had something better to do.

Ozzie & Harriet are rolling over in their graves. So are Lucy & Desi.
We used to have fun making TV, back when there was a system, not confusion.
TV had it's innovators and there has not been creative growth to equal that of technological improvement.
The science is improving, the art gets thinner every year.

They do well with technology today, but somewhere the humanity is lost. When we lose this in visuals, we compromise the art.
TV has become like one of those genetic mules.
Something is missing. Aaron Spelling?


-Rick Farris

[Expug]

Rick, I was watching Bonanza the other day. Thats still one of the best shows ever.
"The saga of The Cartwrights". I thought of you when Little Joe appeared. You have mentioned in the past what a good guy Michael Landon was. I mentioned to my Wife how you knew him and spoke highly of him.
He exudes a real decency. You can see it.

[Rick Farris]

Rick, I was watching Bonanza the other day. Thats still one of the best shows ever.
"The saga of The Cartwrights". I thought of you when Little Joe appeared. You have mentioned in the past what a good guy Michael Landon was. I mentioned to my Wife how you knew him and spoke highly of him.
He exudes a real decency. You can see it.

The Dude . . .

Brian . . . I will post some photos very soon.
I was just contacted by a lady doing a book on Landon. She was trying to contact members of his crew for personal memories.
She told me she was having a hard time finding anybody.
I explained to her that many of those who worked with Mike on Little House and Highway To Heaven were crew Michael brought from Bonanaza which ended in 1972.
Many of them had died, all had retired. I was in my early 30's when I started with Mike in the early 80's, and I was the "kid".
Those who didn't die off, were persueded to work light hours for big money after their retirement years.
These old school film artists were the best in the business. They lived hard, drank hard, were brilliant artists who took me to a higher level.

Mike loved the look of Bonanaza visually, and wanted that same look for Little House and Highway.
Few of the newer artists and technicians understood how to use "Hard light".
Mike wanted saturated color, depth and he wanted to always see the eyes.
Too many contemporary cinematographers let the eyes go dark (and old school no-no).
Regardless of the contempoary practices, Landon's stories were about things you see in the eyes, and of course, tears. Lots of tears flowing in Landon scripts.

I could light hard and soft. I had just come off a lot of glamour shoots for Revlon, Cover Girl, Vidal sassoon.
I was used to lighting women soft and flat, shadowless light, master make-up artists.
Now I was going to light cowboys on "Little House". The light quality was exactly opposite, and I loved being able to do it.
I was the last guy he hired, and I replaced a guy who had lit his sets on Bonanaza back in the fifties. He was in his late 70's when he retired.

I came with good credits, but signing on with Mike was a major feather in my cap, professionally & finanacially.
It also had it's downside, because once he was gone, we were all spoiled and it wasn't fun re-entering the world of today's film making.

Mike allowed us all to create our own little business within his company, the department heads, that is.
I was taught how to hard light, and I've been taught to master soft lite as well.
When Mike died, I had jst convinced him to allow me to provide him with a lighting test.
He was getting older, and soft lite would be more flattering to his image.
Eastwood? He's just the opposite, he likes to be lit with hard light, light that will make his wrinkles cast heard shadows, giving him that gravely look.
Mike had a cowboy type masculinity, but at 53, I convinced him to let me test a different way of lighting him.
We did so, I lit him soft but gave him an edge. He liked it. We shook hands.
That is how he would allow me to light him on "US" our next TV series that never made it past the pilot.

Yeah, I have some Michael Landon stories for the lady!

[Expug]

Beautiful stuff Rick. I enjoy hearing your experiences in your art.
Little House on the prairie was a popular show in our house when it was on.
My Father actually dated for a little while a woman who was on that show.
She was a school teacher whos real name was Mary Claire Costello.
My Mom wasnt to keen on seeing her when she was on. :)

[Expug]

Got that one wrong Rick.
Mary Claire Costello was on The Waltons.
Senior moment

[Rick Farris]

Got that one wrong Rick.
Mary Claire Costello was on The Waltons.
Senior moment

I understand, Pug. When I saw this I remembered one of the Little House teachers, "Miss Beadle".
She was played by actress Charlotte Stewart, who was married to actor Tim Consadine, who played on "My Three Sons" in the 60's.
She was on the show just prior to my joining the company.
Believe it or not, I worked a few days on "The Walton's" when I was new in the business. However, I didn't know any of the cast.

-Rick

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

Tony DeMarco vs Carmen Basilio

[kikibalt]

Carmen Basilio vs Tony DeMarco

[Rick Farris]

Carmen Basilio vs Tony DeMarco

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.