Bad food, bad air, bad sanitation, no sunlight is what fighters need - Lou Stillman

[Redback Rasta]

From an article called "Lou Stillman & His Famous Filthy Gym"

Lou Stillman was a character out of a Damon Runyon story; he could have played himself in Guys and Dolls. So who was Lou Stillman?

He allegedly started out as cop named Louis Ingber. He left the police force and got a job managing a boxing gym called Stillman’s that was started by a starry-eyed philanthropist named Marshall Stillman. It was Stillman’s idea to save poor kids from lives of crime by teaching them to box. He had hired Lou Ingber to manage the gym, after meeting him on a trolley car. They apparently had shared a seat and engaged in conversation about the day’s social problems. Stillman’s initially became a Mecca for young Jewish boxers, led by lightweight champion Benny Leonard, who had left another gym after its owner claimed that World War I was started by Jews and “those people are responsible for all the wrongs of the world.”

Since Ingber managed the place, the boxers referred to him as Mr. Stillman. Lou conveniently changed his last name and went on to become a boxing legend as did his gym. Some of the greatest champions trained at Stillman’s, including Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Rocky Graziano, Max Baer and many others. Stillman charged a couple of my friends fifty cents each for watching champs and contenders train. The gym also became a hangout for managers, promoters, gangsters, bookies, and sports writers.

The place was probably filthiest gym in New York. The floor was one gigantic spittoon; the windows were dark with grime and never opened. Stillman claimed that fresh air was bad for fighters. “It’ll kill ‘em.” He added that “The golden age of prizefighting was the age of bad food, bad air, bad sanitation, and no sunlight. I keep the place like this for the fighters’ own good. If I clean it up they’ll catch a cold from the cleanliness.”


http://www.boxing.com/lou_stillman_his_ ... y_gym.html?

[Kalan]

All those were all Lou Stillman's excuses for laziness---and saving money by not hiring a janitor or even a cleaning lady... Many workers who cleaned office buildings came by Stillman's Gym and offered to clean it for bargain prices... Stillman's answer was always the same... "If I clean this place everyone will get sick from the cleanliness. fighters love stink and filth."

Boxers actually prefer NOT to workout in filthy, stinky gyms.. It's very unpleasant to have to share a stink hole oozing with filth for a couple hours.. If you go to England, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, or Cuba, the gyms are clean, bright, well designed, well furnished, and very pleasant places to workout and learn the craft of Boxing.. Their amateur programs turn out Olympic Gold Medal winners.. I think America is starting to get the message with many of our newer gyms.

Stink hole gyms are becoming relics of the past in the United States.. Bright, attractive, well kept gyms are starting to crop up.. Great training facilities produce better boxers.. There's too many choices and too many sports for good athletes to choose from today -- they're not going to go to a place where it takes 15 minutes to adjust to the stink -- and where nobody cleans the floor, the walls, the windows, or the toilet -- so you damned near puke when you head into the locker room.

[Redback Rasta]

Likewise Australian gyms have come along way from the grimy old days. Gyms still have posters all over the walls and character. But in the main they are cleaner and smell a lot better.

Stillman does sound like he was as tight as a fish's rear end, and he sure was an opportunist changing his name to that of the business.

[Caractacus]

and you ever been in one of those really really olde gyms ata small college town where the athletes, or fighter's sweat,perspiration,stink,smelly sock odours
sort of leaches into the walls ,the woodwork and even the masonary over the years and becomes part of it ?
(reminds me of an old zoo snake pit almost)
sort of likethe nicotine from heavy smokers cigarettes in an apartment or house.
you cant just paint over it because it just bubbles and tars out when it gets really hot,so you gotta replace the entire friggen walls.

[Redback Rasta]

and you ever been in one of those really really olde gyms ata small college town where the athletes, or fighter's sweat,perspiration,stink,smelly sock odours
sort of leaches into the walls ,the woodwork and even the masonary over the years and becomes part of it ?
(reminds me of an old zoo snake pit almost)
sort of likethe nicotine from heavy smokers cigarettes in an apartment or house.
you cant just paint over it because it just bubbles and tars out when it gets really hot,so you gotta replace the entire friggen walls.

Those of us who have been around for a while have probably all trained or at least been in gyms like that. On a bad day it almost makes you throw up.

[Caractacus]

It would appear obvious that Lou Stillman was a student of the Masters.

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger "

Frederich Nietzsche (1888)


(im pretty sure he had that on a sign somewhere in the gym,maybe next to the urinals or the cafeteria if there was one there).

[Redback Rasta]

It would appear obvious that Lou Stillman was a student of the Masters.

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger "

Frederich Nietzsche (1888)


(im pretty sure he had that on a sign somewhere in the gym,maybe next to the urinals or the cafeteria if there was one there).

You may be on to something there.

Some fabulous old pictures of Stillman's can be found using Google Images.

[littlepug]

You guys freaking kidding me ? those sh1thole gyms were my absolute favourite places to train, really put me in the right frame of mind to do some serious work, if I can't spit or bleed on the floor then it ain't a boxing gym

[Tony1244]

Serious gyms shouldn't have air conditioning and not be a place of sunlight or comfort.

Being dirty to the point of unsanitary is taking a good idea way too far.

[littlepug]

You guys freaking kidding me ? those sh1thole gyms were my absolute favourite places to train, really put me in the right frame of mind to do some serious work, if I can't spit or bleed on the floor then it ain't a boxing gym

Agreed. The last time I was in Johnny Tocco's gym in Vegas was 1997, and though it wasn't totally filthy it had the smells of the old style gyms, and holes in the flooring / carpeting beside the heavy bags. Oh, and Johnny's labrador mooching about the place.

sounds like my kinda gym

[Caractacus]

Like some of those doddgy nightclubs in London in the Soho district back in the 1970's .
the distinct smell of frying hamburgers and semen.

[punchoutsb]

You guys freaking kidding me ? those sh1thole gyms were my absolute favourite places to train, really put me in the right frame of mind to do some serious work, if I can't spit or bleed on the floor then it ain't a boxing gym

Same here.

[Redback Rasta]

Serious gyms shouldn't have air conditioning and not be a place of sunlight or comfort.

Being dirty to the point of unsanitary is taking a good idea way too far.

:salut: