Beau Jack(1921-2000)
- Actor
Beau Jack, considered one of the greatest lightweight boxers who ever
laced on the gloves, was born Sidney Walker in Waynesboro, Georgia on
April 1, 1921. After the death of his mother, young Sidney was raised
in Augusta by his maternal grandmother, Evie Mixom, who called him the
nickname "Beau Jack".
The young Jack worked as a shoe-shine boy in Augusta at the corner of
Broad and Ninth streets. To make extra money, at the age of 15, he
began fighting in "battles royal", a sports tradition in the Jim
Crow-era South that pitted five to ten African Americans youths against
each other in a no-holds-barred fight. The fighters were blindfolded,
and the last man standing was the winner, receiving a typically meager
purse put up by prosperous white men who put on the brutal spectacle
for their own entertainment. Though the young Jack was not big (he was
5'6" tall and weighed 133 pounds), he often emerged victorious in the bouts. This was his introduction to pugilism in the racist South of the inter-war period. (For a vivid description of "battles royal", and the racism that underlied them, see Ralph Ellison's classic 1952 novel about African American alienation, "Invisible Man".) After fighting a battle royal at the Augusta National Golf Club, Jack got a position as a shoeshine at the club, before graduating to caddie. Working at the club enabled the personable Beau Jack to make the acquaintance of the great golfer `Bobby Jones', who gave him the money so that he could travel north and
partake in formal boxing training. Turning professional as Beau Jack in
1940, he began his pro boxing career fighting in Massachusetts, where
he ran up a record of 27 wins, four losses and two draws while
establishing a reputation as a relentless and powerful fighter, traits
that made him hugely popular among fight fans. He became renowned for a
swarming style and for the high volume of his punches.
In 1941, he moved to New York City, the major leagues of professional
boxing at the time, as the New York Boxing Commission and National
Boxing Association (NBA) titles were then considered the equivalent of
the world's championship. Major fights had taken place at New York
City's Madison Square Garden since John L. Sullivan, "The Boston Strongboy", won
the heavyweight crown in 1882, when the Garden went through its first
incarnation as a showplace for the Barnum & Bailey's circus. Beau Jack
became one of the most popular fighters in the history of New York
fisticuffs, eventually headlining 21 bouts at the third and most famous
incarnation of Madison Square Garden, a record that still stands in an
era in which Madison Square Garden is in its fourth building. At the
time, the sport was heavily controlled by organized crime, though there
is no evidence of outright mob control of Jack.
Beau Jack knocked out 3-to-1 favorite Allie Stolz in the ninth round in
their November 1942 match to determine the #1 challenger for New York's
version of the world lightweight title. He won the crown from NBA champ
Tippy Larkin, knocking him out in the third round, but lost it six
months later to fellow future International Boxing Hall of Fame member
Bob Montgomery, who bested Beau Jack on points in a unanimous decision.
The two had three more memorable fights, starting with Beau Jack
regaining the title from Montgomery before losing it to him once again
in March 1944. And it was Montgomery who was the antagonist in the most
famous fight of Jack's career.
Meeting lightweight champ Montgomery for a fourth time, their August 4,
1944 bout was proclaimed "The War Bonds Fight" as tickets were only
made available to interested parties who purchased war bonds. Jack and
Montgomery were enlisted men in the U.S. Army at the time of the
contest, and both refused to take purses for the fight. Although it was
not a title fight, interest was so great that the gate raked in a
record $36 million, with 15,822 war bonds being sold. Many people who
purchased war bonds left their tickets at the box office for
distribution to U.S. servicemen, who were among the almost 16,000 fans
who saw Jack best Montgomery on points after 10 rounds. One memorable
moment in the evening was the spotlit appearance of heavyweight champ
(and U.S. Army Sergeant) Joe Louis, who stood up from his seat in the
front row, to a standing ovation from the crowd. Patriotism seldom go
better than this until V-E and V-J days in 1945. Beau Jack was named
"Ring Magazine" Fighter of the Year for 1944.
Beau Jack's next shot at the lightweight title was against another
future hall-of-famer, Ike Williams, a protégé of Mafiosi boxing promoter
Blinky Palermo. Palermo was partnered with former Murder Inc. button
man Frankie Carbo, a Mafiosi and convicted murderer based in
Philadelphia who was considered the "Czar of Boxing". Unlicensed to be
a fight manager, Carbo operated his stable of fighters, which later
included world heavyweight champ Sonny Liston, through a New York bookie
operation. Palermo regularly shortchanged Williams on his purses and
ordered him to throw fights. The two manipulated odds and then fixed
the fights to maximize their returns. In the early 1940s, Abe "Kid
Twist" Reles and Allie "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum agreed to testify against
Carbo, but Reles' apparent suicide by throwing himself through a window
of the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island while under heavy police guard,
an incident dramatized in the 1960 movie _Murder Inc. (1960)_ -- Peter Falk won a Best
Supporting Actor nomination played Reles -- would eventually cause the
case to be dismissed. Carbo was not portrayed in the film, though his
bosses, Albert Anastasia and Louis Lepke were. (It was Palermo and Carbo who ordered
Jake LaMotta's to take a dive against Billy Fox in 1946, an incident that is
limned in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980), widely considered the greatest boxing
movie ever made.) The two were later jailed after a successful
prosecution headed by none other than U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
Williams, whom "Ring Magazine" later named as one of the "100 greatest
punchers of all time", was two years younger than Beau Jack in a sport
when a year was quite a very long time. The title bout, held on July
12, 1948, saw Williams K.O. Jack in the sixth round. This was the
beginning of a rivalry that saw the two fighters matched three more
times over the next ten years, with Jack failing to win on each
occasion as his knowledge of the sweet science was clearly on the
decline.
Williams took their first rematch by a split decision, while the second
rematch was a draw on April 9, 1956 in Jack's hometown of Augusta.
Meeting for a fourth and final fight (once again in August) on August
12th of the same year, Williams won the third as an exhausted 37-year
old Jack was unable to answer the bell at the beginning of the ninth
round. (Williams, usually ranked in the Top 10 in most lists of the
all-time lightweight champions, held the NBA world title from April of
1945, when he beat champ Juan Zurita, until May 1951, when he was
beaten by Jimmy Carter.) This was the last fight of both men's careers.
Beau Jack retired with an official pro record of 83 wins (though some
credit him with 88), including 40 K.O.'s, 24 losses and five draws.
After retiring from the ring, Beau Jack ran a drive-in Bar-B-Q stand,
operated a small farm, and then refereed wrestling matches. After his
boxing earnings were exhausted, Jack returned to shining shoes, this
time at the reportedly Mafia-owned Fountainebleau Hotel in Miami,
Florida. Jack became an advocate of a pension scheme for boxers, so
that no former pro pug would be reduced to the dire straights he faced.
Jack also trained fighters at Miami's Fifth Street Gym.
Despite suffering from poverty, Beau Jack did not ask for pity. "I've
been to the top of the mountain," he said. "I was champion of the
world. I've worked hard all my life, and I'm happy doing what I'm
doing."
Beau Jack eventually was affected by pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome
(which also claimed Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali). He died from its
complications in a Miami nursing home on February. 9, 2000, nine years
after being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in
1991.
laced on the gloves, was born Sidney Walker in Waynesboro, Georgia on
April 1, 1921. After the death of his mother, young Sidney was raised
in Augusta by his maternal grandmother, Evie Mixom, who called him the
nickname "Beau Jack".
The young Jack worked as a shoe-shine boy in Augusta at the corner of
Broad and Ninth streets. To make extra money, at the age of 15, he
began fighting in "battles royal", a sports tradition in the Jim
Crow-era South that pitted five to ten African Americans youths against
each other in a no-holds-barred fight. The fighters were blindfolded,
and the last man standing was the winner, receiving a typically meager
purse put up by prosperous white men who put on the brutal spectacle
for their own entertainment. Though the young Jack was not big (he was
5'6" tall and weighed 133 pounds), he often emerged victorious in the bouts. This was his introduction to pugilism in the racist South of the inter-war period. (For a vivid description of "battles royal", and the racism that underlied them, see Ralph Ellison's classic 1952 novel about African American alienation, "Invisible Man".) After fighting a battle royal at the Augusta National Golf Club, Jack got a position as a shoeshine at the club, before graduating to caddie. Working at the club enabled the personable Beau Jack to make the acquaintance of the great golfer `Bobby Jones', who gave him the money so that he could travel north and
partake in formal boxing training. Turning professional as Beau Jack in
1940, he began his pro boxing career fighting in Massachusetts, where
he ran up a record of 27 wins, four losses and two draws while
establishing a reputation as a relentless and powerful fighter, traits
that made him hugely popular among fight fans. He became renowned for a
swarming style and for the high volume of his punches.
In 1941, he moved to New York City, the major leagues of professional
boxing at the time, as the New York Boxing Commission and National
Boxing Association (NBA) titles were then considered the equivalent of
the world's championship. Major fights had taken place at New York
City's Madison Square Garden since John L. Sullivan, "The Boston Strongboy", won
the heavyweight crown in 1882, when the Garden went through its first
incarnation as a showplace for the Barnum & Bailey's circus. Beau Jack
became one of the most popular fighters in the history of New York
fisticuffs, eventually headlining 21 bouts at the third and most famous
incarnation of Madison Square Garden, a record that still stands in an
era in which Madison Square Garden is in its fourth building. At the
time, the sport was heavily controlled by organized crime, though there
is no evidence of outright mob control of Jack.
Beau Jack knocked out 3-to-1 favorite Allie Stolz in the ninth round in
their November 1942 match to determine the #1 challenger for New York's
version of the world lightweight title. He won the crown from NBA champ
Tippy Larkin, knocking him out in the third round, but lost it six
months later to fellow future International Boxing Hall of Fame member
Bob Montgomery, who bested Beau Jack on points in a unanimous decision.
The two had three more memorable fights, starting with Beau Jack
regaining the title from Montgomery before losing it to him once again
in March 1944. And it was Montgomery who was the antagonist in the most
famous fight of Jack's career.
Meeting lightweight champ Montgomery for a fourth time, their August 4,
1944 bout was proclaimed "The War Bonds Fight" as tickets were only
made available to interested parties who purchased war bonds. Jack and
Montgomery were enlisted men in the U.S. Army at the time of the
contest, and both refused to take purses for the fight. Although it was
not a title fight, interest was so great that the gate raked in a
record $36 million, with 15,822 war bonds being sold. Many people who
purchased war bonds left their tickets at the box office for
distribution to U.S. servicemen, who were among the almost 16,000 fans
who saw Jack best Montgomery on points after 10 rounds. One memorable
moment in the evening was the spotlit appearance of heavyweight champ
(and U.S. Army Sergeant) Joe Louis, who stood up from his seat in the
front row, to a standing ovation from the crowd. Patriotism seldom go
better than this until V-E and V-J days in 1945. Beau Jack was named
"Ring Magazine" Fighter of the Year for 1944.
Beau Jack's next shot at the lightweight title was against another
future hall-of-famer, Ike Williams, a protégé of Mafiosi boxing promoter
Blinky Palermo. Palermo was partnered with former Murder Inc. button
man Frankie Carbo, a Mafiosi and convicted murderer based in
Philadelphia who was considered the "Czar of Boxing". Unlicensed to be
a fight manager, Carbo operated his stable of fighters, which later
included world heavyweight champ Sonny Liston, through a New York bookie
operation. Palermo regularly shortchanged Williams on his purses and
ordered him to throw fights. The two manipulated odds and then fixed
the fights to maximize their returns. In the early 1940s, Abe "Kid
Twist" Reles and Allie "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum agreed to testify against
Carbo, but Reles' apparent suicide by throwing himself through a window
of the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island while under heavy police guard,
an incident dramatized in the 1960 movie _Murder Inc. (1960)_ -- Peter Falk won a Best
Supporting Actor nomination played Reles -- would eventually cause the
case to be dismissed. Carbo was not portrayed in the film, though his
bosses, Albert Anastasia and Louis Lepke were. (It was Palermo and Carbo who ordered
Jake LaMotta's to take a dive against Billy Fox in 1946, an incident that is
limned in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980), widely considered the greatest boxing
movie ever made.) The two were later jailed after a successful
prosecution headed by none other than U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
Williams, whom "Ring Magazine" later named as one of the "100 greatest
punchers of all time", was two years younger than Beau Jack in a sport
when a year was quite a very long time. The title bout, held on July
12, 1948, saw Williams K.O. Jack in the sixth round. This was the
beginning of a rivalry that saw the two fighters matched three more
times over the next ten years, with Jack failing to win on each
occasion as his knowledge of the sweet science was clearly on the
decline.
Williams took their first rematch by a split decision, while the second
rematch was a draw on April 9, 1956 in Jack's hometown of Augusta.
Meeting for a fourth and final fight (once again in August) on August
12th of the same year, Williams won the third as an exhausted 37-year
old Jack was unable to answer the bell at the beginning of the ninth
round. (Williams, usually ranked in the Top 10 in most lists of the
all-time lightweight champions, held the NBA world title from April of
1945, when he beat champ Juan Zurita, until May 1951, when he was
beaten by Jimmy Carter.) This was the last fight of both men's careers.
Beau Jack retired with an official pro record of 83 wins (though some
credit him with 88), including 40 K.O.'s, 24 losses and five draws.
After retiring from the ring, Beau Jack ran a drive-in Bar-B-Q stand,
operated a small farm, and then refereed wrestling matches. After his
boxing earnings were exhausted, Jack returned to shining shoes, this
time at the reportedly Mafia-owned Fountainebleau Hotel in Miami,
Florida. Jack became an advocate of a pension scheme for boxers, so
that no former pro pug would be reduced to the dire straights he faced.
Jack also trained fighters at Miami's Fifth Street Gym.
Despite suffering from poverty, Beau Jack did not ask for pity. "I've
been to the top of the mountain," he said. "I was champion of the
world. I've worked hard all my life, and I'm happy doing what I'm
doing."
Beau Jack eventually was affected by pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome
(which also claimed Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali). He died from its
complications in a Miami nursing home on February. 9, 2000, nine years
after being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in
1991.