British Universities Film & Video Council

moving image and sound, knowledge and access

the FIGHT GAME

Series

Series Name
The March of Time 13th Year

Issue

Issue No.
12
Date Released
1948
Length of issue (in feet)
1652
Stories in this Issue:
  1. 1the FIGHT GAME

Story

Story No. within this Issue
1 / 1
Summary
The March of Time synopsis: Boxing in the United States has become a fourteen million dollar industry, says March of Time in "The Fight Game" which, by following the career of a young boxer, shows all the organisation and ballyhoo behind professional bouts.

The film opens with a swift resume of the prize fighting game - from bare knuckles to the first million dollar gate for the Depsey-Carpentier bout in 1921, staged by the late Tex Rickard, whose smart promotion brought fame and fortune to a dozen champions. The inspiration of fighters like Joe Louis, who has retained his title longer than anyone in boxing history, is shown as a spur to many an American youngster who, seeing himself as a potential champion, stands ready to take on any rival in the block. To keep such boys occupied and their urge to fight within the realm of sportsmanship, New York City’s Police Athletic League has established over a hundred recreational centres, supervised by qualified physical instructors. But, points out the film, though these youngsters are seen in free exhibition matches they are never encouraged to take up boxing profesionally. To illustrate the steps in the career of a boxer, the film follows an amateur, Billy Shay, from the time he is first taken over by a professional manager. It shows his rise through picked fights with carefully selected opponents, until he has built up an impressive string of victories. Ready for New York and the bug money, he docilely follows the instructions of his manager until he is shown climbing into the ring at Madison Square Gardens, climax of every fighter’s ambition. Bitterly resented by the National Boxing Association, an organisation of state and municipal commissions, seeking to establish a single national authority to rule over US boxing, is New York’s tight hold on the fame, says the March of Time. But Colonel Eddie Eagan, chairman of New York State Athletic Commission, claims that his organisation has no authority to share with any other body the power to regulate boxing in New York bestowed upon it by a legislative act in 1920. This power is implemented by the right to grant or withhold licences, and every boxer knows that in his profession the commission’s word is law. Once each week, Eagan and his fellows commissioners meet to pass on the qualifications of managers, boxers and others applying for licences and, as a result of such watchfulness, the commission claims, the standards of the fight game have improved greatly in the past two decades. But despite the supervision of professional boxing by these organisations, the sport is still plagued by fixers, grafters and racketeers attracted by the big money in the game, and the film closes with an examination of all the ills afflicting the sport and their possible solution.
Researcher Comments
This story was included in Vol.14 No.11 of the US edition.
Keywords
Education and training; Entertainment and leisure; Boxing; Youth
Written sources
The March of Time Promotional Material   Lobby Card, Used for synopsis
Credits:
Production Co.
Time Inc.

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