Pantalone - Madame Beys: Home to Boxing Legends

MADAME BEYS :
Home to Boxing Legends

GENE PANTALONE

Copyright 2016 Gene Pantalone.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-3644-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-3645-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016914284

Archway Publishing rev. date: 9/16/2016

CONTENTS

Some day some one will write a magazine serial or a movie around the life
of Madame Bey, but I question its success. Because the public would consider it too far fetched, too imaginative. I mean things that have happened in the life of Madame Bey challenge credibility. They are not supposed to happen except in the case of Madame Bey.

United Press, Brooklyn Daily Eagle , Friday, December 10, 1937

I t is the authors goal that Madame Beys accomplishments have been discovered in this written work. Her accomplishments, which were many, were obscured by the more famous sports figures she aided. Madame Bey was a pioneer of women in business and sport. She entered a field that was the domain of men. Her ability to connect with people, without preconceived notions, was her greatest strength.

Here is an explanation about the style and format used in this work. Most of the book was written to adhere to the style prescriptions of The Chicago Manual of Style. That style was used to ensure consistency across spelling, hyphenation, punctuation use, capitalization, and other constructs. The ISO 690 standard was used to format the endnotes to ensure consistency across citations.

Whether supplied through direct contact or exhaustive research, institutions that supplied material to this endeavor were many. The Chatham Township Historical Society, Summit Historical Society, and Library of the Chathams supplied articles producing a local feel. The Library of Congress, whose staff was diligent in their attempts to supply information, or direct me to the appropriate source, helped immensely. Writings from the Chatham Township Historical Society of conversations with one of Madame Beys granddaughters helped with early history. Caroline Knott, from the Chatham Township Historical Society, gave fact checking and proofreading help that was especially appreciated, as was the Societys Pat Wells for providing photographs and documents. The authors visit to the camp as a young boy in the early 1960s was of little help. Thanks to my brothers Don, Al, and Gary for the camp descriptions. Especially my ten-year-older brother, who worked out at the camp and jogged in the mornings with heavyweight Doug Jones, was of the greatest help. His description of the camp and conversations with the boxers helped with the camp atmosphere.

The Fulton History website, with its newspaper search engine, provided the greatest number of articles. Other websites and organizations that were used for data gathering were the Milburn Free Public Library, Google Newspapers, BoxRec, Cyber Boxing Zone, Museum of Boxing, International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Sports Illustrated Vault, Corbis Images, Acme Newspictures, US Federal Census, NJ.com, Wikipedia, BBC Sport, the New York Times , the London Times , Brooklyn Public Library, wn.com, Babylon Wales, Spokeo, East Side Boxing, Christies, the Statue of LibertyEllis Island Foundation, YouTube, Boxing.com, weirdthings.com, Library of Congress, Boxings Funniest Quotes, All Time Boxing, census.gov, earlyradiohistory.us, njcu.edu, muhammad-ali-boxing.org.uk, William McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, historynet.com, math.buffalo.edu, American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, American Jewish Historical Society, archive.org, International Boxing Research Organization, the Cruelest Sport, Bleacher Report, International Boxing Hall of Fame, Gale US History in Context, independent.co.uk, Journal of Combative Sport, CNN Sports, and ESPN.

The journalists of the era, many of whom came to the camp, wrote articles that were used to develop the narrative for this work and gave a feel for camp life. Journalists were Dave Anderson, Leslie Avery, John Beer, Bob Brumby, Al Buck, Mike Casey, John Coad, Jane Cochrane, Harold Conrad, Jack Cuddy, James P. Dawson, Alfred Dayton, Randy Dixon, Edward P. Duffy, Louis Effrat, Edward Van Every, Jack Farrell, Sid Feder, Frank C. Ferguson, Harry, Ferguson, Tony Galento, Ike Gellis, Alan J. Gould, I. Q. Gross, Jack Guenther, Sam P. Hall, Charles Hecklemann, W. C. Heinz, Thomas Holmes, Sammuel Hubbard, Ed Hughs, Joe Jacobs, James M. Kahn, Jack Kofoed, Martin LaChance, Al Lamb, Jack Lawrence, Perry Lewis, A. J. Liebling, R. G. Lynch, Jack Mahon, Norman Marcus, Charles S. Mathisson, John F. McKenna, Henry McLemore, Ted Meier, Paul Mickleson, Jack Miley, C. F. Moberly, William Morris, Edward J. Neil, Robert Neubert, Joseph Nichols, Frank ONeil, Dan Parker, Westbrook Pegler, Cy Peterman, Harold Peterman, John Pilgrim, George Plimpton, Anthony J. Pugliese, Willie Ratner, Grantland Rice, Pat Robertson, Stewart Robertson, Gilbert Rogin, Damon Runyon, Max Schmeling, Murray Schumach,Michael Shapiro, Red Smith, Jeff Sorg, Dixon Stewart, Gayle Talbot, Isador Tobias, Raulf Troast, George B. Underwood, Wdward Van Every, Richards Vidmer, Davis J. Walsh, Chster L. Washington, John Webster, Bill Westbrook, Jimmy Wood, Wilbur Wood, and Ted Worner. If someone was omitted, it was unintentional.

Care was given to getting dates and records correct, but there will be discrepancies. BoxRec and Cyber Boxing Zone were heavily relied on to determine dates and boxing records, but other articles from the era were used to determine those, too. Peoples memories fade from time arising in discrepancies between story accounts. Care was taken to create it accurately. Even Madame Beys accounts were not always accurate, as when she recalled to Stewart Robertson that Max Schmeling trained for both his Joe Louis fights at her camp, when the truth was he was there for neither. The most glaring problem was the after-fight street brawl between Mickey Walker and Harry Greb. There were three accounts with none in complete agreement. The truth was, as Walker later admitted, the fight never took place.

Additional authors of books, articles, and films were Carlos Acevedo, Cecil Adams, Michael J. Bednar, P. Benson, K. Blady, Kaisa Boddy, Anthony Brockway, Ken Burns, R. Cantwell, Mike Casey, Ruth Churchill, T. Coffman, Monte Cox, Jack Cuddy, John T. Cunningham, Dan Cuoco, Sean Davies, Mohummad Humza Elah, Ross Enamait, Lewis A. Erenberg, Andrew Fruman, Mark Gado, Paul Gallico, Andrew Gallimore, Robert A. Hageman, A. J. Halford, George J. Hatem, John J. Jarrett, Frances Johnston, Caroline Knott, Margaret Leech,Charles Lesemann, A. J. Liebling, Melarie, Lloyd, Jack Malvern, Norman Marcus, David Margolick, Richard L. McElroy, Roy McHugh, Brian McKenna, John F. McKenna, Joseph Monniger, Jeff Morgan, Wayne H. Morgan, Marty Mulcahey, Robert W. Neubert, Carlos Ortiz, K. Hissner, Andrew OToole, Harold Peterson, Neil Prior, Joe Reichler, Mickey Walker, Gilbert Rogin, Jean-Christophe Rose, Jessica Rosero, Rusty Rubin, Tom Donelson, Jeremy Schaap, Murray Schumach, Jeffrey Seibert, James B. Scutt, Bill Stern, M. L. Stoll, Joseph R. Svinth, Raulf Troast, J. R. Tunney, Paul K. Williams, Dominick J. Zimmerer.