Camera Greatest Fight Swindle Of All Time

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 109, 10 May 1941, Page 5 (Supplement)

Camera Greatest Fight Swindle Of All Time

By Paul

There is probably no more scandalous, tiful, incredible story in all the record f these last mad sports years than the tale of the living giant, a creature out f the legends of antiquity, who was made a prize fighter. He was taught and trained by a wise, scheming ittle French boxing manager who had an Oxford Inversity degree, and he was later acquired and Iveloped into the heavy-weight champion of the world by a group of American gangsters and mob men. Then finally, when his usefulness meal ticket was outlived, . discarded in the most shameful chapter in all boxing.

THIS unfortunate pitu.lary case, 1 who might have been AngouUffreorßalan orFiernbras. Gogog 0 r Gargantua himself, | « a'poor, simple-minded peasant by the name of Pnmo Camera, the first son of a stonecutter of Sequals Italy, lie stood 6ft 7in in height, and we.ghed 19 stone. He became the heavy-weight rhampion, yet never in all his life ash ever anything nv,re than a Sk and a fourth-rater at prize Se than two millions of dollars during the years that he was being exhibited, and ho hasn t a cent to show for it to-day. There is no room here for more than a brief .and hasly planco hack over the implications of the tragedy of Primo Camera. And yet I could not seem to take my leave from sports without it. The scene and the story still fascinate me, the sheer impudence of the men who handled the giant, their conscienceless cruelty, thencomplete depravity towards another human being, the sure, cool manner in which they hoaxed hundreds of thousands of people. Poor Pnmo! Lamb Among Wolves. ~ \ I GtAN f P in stature and ri strength, a terrible figure of a man, .with the might of ten men, he was.a helpless lamb among wolves who used him tintil there was nothing more left to use, until the last possible penny had been squeezed from his big carcase, and then abandoned him. His last days in the United States were spent alone in a hospital. One leg was paralysed, the result of beatings taken around the head. None of the carrion birds who had picked him clean ever came back to see him or to help him. No one who was present in Madl son Square Garden the night that Primo Camera was first introduced to American audiences will ever for get him as he came bounding dowr the aisle from the dressing room anc climbed into the ring. It was z masterpiece of stage management. He wore black fighting trunks or the side of which was embroiderec the head of a wild boar in red silk He disdained the usual fighter's bathrobe and instead wore a sleeve less vest of a particularly hideou: shade of green, and on his head i cap of the same shade, several size: too large for him and with an enor mous visor that made him look evei larger than he was. Leon See, trv Frenchman, then his manager, \va a small man. The bucket-carrier and sponge-wieklers were chosen fo size, too—diminutive men; everj thing was done to increase the in pression of Primo's size. Camera was the only giant I hav ever seen who was well proportione throughout his body for his heigh His legs were massive, and he wa truly thewed like an oak. His wah was comparatively small and cleat but from it rose a torso like Spanish hogshead, from whic sprouted two ■ tremendous arms, tr Weeps of which stood out like grap I jniit His hands were like Virgin; flams, and his fingers were ten thic! red sausages. ,His head was large even for tl Slze of his body, and looking at l*i' you were immediately struck wit Ms dreadful gummy mouth ar warp, irregular, snaggle teeth. H lips were inclined to be loose ar Habby He had a good nose ar nne, Whd brown eyes. But his lej looked even more enormous ar iree-like than they were, owing "te great blue, bulging varico ,eins that wandered down them ( ooth sides and stuck out far cnou; • so that you could have knock* i nem off with a baseball bat. l\ £sin was brown and glistening ai n « invariably smelled of garlic. jjghts Were Framed. THIS was the horror that car don into the Madison Square G th. rmg and sent a sincere shudc trough the packed house. That nJ~ y ' he was horrible until m^ enced t0 fi S ht - when he becai sanding sympathv. X, )laze m his eves and 1 reaaful gummy leer, emphasised DecJ * <> of , the ml n,hbrr niou tbv J-°°. lh Protector) with wh &*T ded him > there was nc he ipless ne e sT il(iermenL and compl hv T n?i 0 U ' utl \ was that - handicam did n«f and regnlations, a sport temrT 1 under£ tand and was SSSpy , mtGd for > ; to hu i y br °w-n leather bags la could\ fin c gers ' nev « at anv t he fight a lick. «*£,," mire record, with a "S'neered, planned and executed

the mm who had him in low and who wore building him up for the public os a man-killer and an invincible fighter. Rut I think the most dreadful part of the story is that the poor floundering giant, was duped along with the spectators. He was permitted, in fact encouraged, to believe that his silly pawings and pushings, when tney connected, sent men staggering into unconsciousness and defeat. It was not until late in his career, when, in spite of himself, he learned something through sheer experience and number of fights, that, he ever knocked anyone out on the level. But he never could fight, and never will. Strong Man In Show. IN spite of his great size and 1 strength and his well-propor-tioned body, he remained nothing but a glandular freak, who should have remained with the small French travelling circus from which Leon See took him. This big, good-natured, docile man was exhibiting himself in a small wandering cirque in the south of Fiance as a strong man and GrecoRoman wrestler, engaging all-comers and local talent in the nightly show, having found it paid him more and offered a better life than that of his chosen profession of mosaic worker. Here he was discovered by a former French boxing champion who signed him up and apprenticed him to | one Monsieur Leon See to be taught the rudiments, of la boxe. It is highly probable that the time spent as a" wrestler set his muscles and prevented him from ever becoming a knock-out puncher. But Monsieur Leon See was taking no chances. He taught and trained Camera strictly as a defensive boxer. Now, it must be understood that Leon See was one of the most intelligent, smart and wily men that ever turned a fighter loose from his __ corner. He was not much more scrupulous than the bevy of public enemies who eventually took Carnera awav from him simply by , muscling him, but he was much i more farseeing, and he had certain well-thought-out notions and theories about the ridiculous game of boxing. Among them was the excellent and 1 sensible thought that the human head was never intended by Nature ' to be punched, and that, secondly, ' from the manner of its construction - out of hundreds of tiny, delicately I articulated bones, the closed fist was ■ never meant to be one of man's most * effective weapons. In this last idea -, Monsieur See was not alone. . The coterie of tough guys and q mobsters who eventually relieved « him of his interest in Camera rarely r used the fist, reckoning it as did ' See an inefficient weapon. The boys alw'avs favoured the pistol or Roscoe, also known as the Difference, e the Equaliser, the Rod and the Heat. t g Head Too Vulnerable. ;t GEE was a keen student of the J > O human body—for a prizeft fight manager—and he knew something about men. He was aware that e abnormalities of size were usually 2 a compensated for by weaknesses else- , where. . , . *■• He found out— exactly how is not known—that Primo Camera would ie never be able to absorb a hard punch £ to the chin. He may have had some , secret rehearsal in a gymnasium l . somewhere in Paris, and, having l j ordered some workaday hc-avy- , weight to clout Primo one just to lcl see what would happen, saw that ? f the giant came all undone, wobbled ■ d and collapsed. Be that as it may to Monsieur See knew. And never at 3e any time w*hile he was connected j '!} with Camera would he permit any- > , one to punch Primo in the head— -. neither his sparring partners nor J ! his opponents. Since both received ld their pay from practically the same source, this was not so difficult to arrange as might be imagined. But See also had something else. He was a Frenchman and so he had ne a heart. He loved big Camera, lr- Years later See proved to be right, er When Camera through exigent ciris cumstances was forced to fight withhc out benefit of prearrangement, and ne the heaw-weights began to sight Je- along that big, protruding jaw of his and nail him for direct hits, he ild was slaughtered. He was brave and he game and apparently could take by punches to the body all the night th- long But one hard, true tap on the ich chin and he fell down goggle-eyed. th- For a long time during the early ete years, however, nobody was permitted to hit him there, and Camera ?ed himself began to think he was he invincible. not Primo's first trip to the Lmted and States was arranged through an ced I American contact man and importer ime ! of foreign fighting talent, a character 1 from Tin-Ear Alley named Walter few Friedman, or, as Damon Runyon . as , nicknamed him, Walter (Good-Time and iCharlev) Friedman. See was smart L byl enough to know that without sa>

Friedman, as. has been indicated, was the go-between, and although Leon See was quite capable of all the planning necessary to keep Carnera in the victory columns, nevertheless it would have been con- | sidered bad form, and downright j dangerous, if See had not cut the j local boys in. And, at that, I sus- j pect the said local boys showed the j amiable and gifted Frog a few things about building up a potential heavyweight champion that made the two Strihling tights arranged by Monsieur See, one in Paris and the other in London, and both ending in fouls, look like Holy Gospel. As- adviser ana co-director of this tour, Broadway Bill DuiTy was cut in. Bill was then in the night club and fight-managing business, but in his youth be had been convicted of a little alfresco burgling and had been sent away for a spell. He was still to achieve the highest pinnacle of fame that can come to an American—to be named a "public enemy." It is a curious commentary upon the conduct of boxing around New York that Duffy was allowed to operate as a manager and a second when there was a rule on the books of the State Athletic Commission, if indeed it was not written directly into the boxing law, that no one ever convicted of a felony was to be eligible for any kind of a license.

American "in," without cutting in an American manager, he would not get very far in America. What he was not quite smart enough to know was how deep his "in" took him, that the ramifications of Friedman's business and other connections were to lead through some very tough and rapacious parties. Camera's first fight In New York involved him, with a lanky Swede named Big Boy Peterson. In this fight poor Camera was hardly able to get out of his own way and caused his opponent the most frightful em-1 barrassment through not being able to strike a blow that looked sufficiently hard to enable him to keep his end of the bargain, if there was , one. A Shameless Swindle. EVENTUALLY Peterson succumbed to a push as Camera lumbered and floundered past him, and to make assurance doubly sure, the Swede hit himself a punch on the jaw as he went down. Someone had to hit him. Now, this was a shameless swindle from start to finish, one way or another. If Peterson was making an honest effort to fight he never should have been permitted to enter the ring. The Press unanimously announced beforehand that it would probably be a sell and a fake, and when it was over suggested strongly that it had been. But it said so in a gay and lighthearted manner as though the whole thing were pretty funny (as indeed it was), and thei'e was no one on the New York State Athletic Commission either sufficiently intelligent or courageous enough to throw Primo and his handlers and fixers right out of the ring and thence out of the country. The Peterson fight in Madison Square Garden, the stronghold of professional boxing, was a sort of a test case by the Camera crowd to see how much they could get away with. On that score it was a clean-cut success. They found out that they could get away with anything. And so they proceeded to do just that. Primo's first American tour was organised, a tour that grossed something like 700,000 dollars, of which handsome piece of money Camera received practically nothing. He was. barnstormed across the country in the moot cold-blooded, graceless, shameful series of fixed, bought, coerced, or plain out-and-out tank acts ever. If one of them was contested on its merits it was only because the opponent by no possible stretch of the imagination, or his own efforts, could harm Camera or even hit him. Where the fight could not be "bought—that is to say, where the fighter was unwilling to succumb to on the elbow for a price—guns were produced by sinister strangers to threaten him, and where neither threats nor money were sufficient to bag the fight, he was crossed or tricked, as in the case of Bombo Chevalier, a big California negro who was fascinated by the size of Carnera's chin, and nothing would do but he was going to hit it, just to see what would happen. Between rounds one of Chevalier's own attendants rubbed red pepper or some other inflammatory substance into his eyes so that he lost all interest in tapping anybody's chin. In Newark, New Jersey, a negro was visited in his dressing room before the bout by an unknown party not necessarily connected with Camera's management, and was asked to inspect shooting irons, and in Philadelphia another negro, Ace Clark, was amusing himself readying up Camera for a knock-out —he had already completely closed one of Primo's eyes—when somebody suggested he look down and see what the stranger beneath his corner was holding unaer his coat, and what > calibre it «©&,

Gangsters And Racket Men DUFFY usually split even on things with his dearest, friend, Owen Madden, better known as Owney, who had also been away for a time in connection with the demise of a policeman. Also in this crowd was a charming but tough individual known as Big Frenchy De Mange, who made news one evening by getting Himself snatched and held for ransom by Mad-Dog Vincent Co!!. The Mad Dog was subsequently rubbed out in a West Side drug store telephone booth. But the subject, after all. is Primo Camera and not gam.ster.and racket men, though pretty soon it was all one subject and all one j sweet and fragrant''mess. The hoy.had their connections in every town The Philadelphia underworld col laborated through the medium oi the always friendly and helpfu Maximilian 800-800 Hoff. and th' same courtesies were extended ai the way through to the Pacific Coast where occurred the Bombo Chevaliei incident, which was too nauseou. even for the local commission then to stomach. There was an investiga tion, resulting in the suspension o a few unimportant people. But Car nera and his swindle went merrib onwards. Won World Championship AND it continued until he woi the heavy-weight championship of the world by ostensibly knockin; out Jack Sharkey, then world' champion, in the sixth round, wit a right uppercut. I say ostensibl 1 because nothing will ever convinc 1 me that was an honest prize figh contested on its merits. Sharkey's reputation and th , reputation of Fat John Buc] : ley, his manager. were bi ! < Both had been involved m soil" > curious ring encounters. The repi i tation of the Camera entourage r ! the time the Sharkey fight can 1 along, in 1933, was notorious, ar 3 the training camps of both gladiato: i were simply festering with mobste: 5 and tough guys. I Duffy, Madden, et Cie, were spre? J out all over Camera's training qua f ters at Dr. Biers Health Farm :- Pompton Lakes. New Jersey, t travelling chapter at Detroit's fai sous Purple Gang hung out at Git Wilson's for a while during She keys rehearsals. Part, of their bus

CONTINUING "FAREWELL TO SPORT"

ness there was to muscle in on the concession of the fight pictures. If that fight, was on the level, it wasn't like either of the companies operating the two pugs. If it was horn t, the only explanation was that the boys were going sissy. As far as Primo knew, the right uppercut with which he tagged Sharkey in the sixth round was enough to kill a steer. He had knocked out many men with the same punch. Now he was the heavy-weight champion of the work!, and even if he didn't have any money to show for it, Italy and Mussolini were going to be very pleased. I have often wondered how lons he remained innocent, how long i it was before he began to catch on.

Fresh Suspicion. THE Loughran fight had to go on the level because no one had ever managed to tamper with Loughran, and'neither he nor his manager was afraid of guns. During the fight Camera hit Loughran more than a dozen of the same uppercuts that had stretched Sharkey twitching to the canvas, and j never even reddened Tommy's face. Loughran was a cream puff lighter and yet lie staggered Camera several times with right hands and was himself never in any kind of danger from a punch. He merely got tired from having Camera leaning on him for half an hour. If nothing else, that fight beneath the Miami moon exposed how ini competent Camera was as a bruiser, and how utterly false were the stories about his invincibility, be-' sides casting fresh suspicion upon his knock-out of Sharkey. We had ! all seen Loughran put on the floor! i bv a 175-pounder. If a man weighI ing around 2SOlb, as Primo did for that fight, hit him flush on the jaw j and couldn't drop him, and yet had \ knocked out one of the cleverest', heavy-weights in the business, it wasn't hard to arrive at a conclusion. It was obvious that he was a phony and the first stiff-punching heavyweight who was levelling would knock him out. Max Baer did it the very next summer. The following summer I Joe Louis did it again, and then an I almost unknown negro heavy-weight l bv the name of Leroy Haynes aceom- ! plished the feat for the third time. i And that, was the beginning of the I end of Primo. I His lucrative campaigns and the ! winning of the heavy-weight chainI pionship had enriched everyone I connected with him except poor I Primo, who saw very little of the money he earned. There were too many" silent partners and "boys" who had little pieces of him. Monsieur See had long since been dis- ■ ! pensed with and shipped back to ; France for his health; he had served l ; his purpose. Rut it was an evil day > j for Camera when they chased Leon ; i back to Paris, for Leon never would •; j have permitted anyone to belt Cari ' nera on his vulnerable chin. | Battered By Louis. AS suggested, the little Frenchman had a love for the big -I fellow whom, he had taught, and . j trained and watched over so caree fully. The Duffy crowd had no love i-1 for anything. Fighter.-,' chins were v | made to he smacked and they might p i just as well get used to taking the d j punches there. s It seemed as though their powei s was beginning to lose some of iti effectiveness, exhausted perhaps bj d its own virus and viciousness r- shortly after they had made Camera it champion. Primo escaped to Italj A with his title and nothing else, anc i- later returned nere for the disas is | trous fight with Loughran under the r- guidance of a little Itaiian hankei i- by the name Seiesi,. itfu

appeared to be genuinely trying to get and keep for poor Camera some of the, money he was making. The by-products of the Miami affair were typical and pathetic. Duffy and company were living over a Miami night club in style and spending money like water—Primo's money. Camera was relegated to a cheap cottage back of the town with a trainer. No one really looked after him. No one cared particularly whether he trained or not. Not, however, until he fpught and was knocked out by Joe Louis was it apparent that a dreadful thing had been Uone to this great hulk of a man.