Max Baer

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This article is about the boxer and actor. For an article about his actor son, see: Max Baer, Jr.

Template:Infobox Boxer Maximillian Adelbert Baer (February 11, 1909 – November 21, 1959) was a famous American boxer of the 1930s, onetime Heavyweight Champion of the World, and actor.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Professional boxing career 2.1 The Cinderella Man 3 Acting 4 Record 5 Career boxing bouts 5.1 1929 5.2 1930 5.3 1931 5.4 1932 5.5 1933 5.6 1934 5.7 1935 5.8 1936 5.9 1937 5.10 1938 5.11 1939 5.12 1940 5.13 1941 6 Selected filmography 7 TV guest appearances 8 Sources 9 See also 10 External links

Early life

He was born Maximilian Adelbert Baer in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of German immigrant Jacob Baer (1875-1938), who had a Jewish father and a Lutheran mother, and Dora Bales (1877-1938). His older sister was Fanny Baer (1905-1991), and his younger sister and brother were Bernice Baer (1911-1987) and boxer-turned actor Buddy Baer (1915-1986).

His father was a butcher. The family moved to Colorado before Bernice and Buddy were born. In 1921, when Maxie was twelve, they moved to Livermore, California, to engage in cattle ranching. He often credited working as a butcher boy and carrying heavy carcasses of meat for developing his powerful shoulders.

Professional boxing career

He turned professional in 1929, progressing steadily through the ranks. A ring tragedy little more than a year later almost caused him to drop out of boxing for good. Baer fought Frankie Campbell (brother of Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Famer Dolph Camilli) on August 25, 1930 in San Francisco and knocked him out. Campbell never regained consciousness.

After lying on the canvas for nearly an hour, Campbell was finally transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital where he eventually died of extensive brain hemorrhages. An autopsy revealed that Baer's devastating blows had knocked Campbell's entire brain loose from the connective tissue holding it in place within his cranium.

Although he has never been documented as boasting of the death of Campbell, it launched him into an infamous status of being a killer in the ring. The death was used for promotional purposes to make Baer seem deadly, and dangerous.

Although outwardly Baer seemed indestructable and remained a devastating force in the ring, the death of Campbell profoundly affected Baer; according to his son, actor/director Max Baer, Jr., he cried and had nightmares over the incident for decades afterwards. He was charged with manslaughter. Although he was eventually acquitted of all charges, the California State Boxing Commission still banned him from any in-ring activity within their state for the next year. He gave purses from succeeding bouts to Campbell's family, but lost four of his next six fights. He fared better when Jack Dempsey took him under his wing, and although it is a little known fact, Baer put Campbell's children through college.

In 1933, Baer (with a Star of David embroidered on his trunks [1], which he swore to wear in every bout thereafter) boxed Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium, dominating the rugged fighter from Germany into the tenth round when the referee stopped the match. Because Baer defeated Schmeling, Hitler's favorite, and Baer had a Jewish father, he became a hero to the Jewish people, although he was raised Catholic (his mother's faith).

Baer defeated the likes of Walter Cobb and Kingfish Levinsky, and was Heavyweight Champion of the World from June 14, 1934, when he knocked out Primo Carnera, to June 13, 1935.

The Cinderella Man

On that day (June 13th, 1935), one of the greatest upsets in boxing history transpired in Long Island City, New York, when Baer fought down and out boxer James J. Braddock. After a gruelling back and forth battle, Braddock won the heavyweight championship of the world as a 10 to 1 underdog. Braddock took heavy hits from Baer but kept coming until he wore Baer down. At the end, the judges gave Braddock the title with a nearly unanimous decision. The fight has since became a boxing legend.

The Baer versus Braddock bout was depicted in the 2005 motion picture Cinderella Man; and it is notable to say that the portrayal of Baer in that film has since been criticized, as it placed him in a very negative light. Baer was portrayed as showing no remorse over the death of boxer Campbell at his hand a few years earlier. However, it is known that it did bother him greatly, and it has never been documented that he bragged or boasted of it. In real life, he was remembered as being jolly and full of laughter, and old film footage of the time show that he joked often. He comes off as obviously confident, but not in a villainous manner as somewhat portrayed in the film.

Max Baer boxed in eighty four professional fights from 1929 to 1941. In all, his record was 72-12-0 (53 knockouts), which makes him a member of the exclusive group of boxers to have won fifty or more bouts by knockout. He fought Lou Nova in the first televised heavyweight prizefight, on June 1, 1939, on WNBT-TV in New York. His last match was another loss to Nova, in 1941. Baer and his brother, Buddy, both lost fights to Joe Louis, Buddy's two losses to Louis coming in world title fights.

He was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1968, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1984 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995.

Acting

His motion picture debut was in The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933) opposite Myrna Loy and Walter Huston. In this MGM movie he played Steven "Steve" Morgan, a bartender that the Professor, played by Huston, begins training for the ring. Steve wins a fight, then marries Belle Mercer, played by Loy. He starts seriously training, but it turns out he has a big ego and an eye for the women. Featured were Baer's upcoming opponent, Primo Carnera, as himself, whom Steve challenges for the championship, and Jack Dempsey, as himself, former Heavyweight Champ, acting as the referee.

On March 29, 1934, The Prizefighter and the Lady was officially banned from playing in Germany at the behest of Joseph Goebbels, then Minister of Propaganda and Public Entertainment, even though it received favorable reviews in local newspapers as well as in the Nazi publications. When an official at the Ministry of Propaganda was asked, "Is the film barred because Max Baer is a Jew?" he snapped, "Ja." When contacted for comment at Lake Tahoe, Baer said, "They didn't ban the picture because I have Jewish blood. They banned it because I knocked out Max Schmeling."

Baer was an actor in almost twenty movies, including "Africa Screams" with Abbott and Costello, and made several TV guest appearances. A clown in and out of the ring, Baer also appeared in a vaudeville act and on his own TV variety show. Baer appeared in Humphrey Bogart's final movie, The Harder They Fall (1956), opposite Mike Lane as Toro Moreno, a fictionalized version of Primo Carnera, whom Baer defeated for his heavyweight title. Budd Schulberg, who wrote the book from which the movie was made, portrayed the Baer character, "Buddy Brannen", as somewhat bloodthirsty, and the (apparently unfounded) characterization made the leap to Cinderella Man. Baer also worked as a disc jockey for a Sacramento radio station and was a wrestler for a while. He was also public relations director for a Sacramento automobile dealership and referee for boxing and wrestling matches.

He had two wives, actress Dorothy Dunbar (married July 8, 1931-divorced 1933) and Mary Ellen Sullivan (married June 29, 1935-his death 1959). With Sullivan, he had three children, actor Max Baer, Jr. (born 1937), James Baer (born 1941) and Maude Baer (born 1943). During a separation from his first wife, Max had an affair with movie star Jean Harlow.

Max Baer never saw the TV and movie success of his son, Max Baer, Jr. In November 1959, he was scheduled to appear in some TV commercials, which he planned to do before returning to his home in Sacramento. After refereeing a boxing match in Phoenix, he checked into the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. While shaving in the morning, he had a heart attack and the doctor was called. Baer hung on for a while, but then died in his room at age fifty. He is interred in Saint Mary's Mausoleum, Sacramento. There is a park named for Max Baer in Livermore, California, which he considered his home town, even though he was born in Omaha.

Max Baer once said, "I never had a fight out of the ring. I never harmed anyone outside the ring. I loved people."

Record

• Amateur boxing: unknown

Career boxing bouts

1929

• May 16 Chief Caribou Stockton, Ca KO 2
• Jun 6 Sailor Leeds Stockton, Ca KO 1
• Jul 4 Tillie Taverna Stockton, Ca KO 1
• Jul 18 Al Ledford Stockton, Ca KO 1
• Jul 24 Benny Hill Oakland, Ca W 4
• Jul 31 Benny Hill Oakland, Ca W 4
• Aug 28 Al Ledford Oakland, Ca KO 2
• Sep 4 Jack McCarthy Oakland, Ca LF 3
• Sep 25 Frank Rujenski Oakland, Ca KO 3
• Oct 2 George Carroll Oakland, Ca KO 1
• Oct 16 Chief Caribou Oakland, Ca KO 1
• Oct 30 Alex Rowe Oakland, Ca KO 1
• Nov 6 Natie Brown Oakland, Ca W 6
• Nov 20 Tillie Taverna Oakland, Ca KO 2
• Dec 4 Chet Shandel Oakland, Ca KO 2
• Dec 30 Tony Fuente Oakland, Ca KO 1

1930

• Jan 15 Tiny Abbott Oakland, Ca LF 3
• Jan 29 Tiny Abbott Oakland, Ca KO 6
• Apr 9 Jack Stewart Oakland, Ca KO 2
• Apr 22 Ernie Owens Los Angeles, Ca W 10
• May 7 Tom Toner Oakland, Ca KO 6
• May 28 Jack Linkhorn Oakland, Ca KO 1
• Jun 11 Ora "Buck" Weaver Oakland, Ca KO 1
• Jun 25 Ernie Owens Oakland, Ca TK 5
• Jul 15 Les Kennedy Los Angeles, Ca L 10
• Aug 11 Meyer "K.O." Christner Oakland, Ca KO 2
• Aug 25 Frankie Campbell San Francisco, Ca KO 5
• Dec 19 Ernie Schaaf New York, NY L 10

1931

• Jan 16 Tom Heeney New York, NY KO 3
• Feb 6 Tommy Loughran New York, NY L 10
• Apr 7 Ernie Owens Portland, Or KO 2
• May 5 Johnny Risko Cleveland, Oh L 10
• Jul 4 Paolino Uzcudun Reno, Nv L 20
• Sep 23 Jack van Noy Oakland, Ca TK 8
• Oct 21 Jose Santa Oakland, Ca KO 10
• Nov 9 Johnny Risko San Francisco, Ca W 10
• Nov 23 Les Kennedy Oakland, Ca KO 3
• Dec 30 Arthur DeKuh Oakland, Ca W 10

1932

• Jan 29 King Levinsky New York, NY W 10
• Feb 22 Tom Heeney San Francisco, Ca W 10
• Apr 26 Paul Swiderski Los Angeles, Ca KO 7
• May 11 Walter Cobb Oakland, Ca TK 4
• Jul 4 King Levinsky Reno, Nv W 20
• Aug 31 Ernie Schaaf Chicago, Il W 10
• Sep 26 Gerald "Tuffy" Griffith Chicago, Il TK 7

      -Weights: 204 - 188

1933

• Apr 4 Sam Greer Denver, Co EX KO 2
• Apr 4 "Wee" Willie Medivitch Denver, Co EX KO 1
• May Harold "Millionaire" Murphy Kansas City, Mo EX 3
• May Jacob "Buddy" Baer Kansas City, Mo EX 3
• May Alvin "Babe" Hunt Kansas City, Mo EX 3

      -The previous 3 bouts were held the same date

• Jun 8 Max Schmeling New York, NY (1:51) TK 10

      -Weights: 203 - 189 1/4

• Jun 9 Pete Wistort Buffalo, NY EX 4
• Jun 15 Cecil "Seal" Harris Pittsburgh, Pa EX 3
• Jun 22 Cecil "Seal" Harris St. Paul, Mn EX 3
• Jul 10 Alvin "Babe" Hunt Oklahoma City, Ok EX 4
• Jul 14 Billy Murdock Salt Lake City, Ut EX 2
• Jul 14 Ed Sheppard Salt Lake City, Ut EX 2
• Jul 14 Jack Dempsey Salt Lake City, Ut EX 1
• Jul Jack Dempsey Salt Lake City, Ut EX 1
• Jul Jack Dempsey Louisville, Ky EX 3

1934

• Jun 14 Primo Carnera Long Island City, NY( 2:16)TK 11

      -Heavyweight Championship of the World;
       Weights: 209 1/2 - 263 1/4

• Dec 6 Johnny Miler Des Moines, Ia EX 4
• Dec 14 Les Kennedy Kansas City, Mo EX 4
• Dec 28 King Levinsky Chicago, Il EX KO 2

1935

• Jan 4 Alvin "Babe" Hunt Detroit, Mi EX 4
• Jan 7 Ernie Anderson Flint, Mi EX 4
• Jan 9 Dick Madden Boston, Ma EX 4
• Jan 21 Tony Cancela Tampa, Fl EX 4
• Jan 28 Jim Maloney Miami Beach, Fl EX 4
• Feb 15 Stanley Poreda San Francisco, Ca EX 4
• Apr 10 Ed Wills Grand Rapids, Mi EX 4
• Apr 17 Harold Anderson Flint, Mi EX 4
• Apr 18 Hobo Little Kalamazoo, Mi EX 4
• Apr 23 Eddie Simms Cleveland, Oh EX 4
• Jun 13 Jim Braddock Long Island City, NY L 15

       Weights: 209 1/2 - 193 3/4

• Sep 24 Joe Louis New York, NY (2:50) LK 4

1936

• Jun 15 Tony Souza Salt Lake City, Ut W 6
• Jun 17 Bob Frazier Boise, Id TK 2
• Jun 19 Harold "Millionaire" Murphy Pocatello, Id W 6
• Jun 23 George Brown Tyler, Tx KO 3
• Jun 24 Wilson Dunn San Antonio, Tx KO 3
• Jul 2 Alfred "Butch" Rogers Dallas, Tx KO 3

      -Weights: 224 - 217

• Jul 13 Jim Merriott Oklahoma City, Ok KO 2

      -Weights: 215 - 214

• Jul 16 Junior Munsell Tulsa, Ok KO 5
• Jul 18 Cecil Smith Ada, Ok W 4
• Jul 24 Bob Williams Ogden, Ut KO 1

      -Weights: 217 - 225

• Aug 19 James J. Walsh Vancouver, BC, Can KO 1
• Aug 20 Nails Gorman Marshfield, Or TK 2
• Aug 25 Cecil Myart Portland, Or W 6
• Aug 29 Al Frankco Lewiston, Id KO 2
• Aug 31 Don Baxter Coeur d'Alene, Id KO 1
• Sep 2 Al Gaynor Twin Falls, Id KO 1
• Sep 3 Eddie Franks Provo, Ut KO 3
• Sep 8 Sammy Evans Casper, Wy KO 4
• Sep 14 Ed "Bearcat" Wright Des Moines, Ia W 6
• Sep 18 an unnamed opponent Cedar Rapids, Ia SCH

      -This bout was scheduled; The outcome is not known

• Sep 21 Andy "Kid" Miller Sheldon, Ia W 6
• Sep Cyclone Bench Rock Springs, Wy KO
• Sep 30 Babe Davis Keokuk, Ia W 6
• Oct 6 Tim Charles Evansville, Il KO 4
• Oct 8 Art Oliver Platteville, Wi L 6

      -Weights: 215 - 192

• Oct 19 Dutch Weimer Toronto, Ont, Can KO 2

      -Weights: 212 1/2 - 186 1/4

• Nov 6 Maurice Strickland Chicago, Il

      -This bout was scheduled but cancelled

1937

• Apr 15 Tommy Farr London, Eng L 12

      -Weights: 210 1/2 - 198

• May 27 Ben Foord London, Eng TK 9

      -Weights: 212 - 208

• Jul 30 Al Rovay San Jose, Ca EX 4

      -Weights: 215 - 195

• Oct 6 Nash Garrison Oakland, Ca EX 4

1938

• Mar 11 Tommy Farr New York, NY W 15

      -Weights: 212 - 208 1/2

• Oct 27 Ellsworth "Hank" Hankinson Honolulu, Hi KO 1

1939

• Apr 6 Nash Garrison Oklahoma City, Ok EX 4
• Jun 1 Lou Nova New York City, NY (1:21) LT 11

      -Weights: 210 1/2 - 202

• Sep 4 Ed Murphy Silver Peak, Nv KO 1
• Sep 18 Babe Ritchie Lubbock, Tx KO 2

1940

• Jul 2 Tony Galento Jersey City, NJ TK 8

      -Galento did not answer the bell for the eighth round;
       Weights: 221 1/2 - 244 1/2

• Sep 26 Pat Comiskey Jersey City, NJ (2:39) TK 1

      -Weights: 223 1/2 - 207 1/2

1941

• Apr 4 Lou Nova New York, NY (2:18) LT 8

      -Weights: 220 3/4 - 202 3/4

Selected filmography

• "The Prizefighter and the Lady" (1933)
• "The Harder They Fall" (1956)

Portrayed In:

• "Cinderella Man" (2005) - which is a disputed depiction by his family

TV guest appearances

• Playhouse 90 (1956) (Screen Gems TV, CBS) ... Mike ... episode: Requiem for a Heavyweight
• The Lone Ranger (1957) (The Wrather Corp., ABC) ... Sampson, foreman (uncredited) ... episode: The Law and Miss Aggie
• Sugarfoot (1957) (Warner Bros. TV, ABC) episode: Angel
• 77 Sunset Strip (1958) (Warner Bros. TV, ABC) ... Government Man ... episode: Double Trouble
• 77 Sunset Strip (1958) (Warner Bros. TV, ABC) ... Billy Blackstone ... episode: The Chrome Coffin

Sources

• Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1934, pg. 12, Germany Bans Film Of Baer

See also

• Lineal heavyweight champions
• List of heavyweight boxing champions
• List of male boxers

External links

• Max Baer's career boxing record
• International Boxing Hall of Fame's article about Max Baer
• {{{2|{{{name|Max Baer}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
• Map to Max Baer Park
• Jewish.com article about Max Baer

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