Robert Sacchi
This book is about some ghetto kids of the 1930's and 40's who became famous because they learned how to fight better than anyone else. We call them boxers and they came from the neighborhoods of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit and other cities. The popularity of Television in America began to grow in the late 1940's and boxers became superstars on television.
The Friday Night fights were broadcast weekly by Gillete and Pabst Blue Ribbon from the late 1940's into the early 1960's. Along with "Unele Miltie" (The Milton Berle Show) the Friday Night fights helped put millions of television sets in American homes as families and friends gathered together to watch their heroes.
FRIDAY'S HEROES is also about a young man from the Italian section of Hartford, Connecticut who went on to become "One of the Greatest Fighters" in the history of the sport. His name was Willie Pep. This "Will O' the Wisp" was World Featherweight Champion from 1942-1951 and campaigned for twenty-six years.
Finally, this is a book about such people as Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Graziano, Chico Vejar, Kid Gavilan, Joey Giardello, Billy Graham, Rocky Marciano, Ezzard Charles, Joe Louis, Jake LaMotta, and others who are no longer the ghetto kids making a living from boxing, but middle-aged men with the "roar of the crowd" behind them. Today, the athlete - never to be confused with a boxer - is a celebrated figure. Yet as boxers these men seemed to have a different kind of respectability in our society, perhaps because they had to fight for a living. Nevertheless, no warrior that stalked the arena was more gallant than these kids.
Willie Pep Remembers...Friday's Heroes is a book about people, these people.
Co-Authors: Willie Pep and Robert Sacchi
Willie Pep: "One of the Greatest Fighters the World has ever Seen." He was known as the "Will O' the Wisp" and was World Featherweight Champion from 1942-1951. Willie campaigned professionally for twenty-six years compiling a won-lost record unheard of in any generation. Willie campaigned in 241 bouts winning an incredible 229 of those fights.
Willie shares with us the personal stories of the fighters from his era, possibly the most talented group of fighters competing at one time in the sport of boxing. Willie explains how these fighters and the sport of boxing were instrumental in putting television sets in American homes in those early years.
Robert Sacchi: Robert Sacchi is familiar to many having worked as an actor on stage, screen and television. He has written screenplays as well as novels but FRIDAY'S HEROES is a labor of love- as a pal and fan of Willie pep as well as the fight game.
Bob holds a masters degree from New York University as well as one from the streets of New York to the Halls of Madison Square Garden
round
13
“Jersey Joe”
Of the three guys that fought each other so tough, Jersey Joe Walcott is the only one who had any luck after he left the ring. Yet, in the ring Joe was sort of unlucky with his timing. He was a great fi ghter who got stuck in Joe Louis shadow for a good part of his career. But Jersey Joe was tough, and like Jimmy Braddock, he came off the relief rolls and became the heavyweight champion of the world.
Besides his own title defenses, he was a contender at least six times that I can think of. Joe was great and even though he got his chances late he got plenty of them. He just couldn't be denied. His first shot came against Joe Louis in 1947 and he almost won it then. He dropped the“Brown Bomber" in the fourth round, but Louis got up and beat him in a close decision. In fact, a lot of people thought Jersey Joe had whipped him. But to beat the champion you've got to beat him decisively. Titles don't change hands on a few points. And that's the way it should be. Ruby Goldstein was the referee in that fi ght and he had disagreed with the judges and given Joe Walcott the decision. So a couple of weeks later when Ruby was refereeing a Friday night fight, Joe was at ringside to be introduced. Now, normally when you're introduced you shake hands with the fighter first and then the referee. But Joe rushed
over to Ruby and grabbed his hand with both hands and with a big smile on his face nearly breaks it off pumping it. That fight was really the first big TV fight because quite a few people were getting sets about that time, although most didn't until around 1949. But there were plenty of TV stores and crowds gathered on sidewalks all over the country to watch it through the store windows or in the bars. I happened to be in New York City at the time, and my friend, Larry asked me over to his West Side apartment to play a little cards and watch the fight on his new "Tele-tone" set.
I got there about seven-thirty that night and played cards until almost fight time, with Larry and his three pals. I was ahead a couple of hundred bucks. Larry decided that we should have a snack while watching the fight so we called the neighborhood deli for some sandwiches. It was round three in the bout when the doorbell rang. One of the guys got up and walked from the parlor through the dining room to the front door. He let the delivery boy in and then both came back into the parlor. The delivery“boy,”a sleazy looking character of about fifty, placed the bag of food on the table and gave me the bill since I was the closest one to him. It came to about six or seven dollars; so I picked a ten dollar bill from my pot on the table, gave it to him and told him to keep the change.
The guy, knowing who I was, said, “Thanks Willie. I watch a lot of your fights, I think you're great.” Like the other guys, I was interested in Louis and Walcott blasting away on the TV screen and so I said thanks without looking up. For some reason I turned a few seconds later and the guy was still there and he was dipping his hand into my pot. I said, “Hey, what are you doing? Leave that money alone.” The guy got as red as a beet and made a dash for the door, still holding onto some of the money. He ran through the dining room and when he reached a door, he turned the doorknob and rammed through. By this time Larry and his pals got there with me and we all started to laugh. The“delivery boy" had mistaken the closet for the front door. He was a different kind of a crook.
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The guy from inside the closet says, “Please, I didn't mean it,” and slips the money he took under the door. He had picked up about forty five dollars. I said, “alright, come out and we won't hurt you.” Silence.
Then I tried to open the door but the guy was pulling from the other side and it wouldn’t budge. I told him that we wanted to watch the fight and for him to get out peacefully. More silence. Then we noticed some water coming out from under the door. It turned out that the guy was
so scared he wet his pants. I guess he had cause with a fighter and the other guys no slouches. However, we couldn't call the police even if we wanted to because it was illegal to have a friendly card game; so we didn't try to scare him with that. Larry seeing that this guy might do more damage to his closet, threatened to break the door and really beat him. The guy finally let go and the door opened. He was wet from the waist down and he had his hands over his face, repeating his“Please, don't hit me lines. We got back to the fight for the twelfth round.
