The Hauser Report: Debunking Two Myths and Other Notes

The Hauser Report: Debunking Two Myths and Other Notes

The photograph is captivating. It shows a stylishly-dressed woman named Florence North standing with four fighters and a trainer and was taken in 1922. The caption that originally accompanied the photo reads, “America’s Only Woman Fight Promoter And Manager. Miss Florence North of New York with the members of her pugilistic stable. They are from left to right, Ned Pincus, Al Cliar, Miss North, Charles Picker, Tony Marto and trainer Jack Fleming. Miss North is the first of her sex to undertake the management of a stable of fighters, and the leather pushers she is shown with here do their darndest in every bout, for a woman’s tongue is a thing of fury.”

The photo is included in a book titled The Only Woman by Immy Humes (Phaidon Press) that purports to spotlight one hundred historical photos of women who, metaphorically (and often literally) were the only woman in the room.

Writing of the photo and Ms. North, Humes (an accomplished documentary filmmaker and television producer) states, “The newspaper caption that originally ran with this photo highlights the shock of a woman being a boxing promoter while offering a solution to the mystery of how it works. North was a flapper with a gift for publicity and a nose for action. She got a lot of attention for her move into boxing, but she didn’t stay in the business long.”

North soon reappeared in newspapers described as a “recent law school graduate” and “girl sleuth” who promised to solve a notorious double murder in New Jersey. The victims were an Episcopal priest named Edward Wheeler Hall and a member of his congregation named Eleanor Reinhardt Mills, both of whom were married although not to each other. The police determined that Hall and Mills had been having an affair. Hall’s wife and her brothers were suspected of the murders but never convicted.

Meanwhile, as that sordid drama was playing out, Humes recounts, “North jumped in as a volunteer to represent the [deceased] choir singer’s 16-year-old daughter, who [in North’s words] ‘needed a woman’s counsel, a lawyer’s skill, and a detective’s brain’ and explained, ‘I have tried to give her all of these. I am first a woman with a tender sympathy for her.’”

Ms. North, Humes continues, “was quoted daily in newspapers around the country before disappearing from the scene, leaving the rest of her life story another unsolved mystery.”

That brings us back to Florence North and boxing.

The names of two of the four fighters in the photo above were misspelled in the original caption. The actual names and career records for all four (as per BoxRec.com) are:

Nat Pincus (35-23-11 (3 KOs, 4 KOs by), who fought primarily in New York from 1922 to 1929.

Al Claire, who had one fight – a “newspaper decision” that he lost in New Jersey in 1923.

Charley Picker (32-15-4m 22 KOs, 3 KOs by), who fought exclusively in New York from 1921 through 1931.

Tony Marto (14-18-4 (5 KOs, 6 KOs by), who fought primarily in New York from 1913 through 1926.

Alas! BoxRec.com has no record of Florence North as a promoter or manager. And despite her also having been photographed with Picker and Marto in a boxing gym (from the look of their clothes, the photos were apparently taken on the same day), there is no readily-available evidence to support the notion that she ever managed a fighter or promoted a fight.

Still, it’s a good photo.

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On June 10, 1977, 23-year-old Marvin Hagler (not yet known as “Marvelous”) fought a fighter named Roy Jones in Hartford, Connecticut, and knocked him out in the third round. The card co-featured 1976 Olympic gold medalist Sugar Ray Leonard stopping Vinnie DeBarros, also in the third stanza.

When Roy Jones Jr rose to greatness in the 1990s, word spread that his father – Roy Jones Sr – was the man who had fought Hagler. “Big Roy” seemed to enjoy the attention and failed to correct writers who made the connection. Over time, the story took on a life of its own. Roy Jr. even repeated it in an interview with journalist Brin-Jonathan Butler.

Was the man who fought Hagler really Roy Jones Jr’s father?

In the April 1994 issue of Boxing Illustrated, Phil Berger wrote, “The record book shows a ‘Roy Jones’ fought Marvin Hagler in June 1977. In the past, Big Roy allowed as to how he was that victim of a third round knockout. But when asked to confirm that agate line in Hagler’s precis, he would only say, ‘That’s what they say. Don’t worry about it. Print it like you want.'”

In his 1996 book Dark Trade, Donald McRae observed, “The record books list a 1977 fight between Marvin Hagler and one ‘Roy Jones.’ Big Roy did not discourage the belief that he was the Jones who had lost. It was proved later that another fighter, albeit with the same name, had lost to Hagler.”

When asked for his thoughts on the matter, Hall of Fame historian Bob Yalen notes that Roy Jones Sr has lived most of his life in Pensacola, while BoxRec.com lists the Roy Jones who fought Hagler as having fought out of Las Vegas. Indeed, fifteen of that Roy Jones’s twenty career fights were in Sin City.

Roy Jones Jr. doesn’t like to talk about his father and did not respond to an inquiry from The Sweet Science regarding the identity of Hagler’s actual opponent.

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A question:

You buy a box of old baseball cards and ask someone to look through the cards to see if there’s anything of particular value in the box. Unbeknownst to you, there’s a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card in mint condition (which is worth upwards of $10 million) in the box. Which people in boxing would you trust – if they understood the value of the card – to bring it to your attention as opposed to putting it in his (or her) pocket and keeping it?

I asked around. The answer I got most was “not Don King.” Other responses ran along the lines of, “There are a lot of people in boxing who I’m certain would take the card. Of course, there are a lot of people outside of boxing who would take the card too.” . . . “It might depend on the nature of your relationship with the person.” . . . “You don’t know what anyone will do if that much money is involved.”

The consensus was that more than a few people would wrestle with their conscience and win.

So . . . Who could be trusted to tell you that they had found the card?

Over the past month, I’ve asked dozens of “boxing people” for nominations with the proviso that they limit their suggestions to members of the boxing community who are still alive. That rules out past pillars of rectitude like Eddie Futch. To “make the cut,” a person had to be named by at least three people I spoke with. I didn’t nominate. I was simply the administrator.

This unscientific poll resulted in the following list of the righteous.

Fighters: Lennox Lewis, Tim Bradley, John Duddy, Micky Ward, Gerry Cooney, Chris Algieri, Andy Lee, Darren Barker, and Oleksandr Usyk.

Trainers: Freddie Roach, Don Turner, Teddy Atlas, Barry Hunter, and Russ Anber.

Media: Larry Merchant, Steve Farhood, Mark Kriegel, Bernard Fernandez, Al Bernstein, Steve Albert, Tom Gerbasi, Donald McRae, Tris Dixon, and Matt Christie.

Lawyers: David Berlin, Jim Thomas, Pat English, and Keith Sullivan

There was one promoter – Larry Goldberg.

And a smattering of others: Bruce Trampler, Dave McWater, Margaret Goodman, Craig Hamilton, Matt Delaglio, Ray Stallone, and Steve Weisfeld.

I know most of the people on this list personally and agree with their inclusion. There are a few who I don’t know. But I’ll trust the judgment of others with regard to them.

And by the way; if the person entrusted with going through the box reports finding the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card but rationalizes pocketing a 1952 Topps Willie Mays card ($500,000] as a trade-off, he flunks the test.

A tip of the hat to the people mentioned above. And yes; there are honest trustworthy people in boxing who are not on this list. Nominations from readers would be welcome.

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Oops! I missed one.

In an August 7 column, I wrote about a 1963, episode of The Twilight Zone titled “Steel” that dealt with boxing. I’ve since learned that a 1960 episode titled “The Big Tall Wish” was also about the sweet science.

Like most television shows of that era, The Twilight Zone was short on black actors. “The Bill Tall Wish” had a primarily black cast, which was a rarity for its time. Ivan Dixon stars as a washed-up club fighter named Bolie Jackson. Archie Moore is said to have been considered for the role (which may or may not be true). But Dixon got it.

Dixon went on to have a successful career as an actor and director. A Raisin in the Sun – a brilliant film with a cast headed by Sidney Poitier – was among his credits. Meanwhile, a soliloquy from “The Big Tall Wish” spoken by Bolie Jackson as he points to scars on his face rings true to this day:

“A fighter don’t need a scrapbook. Anyone knows where he’s fought. You read it in his face. He’s got the whole story cut into his flesh . . . St. Louis, 1949. Guy named Sailor Levitt. Real fast boy . . . And this, Memorial Stadium, Syracuse, New York. Italian boy. Fought like Henry Armstrong. All hands and arms, just like a windmill, all over you. First time I got my nose broke twice in one fight . . . Then move south. Miami, Florida. That boy got me up against the ring post. He did this with his laces . . . Tired old man. Tired old man trying to catch a bus. And the bus is already gone. Left a couple of years ago.”

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing – is available at https://www.amazon.com/Most-Honest-Sport-Inside-Boxing/dp/1955836329

In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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