On the day Maxie Baer paired off with Primo Carnera Herr Hitler met Il Duce at a private clambake of their own. It was conducted in the utmost secrecy and there was no working press men at the ringside to tell the world whether Der Fuehrer led with a left and whether Mussolini countered with a right to the chin. The ripple of news that did emanate from this meeting apparently did not solve the European situation at all.
However, Maxie Baer, the shy, modest, retiring, Livermore butcher boy, besides revealing his talents as a tap-dancer, a singer, a ladies’ man and somewhat of a boxer, has new aspirations along the diplomatic lines. He claims he can solve the Hitler situation in one minute twenty-six seconds. He says if he could get Herr Adolf into the ring for just one round he could settle the difficulty with one punch.
Maxie is all steamed up about Hitler. His picture, the “Prizefighter and the Lady,” was banned in German movie palaces, and this burned the California Baer to a frazzle. The reason given for this was that Maxie decidedly was not of the “Aryan” stock that holds sway in Das Hitlerland at present. Maxie says himself, “You can imagine what the Nazis would have done with me.” However, we hate to think what Maxie would have done in return.
Maxie has been called the dizziest heavyweight ever to hold the title. In fact he has been called everything and he seems to relish the idea. Since he won the fight a week ago Thursday night he has been on the front page of every newspaper in the country He manages to keep in the limelight because of his happy go-lucky antics. He has two legal departments taking care of his difficulties.
Years ago this growling Baer was the most managed fighter in the ring game. Every boss with a stable of his own had a string on Baer’s purse. One legal department handles these troubles. The other staff handles his amorous woes. Maxie is a chap who loves ’em and leaves ’em and is just as effective in cracking a chin as he is at breaking hearts.
Of course it is none of our business, but it does seem a shame the way Maxie has neglected the Jewish angle of the feminine business. His first wife was a “shikse,” Dorothy Dunbar. His later and more publicized affairs, involving June Knight, Sally Rand and more recently Jean Harlow, are none of the Semitic type.
Maxie gave the fight fans a treat at the Madison Square Bowl last week and next week he intends to do justice to his female admirers. He opens at the New York Paramount in a song and dance act that will be different from the tours that Sharkey, Jeffries and Corbett made not so long ago.
When Sharkey, or, for that matter, any great fighter tours the country in vaudeville he takes along a couple of sparring partners, punching bags and gloves. In fact, the stage is transformed into a miniature gymnasium. Not so with Maxie Baer. His stage retinue consists of a bevy of beauties, a pair of tap shoes, a jar of the best make-up and, believe it or not, some lip rouge.
According to a dispatch from Germany some time ago, no news of Jews in sports was to appear in the German papers abroad. That’s why we doubt whether any news of the Baer-Carnera fight was published all over the pages of the German press of this country. In fact, the DAWA is starting a new move to boycott Maxie Baer along all lines. No German girl is allowed by her parents even to harbor a picture of Baer in her room. No German will go to see Maxie fight. When Maxie appeared at a recent Garden scrap he was booed heartily by the huge German element present.
Regardless of this German boycott of everything Baer, Walter Neusel and Max Schmeling, two German fighters have offered through the boxing commission to meet Maxie Baer, the Jewish world’s heavyweight champion.
—M. W.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
