Fight Night at the Barn May 7, 2008

Showcases films of famous boxing matches from the 1890s - 1960s. Among the bouts Hollywood Heritage board member Nick Beck will show and comment on are: James J. (Gentleman Jim) Corbett vs. Peter Courtney, September 7, 1894, Orange , N.J.; James J. Corbett vs. Bob Fitzsimmons, March 17, 1897, Carson City , Nevada; Jack Johnson vs. Jim Jeffries, July 4, 1910, Reno , Nevada (the fight that inspired the play and film “The Great White Hope”); Jack Dempsey vs. Jess Willard, July 4, 1919, Toledo , Ohio; Max Baer vs. Primo Carnera, June 14, 1934, New York (Carnera's career inspired Budd Schulberg's famous novel, “The Harder They Fall.”); Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, June 19, 1936 and June 22, 1938, New York; . . . and many other clips of Jersey Joe Walcott, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) and history's great fighters.

Nick Beck covered the Olympic Games boxing competition for United Press International in Rome (1960), Tokyo (1964) and Mexico City (1968). He was the director of boxing publicity at the venerable Hollywood Legion Stadium when the arena closed its doors in 1959. In the mid-1950s he briefly covered boxing for the Hollywood Citizen-News before serving as a general assignment reporter for UPI in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Beck later taught journalism and English at Pasadena City College (1960-65) and journalism at Cal State University , Los Angeles (1967-1988). He has collected (since childhood) motion pictures of famous boxing matches.

Official Website: http://www.hollywoodheritage.org/events.html