Who would Beau fight next? Lightweight champion Sammy Angott had agreed to give the winner of the contest between Jack and Stolz a title match, but he retired the day of the contest between the two challengers. His departure threw a monkey wrench into the title picture. Time was running out. Beau was bound to be drafted into the military soon.
Chick Wergeles vehemently argued that Beau should be crowned as the lightweight champ. The champion had retired, and Beau had defeated the number one contender, Allie Stolz. The NYSAC and NBA, however, disagreed. Along with promoter Mike Jacobs, they wanted to have an elimination tournament to determine the championship. Abe Greene, Chairman of the NBA, explained that Stolz was number one on its list before his loss to Beau. Afterward, Greene stated, “This looks like a Chinese omelet now. We’ll have to drop Stolz a peg and move Tippy Larkin of New Jersey and Beau Jack up to share the No. 1 spot on our ratings. The only way the title question can be settled, I guess, is by having an elimination.”1
Mike Jacobs suggested a fight between Beau and the new top contender, Tippy Larkin, to take place on December 18, 1942. Wergeles, however, was not ready to accept the fight. “Beau needs a rest,” he explained. “He’s licked everyone around. Let Larkin go out and lick the same guys.”2 Regardless, on November 25, it was announced that Beau would meet Tippy Larkin on December 18 at Madison Square Garden in the main bout of the lightweight elimination tournament. As for the elimination tournament, nine boxers—Allie Stolz, Juan Zurita, Cleo Shans, Willie Joyce, Chester Rico, Luther “Slugger” White, Maxie Shapiro, Bob Montgomery, and Joey Peralta—would vie to take on the winner of the Beau Jack versus Tippy Larkin contest.
Unexpectedly, however, in a bold announcement on December 3, the NYSAC proclaimed that the winner of the upcoming match between Jack and Larkin would be crowned as the 135-pound world lightweight champion. The NBA was furious, accusing the NYSAC of “double-crossing” the NBA. Their accusation was merely ignored.
Golden Years and Radio
Beau Jack fought during the golden age of boxing. Between 1920 and 1946, boxing evolved into an entertaining and profitable sport, producing some of the best boxers and largest gates. Championship boxers were idolized and viewed as the strongest men in the world.
It was also the radio age. Almost every household in America had a radio. A leader in sponsoring radio broadcasts of sporting events was the Gillette Razor Company. Beginning around 1939, it underwrote sporting events under the banner of Gillette’s Cavalcade of Sports. Gillette quickly developed promotional deals with Major League Baseball for the World Series and All-Star Game, the Kentucky Derby, and several college football bowl games.
One of Gillette’s most popular shows, however, was its Friday Night Fights broadcast from Madison Square Garden. Fathers and sons assembled around the radio to listen to blow by blow commentary from ringside broadcasters Don Dunphy and Bill Corum. The two broadcasters were a dynamic pair, portraying the combat so well that the listener actually imagined they were seeing the fight live at the Garden.
Born in New York, Don Dunphy (1908–1998) was a radio announcer renowned for his objective, no-nonsense delivery and nasal-sounding voice. He began covering boxing in 1939 after auditioning for the Gus Lesnevich-Anton Chrisoforidis bout. Whereas other candidates had trouble pronouncing the fighters’ last names, Don merely called the fighters Gus and Anton. So successful was Dunphy, that Gillette retained him to broadcast boxing matches for the next nineteen years. During his broadcasting career lasting from 1939 to 1981, Dunphy called the action for over 2,000 fights, including at least 50 championship fights. His vivid description of the fighters’ body movements, footwork, and punches provided the eyes for the thousands of people listening to the radio.
Sports columnist and radio sportscaster Bill Corum (1895–1958) joined Don Dunphy on June 18, 1941, for the Joe Louis-Billy Conn fight. For the next twelve years, he worked alongside Dunphy, providing color commentary between rounds. Although a central figure in sports broadcasting, Corum was best known as one of the most recognizable and respected sportswriters of the times, working as a sports columnist for the New York Journal-American. Also a horse enthusiast, Corum served as president of the Churchill Downs racetrack for numerous years and was instrumental in the development of the Kentucky Derby.
Dunphy and Corum quickly became known for their ability to portray a fight as it was happening. They didn’t sugarcoat their words. If the fight was not measuring up to expectations, they said so. If one fighter won a round, they explained not only why, but what it meant for the remaining rounds.
Beau Fights for the Lightweight Title
Astonishingly, two years and seven months after his first fight at Valley Arena, Beau Jack had ascended the lightweight ranks all the way to a title fight. He had fought at a blistering pace. In 1941 alone, he averaged almost two bouts a month. Now 21 years old and sporting a 41–6–1 record, Beau was appearing in the lightweight championship on December 18, 1942. It was his destiny.
Tippy Larkin (1917–1991), born Anthony Pilleteri, was of Italian heritage but fought under the Irish banner. The handsome, curly-haired, sharp-shooting 25-year-old “Garfield Gunner” of Garfield, New Jersey, had a devastating right hand. Ranking at the top of the lightweight division, Larkin had a stellar record of 86 victories against 7 losses. Moreover, he had won twenty-three straight bouts and hadn’t lost a contest since March 8, 1940, a couple of months before Beau even debuted in Holyoke. There was one small question mark. Tippy had accidentally shot himself in the shoulder while cleaning his .22-caliber rifle five months earlier. However, skeptics were silenced when he continued his winning streak and emerged victorious in his next four fights.
On paper, Larkin had the advantage. He was four inches taller than Beau at 5'10" and had a three-inch edge in arm reach. Larkin had beaten Beau’s nemesis, Freddie Archer, twice; whereas Beau had two back to back losses to Archer. In Larkin’s first bout against Freddie Archer on June 16, 1941, Tippy literally destroyed him, scoring a devastating knockout one minute and twenty-two seconds in the first round. Archer was out for more than 15 minutes while the fight physician worked on him. In his last match, Larkin had faced Archer again. Though not a knockout victory, Tippy scored an impressive decision. On the other hand, Jack had won his last 12 fights and was an 8–5 favorite due to his youth and perpetual motion style, as well as his impressive victory over Allie Stoltz.
Larkin exuded confidence going into the title bout. Tippy was seeking to uphold the promise he made to 150 of his loyal supporters two years ago when he told them he would win the world lightweight championship. Larkin wasn’t the only one that was confident. Beau declared, “I just know I’m gonna be the champion. I just know because I feel it inside.”3
It was a rough evening for boxing fans voyaging to Madison Square Garden for the title bout. World War II was adversely affecting the states, creating hardships for everyday life. Earlier in the day, the government halted the sale of gasoline to all private motorist in 17 states along the Atlantic coast. It was essential that all available fuel go to military efforts in North Africa. President Roosevelt explained that the U.S. Air Force and armored units were in dire need of gasoline and it was quicker to ship motor fuel directly from the East coast than from Texas. Furthermore, meat consumption was rationed to 35 ounces a week, and a new blackout plan resulted in 7,500,000 New York City residents’ lights being turned off for 15 minutes. On top of the war-related issues, Mother Nature brought in a severe winter blizzard with temperatures hovering in the twenties.
Despite the gasoline ban and the horrible travel conditions, a crowd of 18,817 spectators packed Madison Square Garden to cheer on their favorite boxer. Tippy Larkin weighed 134¼ pounds to Beau’s 132¾ pounds. As usual before the opening bell, Beau, a profoundly religious man, said a quick prayer in his corner, praying that it would be a good fight and nobody would get hurt. Humbly, Beau never prayed for triumph, as he left that in the hands of his Lord. When questioned why he didn’t pray for victory, Beau said, “Oh no. suppose the other guy prayed that, too. Then what’s the Lord going to do?”4
As the opening bell rang, Beau bounced off his stool “as if somebody had applied a blowtorch to the seat of his pants” and immediately swarmed Larkin.5 Sitting ringside sportswriter Dick McCann described the wild first seconds of the action.
[Beau Jack] flailed away at Larkin’s head, body, arms, shoulders—scattering punches like a tipsy spendthrift tosses dollars around. He didn’t care where they landed. Some of them hit the air, some of them merely hit Larkin’s defensive elbows—but some of them found their marks and raised welts on Larkin’s ribs and reddened the Jersey jolter’s cheeks.6
After Beau’s onslaught, Tippy tried to trade punches with him. That is when Beau dropped Larkin with a left hook to the body and a stiff right under the heart. Just 30 seconds into the skirmish, Larkin tasted the canvas, bringing the frenzied crowd to its feet. When Tippy jumped back up, Beau shook him again with a hard right hook to the head. Late in the round, Larkin finally began to settle down and landed several short right hands as Beau barreled in on him.
Larkin had a better showing in the second round, winning the stanza with shrewd boxing and connecting with at least fifty clobbering punches to Beau’s head. Undeterred, Beau just kept marching forward, throwing flurries of punches. Although Larkin had established his dominant punching power by knocking out 41 previous opponents, he was not in the ring with just any fighter. “Larkin’s hardest blows” wrote Jack Cuddy, “bounced off [Beau] like rain drops.”7
As in the first round, Beau assertively bounded off his stool and charged Larkin when the bell sounded starting the third round. This time, however, Larkin was waiting for him. As Beau rushed in, Larkin snapped him back with a hard right to the schnozzle. No matter what tactic Larkin employed, Beau fought with reckless abandonment. Bouncing like a kangaroo, Jack just kept coming forward. Jack strategically moved in close on Larkin and waited for him to lean forward to block his flying punches. Once Larkin took the bait, Beau fainted a left hook and threw a sensational right uppercut that landed perfectly on Larkin’s chin “with a jaw-breaking crack.”8
The violent uppercut knocked Larkin out cold one minute and nineteen seconds into the third round. “It dropped Larkin as if he had been shot,” penned sportswriter Bob Considine. “He fell flat on the back of his head and was still stone-cold when Referee Arthur Susskind, aka Young Otto, counted ten over him.”9 Tippy’s body stood motionless for a moment before it came crashing down. Larkin was badly hurt. Joining Larkin’s trainers, Beau helped carry the prostrate Larkin to his corner. Then Announcer Harry Balogh raised Beau’s hand and introduced him “as the winner and new lightweight champion.”
Standing proudly at the microphone, Beau praised Augusta and the people who assisted him in becoming the world champion. The first words he spoke were, “Hello Mayor Woodall, hello Mr. McAuliffe.”10 Whenever he could, Beau always gave a shout out to his supporters and friends in Augusta. He also sent best wishes to his wife and three children. Summing up his victory, Beau exclaimed, “I’ll be a fighting champion, because I love to fight, and don’t know anything else.”11
In his post-fight interview with Harold Parrott of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Beau grinned as he confessed, “Ah never dreamed it would come so easy.”12 Beau gave credit for his victory to his trainer Sid Bell. “Sidney Bell, my trainer, had studied Larkin’s style, and he had me shortening up those uppercuts all through my training,” Beau revealed. “It was my best punch all right.”13
It was as if Beau could have beaten any lightweight that night. He displayed quickness, power and “slightly aboriginal, aggressiveness.” Jack Cuddy labeled Beau’s perpetual motion style as a “blitz attack.”14 Sportswriter Lawton Carver of the International News Service remarked on the simplicity of Jack’s fan-pleasing style. Carver explained that Jack was the “most inept and unlearned fighter ever to have a crown thrust upon his benumbed head.”15 He then equated Beau to his battle royal days. “The only preparation Beau had for the ring,” explained Carver “was the removal of the blindfold.” He described his fight style as “swing, advance, swing, lurch, swing, turn and swing some more.” What got Beau to the top was that he was a “humming dynamo of energy, sending power flowing through this kid’s legs and arms which sent him to the top….”16
Fewer than three years after inaugurating his professional career, 21-year-old Beau Jack was crowned the lightweight champion of the world. “Through sheer application of bull-like strength and a tigerish will to destroy,” Carver wrote, “he became … champion and public idol of the lightweight class, which, with the heavyweight division, ranks as the toughest of the seven weight divisions now recognized.”17 Undoubtedly, Beau Jack’s accomplishment is one of the most sensational in the history of boxing.
The fight attracted a gate of $58,468, from which Beau received approximately $17,000. Of course, Beau himself was rewarded with $5. The Syndicate “post-fight soiree was extremely joyous that night as Beau was christened ‘The Stork Club Champion’ in honor of the home bistro of most of the Syndicate members.”18
Jack’s hometown supporters were ecstatic. Admirably, the story in the local paper concentrated more on Beau’s modesty than his accomplishments.
It is important to Augustans that they can boast of having a world’s champion boxer from their community, but it is a greater source of pride to them that this champion turns out to be a modest person who has not let his fistic fame go to his head.
It is not as important that this young Negro today is a world’s champion fighter as it is that he remains a modest man, who accepts his honors becomingly, and does not forget his first supporters and well-wishers in an atmosphere where champions’ heads are easily turned and modestly still more easily forgotten.19
Augustans were proud. Beau was not only a champion but an unpretentious champ. Beau would now be hailed as one of the greatest lightweights in ring history, joining the ranks of Benny Leonard, Sammy Angott, and Henry Armstrong. What a way to finish the year. Not only had Jack won the lightweight title, but he also won all 13 of his fights in 1942.
Over the next several weeks, commentators humorously described Jack’s unique, unorthodox style of boxing. Beau was styled as an aggressive volume puncher who didn’t mind throwing 100 punches, just to land 20. Sportswriter Whitney Martin went so far as to say Beau really didn’t have a style at all, comparing his style to that of a burlap bag.
His legs below the knee are about as big as a cornstalk, but they seem to prop up a husky torso without trouble. His handlers wind him up in his corner between rounds and point him in the right direction as he sits with a worried expression on his face.
At the bell he jumps up, takes a deep breath, drops his hands to his sides and starts toward his opponent with long, bent-kneed strides. Then he goes to work and is just so darned persevering he discourages his rival. It’s just wham, wham, wham, and when you’ve seen one of his rounds you’ve seen them all.20
Endurance and endless punching were Beau’s trademarks. In addition to his swarming offense, Beau had an excellent chin. Jack Cuddy explained, “Beau Jack is so tough—has such a thick skin and bull-like reactions to a blow on the ‘button’—that his attack cannot be halted.”21 He had animal-like grace and nifty ring craft.
Tippy Larkin went on to win the world light-welterweight title on April 29, 1946, and finished his career with a record of 138–13, selling out Madison Square Garden in each of his 17 main event appearances. He was subsequently inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame.
Arthur Susskind, a.k.a. “Young Otto,” c. 1904 (author’s collection).
Referee Arthur Susskind
Arthur Susskind (1886–1967), or “Young Otto” as he was often called, refereed Beau’s championship bout against Tippy Larkin and numerous other contests in which Beau competed. Before becoming a referee, Susskind boxed in the lightweight division under the name “Young Otto” between 1903 and 1923. Standing 5'6" tall, Otto established an incredible record for first round knockouts. Of the 60 knockouts he produced in his career, 44 came in the first round. Moreover, he reportedly knocked out 16 consecutive opponent within the first minute of the first round. During his 20 years of boxing he compiled a record of 71–13–3.
1. Jack Mahon, “Stolz Stopped by Beau Jack in 7th Round,” News Journal, November 14, 1942, 17.
2. Ibid.
3. “Peralta in Line for Garden Bout,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 15, 1942, 14.
4. Peter R. Hofstra, Op. Ed., “Divine Intervention,” Arizona Republic, January 2, 1994, 28.
5. Bob Considine, “Beau Jack Flattens Larkin in third, Gains New York Version of Ring Toga,” Democrat and Chronicle, December 19, 1942, 19.
6. Dick McCann, “Jack New 135 lb. King; KO’s Larkin in 3d,” Daily News, December 19, 1942, 320.
7. Jack Cuddy, “Beau Jack’s Win Impressive,” Berkshire Eagle, December 19, 1942, 7.
8. Bob Considine, “Beau Jack Flattens Larkin in third, Gains New York Version of Ring Toga,” Democrat and Chronicle, December 19, 1942, 19.
9. Ibid.
10. “A New Champion,” Augusta Chronicle, December 21, 1942, 4. Alvin McAuliffe was the Chairman of the Georgia Railroad Bank where the Syndicate was placing Beau’s earnings in trust.
11. Jack Cuddy, “Beau Jack’s Win Impressive,” Berkshire Eagle, December 19, 1942, 7.
12. Harold Parrott, “Beau Jack’s Title Celebration,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 19, 1942, 5.
13. Ibid.
14. Jack Cuddy, “Beau Jack, Human Blitz, Kayoes Larkin in 3rd to Win Title,” Star-Gazette, December 19, 1942, 10.
15. Lawton Carver, “Husky Beau Jack Still Uses Battle Royal Style,” Lansing State Journal, January 10, 1944, 9.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Stanley Woodward, “Masters Recalls a Little Champ,” Miami News, April 5, 1954, 11.
19. “A New Champion,” Augusta Chronicle, December 21, 1942, 4.
20. Whitney Martin, “The Sports Trail,” Times Record, February 9, 1943, 26.
21. Jack Cuddy, “Beau Jack Symbolizes Era of Fast-Breaking Warfare,” Sheboygan Press, December 28, 1942, 10.