Harry Greb-Walker film 1978?

Is that how that film was found??? Interesting... Id like to hear that story.

 

atsch

 

The circumstances leading to the preservation and discovery of the Langford film were completely different than those that would likely lead to a Greb film. In my opinion a Greb fight film will not be found in an archive if one exists.

 

Just a thought most likely a dead lead but Tyson in the film tyson mentions ferocious fighters etc but he also mentions harry greb which would lead you to think he might have seen footage as he had access to cayton and jacobs fight collection but then again i seem to recall jacobs saying he hadnt seen greb in action.... hmm just a thought

 

I think its time to establish a Greb film FAQ

 

Sorry if this is a dumb question but what is the reason(s) as to why there is no Greb footage?

 

For the same reaon there is no Jack Britton film, no Maxie Rosenbloom film.
Strange happenings in boxing history.I can attest to that, as I SAW a fight
between Ray Robinson and Bobby Dykes,at the Coney Island Veledrome in New York in the 1950s,and it is NOT in the RECORD BOOKS. I'm still baffled,
cause, I and a now dead buddy, saw that fight in New York,and not in Chicago.atsch

 

It's been supposed that the ban on the interstate transport of boxing films in place during Greb's prime might have something to do with it, but that appears to have been loosely enforced after Willard-Johnson.

Actually, Harry's first bout with Tunney was both filmed and broadcast live over the airwaves on Pittsburgh's pioneering KDKA radio in 1922. (Greb-Walker was likewise dually filmed and broadcast.) My father has a recording of the 1920 POTUS election returns on KDKA announcing the election of Warren Harding, and the quality is impeccable. Reportedly, Tunney-Dempsey II is the earliest currently known extant recording of a boxing broadcast (and I'd like for Graham McNamee's blow by blow call to be synchronized with HD footage of the complete bout), yet one might imagine that Pittsburgh hero Greb would have had more of his bouts broadcast on radio through KDKA than any other fighter of the early and mid 1920s. But of any recordings of Harry's broadcast bouts existed, it seems certain Cayton and Jacobs would have obtained them.

We've got Tunney-Jaimeson from 1919, Tunney-Carpentier from 1924, and Tunney-Gibbons from 1925. Yet we don't have anything of Greb, who was a world champion nearly three years before Gene ever was. We know he had the media coverage during the 1920s. That's what's so aggravating. No such expectation of action footage seems to exist for the likes of Rosenbloom, Britton or Flowers. With Harry, hope still springs eternal.

 

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Nitrate-Wont-Wait-History-Preservation/dp/0786408367The[/ame] Mis-adventures of film preservation, July 8, 2002


By Bruce Calvert "silent movie collector" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States (Paperback)
Anthony Slide writes a fascinating history of the film preservation movement in the United States. After covering the dangers of nitrate film and the wholesale junking of film prints during the silent era, he documents the beginning of the archive movement in the 1930s and 1940s. You would think that the book would be filled with stories of heroic efforts to save films, but there are just as many stories of incompetent and egotistical administrators who did more damage than good. The American Film Institute did a good job for a few years helping archives to preserve and restore films, but it quickly became a political organization and mostly claimed credit for projects that it had nothing to do with. The book goes into detail into the "colorization" controversy, a process which thankfully has pretty much disappeared since this book was published in 1992. There is also a section on how Scandinavian archives have done a much better job of preserving their countries' film heritage. If you are a serious lover of silent films or the golden age of sound films, you will definitely want to read this book!

 

Its been done.


Greb had quite a few of his fights broadcast via radio and not just by KDKA but none are known to have been recorded. Recording methods were pretty crude at the time. Cayton/Jacobs certainly dont have anything like that. I know who they purchased all of their radio broadcasts from and who that guy purchased them from before. Its a nice collection but nothing dates back to Greb's era.

There is still hope. Nitrate films are still being found. I purchased a 100 year old nitrate boxing film just two weeks ago and am in the process of getting it preserved. Indeed hope springs eternal.

 

Was surfing and I found this...

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...xing+film&cd=19&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=ww

Klompton, you know anything about it?

 

Another white whale sighting

http://www.***********.com/forums/showthread.php?t=453319