Sam Langford footage

I don't know, because sport without human interaction is pointless?

 

Well, you and countless others can't have it.

So, there you go.

That's life.

 

Why on earth should he???

 

He already made me dispise one of my faves alltime in Greb. Not gonna let him taint Sam too.

 

Such a selfish thing to do. I despise collectors of fight film when it can easily be shared with everyone and so many people could enjoy it.

 

Because it is so easy and many, many people would be happy.

What value other then the selfish agenda of being the only one to own it does it offer? It is a film not a car or what not he will still have the original copy.

 

You guys can thank a man like @William Walker who spent his own money and posted some damn good fights. Something of which I’ll never forget!!! Got to see Archie Moore v Nino Valdez and Rex Layne v Lastarza. Think he posted some more fights too.

 

I have. He and his channel are great additions to this forum.

Quality poster and a pretty cool cat.

 

Anyone who keeps score (and I imagine that’s a small club) knows I don’t get along with Klompton, but …

He explained why he hasn’t posted them. Owning the footage does not equal owning the rights to the footage.

You may well ask why ESPN hasn’t made the entire collection they bought, which has countless fights not available elsewhere, available to the public. Same reason.

He also explained that when he went in with others to buy the fights that they agreed not to do it — wouldn’t be fair to the others and he gave his word when making the deal.

I’ve been a collector before (not of fight films) and the expense isn’t the only thing involved. You spend years and years hunting down what you seek and you go through countless disappointments when you think you’ve found it and find that it wasn’t the real deal (imagine how many Greb ‘discoveries’ have turned out not to be Greb) and you probably travel and put countless hours into it and then you find your holy grail and buy it and someone says, ‘Hey, I’ll chip in a few bucks.’ It’s kind of an insult, like they went to amazon and ordered it — where were you when that person was seeking this rare stuff and doing all the work and chasing down all the leads (the bad ones and the good)?

I’d suggest to anyone so highly insulted that they devote a couple of years in pursuit of rare fight films or coins or stamps or comic book or whatever and then see if you understand that point of view.

Would it be nice if he shared? Undoubtedly it would. Is he a nice guy? That’s a resounding no, as his posts and attitude when posting on this forum make clear, this situation not withstanding. He’s a tool, but that’s a cross for him to bear.

I don’t like the guy. I’m not a fan. I also think what he has acquired on his own time and effort and money belongs to him and he’s under no legal or moral obligation to share it.

Let me also underscore that @William Walker is one helluva guy and this forum is lucky to have him. He’s the anti-Klompton, and that’s a compliment.

 

If men like Klompton did not exist, the disintegrating film reels of a century ago would be consigned to oblivion like the lost books of Livy, Archimedes and Aristotle. His Ahabesque quest in seeking lost footage, and then restoring it, is akin to an ornithologist spending his time and money tracking down an Ivory Billed Woodpecker and buying up the swampland it lives in, and then dealing with people who demand he open his land up for tours.

His passion, time, restoration skills, and money are keeping alive snapshots of history. Who are we to condemn how he chooses to handle his investments? For lest we forget, that's what they are - investments of time and money on a scale clearly none of us have chosen to match.

Would I like to see his Lamotta footage unavailable online, his color video of Marciano vs Moore, his additional Greb training footage he just discovered, etc? Hell yes. But I'm grateful someone is toiling in dusty libraries and perusing estate sales to record history that would have otherwise been irrevocably lost.

 

As much as do not like Klompton at all, I do understand and respect his desire to keep his stuff private. I'm sure that he's encountered many bad people and just doesn't want to take risks. He doesn't have to be nasty in the process though. As for me, I get no joy out of keeping anything to myself, except that which I am bound to.

 

Thank you!

 

Success at last! lol

 

Thank you everyone for the praise and feedback. Such a great audience is certainly worthy of all the classic fights.