Charley Burley's Lack of Popularity in His Hometown of Pittsburgh During the Early 1940s.

During the early 1940s, Pittsburgh was a terrific fight town with quite a number of fight shows drawing large gates at Forbes Field and Duquesne Gardens. Ironically, Charley Burley, a great black fighter from Pittsburgh, was not popular in his hometown even during this period of time. But other top Pittsburgh fighters such as Billy Conn and Fritzie Zivic were terrific gate attractions locally and elsewhere.

Some people may cite the fact that Conn and Zivic were white as the main reason that they were more popular than Burley, notably in Pittsburgh. Yet black fighters such as Harry Bobo and Mose Brown seemed to be far more popular than Burley. Admittedly, Bobo had the advantage of being a heavyweight, by far the most popular weight division among fans at the time, while Burley was fighting in the welterweight and middleweight divisions. Brown was a light-heavyweight. But Burley had the advantage of being a far better fighter than Bobo or Brown.

Like Burley, Conn and Zivic were very skillful fighters. But Burley had a fighting style which was considered to being boring by the fans., who made their displeasure known during his bouts at times. In comparison, Conn and Zivic had fighting styles which were more crowd-pleasing, and they were in quite a few exciting fights. In addition, Conn and Zivic had very colorful personalities while Burley certainly did not.

Like Conn and Zivic, both Bobo and Brown were far more thrilling as fighters than Burley. While fighting the highly exciting Lem Franklin, who was trying to regain his form after being stopped by Bob Pastor, Bobo was knocked down early and came back to floor his opponent three times on his way to score a knockout in at 2:40 of the first round in front of a capacity crowd at Duquesne Gardens. Possibly the most sensational bout that Brown had was when he fought Jimmy Webb for the third time in front of a huge crowd on an all-star boxing show at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh on September 15, 1941. Brown won by a TKO in the sixth round. Among the people who were enthralled by the bout was none other than Gene Tunney, who was an officer in the U.S. Navy at the time.

- Chuck Johnston

 

In fairness, Charley Burley had his chances to establish himself as a good gate attraction while fighting Fritzie Zivic (three times), Billy Soose (once), Georgie Abrams (once), Jimmy Bivins (once), Cocoa Kid (once), Jimmy Leto (twice) and Eddie Dolan (once) in the Pittsburgh area during a period from 1936 to 1940. Burley had far too many boring bouts there.

- Chuck Johnston

 

I don't blame the fans for not wanting to turn out to watch boring fighters in action. Many such fans worked very hard for their money, especially during the 1930s and 1940s. In addition, I don't believe that race was the main reason why many fans didn't like to see Charley Burley in action. During much of Burley's career, Joe Louis was the biggest gate attraction in boxing. A number of other black boxers were fine gate attractions when Burley was active, including Henry Armstrong, Sugar Ray Robinson, Willie Joyce and Beau Jack. Louis, Armstrong, Robinson, Joyce and Jack had dynamic or exciting fighting styles.

- Chuck Johnston

 

I don't know if Charley Burley did well while sparring with Harry Bobo. But I found a 1942 news item about Tommy O'Loughlin, the boxing promoter in Minneapolis at the time, was trying to get the boxing commission in Pennsylvania to approve a bout between Burley, essentially a welterweight at the time, and Bobo, a heavyweight weighing over 200 pounds. At the time, Pennsylvania had rules that prohibited bouts in which fighters had such huge weight advantages over their opponents.

At the time that Irwin Silverman bought Burley's contract from Phil Goldstein, Burley's first manager, during early 1941, Burley apparently had a dispute with Goldstein that rendered him inactive for four-and-a-half months. In addition, Burley didn't have a bout in the Pittsburgh area since he lost a decision to Jimmy Bivins in Millvale during September 1940. According to a news item, Pittsburgh promoters seemed reluctant to approach Burley about future bouts until his managerial situation in limbo. It appears that Goldstein sold Burley's contract.

Although Silverman was listed as Burley's manager from March 1941 to November 1941, Luke Carney, Fritzie Zivic's longtime manager, seemed to be calling the shots in regards to Burley. It was widely rumored that Zivic put up the money (which appears to have been $1,400.)to buy Burley's contract. Whether or not Zivic did that to keep Burley from being a threat to him, I don't know. But Burley fought in only six bouts during a period of about eight months before his contract was sold to one Bobby Eaton (or Bobbie Eaton) during November. Then Burley moved with his wife and daughter to Minneapolis.

Eaton may have been a figurehead manager of Burley for O'Loughlin until late 1942. Whatever you think about Eaton or O'Loughlin, Burley was getting far more bouts after moving up to Minneapolis. He had a total of twenty-five bouts from December 1941 to the end of June 1943.

- Chuck Johnston

 

After being stopped by Sugar Ray Robinson in a rematch during 1942, Fritzie Zivic said that he would not fight him again. Zivic also said that Robinson had good punching power and was the fastest fighter he ever faced. But Zivic stated that he was willing to fight all of the other welterweights, including Charley Burley.

- Chuck Johnston