Walking technique was perfected around the early 1930s. Film prior to this illustrates the primitive gaits of actors such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
im just wondering why DIDNT they take a reel of him. he sounds an exiting fighter yet they chose to take film of gans, leonard,sullivan (in training) yet didnt take greb very odd
There are two pivotal dates in United States boxing cinematography which should forever live in infamy: July 4, 1910 - Jack Johnson W TKO 15 Jim Jeffries. This outcome triggered riots all across the U.S., resulting in 25 deaths, and hundreds of injuries. Several states passed legislation banning the filming of Johnson's victories. The ultimate outcome of this match resulted in: July 31, 1912 - The Sims Act, passed by the United States Congress, which made it unlawful "to bring or to cause to be brought into the United States from abroad, any film or other pictorial representation of any prize fight or encounter of pugilists under whatever name, which is designed to be used or may be used for purposes of public exhibition." The Sims Act banned interstate traffic in fight films until 1940. Except for a handful of bouts in Canada, Harry Greb boxed his entire career exclusively in the U.S., and within the time frame the Sims Act was in effect. That we have footage of anybody competing in the U.S.A. between 1910 and 1940 is amazing. Generally, if a boxer wanted to be sure his performance would be preserved on film, he had to exit the country. Mickey Walker did this when he traveled to London to defend his MW Title against Tommy Milligan in 1927, and that's probably the most widely seen footage of a Walker victory. If the Toy Bulldog had never sailed to the U.K., the only competition footage we might have of him would be Schmeling battering him about in New York. Most films that do exist from that period were of matches which took place in New York. We are ridiculously fortunate that Schmeling-Stribling in Cleveland, or Carnera-Loughran in Miami exist today. (Schmeling-Stribling was probably smuggled into Canada, and Carnera-Loughran to a foreign port.) I'm sure there are plenty of folks here at ESB who can expand on the impact of the Sims Act better than I. But if it wasn't for that law, we'd probably have dozens of hours of Greb fight footage today.
That's an interesting theory. My question is, with the world being created in 1892, should Greb not still hypothetically exist despite this outlandish but very possible (perhaps even probable) theory? The records show he boxed a number of times beyond this date. I'd like to add to your theory and suggest that Greb was actually eaten by dinosaurs, as well all his fight footage. The film was toxic and that's why the dinosaurs are today extinct. It all makes sense now. You have at least one follower my man :good
Of course not! And Joe Louis is a computer generated ,sepia tinged media creation,I cant beleive anyone could be so gullible!
No. Greb is just a bogey who the fighters of the period invented to frighten their children. That is why no film survives.
Here is what we do know about him: based on his record, he was truly great. Everything else, such as fighting half blind, the street encounter with Walker, beating Dempsey in the gym, dressing room debauchery prior to fights, the accuracy of the many newspaper decisions, etc., we haven't a clue. We don't even know if his last name was really Greb or Berg. My gut feeling is that he was the greatest fighter who ever lived, and yes, he lived.
He definitely existed don't be dim. I will admit it is rather odd that there isn't any film of him at all.
Well Gene Tunney, Mickey Walker, Tommy Loughran, Battling Levinsky, Tommy Gibbons, Lou Bogash, Maxie Rosenbloom etc certainly knew he existed.
I have no idea what you're talking about. The recording of Boxing films for public display in theaters was a common practice during the time period you're talking about. It was often a major part of the major fight negotiations. Max Schmeling made more money on the film showings of his win over Joe Louis than he actually made from his fight purse. Joe Louis fights were routinely made available in movie theaters in the U.S. in the 1930s as soon as the following day. Although, some theater owners in the south refused to show a black man knocking out a white man. All of Dempsey's title fights were filmed. All of Willard's title fights were filmed. All of Jack Johnson's title fights were films. All of Tunney's. All of Sharkey's. All of Schmeling's. All of Baer's. All of Carnera's. They all were filmed and shown in theaters in the U.S. and overseas. Again, I have no idea what you're talking about. The reason there isn't film of Greb likely has to do with the fact that the person or persons who owned the rights to his fights that were filmed simply didn't store them properly or didn't preserve them or didn't care about distributing them on a mass scale. Don King has 40 years of tens of thousands of fights - main events, undercards. His library was valued in the early 1990s as worth about $25 million. He's done nothing to mass market those films or share 99 percent of them with the world. They could all disappear upon his death or be lost in a fire. The vast majority of Greb's fights were likely never filmed. In many years, he was fighting every week or every couple days. There really wouldn't have been a market to put films of those fights in theaters because he was fighting so often he'd have fought once or twice (or a dozen times) before they were ever released in theaters around the country. Hell, how many of Sugar Ray Robinson's first 100 pro fights still exist? Those bouts of Greb that were filmed maybe weren't entertaining enough to show (he rarely scored KOs). The owners may have had no way to distribute them on a wide scale. Many likely just turned to dust in their canisters or were lost when whomever owned them died. As far as someone (or a family or some warehouse) just holding on to the canisters of film for close to 100 years, it's not like everyone owned a film projector back then. People didn't tend to watch movies or reel films at home. (My cousin has a reel from the first Star Wars film taken from a movie theater back in the 1970s. He still has it but he's never played it because he doesn't have a reel projector.) If people had those movies at one time, they likely all turned to powder before anyone tried to restore them or save them to another form of media. They're just gone.
No, he didn't exist. They were actually 3 identical twin brothers, who switched places in the ring after each fought a few rounds. There's no way anybody could have had the stamina to fight at such pace for 15 rounds
