Fight films

Converting the 17,000 film Jacobs-Cayton collection to DVD is exactly what ESPN should be doing. If Jimmy Jacobs was alive today, he'd be about 80 years old. (That's the same age surviving partner Bill Cayton was when he sold that film library in 1998.) The death of Jacobs in 1988 at age 58 from leukemia was a disaster for boxing aficionados and historians. (He contracted the disease at just 49.) If his lifespan matched Cayton's, ESPN wouldn't be sitting (shitting) on these priceless treasures, and he would have long since likely been overseeing and executing the conversion from film to DVD format.

 

I echo everything you're saying my man zaxsax - somebody needs to appeal to the president or something for these to be put into the public domain somehow - whether theres a national archives thing over in the states i don;t know but something needs to be done - it's verging on criminal for this to carry on

ps that ass in your avatar - DIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!! :smh

 

I have some old fight films I'm afraid to run. The images are still there as I can see them in the frames, but I'm afraid the old films might be too brittle to run. Can they be saved and converted to DVD without running them? If so, would that cost me a small fortune? Anyone know? Sorry if that's a stupid question, but I'm not too up to date on such things, and I thought someone here might know.

 

Not sure DJ but ps if no one responds properly to your question - please post the question as a new thread also - to up the chances of getting a favourable response on it. :good

Jeez what fights have your got???? You've got me intrigued now - any Greb-Tunney in there by any chance?? :angel

 

The dvd format is even out dating, I am about to purchase a terrabyte hdd to start my collection in digital format, there are models that can be plugged straight into the television. With time the capacities will be huge and allow you to store many thousand fights. Great for trading.

djanders, I dont have experience with film transfer/restoration and in your case definitely recommend you look around but this site should point you in the right direction.

10¢/ft - 36¢/ft High defintiion transfer. They also clean up the image, removing dust marks etc

http://www.videoconversionexperts.com/

Maybe some of the collectors around here could pitch in.

 

Doe sanyone know what "special" films there are in this collection, anything that almost everyone wants to see (for example Tunney-Greb, yeah its not there for sure, but anything of that calibre)? ESPN are real dogs for keeping the films from us.:twisted:

 

Dempsey-Miske seems to be the big one which has been claimed for certain to exist among them. Dempsey-Brennan was a sub par performance for Jack, who Kearns said violated the celibacy rule during training (probably because he expected another easy and dominant knockout win over KO Bill). But, because Dempsey knew Miske was ailing (although still extremely potent, as his subsequent career demonstrated), he set out to finish Billy off ASAP. (Louis did this with a retiring John Henry Lewis who was going blind, as did Ali decades later with a literally shot Cleveland Williams.)

Yes, Miske was terminally ill with Bright's Disease, but the training and conditioning process may have helped to alleviate these symptoms (which would explain in part his unexpectedly long post diagnosis survival), and Miske may well have been superior to Willard. Not expecting to be able to sustain an extended battle, he took the fight to Dempsey at the outset in what may have been a blistering opening round. Jack recovered to drop Billy in round two and drop him again before taking him out in round three, the only three knockdowns and stoppage defeat of Miske's 104 fight career.

As Miske has now joined Dempsey in the IBHOF, this match is a critical historical record from both sides of the ring, possibly the final peak performance of Jack's career, and only film of Miske in action.

Detroit's WWJ radio broadcast Dempsey-Miske. As that was the first prizefight broadcast, it may have been recorded. (There are some tantalizing clues that it was, but I've never found anything definitively confirming this.)

 

I have a similar dilemma, not quite as difficult but I have tons and tons of fights on VHS, my father got our first VCR in the mid to late 70's and he was a huge boxing fan so he taped tons of big fights. By the early 80's I had became obsessed with boxing and even took it to the next level I not only taped big fights but ALL fights, any and everything. I continued to tape fight up until about 2 years ago, why I stopped was mainly because I don't like using a VCR on my 52 inch HD tv, most fights I tape on my dvr and save them there the vcr just doesn't go with this new technology you know lol. So I have though about buying a home dvd burner and starting the process of transferring (which my wife is going to hate) but someone told me that a better idea would be to store the fights on external hard drives. So I really have no clue what to do now, I did break down and hook a vcr up to my tv I wanted to watch some fights and that is my only option. Does anyone have any advice as to the best way to transfer my collection? With the shear volume of tapes that I have I realize many will never be transferred but I would like to transfer all of my favorites, any help is much appreciated thanks.

 

A rare gem indeed, Tyson was lucky as a kid to have those people in his camp, he could watch any film he chose anytime. Dempsey-Miske would be awesome to watch. still with 17000 + films its hard to know what gems they have in that collection. Its sad that theres no Greb footage we can hope for, Jacobs died without seeing that clip of him training even, he said to him footage of Greb was the "holy grail of fight films." In fact i think he used to laugh when people asked him about Greb, because he knew about the lack of footage of Greb. hopefully theres some other great stuff that we can see though, perhaps a PRIME Sugar Ray Robinson, one can only hope...

 

Welterweight footage of Robby keeps seeping out into the open. Robinson-Fusari is in live sound, not merely as a silent film. Robinson-Docusen is not of high quality, but it was supposed for decades not to exist at all. Our own JohnGarfield has cited Robinson-Olson I as one of Robby's premium performances, and Ray's very next match was televised and on youtube, against Dykes, so his prime era is not entirely inaccessible. What we're really missing is SRR-Gavilan II. As exciting and popular as these stars were, it seems bizarre that we don't have this one well preserved and readily available.

We also have some pre plane crash footage of Pep against Walton.

As far as hope for Greb fight footage is concerned, the training film surfaced after decades in hiding, and in mostly pristine condition (although the Greb-Walker contract signing betrays some deterioration), so perhaps some hope remains.

 

Yeah, again one can only hope footage of Greb comes out more in the future.

Concerning Robinson, these fights are all in the fifties, Robinsons prime was in the forties wasnt it? The fight footage of him is him at middleweight, his prime was at welter. In a documentary of him Jack Newfield says that there exists no footage of him in his peak at welterweight. the fight with Dykes, he is not a welterweight, he fought above the weight limit,

the fight with Doucson is an example of the grainy footage of the fight, can you really see anything there clearly? I can't maybe its just me though.

Maybe Robisnon Fusari is a good example, but again he was already a middleweight at the fight. from 1942 to 48-49 is his prime right? and no footage of him exists in that period, at least no footage where you can clearly see him. footage of him at him when he could knock you out with either hand and was super fast does not exist or is not public. is there anything about his fights being filmed during that period, in the forties?

 

Well, Fusari was his final welterweight match, but Ray was holding back. Tony Riccio from 1946 was with a shakily hand held camera, but at least it was a more impressive performance than Abrams in 1947.

The earlier footage with Angott is interesting, because it shows Ray as a stalker, not a dancer, stabbing down with his jab at a retreating Clutch. Robby looks something more like Hearns did at WW, and JohnGarfield endorsed my suggestion that he resembled a preying mantis on the hunt.

When checking this out, take note of the claim that it contains all the action footage of Robby known to exist, yet doesn't include Docusen. That offers hope the well may not have run dry just yet.

http://www.sweetfights.com/fight_list.html

 

I think the best film out of the very little prime footage we have of ray is against Angott, its very clear and its shot at an angle where you can see every punch. In contrast, as you said the fight with Abrams, you can hardly see it, the fight with Riccio is very shaky, cant see much, the Beckett fight is better quality and the Flores fight is quite bad IMO, these were filmed in the prime of Rays career but you hardly see anything. Because Ray holds back in the fusari fight, it doesnt really show how much he was capable of, he was pulling his punches, and because its in the 50s, technically it was after his peak. when did the Doucson fight show up and who revelaled it? Its very possible more footage shows up, the one to see would be his fight with Gavilan II, supposedly his best ever. Thanks for the link.



final note, anyone got anything concerning sugar's foghts in the forties being recorded (e.g. Gavilan fights)?