Is there no film whatsoever of Harry Greb in an actual fight?

I will. I might go and make a top 10 60's feathwerweight list based on boxrec

 

I could be wrong, but I think that training film may have been discovered as late as the early '90's. After Stanley Weston bought The Ring in 1990 and brought it back from the dead, he wrote an article about the discovery of the film and finally getting to see Greb in action; any kind of action.

 

Jacobs' Collection Complete With Greb Film; [Home Edition]
EARL GUSTKEY. Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext). Los Angeles, Calif.: May 19, 1990. pg. 6
Abstract (Summary)
Bill Herr, a retired truck driver from Shelby, Ohio, found a [Harry Greb] entry on a computer list of boxing film material from the University of South Carolina library. Herr also is a fight film collector and also has been on Greb's trail since 1964.

To boxing historians, Greb is best known as the only man to defeat [Gene Tunney]. Tunney later became heavyweight champion by beating Jack Dempsey.

In their May 23, 1922 fight, Greb, weighing 162 1/2 pounds, broke Tunney's nose in the first 20 seconds and gave Tunney, at 174 1/2, a 15-round beating for the light heavyweight title. Tunney avenged the loss twice, beating Greb in 1923 and '24.

Full Text (527 words)
(Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 1990all Rights reserved)

One evening in 1986, Jim Jacobs was talking about his collection of boxing films, the most extensive in the world.

"Thomas Edison invented the motion picture camera in 1894," he said. "From 1894 to the present, there is only one great fighter missing from my collection-Harry Greb."

Jacobs, who died at 58 in 1988, never gave up hope that one day film of Greb, a brawling middleweight and light-heavyweight champion, would turn up.

It has.

To Jacobs, the frustrating aspect of his 30-year quest was that he knew at least three Greb fights had been filmed.

"I have three frames of the first Greb-Gene Tunney fight that I found stapled to a copyright application for the film," he said in 1986.

"I've tried everything. . . . It's frustrating. Greb's the only great fighter I don't have.

"The guy who filmed the 1922 Greb-Tunney fight was George Dawson. I even know what hotel he stayed at the night before the fight. I've interviewed his heirs. None of them know anything about the film."

Film of Greb has been found, 64 years after his death. It's not a fight film, but it's the next best thing.

Bill Herr, a retired truck driver from Shelby, Ohio, found a Harry Greb entry on a computer list of boxing film material from the University of South Carolina library. Herr also is a fight film collector and also has been on Greb's trail since 1964.

"I learned that the Fox Movietone Newsreels, along with out-takes, were donated to the University of South Carolina. So I wrote a letter and asked if there was any boxing footage in the collection.

"They sent me a computer list, and I saw a 400-foot item described as, `Harry Greb working out.' So I bought it."

Herr looked at the film and sent it to Steve Lott, who works for Jacobs' former business partner, Bill Cayton, in New York. Jacobs and Cayton were partners in their fight film business, and also in the early management of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

On the 4 1/2-minute newsreel, Greb is shown sparring with turn-of-the-century light-heavyweight champion Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, jumping rope, punching a speed bag, doing sit-ups, mugging for the camera and playing handball.

To boxing historians, Greb is best known as the only man to defeat Gene Tunney. Tunney later became heavyweight champion by beating Jack Dempsey.

In their May 23, 1922 fight, Greb, weighing 162 1/2 pounds, broke Tunney's nose in the first 20 seconds and gave Tunney, at 174 1/2, a 15-round beating for the light heavyweight title. Tunney avenged the loss twice, beating Greb in 1923 and '24.

Greb was a puncher-brawler called "the Human Windmill" in an era when nicknames were mandatory. He fought 294 times, knocking out 47, winning 64 decisions and receiving 170 non-decisions from 1913 to 1926. States frequently refused to recognize anything other than a knockout to decide a fight then because of gambling concerns.

Greb won fights with his thumbs, his forehead, his laces, holding and hitting, tripping, hitting on the break and hitting low.

Greb was 32 when he died in 1926 during surgery to remove bone chips from his nose.

Indexing (document details)
Author(s): EARL GUSTKEY
Section: Sports; PART-C; Sports Desk
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext). Los Angeles, Calif.: May 19, 1990. pg. 6
Source type: Newspaper
ISSN: 04583035
ProQuest document ID: 60056884
Text Word Count 527

 

Wow SLAKKA, very nice!

 

Ignorant. So you suppose what? That all of those fights he won against great fighters that we can see in film were all fixed? They all repeatedly had a bad night against Greb? It never happened and Greb is a fictional super fighter? Ive got a better challenge for you: Make a top 10 one for the 1910s and one for the 1920s list of Middleweights, Light Heavyweights, and Heavyweights using only fighters youve seen footage of. Then when you compare the names on those six lists with the names on Greb's record you will see why he was so great...

 

You could too based on the methodology that recognizes Harrys greatness.

 

Interesting, maybe some old geezer has it in his loft and when he dies it'll be snapped up

If someone wanted to find old footage where would they look for archives? There must be a systematic way of going through old film. It could be a lucrative business, in boxing we're desperate for footage of Greb, but people who follow other historic figures maybe just as desperate for rare footage

 

We Grebites have alot in common with the Lon Chaney society who search for what they call the "Missing Lons"

 

Also from written acounts from eye witness.
There's no film of the Roman Empire either, but I don't doubt that it exesisted.

 

Don't hold your breath.
Unless it has been stored uncatloged in a climet controld arhive. Any film that may have exested of Harry Greb fighting is gone. Film decomposes over time.

 

That's what was said back in 1990 when the training footage turned up.
But realistically it a million to one shot.

 

Excuse my ignorance but what do people have to gain by hoarding this film? is it to increase its value? but if no-one knows the film exists anyway whats the point?

Maybe they get off knowing no-one else can see it?

 

In the 1940s Nat Fleischer put out a boxing documentary called " Kings of
The Ring "...I saw it a few times in the local theatres...I recall the great boxers since Sullivan in the film, but my dad who saw in MSG ,Greb/Tunney 1 in 1922 was disappointed that there were no film
of Greb in the documentary, for ME to see with my own eyes...
About a couple of years ago someone in a college archive discovered
a clip of the Harry Greb training film we see now...The first time it
showed Harry Greb in motion..a collector bought the film for his collection
and took it to the Ring Mag office, where they were astounded to see
the legend Greb in motion...Someone at the Ring Mag wrote 'it was like
listening to Abe Lincoln speak at Gettysburgh "...I have a copy at home and I worship the film of my dad's favorite fighter..

 

Maybe you're right ... I just remember seeing an article about it in one of those great old boxing magazines and it was very exciting at the time ...

 

No doubt he was great. But its difficult and subjective enough at the best of times to rank a list of fighters from different eras, never mind when you haven't seen any of a guy's fights. Imagine you had never seen Ali fight. Do you believe you would rank him exactly where you do now given that you have seen him? How about Roy Jones, Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes? With how much accuracy could you rank them against other fighters?

I'm not disputing that he was a great boxer, just that records don't tell the full story and that eyewitness accounts are too subjective to give an accurate enough picture.

I don't believe you can.