"Then The World Moved On: The Brutal Truth Behind the Baer–Campbell Fight" by Catherine Johnson, knocks boxing history on its cauliflowered ear, with the most painstakingly researched and scrupulously detailed book ever written about the tragic end of Frankie Campbell, and Max Baer's shocking hand in his death. Preceded with a Foreword by Ray Mancini, the book chronicles not only Campbell's life and career, it exhaustively examines his fight with Baer, the resultant fallout and appalling coverup of the truth, and the horrific details of Baer's lies and manipulation of the event and its aftermath. A variety of original source materials going back a century, were thoroughly investigated and meticulously pieced together, among them newspapers, court transcripts, medical records, genealogical, archival, federal, state, and local records, along with psychological analysis and brain trauma study, as well as interviews with Campbell's family members, former pro fighters, and boxing historians. Along with over 1400 cited sources, over 150 rare photos, illustrations, and fight advertisements, the book also discusses the legendary men who made California a boxing mecca in the early Twentieth Century, and the popular venues where fights were held. Woven artfully into the narrative, is how the context of the times, the Golden Age of American Sports, the Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, and the Great Depression, affected the sport, and the lives of the men who molded the game. Available on Amazon Worldwide
Turns out Max wasn’t so much maligned by his portrayal in the Cinderella Man movie was he was made to look like a warm and cuddly guy compared to his real-life sinister self.
Imagine what kind of person it takes to literally kill a man (yes, in combat … not murder but he literally died at your hands) and then take credit for doing charity benefits and sending his kids to school — and he didn’t even have kids. Max Baer was truly a man whose heart was darker than a thousand midnights. They don’t even make movie villains this bad because people wouldn’t believe it.
As I recall, and please correct me if I'm wrong, in "The Harder They Fall", Max Baer playing the role of a heavyweight contender preparing to fight a champion modeled after Primo Carnera, boasts that he deserves credit for the ring death of a character based on Ernie Schaaf. I think it's odd that Baer took the part and agreed to say those lines if he was so concerned about protecting his public image as a gentle family man.
Yes, that’s right, but Baer played the champion and goaded the character based on Carnera, relentlessly. Bogart played the reporter, hired by the mob, (Steiger,) to build “Carnera” up as a monster , due to his size, but from, South America not Italy. Obviously, Columbia studios, trying to avoid a law suit, by changing things round! Same author as On the Waterfront, Bud Schulberg, wrote it. Yes indeed, mystifying (money!) Baer taking a part, so close to home!
Baer fought Stanley Poreda in a four round exhibition in San Francisco on Feb 15, 1935. The event was to raise money for Campbell's wife and five your old son. Baer took no purse and the event raised $10,000 for Campbell's widow. Thats almost a quarter of a million dollars in todays money.
Carnera sued but lost, right? It was an interesting movie but the actor playing the Carnera role was weak. I don't know why they couldn't find someone better. Bogart died after the making of the movie. Hitchcock's "The Wrong Man" starring Henry Fonda came out at around the same time. Fonda was good but I thing Bogart would've been even better in that role of a small-time musician who's accused of a crime he didn't commit.
Maybe they should have had Buddy Baer in the part! He later acted with the Carnera character, Moreno, in “The Tall Trouble,” Toro Moreno, was played by Mike Lane, a 6’ 8” wrestler. He just had to lumber around, being manipulated by Bogart and beginning to believe he was King Kong, before being brought back to earth, literally, by trainer J.J Walcott.
