Rocky: Pure schmaltz*

Once upon a time I watched boxing matches with my dad. It was back in the 1950s and early 1960s before my dad died in 1965 at the age of 75. I’ve written about this before, my life with my father, and posted my reflections at several sports and boxing sites on the internet. After watching some of the Rocky (1976) sports drama film and its five sequels: Rocky II, III, IV, V and Rocky Balboa and now in the evening of my life---with my father long gone---I pause with some nostalgia in my bones, my mental-set, for a man I hardly knew at the time.

My father was a member of the Baha’i Faith and had the first Baha’i funeral in May 1965 in the small town of Dundas at the centre of the Golden Triangle, a region in southern Ontario with a population now of over 8 million about 25% of Canada’s population.

I have been fully retired from FT, PT and casual-volunteer work for the last six years. I thank Sylvester Stallone for this visit to nostalgia-land--even if the visit was all pure schmaltz. -Ron Price with thanks to Wikipedia, 29 March 2011.(*schmaltz is an excessive and overproduced sentimentality; it has synonyms like: goo, mush, corn, sludge and slush)

These films certainly made you famous,
Sylvester, as far back as ’76, when I, too,
was coming into my own at the University
of Ballarat…..No major star, me, of course,
but teaching at what is now a university in
this old gold-mining city in Australia was far
more than I ever could have dreamed about
back in my adolescent and young-adult life!!

A tribute to persistence, eh Sylvester, that’s
what Rocky showed(1) and the film grossed over
200 million on a budget of 1, the 7th highest of
the returns on investment ever made!....Rocky
Marciano was one of your inspirations and my
Dad and I enjoyed Marciano back in the fifties:

Italian-American boxer, heavyweight champion
of the world from 1952 to 1956 when he retired;
only heavyweight champion to finish his career
undefeated…….running up those steps became
a cultural icon for our times even tho’ it all had
a fairy-tale ring and strained credibility beyond
breaking point, but it was still Certified Fresh by
Rotten Tomatoes(2); & Rocky was voted second
best sports film by AFI(3) with the Library of Congress
selecting it as being: culturally, historically, aesthetically
significant…………Goodonyer, Rocky, Sylvester, and....
.....thanks for that nostalgia-land trip with my Dad.

1 Some critics argue the Rocky series, especially Rocky II, was a tribute to persistence and a type of redemption or deliverance without the traditional religious trappings.
2 Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. It is most widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance.
3 AFI=the American Film Institute

Ron Price
29 March 2011
For: SaddoBoxing.com

Three posts in almost five years..... wow, I thought I had a low post rate.

Hello, RonPrice.... nice, enjoyable, nostalgic post. You've been a boxing fan for a long time. It's nice to see old-timers in here sharing their experiences, especially regarding watching old-time greats, like Marciano, as you mentioned.

I also enjoyed some of the Rocky movies you mentioned. They form part of American history, and are considered among the best sports movies ever made. Personally, I'm not a big Stallone fan..... but by far my favorite movie of his was "First Blood".

Looking back at his Rocky movies, the storylines are great.... the young Italo-American pug out of Philly, making it big against all odds. But I've never been able to overlook the fact that: 1) I don't like his acting, and 2) his fight scenes left a lot to be desired. Strictly from a boxing point of view, his fight sequences are about as realistic as James Bond killing the bad guy, saving the young beauty, and having a martini.... all at the same time, without getting his tuxedo wrinkled.

Carl Weathers was good. The actor who played Clubber Lang was believable. But Stallone? Gimme a break. The dude couldn't box his way out of paper bag. I know this is akin to heresy among Rocky fans, and I'll probably be burned at the stake for these comments. But it's my opinion.

I know it was back in the 70's, but the least they could've done is give Stallone more INTENSIVE boxing lessons, and made the fight scenes more realistic. I mean, there's been a bunch of boxing movies since then, and all the actors come off pretty well. Even guys like Russell Crowe, for instance, in his movie "Cinderella Man."

Still enjoyed your post, though.

:)

My old mate Roy Geary an ex pro fighter from Queensland who died a few years ago,
went to meet Marciano off the plane when he came out here to visit.

Thanks for those replies folks. Here is another little piece from the poem factory.-Ron
------------------
After watching the first part of the television series entitled The Fight: The Rules of the Ring on SBS TV (Tuesdays from 1:00 to 2:00 a.m. beginning 29 July 2008) I wrote the following prose-poem to try and capture the personal relevance of the boxing story in that one hour program. I trust readers at this site will enjoy this personalized account, even if they do not share all my personal values and beliefs.
-Ron Price, Tasmania, Australia.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KNOCKING THEM OUT

Jack Dempsey(1895-1983) was an American boxer who was boxing history’s 9th world heavyweight champion. He held the title from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey's aggressive style and punching power made him one of the most popular in boxing history. On his way to the title Dempsey won nine straight fights in 1917 and 21 out of 22 in 1918, 11 of these by first-round knockouts. In 1919 he won five bouts in a row by knockouts in the first round on the way to fight for the title on 4 July 1919 against Jess Willard.

Few gave Dempsey a chance against Willard, a big man 50 lbs. heaver and six inches taller. Many called the fight a modern David and Goliath story. Minutes before the fight Dempsey’s fight manager, Jack Kearns, informed Dempsey that he had wagered Dempsey's share of the purse. He had bet his share of the purse on Dempsey winning with a first round knockout. As a result, the first round of the fight was one of the most brutal in boxing history. Dempsey dealt Willard a terrible beating and knocked him down seven times in the first round. Willard had a broken cheekbone, broken jaw, several teeth knocked out, partial hearing loss in one ear and broken ribs.

Some of the most intense minutes in boxing history are found in the fights of Jack Dempsey from 1919 to 1926. On September 23, 1926, at Sesquicentennial Stadium in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, the largest crowd ever, 120,757, saw the 31-year-old Jack Dempsey lose his title to Gene Tunney in a 10 round decision on points. Explaining his battered face to his wife Estelle, Dempsey said--in one of boxing’s most famous lines: "honey, I forgot to duck."

I have taken a special interest in these seven years of boxing history for three reasons. Firstly, I have always had an interest in boxing since my father and I watched fights on TV from 1954 to 1962. In March 1962 Kid Peret was killed in the ring by Emile Griffith and my dad and I watched no more fights. Our shared interest in boxing perhaps began with Rocky Marciano’s sixth-round knockout of Rex Layne at Madison Square Garden on 12 July 1951 or with the September 29th 1952 fight between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott the then heavyweight boxing champion. This fight was what boxing experts have considered to be Marciano's defining moment. But my father and I had to wait until 1954 to watch our first boxing match since those first two famous fights in my young life were not televised. The first fights we watched took place over 50 years ago and my memory of them is naturally somewhat rusty. From about 1954 until 1962, when Kid Peret died from his fight with Griffith and on the eve of my pioneering life for the Canadian Baha’i community, my dad and I watched the big championship fights and many Friday night fights on TV sponsored by the Gillett Company.

The second reason that I took a special interest in boxing was that just last night1 my interest was reawakened. I saw the first part of a four part television series on the history of the greatest fighters in boxing. The series was entitled The Fight: The Rules of the Ring(1) and was being televised on SBS TV on four consecutive Tuesdays from 1:00 to 2:00 a.m. beginning 29 July 2008. Thirdly, I found an interesting correlation between the history of the religion I have been associated with for 55 years (1953-2008) and boxing history during those seven years(1919-1926).(2) This prose-poem explores that correlation, its comparisons and contrasts. -Ron Price with appreciation to (1) SBS TV, and (2) Loni Bramson-Lerche, “Development of Baha’i Administration,” in Studies in Babi & Baha’i History: Volume 1, editor Moojan Momen, Kalimat Press, Los Angeles, 1982, pp.255-300.

While Dempsey was knocking them out
and heading for the title, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
was knocking out His Tablets, getting
them ready for their great unveiling in
1919 just before Dempsey got the title.

They both kept knocking them out in(1)
the ring and on paper--slowly--not so
slowly....While Dempsey defended his
title this movement connected loosely
became fully organized building blocks
of a future world government at local
and national levels, united in doctrinal
matters and focussed on teaching as its
main aim in all that it did and tried to do.

The fight was on and a national
consciousness was emerging for
the war with those right and left
wings of the hosts of the world
and a carrying of the attack to
the very centre of the powers
of the earth by God’s Hosts.(2)

1 Some 100 tablets were revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Baha for the American Baha’is. See H.M. Balyuzi, ‘Abdu’l-Baha: The Centre of the Covenant, George Ronald, Oxford, 1971, p. 434.
2 ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of the Divine Plan, Wilmette, 1977(1919), p. 48.

Ron Price
29 July 2008
Updated for: SaddoBoxing.com
On: 30/3/'11