What I watched: The first fight between Joe Louis and Joe Walcott. The fight was originally broadcast at 10 PM on NBC on December 5, 1947, but I could only find a heavily abridged newsreel film of the fight on YouTube.
What happened: Louis’s first fight after the war had been a big success for the nascent medium of television, even if it hadn’t been an action-packed bout. After a quick tune-up later in 1946, a follow-up fight seemed obvious. But from Louis’s perspective, the Billy Conn fight had been a mild disappointment, drawing less fans than expected. And he was slowing down not just in the ring but out of it — whereas he once took on 13 challengers in 29 months, his only fight in the eighteen months since Conn had been a one-round mauling of Tami Mauriello.
Another problem was the lack of obvious contenders in the heavyweight division, a division that Louis had seemingly cleaned out. Eventually Louis’s team decided on “Jersey” Joe Walcott as an opponent. Walcott was a veteran who had turned around a journeyman career with a series of victories, but was expected not to be a real match for the legendary champion.
Louis charged in recklessly in the first round, and got caught and dropped by Walcott. Walcott dropped Louis again with a crisp right hook a few rounds later. The other thirteen rounds are hard to judge based on the abbreviated film clip (which may be why the film clip was so abbreviated), but most observers thought Walcott had won handily and thoroughly outboxed the champion. Even Arthur Daley, a New York Times writer who scored the fight for Louis, admitted the champion “had fought an incredibly bad fight”, while Louis described his performance as “second-rate” to reporters. But, when the judges’ scorecards were read, Louis was declared the winner and still champion.
Those watching by television began the tradition of calling up the newspaper to express their outrage about what they had just seen. The New York crowd, most of whom could be described as devout Louis fans, booed the decision.
What I thought: This fight is our first introduction into the world of boxing bullshit. For numerous historical and structural reasons, boxing has been a sport distinctly inclined towards bullshit. Sometimes the wrangling required to get two top fighters into the ring can be more difficult, and more entertaining than the fight itself. Louis/Walcott looked to be such a bullshit fight from the start. It was originally announced as a ten-round non-title bout, where Walcott would only be recognized as champion if he won by knockout. This was later changed, but Louis demanded three more weeks of preparation. When the two finally got in the ring, it was a proper fifteen-round title bout, but the bullshit was not done. The decision was widely derided and, from what I was able to see of the fight, rightly so.
It’s hard to say exactly what went wrong and, as with so much boxing bullshit, we are stuck trying to differentiate incompetence from malice. The scoring-by-rounds system, which unlike the modern 10-point must system does not give extra points for knockdowns, may be partly to blame. The judges may have been unconsciously biased by the champion’s invincible reputation. Or they may have been consciously biased by Louis’s promoters slipping them something under the table, or just taking them out to a nice dinner the night beforehand. In boxing, the bigger draw is usually protected, and Louis was the biggest draw in the world.
The fight was, nevertheless, a disaster for Louis. His post-war comeback had not gone as planned. He was deep in debt, and not fighting often enough to pay it off. The Conn rematch had disappointed financially, and while the Walcott match was more financially successful, it had turned the heroic champion into the benificiary of a conspiracy in the public eye. He was obviously not the same fighter he had been in 1940. To his credit, Louis gave Walcott a rematch, suggesting that the damage to his reputation was not something he wanted to risk.
As for television, this was naturally less of a milestone than the first Walcott fight, but still showed the potential for televised sports. Which brings us to…
The Year in Televised Sports: 1947 saw the first televised broadcast of the World Series. It was a natural fit — New York was the epicentre of the new (and at that time very local) medium, and two New York teams, the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers, were playing for the championship this year. The coverage was split between NBC, CBS, and the DuMont network, reflecting the demand for the rights. At the time, baseball was the most popular sport in America, and the series reached over 3 million total viewers. These viewers mostly watched in bars and other public places, but it doubtlessly was a great advertisement for television. The series is also historically noteworthy for including Jackie Robinson, playing in his rookie year for the Dodgers, making it the first integrated World Series. Alas, the Yankees won 4 games to 3, with a team featuring Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra. Here’s
the most extensive newsreel on the series I could find.
Over in Britain, the BBC once again broadcast Wimbledon, which was won by Jack Kramer in the men’s singles and Margaret duPont in the women’s. The Beeb also broadcasted a number of amateur boxing matches, but as far as I can tell no professional bouts. Most noteable is the first post-war broadcast of the FA Cup final, the soccer match which would become a fixture on national television. Charlton Athletic defeated Burnley 1-0 with an extra time goal by Chris Duffy. You can see what action there was in this newsreel.
What else is on?: WABD, still New York’s only other television station, was again left out in the cold for the big fight. They aired wrestling from the Jamaica Arena.
In two weeks: NBC explains how this whole television thing works with Eyewitness.
The Eternal Couch Potato 