Poché Pictures
rich@pochepictures.com
rich@pochepictures.com
Fights included in the set:
Baer vs. Levinsky II
Baer vs. Schmeling
Baer vs. Carnera
Baer vs. Braddock
Baer vs. Louis
Baer vs. Nova
Baer vs. Galento
Baer vs. Lomiskey
Baer vs. Nova II
Max Baer fights on DVD:
$19.95
$19.95
Maximilian Adelbert Baer (February 11, 1909 – November 21, 1959) was an American boxer of the 1930s,
one-time Heavyweight Champion of the World, actor, entertainer, professional wrestler and referee.
One of the most colorful figures of his day, Baer enjoyed life in the limelight, often at the expense of his
training. He was the brother of twice World Champion boxing contender Buddy Baer and father of actor Max
Baer, Jr., known to two generations as Jethro Bodine of the Beverly Hillbillies.
He is rated #22 on Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.
Early life
Maximilian Adelbert Baer was born on February 11, 1909 in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Jacob Baer
(1875–1938) who was Jewish of French ancestry[citation needed] and Dora Bales (1877–1938) who was of
German and Scots-Irish ancestry.[citation needed] His eldest sister was Frances May Baer (1905–1991),
his younger sister was Bernice Jeanette Baer (1911–1987), his younger brother was boxer-turned-actor
Jacob Henry Baer, better known as Buddy Baer (1915–1986) and his adopted brother was August "Augie"
Baer.
Move to California
In May 1922, tired of the Durango, Colorado winters, which aggravated Frances's rheumatic fever and
Jacob's high blood pressure,[1] the Baers piled into a just-purchased automobile and began the long drive
to the milder climes of the West Coast, where Dora's sister lived in Alameda, California, across the Bay from
San Francisco.[2] They drove more than 1,000 miles along unpaved roads. Jacob's expertise in the butcher
business led to numerous job offers around the San Francisco Bay Area. While living in Hayward, Max took
his first job as a delivery boy for John Lee Wilbur. Wilbur ran a grocery store on B Street and bought meat
from Jacob.
The Baers lived in the Northern Californian towns of Hayward, San Leandro and Galt[2] before moving to
Livermore in 1926. Livermore was true cowboy country, surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of rolling
hills and rangeland which supported large cattle herds that provided fresh meat to the rapidly burgeoning
towns nearby. In 1928, Jacob bought the Twin Oaks Ranch in Murray Township where he raised over 2,000
hogs, and which he worked with daughter Frances's husband, Louis Santucci.[2] Baer often credited
working as a butcher boy, carrying heavy carcasses of meat, sledge-hammering cattle with one blow, and
working at a gravel pit, for developing his powerful shoulders.
Professional boxing career
Baer turned professional in 1929, progressing steadily through the Pacific Coast ranks. A ring tragedy little
more than a year later almost caused Baer to drop out of boxing for good
Frankie Campbell
Baer fought Frankie Campbell (real name Francisco Camilli, whose brother was Brooklyn Dodgers star
Dolph Camilli) on August 25, 1930, in San Francisco in a ring built over home plate at San Francisco's
Recreation Park to fight for the unofficial title of Pacific Coast champion. In the 2nd round of the fight,
Campbell clipped Baer and Baer slipped to the canvas. Campbell went toward his corner and waved to the
crowd. He thought Baer was getting the count. Baer got up and flew at Campbell, landing a cheap-shot right
at Campbell's turned head which sent him to the canvas.
After the round, Campbell said to his trainer "something feels like it snapped in my head." But Campbell
went on to handily win rounds 3 and 4. As Baer rose for the 5th round, Tillie "Kid" Herman, Baer's former
friend and trainer, who had switched camps overnight and was now in Campbell's corner, savagely taunted
and jeered Baer. In a rage and determined to end the bout with a knockout, Baer soon had Campbell
against the ropes. As he hammered him with punch after punch, the ropes were the only thing to hold
Campbell up. Tillie Herman, as Campbell's chief second, had the privilege of throwing in the towel, but did
not. Referee Toby Irwin seemed oblivious to what was occurring. When Irwin finally stopped the fight,
Campbell collapsed to the canvas.
It is reported that Baer's own seconds administered to Campbell, and that Baer was by his side until an
ambulance arrived 30 minutes later. Baer "visited the stricken fighter's bedside," where he offered Frankie's
wife Ellie the hand that hit her husband. She took that hand and the two stood speechless for a moment. "It
was unfortunate, I'm awfully sorry.", said Baer. "It even might have been you, mightn't it?", Ellie replied.[3][4]
At noon the next day, with a lit candle laced between his crossed fingers, and his wife and mother beside
him, Frankie Campbell was pronounced dead. Upon the surgeon's announcement of Campbell's death,
Baer broke down and sobbed inconsolably. Brain specialist Dr. Tilton E. Tillman "declared death had been
caused by a succession of blows on the jaw and not by any struck on the rear of the head," and that
Campbell's brain had been "knocked completely loose from his skull" by Baer's devastating blows.[5]
Ernie Schaaf
The Campbell incident earned Max the reputation as a "killer" in the ring. This publicity was further
sensationalized by Baer's return bout with Ernie Schaaf, who had bested Baer in a decision during Max's
Eastern debut bout at Madison Square Garden on September 19, 1930.
An Associated Press article in the September 9, 1932 Sports section of the New York Times describes the
end of the return bout as follows:
"Two seconds before the fight ended Schaaf was knocked flat on his face, completely knocked out. He was
dragged to his corner and his seconds worked over for him for three minutes before restoring him to his
senses...Baer smashed a heavy right to the jaw that shook Schaaf to his heels, to start the last round, then
walked into the Boston fighter, throwing both hands to the head and body. Baer drove three hard rights to
the jaw that staggered Schaaf. Baer beat Schaaf around the ring and into the ropes with a savage attack to
the head and body. Just before the round ended Baer dropped Schaaf to the canvas, but the bell sounded
as Schaaf hit the floor."[6]
Schaaf was never quite the same after that bout. He complained frequently of headaches[citation needed],
and his ring performance was mercurial in succeeding bouts. Five months after the Baer fight, on February
11, 1933, Schaaf died in the ring after taking a left jab from the Italian behemoth Primo Carnera. Carnera
was vilified as a "man killer", and two sports writers (Grantland Rice and Jimmy Cannon) claimed that Schaaf
had died as a result of damage previously inflicted by Baer.
The majority of sports editors noted,[7] however, that an autopsy later revealed Schaaf had meningitis, a
swelling of the brain, and was still recovering from a severe case of influenza when he touched gloves with
Carnera. Schaaf's obituary stated that "just before his bout with Carnera, Schaaf went into reclusion in a
religious retreat near Boston to recuperate from an attack of influenza" which produced the meningitis.[3][8]
The death of Campbell and accusations over Schaaf's demise profoundly affected Baer, even though he
was ostensibly indestructible and remained a devastating force in the ring. According to his son,
actor/director Max Baer Jr. (who was born seven years after the incident):
My father cried about what happened to Frankie Campbell. He had nightmares. In reality, my father was one
of the kindest, gentlest men you would ever hope to meet. He treated boxing the way today's professional
wrestlers do wrestling: part sport, mostly showmanship. He never deliberately hurt anyone.[9]
In the case of Frankie Campbell, Baer was charged with manslaughter. Baer was eventually acquitted of all
charges, but the California State Boxing Commission still banned him from any in-ring activity within the
state for the next year. Baer gave purses from succeeding bouts to Campbell's family, but lost four of his
next six fights. He fared better when Jack Dempsey took him under his wing.
Max Schmeling
In June 1933, Baer fought and defeated (by a technical knock out) the German heavyweight Max Schmeling
at Yankee Stadium. Baer's trunks displayed an embroidered Star of David,[10] which Max swore to wear in
every bout thereafter. He dominated the rugged fighter from Germany into the tenth round when the referee
stopped the match. Because Baer defeated Schmeling, German dictator Adolf Hitler's favorite, and because
Baer had a half-Jewish father, he became popular among Jews, those who identified with Jews, and those
who despised the Nazis.
World Champion
On June 14, 1934, Baer knocked out the massive, 275-pound (125-kg) Primo Carnera, Heavyweight
Champion of the World, to win the world title, which he would hold for 364 days.
Jimmy Braddock, the Cinderella Man
On June 13, 1935, one of the greatest upsets in boxing history transpired in Long Island City, New York, as
Baer fought down-and-out boxer James J. Braddock in the so-called Cinderella Man bout. Baer hardly
trained for the bout. Braddock, on the other hand, was training hard. "I'm training for a fight. Not a boxing
contest or a clownin' contest or a dance." he said. "Whether it goes one round or three rounds or 10
rounds, it will be a fight and a fight all the way. When you've been through what I've had to face in the last
two years, a Max Baer or a Bengal tiger looks like a house pet. He might come at me with a cannon and a
blackjack and he would still be a picnic compared to what I've had to face."
Baer, ever the showman "brought gales of laughter from the crowd with his antics" the night he stepped
between the ropes to meet Braddock. As Braddock "slipped the blue bathrobe from his pink back, he was
the sentimental favorite of a Bowl crowd of 30,000, most of whom had bet their money 8-to-1 against him."
Max "undoubtedly paid the penalty for underestimating his challenger beforehand and wasting too much
time clowning." At the end of 15 rounds Braddock emerged the victor in a unanimous decision, outpointing
Baer 8 rounds to 6 in the "most astounding upset since John L. Sullivan went down before the thrusts of
Gentleman Jim Corbett back in the nineties." Braddock took heavy hits from Baer, but kept coming at Baer
until he wore Max down.
At the end of the bout, Baer hugged and congratulated Braddock. The fight has since become a boxing
legend.
Decline and retirement
Baer and his brother, Buddy, both lost fights to Joe Louis. In the second round of Max's September 1935
match, Joe knocked Baer down to one knee, the first time he had ever been knocked to the canvas in his
career. A sizzling left hook in the fourth round brought Max to his knee again, and the referee called the
bout soon after.[11]
In the first televised heavyweight prizefight, Baer lost to Lou Nova on June 1, 1939, on WNBT-TV in New
York. His last match, in 1941, was another loss to Nova.
Career statistics
Max Baer boxed in 84 professional fights from 1929 to 1941. In all, his record was 71-13-0. 53 of those
fights were knockouts, making him a member of the exclusive group of boxers to have won 50 or more bouts
by knockout. Baer defeated the likes of Ernie Schaaf, Walter Cobb, Kingfish Levinsky, Max Schmeling, Tony
Galento, Ben Foord and Tommy Farr. He was Heavyweight Champion of the World from June 14, 1934 to
June 13, 1935.
Baer was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1968, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1984, the
International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995 and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2009. The
1998 Holiday Issue of Ring ranked Baer #20 in "The 50 Greatest Heavyweights of All Time." In Ring
Magazine's 100 Greatest Punchers (published in 2003), Baer is ranked number 22.
Acting
Baer's motion picture debut was in The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933) opposite Myrna Loy and Walter
Huston. In this MGM movie he played Steven "Steve" Morgan, a bartender that the Professor, played by
Huston, begins training for the ring. Steve wins a fight, then marries Belle Mercer, played by Loy. He starts
seriously training, but it turns out he has a huge ego and an eye for women. Featured were Baer's
upcoming opponent, Primo Carnera, as himself, whom Steve challenges for the championship, and Jack
Dempsey, as himself, former heavyweight champion, acting as the referee.
On March 29, 1934, The Prizefighter and the Lady was officially banned from playing in Germany at the
behest of Joseph Goebbels, then Adolf Hitler's Minister of Propaganda and Public Entertainment, even
though it received favorable reviews in local newspapers as well as in Nazi publications. When contacted for
comment at Lake Tahoe, Baer said, "They didn't ban the picture because I have Jewish blood. They
banned it because I knocked out Max Schmeling."
Baer acted in almost 20 movies, including Africa Screams (1949) with Abbott and Costello, and made
several TV guest appearances. A clown in and out of the ring, Baer also appeared in a vaudeville act and
on his own TV variety show. Baer appeared in Humphrey Bogart's final movie, The Harder They Fall (1956),
opposite Mike Lane as Toro Moreno, a fictionalized version of Primo Carnera, whom Baer defeated for his
heavyweight title. Budd Schulberg, who wrote the book from which the movie was made, portrayed the Baer
character, "Buddy Brannen", as blood thirsty, and the unfounded characterization was reprised in the movie
Cinderella Man.
Baer additionally worked as a disc jockey for a Sacramento radio station, and for a while he was a wrestler.
He also served as public relations director for a Sacramento automobile dealership and referee for boxing
and wrestling matches.
Family
Baer married twice, actress Dorothy Dunbar (married July 8, 1931-divorced October 6, 1933) and Mary
Ellen Sullivan (married June 29, 1935-his death 1959). With Sullivan, he had three children, actor Max
Adelbert Baer Jr. (born 1937), James Manny Baer (born 1942) and Maudie Marian Baer (born 1944).
During a separation from his first wife, Max had affairs with movie stars Jean Harlow, Mae West and Greta
Garbo.
In spite of such on-screen success, Baer never enjoyed the TV onscreen reward of his son, Max Baer Jr.
(who played Jethro Bodine in the television series The Beverly Hillbillies). At the time of his death on
November 21, 1959, Baer was scheduled to appear in some TV commercials, which he had planned to do in
Los Angeles before returning to his home in Sacramento.
Since Max Baer Sr. was unable to defend himself from Ron Howard's unflattering portrayal in Cinderella
Man, the task of rehabilitating his father's reputation has fallen to Max Baer Jr.[11]
Death
On Wednesday, November 18, 1959, Baer refereed a nationally televised 10-round boxing match in
Phoenix. At the end of the match, to the applause of the crowd "Baer grasped the ropes and vaulted out of
the ring." and "joined fight fans in a cocktail bar." The next day he was scheduled to appear in several
television commercials in Hollywood, California. On his way, he stopped in Garden Grove, California, to
keep a promise he had made thirteen years earlier to the then five-year old son of his ex-sparring partner,
Curly Owens (who was later affiliated with the Robert Kennedy assassination conspiracy). Baer presented
the now 18-year-old with a foreign sports car on his birthday, as he had said he would.[12]
Baer checked into the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel upon his arrival on the 19th of November. "Hotel
employees said he looked fit but complained of a cold." As he was shaving, the morning of November 21, he
experienced chest pains. He called the front desk and asked for a doctor. The desk clerk said "a house
doctor would be right up." "A house doctor?" he replied jokingly, "No, dummy, I need a people doctor".
Dr. Edward S. Koziol gave Max medication and a fire department rescue squad administered oxygen. Baer's
chest pains subsided and he was showing signs of recovery when the mere 50-year old fighter was stricken
with a second attack. Just a moment before, he was joking with the doctor, declaring he had come through
two similar but lighter attacks earlier in Sacramento, California. Then he slumped on his left side, turned
blue and died within a matter of minutes. His last words were, 'Oh God, here I go.'[12]
Funeral
Max Baer's funeral was one of the largest ever attended in Sacramento, where he had made his home for
almost 30 years. "A crowd of more than 1,500 - many with scarred eyebrows and smashed noses bade
farewell. Among his mourners were four former world champions, politicians, people in wheelchairs and Cub
Scouts. There were 'men of wealth and distinction' - and bums shuffling off skid row. There were women in
mink stoles and diamonds - and women in cotton house dresses, and in slacks. There were babies in the
arms of their young mothers - and elderly couples, helping each other's halting steps. Hundreds of others,
unable to get into the funeral home, crowded around the outside. Some chose vantage points on car roofs
and nearby scaffolding. Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey were among his pallbearers. There were tears in the
eyes of 'Curly' Owens, his one-time sparring partner, as he took down Max's gloves from a big white floral
arrangement." The cemetery service was concluded by an American Legion firing squad, recognizing Baer's
service in World War II.
Baer's obituary made the front page of the New York Times. He was laid to rest in a garden crypt in St.
Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Sacramento.[12]
Legacy
There is a park named for Max Baer in Livermore, California, which he considered his hometown, even
though he was born in Omaha. There is also a park in Sacramento named after him. He was honored by the
Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.
Max Baer was an active member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Known for his big heart and colorful
sense of humor, Max was well loved by his fellow Eagles. When Max died of a heart attack in 1959, the
Eagles created a charity fund as a tribute to his memory and as a means of combating the disease that
killed him. Max Baer Heart Fund’s primary purpose is to aid in heart research and education. Since the fund
started in 1959, millions of dollars have been donated to universities, medical centers and hospitals across
the United States and Canada for heart research and education.
one-time Heavyweight Champion of the World, actor, entertainer, professional wrestler and referee.
One of the most colorful figures of his day, Baer enjoyed life in the limelight, often at the expense of his
training. He was the brother of twice World Champion boxing contender Buddy Baer and father of actor Max
Baer, Jr., known to two generations as Jethro Bodine of the Beverly Hillbillies.
He is rated #22 on Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.
Early life
Maximilian Adelbert Baer was born on February 11, 1909 in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Jacob Baer
(1875–1938) who was Jewish of French ancestry[citation needed] and Dora Bales (1877–1938) who was of
German and Scots-Irish ancestry.[citation needed] His eldest sister was Frances May Baer (1905–1991),
his younger sister was Bernice Jeanette Baer (1911–1987), his younger brother was boxer-turned-actor
Jacob Henry Baer, better known as Buddy Baer (1915–1986) and his adopted brother was August "Augie"
Baer.
Move to California
In May 1922, tired of the Durango, Colorado winters, which aggravated Frances's rheumatic fever and
Jacob's high blood pressure,[1] the Baers piled into a just-purchased automobile and began the long drive
to the milder climes of the West Coast, where Dora's sister lived in Alameda, California, across the Bay from
San Francisco.[2] They drove more than 1,000 miles along unpaved roads. Jacob's expertise in the butcher
business led to numerous job offers around the San Francisco Bay Area. While living in Hayward, Max took
his first job as a delivery boy for John Lee Wilbur. Wilbur ran a grocery store on B Street and bought meat
from Jacob.
The Baers lived in the Northern Californian towns of Hayward, San Leandro and Galt[2] before moving to
Livermore in 1926. Livermore was true cowboy country, surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of rolling
hills and rangeland which supported large cattle herds that provided fresh meat to the rapidly burgeoning
towns nearby. In 1928, Jacob bought the Twin Oaks Ranch in Murray Township where he raised over 2,000
hogs, and which he worked with daughter Frances's husband, Louis Santucci.[2] Baer often credited
working as a butcher boy, carrying heavy carcasses of meat, sledge-hammering cattle with one blow, and
working at a gravel pit, for developing his powerful shoulders.
Professional boxing career
Baer turned professional in 1929, progressing steadily through the Pacific Coast ranks. A ring tragedy little
more than a year later almost caused Baer to drop out of boxing for good
Frankie Campbell
Baer fought Frankie Campbell (real name Francisco Camilli, whose brother was Brooklyn Dodgers star
Dolph Camilli) on August 25, 1930, in San Francisco in a ring built over home plate at San Francisco's
Recreation Park to fight for the unofficial title of Pacific Coast champion. In the 2nd round of the fight,
Campbell clipped Baer and Baer slipped to the canvas. Campbell went toward his corner and waved to the
crowd. He thought Baer was getting the count. Baer got up and flew at Campbell, landing a cheap-shot right
at Campbell's turned head which sent him to the canvas.
After the round, Campbell said to his trainer "something feels like it snapped in my head." But Campbell
went on to handily win rounds 3 and 4. As Baer rose for the 5th round, Tillie "Kid" Herman, Baer's former
friend and trainer, who had switched camps overnight and was now in Campbell's corner, savagely taunted
and jeered Baer. In a rage and determined to end the bout with a knockout, Baer soon had Campbell
against the ropes. As he hammered him with punch after punch, the ropes were the only thing to hold
Campbell up. Tillie Herman, as Campbell's chief second, had the privilege of throwing in the towel, but did
not. Referee Toby Irwin seemed oblivious to what was occurring. When Irwin finally stopped the fight,
Campbell collapsed to the canvas.
It is reported that Baer's own seconds administered to Campbell, and that Baer was by his side until an
ambulance arrived 30 minutes later. Baer "visited the stricken fighter's bedside," where he offered Frankie's
wife Ellie the hand that hit her husband. She took that hand and the two stood speechless for a moment. "It
was unfortunate, I'm awfully sorry.", said Baer. "It even might have been you, mightn't it?", Ellie replied.[3][4]
At noon the next day, with a lit candle laced between his crossed fingers, and his wife and mother beside
him, Frankie Campbell was pronounced dead. Upon the surgeon's announcement of Campbell's death,
Baer broke down and sobbed inconsolably. Brain specialist Dr. Tilton E. Tillman "declared death had been
caused by a succession of blows on the jaw and not by any struck on the rear of the head," and that
Campbell's brain had been "knocked completely loose from his skull" by Baer's devastating blows.[5]
Ernie Schaaf
The Campbell incident earned Max the reputation as a "killer" in the ring. This publicity was further
sensationalized by Baer's return bout with Ernie Schaaf, who had bested Baer in a decision during Max's
Eastern debut bout at Madison Square Garden on September 19, 1930.
An Associated Press article in the September 9, 1932 Sports section of the New York Times describes the
end of the return bout as follows:
"Two seconds before the fight ended Schaaf was knocked flat on his face, completely knocked out. He was
dragged to his corner and his seconds worked over for him for three minutes before restoring him to his
senses...Baer smashed a heavy right to the jaw that shook Schaaf to his heels, to start the last round, then
walked into the Boston fighter, throwing both hands to the head and body. Baer drove three hard rights to
the jaw that staggered Schaaf. Baer beat Schaaf around the ring and into the ropes with a savage attack to
the head and body. Just before the round ended Baer dropped Schaaf to the canvas, but the bell sounded
as Schaaf hit the floor."[6]
Schaaf was never quite the same after that bout. He complained frequently of headaches[citation needed],
and his ring performance was mercurial in succeeding bouts. Five months after the Baer fight, on February
11, 1933, Schaaf died in the ring after taking a left jab from the Italian behemoth Primo Carnera. Carnera
was vilified as a "man killer", and two sports writers (Grantland Rice and Jimmy Cannon) claimed that Schaaf
had died as a result of damage previously inflicted by Baer.
The majority of sports editors noted,[7] however, that an autopsy later revealed Schaaf had meningitis, a
swelling of the brain, and was still recovering from a severe case of influenza when he touched gloves with
Carnera. Schaaf's obituary stated that "just before his bout with Carnera, Schaaf went into reclusion in a
religious retreat near Boston to recuperate from an attack of influenza" which produced the meningitis.[3][8]
The death of Campbell and accusations over Schaaf's demise profoundly affected Baer, even though he
was ostensibly indestructible and remained a devastating force in the ring. According to his son,
actor/director Max Baer Jr. (who was born seven years after the incident):
My father cried about what happened to Frankie Campbell. He had nightmares. In reality, my father was one
of the kindest, gentlest men you would ever hope to meet. He treated boxing the way today's professional
wrestlers do wrestling: part sport, mostly showmanship. He never deliberately hurt anyone.[9]
In the case of Frankie Campbell, Baer was charged with manslaughter. Baer was eventually acquitted of all
charges, but the California State Boxing Commission still banned him from any in-ring activity within the
state for the next year. Baer gave purses from succeeding bouts to Campbell's family, but lost four of his
next six fights. He fared better when Jack Dempsey took him under his wing.
Max Schmeling
In June 1933, Baer fought and defeated (by a technical knock out) the German heavyweight Max Schmeling
at Yankee Stadium. Baer's trunks displayed an embroidered Star of David,[10] which Max swore to wear in
every bout thereafter. He dominated the rugged fighter from Germany into the tenth round when the referee
stopped the match. Because Baer defeated Schmeling, German dictator Adolf Hitler's favorite, and because
Baer had a half-Jewish father, he became popular among Jews, those who identified with Jews, and those
who despised the Nazis.
World Champion
On June 14, 1934, Baer knocked out the massive, 275-pound (125-kg) Primo Carnera, Heavyweight
Champion of the World, to win the world title, which he would hold for 364 days.
Jimmy Braddock, the Cinderella Man
On June 13, 1935, one of the greatest upsets in boxing history transpired in Long Island City, New York, as
Baer fought down-and-out boxer James J. Braddock in the so-called Cinderella Man bout. Baer hardly
trained for the bout. Braddock, on the other hand, was training hard. "I'm training for a fight. Not a boxing
contest or a clownin' contest or a dance." he said. "Whether it goes one round or three rounds or 10
rounds, it will be a fight and a fight all the way. When you've been through what I've had to face in the last
two years, a Max Baer or a Bengal tiger looks like a house pet. He might come at me with a cannon and a
blackjack and he would still be a picnic compared to what I've had to face."
Baer, ever the showman "brought gales of laughter from the crowd with his antics" the night he stepped
between the ropes to meet Braddock. As Braddock "slipped the blue bathrobe from his pink back, he was
the sentimental favorite of a Bowl crowd of 30,000, most of whom had bet their money 8-to-1 against him."
Max "undoubtedly paid the penalty for underestimating his challenger beforehand and wasting too much
time clowning." At the end of 15 rounds Braddock emerged the victor in a unanimous decision, outpointing
Baer 8 rounds to 6 in the "most astounding upset since John L. Sullivan went down before the thrusts of
Gentleman Jim Corbett back in the nineties." Braddock took heavy hits from Baer, but kept coming at Baer
until he wore Max down.
At the end of the bout, Baer hugged and congratulated Braddock. The fight has since become a boxing
legend.
Decline and retirement
Baer and his brother, Buddy, both lost fights to Joe Louis. In the second round of Max's September 1935
match, Joe knocked Baer down to one knee, the first time he had ever been knocked to the canvas in his
career. A sizzling left hook in the fourth round brought Max to his knee again, and the referee called the
bout soon after.[11]
In the first televised heavyweight prizefight, Baer lost to Lou Nova on June 1, 1939, on WNBT-TV in New
York. His last match, in 1941, was another loss to Nova.
Career statistics
Max Baer boxed in 84 professional fights from 1929 to 1941. In all, his record was 71-13-0. 53 of those
fights were knockouts, making him a member of the exclusive group of boxers to have won 50 or more bouts
by knockout. Baer defeated the likes of Ernie Schaaf, Walter Cobb, Kingfish Levinsky, Max Schmeling, Tony
Galento, Ben Foord and Tommy Farr. He was Heavyweight Champion of the World from June 14, 1934 to
June 13, 1935.
Baer was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1968, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1984, the
International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995 and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2009. The
1998 Holiday Issue of Ring ranked Baer #20 in "The 50 Greatest Heavyweights of All Time." In Ring
Magazine's 100 Greatest Punchers (published in 2003), Baer is ranked number 22.
Acting
Baer's motion picture debut was in The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933) opposite Myrna Loy and Walter
Huston. In this MGM movie he played Steven "Steve" Morgan, a bartender that the Professor, played by
Huston, begins training for the ring. Steve wins a fight, then marries Belle Mercer, played by Loy. He starts
seriously training, but it turns out he has a huge ego and an eye for women. Featured were Baer's
upcoming opponent, Primo Carnera, as himself, whom Steve challenges for the championship, and Jack
Dempsey, as himself, former heavyweight champion, acting as the referee.
On March 29, 1934, The Prizefighter and the Lady was officially banned from playing in Germany at the
behest of Joseph Goebbels, then Adolf Hitler's Minister of Propaganda and Public Entertainment, even
though it received favorable reviews in local newspapers as well as in Nazi publications. When contacted for
comment at Lake Tahoe, Baer said, "They didn't ban the picture because I have Jewish blood. They
banned it because I knocked out Max Schmeling."
Baer acted in almost 20 movies, including Africa Screams (1949) with Abbott and Costello, and made
several TV guest appearances. A clown in and out of the ring, Baer also appeared in a vaudeville act and
on his own TV variety show. Baer appeared in Humphrey Bogart's final movie, The Harder They Fall (1956),
opposite Mike Lane as Toro Moreno, a fictionalized version of Primo Carnera, whom Baer defeated for his
heavyweight title. Budd Schulberg, who wrote the book from which the movie was made, portrayed the Baer
character, "Buddy Brannen", as blood thirsty, and the unfounded characterization was reprised in the movie
Cinderella Man.
Baer additionally worked as a disc jockey for a Sacramento radio station, and for a while he was a wrestler.
He also served as public relations director for a Sacramento automobile dealership and referee for boxing
and wrestling matches.
Family
Baer married twice, actress Dorothy Dunbar (married July 8, 1931-divorced October 6, 1933) and Mary
Ellen Sullivan (married June 29, 1935-his death 1959). With Sullivan, he had three children, actor Max
Adelbert Baer Jr. (born 1937), James Manny Baer (born 1942) and Maudie Marian Baer (born 1944).
During a separation from his first wife, Max had affairs with movie stars Jean Harlow, Mae West and Greta
Garbo.
In spite of such on-screen success, Baer never enjoyed the TV onscreen reward of his son, Max Baer Jr.
(who played Jethro Bodine in the television series The Beverly Hillbillies). At the time of his death on
November 21, 1959, Baer was scheduled to appear in some TV commercials, which he had planned to do in
Los Angeles before returning to his home in Sacramento.
Since Max Baer Sr. was unable to defend himself from Ron Howard's unflattering portrayal in Cinderella
Man, the task of rehabilitating his father's reputation has fallen to Max Baer Jr.[11]
Death
On Wednesday, November 18, 1959, Baer refereed a nationally televised 10-round boxing match in
Phoenix. At the end of the match, to the applause of the crowd "Baer grasped the ropes and vaulted out of
the ring." and "joined fight fans in a cocktail bar." The next day he was scheduled to appear in several
television commercials in Hollywood, California. On his way, he stopped in Garden Grove, California, to
keep a promise he had made thirteen years earlier to the then five-year old son of his ex-sparring partner,
Curly Owens (who was later affiliated with the Robert Kennedy assassination conspiracy). Baer presented
the now 18-year-old with a foreign sports car on his birthday, as he had said he would.[12]
Baer checked into the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel upon his arrival on the 19th of November. "Hotel
employees said he looked fit but complained of a cold." As he was shaving, the morning of November 21, he
experienced chest pains. He called the front desk and asked for a doctor. The desk clerk said "a house
doctor would be right up." "A house doctor?" he replied jokingly, "No, dummy, I need a people doctor".
Dr. Edward S. Koziol gave Max medication and a fire department rescue squad administered oxygen. Baer's
chest pains subsided and he was showing signs of recovery when the mere 50-year old fighter was stricken
with a second attack. Just a moment before, he was joking with the doctor, declaring he had come through
two similar but lighter attacks earlier in Sacramento, California. Then he slumped on his left side, turned
blue and died within a matter of minutes. His last words were, 'Oh God, here I go.'[12]
Funeral
Max Baer's funeral was one of the largest ever attended in Sacramento, where he had made his home for
almost 30 years. "A crowd of more than 1,500 - many with scarred eyebrows and smashed noses bade
farewell. Among his mourners were four former world champions, politicians, people in wheelchairs and Cub
Scouts. There were 'men of wealth and distinction' - and bums shuffling off skid row. There were women in
mink stoles and diamonds - and women in cotton house dresses, and in slacks. There were babies in the
arms of their young mothers - and elderly couples, helping each other's halting steps. Hundreds of others,
unable to get into the funeral home, crowded around the outside. Some chose vantage points on car roofs
and nearby scaffolding. Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey were among his pallbearers. There were tears in the
eyes of 'Curly' Owens, his one-time sparring partner, as he took down Max's gloves from a big white floral
arrangement." The cemetery service was concluded by an American Legion firing squad, recognizing Baer's
service in World War II.
Baer's obituary made the front page of the New York Times. He was laid to rest in a garden crypt in St.
Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Sacramento.[12]
Legacy
There is a park named for Max Baer in Livermore, California, which he considered his hometown, even
though he was born in Omaha. There is also a park in Sacramento named after him. He was honored by the
Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.
Max Baer was an active member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Known for his big heart and colorful
sense of humor, Max was well loved by his fellow Eagles. When Max died of a heart attack in 1959, the
Eagles created a charity fund as a tribute to his memory and as a means of combating the disease that
killed him. Max Baer Heart Fund’s primary purpose is to aid in heart research and education. Since the fund
started in 1959, millions of dollars have been donated to universities, medical centers and hospitals across
the United States and Canada for heart research and education.
