Ear on Chicago; Unidentified

That sound you're hearing is the punching bag which is being hit real viciously here by Archie Moore who is the heavyweight championship of the world. He'll box Floyd Patterson on the night of November 30th and we're doing the story of Archie Moore's training camp. It's at the Midwest Gym which is on the west side of Chicago. We're going to talk to Ben Bentley who is the matchmaker for this fight. Now Ben, as I said, we're going to do the story of Archie Moore's training camp and this is it. We'll be hearing a lot about how good Archie Moore is and probably a lot of people who will appear on our program will tell us that Archie is going to win the fight. This program of course can't be partial to either Patterson or Moore. We had to pick one fighter and we picked the man because he's a little older than Floyd I guess and someday we may have a chance to do Floyd Patterson's camp. As I said, we don't want to be partial in this and I like to use you as a guide throughout our entire program. Now Ben, first of all let's start out with the very beginning here. Archie is working on the bag. How long will this go on? He'll probably punch the light bag for

three rounds at three minutes a piece with a one minute interval for a break. Every time the bell rings that indicates that the punching bag interval is over and he has one minute rest. There's the bell now. He will now rest for approximately 60 seconds and when the bell rings again he goes back the punching the bag. As you know red punching the bag, what he's doing now actually is what we in boxing call homework for the fighter. This is the real homework, the boxing that you saw and the punching of the light bag and the punching of the heavy bag. Now the punching of the light bag is a very definite reason for it. That is to increase the sharpness of his eyes. His eyes must follow the bag at split second and he punches that bag with a perfect rhythm. The same thing on the heavy bag and that is the explaining that to you. So probably a lot of our listeners will be more or less clarified why they punch the light or why they punch the heavy bag. Now one thing that I'd like to ask you about here, Ben is the fact that you don't have a spot for him to run.

Where does he do his road work? Well he does his road work right here when I say right here in Garfield Park. He has miles and miles of beautiful sprawling park in which to run and actually there's that bell again and actually doesn't necessarily have to do an awful lot of road work. Three miles a day for him is sufficient and he paces himself nicely and he knows just how much work he needs for any fight that he engages himself in. What time does he do his road work? Well he's up in the morning I say approximately a quarter of seven every morning. He hits the road by seven. He's backed by a quarter of eight. He has light orange juice and some hot tea. He then goes to sleep. He gets up around 10 o 'clock and has a very good substantial breakfast and then waits again until it's time to work out here at the Midwest at two and then has his big meal 536 o 'clock. And then of course you'll be doing some sparring later on this afternoon we'll talk to you about that. Well let's take a little breather here while Archie Moore is working out and talk

to a man who's very important in this training camp. You Jean Humphrey. Jean is the chef for Archie Moore. Tell us a little bit about your job. What do you do? Well my job is to work primarily with the training. The training of the fighter sets up a menu and it's my job to see that everything is carried out such as the steaks of raw properly and the vegetables, whole -fresh vegetables and such things as that. Well now Jean tell us about Archie's diet. What does he have for breakfast for example? Well usually breakfast consists mostly of orange juice, fresh orange juice. Chris Bacon, pork steaks and it varies at times. Might some take a little fresh fruit for occasional breakfast. Always hot tea, whole wheat toast, very dry. Then lunch? Well you're not finished with breakfast yet. Well usually our fighter is in training, usually don't take the lunch. He skipped the lunch period. There's always a late breakfast around 10 -30 and

dinner consists mostly of what is a starter of fruit juice, some time a hot beef tea, all else it varies a little fresh fruit as a starter. Then we have steak which is mostly rare, not too done, cooked in a variety of what do you like, such as fresh vegetables of all types. Broccoli, all type of green vegetables, nice salad with crisp lettuce, lettuce tomato and also most fighters use on the basis of the used lemon and all for dressing. And who was vinegar? Always tea, no coffee. You always have to watch the calories in all those meals. That's the most important thing about what fighters die. We'll be any desserts. No desserts at all. Well now, how long have you been with Archie? Well this is a present I've been with Archie since he was in his car. I've been training for the heavyweight title

with the Florida Paterson. Actually you're with the IBC. That's right. Jean, how many fighters have you been the chef for? Well I've had quite a few. I've had as a child. And Marseilles and his camp. I also had Joe Lewis. I had Joe Lewis. Joe Walker recently when I was great in national one -fights knockout. You died didn't have anything to do with it. No, that was too much of a man of Marseilles now I guess. Do you have to buy the vegetables and the meat for all these meals? I supervise all the buying and all the cooking also. But Jean, I know you're doing a good job. Aren't she more looks like he's in real good shape? Yes he is. I'm sure he's going to win this fight. Well thank you very much for talking to us Jean and a lot of luck to you. Thank you. You

just heard Ben Bentley make the announcement that this young boy is going to a spar with Archie Moore. He's had two rounds up to now and this will be the third round coming up that he's had. What about this young lad despairing with him? Well, he happens to be Crow Peel, happens to be one of the better Chicago prospects, one of the better developed boys here in Chicago. That definitely shows a little promise in going a long, long way in boxing. He's a former Louisiana State NCAA heavyweight champion. He's undefeated, 10 straight fights, 10 straight knockouts. So he's got quite a record and working today with Archie Moore. He has been working on Shasace in the last Saturday with Archie Moore. Has given him a great deal of confidence and he's learned so much working with Moore. You just heard of Bella moment ago and the two men went out to the center of the ring and they're sparring now. Archie works awful hard out there, doesn't he?

Yes, he does. He works hard and as you can see, he picks his spots. His objective in training is to get his opponent out of position and then counter with a right or a left hand smashed to the head. He does not want any sparmates around him that do not give him a lot of work. Now, this first boy you saw Clint Bacon, he used him strictly for speed, Floyd Patterson. Just move around real fast. Yes, I was going to ask you that, Ben. Do the boys try and imitate the opponent? Not all the way, but they are certain similarity that they will ask the sparring partners to use, comparable to the opponent style of fighting. Now, as you've seen this heated exchange just now with Crow Peel, this gives Archie a chance to counter and do some heavy punching. Whereas with Clint Bacon all he did was a lot of speed and try to get Bacon out of position and then land hard blows much as he's going to

try to do against Floyd Patterson in the stadium. Now, Ben, this is the third round as I said. Will he spar any more this afternoon? Well, nobody knows but Archie himself. Archie is labelled to decide to go two more rounds. He's labelled to say, this is the end. Apparently it looks, I'm looking over and ring number two and I see that the other sparring partner does not have his paraphernalia, his head gear or gloves on. That's a good indication that this will be the last and final round here this afternoon, Brad. Well, now we've talked for a couple of minutes here and we'll hear that bell maybe before we, you and I finish on this particular exchange, Ben. How long do they box between the three minutes? This is a regulation, three minute round, much the same as they would be an actual fight time, three minutes with a minute rest and the bell is regulated in such a manner. Right here in front of us, let's see if we can hear that. Boy, just came over here to this corner. What was he coming over

here? Well, he slept and his gloves touched the rosin and Archie motioned to him to go back to his corner and have his seconds rub the rosin off the gloves which would not cause any eye injury to the champion. You said they box three minute rounds and what do they have one minute between those rounds? I have exactly one minute rest between the rounds the same as they were the night of the 30th and the stadium. Okay, Ben, thank you very much. There's that bell now and the three minutes is up. Now you heard the applause. There are about 35 or 40 people standing around the ring and they've been here all afternoon waiting for Archie to come over to do a little sparring and I can see now that Archie is through sparring because they're taking off the gloves. But always in a training camp you'll see a lot of visitors and spectators who come over to see the sparring rounds and see the potential champion work out. So that's what they're doing here this afternoon. We're going to talk to Wendell Smith who is a

sports rider for the Chicago American. Wendell is covering the training camp and also will cover the fight for the Chicago American. And Wendell has certainly covered many fights in his day and probably is looking forward to this one, aren't you Wendell? I certainly am red because I think it's going to be a real thrilling, exciting fight. Wendell, when you cover the training camps, how early do you start? Do you come out as soon as Archie gets into Chicago? Well, yes. He's been here now approximately two weeks and the first day he worked out, I was here to see how he looked and been here practically every day since. So once in a while I get a chance to go over to Patterson's camp too. You find a story every day out of here? Every day, yes. That makes kind of a difficult chore once in a while, trying to find a new angle, doesn't it? While we talk to everybody, we talk to the fighters, we talk to the managers, we talk to aspiring partners and it strings out over until fight time, over the period. How long does it take you to work up a story? For example, today you've been out here all day or...

Well, I've been out here since noon and it's now about two o 'clock and I have a pretty good idea about what I'm going to write tomorrow. Well, what will be your story? Let's find out what your angle is today. Well, it's a little amusing angle today, as you know, that famous dog is out here with Joe Deel, Rex the Hex, and I'm going to write something about the dog and facetiously interview the dog and find out what the dog thinks. That's a cute angle to a story. Well, I think it's a little bit different, it's a little bit different from the run of the mine story, Red. How many training camps have you covered, Wendell? Well, it's hard to say, but I've been doing this for approximately 16 years and I've been in most of the big camps like this one with Lois and with Ray Robinson. And with most of the champs, Rocky Marciano, with most of the champions I've been in their camps for their big fights. Archie, a pretty good fellow to work with? Archie's a very good fellow to work with. He

likes, however, to have his workout first and then he will grant you the interviews and the pictures and things. He doesn't like to be bothered before he works out. Well, now you mentioned that you go see Patterson. In other words, you're assigned to cover both camps, is that right? Yes, when will you go see Floyd today? Well, now today I won't get to see Floyd because Archie was a little late, but I will probably go see Patterson Box tomorrow. We switch it back and forth. We also, there's another fellow on the paper by the name of Ed Stone and we usually decide the morning of the day that they're working out which camp will go to. Usually I pick the camp I want to go to and Eddie goes to the other one. Well, now Wendell, how do you work up your stories? Do you try and mold your pieces each day so that you build it up to a climax just before the fight? Well, that's the general idea, Red. We watch the fighters every day and we try to determine, for instance, their moods, whether or not they're sharp, whether or not they're enthusiastic, whether or not

they're making any mistakes, any obvious mistakes, which the other fellow might be able to detect the night of the fight. And really it's generalization, but it's also a report to the people of what we see in the two fighters. Report what you see and also your report interviews I know because I saw your piece the other day with Joe Lewis a very well done piece I might say. Well, thank you very much. And so I imagine interviews play an important part to you during the fight. While we talk to the fighter and we try to get the fighter to express himself about the coming fight. Now, sometimes the fighter is very gay about it, takes it very lightly, others are very serious about it, and then the next day may have a feeling of well, I don't care feeling. So the interviews that you have with the fighters are usually very interesting. You can't interview the same fighter every day nor can you come back every single day with an interview from one fighter or the other. Sometimes you have to project your own views and

so you skip a couple a day perhaps of interviews and you go back to the fighters and see how they feel then. When I said you were a sportswriter and here you are covering boxing and I know that you cover all phases of sports. Is boxing your favorite? Well, boxing I would say is probably the most exciting, especially a fight like this, a heavyweight title fight. Here you have a very exciting young man, 21 years old, if he wins he'll be the youngest heavyweight champion of all time. And of course Archie, if he wins he'll be the oldest. So the situation is such that this is a very interesting fight coming up in so far is writing as concerned. However, take a world series or a championship football game, they're exciting too. They're one of the mine fights and ball games and football games they can get monotonous. But I've had tougher jobs red. I bet you have, Wendell. Listen, we want to wish you a lot of luck and thanks so many for talking to us. Thank you very much for inviting me red.

Archie Moore is finished with a little bag now Ben and he worked out on the big one for a little while and he's all through with that. Now he's doing some setups. This is all part of the training I guess. That's exactly right. What he's doing now red, you see that cheerful Norman, his trainer, is holding his legs and he's bending backward and forward. He's doing that to tighten the muscles in his stomach and to make his stomach very, very strong and firm. Now Ben, he's been working out I think approximately, you owe 45 minutes to an hour this afternoon. Is that about normal? That's about normal and sometimes just a little more. Depending on how Archie feels when he comes down. After the general overall workout, when he's through here, what's going to happen? Well now he'll go upstairs to his room. He'll get into the way bathtub, take a good bath, nice warm bath. He'll then dry off and his trainer cheerful Norman will give him a good rub down. He will then sip tea and lemon and that will be the only refreshments of any kind. He will have

between now and the time that he eats dinner and approximately three or four hours from now. What's the purpose of the lemon? Well the lemon more or less to help him digest the tea and also to cut any grease that he might have had. He might have had bacon for breakfast or he might have had eggs for breakfast and the lemon is a sort of a neutralizer for him. You know most athletes after a fight, the first thing they do after a grueling 10 or 15 round fight, the first thing they do, some will suck on a lemon. Others will suck on an orange. Others will just eat an apple and that is the only thing that they partake in. Immediately after a fight, won't eat anything until the next morning because they're stomached, they're just too nervous and too excited. Well now Ben, we're here about a week and a half before the fight. Does the training get a little bit more severe as you go along now towards the fighters? Does it slacken off a little bit? No, now beginning this week Archie will begin, as shall we say, bearing down on his sparring partners. Now he'll be punching

for power. He's been working on speed for almost two weeks. This week now he'll start punching Conner and using a lot of good combinations and making sure that he's making the right moves. Well Ben, about the next thing we want to do is to talk to the trainer. Fine, well you've been our guide here we want to thank you very much for being going along with us. Thank you very much. Now let's talk to one of the most important gentlemen in the entourage of Mr. Archie, more of the manager, Mr. Charlie Johnston. Your second most important I guess, aren't you Charlie? Yes I should say so. Archie is the number one guy. Positively. Tell us something about your association with Archie Moore. Well I've been around with Archie Moore now for 12 years and in that time he's traveled nearly around the world. He's probably the most, he's probably the best, he's probably traveled further than any other fighter in that heavyweight class today.

And in that time I found out that he's been a first class gentleman and wherever he was he is always known as the best fighter and the best gentleman that ever come into boxing business. Well now Charlie is manager of heavyweight contender here during the training season. What are your duties? I'll just supervise it. You just see him go out and train and his trainer takes charge emotionally all that all I do is just see how he's looking and if he's not looking right I can go talk to the trainer and tell him so and so. But that don't seem to be the case with Archie. He seems to be able to take care of himself and can get himself in good condition. You come out and watch him every day? Every day. How long have you been out here in Chicago right since he came? One month. Since he came. Since he's been here and we're here now three weeks. Do you have any other fighters Charlie? Yeah I have Sandy Sadler, the featherweight champion of the world. And I have a little boy named Paolo Rossi who was training to be one of the best lightweights. It looks like the best little whiteweights coming up today. How would you compare Archie Moore with some of the other heavyweight champions? I think he hasn't heavyweight champion. Don't let me say that yet but I mean with some of the other contenders and the champions.

Well I think Archie Moore is one of the greatest fighters that ever put on a pair of gloves. He's been fighting 20 years and anybody can fight 20 years must have something. No he's one of the best punches with either hand. He's a most scientific fighter in the heavyweight class and he has never bought anybody since I managed him. He would fight anybody and everybody any time. Charlie how many fights is Archie had? He's had about 170 fights of which he has a record of 75 % knockouts which is probably what when the first four or five in the whole world in boxing game. Out of those 170 fights how many did he lose? He's lost about I should say 10 or 12. Can you remember the last one outside of the Marciano? I can't remember any that it must be a way back in 1950 or before that since he's lost a fight. Was it before your time? No no he lost it in my time but it's at least five years I should judge this loss to fight. Well now how do you look to this fight? What kind of a fight

are you going to be? Well I think Moore will knock him out in within 10 rounds because Moore has a punching ability, has the experience. And no young fellow can beat Moore. They haven't got that which to cope with. Well now Charlie one final question we've all heard about the age of Archie Moore that he's a guy that must be up in his 40s. Here's a man that ought to know how old is he? He's 39. I saw his birth certificate but when I sent him to South America when he got his passport. And he's just 39 years old and he said 47 but 18 39 years ago. When will he he'll be 40 then December? 18. December 13th. Well Charlie I want to wish you a lot of luck and thank you very much for talking to us and telling us about your operation. Thank you very much. We're going to talk to Archie Moore in just a minute but right now here is his trainer, Chirfil Norman. It was just walked by and he wanted grabbing

for just a minute. Chirfil I noticed that the last thing you were doing and we'll start with that was holding down Archie's ankles while he was doing his setups. Now you also hold a big bag there while he was punching it. And why do you do those things? Well that's to give him more power and his punches while I hold a bag for like that. Keep the bag from moving about and him trying to catch the bag and make some station there. Keep both feet on the floor. You know you take a guy that's he turned the bag loose and the bag moves around. He don't have as much power in his punches. What about holding his ankles down instead of? Instead of using the flowboat we use a table so that way you get to get all his muscles in his stomach and then you know what the guy is taking his exercises right or not. But being close to tearing. Well now Ben said after this you're going to go give him a rub down right? That's right. Where will that happen in his room? Does that happen after every after every stimulus workout we give him a rub down for about 15 minute rub down? And then he relaxes for an hour and he's through for the day. Now what are some of the other things that you do? I've seen you here today working with Archie in this corner while he was

sparring working on the setups on the bag. You give him a rub down and is there anything else that you have to do? Well I get him up in the morning, get him out on the road at 6 o 'clock at the morning. So I see that he eats his meals right, see that he has them on time. Trainer has quite a bit to do. See if he makes any mistakes while he's doing his workout I wreck the file. Because after I fight in 20 years he don't make too many mistakes you know. That's right and here's a guy that's been fighting for 20 years. But 20 years he's been in the ring. How long have you been with Archie? I've been with him six years now. Six years? Well who are some of the other fighters you were trained with? Well I've trained with some lesser name fighters. Ace Miller was about the biggest name I've had. I've had quite a few amateur kids. I didn't do my work around the Golden Globe, YMCA and places like that. Well I see Archie coming over here now. So thanks so many for talking to us. Archie I know that you're in a hurry to get away and I'll only keep you just a minute. You looked like you had a real good workout today. I had a very fine workout today and I'm pretty satisfied at the stage

of the training period with my physical condition. Archie are you going to work harder now towards the end of the training period or are you going to slacken off a little bit? Well I've worked hard since I've been here and seemed like next week I'm one. I mean the end of this week I'm going to start tapering down. You are? Yeah. Well now we were talking to Ben about your sparring. What changes will you make in your sparring Archie between now and the fight? Well that's strictly a secret and it's up to me and my trainer Chifra Norman. And I'm going to keep that to myself. Archie these sparring partners that you have, are they trying to imitate your opponent? Isn't that right? Well as best that they can I suppose nobody can really imitate Flood Patterson because he's a character himself and he does a lot of unusual things that a fighter in his rating should do. But my fighters, my sparring partners, never less clean and tag a bacon and peel. They are real terrific and Johnny Riggins they have real fast. They are young men. They are about the same age as Patterson. That is the Riggins and the peel and

Clint is a bit older but he's capable nevertheless of extending me to a real good workout and for that I appreciate the good men that I have working. I don't take fighters just to bounce around in a gymnasium like it is customary for a lot of fighters in order to look good. I try to choose a men that will benefit me in my field. Archie here today there are a lot of spectators and fans watching you and sports riders are here and here I am with a radio interview. Does this sort of thing bother you or would you rather be in secret somewhere? No, I'd rather box and open. I like it. You know, although I have my ride prerogative to become itchy but you see that comes with a physical condition and getting in real good shape and I enjoy a crowd on hand because that influences me to work more so than I would if I was behind closed doors. Are you really looking forward to this one Archie? I am looking forward to this fight as being probably the greatest fight of my career and I thought the Marseille match today was the greatest fight that I had fought and I spanked Float Patterson to put up an even greater fight and I should be ready to meet that challenge. Are you going to predict anything for us right here and now?

We'll all like and predict as a sellout house and that I'll be in there trying my best to win that title. Archie the best of luck to you Paolo and thanks a million. Thank you very much. There you heard Archie Moore who is our final interview on this program. We've done the story of his training camp and the workout that he's done here today. It's been very hard and difficult and it's been very fast. He did all of the activities that we described to you in a period of 45 minutes to an hour. And believe me, if you had been up here and seen him work out as we have, you would know that Archie Moore is the kind of a guy who is really in great shape in wonderful condition when he goes into that ring on November the 30th to fight Floyd Patterson. As we said at the opening of the program, this program cannot be partial to either Mr. Moore or Mr. Patterson. But as I said, we have to do one of the other two training camps and we happen to pick Mr. Archie Moore. Archie is a little bit older than Floyd Patterson as you heard. During the program,

Patterson is only 21 years old and Archie is well, we'll say he's at least 39 years old. Now we want to thank everybody that's been on the program with us and helped us describe the training camp of Archie Moore, the contender for the Heavyweight Championship of the World. The fight will be held on November 30th at the Chicago Stadium. And that is the story of Archie Moore's training camp and this is Hugh Hill speaking.