Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 December 1969 — Page 4

THE JEWISH POST AND OPINION

Friday, December 19, 1969

The Sports Post Not A Nice Guy By GEORGE VASS The glory of his times long since had faded when A1 Weill died at the age of 76 on Oct. 21, as had the fascination of boxing, the sport in which he enjoyed such blemished fame. For he was not a man to love and despite the eternal admonition not to speak ill of the dead it is better to tell the truth than varnish over the revealing facts. Boxing never was a pretty business and Weill’s long career seldom was a thing of beauty. Yet there were peaks as well as shallows and no doubt Weill reached the heights in managing Rocky Marciano, the heavyweight champion who retired undefeated. Marciano, who was killed in an airplane Vass crash in August, knew what he owed Weill but never let it get the best of his personal feelings for the man. IT ALL STARTED when Marciano, who was small for a heavyweight, came to Weill at the age of 22 and asked the veteran boxing man to manage him. Weill agreed, but ridiculed the youth’s stature and inexperience and told him to keep his mouth shut and leave everything to his manager. “If I wasn’t so hungry, I would have taken a poke at him right then and there,” said Marciano. “He was a good manager but he wasn’t a nice guy — I couldn’t like the guy. “Instead of dreaming of my opponents, I’d be dreaming of him — I’d see his face instead of the faces of Louis or Charles of all the rest of them. I knew I’d have to tell him sometimes Where to get off.” HE NEVER DID, not really, and they parted amicably a dozen years ago, after Marciano retired. And he stayed retired because Weill never let him disgrace himself with a comeback. Once in a while Marciano would talk of a comeback, a path in which a once great fighter usually disgraces himself. Yet it must be said to Weill’s credit — although he could have profited personally — he never yielded to Rocky’s wishes. “No, absolutely not,” said Weill. “I give you my guarantee that never will happen. Even if Rocky wanted to fight again, I wouldn’t let him. I retired Lou Ambers and made him stay on the shelf and I’ll do the same for Rocky.” ^ AT ONE TIME there was talk that a fight between Marciano and Floyd Patterson, one of his successors, would draw a $2,000,000 gate and Weill agreed it might, but said: “Even if we were guaranteed a million clear, Marciano wouldn’t fight Patterson. Also, I can guarantee Rocky doesn’t have to worry about money the rest of his life. They won’t have to take up a collection for him.” BUT HE MADE champions. In addition to Marciano and Ambers there were Joe Archibald and Marty Servo, all well-re-membered by those who live in boxing’s past and still throw the punches in conversation. He made them champions because he had the knack of handling the young, the unsophisticated and the purely physically oriented. And despite his roughness there was the needed patience in his makeup. “One reason I made champions is because I never rushed a young boxer,” he said. “I kept Marciano in New England until he had 28 fights before I took him to New York. It was the same with the others. I waited until they were ready.” AND THEY WERE never ready until he told them so, no matter what they themselves thought of their skills or what others may have made them think. He made an “enemy” of Marciano in that first meeting but the young fellow never was in doubt who was boss. “Get this,” Weill told him, “if I handle you, this is how it is going to be. I am the manager, you are only the fighter. You are nothing. You do not ask me when you are going to fight or who you are going to fight or when or where. You do not even ask me how much money you are going to get. IT WAS, EVEN if it stuck in Marciano’s craw and although he is no longer around to remember Weill, there are many who will keep the little manager’s memory alive for a few more years to come. He wasn’t a nice guy, this little Jewish Alsatian, but he was a good manager and in his world it was all one could expect.

Obituary Joseph Gaer, 73 Dies In West SANTA MONICA, Calif. — A name well-known in intellectual circles, Joseph Gaer, died here after a lengthy illness at the age of 73. Gaer was not only known for his literary contributions, the author of 28 books on diverse subjects, but also as publisher (president of Boni & Gaer, formerly Boni & Liveright), and director of the Pamphlet Press Division of Reynal & Hitchcock in New York City. In 1959 he established the Jewish Heritage Foundation, a book publishing concern.

Mrs. Lucy Broido NEW YORK — Mrs. Lucy Broido, 65, treasurer of the International Council of Jewish Women, and wife of Louis Broido, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, died here. She was a past president of the New York Section of the National Council of Jewish Women.

Do you want a Pen Friend? If so, write to the Pen Club of The Jewish Post and Opinion, 611 N. Park Ave., Indianapolis, Ind. Your letter — please make it short — wiU be printed as are those below, at no cost to you. Pen Pal Club: I am a senior in college in Boston who would like to correspond with someone of the opposite sex — hopefully for no other motive than to be able to have a friend. I will graduate with a degree in education, and am looking forward to travelling (west) after school. — Deborah Weinberg, 116 Colchester St., Brookline, Mass. 02146. Pen Pal Club: My name is Heidy Solomon. I live in Philadelphia. My hobbies are swimming and drawing. My age is 11 years old. I would like a pen pal. — Heidy Solomon, 12607 Calpine Rd., Philadelphia, Pa. 19154. Pen Pal Club: I am 41, divorced and live alone in a large mobile home overlooking the downtown area of Albuquerque. I have travelled the country many times during and after nine years of military service. I left the New York Times to come to work in a clean city. Employed now by the Albuquerque Journal doing page make-up and as a hobby I write a daily quip for the paper. (Such as: If the Jews and Arabs acted like peaceful Christians, would Ireland be the example?) I also enjoy writing humorous rhymes and my main physical activity is bowling for which I enjoy the ownership of a number of trophies. I will write to either sex in different sections of the country, mainly in sections that have small or almost no Jewish populace at all. — Sid Shiplacoff, 1907 Buena Vista SE, Albuquerque, N.M. 87106. Pen Pal Club: My name is Linda Gaynor. My age is 11. I would like my pen pal to live in Miami Beach, Fla. My hobbies are: Collecting stamps, reading and drawing pictures. My interests are: ice skating, going to school in the fifth grade, Hebrew school and going swimming. — Linda Gaynor, 1410 Eldorado St., Flint, Mich.

FOR BOYS AND GIRLS - AGES 6-17

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30th Season,

RABBI SEYMOUR SIEGEL, Professor of Theology of The Jewish Theological Seminary since 1951, is throwing his “yarmulke” in the political ring officially on Jan. 18 when he announces his candidacy to run in the primaries for the New York State Assembly. Thus, he becomes the second JTS rabbi to flirt with politics as Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, Rabbinical Assembly head, is planning a Congressional race. * * * BROOKLYN IS SLATED to get another Jewish boro-president when the expected resignation, due to age and health, of Abe Stark comes through any week now, according to informed political sources. The man to get the post will be Fredrick Richmond, industrialist and philanthropist. Richmond’s Foundation has been sponsoring Computer Training programs for the disadvantaged which saw many Hassidic sect Jews enroll and successfully complete. Richmond returned from a trip to Israel several months ago and is setting up a vocational high-school in a border town to help Israeli immigrants, among other projects.

HOWARD GOLDBERG, managing editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, will leave shortly to become assistant foreign editor of the Washington Post. * * * IF YOU’VE BEEN wondering who is behind those strange advertisements in some big city dailies headlined “Zionism Exposed!” and soliciting advance subscriptions for a magazine called The Maccabee, here’s the story: It is being financed and operated by two people, husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Rubin. Mrs. Rubin is the editor under the name of Margaret Nash. She’s an assistant vice-president of a Los Angeles bank. The ads say the funds for the magazine are coming in part from non-Jews, which means Mrs. Nash and two members of her family. Rubin once was on the staff of “Stars and Stripes,” Pacific Theatre edition, and also wrote for The Daily Worker and a number of Protestant journals and medical trade papers. The Maccabee’s first issue is due early in January. * * * NOW THAT THE guessing game about the new executive vice president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York is over with the appointment of Sanford Solender, a new guess-who is under way as to the identity of Solender’s successor as executive vice-president of the National Jewish Welfare Board. The odds-on favorite is Herbert Millman, now associate executive, who’s been with JWB for more than 2 years, but other names have been mentioned too. A couple of these names have told friends they are not interested. * * * ISRAELIS ARE somewhat taken aback at the new, hard line adopted by the government toward Soviet Russia. For two decades Israel played it easy with Moscow, accepting insults and indignities in silence, always bearing in mind the situation of Russian Jewry. It appears that the policy has changed to one of open attack on Russia along the whole political front. Dr. Benjamin Halevy, former Supreme Court member and now a Knesset member representing Gahal, has come up with a new suggestion: Israel should confer Israeli citizenship on every Jew in Russia who is willing to renounce his Russian citizenship. Thereupon Israel would bear a responsibility for the security of such citizens. It would enable Israel to speak up and demand the release of its citizens in the Soviet Union.

IS ABBA EBAN trying to gag Ambassador Rabin? The corridors in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem are buzzing after it became known that the spokesman of the Ministry requested the Israel Radio to refrain from conducting telephone interviews with ambassadors abroad* until it is cleared with the Foreign Ministry. The Armed Forces program, which has been initiating such timely interviews, rejected the request. If the Foreign Minister doesn’t want his ambassadors to talk he should give his instructions to them, and not to the radio, one top official of the broadcasting service said.

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