The Syracuse Journal, Volume 19, Number 20, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 16 September 1926 — Page 7

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By PROEHL HALLER JAKLON PUGILISM, rough-neck among the arts, has played the role of she wolf to the presentday Remus and Romulus of the arts—the movies and the radio. A prise fight on St Patrick's day, 1897. nursed back to health the struggling motion-picture infant that was to t>*come a giant among the industries of the world. ( And a prise fight on July 2. 1921. gave new life and vigor to that scientific youngster •‘wireless,'’ and almost overnight put radio broadcasting on an organised basis The court of public opinion long ago tore the screen from its low brow foster mother by prohl >ltlng the transportation of fight pictures in in eratate commerce. But the child was already strong and no longer required parental aid. How long a careful society will permit the broadcasting of prise fights la another matter. Thirty years ago the movies were wide open. l NVariy anything that would draw spectators could be exhibited. At that time the art was barely seven years old. but the novelty of “living pic tures'' per se was beginning to wane. All the picture* were short Incoherent things. Little or do attempt had been made to tell a story, and the public, tiled of seeing hootch dancers squirm through a couple of hundred feet of jerky film , or the midnight run of the tire fighters, was ready to forget the screen. In the autumn of IWS. the freckled Bob Fitzsimmons challenged James J. Corbett to do battle for the world’s heavyweight championship. Enoch J. Rector and Samuel J. Tilden, pioneer film producers, had made arrangements with Corbett, the champion, for the film rights. At flrat it was planned to stage the bout in Texas, but the promoters got into difficulties with the law, atid the affair was called off. Disgusted, Corbett handed his belt over to Peter Maher. Rector, with $15,000 of motion picture rights at at.ike. began to get active, and before long a bout Was arranged between Fitzsimmons and Maher to take place, tn Mexico across the Texas line. The date was set for February 21. 1898. Four ponderous cameras, electrically operated, were at the ringside. But a breath of wind arose In the south with a fresh smell of moisture. The country was perched. rainless for 18 burning months. Now rain came. The skies were dark, and a slow drizsle sbt in. Photography was Impossible, but a » trainload of fight fans demanded action. The fighters went Into the ring while the cameras •food helplessly by. Fitzsimmons sparred with Maher for two flashing momenta, then knocked him through the ropes, and out This pictorial fiasco emphasised the limitations O': the 'early motion picture equipment. Rector, who had beenuslng Edison cameras, sought an Instrument whtbh could be operated by hand. Before long light fans began to clamor for . Corbett to resume and defend the world’s championship title which had been knocked out of the ring by Fitzsimmons tn the Mexican flrale. Promoters began to look around for a place tfc which to hold the fracas, but public opinion And politics barred them everywhere. In desperY wre last resort they went to Nevada and camped. ' lobbying for a bill through the legislature. By the terms of his agreement. Rector was to pay Corbett and his manager. William A. Brady. I today known as a theatrical magnate. 25 per cent I the proceeds of the picture*. With Fitxsim- | n ons and his manager. Rector had made an agreement to hand them $13,000 when the fight<ara entered the ring. Hearing of the Corbett perh centage deal. Fitzsimmons screamed that he had ■ fceen tricked. The whole deal was off. F Fitzsimmons went away to Caraon City. Nev., ' with Rector and the promoters la pursuit. Peace Was made on a basis which gave Fitzsimmons also a 25 per cent cut of the picture profits. Corbett and Fitzsimmons went into the ring at Carson City on March IT. 1897. Rector was at the ringside with three cameras and 48,000 feet of fi-m, the largest single lot of negative that bad wrer gone out <* location. The fight went Its vicious and bloody length, vlth Mr*. Fitzsimmons cheering her husband to victory. When the fight was over. Rector had expooed 11.000 feet of film, a world’s record. ■> Rector and his -partner. Tilden, were not yet >aw> of an avenue to the market for their plct ure, but they finally decided to present it in New York and market it territorially themselves. ! a pro- * factor was Installed tn the New York Academy «f Music In Fourteenth street, where the picture ♦an through the summer. This was the first film

Inky Water Made Flying a Peril

Rte Retro holds a real menace aviators flying over tt because of tes glossy btackness, says Capt. Albert V. Stevens. United States army air , Magazine. Captain Stevens piloted a fe *apiane IXOOO miles over the Rio the Amazon and the world's reatestforest for the Alexandre Hamton Rice scientific expedition tn 19®

Invasion of the famous old Academy, dedicated to the ancient arts, and redolent with the memories of Pietro Brigioni. Ole Bull, and the names of Max Strakosch and Maurice Grau. From the Academy the .pictures were taken to the Park theater in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Eagle of July 4. 1897. indulged in a column of editorial excitement beginning: The man who would rave predicted, at on* tlm* In our history, that an event of a prior month would be reproduced before th* eye* of a multitude in pictures that moved like lite, and that electricity would move them and light them, would have been avoided as a lunatic or hanged aa a wizard. Meanwhile the fight films were appearing alt over the country, presented by buyers of territorial rights from Rector & Tilden. The firm of Rectpr A Tilden with its fight pictures was the first to encounter one of the evils which later beset the picture industry with devastating-piracy. According to Terry Ramsaye’s “A Million and One Nights: The History of the Motion Picture” (Simon & Schuster, New York), to which the writer is indebted for the film history of this article. Pennsylvania politicians snatched at the agitation of the W. C. T. U. as a pretext for a special legislative bill to prohibit the showing of the fight films. Word presently was passed around that the bill would be permitted to die In committee if a certain exhibitor in Philadelphia were to get the picture. The gross sales on the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight amounted to $150,000. giving each of the participants in the profits about $60,000 each. The gate receipts at Carson City, a record for their time, were only $22,000. or less than a tenth of the picture takings. No other picture had ever approached such a figure, “Here was a prophetic event." Mr. Ramsaye gays, "a prophecy of the motion-picture millions which were yet to come. But it was uninterpreted and unheeded. The camera was still merely a reporter. It took what happened’and passed it on. The conception of having things happen specifically for the camera in terms of the great film spectacles of today was beyond the scope of picture makers’ imaginations then. The only thing which fight pictures suggested was more fight pictures. “One marked effect of the Corbett-Fitzsimmons picture as the outstanding screen production of its day was to bring the odium of pugilism upon the screen all across Furitan America. Until that picture appeared the social status of the screen had been uncertain. It now became definitely low-brow, an entertainment of the great unwashed commonalty. Thia likewise made it a mark for upllftora. moralists, reformers and legislators in a degree which never would have obtained if the screen had by reached higher social strata.” The acene changes from Caraon City, Nev., to Jersey City. N. J. It is July 2. 1921. 24 year* later. Jack Dempsey, world’s heavyweight champion. and George* Carpentier, French challenger, are socking each other in the arena at Boyle’s Thirty Acres. Standing at the ringside ts a man who carefully watches every movement of the fighters, at the same time talking Into a tin can. And as the men swat or clinch or stall, the observer puts their action Into words. From Maine, to Maryland fight fans hundreds of miles away hear these words spoken at the ringside. A scientific wonder bring* blow by blow news to SOO,OOO persona, ipost of whom are hearing radio for the first time. This was the beginning of organised broadcasting. as told by Maj. J. Andrew White, original impresario of the air, to the New York Herald-Tribune. “Organized broadcasting was founded on the Initial success achieved in putting the DempseyCarpentier fight on the air. Or. more accurately, it was that event which precipitated IL Broadcasting would have come along, but just when, nobody can say. But the 300.000 persons who beard broadcasting and liked It forced the issue. They Immediately wanted radio and radio receivers. and the large electrical concerns cut loose with their resources and brought a new industry and a new art into being overnight." As you remember, the movies were drifting tn the doldrums of growing public apathy when the Corbett-Fitzsimmons film brought new Ute to the screen.* Radio, the sport of a few scattered amateurs. also was beginning to flop, according to Major White, editor of a radio magazine.

to make a mirror basin between the Washington monument and the Lincoln memorial ta Washington, they coated the bottom of the long pool with pitch." says Captain Stevens. “When It to smooth the Negro, by its blackness, produces the same sort of mirror. To a person on a steamer deck the beauty of the tropical scene to heightened by this pimntHntoQa, bre to a wpiane pitot

tt offers grave danger, because be cannot accurately gauge his distances. Whenever it was possible the plane came down in the wake of a boat whose waves broke the mirror. For 200 miles we followed these waters, from Manasa to Carvoelro, where, to our great relief, we saw the milky waters of the Rio Branco pouring into the Negro like cream Into black coffee." I Recent tests indicate that eoter blindness to hereditary.

THE SYRACUSE JOURNAL

"In March. 1921, business in radio was practically at a standstill: the only receiver sales at that time were of very small volume and consisted of parts sold to a few experimenters, and these had fallen off so that advertising patronage for my magazine was practically nil. Something had to be done to move the dealers’ supplies. “The livest issue in the public mind at the time was the forthcoming battle of the century between Dempsey and Carpentier, the advance publicity for which was then in full swing. I decided upon hitching my wobbly wagon to that particular ascending star, to drag forth the neglected radio baby, and set it down in the spotlight where public attention would be focused.” The whole scheme of broadcasting originated in an office memorandum prepared in 1914, Major White says. This memorandum was prepared in the old Marconi days by David Sarnoff. who since has become vice president and general manager of the Radio Corporation of America, and was submitted for comment and suggestions to Major White, who in addition to his magazine work was in charge of Marconi public relations. The World war postponed any action on the broadcasting idea, and the memorandum had to wait until March. 1921. “Arrangements were made with Tex Rickard, promoter of the fight, before I broke the news to Sarnoff." Major White recalls. iHe fell in with the idea and dug into an Inactive spot in the budget and produced an appropriation of $2.500 — which, I recall, he turned over to me with the strict admonition: ’But don’t you spend more than $1,500, remember!’ “My idea was to have the broadcasting received in halls and theaters in cities and towns throughout the Middle Atlantic states. The plan was to have amateurs do the receiving in the appointed auditoriums in their own neighborhoods and make the fight description audible to the audi ences gathered together for that sole purpose. Well, first of all. there were practically no loud speakers in existence then—imagine that! Earphone arrangements such as are used by the deaf had to be improvised into loud speakers by attaching them to old tin tulip horns which were relics of the early days of the phonograph. “Throughout the stretch of many weary weeks this work of organization continued. Lining up the theaters was a herculean job. but finally done. “Each day the situation became more com plicated. Funds to carry ont the ambitious project were very sparse, and one of the early snags was a matter of SB,OOO demanded to erect towers for the transmitters at Boyle’s Thirty Acres in Jersey City. This alone was more than five times the actual money I had at my disposal, so something else had to be done. The something else consisted of getting the use of the towers of the Lackawanna railroad at Hoboken, and connecting up the intervening distance by land wire. •’Finally we had a transmitter and towers and a receiving network. Testing began. Days went by a week; and we were getting perilously near July 2. but had been heard only a distance of three or four miles, and then only faintly. The testing had to be done late at night, for in those days receivers were not selective as they now are. and the harbor was filled with ships whose wireless telegraph messages must not be gummed up by our spoken words. As night after night went bv and amateurs all along the eastern seaboard were unable to pick up our test* a deluge of frantic communications swamped my office. By long-distance phone, telegraph and special delivery I was informed that things were getting panicky: posters were up In front of theater* and auditorium* Inviting the public in, and here only a few day* off was the fight, and no radio to be heard. “Everything smoothed out at the last minute, a* everybody knows now, though. The night before the fight the transmitter was heard from Maine to Maryland; haggard and worn from loss of sleep our little group took up places at the ringside and at the transmitter, and at the dose of the broiling hot afternoon of July 2. 1921, reports were pouring in from all quarters—success! “And it was a success way beyond my expectation* An elaborate report system had been devised and the tabulation showed that more than SOOOOO people had heard the fight description, practically all of them had heard radio for the first time. The dealers’ shelves were swept dean ’of radio part*; an overnight demand had sprang up for thousands of radio receivers; the boom was on."

Santa C/aas -Dore yo* husban' give yC much money, DoveyF asked one colored lady of another. “Dafs de mos* liberalist man F ejaculated her friend enthusiastically. “Only las* week Ah collected his SXOOO life Insurance American Legion Weekly. Louise HareL a farmer's wife of Vlmoutier, France, gave the world the formula tee rememhert cheese.

IT WAS A NARROW ESCAPE By EVELYN CHASE ■ -"M* <© bgr W. tt. Chapman.) zrr-r-, HAT’S pretty Slick,” spoke ** I bluff, blunt Adam Reeves in 1 a tone of admiration. “What do you call them, sonny T’ “Sparklers.” “Good name. It fits. Give me a dozen boxes.” “What in the world are you going to do with them, Mr. Reeves?” inquired the companion of the old prospector, Ronald Bond. It was at a seaport town in Australia, way over on the other side of the world. A street fair was in progress. On their way to the interior Reeves and his young friend. Ronald, took in the sights. A species of Mardi Gras festivities signaled the occasion. Besides confetti there were minor fireworks, and one street fakir was coining money selling those pretty popular “sparklers," which ignited at ont end and cascaded out a harmless shower of brilliantly scintillating fiery stars. Reeves had never seen themjbefore, and the display pleased him. He purchased two boxes of the toy, slim, narrow and easily pocketed, and then wandered ou. “I’ll carry them along with our traps,” he laughed. “Just about the Fourth of July we’ll be out in the wilderness a thousand miles from civi ization, and if we get homesick we’ll have a little patriotic" spurt and fire them off, see?” Then Reeves slipped the two little boxes into an inside pocket of the coat he wore, and forgot all about them as some new display of interest attracted his attention. Reeves was bent on a peculiar mission. He was a skilled mining engineer and had been engaged by English promoters to invade tife center of a district hitherto very slightly explored. There were rumors of great metal wealth in a certain chain of hills, and he was to secure ore specimens, make an analysis and report to his superiors. “Tour© courting my daughter, Grace,” he told Ronald in his blunt, friendly way, back home in New Jersey. “You know a good deal about my line of business. Come along with me and learn something more about It, and share a good fat “fee.” This was how the harmonious two came to be together. The next day they resumed their Journey. A hired guide piloted them by a detour around the “bad lands,” most thickly infested by equally bad natives. They met with no adventure of note during their initial rugged experience. When they reached their destination, however, the guide was taken with a fever, refused to remain with them, and started back alone for his home settlement. “It’s wonderful," announced Reeves one morning a week later. "Those English speculators knew what they were talking .about when they sent us out here. There's a rich heap of rock over on the range.” ’Then it will be homeward bound, shortly,” suggested Ronald. “Home —and Nellie!” smiled Reeves, expansively. "Well package up the ore samples, you finish your lode charts, and we’ll see if we can’t slip the natives." AU might have gone well but for the impetuosity of Ronald. He was longing to get back to “the girl he had left behind." He suggested that they lessen time and distance by taking a short cut across the route the guide had followed. There were several alarms and nights of watchfulness after that. More than once the venturesome wayfarers ran across little parties of savages,- but evaded them or scared them off with a display of their firearms. They were camping one afternoon on a little knoll by the river side when Ronald went somewhat afield to gather some wild fruit in which the district abounded for their evening meal. He came back shortly, considerably animated. “See here. Mr. Reeves," he announced. swinging a great war club, heavily carved and richly worked in with gold and colors, “I’ve made a great find." “I see.” nodded Reeves, but seriously. “It was near a tree, and it’s only one of a dozen different weapons like spears and darts, with gold handles. Come along, we’ll get the rest.” But Beeves put out a staying hand. “Get that thing back to where you found it quick a* you can.” he directed. “Why, what for?* Inquired the surprised Ronald. “If you had locked up into that tree you would probably have seen a burial platform. These are the trophies of some bi* chief,” explained Reeves. “For any one to even touch them la.

Not Hard to Supply Demand for Antiques

The Woman had a chance to go with some friends by automoblletfor a short holiday trip. On their way they passed a large bouse, set well back from the road. On the porch stood a tall grandfather dock, and the friend, with an eye always watchful for antiques, noted it She drove to the doorway to see if she could pick up some little treasure, and after a full hour or more of unalloyed bliss, handling the attractive old pieces, came away with a candle mold which in the olden days shaped the tallow candles then in use. There were also several quaint samplers on display and the Woman chose one, done about seventy-five yeah ago. The whole family were in the room at the sale, hovering over their heirlooms as if it tore their hearts to see them carried from their rightful setting. After driving away, the Woman’s friend regretted exceedingly that she had not purchased the sliver luster tea sri. but it was agreed that on the

held as sacrilege by these superstitious natives. Missing that memento,* the war dub, they would trail you to the end of the earth to recover it. I advise you to take it at once." This Ronald did. replaced the object just where he had found It and turned to retrace his steps to his friend, half a mile away. Just then a wild uproar greeted him. Fierce yells rent the air. From behind a score of bushes as many dusky natives sprang into view. . Ronald was surrounded, seized, his arms bound, and dragged along by his angry-faced captors, He was led past an encampment of rude huts and into a large spreading cave in the mountain side. This seemed to be a sort of temple of the savages, for it was hung with skins, upon which was daubed In crude colors the picture of a fourheaded idol. There was a stone pillar in the center of the cavern, and to this Ronald was securely tied. He noted that overhead an open space ran up like a natural funnel, and about the post he fancied he discovered ashes, as If this was the spot where the natives offered up their prisoners and enemies as human sacrifices. His captors squatted in a circle and jabbered away at a furious rate. They made menacing motions toward him, and Ronald could readily discern that they were discussing his fate. Finally after several hours’ deliberation they appeared to arrive at a definite conclusion. Most of them went away, leaving two of their members to pile up firewood about the post. “It’s goodby Nellie, sure!" dolefully ruminated Ronald, “and Mr. Reeves will never know what has happened to me.” It grew dusk, and some lighted torches were placed around. The natives came back In solemn procession, led by a man beating a hideous tomtom. They paraded around their victim. Ronald felt that his doom was drawing nigh. Suddenly he strained his gaze. Away back in the gloom of the cave he noted a quick sparkle of light. This grew to a sudden blinding radiance. A rushing whirlwind form, emitting a thousand dazzling sparks of fire approached. It must have been a weird and thrilling sight for the natives. To their unaccustomed eyes an angry “fire god” was bearing down upon them. All over the onrushing figure there were spouts of blinding fire. They turned and fled to a man. “Quick, now, and follow!” shouted the fire god to Ronald, cutting his bonds and leading back the way he had come. “Those sparklers,” explained Reeves as they gained the open air, and regaining their traps, started to get speedily away from their present nest of peril. “I found out they had captured you. I happened to think of those two boxes of sparklers. I stuck them all over me and lit them. It was a narrow escape, but the scheme worked fine." So fine that that the natives did not even attempt a pursuit, and two months later they reached home—and Nellie! What Was Needed Two colored women In the first floor corridor of the Federal building were going to buy some stamps. Judging from their conversation they wished to send the letter by special delivery. They approached the window In the post office over which was the sign, “Wholesale stamps.” The woman holding the letter started to buy stamps. “Say,” interposed the other woman, “You wants to speed up that letter, you don’t want no ‘wholesale’ stamps, what you want is some of them ’hasty 1 stamps.”—lndianapolis News. Succumbed to Old Age Two ancient maples which hav* stood tn Independence square, Philadelphia. since 1840 or thereabouts, have died and their stumps have been removed. The city landscape gardener said that the city gases and polluted atmosphere brought about their untimely end, for maples usually live longer. Unable to bear the weight of their own limbs, they began dropping large branches, menacing the lives of those who passed by. So rotten were the trees that not even the rings, by which tree age is determined, were visible after they were cut down. Too Plenty “Many a man.” said old Festus Pester. “is ’ike a certain kind of book that used to be so plentiful among us, but now Is not often seen—on the outside It was a portly, imposing-looking tome, with gilt stamping and an involved title, but on the inside It was nothing but a checker board. As long as it remained closed It looked like the repository of great wisdom, but when it was opened nothing was found within but a little tiresome frivolity. That sort of a man Is generally snapped up and sent to the legislature."—Kansas City Timex

return trip they would pass that way again. Homeward bound .and reaching the old house, they inquired, only to be disappointed, for the tea set had been They started for their ear and then decided to quench their thirst at the pump at the back of the house. Under a large elump of lilacs they found two little girls busily embroidering. One bad just put the finishing touches on the quaintest of samplers, signing tt in cross-stitch—-Mary Elizabeth, IML One knows this to often done, but tt to seldom one has a chance to see the process.—New York Sun. Deceptive to Speller Accommodate to a tricky word; even Thomas Jefferson in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence spelled It with one “m." Marshal is another one, and develop another, for who hasn’t felt the urge to add another 1 on the former and a final a on the latter?

K hantfy pucka Cc for Here is a treat that can’t be beat! Benefit and pleasure in generous measure! GMS Peppermint Flavor But They Like It* “I can’t bear to have my children kissed by strangers." “Neither can I. but it can’t be helped. They are all over eighteen." Rlaeter. Munich. CLIMBING You know how your car performson the “test hill” in your vicinity. Install a set of Champions and compare the increased power and performance with your previous best. This is the simplest and surest way to prove that . it pays to install Champions and that they are the better spark plug. •vclutively ’Ford. -fMUced in the Red Box V W Each f /// * ysjglggy* CfuneifHon— for cars other tha*. Fords —packed / *%/• ♦ M in the Blue Box * vV Each CHAMPION Dependable for Every Engine Toledo, Ohio Add Radio Horrors A radio authority says that the time Is not fur off when it will be possible to see the faces of radio announcers. Good night! Heated arguments are not appropriate in summer. “BAYER ASPIRIN’ PROVED SAFE Take without Fear as Told in “Bayer” Package k H X Does not affect / the Heart , —* Unless you see the “Bayer an package or on tablets yon are not getting the genuine Bayer Aspirin proved safe by millions and prescribed by physicians over twenty-five years for Colds Headache Neuritis Lumbago Toothache Rheumatism Neuralgia Pain, Pain Each unbroken “Bayer" package contains proven directions. Handy boxes of twelve tablets cost few cents. Druggists also sell bottles of 24 and 10Q,

I fnicti GOOD HEALTH |g Z ' KwV ■' yNR -1 \yLt <j2 r -