Max Baer

This article is about the boxer and actor. For an article about his actor son, see Max Baer Jr..

Max Baer
Statistics
Real name	Maximilian Adalbert Baer
Nickname	Livermore Larupper
Rated at	Heavyweight
Nationality	United States of America
Birth date	February 11, 1909
Birth place	Omaha, Nebraska
Death date	November 21, 1959
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	84
Wins	72
Wins by KO	53
Losses	12
Draws	0
No contests	0

Maximilian Adalbert "Madcap Maxie" Baer (February 11, 1909 – November 21, 1959) was a famous American boxer of the 1930s, onetime Heavyweight Champion of the World, and actor.

Early life

Maximilian Adalbert Baer was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of a Jewish German immigrant Jacob Baer (1875–1938) and Dora Bales (1877–1938). His older sister was Fanny Baer (1905–1991), and his younger sister and brother were Bernice Baer (1911–1987) and boxer-turned-actor Jacob Henry Baer, better known as Buddy Baer (1915–1986).

Baer's father was a butcher. The family moved to Colorado before Bernice and Buddy were born. In 1921, when Maxie was 12, they moved to Livermore, California, to engage in cattle ranching. Baer often credited working as a butcher boy carrying heavy carcasses of meat for developing his powerful shoulders.

Professional boxing career

Baer turned professional in 1929, progressing steadily through the ranks. A ring tragedy little more than a year later almost caused him to drop out of boxing for good. Baer fought Frankie Campbell (brother of Brooklyn Dodgers star Dolph Camilli) on August 25, 1930, in San Francisco and with only two blows, knocked him out. Campbell never regained consciousness. After lying on the canvas for nearly an hour, Campbell was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where he eventually died of massive brain hemorrhaging. An autopsy revealed that Baer's devastating blows had knocked Campbell's entire brain loose from the connective tissue holding it in place within his cranium.

The incident earned Max the reputation as a "killer" in the ring. Campbell's death was used for promotional purposes to make Baer seem dangerous. This publicity was further sensationalized by Baer's return bout with Ernie Schaaf, who had bested Baer in a decision a few years earlier. At the close of the 10th round, Baer nailed Schaaf square in the temple with what some witnesses claimed to be the hardest right hand that ever connected in boxing.^{[citation needed]} Schaaf was saved by the bell, though he ended up losing the bout by way of decision. Several minutes passed before Schaaf was revived and able to stand under his own power. Schaaf was never quite the same after that bout. He complained frequently of headaches and his ring performance lagged immensely in succeeding bouts. Six months after the Baer fight, Schaaf died in the ring after taking a left jab from the Italian behemoth Primo Carnera. Although Carnera was vilified as a "man killer," others claimed that Schaaf had died as a result of damage previously inflicted by Baer. This has since been refuted by information gathered from Schaaf's autopsy [1]

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.:

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." He helped put Frankie's children through college.

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.

In 1933, Baer fought heavyweight Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium. His trunks displayed an embroidered Star of David[2], 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, Hitler's favorite, and Baer had a half-Jewish father, he became popular among Jews, those who identified with Jews, and those who despised the Nazis' racial policies.

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. After a grueling back-and-forth battle, Braddock won the heavyweight championship of the world as a 10-to-1 underdog. Braddock took heavy hits from Baer, but kept coming at Baer until he wore Maxie down. At the end, the judges gave Braddock the title in a unanimous decision. The fight has since become a boxing legend.

Max Baer boxed in 84 professional fights from 1929 to 1941. In all, his record was 72-12-0 (53 knockouts), which makes him a member of the exclusive group of boxers to have won 50 or more bouts by knockout. Baer defeated the likes of Walter Cobb, Kingfish Levinsky, Max Schmeling, Tony Galento and Tommy Farr. He was Heavyweight Champion of the World from June 14, 1934, when he knocked out the massive, 125-kg (275-pound) Primo Carnera, to June 13, 1935, until his reign ended in the aforementioned Braddock fight.

Baer fought Lou Nova in the first televised heavyweight prizefight, on June 1, 1939, on WNBT-TV in New York. His last match was another loss to Nova, in 1941. Baer and his brother, Buddy, both lost fights to Joe Louis, Buddy's two losses to Louis coming in world title fights. In their 1935 fight, Louis knocked Baer out in the fourth round, the first KO Baer suffered in his career. [3]

Baer was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1968, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1984 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995. 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 a 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 bloodthirsty, and the unfounded characterization was reprised in 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 1933) and Mary Ellen Sullivan (married June 29, 1935-his death 1959). With Sullivan, he had three children, actor Max Baer Jr. (born 1937), James Baer (born 1941) and Maude Baer (born 1943). During a separation from his first wife, Max had an affair with movie star Jean Harlow.

Baer never lived to enjoy the TV and movie success 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. [4]

Death

After refereeing a boxing match in Phoenix, Baer traveled to Los Angeles and checked into the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. While shaving in the morning, he suffered a heart attack and summoned a doctor. Although Baer hung on for a while, he eventually died in the hospital.

Baer is interred in Saint Mary's Mausoleum, Sacramento.

Legacy

There is a park named for Max Baer in Livermore, California, which he considered his home town, 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.

Selected filmography

• "The Prizefighter and the Lady" (1933)
• "Africa Screams" (1949) - with his brother, Buddy
• "The Harder They Fall" (1956)

Portrayed In:

• "Cinderella Man" (2005) - which is a depiction disputed by his family

TV guest appearances

• Playhouse 90 (1957) (Screen Gems TV, CBS) ... Mike ... episode: Requiem for a Heavyweight
• The Lone Ranger (1957) (The Wrather Corp., ABC) ... Sampson, foreman (uncredited) ... episode: The Sugarfoot (1957)

Other Sources

• Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1934, pg. 12, Germany Bans Film Of Baer
• Los Angeles Times Magazine, Mad Max, J.R. Moehringer (Times Staff Writer), January 7, 2007

See also

• List of heavyweight boxing champions
• List of male boxers

External links

• The True Story About the Life of Max Baer
• Site about Max Baer
• Max Baer at the Internet Movie Database
• Watch Max Baer in Africa Screams
• Max Baer clips
• International Boxing Hall of Fame biography

Preceded by: Primo Carnera

Heavyweight Champion of the World 1934–1935

Succeeded by: James J. Braddock

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