Hollywood has been known for producing many boxing movies. Though this writer may be the only person that didn’t like “Rocky” and never watched another it probably made more money than any of the other films put together.

Many celebrities have been at ringside including Frank Sinatra, Bert Reynolds, Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Rosie Perez and numerous others.

Robert Conrad of “Wild Wild West Fame” managed a CA boxer named “Irish” Frankie Crawford. West was also known for the commercial with a battery on his shoulder and said something like “try to hit it off my shoulder!” He got in the ring with Crawford and got dropped. He got up and said “bet you can’t do that again”. Well, after they picked Conrad off the canvas a second time…………..

There was a former boxer who refereed some of the boxing movies who made a statement that “there were two He Men in Hollywood but couldn’t be good boxers in John Wayne and Gary Cooper. The two that could have been good boxers were John Garfield in “Body & Soul” and Elvis Presley in “Kid Galahad!”

Garfield was an amateur boxer in New York. Presley is known for Martial Arts and his friendship with Muhammad Ali. It’s been said Elvis spent some of his last days at Ali’s Deer Lake, PA, camp. This writer must have experienced over a dozen visits there but never saw any celebrities there.