In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

BOXING 45
Chicago Tribune slanders movie star Rudolph Valentino as a "pink
powder puff" and accuses him of fostering the "feminization of American
males," the only "male" reaction he can imagine is to challenge the
writer to a boxing match. When the challenge goes unanswered, his
friend Jack Dempsey organizes a bout between Valentino and the New
York sports journalist Buck O'Neill at the roof garden of the Ambassador
Hotel. [see Roof Gardens] In the third round of this fight, Valentino
floors his opponent-but the feat only partly restores his public image.
This is why, according to Dempsey, his friend falls victim to yet another
(and this time lethal) gender-obsessed act. Stricken with peritonitis less
than a month later, Valentino hesitates too long before he finally consults
a doctor (Morris, 181; Dempsey and Dempsey, 195ff.). [see Airplanes]
All across Europe and the Americas, nothing seems to matter more
than boxing. On May 15, a boxing match-Paulino Uzcudun's European
title bout-becomes the second live broadcast in the history of Spanish
radio (the first was a bullfight; Dfaz, 114). [see Bullfighting] But despite
such enthusiasm, in which they indulge with ostentatious intensity, intellectuals
find it difficult to explain their own and their entire society's
fascination with boxing. It is symptomatic of this disproportion between
enthusiasm and reflection that, early in the year, Bertolt Brecht begins
publishing a series entitled Lebenslauf des Boxers Samson Korner (Life
of the Boxer Samson Korner) in Scherls Magazin (Mittenzwei, 234-
235)-and never finishes it. The fragment of this fictional biography
contains many motifs that surface whenever boxing is treated in newspapers
or in literary texts-motifs such as the modern metropolis, crime,
ocean liners, drinking, treacherous black companions, and trouncings in
early fights. But Brecht seems at a loss when it comes to finding a plot
for his story (Brecht, 121f£.). He is more convincing in the parable "Der
Kinnhaken" ("The Uppercut"), which describes the turning point in the
hitherto promising career of the fighter Freddy Meinkes. Freddy is invincible
so long as he never thinks about it, so long as he has the feeling
"that he's not knocking into a man but breaking through him, that his
hand cannot be stopped by something like a chin" (Brecht, 117). Then,
a few hours before a title bout, Freddy's manager persuades him-seemingly
with the best of intentions-to resist the sudden urge to have a beer.
[see Bars] Freddy starts to think, and as he starts to think-and to
control his body consciously-he can no longer be a good boxer. He gets
k.o.'d in the second round. Following the generic rules of the parable,