“In all the history of the boxing game you find no human interest story to compare with the life narrative of James J. Braddock…” – Damon Runyon
I watched Cinderella Man for the 2nd time in two weeks last night on AMC. I love this movie. I could watch it again tonight. I think it hits a chord with me because Jimmy Braddock was an average guy with integrity and a great work ethic. He was known for his powerful right hand, granite chin and an amazing comeback from a floundering career. He had lost several bouts due to chronic hand injuries and was forced to work on the docks and collect social assistance to feed his family during the depression. In 1935 he fought Max Baer for the Heavyweight championship and won. For this unlikely feat he was given the nickname “The Cinderella Man” by Damon Runyon.
Braddock was born in Hell’s Kitchen in New York City on West 48th Street within a couple of blocks of the Madison Square Garden venue where he would later become famous. His story of success, bad luck, perseverance, charity, love of his wife and three children, and ultimately becoming heavyweight champion of the world against all odds is the kind of story that gives you hope. His story played out during the dark days of the last Fourth Turning. The average person in this country was in deep trouble. Unemployment was 25%. Soup kitchens and bread lines dotted the landscape. Braddock had to beg and go on assistance to feed his family and heat his tiny apartment.
With his family in poverty during the Great Depression, Braddock had to give up boxing for a little while and worked as a longshoreman. Due to frequent injuries to his right hand, Braddock compensated by using his left hand during his longshoreman work, and it gradually became stronger than his right. He always remembered the humiliation of having to accept government relief money, but was inspired by the Catholic Worker Movement, a Christian social justice organization founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933 to help the homeless and hungry. After his boxing comeback, Braddock returned the welfare money he had received and made frequent donations to various Catholic Worker Houses, including feeding homeless guests with his family.
His comeback inspired a nation down on its luck. If an average guy could pull himself out of poverty through hard work and the help of his fellow man (not the Government) to win the heavyweight championship of the world against a man who had killed two men in the ring, then everyone could dig themselves out of their holes. He inspired and gave hope to millions of poor and down on their luck people. He did it with class and humility. He was a good man.
Today the people who are admired and emulated are soulless, corrupt, egomaniacs like Obama, Romney, Jamie Dimon, Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, and selfish sports figures like LeBron James, Kobie Bryant and Tiger Woods. The masses are inspired by Snookie and the Situation, who make $2 million per year getting drunk and acting like assholes.
Every Fourth Turning needs people like James Braddock to inspire and give hope to the average person. The only figure during this Fourth Turning to come close has been Ron Paul. He will fade from the scene before this Fourth Turning runs its course. We need another Cinderella Man to step up and inspire a new generation of heroes. This country needs someone with integrity, humility and an innate goodness to follow and emulate. Times are getting tougher and people will be seeking guidance and an example to follow. They could turn to a mesmerizing tyrannical figure or they could be inspired to be better people by a figure that represents everything good about this country. I’m keeping my eyes open and seeking another James J. Braddock.
Cinderella Man: James Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History
by Jeremy Schaap
Lost in the annals of boxing is the sport’s true Cinderella story. James J. Braddock, dubbed “Cinderella Man” by Damon Runyon, was a once promising light heavyweight for whom a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to coincide with the Great Crash of 1929. With one good hand, Braddock was forced to labor on the docks of Hoboken. Only his manager, Joe Gould, still believed in him, finding fights for Braddock to help feed his wife and children. The diminutive, loquacious Jew and the burly, quiet Irishman made one of boxing’s oddest couples, but together they staged the greatest comeback in fighting history. In twelve months Braddock went from the relief rolls to face heavyweight champion Max Baer, the Livermore Butcher Boy, renowned for having allegedly killed two men in the ring. A charismatic, natural talent and in every way Braddock’s foil, Baer was a towering opponent, a Jew from the West Coast who was famously brash and made great copy both in and out of the ring. A ten-to-one underdog, Braddock carried the hopes and dreams of the working class on his shoulders. And when boxing was the biggest sport in the world, when the heavyweight champion was the biggest star in the world, his unlikely upset made Braddock the most popular champion boxing had ever seen.
Against the gritty backdrop of the Depression, Cinderella Man brings this dramatic all-American story to life, evoking a time when the sport of boxing resonated with a country trying desperately to get back on its feet. Schaap paints a vivid picture of the fight world in its golden age, populated by men of every class and ethnic background and covered voluminously by writers who elevated sports writing to art. Rich in anecdote and color, steeped in history, and full of human interest, Cinderellla Man is a classic David and Goliath tale that transcends the sport.
