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Max Baer

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This article is about the boxer and actor. For an article about his actor son, see: Max Baer Jr.
Maximilian Adelbert "Madcap Maxie" Baer Cussen (February 11, 1909 – November 21, 1959) was a famous American boxer of the 1930s, onetime Heavyweight Champion of the World, and actor.

Contents

Early life

He was born Maximilian Adelbert Baer Cussen in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of German immigrant Jacob Baer (1875-1938), who had a Jewish father and a Lutheran mother, 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).

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

Professional boxing career

He 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 Hall of Famer Dolph Camilli) on August 25, 1930 in San Francisco and in only 2 hits, knocked him out. Campbell never regained consciousness.

After lying on the canvas for nearly an hour, Campbell was finally transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital where he eventually died of extensive brain hemorrhages. 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.

Although he has never been documented as boasting of the death of Campbell, it launched him into an infamous status of being a killer in the ring. The death was used for promotional purposes to make Baer seem deadly, and dangerous. This publicity was further sensationalized by Baer's return bout with Ernie Schaff, who had bested Baer in a decision a few years earlier. At the close of the 10th round, Baer nailed Schaff square in the temple with what some witnesses claimed to be the hardest right hand that ever connected in boxing. Schaff was saved by the bell, though he ended up losing the bout by way of decision. Several minutes passed before Ernie Schaff was revived and able to stand under his own power. Schaff 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, he died in the ring after he took a pathetic jab from the behemoth Primo Carnera. Although Carnera was villified as a "man killer", it was obvious he had died as a result of damage inflicted during his bout with Baer.

Although outwardly Baer seemed indestructible and remained a devastating force in the ring, the death of Campbell and the accusations he received over Ernie Schaff's demise profoundly affected Baer; according to his son, actor/director Max Baer, Jr., he cried and had nightmares over the Campbell incident for decades afterwards. In the case of Frankie Campbell, he was charged with manslaughter. Although he was eventually acquitted of all charges, the California State Boxing Commission still banned him from any in-ring activity within their state for the next year. He 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, and although it is a little known fact, Baer put Campbell's children through college.

In 1933, Baer (with a Star of David embroidered on his trunks [link], which he swore to wear in every bout thereafter) boxed Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium, dominating 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 Jewish father, he became a hero to the Jewish people, although he was raised Catholic (his mother's faith).

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 Primo Carnera, to June 13, 1935.

Cinderella Man

On that day (June 13th, 1935), one of the greatest upsets in boxing history transpired in Long Island City, New York, when Baer fought down and out boxer James J. Braddock. After a gruelling 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 until he wore Baer down. At the end, the judges gave Braddock the title with a unanimous decision. The fight has since become a boxing legend.

The Baer versus Braddock bout was depicted in the 2005 motion picture Cinderella Man It is notable to say that the portrayal of Baer in that film has since been criticized, as it placed him in a very negative light. Baer was portrayed as generally arrogant and even sadistic, showing no remorse over the death of boxer Campbell at his hand a few years earlier. However, it is known that Campbell's death did bother him greatly, and it has never been documented that he bragged or boasted of it. Rather than swaggering, in actuality Baer was remembered as being jolly and full of laughter, and joked often. In film footage of the Braddock fight, Baer often smiles broadly, feins a near knock-down for laughs, and in defeat is gracious to Braddock—not at all as in the villainous manner Director Ron Howard portrays him in the film. However, it is worth noting that the Baer in the film does accept the defeat graciously, smiling and clapping at the victory of Braddock. Further, Howard exaggerates Baer's record, falsely stating that Baer had killed two men in the ring, not one. For no matter how likely it was that Ernie Schaff's end came about from injuries sustained during his encounter with Baer, it was never medically proven to be so.

Max Baer boxed in eighty-four 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 fifty or more bouts by knockout. He 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.

He 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.

Acting

His 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 big ego and an eye for the women. Featured were Baer's upcoming opponent, Primo Carnera, as himself, whom Steve challenges for the championship, and Jack Dempsey, as himself, former Heavyweight Champ, 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 Minister of Propaganda and Public Entertainment, even though it received favorable reviews in local newspapers as well as in the Nazi publications. When an official at the Ministry of Propaganda was asked, "Is the film barred because Max Baer is a Jew?" he snapped, "Ja." 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 was an actor in almost twenty 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 somewhat bloodthirsty, and the unfounded characterization was reprised in Cinderella Man. Baer also worked as a disc jockey for a Sacramento radio station and was a wrestler for a while. He was also public relations director for a Sacramento automobile dealership and referee for boxing and wrestling matches.

He had two wives, 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.

Max Baer never saw the TV and movie success of his son, Max Baer, Jr. In November 1959, he was scheduled to appear in some TV commercials, which he planned to do before returning to his home in Sacramento. After refereeing a boxing match in Phoenix, he checked into the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. While shaving in the morning, he suffered a heart attack and summoned a doctor. Though Baer hung on for a while, he eventually passed away in his room. He was 50 years of age.

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

Max Baer once said, "I never had a fight out of the ring. I never harmed anyone outside the ring. I loved people."

Record

Career boxing bouts

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

Heavyweight Championship of the World

1935

Lost his World Championship

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

  • Sep 26 Pat Comiskey                Jersey City, NJ     (2:39) TK  1 (Weights: 223 1/2 - 207 1/2)
    • 

    1941
    


    Selected filmography
    
Portrayed In:


    TV guest appearances
    


    

    Sources
    


    See also
    


    External links
    

    

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