Click2Flicks - Cinderella Man, Preface, Chapter 1

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top><table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff cellpadding=5> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <div align=center><p><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b><i>CINDERELLA MAN:</i></p> <p>THE STORY BEHIND THE MOVIE</b></font></p>  <table width="590"> <tr> <td align="CENTER" valign="top" bgcolor="000000" colspan=2><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="3" color="FFFFFF"><b>STORY CHAPTER LINKS</b></font></td> </tr> <tr> <td align=center valign=top width=50%>  <table width="90%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" border="0"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><a href="#preface"><b>1. STORY PREFACE</b></a></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="50%"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="cinderella_man_ch2.htm">2. BOXING: ITS START</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="50%"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="cinderella_man_ch3.htm">3. BOXING: ITS REBIRTH</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="cinderella_man_ch4.htm">4. JIM BRADDOCK’S FIRST RISE</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="cinderella_man_ch5.htm">5. "HOOVERVILLES"</a></b></font> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> <td align=center valign=top width=50%>  <table width=100% cellpadding=5 cellspacing=5 border=0> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="cinderella_man_ch6.htm">6. STARVING PEOPLE</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="cinderella_man_ch7.htm">7. JIM and MAE BRADDOCK</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="cinderella_man_ch8.htm">8. JOE GOULD and MAX BAER</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="cinderella_man_ch9.htm">9. BRADDOCK BECOMES CINDERELLA MAN</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="cinderella_man_ch10.htm">10. USED AND RECOMMENDED SOURCES</a></b></font> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  <p><font size="3"><u><a name="preface"><b>PREFACE</a></u></font></b></p> <div align=center><font face="Times New Roman" color="000000" size="3"><b><i>I may not be a great fighter<br> but I ain’t a bum.<br><br></b></i> Jim Braddock<br> Commenting on his upcoming bout with Max Baer<br> 1935<br><br></font></p> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">In the 1920s and 30s, people got the news from newspapers. Favorable reviews of movies (or songs in movies) helped to create film stars. Great write-ups about athletes helped to create sport stars. <a target="_blank" href="images/runyon.jpg"><b>Damon Runyon</b></a> was one of those star-creating newspaper writers.</p> <p>A celebrity himself, who earned enormous sums for his columns and news reports, Runyon’s favorable <a target="_blank" href="images/comments.jpg"><b>comments</b></a> about a good song (“<a target="_blank" href="images/thanks_for_the_memory.jpg"><b>Thanks for the Memory</b></a>”) in a poorly reviewed movie (<a target="_blank" href="images/big_broadcase_1938.jpg"><b><i>The Big Broadcast of 1938</i></b></a>) helped to launch Bob Hope as a household name in the movie business. Runyon’s comments about boxers - at the time the most popular athletes in the world - <a href="http://www.pressclub.org/about/history/drunyon.htm" target="_blank"><b>resonated</b></a> with a public enduring the disastrous years of the Great Depression.</p> <p>It was boxing which got Jim Braddock noticed. It was Damon Runyon who first called Braddock the “<a target="_blank" href="images/cinderella_man.JPG"><b>Cinderella Man</b></a>.”</p> </div> <p align="right"><font size="2"><a href="cinderella_man_ch2.htm">GO TO CHAPTER 2</a></font></p> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="3"><a href="http://www.awesomestories.com/content/about_author.htm" target="_blank"><b>Author: Carole D. Bos, J.D.</b></center></a></p><br> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table>  </body>