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Product Description
This book is about some ghetto kids of the 1930's and 40's who became famous because they learned how to fight better than anyone else. We call them boxers and they came from the neighborhoods of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit and other cities. The Television Set was introduced to Americans in the late 1940's as an alternative to radio. The Friday Night fights soon followed. The Friday Night fights were broadcast weekly by Gillete and Pabst Blue Ribbon from the late 1940's into the early 1960's. Along with "The Milton Berle Show" the Friday Night fights helped to sell millions of television sets during these years as families and friends gathered together to watch their heroes perform. FRIDAY'S HEROES is also about a young man from the Italian section of Hartford, Connecticut who went on to become "One of the Greatest Fighters" in the history of the sport. His name was Willie Pep. This "Will O' the Wisp" was World Featherweight Champion from 1942-1951 and campaigned for twenty-six years. Finally, this is a book about such people as Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Graziano, Chico Vejar, Kid Gavilan, Joey Giardello, Billy Graham, Rocky Marciano, Ezzard Charles, Joe Louis, Jake LaMotta, and others who are no longer the ghetto kids making a living from boxing, but middle-aged men with the "roar of the crowd" behind them. Today, the athlete - never to be confused with a boxer - is a celebrated figure. Yet as boxers these men seemed to have a different kind of respectability in our society, perhaps because they had to fight for a living. Nevertheless, no warrior that stalked the arena was more gallant than these kids. Willie Pep Remembers...Friday's Heroes is a book about people, these people.
About the Author
Co-Authors: Willie Pep and Robert SacchiWillie Pep: "One of the Greatest Fighters the World has ever Seen." He was known as the "Will O' the Wisp" and was World Featherweight Champion from 1942-1951. Willie campaigned professionally for twenty-six years compiling a won-lost record unheard of in any generation. Willie campaigned in 241 bouts winning an incredible 229 of those fights. Willie shares with us the personal stories of the fighters from his era, possibly the most talented group of fighters competing at one time in the sport of boxing. Willie explains how these fighters and the sport of boxing were instrumental in putting television sets in American homes in those early years.Robert Sacchi: Robert Sacchi is familiar to many having worked as an actor on stage, screen and television. He has written screenplays as well as novels but FRIDAY'S HEROES is a labor of love- as a pal and fan of Willie pep as well as the fight game.Bob holds a masters degree from New York University as well as one from the streets of New York to the Halls of Madison Square Garden
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
The Book is Dated Now, But I still Found it Very Entertaining
16 April 2010
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Willie Pep wrote this book in the early 1970s. It is about the boxers who used to fight on Friday night television in the 1940s and 1950s. They were warriors. They fought hard, they lived hard, and some of them drank and gambled hard. Some were good husbands, some of them were in marriages that didn't take.
So basically, this is a book about life. Pep recalls his own career, and the careers of Ezzard Charles, Rocky Marciano, Jersey Joe Walcott, Tony Janiro, Steve Belloise, Chuck Davey, Tiger Jones, Billy Graham (not the preacher, the fighter), Kid Gavilan, Sandy Saddler, and others.
The book takes up to the 1970s and tells of how the boxers are coping in their retirement lives. Many of them have surely passed away by now; Ezzard Charles was still stricken with ALS when this book was written, and Pep himself died in 2006.
But these Friday heroes will (hopefully) never be forgotten.
As far as a work of literature, this book rambles all over the place and is in sore need of an editor. But it is a very entertaining read, and even the meandering thoughts are interesting, and I didn't mind taking these rabbit hole trips with Willie. Great book for boxing fans.
So basically, this is a book about life. Pep recalls his own career, and the careers of Ezzard Charles, Rocky Marciano, Jersey Joe Walcott, Tony Janiro, Steve Belloise, Chuck Davey, Tiger Jones, Billy Graham (not the preacher, the fighter), Kid Gavilan, Sandy Saddler, and others.
The book takes up to the 1970s and tells of how the boxers are coping in their retirement lives. Many of them have surely passed away by now; Ezzard Charles was still stricken with ALS when this book was written, and Pep himself died in 2006.
But these Friday heroes will (hopefully) never be forgotten.
As far as a work of literature, this book rambles all over the place and is in sore need of an editor. But it is a very entertaining read, and even the meandering thoughts are interesting, and I didn't mind taking these rabbit hole trips with Willie. Great book for boxing fans.
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