A fifth-grade dropout and reform school "graduate," Harlem-born Maxie Rosenbloom began his boxing career at age 19. He went on to win 210 of his 289 professional bouts, and reigned as world champion from 1932 through 1934. It was Damon Runyon who, taking account of Rosenbloom's unusual ring technique, tagged him with the nickname "Slapsy Maxie." After his retirement from boxing, Rosenbloom entered films, where he developed into an appealing if limited comic actor, playing punch-drunk pluguglies in such films as Nothing Sacred (1937), The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1939), and Ringside Maisie (1941). He was given leading roles in B-pictures at Columbia and Monogram, and was briefly a member of a stoogelike screen team with Shemp Howard and Billy Gilbert. He also co-starred with fellow ex-pugilist Max Baer in a quartet of Columbia two-reelers, and as Clyde the Trainer on the 1954 TV series Joe Palooka. For several years, Rosenbloom ran successful nightclubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He spent his last years suffering from the cumulative effects of his many bouts, often behaving as pathetically "punchy" as the characters he'd played during his Hollywood years. In 1972, four years before his death, Maxie Rosenbloom was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame.
by Hal Erickson
biography
