Maxie Rosenbloom

Max Everitt Rosenbloom was born on November 6, 1906, in Leonard Bridge, Connecticut, and went on to become a professional boxer, actor, and television personality. He died on March 6, 1976, at age 69, at the Braewood Convalescent Hospital in South Pasadena, California, and is interred at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California.

As a boxer, Rosenbloom competed in the light heavyweight division and built his reputation on an elusive, movement-based style that made him exceptionally difficult to hit with a clean power punch. His habit of striking with an open glove earned him the nickname "Slapsie Maxie." Legendary trainer Cus D'Amato credited watching Rosenbloom's defensive performances as the inspiration for developing the peek-a-boo boxing technique, describing Rosenbloom as the cleverest defensive fighter he had ever seen. On June 25, 1930, Rosenbloom defeated Jimmy Slattery at Bison Stadium to claim the NYSAC and vacant Ring Magazine light heavyweight titles. He held the undisputed championship on two separate occasions, as the National Boxing Association stripped him in June 1931 for failing to defend the title in a timely manner and again on September 17, 1934, citing his slapping tactics as violations of boxing rules. During his reign he made seven defenses of his titles and defeated Bob Godwin by fourth-round technical knockout at Madison Square Garden on March 24, 1933. His championship tenure ended when Bob Olin defeated him on November 16, 1934. The accumulated punishment of his boxing career eventually led to deterioration of his motor functions. Rosenbloom was inducted into The Ring's Boxing Hall of Fame in 1972, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1984, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1985, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993.

In 1937, two years before his permanent retirement from boxing, Rosenbloom began working as a character actor in Hollywood, where he was sometimes billed as Slapsy Maxie Rosenbloom. He typically played comical or sympathetic large characters, appearing in films such as Each Dawn I Die alongside James Cagney and George Raft. In 1950, producer-director Jules White paired Rosenbloom with fellow former champion Max Baer for a series of slapstick comedy short subjects released by Columbia Pictures through 1952 and reissued to theaters in 1959 and 1960. Rosenbloom appeared in Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops in 1955. On radio, he appeared as himself in multiple episodes of The Fred Allen Show, including a skit with Marlene Dietrich. On television, he was cast in Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight, the medium's first 90-minute drama, which starred Jack Palance, Keenan Wynn, and Ed Wynn. Rosenbloom portrayed a character whose existence centered on retelling old boxing stories to fellow ex-fighters in a run-down bar, a fate that parallels the trajectory facing the drama's central character. Rosenbloom also operated a nightclub called Slapsy Maxie's, which ran in San Francisco before relocating to Los Angeles, where it was situated at 5665 Wilshire Boulevard from 1943 to 1947 and later at 7165 Beverly Boulevard.

In 1950, Rosenbloom appeared on Broadway in Guys and Dolls, adding a stage credit to a career that had already spanned championship boxing, film, radio, and television.