The Weigh-In

                                            Madison Square Garden, March 27, 1942
When they met for the first time the previous March, Abe Simon battled Joe Louis for 13 rounds. The Detroit crowd went wild that the Jewish giant from New York could absorb Louis's punches. Louis had the power of Mike Tyson and the finesse of Muhammad Ali. When it was revealed that Simon had fought with a broken hand, the Madison Garden rematch became a big ticket. Louis knocked Simon out in the sixth round. It would be Simon's last fight.
click on photo to enlarge

reprinted from December 2012

Environmental Tokenism Depreciated Bethlehem

Once upon a time the fortunes of Bethlehem were tied to the Steel, now they reside on it's historical appeal. The current flavor of the month with the green crowd is demolishing dams. Regular readers of this blog know how would be governor Pawlowski allowed the Wildlands Conservancy to destroy the Parkway's Robin Hood Dam, and deposit it's rubble around the bridge piers. The dam on the Monocacy creek suffered the same fate last year. While the dam destruction cost Allentown park goers both beauty and sound, Bethlehem lost it most valuable commodity, history. The top photo shows the original Broad Street Bridge, before it was replaced with the current one,  about 100 years ago. The bottom photo shows the same vista, but minus the historic dam. In addition to the lost history, the loss of visual impact is staggering. Bethlehem has suffered a permanent loss from former boy mayor Callahan's poor decision. Three cheers for Easton's Mayor Panto, who told the Wildlands Conservancy to look elsewhere with their dam removal and grant seeking agenda.

the top photo appeared in a Karen Samuels Facebook page. the bottom photo by John Marquette is from the same page. neither one intended the photos as used here.

Allentown, What a Revolting Development

The guy across the top of the post is William Bendix, who played Chester Riley on The Life of Riley. He ended each episode by saying, What a revolting development this turned out to be. That was a television series in the 1950's, but the phrase is appropriate to Allentown today. molovinsky on allentown spends much of it's space on the past, because it was so much better than the present. The Pawlowski Administration and The Morning Call are so focused on the future, because they hope that it's so much better than the present. On Monday afternoon, two teens were apprehended near the high school, waiting for trouble with machetes. Elsewhere, a suspect punched a cop. Our new police chief is driving around getting to know Allentown. Our mayor wanted to use hopeful expectations for this new arena as his ticket out of town. In Chester Riley's world he worked in a booming factory, and his commotions had to do with a neighbor not inviting him to a Sunday picnic. In Allentown, we have never employed people,  smashing your door in. Although this blog shies away from crime stories, we will not sugar coat the revolting development that has become Allentown.

The Second Louis-Simon Fight

$12.50 was pricey in 1942, but it got you ringside at Madison Square Garden for the Heavyweight Championship. Louis was defending his title against Simon, who had gone 13 rounds with the Bomber a year earlier in Detroit. It was the hot ticket that night in New York City.

The Great White Hope

Seventy two years ago this Thursday evening, March 27, 1942, Abe Simon got his rematch with Joe Louis for The Heavyweight Championship of the World. In 1942 that was a big sporting event, on par with the World Series. Millions of people across the country would be listening to the fight on the radio. Jack Johnson was the first black man to hold the World Heavyweight Championship, in an era which did not celebrate such an accomplishment. A former champ, James Jefferies, was induced by $100,000 in 1910 to come out of retirement to challenge Johnson. Jefferies was called The Great White Hope. The story became a movie in 1970, starring James Earl Jones. By the time Joe Louis became champion three decades later, although the resentment was gone, he was still referred to as the Negro Champion and the Brown Bomber. A promo for Abe Simon's first Louis fight even refers to Simon as The White Heavyweight. Simon certainly was no bigot, his trainer for the fight was none other than the great Jack Johnson himself.

reprinted from July 2012

A Lesser Prescription

When the arena office building was first announced about 18 months ago, Lehigh Valley Health Network was going to be opening a Sports Medicine Center in the arena complex. A recent article in the Morning Call now states that the hospital will operate a fitness center and training facilities for their computer network, utilized by the hospital on various campuses. Although the Morning Call reporters have been on board selling the Transformation, they didn't write one sentence on the shift in the hospital's commitment. It's no surprise that they decided against using the 7th and Hamilton location for patients, that would be adding pain to the injury. Although St. Lukes and Lehigh Valley go toe to toe, and side by side, in locations throughout the valley, St. Lukes has decided to let Lehigh Valley have the 7th and Hamilton location without their competition. That was an easy decision.