Primo Carnera (Italian pronunciation:[ˈpriːmokarˈnɛːra];[2] 26 October 1906 – 29 June 1967), nicknamed the Ambling Alp, was an Italian professional boxer and wrestler who reigned as the boxing World Heavyweight Champion from 29 June 1933 to 14 June 1934. He won more fights by knockout than any other heavyweight champion (IBU, NBA, NYSAC) in boxing history.
Personal life
Carnera with family receiving dual citizenship in August 1953
On 13 March 1939, Carnera married Giuseppina Kovačič (1913–1980), a post office clerk from Gorizia.[4] In 1953, they received dual citizenship. They settled in Los Angeles, where Carnera opened a restaurant and a liquor store. They had two children, Umberto and Giovanna Maria. Umberto became a medical doctor.[5] Carnera died in 1967 at age 60 in his native town of a combination of liver disease and complications from diabetes.[6]
Professional boxing career
Overview
Carnera was touted in America as being 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) tall, and thus the tallest heavyweight in history (up until that time), but he was actually 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) tall.[7] He fought at as much as 275 pounds (125 kg).[8]Jess Willard who stood 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) was the tallest world heavyweight champion in boxing history until Nikolai Valuev, at 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) and 328 pounds (149 kg). Though an inch (2.5 cm) shorter than Willard, Carnera was around 40 lb (18 kg) heavier and was the heaviest champion in boxing history until Valuev.[9]
At a time when the average height in Italy was approximately 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) and in the United States 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m),[10] Carnera was considered a giant.
He enjoyed a sizable reach advantage over most rivals, and when seen on fight footage, he seems like a towering giant compared to many heavyweights of his era, who were usually at least 60 pounds (27 kg) lighter and 7 inches (18 cm) shorter. One publicity release about him read in part: "For breakfast, Primo has a quart of orange juice, two quarts of milk, nineteen pieces of toast, fourteen eggs, a loaf of bread and half a pound of Virginia ham."[11] His size earned him the nickname "The Ambling Alp".[12]Time magazine called him "The Monster".[13]
Primo Carnera silent newsreel 1933
Starting career
12 September 1928 was the date of Carnera's first professional fight, against Leon Sebilo, in Paris. Carnera won by knockout in round two.[14] He won his first six bouts, then lost to Franz Diener by disqualification in round one at Leipzig. Then, he won seven more bouts in a row before meeting Young Stribling. He and Stribling exchanged disqualification wins, Carnera winning the first in four rounds, and Stribling winning the rematch in round seven. In Carnera's next bout he avenged his defeat to Diener with a knockout in round six.[15]
In 1930, he moved to the United States, where he toured extensively, winning his first seventeen bouts there by knockout. George Godfrey broke the knockout streak in Philadelphia by losing to Carnera by disqualification in the fifth round.[16] In 1932, Carnera faced the tallest heavyweight in history up to that point, Santa Camarão, a 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) Portuguese fighter. Carnera won the fight in a sixth-round knockout.[17]
Carnera training c. 1934
On 10 February 1933, he knocked out Ernie Schaaf in thirteen rounds in New York City. Schaaf died four days later.[18] Schaaf had suffered a severe beating and knockout in a bout with future heavyweight champion Max Baer six months earlier, on 31 August 1932. Furthermore, an autopsy revealed that Schaaf had meningitis, a swelling of the brain, and was still recovering from a severe case of influenza when he entered the ring with Carnera.[19][20]
In his next fight on 14 June 1934 against Max Baer, Carnera was knocked down multiple times in 11 rounds before referee Arthur Donovon stopped the fight. There is disagreement regarding how many times Carnera was knocked down, with sources giving conflicting totals of 7, 10, 11 (per Associated Press) and 12 (per The Ring magazine founder Nat Fleischer, ringside for the fight, who wrote that Carnera was knocked down 12 times and slipped once after a missed punch).[22] Carnera also fractured his right ankle in the defeat.[23]
A statue of the defeated Carnera won the Prix de Rome First Prize in 1934. L'Athlète vaincu by Albert Bouquillon.[24]
After defeat
After that, Carnera won his next four fights, three of them as part of a South American tour that took him to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, as well as two exhibitions fought on the South American continent. But then, on 25 June 1935, he was knocked out in six rounds by Joe Louis.
For the next two and a half years, he won five and lost three of eight total fights. In 1938 Carnera, a diabetic, had to have a kidney removed, which forced him into retirement by 1944.[4] Carnera's record was 89 wins and 14 losses. His 72 wins by knockout made him a member of the exclusive club of boxers that won 50 or more bouts by knockout.
Legacy in boxing
Carnera was the third European to hold the world heavyweight championship after Bob Fitzsimmons and Max Schmeling. He would be the last until Ingemar Johansson claimed the title against Floyd Patterson in 1959, over a quarter of a century later.
Carnera was also the first boxer to win the European Heavyweight title and subsequently become World Heavyweight champion.
Carnera's 1933 title defense against Tommy Loughran held the record for the greatest weight differential between two combatants in a world title fight (86 lb or 39 kg)[25] for 73 years until the reign of Nikolai Valuev, who owns the current record for the 105+1⁄2 lb (47.9 kg) weight advantage he held in his 2006 defense against Monte Barrett.
Valuev also broke Carnera's record of 270 lb (120 kg) to become the heaviest world champion in history, weighing as high as 328 lb (149 kg) during his reign. Carnera still ranks as the fourth-heaviest, behind Valuev, Tyson Fury and Andy Ruiz Jr., over eighty years after he held the title.[9]
Carnera's 1933 title defense against Paulino Uzcudun in Italy was the first Heavyweight title fight to be held in Europe since Jack Johnson's title defence against Frank Moran in Paris in 1913. It would be the last such occasion until Muhammad Ali defended the title against Henry Cooper in London in 1966. Carnera-Uzcudun was the first World Heavyweight championship fight to be contested between two Europeans. It would be another sixty years, when Lennox Lewis defended the WBC heavyweight title against fellow-Englishman Frank Bruno in 1993, that this would occur again.
Carnera's 72 career knockouts is the most of any world heavyweight champion (IBU, NBA, NYSAC).[26]
His long term manager, Leon See noted how Carnera could not absorb a hard punch on the chin, pre-arranging with opponents (and sparring partners) not to hit him on the chin. His management team took the vast majority of Carnera’s earnings leaving him with practically nothing.[27]
Carnera appeared in a short film in 1931. During his tenure as world champion he played a fictional version of himself in the 1933 film The Prizefighter and the Lady starring Max Baer and Myrna Loy. Here he plays the heavyweight champion who barely holds onto his title with a draw decision after a furious fight with Baer. The film was made just a year before Carnera fought Baer for real, in a bout that was as wild as the film version, but ended with a knockout loss for Carnera.[28]
Carnera had a bit part in the 1949 movie Mighty Joe Young.[28] He played himself in the tug-of-war scene with the giant gorilla. After being pulled by the ape into a pool of water, Carnera threw a couple of futile punches to Joe's chin.
Primo appeared in at least ten Italian films between 1939 and 1943,[29] as well as several in the 1950s, like Prince Valiant,[30] in the role of Sligon. His last screen role was as the giant Antaeus alongside Steve Reeves in Hercules Unchained (US title, filmed in Italy, 1959, original title Ercole e la regina di Lidia).[31]
Professional wrestling career
In 1945 he temporarily returned to boxing and won two fights. But the next year, after three losses against Luigi Musina his talent for wrestling was discovered. In 1946 he became a professional wrestler and was immediately a huge success at the box office. For several years he was one of the top draws in wrestling. Carnera continued to be an attraction into the 1960s. Max Baer attended at least one of Carnera's wrestling matches.[32]
Carnera won his debut against Jules Strongbow in Wilmington, California on 20 August 1946. Two days later, he defeated Tommy O'Toole at the Grand Olympic Auditorium before 10,000 fans.[33] On 23 October 1946, Carnera won his 41st consecutive wrestling match by defeating Jules Strongbow.[34] On 19 November 1946, Carnera beat Harry Kruskamp to remain undefeated at 65–0–0. Primo Carnera went 120 straight wrestling matches undefeated (119–0–1) before suffering his first loss to Yvon Robert in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on 20 August 1947. Carnera's greatest victory took place on 7 December 1947 when he defeated former world heavyweight champion Ed "Strangler" Lewis.
In May 1948, Carnera took a 143–1–1 record against world heavyweight champion Lou Thesz. Thesz defeated Carnera in a world title defense.
Mob influence and suspicious matches
Carnera in 1955
According to boxing historian Herbert Goldman, Carnera was "very much mob controlled."[35] His contract was purchased by mobster Owney Madden after Carnera's arrival in New York in 1930. Abe Attell was brought in to train Carnera. Attell had been caught up in the Black Sox Scandal. However Attell was acquitted when he successfully convinced the jury that he was the wrong Abe Attell.[36]
Carnera met his first serious heavyweight contender, Young Stribling, in 1929, and won when Stribling fouled him. In a rematch, he fouled Stribling. Each scoring a victory by disqualification. Commenting on the unsatisfactory conclusion of the two matches, sportswriter Robert Edgren commented "Stribling seems to be playing Carnera the way he has played a lot of palukas and stable mates at different towns in "the sticks" in this country. Always the return engagement."[37]
In January 1930 against Big Boy Peterson, Carnera won easily in the 1st round. The New York Times noted the absence of betting on the outcome causing skepticism prior to the match. Peterson was counted out while punching himself in the jaw. "Whether to make sure he was knocked out or in an effort to restore his jarred senses could not be ascertained." Boxing Commissioner James Farley, watching ringside, "was not altogether satisfied with the contest" but did not launch an investigation.[38]
A week later against Elzear Rioux the fight lasted only 47 seconds and Rioux was down 6 times. Bob Soderman of the Chicago Tribune reported, "Rioux didn't do much fighting..being too intent on doing what he had been hired to do; that is, making sure he fell to the canvas at the slightest provocation." After an investigation, the Illinois Boxing Commission cleared Carnera but fined Rioux $1000 and revoked his license.[1]
In March, 1930, Primo Carnera faced George Trafton in Kansas City. Trafton was knocked out by Carnera in the first round of their fight.[39] In the aftermath of the fight, the Missouri Boxing Commission suspended Trafton but laid no blame on Carnera.[40]
His April 1930 fight against California club fighter Bombo Chevalier ended when one of Chevalier's seconds, Bob Perry, threw in the towel, although it appeared to all that the boxer was in no worse condition than Carnera. The match was found to be fixed, Carnera's purse was initially withheld.[41] Mrs. Chevalier told them her husband had been approached earlier to agree to a "fake fight," but that he had directed all business to his manager, Tim McGrath. McGrath declared he had no knowledge that Perry was going to throw in the towel, and that the towel should not have been thrown in.[1] Chevalier also stated that Perry had rubbed him with a sponge that caused his eyes and nose to burn.[42]
His June 1930 match against George Godfrey was controversial before it began. Seconds were forbidden from throwing in the towel.[44] Godfrey was disqualified in the fifth round when he was clearly getting the better of Carnera.[45][46] In the aftermath, Godfrey lost his boxing license and half his purse, Carnera was cleared.[47]
Time magazine, in a 5 October 1931 cover story on Carnera before he won the heavyweight title, commented on his odd career:[48]
Since his arrival in the US, backed by a group of prosperous but shady entrepreneurs, Carnera's career has been less glorious than fantastic. His first opponents—Big Boy Peterson, Elzear Rioux, Cowboy Owens—were known to be incompetent but their feeble opposition to Carnera suggested that they had been bribed to lose. Suspicion concerning the Monster's abilities became almost universal when another adversary, Bombo Chevalier, stated that one of his own seconds had threatened to kill him unless he lost to Carnera. Against the huge, lazy, amiable George Godfrey (249 lb), he won on a foul. But only one of 33 US opponents has defeated Monster Carnera—fat, slovenly Jimmy Maloney, whom Sharkey beat five years ago. In a return fight, at Miami last March, Carnera managed to outpoint Maloney.
Depictions in popular culture
Carnera holding a reporter for a close-up shot in 1933
In film
Requiem for a Heavyweight, Rod Serling's 1956 Emmy Award-winning teleplay for Playhouse 90 directed by Ralph Nelson (who also won an Emmy), focused on down-and-out former heavyweight boxer Harlan "Mountain" McClintock. The travails of McClintock, who was played by Jack Palance (Sean Connery played the part on British television and Anthony Quinn essayed the role in the 1962 film), was thought by many boxing fans to resemble Carnera's life.[49]
In 1947, fighting aficionado Budd Schulberg wrote The Harder They Fall, a novel about a giant boxer whose fights are all fixed. It was adapted into Mark Robson's 1956 film, which starred Humphrey Bogart and Rod Steiger. The towel throwing controversy against Bombo Chevalier is briefly depicted. A highlight was the appearance of Max Baer, playing a fighter the mob could not fix who destroys the giant in his first fair fight. Critics drew parallels with the real-life Baer-Carnera fight two decades before. In response, Carnera unsuccessfully sued the film's company.
Carnera was played by Matthew G. Taylor in the 2005 film Cinderella Man, a film about the life of fellow boxer James J. Braddock.
In 2008, the actor Andrea Iaia played Carnera in the Italian biographical film Carnera: The Walking Mountain, directed by Renzo Martinelli.
In 2013, Emporio Elaborazioni Meccaniche named a motorbike, the 1983 BMW R80RT Carnera, in honor of Carnera.[50]
In comics
In 1947, Carnera, an Italian comic book series sporting a fictional version of Primo Carnera, was produced.[51] In 1953, it was translated into German.[52] A facsimile version was published in 2010.[53]
Another popular Italian comic character, Dick Fulmine, was graphically inspired by Carnera.[51]
In his 1933 collection of short stories Mulliner Nights, Wodehouse described one character as follows: "He was built on large lines, and seemed to fill the room to overflowing. In physique he was not unlike what Primo Carnera would have been if Carnera hadn't stunted his growth by smoking cigarettes when a boy."[54]
Carrera's fight with Walter Neusel is described in One-storied America by Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov (1937).
Carnera is mentioned in the 1937 novel, The Far Distant Oxus, by Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock, during Bridget's dream where their servant was a cross between 'their waterboy out east and Carnera' on p. 274.
Carnera is mentioned in the 1939 pulp fiction story series Avenger#1 Justice Inc, by Kenneth Robeson on page 59, as an example of a "giant" as the author attempts to describe the physical stature of Algernon Smith - one of Richard Benjamin's future crime fighting allies.
The Yeasayer song Ambling Alp, from their 2010 album Odd Blood references Carnera by his nickname in the title and second verse. Both Carnera and German boxer Max Schmeling are referenced for their bouts with American Joe Louis.
Professional boxing record
All information in this section is derived from BoxRec,[1] unless otherwise stated.
^Page, Joseph S. (2014). Primo Carnera: The Life and Career of the Heavyweight Boxing Champion. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. p. 187. ISBN978-0786457861. On August 16th Primo was granted a California wrestling license and four days later he met and defeated Jules Strongbow in Wilmington, California. He would meet the Oklahoman at least 10 more times in the next several years. Two days later, Carnera defeated long-time wrestling legend Tommy O'Toole in front of 10,000 fans at Los Angeles in front of 10,000 fans at Los Angeles' Olympic Auditorium and his career was off and running.
^Sussman, Jeffrey (8 May 2019). Boxing and the Mob: The Notorious History of the Sweet Science. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN978-1538113158.
^Edgren, Robert (21 December 1929). "As Edgren Sees It - Young Stribling Gets Only 50-50 Break in Attempt to Grab Off Carnera in Europe". The Oregonian.
^ abMaria Grazia Perini. "Carnera". Enciclopedia Mondiale del Fumetto. Editoriale Corno, 1978. p.238.
^"Primo Carnera". Retrieved 27 October 2014. Auch als Comicheld hatte Carnera "Karriere" gemacht: Von 1953 bis 1954 erschien im Walter Lehning Verlag, Hannover, mit insgesamt 46 Heften die (ursprünglich aus Italien stammende) Piccolo-Serie "CARNERA"
^"Primo Carnera". Retrieved 27 October 2014. Die Carnera-Beilage in der "Sprechblase"
^Sherrin, Ned (Ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations, Oxford University Press, 2012.
