Maximilian Adelbert Baer Sr. (February 11, 1909 – November 21, 1959) was an American professional boxer and the world heavyweight champion from June 14, 1934, to June 13, 1935. He was known in his time as the Livermore Larupper and Madcap Maxie. Two of his fights (a 1933 win over Max Schmeling and a 1935 loss to James J. Braddock) were rated Fight of the Year by The Ring magazine. Baer was also a boxing referee, and had occasional roles in film and television. He was the brother of heavyweight boxing contender Buddy Baer and father of actor Max Baer Jr. Baer is rated #22 on The Ring magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.
Early life Baer was born on February 11, 1909, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Jacob Baer (1875–1938) and Dora Bales (1877–1938). His father was the son of Jewish immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine and his mother was of Scottish Protestant descent. His elder sister was Frances May Baer (1905–1991), his younger sister was Bernice Jeanette Baer (1911–1987), his younger brother was boxer-turned-actor Jacob Henry Baer, better known as Buddy Baer (1915–1986), and his adopted brother was August "Augie" Baer.
Baer moved to Livermore, California, with his family as a child.Brumbelow, Joseph, S. (2003) Buddy Baer – Autobiography He attended high school only one year, quitting to work in his father's butcher shop. Livermore was ranch and cowboy country, surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of open land on which large cattle herds grazed and provided fresh meat to the local area. In 1928, Jacob leased the Twin Oaks Ranch in Murray Township, where he raised more than 2,000 hogs and worked with daughter Frances' husband, Louis Santucci. Baer often credited his work carrying heavy carcasses of meat, stunning cattle with one blow, and working at a gravel pit for the development of his powerful shoulders (an article in the January 1939 edition of Family Circle magazine reported that Baer also took the Charles Atlas exercise course.) By age eighteen, Baer stood 6 feet tall and weighed 190 pounds.
Professional boxing career Baer turned professional in 1929, progressing steadily through the Pacific Coast ranks. His career was not without setbacks; in 1930 he lost a decision to seasoned heavyweight Les Kennedy in Los Angeles. Even so, Baer built a strong record and scored victories over several more experienced fighters. His growing popularity stemmed largely from his aggressive fighting style. Although he lacked refined technical skills, he compensated with relentless offense, repeatedly charging his opponents and wearing them down with powerful punches. As a result, many of his matches ended in knockouts.
Frankie Campbell Baer fought Frankie Campbell on August 25, 1930, at San Francisco's Recreation Park for the unofficial title of Pacific Coast champion. In the second round, Campbell clipped Baer and Baer slipped to the canvas. Campbell went toward his corner and waved to the crowd, thinking that Baer was getting the count. In response, Baer got up and flew at Campbell, landing a right to Campbell's turned head which sent him to the canvas.
After the round, Campbell said to his trainer "Something feels like it snapped in my head", but he went on to handily win rounds 3 and 4. As Baer rose for the 5th round, Tillie "Kid" Herman, Baer's former friend and trainer, who had switched camps overnight and was now in Campbell's corner, savagely taunted and jeered Baer. In a rage and determined to end the bout with a knockout, Baer soon had Campbell against the ropes. As he hammered him with punch after punch, the ropes were the only thing holding Campbell up. By the time referee Toby Irwin stopped the fight, Campbell collapsed to the canvas. Baer's own seconds reportedly ministered to Campbell, and Baer stayed by his side until an ambulance arrived 30 minutes later. Baer "visited the stricken fighter's bedside", where he offered Frankie's wife Ellie the hand that hit her husband. She took that hand and the two stood speechless for a moment. "It was unfortunate, I'm awfully sorry", said Baer. "It could have been you," she replied. She forgave him.
At noon the next day, with a lit candle laced between his crossed fingers, and his wife and mother beside him, Frankie Campbell was pronounced dead. Upon the surgeon's announcement of Campbell's death, Baer broke down and sobbed inconsolably. Brain specialist Dr. Tilton E. Tillman "declared death had been caused by a succession of blows on the jaw and not by any struck on the rear of the head" and that Campbell's brain had been "knocked completely loose from his skull" by Baer's blows.Oakland Tribune, September 26, 1930
In 1930, Baer was charged with manslaughter. He was ultimately cleared of criminal charges, but the California State Athletic Commission suspended him from boxing in the state for one year. Following Campbell's death, Baer stepped away from boxing for several months. Upon returning, he lost four of his next six bouts, in part due to a hesitancy to press the attack. One of those victories came at the hands of future Hall of Famer Tommy Loughran, who observed that Baer was looping and telegraphing his punches. Former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey later worked with Baer to shorten his punches and remained interested in his development throughout the rest of his career.
Ernie Schaaf The Campbell incident earned Baer the reputation as a "killer" in the ring. This publicity was further sensationalized by Baer's return bout with Ernie Schaaf, on August 31, 1932. Schaaf had bested Baer in a decision during Max's Eastern debut bout at Madison Square Garden on September 19, 1930.
An Associated Press article in the September 9, 1932, sports section of the New York Times describes the end of the return bout as follows:Two seconds before the fight ended Schaaf was knocked flat on his face, completely knocked out. He was dragged to his corner and his seconds worked on him for three minutes before restoring him to his senses... Baer smashed a heavy right to the jaw that shook Schaaf to his heels, to start the last round, then walked into the Boston fighter, throwing both hands to the head and body. Baer drove three hard rights to the jaw that staggered Schaaf. Baer beat Schaaf around the ring and into the ropes with a savage attack to the head and body. Just before the round ended Baer dropped Schaaf to the canvas, but the bell sounded as Schaaf hit the floor.Associated Press, September 9, 1932 Schaaf complained frequently of headaches after that bout. Five months after the Baer fight, on February 11, 1933, Schaaf died in the ring after taking a left jab from the Italian fighter Primo Carnera. The majority of sports editors noted, however, that an autopsy later revealed Schaaf had meningitis, a swelling of the brain, and was still recovering from a severe case of influenza when he touched gloves with Carnera. Schaaf's obituary stated that "just before his bout with Carnera, Schaaf went into reclusion in a religious retreat near Boston to recuperate from an attack of influenza" which produced the meningitis.
The death of Campbell and accusations over Schaaf's demise profoundly affected Baer, even though he was ostensibly indestructible and remained a devastating force in the ring. According to his son, actor/director Max Baer Jr. (who was born seven years after the incident):My father cried about what happened to Frankie Campbell. He had nightmares. In reality, my father was one of the kindest and most gentle men you could ever hope to meet. He treated boxing the way today's professional wrestlers do wrestling: part sport, mostly showmanship. He never deliberately hurt anyone.
Max Schmeling
On June 8, 1933, Baer fought and defeated German heavyweight and former world champion Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium, by technical knockout. Schmeling was favored to win and was Adolf Hitler's favorite boxer. The Nazi tabloid Der Stürmer publicly attacked Schmeling for fighting a non-Aryan, as Baer's father was Jewish, calling it a "racial and cultural disgrace."Margolick, David (2005) . Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink, Knopf Doubleday Publishing. pp. 39–40.
Although the Great Depression, then in full force, had lowered the income of most citizens, sixty thousand people attended the boxing match. NBC radio updated millions nationwide as the match progressed. Baer, who was of one-quarter Jewish descent, wore trunks which displayed a large Star of David, in solidarity with the Jews' situation. He wore this symbol in all his future bouts. During the match, he dominated the rugged Schmeling into the tenth round, when Baer knocked Schmeling down and the referee stopped the match.video: "Max Baer vs Max Schmeling (short)" Columnist Westbrook Pegler wrote about Schmeling's loss, "That wasn't a defeat, that was a disaster", while journalist David Margolick claimed that Baer's victory would come to "symbolize Jewry's struggle against the Nazis." Baer became a hero among Jews and those who despised the Nazis.Cavanaugh, Jack. Tunney: Boxing's Brainiest Champ and His Upset of the Great Jack Dempsey, Ballantine Books (2009) e-book
Film star Greta Garbo considered Baer's defeat of Schmeling to be a "mini victory" over Nazism, and she invited Baer to visit her while she was filming Queen Christina in Hollywood.Bret, David. Greta Garbo: A Divine Star, Robson Press, U.K. (2012) e-book However, Baer's presence on the set was considered a "sacrilege" in Hollywood, as even MGM studio's head, Louis B. Mayer, wasn't allowed on Garbo's set, since she demanded total privacy while acting.Oakland Tribune, June 21, 1934 p. 13 Their friendship led to a romance, which lasted until he returned to New York to train for his next match against Primo Carnera.
World Heavyweight Champion On June 14, 1934, at the outdoor Madison Square Garden Bowl at Long Island City, New York, Baer defeated the huge reigning world champion Primo Carnera of Italy, who weighed in at 267 pounds and was older. Baer knocked down the champion 11 times before the fight was stopped in the eleventh round by referee Arthur Donovan to save Carnera from further punishment. All the knockdowns occurred in rounds one, two, ten and eleven, which Baer thoroughly dominated. The intervening rounds were competitive. There is some dispute about the number of knockdowns scored, as Carnera slipped to the canvas on several occasions and was wrestled to the canvas other times. In this match, Carnera couldn't stand, he couldn't dodge, or throw powerful punches because, since round one, a severe pain in his ankle had left him unsteady. After the fight with Baer, doctors at Columbus Hospital discovered that Carnera had a fractured foot. Despite this dominant performance over Carnera, Baer would hold the world heavyweight title for just 364 days.
James J. Braddock On June 13, 1935, one of the greatest upsets in boxing history occurred at the Madison Square Garden Bowl, as Baer fought down-and-out boxer James J. Braddock in the so-called Cinderella Man bout. Baer hardly trained for the bout. Braddock, on the other hand, trained hard. "I'm training for a fight, not a boxing contest or a clownin' contest or a dance," he said. "Whether it goes one round or three rounds or ten rounds, it will be a fight and a fight all the way. When you've been through what I've had to face in the last two years, a Max Baer or a Bengal tiger looks like a house pet. He might come at me with a cannon and a blackjack and he would still be a picnic compared to what I've had to face." Baer, ever the showman, "brought gales of laughter from the crowd with his antics" the night he stepped between the ropes to meet Braddock. As Braddock "slipped the blue bathrobe from his pink back, he was the sentimental favorite of a Bowl crowd of 30,000, most of whom had bet their money 8-to-1 against him."