Life — December 21, 1928 — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

the theaters and tent shows of the South, the youngsters following in the fiying rings and human pyramids of their elders. It was with that early training that Willie wandered into the prize-ring, and he never forgot his early training. Thus it happened that when fight spectators were calling for fighting, Willie was doing acro- batic stunts. He was marvelous at that. He could grab an opponent around the head with his right hand and swing himself around to the left as if on horizontal bars. He could chin himself seven times in a row on an opponent's shoulder-blades. He could throw flipflops in form. He could walk on his hands and juggle his partner with his feet. And with at these things, he managed to outscramble practically all of his opponents for quite a while. His father was his manager and his mother was assistant manager and a sec- ond in his corner at every fight, from which point of vantage che exchanged verbal barrages with any spectators who spoke rudely of her Willic’s work in the ring. It was quite a picturesque combina- tion. At one stage in the game the family set off on a tour of the country in a “palace touring car” that housed the whole troupe. Willie was fighting two or three umes a week in the small towns along the way. The tour broke up some- where in the West when the irate fight fans discovered that the “worthy con- tender” who faced Young Stribling in the ring at night was the chauffeur of the “palace touring car" of the Striblings in the daytime. The sheriff voted against a repetition of such friendly gatherings. It may have been Stribling’s affection “When I was his age I useta get a hell of a kick sticking around the last minute.” for chauffeur opponents that led him into Jat the required moment. In fact, he treated the ring with Paul Berlenbach, who | the Georgia prodigy rather roughly, and formerly piloted a guerilla taxi through | without due consideration for the lad’s the heavy traffic. Berlenbach, not being | tender years. on the Stribling pay-roll, failed to dive] Even his rabid Southern supporters soured on Willie after a while. They de- 14 cided he had been “burnt out” by his violent acrobatic efforts and his three-a- week meetings with set-ups into which he had been forced by his father. But it appears, according to several astonished critics, that he has turned over a new leaf. The boy of twenty-four—he began fighting in pinafores—has had a rejuvena- tion. His mother no longer coaches him from a corner and his father no longer matches him with the Stribling chauffeur. So there is a slim, willowy chance that the State of Georgia, mother of Bobby Tones, may become the parent of another national champion. REVENGE He: So Kitty and the doctor busted up? Sue: Yes. She sent him back his ring. Hs: What did he do? See: He sent her a bill for 365 visits Sue: Does your mother know you're out? ut five dollars apiece. comicbooks.com