August 14, 2004
On April 29, 1937, the headline on a New York Times article read, "Braddock to Train for Bout With Louis In Sumptuous Camp on Lake Michigan". The story was datelined Chicago, but the sumptuous camp was at Grand Beach, Michigan, five miles up the shore from Michigan City, Indiana. James J. Braddock was looking to defend his heavyweight title against 23-year-old contender Joseph Louis Barrow in a bout scheduled for June 22nd. It looked like the match would be held in Chicago, in spite of a pending New York injunction. As Braddock's manager Joe Gould put it, "Braddock will positively defend his title this Summer. Naturally, we hope it will be against Louis in Chicago. However it is necessary that Braddock be established in camp, and regardless where his title defense takes place, he will remain at Grand Beach for at least two months." The Barrow camp seemed to be betting on Chicago as well, for the challenger would go into training at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, 75 miles northwest of the Windy City.
A photograph of the champ and his sparring partners out for an exercise jog shows the three men running downhill toward the camera along a sloping boardwalk. Behind them, atop a ridge, stands an imposing three-story building with a tower on the corner (one of two, actually) stretching off-camera at the other end, all done in mock Tudor, or Pseudy Tudey, architecture, giving the whole structure a vaguely Shakespearean look. Some "camp". This is the Golfmore Hotel. Braddock will rough it in one of the gilded hostelry's 175 guest rooms.
Resort founders Floyd Perkins and George Ely were obviously doing something right. It was their 18-hole golf course that had given the hotel, opened in 1921, its name. Besides golf the resort provided opportunities to go horseback riding, swimming and, in the winter, ski jumping. Soon another nine holes were added in a nearby location. Twice a day trains of the Michigan Central Railroad would pull into the station, near the fourth green, and discharge wealthy sportsmen from Chicago, eager to hit the links. Other resorts opened nearby. The future looked rosy.
Then came October 1929. The hotel struggled to play through, but was forced to close in 1931, after only ten years of operation. It was reincarnated in 1936 with the added attraction of roulette tables, slots and other gaming seductions and it was then that Braddock arrived to train. Another boxer, Max Baer, had trained here earlier in the decade, as had the Golden Gloves team when they prepared for an international match with the Irish Amateur team.
Chicago fight fans were pleased when they learned the New York court challenge had failed; the fight went on, as scheduled, as 60,000 fans paid $700,000 to jam themselves into Comiskey Park.
The New York Times reported the next day, "Loser Carried Unconscious to His Corner After Being Pounded to Canvas." Joe Louis (he dropped the 'Barrow' to fight professionally), the Brown Bomber, became the first black boxer to hold the crown since Great White Hope Jack Johnson took the title in 1908, and would remain champ for a record-breaking twelve years. Michigan governor Frank Murphy banned gambling in 1937.
On November 19, 1939. the Golfmore Hotel burned to the ground.
Back to square one for Grand Beach.
Script 376
(c) 2004 David Minor / Eagles Byte
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