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. Markson, Markson, the the In- On Second Thought ,000,000Gate Called a Flop! By BARNEY NAGLER NEW YORK, N. Y-, June 19.— There was a fight at the Garden Friday night, believe it or not. A fight? Orlando Zulueta, the the Conga Conga lightweight, lightweight, . the the Conga Conga lightweight, lightweight, pawed just often enough to outpoint Johnny Gonzalves, the Calif or niah, in 10 rounds. There were even some folk in the place, not many, to be sure, because the bout was an afterthought to the blood-letting at Yankee Stadium the " night before. "How much is in?" somebody somebody asked asked Harry Harry somebody somebody asked asked Harry Harry Markson, Markson, the the In- International Boxing Clubs man in charge of ethics and figures. "You can say," Markson said, "that we drew better than 45,000 in two nights." Laughter. On the first night, the gross was just under 45,000, which is put down to give you an idea of just how much was anted up at the Garden Friday night. Zuluetas cousin was there and they say Gonzalves has a few friends in town. The corporals guard was just what the IBC expected. No fight, not even Demp-sey vs. Louis, would have drawn at the Garden after .the brawl up at the Stadium the night before. The meeting of Marciano and Charles was everything the promoters had hoped it would be and in its aftermath, there was no room for anything else. Certainly, not even from the purely promotional viewpoint, everything else was anti-climatic. It isnt often that a promoter has a perfect fight — weather conditions, the quality of combat, satisfied customers and, not unimportantly, a large profit. The IBC had all of these Thursday night. The weather, which had been a source of annoyance for several days, came up bright, if coolish, just right for the heated action in the ring. A promoter, even one as richly endowed with greenbacks as Jim Norris is, is at the mercy of buffeting fates when he runs an outdoor fight. Norris was lucky. He cant guarantee the quality of combat, he cant even guarantee that the right customer will lie in the right seat. On the first count, Norris was lucky; he didnt do quite as good on the second count. Rough young citizens buying unreserved seats hurtled the barriers, rushed on the field and, chased by the cops, put on foot races to equal Roger Bannisters recent contribution in the cause of bunion-breeding. As for the fight, you know what came to pass; an excitingly waged contest, lacking only a knockdown or knockout, but otherwise one of the best in the history of the heavyweight division. Norris break must be measured in terms of Mike Jacobs ill-luck the night he put on his 00-a-ducat extravaganza between Joe Louis and Billy Conn, in 1946. Remember that one? Jacobs set the high tariff after hinting in the press that the price .would come high. A considerable number of citizens rushed to assorted postoffices, purchased money orders in sordidly high numbers and mailed them to Jacobs office. Mike kept the price at 00 a ticket. The house came to just under ,000,000; the fight came to something less than excitement; Conn threw nary a punch through eight rounds. Louis knocked him out with a display of vast indifference and that was that. The next day one newspaper headline asserted: "Conn -Louis a financial and fistic flop!" Jacobs never recovered from this abuse. "Lissen," he used to say, "You draw ,000,000 and they say you flopped. How about it?" • Only one important ingredient failed to show up for the IBC controversy. There was no doubt that Charles was beaten, no doubt that, after the tenth round, he was fortunate, out of skill, to survive Mar-cianos onslaught. This lack of an abrasive element deprived the film of the fight of any interest. "Hell," one Broadwayite said today, "I know who won, why see the fight." And thats that.
