Beers and Bums

Over the back bar in the saloon run by Antonio Michelangelo Leonardo da Vinci Galento in Orange, N. J. there hangs a sign saying: JOE LOUIS IS A BUM. Two-ton Tony Galento--a lumpy, hog-fat heavyweight who won a sort of succes d'estime last year by bowling over fever-racked Nathan Mann faster than Joe Louis did--has been snarling defiance at Louis ever since scheming Fight Manager Joe Jacobs took him over three years ago. For the seven years before that, Tony Galento, who trains on beer and does his road work in kis sedan, had been aimlessly pasting palookas with his murderous left. Since then, however, he has been upsetting set-ups with a firmer purpose--a shot at Joe Louis; a share of a million-dollar gate.

Last week a parcel of sporting characters, including No. i Manhattan Promoter Mike Jacobs (no kin to Joe), gathered in a cabana on Miami Beach and signed paunchy, dewlapped, 235-lb. Tony for a go with Champion Joe Louis on June 29, probably in the Yankee Stadium. Delighted, Tony bit the cap off a beer bottle (see cut), galumphed off for a swim, pausing to write in the sand with a pudgy forefinger: "Tony Galento, heavyweight champ." When he porpoised back he predicted: "I'll flatten dat bum wit' one punch."

About Galento, Joe Louis' only recorded remark is: "What fo' dat funny li'l fat man want to go 'round callin' me a bum?"

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