A stretch of Queen Street East between Broadview and Carlaw was also made up to appear to be from the 1930s and dozens of period cars were parked along the road. The Richmond Street side of The Bay's Queen Street store was redressed as Madison Square Garden, complete with fake store fronts and period stop lights. Ariel Waller as Rosemarie "Rosy" Braddockĭuring filming in Toronto, several areas were redressed to resemble 1930s New York.On June 13, 1935, in one of the greatest upsets in boxing history, Braddock defeats the seemingly invincible Baer to become the heavyweight champion of the world.Īn epilogue reveals that Braddock would lose his title to Joe Louis and later worked on the building of the Verrazano Bridge, owning and operating heavy machinery on the docks where he worked during the Depression, and that he and Mae used his boxing income to buy a house, where they spent the rest of their lives. She is unable to attend the fight at the Madison Square Garden Bowl or even to listen to it on the radio. When he says this, she becomes so angry that she throws a drink at him. The arrogant Baer attempts to intimidate him, even taunting Mae in public that her man might not survive. He is so destructive that the fight's promoter, James Johnston, forces both Braddock and Gould to watch a film of Baer in action, just so he can maintain later that he warned them what Braddock was up against.īraddock demonstrates no fear. Mae is terrified because Baer, the champ, is (as portrayed in this highly fictionalized characterization) a vicious man who reportedly has killed at least two men in the ring. When his rags to riches story gets out, the sportswriter Damon Runyon dubs him "The Cinderella Man", and before long Braddock comes to represent the hopes and aspirations of the American public struggling with the Depression.Īfter wins against John Henry Lewis and Art Lasky, a title fight against Baer comes his way. Out of a sense of pride, he uses a portion of his prize money to pay back money to the government given to him while unemployed. With a shot at the heavyweight championship held by Max Baer a possibility, Braddock continues to win. Mae resents this attempt by Gould to profit from her husband's dangerous livelihood, until she discovers that Gould and his wife also have been devastated by hard times. Despite Mae's objections, Braddock takes up Gould's offer to return to the ring. He believes that while his right hand was broken, he became more proficient with his left hand, improving his in-ring ability. The fight is against the number-two contender in the world, Corn Griffin.īraddock stuns the boxing experts and fans with a third-round knockout of his formidable opponent. Thanks to a last-minute cancellation by another boxer, Braddock's longtime manager and friend, Joe Gould, offers him a chance to fill in for just one night and earn cash. Unfortunately, he cannot get work every day.
She cannot bring herself to watch the violence of his chosen profession, yet she knows they will not have enough income without his boxing.Īs the United States enters the Great Depression, Braddock does manual labor as a longshoreman to support his family, even with his injured hand. This is both a relief and a burden to his wife, Mae. Braddock is an Irish-American boxer from New Jersey, formerly a light heavyweight contender, who is forced to give up boxing after breaking his hand in the ring. Related tune: Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor (mp3 via ughur.James J.
Felt damn good, if I do say so myself.Ĭouple of new movie scripts (The Pianist and Peeping Tom) over at the rama, too. Yeah, yeah, it's mean but I haven't blogged for eons so I had to get some of that vitriol out of my system. Isn't that like saying.remember that Halloween when you were eight years old? And you got that pile o' candy and you thought it would be a truly ingenius idea to devour the whole shebang that very night? Remember the massive sugar high of your body processing an ungodly amount of Bit-O-Honeys, Zagnuts, Spree, and Pixie Sticks? And then remember how you started to feel not-so-hot, sweaty, and your stomach was felt like it had a boatload of Smurfs going to war inside of it? And you remember how you when you threw up for the fourth time, how there was nothing left in your stomach and you prayed for death? And remember how you felt like crap for three days later, having barely avoided a diabetic coma from the sucrose overload? Hey, it only took two months for me to get Blogger to recognize that I had a different server to post to, woo-hoo! I'm sure you guys missed me something awful.what with my frequent posting and all.Īnyhoo, I keep seeing these ads everywhere that encourage me to "rediscover Cinderella Man." And it got me into some deep, deep thinking.