The cast and crew films at Rainbo Arena in Chicago on Nov. 25, 1949, for “The Golden Gloves Story.” Rainbo Arena was located at Clark street and Lawrence avenue. Editors note: this historic print has some hand painting on it.It’s the latest in a long line of boxing movies, snaking back to the end of the 19th century. The third chapter in the “Creed” saga, born of the “Rocky” saga, made history last weekend: It did better business in the U.S.
The screenplay concerns a promising Chicago Golden Gloves fighter, played by Dewey Martin, suspected of murder but meantime smitten with the dental receptionist daughter of boxing referee Joe Riley. Joe’s an amiable straight arrow, played by the movie’s marquee attraction, James Dunn, who won a supporting actor Oscar for “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” .
Kids watch the filming of a scene from “The Golden Gloves Story” on the porch at 1701 North Park Ave. in Chicago on Oct. 27, 1949. Watching “The Golden Gloves Story” today, in a DVD dupe of a rare 16 mm copy , you feel like an ingrate for complaining about the corniness of the romantic triangle or the unexceptional ring action. To see Chicago as itself, in a movie about a newspaper’s boxing promotion and charity fundraiser that became a very big thing, is like hopping in H.G. Wells’ time machine and setting it to when “The Golden Gloves Story” was filmed.
Mitch Levin, now retired and living in Skokie, knows those movies inside out. He knows “The Golden Gloves Story,” too, because he owns one of a handful of 16 mm copies in existence. It’s part of a 250-hour collection of sports films, heavy on the boxing and the wrestling, he and his brother, Joel, also of Skokie, have amassed over the years.
Film collector Mitch Levin sits by a painting of World Middleweight Champ Stanley Ketchel at his home on March 6, 2023, in Skokie.