IS IT ALL A POSE ?

NZ Truth, Issue 1210, 7 February 1929, Page 1

IS IT ALL A POSE ?

Gene Tunney 's Culture and Book Babbling Under Spot Light ■

Press cables have told us much of the, acquisition of culture by the world's champion boxer, Gene Tunney, and much has been , made of it by American writers m their usual florid style, but it is left to a well-known literary critic to explain it all. •»

WRITING of Tunney and his literary tastes, this critic has the following' to say: — • • ■ "Pugilism has had its drinkers, its muckers, its braggarts* its wastrels. It has had its 'Gentleman Jim 1 Corbett, to be sure, but that title has been largely definitive of the fact that the svelt San Francisan had slid into. the industry off a bookkeeper's stool instead of being knocked into it frbm some dock, or some deck, .or rolling into it from a berth or some brakevan. . ' '.■••■ . ..'•.•■ "Tunney, I - think, -was shrewd enough to see that, and whether he was or .he wasn't the sports editors were. ■ . "It was all regarded as a joke, at first, perhaps even by ' Tunney himself. His literary appreciation was perhaps no more profound at this period than that of the celebrated motion-picture actress who only buys a book when its color chances to match the shade of some frock. . . - _ "But pose, if it was a pose, . soon gave way t° 9 uri i osity, and curiosity to hunger — hunger for the far-flung , : horizons of beauty, the endless wealth of raptures that lie m the of Books. ■■■■■',', ■ "From a wistful, lonely, self-con-scious figure, Tunney suddenly— perhaps suddenly is too strong a word— but Tunney became, at any rate, a poised, articulate, even d^g- • matic young man, <. "What had amounted to an inferiority complex melted from him like the tall of a tadpole. A vital. feeling of superiority replaced it, and I am convinced that this gradually attained psychological budge was what, carried hlm'to the world's championship. -''■it-? was ■ that abiding and uhshakeable confidence that comes when a man kndwsXthat he's the mental superior of the . antagonist: he's facing/ that he|s at ieasfei his , physical; equal and ..uthat und^r these .. conditions . the result is foreordained because; m almost any conceivable/ (crisis, brain can 0 circumvent brawn. ■'■' : '">. ; - ; -, : ';: ; \-. . ■-. ■' ; . ■:'-'■ / .'-.: The effect thathis literary training had on Tunney's mind and speech is recounted by the same writer, and'distinctly shows that much of Tunney's

It Sounds Well

so-called culture" is evidently a publicity pose. The writer's version is as follows:—- •• "Tunney turned to books with a vengeance.. They became a sort of fierce solace, a refuge, an unguent for his blisters. I think there was a slight gesture of scorn m there, too. , "When I met Tunney I casually inquired: how he was and how things were going, and much to my astonishment he answered m this fashion: 'Quite splendid, generally speaking, thank you, only I had the misfortune some while vback : to sustain a traumatic periostitis. Of course, it wasn't a malignant pe'riostltis such as commonly afflicted Harry Wills, if you recall. Just a traumatic periostitis,, which, however, is clearing up satisfactorily. ■'.-.. ' , ■ '".'.;. ""'I have really been extremely fortunate, during my career. I have suffered one .or two minor metacarpal fractures, to be sure, arid I once sustained 'a greenstick fracture of the right thumb, but it was a clean greenstick fracture that healed without complications. On the whole, ha v c progressed 'quite satisfactorily, thank you\ -an d how are your own affairs? "As soon as I could, discover a dictionary big enougH, I discovered that traumatic periostitis is merely \. the hardest way' of saying 'stone ; , bruise/ and I present the above m, somewhat extended detail, because I think it is both typical^pf, and il- ; luminating to, 'the ppi fit" lam tryjng to mak'ei and. distinbtly shows .. what books have done not only for, but. tb, : Gene Tunn'eyV 1 ,, , - : -- ■' .i ; " ■'-■':: *'■■"; '■•:•.•■■ '■':.:. ■; '" '•■;■■. '; ■-i ■■ "One often gets the impression that Tunney :(sn't talking to one at all, that he is really talking to himself, fascinated, if not actually hypnotized, by the rise and/fall of the booming phrases that' he -manages to couple together and send out on the air after considerable hesitation and travail. '".. "The, point is that Tunney isn't quite there— yet. And even if he gets there there'll be. grave doubts abpu,t anybody's being able to understand him, 'unless and until ' he learns that not eyen the eminent A. Lawrence Lowell calls a stone bruise a traumatic periostitiß so soon after, breakfast."