WEARY CELEBRITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 487, 17 October 1928, Page 1

WEARY CELEBRITY

TOM HEENEY IN AUCKLAND MAY APPEAR AT BENEFIT “I came back to have a holiday, but t! e was not too much holiday about it! I have found it hard to get rest, to have any time to myself. That's what made me leave Gisborne.” Thus Tom II coney expressed the disadvantages of being a public idol, when interviewed at Hotel Cargen this morning. Accompanied by Mrs. Tom he reached Auckland -iast evening and will sail on the Niagara for Vancouver next Wednesday. During his stay in New Zealand he has put on weight, but does not anticipate any difficulty in getting back to form. INTO TRAINING Ho intends to go into training immediately on his arrival in America, and has been advised that be will follow Sharkey and Uzcudun in the elimination contests to decide the successor to Gene Tunney’s heavy-weight title. Other participants would be Hansen. T. Loughran Stribbling, Risko and Phil Scott. Heeney mentioned that both Sharkey and Uzcudun had been injured, a fact which might delay the first fight, which he had expected in February. Tom has few engagements in Auckland, but ho is the guest of the Auckland Trotting Club at this afternoon s meeting. This morning he agreed to take some part in a charity boxing benefit which may be organised in Auckland before he leaves. “I consented on the understanding that it was to be a strictly charity affair,” he said. “I may referee or I may appear in the ring.” In all probability Air. and Airs. Heeney will visit Hamilton on Monday. “I do not expect to be called on to fight in the earlier eliminations.” he said, “but now that those two are reported injured, I don’t know how it will be. Of course, no one wants to fight in the earlier bouts—there is not the money in it and its’s just as hard.” JOHNNY LECKIE’S CHANCES Tom said that lie had received a telegram stating that Johnny Leckie, New Zealand feather-weight champion, was making arrangements for an American tour and wished to know' the terms and other facts. He replied suggesting that Leckie should obtain the services of his own manager, “Honest” Charlie Harvey. “I’d just as soon see him in ray stable,” he said. “He’s liable to be beaten, but that’s nothing at all in America. His record of knock-outs will go down well, and he’ll make more money in 12 months in America than he would all his life in New Zealand. “Tell him to bring his scrap-book. He’ll need it. I not have one when I landed in America, and I found that they would not believe me. You can’t get on without printed records in the U.S.A.”

BOUND FOR HOME MRS. TOM HEENEY’S TRIP “Its been wonderful,” said Airs. Tom Heeney. “Rotorua was completely fascinating, the Caves were marvellous, and I shall never forget the reception given everywhere to Tom. He could not have met with better had he been champion.” That was how the wife of New Zealand’s heavy-weight hope summed up her visit to the Dominion. “I’ve only one grouse,” she added. “That concerns the roads. They were a new and rather awful experience for me, but I have the greatest admiration for the men who work those service cars. Frankly, said Mrs. Heeney, she was glad to be going back home, at least for a time. Her heart is set on settling down in New York again. “You know' what it is,” she added, “among one’s friends and so forth. Perhaps it w'ould be different if I could settle down in New Zealand, have my own home, and get acquainted. But I get tired of this rushing about.” Although she is truly sorry that she will not be seeing Australia/ she is glad for her husband s sake that the round of festivities will soon be over. “You don’t know' what it is, and people don’t realise that the one before them has said exactly the same thing, and is looking for exactly the same answer.

“Tom w'ill be the better for getting back to w'ork in New York. He will train there and W'e w'ill live close handy. I think New York is better for his training than his camp at Fairhaven. He can train in company. “It’s much nicer skipping about in a gym. when others are skipping about too,” she said naively. “In the camp he had to skip and train generally on his own. It must have been tiring. In New York he can relax.” Airs. Heeney hopes to visit New Zealand again some day and sec more of the country. “What you call ‘country* here was a revelation to me,” she concluded, “you w'ould call some of our ‘country’ thickly populated.”