cover image The Fight That Started the Movies: The World Heavyweight Championship, the Birth of Cinema, and the First Feature Film

The Fight That Started the Movies: The World Heavyweight Championship, the Birth of Cinema, and the First Feature Film

Samuel Hawley. Conquistador, $17.95 trade paper (371p) ISBN 978-0-9920786-8-3

Movie buffs and boxing buffs alike will relish this scrupulous account of what Hawley (Speed Duel) identifies as the first feature film, the 1897 The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight, featuring two of the period’s biggest prizefighters. Hawley creates a gritty, authentic picture of the late 19th century, a time when the trek from St. Louis to San Francisco by stagecoach was described as “24 days of hell.” This lengthy book could have benefitted from more judicious editing, but its copious detail pays off in adding color to the period and its characters: he introduces prizefighter Bob Fitzsimmons’s pet lion Nero, and describes Jim Corbett’s autobiographical stage play, Gentleman Jim. Hawley also conveys the painstaking process of inventing motion picture technology, one marked with an occasional “eureka” moment. The fighters possessed remarkable taunting skills outside of the ring, and Hawley precisely captures the formal language of the time. Beyond the rise of the feature film format, Hawley also notes The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight as a precursor to both subsequent blockbuster movies and today’s ubiquitous sports instant replay. An extensive bibliography, index, and selection of notes underscore the author’s devotion to research. 32 pages of illus. [em](BookLife) [/em]