The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight
About The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight
On March 17, 1897, in Carson City, Nevada, James J. Corbett and Bob Fitzsimmons fight for the heavyweight championship. Enoch J. Rector's cameras cover the fourteen rounds. Fitzsimmons knocks Corbett out in the fourteenth with a blow to the solar plexus. Corbett crawls outside the camera's view.
Cast & crew
More about The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight
William A. Brady produced it. It premiered on May 22, 1897, at the Academy of Music in New York, ran more than 100 minutes, and used a frame of about 1.65:1. Rector claimed the Latham loop in the cameras as his own invention, and that claim is disputed.
Themes
Background
Dan Streible wrote that the picture was one of the earliest individual productions to sustain public commentary on the cinema.
Look
Enoch J. Rector set three cameras side by side and filmed the whole bout on 63mm stock.
Preservation
Only fragments survive. In the 1980s the known pieces were copied to 35mm from a print owned by Jean A. LeRoy of New York, on an optical printer built for the job.
Notes
- The ring was cut from 24 feet to 22 the night before the fight, then put back.
- A stake of $10,000 was offered to the winner. Fitzsimmons and his manager were first booked at $13,000, then the split was renegotiated.
- Brady later estimated the net profit at $750,000. Charles Musser puts the return at $100,000.
Scenes
- Fitzsimmons drops Corbett in the fourteenth round, and Corbett crawls out of the shot.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight.webm)