Imperial Valley Press

More about the Hogues and Graves, but this time in a letter from Paul Arwood, manager of the Bomber. He reveals new angles in the case, predicts the bout will go to San Diego.

A Letter ...
Mr. Burdette Kinne, Sports Editor
Imperial Valley Post-Press

There seems to be a general misunderstanding as to the various reasons for the proposed Hogue-Graves fight being delayed for such a long period of time. Let's see just what has held it up, first. On the night that Big Boy was meeting Pacho, Graves issued a challenge to either of the Hogue twins. This challenge was accepted by Shorty. Shorty told Matchmaker Lahey that he (Shorty) could sign any contracts but that he would rather talk it over with Linn Platner of San Diego first as Linn had been their adviser on contracts up to the present time. This conversation took place between Platner and the twin and Platner told me himself that it was all right, but that he thought Shorty should have three fights before tangling with Herman as it would be a tough fight. Platner then signed him for two fights in a row in San Diego. In the meantime the El Centro promoters were trying to get permission from the city to stage the fight in the stadium as it was evident the arena would be unable to accommodate the crowd. An offer was made to Chief Oswalt, who was conducting a drive for funds with which to purchase an iron lung for the valley. The club offered to get a license from the state for the holding of the match in the new location to be paid for by the club, then the expense of putting in the ring lights, building the ring, establishing the extra seats and all other expenses would be paid from the receipts, including the purses to the fighters tax, etc., and the balance or net profit would be split 50-50 with the club and the Iron Lung Committee.

The chief seemed to think it was not only a good idea, but a fair offer from the club. As I understand it, this offer was taken up at a meeting of the council, and it was rejected, the council offering to let the park for a flat 25% of the gross gate. After several attempts on the part of the club officials to get a better deal out of the city, the whole thing was left up to Charley Blalack as park commissioner and he seemed unwilling to make any sort of concession.

Now, let's see what it would mean to the club to pay a rental of 25% of the gross ticket sales: 25% for rent, 10% for federal tax, 5% for the state tax, 25% of the net (gross less taxes) to each of the main event fighters, a flat $235 for the prelim boys, $50 for the referee, $35 for transportation of the fighters, $12 for the doctor, $5 each for the announcer and the timekeeper, around $60 for cards and tickets, $10 for the ticket sellers, and about $10 for ushers and ticket takers.

It doesn't take much figuring to see where the club would come out losing more money than they have on the arena fights.

Signs Twins ...
While this was transpiring, Platner signed the twins for two double main events in San Diego, the last of which is to come off this coming Friday night. He wants the Hogue-Graves fight for his own arena, that is quite natural, but in fairness to Platner, I am sure he has not attempted to unduly influence the boys against fighting for the local club, in fact he consented without any undue squabble for the twins to work in the local arena for the other boys they fought, when we all realize he could have killed those cards had he been so minded.

The seating capacity of the local arena could not begin to hold enough people to make it possible to pay the expenses of the Hogue-Graves fight as proposed without a good raise in prices and it is the opinion of the club that the fans would not understand that. The way I see it, while Platner wants the show for San Diego, he would readily consent for it to come to El Centro if everything were favorable.

The club needed the fight as only two of the previous shows paid their expenses, the boys are both anxious to get the fight, but it seems there is no chance to stage it in El Centro under any sort of a deal that will let the club come out with any amount of profit.

This is a natural match, one that the majority of valley fans want to see and one that has had a good deal of publicity in San Diego also and if El Centro doesn't want the fight the boys and their handlers have no choice except to take it to San Diego and get the issue settled.

Every effort has been made to give El Centro good professional cards during the past few months. We have witnessed cards that would have been considered good for Hollywood or the Olympic, and at a top of $1.38 against their $3.00, and this has been done at a loss of a good many hundreds of dollars by the local promoters. The fans have showed their lack of enthusiasm by staying away in masses so it now looks as though we will have to get our fights thru the sport pages from now on.

Paul C. Arwood
Mgr. Herman Graves.