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For World Kangaroo Day: A Look at Boxing Kangaroos
October 24 is World Kangaroo Day; naturally we observe it with a look at the Australian marsupial’s old-school show biz niche: kangaroo boxing.
I was startled to learn some time ago that it was quite a real thing! In the wild, male kangaroos box with each other for dominance. We think of them as having small, weak, T Rex-like forelimbs, but the arms of the Alpha males look rather like those of muscular humans and are quite terrifying.
Kangaroo boxing became a spectacle in Australia in the 1890s, and soon migrated to the music halls of Europe (see above), as well as American circuses and side shows well into the 20th century. Though not as cruel as cockfights, dog fights, or bull fights (where animals usually die) kangaroo boxing does involve humans landing punches on a beast, so it gradually fell out of favor. (For that reason, and also, the small fact that kangaroos aren’t strictly Marquess of Queensberry and can’t be. They can be provoked into sparring, but not as reliably as showmen would like, I’m sure).
Anyway depictions of this dubious sport are few, but they were enough to make me semi-aware, and want to know more.
Lovers of Warner Brothers cartoons know that kangaroo character Hippety Hop who arrives from time to time to torment Sylvester the Cat, who usually mistakes him for an oversized mouse. The character appears in sixteen of the classic animated shorts. In Pop ‘im, Pop! (1950), Hippety Hop is with a circus, and Sylvester is going to box him…when his much more imposing mother Gracie shows up to give him an even sounder thrashing. As a pair, Gracie and Hippety Hop sort of call to mind echoes of Kanga and Roo from Winnie the Pooh, though they obviously don’t box.
I came across this tasty tidbit while researching my upcoming book on TV variety shows. On the 1966 British show Hippodrome, for a joke Woody Allen once boxed a kangaroo. I’m sure many of you wished he’d gotten a thrashing, but the truth is that when he was younger Allen was quite athletic. He was certainly spry enough to avoid the animal’s (if you’ll excuse the expression) rabbit punches. As of this writing, the segment is available to watch on Youtube. As a bit it’s not unlike Andy Kaufman’s wrestling of women, absurd, but a little unsavory somehow.
Matilda (1978)
For years I assumed this was a Disney comedy, because it’s just the kind of weird live-action family comedy they were putting out at the time (e.g. Herbie the Love Bug, or Gus the football playing mule). In reality Matilda was one of the last films released by AIP! Based on a book by Paul Gallico (who also wrote the novel The Poseidon Adventure was based on) it’s literally about a down-on-his-luck manager (Elliot Gould) who books a boxing kangaroo. The kangaroo is played by a man in a very fake looking costume, a cheat that might have been semi-tolerable if we only got brief glimpses of him. But, no, this disturbing apparition is front and center throughout the entirety of the film. Further, director Daniel Mann (who’d started out directing Tennessee Williams and William Inge) seems to be under the misapprehension that kangaroos need to constantly hop up and down in order to survive, much as fish need to swim. In the wild the hopping is purely a function of locomotion. In this film, if the characters are just standing around, Matilda hops in place, like a car idling its motor. Not that this is realism. But everyone who can stand such things should see it at least once, if only to see Gould trying (and failing) to figure out what tone to play his scenes in, and for his interactions with a supporting cast that includes Lionel Stander, Robert Mitchum, Art Metrano,Lenny Montana, and country singer Roy Clark, star of TV’s Hee Haw.
Roger the Buff Kangaroo (2006-2018) was an internet sensation on account of his mean face and scary forearms. He didn’t box professionally, but he did regularly attack his keepers, who boasted many scars to tell the tale.
At any rate, we typically cap these animal celebrations reminding you to “save” or “preserve” whatever beast we are spotlighting. However, it’s plain that SOME kangaroos can fend for themselves just fine. Learn more about World Kangaroo Day here.
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For more on show business history please see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,
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