Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom

Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, born this day in 1907, won the lightweight championship title of the world, a title he held until 1934. For the next 34 years or so, he was a familiar Hollywood character actor, in both films and tv, invariably playing a stupid, comical thug or mug. (You can see him in everything from Abbott and Costello and Jerry Lewis movies, to The Munsters). He is also famous for his eponymous show biz night clubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He passed away in 1976.

To find out more about show biz history, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.