Arthur Flynn and Joe Louis

Lawrence's Arthur Flynn camps it up with Joe Louis
November 11, 1948

A few knowledgable souls who saw my exhibit at the Pizza King were dismayed that I didn't include any images of one of Lawrence's most well known boxer's, Arthur Flynn. The Pizza King exhibit was never meant to be the complete or final story and the displays were limited by the available wall space.

Also, this is the one of the only pictures I have of Arthur Flynn and when I do present him, I hope it will be in a fighting stance.

Arthur Flynn passed away in 1985. His big moment was as a kid in 1926 winning both the AAU and the PanAmerican titles. Flynn was the kind of guy who generated a lot of stories. He had a winning personality and was as good a writer as he was a toastmaster. For many years he assisted the Tribune in composing obituaries of boxers and wrote one of the best ones about his buddy, Andy Callahan.

One story about Arthur is that he showed up for an early professional fight and the guy at the door wouldn't let him in, he looked too young. Arthur had to wait till someone he knew came in to gain access.

Another story had him decking a punk on a Lawrence street who was man-handling his woman. Arthur was well over 70 years old at the time, and was still punching the bag at the Lawrence YMCA.

Arthur's son, Barry Flynn shared a story with me that Arthur loved to tell. A Lawrencian was riding a train in the late 1920s and saw Jack Dempsey, THE Jack Dempsey and went over to introduce himself. He told Dempsey he was from Lawrence, MA and did Dempsey ever hear of a fighter from the area named Arthur Flynn? Dempsey thought a moment and responded with "Ah, yes, Arthur Flynn... a cut above average." The fact that this was one of Flynn's favorite stories speaks to his wonderful self deprecating sense of humor.

After his boxing and wrestling career died down, Arthur became a radio announcer for the Boston fights and it was there that this picture was taken of a clowning Flynn and a bemused Joe Louis.

There will be more about Flynn in the future. Handsome with a big smile, he lent some glamour to local boxing and I like to think of him and his pretty wife, Molly, as our very own version of Billy Conn and his blonde.

People often ask me why I am so interested  in boxing history. I say it was seeing Andy Callahan's picture, which is true. But I leave out the personal part, that  men like Andy Callahan and Arthur Flynn remind me of my father, who was born in 1908. My father grew up in the Irish ghettos of Hartford and had more in common with these guys than he did with our suburban neighbors in Connecticut. Reading about Flynn and Callahan helps me put my father in context and better understand his unruly and unpredictable behavior. And strange 1920s lingo.

I am saying this as a way of introducing an article written by fellow IBRO member, Tina Post who is writing her dissertation on boxing and Joe Louis. Tina only writes about the tightrope Joe Louis had to walk as a black fighter and most interesting to me, why it matters to her.

Read Tina's article, The Phantom Punch.