California’s “Glamour Boy” and world champion boxer was a movie attraction for women and a money-making draw for promoters during the Great Depression. The Prizefighter and the Lady, in 1933, gave movie-goers a boxer who could sing and dance. The film, climaxing with Baer’s world title fight against Italian Primo Carnera, was reprised in 1956 in The Harder They Fall, with Humphrey Bogart.

Many said the sport would have died in the 1930s were it not for the colorful Max Baer. He was a contender for every heavyweight championship from 1932 to 1941. In 1935, Baer brought back the “million-dollar gate” not seen since the 1920s. His battle with Joe Louis was the highest gate of the decade. The star’s radio voice sold razor blades by the thousands and made Gillette into the formidable company forever identified with boxing. Contrary to the depiction of the champion dethroned by James Braddock in the 2005 movie The Cinderella Man, Max was not the villain, and the fight was much more controversial in 1935 than the movie portrayed.

This is the first complete biography to cover Max Baer’s boxing record (adding 70 new bouts); his early family life; his film, stage, television, and radio careers; and his WW II Army service.