Australia's Greatest Sports Promoter - Sports Bizarre

0:00Hello everyone, Titus O'Reilly here before we get started with today's episode, a reminder, you can become a member of Bazaar Plus. You will get access to all our bonus episodes. There's over 100 up there at the moment with some great topics, some funny stories that we've done. You get one every week of those. We also have a bunch of other stuff such as a chat room that you can join and talk to us, all those sort of things. So we'd love you to become a member of Bazaar Plus. The link is in the shownates if you want to join. It's sports Bazaar. We're going to go full-weir and Bazaar in a way you will not see couples in the title. The gloves are off. The hunt for the weirdest. Oh, hey, you're on a circus. It's so bonkers. You can't be doing this. Strangers. This is nuts. Yeah, this is borderline so I can't. It's only going to just increase on the most unbelievable. It's got the greatest bill in the bull's eye. It's a lock going up. It can't keep up. Stories to ever occur. I'm learning a lot today. Hold on to the ads because we're

1:01just getting started. In a world of sport. That's a wish script I've ever heard. Well, it's not over. Oh, I'm going to really? Sports Bazaar. It's a member of the media to suck it and keep on suck it yet. We've joined a local circus and was learning the art of swallowing life's maps. Through the ball, our mountain is forcing road away and never played again. It's time for the leaders of the hunt. Get the whiteboard out. Oh, I'm fusing on it really. It's Taita So Riley and Mick Malay. Hello everybody and welcome to the latest episode of Sports Bazaar with me, Mick Malay. And doing all heavy lifting Taita So Riley, front's up today with a brand new series of podcast. Yes, you have my full attention. Well, this one I think you're going to like because this guy is someone who should be way better known in Australia, his Australian. He's a straight. Yeah. And he's flying under the road. Yeah, he's known by some. There's a great book at Frank Van Stratten Road called Huge Deal. Bit to this I've got from but lots of other ones as well. But he wrote a great book

2:04on this. But apart from that, that's the only major book that's ever been written on this line. He is someone who touches boxing, cycling and then a whole bunch of the entertainment industry too, which combines our love of a lot of different things. Don't King. No, he's Australian. His name is Hugh Donald McIntosh. No idea. You're talking about. And he has contact with figures and we always get great feedback on young Gruffo. John Ren, this kind of era of Australia where... Prime sport. Prime sport. Nothing bad. Nothing bad. And this guy... People still work out the rules for everything. Oh, exactly. And this guy in his career, we're going to go through it. Does some of the biggest sporting events in the world? Does some of the most cutting-edge as a promoter? Prasya promoter. But then does get into entertainment. He is known in America. He is known in England. He's mixing with some of the biggest names of the era in entertainment and all sorts of stuff which we'll

3:05get into. So people knew in a massive way. It's a story people should know better. And you know, a bit like some of those ones who've done and people say to me, I can't believe this isn't taught in schools. This is one of those. Oh, I'd fire up. The guy we're talking about is Hugh Donald McIntosh and he was born on the 10th of September 1876. He's born in a tiny cottage in Surrey Hills in Sydney. So in a city suburb now. Tough area back there. Very tough Irish name. That's an excellent one. A redfern. Yeah. That's a Jason. And back in 1876 when he was born there, this was like very Irish mainly. Very rough. Very poor. And a bit like John Rengrowing. I was down there recently. I was at the Crown Hotel and I got two TVs turned on the AFL with sound up and a very tough pub. Oh. And how did everyone's react to this? They were delivered. When you're the top dog, you're working in a working class pub. People see it your way.

4:06On your way to the low gear. Were you in a taxi? That would have been hilarious if you were in a taxi. Two TV. Everyone goes, oh, you won't get it. I remember the day you couldn't get any AFL. No, there's a few pubs up there now that show quite a lot. This was all in RL and like a two TV turn over and one sound. And how many rounds of Jeff DeShare? As a couple. And to keep the locals happy. Yeah. There's been a bit of entertaining going on, a bit of nuance. It's amazing how bog around just makes people feel better about you. The paper's over the crack. It really does. So his dad was a Scottish born policeman. His mother was Irish, Margaret Benson. His dad was Hugo Fraser Macintosh. And they're living there. And in 1884, he's old. His father dies of epilepsy, which is a stroke. But that's what they used to call it. And he's just four years old when his father passes away. Was he like a drinking or something? We don't really know. Poor health. Possibly all of those things, but we don't really know. I don't think that.

5:07Apoplexy would just say. Yeah, that's what they used to call it. That's what a stroke. Well, and it was a broad turn for often when I think they often ticked it when they didn't know. Didn't know. It's like mental illness. Yeah. Because sometimes I think it could also be a bad. Yeah. It could be a bad. It's a simple time. He says, three years after my father's death, I led the life of the conventional child, howling when I didn't get my own way, bowing to the authority of my mother when I couldn't circumvent her. Then one day when my mother was baking some scones, I asked her casually if I might go to Adelaide with a man I knew, not taking me seriously, wishing to get the seven-year-old nuisance out of her way. She said, yes, go whenever you like. How old is he? Seven. That's bad, period. He says, I went. Strangers at my seam, it is the truth. And I walked out of the house, told the friend that I had my mother's permission and landed in Adelaide a few days later. Now, this is all sorts of bonkers because his friend is an adult. Yeah. And it's a guy who's a, he describes him as a traveling jeweler, but others' discribers

6:10and I tinder it tinkly. You know, you know, you're just ticketing and stuff. Don't know much about this. There's no suggestion that anything tuna ferris is going on. Who knows? A seven-year-old just taking off and wandering Australia is... I look, it was honestly a different time. It never occurred to anyone that that was danger in the air. No, or just even the seven-year-old, even if you trust the adult, to just go, yeah, head off. Wherever you want to go. No phones. A fun little fella. Yeah, enjoy your seven now. You're old enough to get out of. You know what you're doing. They apparently don't stay together long. So he goes traveling by himself and he ends up in Broken Hill, which is a fair bit away from Adelaide, you know. And there he gets a job at the Broken Hill proprietary company. That old is you now. He's about getting into eight. Right. So that's BHP as if he's anyone who doesn't know that's what BHP is now. It's a huge mining

7:13company and his job is picking ore out from the quarts. So obviously, probably kids with their little hands. Yeah. Great. Built for the job. Once again, different time. No one said, why you hear as an eight-year-old at the mine. You couldn't go down. I wouldn't put a past. No, they go here. No, this is a great job. Apparently, it was very tough. He held onto that for nine and a half. He's not yet nine years old, and he again just goes on a bit of a travel. He's not a head start. This kid. Yeah. And it's just he's already got a family of life experience under the belt. He's not even 10. I don't mind. Kids were only had to walk to the milk bar at seven. I didn't trust them. And I could see it from my house. I didn't trust it. So he just decided that he'd just wander around New South Wales countryside just taking any job he could find. By general worker? Yeah. So whatever job was there, he would take. And then it went by the time he was 12, he ends up back in Sydney. And he gets a position as an assistant to a doctor, which basically was holding instruments and

8:18this is fantastic. Bringing stuff to him, whatever needed, you know. I only get my boy's teacher's podcast. Yeah. And go, what are you? What have you done? Sad young man. This doctor was very fond of him. He treats him like a son and says, I'm going to send you to night school. You're going to assist me. Keep assisting me as a job. But, you know, I'm going to make something of you. So around this time, you know, he's 12, 13, and he sort of feels like he's fallen on his feet. When he's not at night school or working for the doctor, he spent all his time in a gym learning boxing. And the gym is Larry Foley's gym. Now, you might remember Larry Foley was the guy that trained young Gruffo. Right. And was the one that the term, happy as Larry comes from. And if anyone wants to go back and listen to our young Gruffo series, he'd have one of our best. One of our best. So Larry Foley, just for those that haven't listened to that, he was the father of Australian boxing. He very much bought Queen's free rules to Australia. He taught all the top boxes that came out of our next 20 years.

9:22He was pretty much cheering during that. He trained them to town. Yeah. He was the one to, he fought on the border near the Victorian Murray, a new South Wales border near the Murray there. And when he won that Australian championship, all the people put money on him. And a journalist said to the people, how do you feel? And they said, where is happy as Larry meeting him? And that's where that slogan where happy as saying happy as Larry comes from. So Larry Foley's a tough man. He'd been a middleweight champion. He's teaching this very scientific boxing. And he trains McIntosh in how to fight. And this is school McIntosh kicks with him even though he doesn't go on to become a boxer. He's been a little bit more than 13. He's 13. 14 when this is happening. And McIntosh says he once saw young Gruffo. And I don't know how much he knew young Gruffo. But he definitely was there at the same time in the same gym. And he said, one time he saw young Gruffo. And young Gruffo goes on to become one of our greatest ever boxes in America.

10:25And he's probably one of the craziest characters we've ever had on our podcast. He said, I once saw Gruffo seated in an open air cafe picking flies out of the air with his finger and thumb because he was so quick, which knowing young Gruffo is very believable. So he's having a great couple of years. It's the most abilities ever had. But on the way when he's about 16, the doctor passes away. And this is sort of he doesn't really know what to do because so he's been but a kid. He's been taught night school all this sort of stuff. So he goes traveling again. And he starts meandering down towards Victoria. He worked as a farm labor and engine driver, a baker's boy, a tar boy in a shearing shed, doing all these things. And he finally decides, I'm going to go to Melbourne. I'm going to go check out Melbourne. And he said, Melbourne's all been a great attraction for me. So there I went and got a job in a dairy. I became a proficient milker. And in 1892,

11:29I entered in one of milking championship. But soon I was tired of the monotonous life on a dairy farm. Milking. Yeah. The novelty where I've pretty quickly. And if you've got an adventurous spirit, yeah, honking onto a couple of nipples all day. And once you've won the competition is the fastest milker. There's no more mountains to conquer. I see not a straw. No. So he said for months, there had been tickling him. My mom, while I can describe only as an itchy idea. Soon I diagnosed the symptoms. I'd reached the inevitable stage of every ambitious youth who desires the line light and desires it quickly. I wanted to become an actor. Okay. So he heads down to Melbourne and tries to do some acting. And what were the options there? Just theater. That's what a bill. All this sort of stuff. But his dream is in an acting on stage role. Peaks when he's about 17. He gets the role as a chorus boy in the pantomime. Simbad, the sailor. That's a boy. The theater royal in Melbourne. The theater royal is some birch road in Melbourne.

12:32There's the hungry jacks on the corner of it down from the metro, which people don't even know. But that was a big famous theater back then. Tivoli was famous too. Well, it's funny. You say that. And this might be jumping ahead as a spoiler alert. Okay. He will be the guy that builds that brand. Shut up. So we're going to lay out in a late he. It's important. Link, because he's acting bug, even though it doesn't go on to be he'll be on the stage. He never loses this theater. Okay. But first he's going to make some money elsewhere. But yes, he's all behind all of life. So he decides to head back to Sydney 17 and he's in Sydney. And once again, this isn't like you go see a career canceler back then or there's uni degrees or you know, unless you really put into that. You're just looking for work, right? And the 1890s was terrible depression and you just take whatever's off. Take what you're offered. He never went to school. Except for the night. No, no, no, no. He starts driving a baker's cart for the catering firm Able and company and he's

13:41selling baked goods going around wherever. And he soon figures out, I can make my money if I just sold these pies directly like why am I working for this catering company? He's very entrepreneurial. He is. And he figures out that he can get some credit from the red firm bakery to get pies. So he says, you give me the pies on credit, I'll sell and come back and give you the money. And they say, sure. And he figures out that there's way to make money. He's willing to go with some of the more reputable catering companies. So he'll go to race courses, the beach, open air boxing matches. But he goes to the beach. Beaches back then sometimes if you it was seen as the if you weren't wearing full-length clothes, it was a moral and they kept trying to ban open swimming. But he'd also go to brothels and two up schools. Because who after being in the brothel doesn't want a quick pie pie. He's just a wonderful story. So he starts making a fortune,

14:51well not a fortune, but a lot of money and he has to start hiring people. So suddenly he's in catering basically. And so he's doing that. And he also with the money is staying to build. And he's got more people selling pies for him. He builds a what they call a physical culture hall. And this is basically a gym. And he starts managing some boxes at this point. And he does this along for a little while. He's about 24 years old, he gets this stage. And in 9-0-1, he promotes his first ever boxing match. And it's between two African American fighters who are in town, Ike Stewart and Edward Starlight Rollins, who styles himself as the colored middleweight champion of Australia. I love a self-styled champion in boxing. According to Smith's Weekly, which was the newspaper that covered a lot of this, McIntosh offered a roast chicken as a price. And Starlight the winner rejected the bird shouting from the ring, I've never been asked to fight for a feat. But it's quite a big success. And it gets a lot of coverage because it's to African Americans

15:56fighting, which in Australia at the time is not common. Not a huge person. It's like, I feel I'll get him get a hot chicken, a rotisserie chicken, a bachelor's handbag from the Superback. Well, he's a lot of weight to make the weigh in. And then he might be looking pretty cool. 897, he also marries an art teacher called Mary and backhouse. And he says, I married her after two years of what he said was temptuous wooing. So two years, she is a very smart driven woman and sticks with him right to the end. But you'll find that she puts up with a lot in that time. By 899 around this time, he's selling his pies and he starts working for a guy called Tomas Bulge Helmaw, who's a bigger caterer. He's got runs of business out of a Masonic Hall. And suddenly, McIntosh starts to straighten out his catering company a bit. Punch magazine says that he dealt with

17:01a very rough clientele. And that was how McIntosh made his mark. He appeared as a handler of men. His method was summary. When a member of the slaughterhouse union started to throw the caterer's plates about, Hugh D. McIntosh would hurl himself upon the slaughter man, assault him violently and throw him out down a flight of stairs if possible. So it was quite a rough trade. And he would straighten it out. And so apparently he had them humming as a catering company. But tragedy strikes again, Helmaw's found on Manly Beach. He'd ended his life by taking cyanide due to business warriors. He was only 49 when he passed away. He left a widow Ella and eight children whose ages range from 18 to four. And McIntosh takes over the business and basically the family as well. He and the widow don't see eye to eye on a lot of things. Perfect. So he decides he'll strike and he's own. She runs it in a much smaller scale, the catering business. And he still looks after the kids though,

18:06financially and in other ways for a long time. And he still gets along okay with her, but he doesn't love her. So he is trying to work out what to do. He decides he will run for a seat on Sydney City Council. And he loses and he's actually taken to court by the winner for things he said in the press. That's not on a sure winner. He's charged with slander. And McIntosh on the stand denies calling his opponent a thief that admits saying that he was a dirty, scourless, unmannedly, and I still feel that way. So the judge finds him guilty of calling him a thief that gives him a very small fine. So sort of say, to the lawyer guilty, but what are we doing? This is a serious loss. Why are we doing it? You're wasting my time. So around this time, he sold what was his part of the catering business and he's got a bit of money. He becomes a keen cyclist. And at the time, cycling is the biggest sport in Australia. It's more the around velodrome sort of

19:07attracts. So he becomes the secretary, the league of Wheelman of New South Wales because they're not very well run. They're very amateur organization. He starts to promote races. And he starts to find out it's very corrupt. Like it is very much. Cycling. Would you believe it? And that people often, because there's a lot gambling on it, will fix the winners. Can you? I know you're in. This is the assistant with every other series, but on cycling. What a hotbed of cheating, shenanigans, and savory. Yeah. Now he starts to crack down on this because he sees this as a threat to the popularity of it as an event and having a settlement ticket. Well, following one event, he discovers that the riders had fixed the race. He storms in the locker room and in the words of a reporter present laid out the guilty riders, what a tie. He got a river. He's been trained by Larry Folley. He knows out of box. So that would get your attention. That would get your attention. Lantern's friend when he carried on like he did. If he knew that someone's going to wander in and crack him.

20:11Oh, is that all making part of it? Yeah, exactly. Like if you go down to the 400, it's like any racetrack and stand there as they come around the turn. Your hair jockey is at any country racetrack shorting out. Who's going to win? Or 50 to get out of the way. Yeah. 50. Isn't that that famous story about the director of far lab? Have we told that story? Who would if we have? It's a beauty. I think Rob Sitch told me so I don't want to steal it. So I'll give him the credit. But it's I think it's well, the director said that the night before he's got a film, the Melbourne Cup scene of far lab. And it's the first big one. He's got all the cameras, book. He's got jockeys. He's got horses and he wakes up in a cold sweat and he's panic, can't sleep because he's like, I've got to film this in such a way that not only do I need far lab to win. I need the right horse to be in session. They have to be if it's going to be historic in the right sequence. I've got to the right distances. Yeah. How am I and how am I going to and he's like

21:11and he can't sleep at all for the rest of the night sitting up thinking, how do I do this? I'm thinking, do I do separate shots, but then we're going to have to run the race in lots of different ways. And he's thinking, this is a disaster. I'm like it's the first morning roll for next morning rides on the film set. And he calls in everyone pretty much and says to the jockeys, I don't know how we're going to do this. And I'm but we need all the horses to finish in a certain order and they all just leave him and go, yeah, shall. No problem. No, no, no, no, you'll be going at full speed and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, we can do that. Two and a half linch from second to third. And what do you have? I'm just right away. They just go something up story. That just tells you everything to me. No. Yeah. Cycling, it's very big down in Victoria. Right. And it's very big down in Victoria because John Ren who we have done a series on. Yes. Who runs an illegal tote gambling shot

22:16Hollywood out of Colinwood and leads the authorities on a merry trace for years and takes over a lot of horse tracks. Yeah. Takes over boxing, spreads up into Queensland, takes up all the entertainment options. He's sort of seen as the rival to Macintosh. Macintosh is Sydney. John Ren is down in Melbourne. Now, John Ren has been very successful making money. Now, what I argue that he was in on the fixed John Ren and there's probably a little bit of a bit of it that some of that might be true on in the cycling down there. But Macintosh decides, well, someone needs to do this up here. If we're going to like we need to make money. So he forms a thing called summer nights amusement, which is to commercialise cycling in New South Wales. He launches the inaugural Sydney 1000 in 9.03. It's a handicap race over one mile. Now remember, he's not really been a sports promoter before. He done one boxing match. But this is the kind of thing that can be there. Right. So it's first prize is going to be a 750 pounds, which makes it the

23:17richest cycling race in the world. Straight away. And it is 350 pounds better than John Ren's Austral Wheel Race in Melbourne. And he decides that he's going to hold it at the Sydney cricket ground, which they have a cycling track around the, around the oval at this point. On the inside or the outside? Around the oval. Yeah, he's been inside. He could sit watch it because cycling was often like that. No, it's tracks too. He decides that to make it a success and this shows you where he can really go up a level. He decides, I'm going to get the best cyclists in the world to come out here. A guy called Marshall Major Taylor. I'm going to get him to come out here. Major Taylor's known as the Warchester whirlwind or the Ebony streak or the coloured cyclone. So he's the second black world champion in any sport. Yeah. Second world champion in any sport, black world champion in any sport. The first was the boxer George Dixon, 891. So because of racial prejudice in the United States, they'd barred him from a lot of events

24:20this cyclist. He'd gone to Europe and come a huge star. And he was seen as exotic in Europe. So they all flock. He'd pull in huge crowds. So McIntyre said, I'll give you a contract of 1,200 pounds, which is three months plus any extra prize money you win. Now that's the average wage for 12 years from Australian worker at the time. So 12 years pay from average worker for three months work. So Taylor says, great. I'll take it. They sell in a Sydney harbour and there's a welcoming flotilla of boats. And on one of them is Hugh D. McIntyre and McIntyre with a megaphone, yells out, Taylor, Taylor, welcome major Taylor and there's media everywhere. It's a huge thing. 54,000 people show up to the SCG to watch it. This is absolutely huge. The race is not that exciting. Taylor actually falls in a guy called NC Hopper once off a 75 yard handicap.

25:23Taylor sticks around us a more racing forum and comes back in 904 for the second Sydney again. It's a huge success. But this time McIntyre is invited to White American champions, Floyd McFarlane and Iva Lawson. And he knows that this is going to be seen and couldn't happen in America. The idea of a Black champion against White champions is going to get people rolled up and more press than you could ever imagine. Because it wasn't an enlightened time back then, unlike now where you'd never have any of this. He has them there and this brings this amazing season of cycling racing. They've race against Taylor before and they wanted to beat him to show why people are better. And it's not Velcro. It's just around the track. Around the track. Yeah. What distances are we talking about? Like a mile. So it's real sprint stuff. McFarlane who's come out, Floyd McFarlane, the American champion. He's got links to John

26:24Ren back in Melbourne. And so there's doubts about whether he might be trying to fix the race slide. Right. So McFarlane and some of his other competitors, they work out a betting coup. And the idea is they would bottle up Taylor who had a bit of a handicap he was starting off. And then allow a long price outside a Larry call but to swim past win because they would effectively block Taylor in. And you'd be shocked to learn that this plan works perfectly. Right. And McIntyre, who was the promoter but also the referee sees it and disqualifies the winner. A bunch of some else. Well, he disqualifies the winner gives the price of the second man whose name is Alfred the widow O'Brien. Do you love the thing they back then? You see real widow. It's like so he's the winner. McIntosh is like said, this is the decision. And McFarlane, who the the American champion who set this all up rushes at McIntosh and says, I'll kill you, bastard. And Mac just stands his ground because McIntosh,

27:28those out of fight. And he says, keep your fists yourself, McFarlane. You can't find any better than you can ride. That's a good line. Fightin' with Corbett, who was the one that won that got taken off at him because he was part of this betting sting. He goes to court to try and secure his prize. And this got worldwide coverage because these are three American champions, two white, one black American champions. This is front page everywhere. And the Chief Justice awards McIntosh. The money basically agrees in McIntosh that they've organized a fix. And this inspires a 1992 mini series that appeared on Channel 7 called Tracks of Glory. I don't know if you remember that. It was a mini series. Cameron Dato was in it just in Clark. And Richard Roxba played a huge D Macintosh. Well, now we're going to have to go and watch the Justin Klein. Super, back to it. So this was, yeah, huge. This was the thing. So this is a Tracks of Glory. Tracks of Glory. Now you go. There it is. Cameron Dato. Yeah, Cameron Dato. That's one of the

28:31yeah, one of the white cyclops here. So after the case Macintosh, he is the president of the federal cycling council. He's a Spence McFarlane and the conspirators for three years. He later said about McFarlane. Macintosh said he was a villain, but a likable one. He took it in good part and shook hands when we next met. But not like afterwards when McFarlane returns to a bike meet in America, he's stabbed with a chisel following a violent quarrel with a race track caterer. Down to happen. Down to happen. Chisel. So the public again disillusioned recycling because of the fix and the corruption still are. And Macintosh decides, well, I need to turn to a less corrupt sport. And so he turns to boxing. So he establishes a company called the scientific boxing and self-defense limited with himself as the governing director. But he hears news that shows how good or entrepreneur

29:36he is. And this will change his entire life and operation. So he hears news in the paper that Teddy Roosevelt, the president of the United States, has announced that he is sending. And it becomes known as the US Great White Fleet. A huge battle fleet with two of the world partly as a good will thing, but partly as part of his big stick diplomacy. What is this? So this is around 1908. Let's shut. We got a huge fleet. It's a flex. Yeah, it's a total flex. The fleet consists of 16 warships, five support vessels and 16,000 sailors on board or crew. And Macintosh says, it seemed to me that someone ought to make a whole lot of money out of that visit because they're coming to Sydney. I saw no reason. Cached up. We're going to show the sailors on surely. To all come here. What did they say in the war? Overpaid over six over here. Exactly. So this is the problem with the United States. And even better, this isn't a war. They're just

30:38far that you land a plenty. Come, come aboard boys. 16,000 people rocking up in Sydney in 1908. I'd be like the running of the bulls with American sails. So he says, it seemed to me that someone ought to make a whole lot of money out of that visit. I saw no reason why it should not be you, the Macintosh. I secured a week's option. And this is the week the fleet will be on shore of every available dancehall restaurant and theater in Sydney so that when the fleet dropped anchor, I should have the entertainment market covered. You could do that. The least him for a week. That's what he does. What a practice. He's ahead of the curve. So ahead of the curve. So he is, so basically every dollar they're going to spend is getting one of his venues. He's going to be an avineate. He at least controls for that week. He then sets about putting together basically a whole bunch of events for them. And he puts together a box. It will concerts. You will go through everything. Anything, anything, any way to separate them from

31:40their money. So he sets about putting together a boxing match because he thinks when they get here, if we have a big boxing match that way, these guys have been... Of course, they're going to have my great to them. They're going to love it. So the local heavyweight champion is Bill Boshda Squires. He's a Shira who'd been backed by John Rendon in Melbourne a long time. Yeah, right. And... The Shira's, they work hard. Maybe tough as nails. And Squires that I traveled overseas to fight the Canadian World Champion, Tommy Burns, for the World title. First in California, we're Burns knocked about in the first run and later in Paris, where he went down the eighth. But he was a very powerful guy. And he returns home and Macintosh fans him eating a pie in one of his shops. And he says, Derek and you could beat Burns if you fought him a third time. And he says, I'm not the Australian son. There's no doubt about it, son. And this is what I'm going to do. So Macintosh cables and off at a Tommy Burns, the World Champion. You know, he's Canadian, but he boxes in America, the World Champion. And says,

32:45I'll give you 4,000 pounds for two fights plus your fairs and expenses if you come out here. And Burns, there's a lot of money back then. And Burns says, absolutely. And so Mac has the World Champion coming out to fight the Australian Champion. They both agree. And then he decide, well, I need a venue. And a few places the looks at that are going to charge him in exorbitant fee. And there's not really something that suits his needs. So he thinks, well, why don't I build a temporary arena and just do it that way? So he considers more park, but the council's term are prohibitive. And so a friend of his who works at the Daily Telegraph says, there's a big paddock down the rush cutters, Bayney Kings Cross. Why don't you go down there and be in a Chinese market garden? It's not that far from the city. And he says, see if you can rent that land.

33:46Least that land for a little bit and build a temporary stadium there. So he says, okay. So the story goes that he dresses up in a shabby suit and fronts up to the owner of the land. James Ferness is an iron monger. And says, I want to put on a little side show for the American sailors. And I want to do it here in, could you possibly rent me this bit of land for a small period of time with an option to buy it, perhaps? And the guy thinks this guy's got no money. So he grieves that for two pounds a week, he can rent the land. And so straight away, Macintosh goes, great. Ferness's amazement is the next time Macintosh shows up, he's in a smart suit and puffing on a big cigar looking very rich and is supervising the unloading of truck loads of timber and galvanised iron. And he's had, buddy. And start building a massive seating like a tier system, like in the circus tents of the day. And they use 2,000 tons of timber. There's toilets. There's everything. It's open

34:51and they work day and night, takes six weeks to complete. It costs 2,600 pounds. And he calls it the stadium. And it can see 20,000 people. At the time, the largest boxing arena in the world. And he thought and said at the time, I could see no possible use for it after the fleet had left. But he actually did hold onto it. And he roofed it in 1912. And later, it became known as the stadium. And it hosted Bob Hope. Bob Hope called it so big that it was Texas with a tin roof. Other entertainers who appeared there in later years included the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Bill Haley, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Dylan and Ray Charles. It wasn't temporary at all. No. And it was known as the stadium, all the House of Stash. And it lasted until June 1970 in Sydney. And he was the one behind it. And this is how it got started. Yeah. This is how it got started. It's got the stadium. And

35:51many cities, so I was of a certain vintage listing, Mike. Oh, no, it'd be just before he built it after his cycling stuff. So he's got the stadium. He's got this fight set up. He quickly has time to go to Auckland. And he goes there a week before the Great White Fleet arrive in Auckland. And he buys up every flag and piece of bunting in Auckland and sells them onto the New Zealanders that are not radiously marked up price. So he makes an enormous amount of money. He then comes back to Sydney. And there, the Great White Fleet has arrived. And they are just filling up his pockets with money. All the restaurants, everything. A Paddington Town Hall, which you got to remember, he's rented all of these. He stages dancers for the American officers. And he has ads in the paper that say, Australian beauties are welcome to attend these dancers. At the agricultural grounds, he has a wood-soring competitions, rough riding, sheep-shearing demonstrations, sheep dog trials,

36:52and boomerang and spear throwing by indigenous people. This just sounds like there's too many options. There's, right, he's in the Sydney sports ground. He has buck jumping exhibitions, amateur and professional athletics, naval and military sports, cycle and motor racing and a brass band contest as well, which he gets them to parade through the city streets to drum up into us. And then he also hires every small motorboat in the Sydney Harbour and puts an ad in the paper that says, I've got a huge fleet assembled, eagle-awaiting your custom. And the advertisement said, these boats with competent and careful men in charge can be engaged for any length of time. At very low rates, having been secured, they are awaiting your orders. The stadium is built temporarily, like this time you thought, it's got concerts. And finally, it's time for the big fight. Tommy Burns, who is from Canada and the world champion, he's five foot seven, he's very small, but very fast. He's held the heavyweight title for three years. And the fight between him and Billy

37:56Squires is Australia's first officially recognized world title. And the interest is enormous. The Americans weirdly stay away, the sailors. There's so much else from the boxing. From the boxing. Just the boxing. And the reason they believe is they think that Tommy Burns, who's beaten Bill Squires twice before, there's no chance, but they also suspect the fixes in. So the Americans stay away. And Macintosh thinks, well, this might be a bit of a disaster because he hears words gone around, don't go. But he should not worry because 20,000 Australia and show up. And it's the largest ever crowd ever in Australia for anything. And then hundreds and possibly tens of thousands milled outside deathbrough to get here. Burns had been working by influenza, but he'd be given a large bucket of ice cream that apparently perked him up. And he disposes of Squires in the 13th round, relatively easily, but it's meant to be very fun fight to watch. And the Australian crowd is

38:57very excited by this. And the real winners, Macintosh, because he had sold a very expensive seat, and he got gate receipts of 13,400 pounds, which in the day is, you know, whopping amount. It's the biggest, what did you say, 4,000 was it was 10 years? Yeah, so this is the most money anyone has ever made of boxing in the world, including America at this point in time. And so he decides, well, leave the stadium up. They're hurry to take the temporary stadium down. He'd also film the match and starts to take it around Australia to show it in cinemas and make significant money off that. He goes to Melbourne, the Kings Theatre in Russell Street, and then it's so successful that it then starts showing it in the Melbourne Town Hall. And this is where John Ren controls it. And he and John Ren actually get along okay. John Ren's okay with him because he sees a similar

40:00type. Macintosh said, although we were rivals, we still remain good friends with a healthy respect for each other's ability. And Jack Lang, who becomes premier, but is tied up with these guys a bit, he says Macintosh and Ren shared a very simple philosophy. The quickest way to make money is to provide for the simple pleasures of the people. So Ren actually later in life will buy the Sydney Stadium off Macintosh. So Macintosh is now flush with cash. He's brooding out. And he's got the biggest boxing venue in the world. And he decides that, yeah, the Australians will come. I don't need a great white fleet. I've made a lot of money out of that. But I reckon if I put on a big boxing match, I can get a huge crowd in and all the events that go with that. And he decides what I need is the biggest boxing match in the world. And he decides that Tommy Burns is already the world champion, he's in Australia. And he'd all just made him a lot of money.

41:00So he thought I can get him what I need is a challenger. And then comes the idea. He decides that he will get a guy called Jack Johnson. Good Lord to come out and fight. Now boxing people know all about this. But at the time, Jack Johnson was an African American boxer who'd been denied a shot at the title because of his colour. But he was belting guys, left right and centre. But the World Championship was a white man's game at this stage, which we find fanciable. But people saw this we could never fight, could never be held in America. In fact, it was illegal in a lot of places. So Macintosh figures one, we can have this in Australia. We can have the best world title fight. But also this clash of races. And it is very much in the in the marketing of what this is. I don't think Macintosh cares. But how does you make the money out of it? Because as long as it fills your arena. That's actually a passion. I'll put them the filming of it. And then, yeah. And so he figures out I can film this. You know, there'll be all sorts of entertainment stuff around it.

42:06And he knows that in the United States, this can't happen. This would be the first time ever a black man's permitted to challenge for the heavyweight championship in the history of time. And he didn't really necessarily think about it at the time. But many boxing historians say this is the most important match in the history boxing. This is what changes everything. The tracks the attention of the entire world and changes boxing forever. And Macintosh knows that all he needs to do is to convince Tommy Burns and Jack Johnson to agree to it. And if he can do that, he will have the biggest match in boxing history occurring in his own stadium and here in Australia. And when we come back next week, that's where we're going to start. Oh, well, you've laid the table beautifully. I'm a fan. I mean, and it's interesting that they get on because as long as they're not cutting each other's lunch, you've got your turf. I've got my to rent and they're both business people. They're both business people. If there's a deal, they make it work. Wow. What a time to live. I know.

43:08Oh, well, I look forward to our next installment. Thank you, Titus. If you want more bizarre, why not become a member of a bizarre plus? You get a weekly bonus podcast plus access to our archive of more than a hundred bonus episodes just sitting there. They're all ad-free. If you become a member, you also get the ability to have a members-only chat room. It's great fun. We'd love to have you on board. Bazaar plus, the link is in the show notes.