page_title: Abraham Jacob Hollandersky
section_title: Interview with Damon Runyon, March 1930
hierarchical_section_title: Abraham Jacob Hollandersky / Autobiography, 1930 / Interview with Damon Runyon, March 1930
caption_attribution_description: English: Removed caption read: Photo # NH 44401 &#160;&#160;&#160; USS Oklahoma wearing experimental camouflage, circa 1917
context_page_description: Abe "The Newsboy" Hollandersky was an American professional boxer who became the second American to win the Panamanian national Heavyweight Title when he defeated Californian Jack Ortega in nine rounds in Panama City on May 30, 1913. American congressmen, Naval personnel, and canal workers were among the crowd of nearly two thousand who watched Hollandersky gain victory over an opponent who outweighed him by over thirty-five pounds. The New York Times announced Hollandersky's best known win the following morning.
  Hollandersky was reputed to have fought an unprecedented 1,039 boxing matches between 1905–18, as well as 387 wrestling matches. The record of 1039 bouts from Hollandersky's autobiography was featured for decades in the Guinness Book of World Records, Ripley's Believe it or Not, The Ring Record Book, and hundreds of short newspaper articles made available as Associated Press fillers, appearing most frequently between 1930 and 1970. The most common fight total cited by Hollandersky was 1039, but as Abe fought additional exhibitions he increased the count, thus a few sources that interviewed him after the publication of his book quote higher totals.
context_section_description: On March 24, 1930, playwright, journalist, and one of America's greatest sportswriter's on boxing, Damon Runyon, interviewed Hollandersky about his newly published book for his New York American Sports column "Between You and Me."  During his interview, Runyan discussed Abe's independently financed book, and noted his frugality in completing and publishing it prior to marrying.
  Hollandersky decided to fund the publishing of his autobiography himself, though he had been offered a thousand dollars in 1925 to finance it by his friend Bull Montana. Montana, a former wrestler and Hollywood actor, was a close friend of boxer Jack Dempsey and movie actor and Jewish director Douglas Fairbanks Jr., both of whom Abe claimed to have made movies with.  Montana not only appeared in movies with Dempsey but wrestled him in front of the press on several occasions, most notably at a well attended work out in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in June 1921.
  Hollandersky often took orders for his autobiography before new editions, particularly the first two, from Navy personnel of the Pacific fleet in San Pedro harbor, and for later editions in San Diego after he moved there around 1946. Three of the many ships from whose crew he took book orders were the USS Arizona, USS West Virginia, and USS Oklahoma. The Arizona and Oklahoma both had noteworthy boxing and wrestling instruction during the years Abe boarded them, and sadly both were badly damaged at Pearl Harbor, with the Arizona becoming a permanent monument after it sank. Abe may have helped with boxing instruction and taken orders for books on the USS Tennessee and USS Nevada, as he had signed photos of several boxers from both ships in his book, and the USS New Mexico, as he posed for a photo with one of their athletic teams. Two other large battleships that Abe boarded with a Liberty Pass and known for their boxing were the USS Texas, and the USS California which was also damaged at Pearl Harbor.  He continued to personally sell his book directly to the public during his retirement.
caption: Battleship USS Oklahoma had noted boxing teams
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