Cinema: Boxers Triumph

In 1912 Congress made the transportation of prizefight films in interstate commerce a criminal offense ($1,000 fine, a year in prison, or both). Widespread bootlegging weakened this ban and unhampered radio broadcasts made it almost meaningless, but it stayed on the books until last week. Then Franklin Roosevelt scratched his name to a repealing act passed by Congress, after 28 years making the movement of fight films over State lines legal.

Many grateful theatre managers and fight fans had forgotten why the ban had been imposed. Not so the man who lifted it, New...