THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN BOY: ART ARAGON

Los Angeles, 1949. Men wore hats, women were dames, and sawbuck tossed on the bar at Ciro's made you the toast of the town. The Dodgers were in Brooklyn, the Lakers in Minneapolis and the Rams had just come out of Cleveland. Horse racing and boxing dominated the sports pages, five daily newspapers battled for copy and sports heroes were in short supply. Into that vacuum strutted boxing's original "Golden Boy," Art Aragon. "The ladies, my friend, the ladies!" laughed Aragon, remembers the time with a twinkle in his eye. "There were women everywhere you looked and I was makin' a living, so life was pretty good." The Golden Boy began his pro career on May 23, 1944, with a win over Frenchy Renee, notched 11 wins before his 17th birthday, entered the Coast Guard after turning 18 and, while stationed in Boston, managed to fight seven times in 1946, piling up six wins and a draw. "I did pretty good considering I couldn't train," he said. His only bout in '47 was a loss to Charley Early in Salem, Massachusetts, then It was back to L.A., Where in '48 he learned his trade the hard way, scoring quick knockouts over overmatched opponents like Ray Louis and Connie Smith in between hard-fought draws with nationally ranked veterans Tommy Campbell and Jesse Flores. The "Wavy-haired fighter with a vicious left hook" had a knack for self-promotion to go with his heavy hands and his star rose quickly. Next on the hit list was Alfredo Pescatore, the self-styled lightweight champion of Italy. "After a minute of dancing, Pescatore walked straight towards Aragon, who was waiting with a right hand cocked. He pulled the trigger and the fight was over, with the Italian having suffered a broken nose," Less then three weeks later, well regarded "Irish" Tim Dalton stepped through the ropes to face the man the Herald's Morton Moss called "the handsome hard-hitting Golden Boy of southland fistiana." Dalton lasted seven rounds before the referee stopped the fight. Three weeks later Aragon was in Detroit, staying at the same home of his Idol, Joe Louis, who was making his first foray into promoting. "There I was Joe Louis' house, reading all his scrapbooks, and following him around. He was a real class act, but I don't think he said 10 words to me the whole time I was there, not that I cared," he said. On the card that Included exhibition bouts featuring ring legends Willie Pep and Jack Dempsey Aragon battled Luther Rawlings in the main event, dropping a close 10-round decision to a local favorite in a fight the Associated Press described as "One of the best scraps seen in a Detroit ring in years, so hard-fought it had the crowd of 10,062 tossing paper from the rafters into the ring as a way of cheering the bloody brawlers." Aragon returned home the #7-ranked lightweight in the country. He stayed busy, beating Benny Black and Wilf Desjardins before facing wily southpaw Harold "Babyface" Jones. "I hated lefties, you could never catch 'em, especially the ones who jabbed and ran," joked Aragon. The hard-earned victory kept the Aragon train rolling along. As did his marriage, the first of many. "I had plenty of wives I guess, but I loved 'em all, and they loved me, too, it's just that I had trouble staying put," he recalled with a grin. "They were all classy, too. I kept hoping it would rub off on me." In the ring, Aragon continued wowing the crowd at the Legion Hall. First, ringsiders Joe Louis and Bob Hope watched Tony Chavez fall in one, then fighting with his right eye swollen shut for the final four rounds, he decision John L. Davis in what the Herald called "The best action fight of the year." Next up was Julio Jiminez and "Blood flowed like wine in the savage scrap, with both men cut over both eyes...Aragon had what it took when it counted and took the decision." A fifth-round KO of Freddie "Babe" Herman followed, then the Golden Boy took out Alfredo Escobar in three. Aragon was crowned "Los Angeles Fighter of the Year" by boxing writers, prior to taking on Mario Trigo...To be continued.