Boxing Nostalgia by Alex Daley

Author:Alex Daley [Daley, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sports & Recreation, Boxing
ISBN: 9781785314957
Google: 28pHEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: eBook Partnership
Published: 2018-11-30T23:29:16.225801+00:00

The Showbiz Collector Strikes Back

The name Morrie Bush may mean nothing to you. But a signed photo of this 1950s Harrow heavyweight recently fetched £1,730 on eBay. Yes, £1,730! That isn’t a typo. That’s more, I think, than a signed Ali photo would go for on the same auction site. What makes the purchase even more remarkable is that the buyer, more likely than not, has no interest in boxing.

Boxing historian Larry Braysher alerted me to this anomaly. He had bid £30 for the photo — which featured Morrie with world middleweight champ Randolph Turpin — and was stunned when it went for £1,700 more. Keen to know the reason, Larry contacted the seller.

Maurice ‘Morrie’ Bush was known for more than just boxing. The buyer, it turned out, was an American showbiz memorabilia collector who’d been after a signed photo of Bush for 30 years. After leaving the ring, Morrie had moved into TV and film work. He was never much more than a bit-part actor and stuntman but crucially he played the bounty hunter, Dengar, in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. As any film buff will tell you, Star Wars collectables are like gold dust.

But what of Morrie’s ring career? Well, Morrie — who was born in Pimlico in 1930 — learnt to box at school. Later, he was an army heavyweight champion and won the Middle Eastern title in Egypt. As an amateur, he boxed for the Tate & Lyle Thames Refinery (yes, the sugar firm) and as a pro was managed by Ted Walker.

Fifties Canning Town light-heavyweight Terence Murphy remembers Morrie well. ‘We were amateurs together at Thames Refinery and we both turned pro with Ted Walker. Morrie was a lovely bloke — he was like a brother to me — and we sparred hundreds of rounds together. Me, him, George Walker, Joey Parsons and Jackie Lee all sparred together. Our base was the Olympic gym in Fitzroy Street, the former HQ of the famous gym-owner Bill Klein.’

Among 6ft 4in Morrie’s pro opponents were the well-known south London brothers Nosher and Dinny Powell. Morrie won two out of two against Dinny but lost both of his fights with Nosher. Two other notable foes were European heavyweight champ Dick Richardson and British and Empire king Joe Erskine.

A connection from the boxing world got Morrie into film work. Fittingly, his first role involved a prize fight with 6ft 5in US film star Forrest Tucker in the 1953 adventure flick Laughing Anne. The casting director must have been striving for authenticity as Morrie was still boxing professionally at the time.

In his long film career, Morrie appeared in movies such as You Only Live Twice (1967), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Creeping Flesh (1973), Flash Gordon (1980) and The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), though he was often uncredited.

His TV work included turns in popular shows such as Minder, Budgie, The Gentle Touch and the film version of Till Death Us Do Part. His least demanding role was probably when he played a murder victim in an episode of Inspector Morse.

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