Tom Dougall’s RINGSIDE (1938)

From March of 1935 to March of 1938, Tom Dougall wrote all the radio scripts for the soap opera, Ann Worth, Housewife, for radio station WXYZ in Detroit. While playing supporting roles on radio programs such as The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger, Dougall devoted time creating a number of new radio properties, hoping Trendle would sell one to a sponsor. By the end of the year, and inspired by the Northwoods stories of Jack London, Dougall would create Challenge of the Yukon, a Canadian Mountie adventure series later re-titled Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Between Ann Worth and Challenge, however, Dougall wrote a number of radio scripts for a proposed daily serial known as Ringside.

 

As the title suggests, this series was inspired by the newspaper strip, Joe Palooka, a fictional heavyweight boxing champion created by cartoonist Ham Fisher. Like the newspaper strip, the radio proposal centered on the adventures of Jimmy Ross who, guided by his manager, attempted to win the championship. Along the way, Jimmy made enemies with crooks and fell in love with the beautiful Ann Mason. (Joe Palooka’s fiancé was named Ann Howe.)

 

Written from June through August of 1938, Dougall’s proposal exists today through three radio scripts, episodes #one, three and five, with announcer summaries for episodes two and four. The first script was dated July 2, the second dated August 16, and the third dated August 22. 

The following are summaries of the five adventures.

In the first episode, Al Kirby, late of New York, is looking for someone to fight the champ on Friday night, after discovering his contract player suffered a number of broken ribs from a fight the other night. He promised the newspaper men a name for the sports column but does not know what heavyweight in town could stand up against the champ. After all, the spectators need to get their money’s worth. When Jimmy Ross of River City, winner of the Golden Gloves, asks Kirby for a chance to go a few rounds against the champ on Friday night, Kirby scoffs. Mike Dolan, a friend of Al Kirby, recognizes Jimmy from prior bouts and insists Jim give the stranger a chance. Jimmy has potential. Al agrees since they have a trainer named Tony who can give him the works for a round or two. Al reluctantly agrees and asks Jim to show up at the gym ay 12:30 later in the day. 

 

In private, Jim explains to Mike that he needs the money for his mother and his kid sister. His family is from Springville, about 20 miles away. Having spent three days in town and unable to get a job, Jim is willing to enter the ring once again – in desperation. Mary, his sister, cannot walk straight and the doctors will not operate to ensure she can walk again without a financial advance. During a bout in the ring that afternoon, to see what Jim was capable of, Al and Mike watches as Jimmy Ross knocks Tony down. An impressive feat indeed considering Jim had not eaten in 24 hours and still had enough strength to win a bout!

 

In the second episode, Al gives Jim a hundred dollars and promises him a bout on the Friday night card. The boy leave the city and returns to Springville to tell his mother and sister the good news. Meanwhile, the crooked Jake Winters, the manager for Tony, decides that Jim would be a good investment and determines to get him under contract. He drives out to Springville with the champ and, after persuading Jim that he wants to be friendly, offers to drive him back to town. On the way back they stop for dinner. Jake slips some knockout drops in the kid’s coffee and once unconscious, they take him to their hotel and put him to bed. They rouse him just long enough to get his signature to a contract – the boy being told it is a hotel register.

 

In the third episode, Jim wakes to discover his signature on the contract, and Jake insisting he is now legally Jim’s manager. Al Kirby has been removed from the equation. When Jim defies the suggestion that they will travel to New York for business, he attempts to muscle his way out of the scenario. Still tipsy from the drugged coffee, Jim attempts to take a swing and is knocked out by Tony with a swift uppercut. Mike, meanwhile, phones Al Kirby and insists something has happened. Jim’s mother insists her son left her house as scheduled. Playing the role of a detective and following the trail, Mike manages to find Jim at the hotel and wake him up. 

 

“Al figures you’ve double-crossed him,” Mike explains. “He figures you’ve made off with that hundred dollars.” Mike insists Jim tag along with him back to the Coliseum, after hearing Jim’s story, and reveals a surprising  bit of trivia: the contract is not valid. Jim is 19 years old, and you have to be 21 for a contract to be legit. With this understood, Jimmy agrees to return to town with Mike.

 

Back at the Coliseum, Jim goes up against Bat Martin of Toledo. Jake shows up and attempts to create a stir, waving a contract in the air, but Mike Dolan orders him to back off, threatening to phone the cops and report the incident as a kidnapping. In the ring, young Jimmy Ross came out from his corner cautiously, but after the first light exchange, threw caution to the winds. He gave Bat an opening and Bat cashed in with a right to the jaw.

 

In the fourth episode, Jimmy Ross gets up before the count of ten and rallies to win his first professional fight by a knockout. Jake, the champ’s manager, threatened to make trouble over the contract he held, but Al Kirby threatened to expose the methods he used to obtain the contract and Jake and Tony reluctantly leave for New York without Jimmy on a leash. 

 

Ann Mason, the daughter of the financier, saw Jim fight. She comes to Al Kirby with the proposal that Jimmy fight at a charity bazaar that she was sponsoring. Al was finally persuaded, but the girl’s fiancé, Lance, a lawyer, afraid of her interest in Jim, hopes to discourage her by arranging for the young fighter to be beaten. Through Jake, he hires a tough opponent. 

 

In the fifth episode, Al warns Jimmy that “woman and fighting don’t mix… This Mason dame is an eyeful and you ain’t blind.” Jimmy understands the advice and instead stays focused on the fighter hired by Lance, to whom he must battle as one of the highlights of the charity function. But Ann is a tomboy who devours the sporting page. Al later confesses that he did something he rarely ever does – agreed to a bout without knowing who the opponent was. At the Mason estate that resembled a palace, Al meets the Masons, Ann and her father, and through conversation with Lance learns that Jimmy will be going up against Nugget Carney, a man who was disbarred by a couple of commissions because of his reputation for fighting dirty. 

 

Because the bout will not be held for a few hours, Lance proposes they ride horses across the estate and Jimmy, who grew up on a farm, unwillingly finds himself mounting Diablo. Ann warns the prize-fighter that all of her father’s horses are bad tempered. Diablo was the worst of the lot. During the ride, however, Ann discovers her horse panics, running down a blind path toward a cliff. Jimmy takes off to rescue her, in full command of Diablo, to whom he was able to master. Two horses plunging along a narrow path, a sheer drop of hundreds of feet ahead… and the radio audience would have to wait until the next thrilling chapter to learn what was to become of Ann and her peril.

 

No historical documents have been found to verify why this radio proposal never met fruition. George W. Trendle insisted on copyrighting radio scripts to ensure complete ownership and avoid paying royalties. Tom Dougall submitted the three radio scripts to the Library of Congress, probably to maneuver a checkmate to ensure he would be paid a royalty if the program was to sell to a sponsor. Some speculate that Dougall’s proposal mirrored too closely with Joe Palooka to be aired on the network. Others speculate Trendle would never have accepted a radio program if Dougall had copyrighted the proposal first. Reasons aside, it has been universally agree through historical hindsight that had Ringside become a weekly or daily program over WXYZ, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon may never had occurred.