Hollywood Champ: The Confusing Legacy of Mushy Callahan

Mushy Callahan held the junior welterweight world championship for nearly three and a half years and after his boxing career ended, he trained the biggest Hollywood stars on the sets of their movies. Yet among fans of Jewish boxing, Callahan isn't revered like Benny Leonard nor is he admired like Barney Ross. Though his championship reign was long, it was hampered by several factors: the "synthetic" nature of his crown, his losses in over-the-weight bouts, and his propensity to duck the toughest challengers. His conversion to Catholicism after his career also contributed to Callahan's fallen star within the Jewish boxing community.

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Vincent Morris Scheer was born on November 3, 1904 in New York to Jewish Austrian parents named Max and Anna. The family moved across the country to Los Angeles and settled in Boyle Heights when Vincent, who was known as Moishele, was two years old. Max sold produce near the intersection of Brooklyn Ave and Soto. Meanwhile, young Moishele got into a lot of fights. He resented when other kids called him "Maurice" and had no problem showing them with his fists. After a while, no one wanted to call him Maurice anymore, so he soon developed the nickname of Mushy, which would stick for the rest of his life. As a youngster, he worked as a newsboy, a profession that required boys to fight each other for access to the best corners.

At the age of ten, Scheer joined the Main Street Gym, which was also known as the Newsboys' Club. He fought in a lot of smokers and took the surname Callahan from a local fight promoter. His childhood friend, future Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion Jackie Fields, remembered, "Mushy Callahan was the greatest. We were raised together selling papers. But he was always the big shot."

Once evening, Fields wanted Mushy to get him tickets to a show at the Orpheum. "When I asked him to get me two tickets he said, 'Get in line, you punk you.' So we almost had a fight on the street," Fields said.

Callahan turned pro in 1923 and quickly became a hot prospect. The next year, he dropped a couple of decisions to Johnny Adams, a very popular fighter in Los Angeles who was good, but not great. Callahan didn't hit many other bumps in the road on his climb to the top, though. He beat a quality veteran in Red Herring, took two ten-round decisions from former lightweight world champion Jimmy Goodrich, and went 1-0-1 against a world class opponent named Ace Hudkins.

The first fight against Hudkins, which took place on September 16, 1925, was one of the most exciting battles in L.A. that year. Most observers felt referee Larry McGrath's decision to call it a draw was fair, but Callahan and his team vehemently disagreed. Willie Goldstein, who worked Callahan's corner, climbed through the ropes and attacked McGrath, receiving a hard left hook from the ref in return. Callahan and his manager E.W. Sears were both fined and suspended until December. McGrath was also suspended. Goldstein was banned for life.

Callahan won the rematch and then took the two fights against Goodrich. He was extremely popular among fight fans in Los Angeles. His July 5, 1926 fight against Jack Silver, a fan favorite from San Francisco, was billed as a clash between Southern California and Northern California. Coincidentally, Silver, like Callahan, was a Jewish fighter who would convert to Catholicism, work in Hollywood after his boxing career was done, and have a long and distinguished career as a referee.

In one of the biggest fights in California since bouts of over four rounds were legalized at the start of 1925, Silver dominated Mushy over ten rounds. A month later Callahan lost to another good fighter, Baby Joe Gans. Despite, or maybe because of, the two losses, Callahan got a shot at junior welterweight champion, Pinky Mitchell. "Mitchell figured I was washed up," Callahan said years later. Mushy destroyed Mitchell, nearly knocking him out in then tenth and final round. "Everything I did was perfect," Callahan said. "One of those perfect fights."

Mitchell had held the title since its inception in 1923. Purists saw it as a "synthetic" title, a worrying addition to the traditional eight weight classes. In fact, the belt would basically become abandoned from 1935 until 1959.

After a few wins in non-title bouts, Callahan dropped a decision to Spug Myers. Though Myers was over the weight limit, Callahan was 140 pounds, so today he would have vacated his belt after the loss. He next fought undefeated beast Andy DiVodi at Madison Square Garden with the title on the line. "My biggest thrill came when I fought Andy DiVodi," Mushy said. "The New York papers were full of DiVodi, a big favorite, who was undefeated... I knocked him out in the second round."

Callahan was a wild-swinging fighter. "He had a funny way of throwing a one-two," Jackie Fields recalled. Mushy wasn't known as a knockout puncher, which made the win against DiVodi all the more impressive. He then avenged his loss to Spug Myers in his second title defense. A year after the loss to Silver, Callahan appeared to be a fighting champion who would risk his title against the best. He'd soon prove otherwise.

On July 12, 1927, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Sammy Baker wrecked Callahan, punishing the champ's body to win by ninth round TKO. Both men were over 140, so Callahan remained champ. A loss to Dick Hoppe, a decent local fighter, made Mushy look like a paper champion. His manager claimed he was sick for the Hoppe fight.

His old friend Jackie Fields offered $25,000 if Callahan would risk his junior welterweight championship. Callahan refused, so they fought for the unofficial title of Jewish champion of Boyle Heights. "I kicked the hell out of him," Fields said. "That was the first time I ever bet on myself. I bet five hundred dollars on myself and we won it. He never spoke to me for years afterward. That was a great win because of being in the neighborhood and around our friends."

Still champ, Callahan had now lost three fights in a row. Boxing experts didn't even rate the champion as the #1 junior welterweight in their rankings, which was highly unusual. He avenged his loss to Hoppe and beat a couple of other mediocre fighters before losing some more. Callahan was 2-5-1 in his last eight fights, making zero title defenses in that span. Two years after his last defense, he finally put the title up against Fred Mahan. A deaf-mute, Mahan was more inspirational than great. Mushy stopped him in the third round.

Callahan lost to Goodrich before losing to Jack "Kid" Berg. On February 18, 1930, Callahan finally agreed to defend his title against a real contender when he faced Berg at Royal Albert Hall in London, this time with the title at stake. Joe Jacobs promised Mushy $10,000 for the fight. "He said I'd get ten thousand," Callahan lamented. "I never got ten thousand. When I got paid off, I only got five thousand." Jacobs, the promoter for Callahan-Berg II, was the manager of Max Schmeling.

"Over there I saw the handwriting on the wall," Mushy confided. "I couldn't possibly win the fight. He butted me in the eye and my eye started to puff up." It eventually closed and Callahan requested the referee to stop the fight in the tenth. As champ his middling record was 16-10-1, putting his title up for grabs just four times in nearly three and half years.

After two years off, Callahan fought thrice more. His final record was 49-16-3 with 22 KOs.

After his fighting career was over, Callahan began training Hollywood stars on the art of pugilism to prepare them for roles in boxing films. He worked with Elvis Presley, James Earl Jones, Kirk Douglas, and Errol Flynn, just to name a few. In the movie Gentleman Jim, Callahan served as a body double for Flynn in the fighting scenes. He worked as a referee at a high level in the Los Angeles area for nearly thirty years. He was a boxing judge for nearly twenty.

In 1934, he married Lilian Hill and converted to Catholicism.

Jews have been described as a race, a religion, a people, a tribe, and a nation, but the best way to describe us is a large family. We may argue, disagree, fight amongst ourselves, just as any family might, but we feel an indelible connection with one another. When someone chooses to leave our family, many of us take it hard. Fair or not, it's feels like a personal affront. While Benny Leonard and  Barney Ross stood up for Jews, Callahan, whose son would become a priest, left our family.

On June 14, 1986, world champion and Hollywood star Mushy Callahan passed away at the age of 80.

Sources

Blady, Ken. The Jewish Boxers' Hall of Fame. 1988.

"Callahan Out Until December." Los Angeles Times. Oct. 6, 1925. Pg. B1.

Curcio, David. Smash Hit: Race, Crime, and Culture in Boxing Films. 2023.

Heller, Peter. "In This Corner...!" Forty-two World Champions Tell Their Stories.1994.
Silver, Mike. Stars in the Ring: Jewish Champions in the Golden Age of Boxing. 2016.

Addition information from the Hank Kaplan Archives, Brooklyn College.