Rare 1950's Golden Gloves movie shows Chicago in all its midcentury glory

Have you heard of “The Golden Gloves Story” from 1950?

There’s a tale behind the obscure title, one that illustrates how the Chicago Tribune used to operate and what they promoted, relentlessly. Longtime Tribune sports editor Arch Ward was a key figure behind the creation of both the Golden Gloves and the Major League Baseball All-Star game. And in the late ‘40s, a plan was hatched to shoot a feature film, fictional but soberly respectful of the real-life Golden Gloves tournament and its belief in good, clean combat.

The screenplay concerns a promising Chicago Golden Gloves fighter, played by Dewey Martin, suspected of murder but meantime smitten with the dental receptionist daughter (Kay Westfall) of boxing referee Joe Riley. Joe’s an amiable straight arrow, played by the movie’s marquee attraction, James Dunn, who won a supporting actor Oscar for “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (1945).

Seventy-six minutes long, director Felix Feist’s scrappy independent movie, more heart than finesse (but that’s true of a lot of boxers, too), was photographed on location in Chicago, with the Tribune’s Arch Ward portraying himself. As does WGN’s Jack Brickhouse, and a variety of sports writers.