If pressed, I could not name one current, professional boxer, but there was a time when I could name the champion of each weight category. Those were the days of Joe Louis, Kid Gavilan, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson, Carmen Basilio, Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott, Gene Fullmer, and with Don Dunphy as ringside commentator. These pugilists were household names because boxing ruled as the King of American sports. For years, boxing matches were a staple of radio, but when television arrived in the 1950s, prize fighting came into our own living rooms. Each Friday night, we watched boxing matches on the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports on NBC.
The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports began as a radio program in 1942 before making its way to television, running until 1960. The program included broadcasts of a variety of sports, but it was primarily remembered for its focus on boxing matches.
The Friday Night Fights dominated its time slot and was sponsored by none other than Gillette Safety Razor and Gillette Blue Blades.
“Look Sharp! Feel Sharp! Be Sharp!”
The Gillette commercial jingle was a tune of the first magnitude, equaling anything on “Your Hit Parade” or even the Radio Top Ten songs. There was Gillette and really nobody else.
Most fights were wars featuring no-names, who duked it out for 8 or 10 rounds. These were the days of black and white TV and usually the boxers were described as the one in solid black shorts and the other in black shorts with a white stripe, so you could tell who was who.
Knockouts were rare. But occasionally, “Live, from Madison Garden” we’d get a championship bout with Sugar Ray Robinson showing off his dancing moves or Carmen Basilio delivering lethal body blows.
After Marciano retired, boxing evolved into Floyd Patterson, then Sonny Liston and ultimately Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard. After Ali, prize fighting began to fade. Fights went to Pay-For-View, the American public was denied access through regular television. Boxing has now all but disappeared from the public view.
Gillette, though, not only survived but prospered, and owes a great deal of its success to the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports.
