“Reporter’s Life Is A Tough One”

Virginia Dons Gloves With Indrisano To Get Her Story

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Jul. 28, 1945

By: Virginia MacPherson (United Press Hollywood Correspondent)

Hollywood, July 27—Boxing Instructor Johnny Indrisano made fighters out of Robert Taylor, Zachary Scott and Danny Kaye. He tried to teach MacPherson the manly art of self-defense.

So we put away our reliable hat pin, pulled on the gloves and boxed away.

“Yer a southpaw,” Indrisano discovered. “That’s good because there’s only one in a hundred. You can get a better offensive that way. But for gosh sakes, try to be a little more graceful on your feet!”

Between instructions on left jabs and right uppercuts we pantingly pried a story cut of him on his movie star students.

Seems he’s been making fighters out of actors for years—Errol Flynn excluded—and making a right nice living at it, too. Says he has no complaints. Especially when he gets people like Miss Bergman in the clinches.

“I had to teach her how to box for ‘The Bells of St. Mary’s’” he explained. “She’s light on her feet and a darn good fighter—now.”

Fought 15 Years

Indrisano was a professional boxer for almost 15 years. Then he retired and turned into a fight coach. His latest victim is Funny-man Kaye, who’ll be a boxing champ in Sam Goldwyn’s “The Kid From Brooklyn.”

“He never saw a glove before I got hold of him,” Indrisano said, jabbing all the time. “But I turned him into a first-rate boxer in six weeks. He’s got naturally limber muscles from all his jumping around on the stage. And—oops! I’m sorry! But you shoulda ducked!”

We hit the canvas under a right uppercut and wondered why we never thought of welding as a nice safe job. When the gymnasium stopped whirling, we discovered Indrisano was still talking.

“Like I say,” he declared, “you gotta learn to duck. Bergman never wend down for the count! And keep your right up!”

Indrisano’s been extra busy on “The Kid From Brooklyn” because it’s full of prize-fights—all of which Champ Kaye wins because all of ‘em are crooked.

Kaye, as a mild little milkman for the Sunflower Dairy, accidentally knocks out o the world’s champ while trying to defend his sister, Dancer Vera-Ellen, from the champ’s fresh passes.

The newspapers turn him into a national hero and he makes a cross-country tour knocking out guys right and left in fixed fights. The man who fixes them is the champ’s manager. He figures on getting Kaye into the ring with the champ and smearing him all over the canvas.

But Kaye and his girlfriend, Virginia Mayo, are unaware of this. All they know is that the milkman is turning into a terrific guy. He’s even convinced himself.

And that plot, Mr. Goldwyn hopes, will make Kaye even funnier than he was in “Up in Arms” or “Wonder Man.”

“That’s part of my job, too,” Indrisano explained. “I have to teach Danny how to be funny when he fights. But he has to look good, too, because there’ll be a lot of sharp-eyed fight fans in the audience.”

Trying to remember all this and still keep our solar-plexus covered from Indrisano’s glove had us a little cross-eyed at this point. But we kept boxing because we didn’t have enough dope yet.

Jack-of-All Fighting

“You might say I’m an expert on all kinds of fighting,” he said. “I taught Zachary Scott how to fight with a knife for ‘The Southerner’; I teach judo and once I taught a French ballet dancer how to fight with his feet—sabot fighting, they call it in France.”

Hardly a director in town will shoot a fight scene without calling in Indrisano. And he’s discovered the stars get a big kick out of going into “training” for a picture.

“You will, too,” he grinned. “You’ll feel fine tomorrow after this workout.”

Tomorrow, heck! We’re sore right now! And we think we’ll stick to our hat pin for self-defense. It’s not so strenuous—and just as effective.

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