August-September Film Star!

At some point later in August or September 1946 after the Lesnevich fight [SB 71], Bruce was involved in the making of a documentary film about his career so far. The Lesnevich fight had been watched and admired by J. G. Frankel, a well-known London sportsman and co-partner of Michael H. Goodman. Goodman had his own production company as a film-maker and shot the footage of Bruce’s successful British title fight against Jack London in 1945. The film was to be shot over two weeks and have a 30 minute run time. The aim was to give a flavour of Bruce’s life, training and activities at the time.

The production team arrived at Mona Road at 8.15 one morning, shooting scene of Bruce’s mother receiving fan-mail from the postman. She then delivers the mail to Bruce who was (supposedly) still in bed waking up. Bruce makes short shrift of the post, chucking it to one side after a cursory look. He concentrates instead on the steaming cup of tea his mother has brought. There are then scenes of Bruce with his brother Bill and friends in the sports field nearby, which they had frequented since they were ‘nippers’. They play ball games, leapfrog and the traditional South Yorkshire game of ‘peggy’, where payers balance a piece of wood on the ground like a see-saw, hit it with a stick so it flies up in the air, then strike it to see how far they can send it. It may not develop the muscles, but it certainly helps coordination, quick reactions and sharp focus. Bruce was also filmed at his gym at The Plough Inn, visiting boys’ clubs, playing billiards, and chatting with Nora in her flat on Christchurch Road, Doncaster. As with all the attention he received, Bruce just accepted it as part of his routine without any fuss or bother. Water off a duck’s back!

The film was released on December 12th 1946, just a week before Bruce and Nora got married, helping complete another remarkable year. Unfortunately, the film does not seem to be available anywhere, so we aren’t able to link it to the website. The description of its contents is based on an old and much deteriorated video copy, which is not of good enough quality to attach to the site even if we could get copyright and licence permissions. 

A Plea:

If anyone has any further information about this film, or indeed a copy, would you please contact the website at the contact address in the website section ‘Contact’, or email directly to brucewoodcock01@gmail.com - the full details of the film as far as we have them are on the right hand side of the page, with links to any other back-up sources we have found.


Film Details

Listing in Kinematograph Yearbook 1947