Links

The rather dramatic front cover of

the ghost-written autobiography (1951)

The book is hard to source in good condition

but AbeBooks often has some copies available -

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/two-fists-and-a-fortune/author/bruce-woodcock/


Sources

There are a range of sources for the information on this site :


  1. The family archive, including the scrapbook and and information from Bruce himself before his death in 1997, form a unique fund of material, much of which you can read through in the year-by-year archive

  2. The ghosted autobiography, Two Fists and a Fortune, is reasonably reliable as far as facts go. According to the original contract, this book was written by Maurice Smith and was published under the Hutchinson’s Library of Sports and Pastimes imprint in 1951. The book was based on conversations with Bruce but is written in a voice that is certainly not his, and contains various anecdotes that are invented and inaccurate

  3. The sites and sources listed and linked below offer a wealth of material, with more to come as they are discovered

Film Archives

  • BFI Film Archive - some films are contained within the BFI National Archive, but they are no longer accessible online
  • British Pathe has a YouTube channel where they have a number of films about Bruce's fights and other events
  • British Movietone also has a YouTube channel with some different films to British Pathe

Newspapers

The British Crown - Bruce vs Jack London

Bruce Woodcock KOs Jack London – British Crown - This Day July 17, 1945, White Hart Lane, Tottenham
This was the first of Bruce’s fights to be filmed. This extract is unfortunately fairly short and of poor quality. The British Film Institute [BFI] have a copy which their catalogue lists as edited but sounds fairly complete, though it does list Bruce as ‘Bruce Woodstock’ at one point!

Marshall Cavendish released an edited version of the film in their ‘Boxers’ video magazine series in 1997 [number 46 ‘The People’s Champions’] and it is this version that the commentary [in Archive 1945b] has consulted [‘Boxers’ video magazines are often for sale on Ebay - though the format of the watchable media is VHS only]

The BBC broadcast the Jack London fight live on their General Forces Programme, from 7.15-8.30 p.m. It was the first time one of Bruce’s bouts had received such coverage. This is how David Kynaston describes it in his history of the period: 

some 27,000 Londoners packed into the Spurs ground at White Hart Lane to see Doncaster’s Bruce Woodcock win the British and Empire heavyweight titles with a sixth-round knockout. ‘For Jack Solomons, the promoter, the fight was a triumph,’ the local Tottenham paper noted. ‘The crowd paid from 5/- to 10 guineas to see it. About 5,000 came by cars which lined each side of 30 side streets around the ground.’ On the radio, clashing with a transmission of Peter Grimes [Benjamin Britten’s opera, which was being broadcast on the Home Service between 7.00 and 10.00], Raymond Glendenning’s plummy, excitable commentary was complemented by the magisterial inter-round summaries of W. Barrington Dalby.’ [David Kynaston, Austerity Britain, Bloomsbury 2007, p. 72]

Bruce's Fight Video Clips

Other Videos

  • Newsbriefs
    Issued 18.04.1946, preparing to leave for American trip
  • Bruce Woodcock
    Issued 13.05.1946, training, and at home with parents
  • Sculptoon
    Sculptoon     [Alternate Version]
    Issued 13.01.1947
    Sculpture cartoonist Geoffrey Davien’s work with model of Bruce
  • People In Camera
    Issued 21.04.1947
    Col. Eddie Eagen, New York Athletic Commission Chief, assesses Bruce’s chances against Joe Baksi
  • Second Time as Year’s Sportsman
    Bruce in audience, Sportsman of the Year event, 05.04.1951
  • Ankarah Beats Clayton
    Issued 28.02.1952
    Shot of Bruce in audience for the Empire Featherweight Boxing Contest, 25.02.1952, Nottingham Ice Rink
  • Cockell beats Farr
    Issued 12.03.1953
    Shot of Bruce in audience - Eliminator for BBBofC British Heavyweight Title, 09.03.1953, Nottingham Ice Rink
  • Sportsmen And Women Of The Year Luncheon
    Issued 27.11.1969
    Shot of BW attending with Henry Cooper
  • The Freddie Mills Story
    Film about the life  of the legendary Freddie Mills, who Bruce defeated both times they faced each other