Vernon Arena

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| name = Vernon Arena

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| image = File:Sparring Ring - Jack Doyles Vernon CA.jpg

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| image_caption = Ring at Jack Doyle's club, Vernon, California{{break}}{{small|(George Rice & Sons printers, Los Angeles, {{circa|1916}}, scanned by Catherine Johnson from personal collection)}}

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| coordinates = {{coords|34.0081|-118.2302}} (Doyle era)

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| alternate_names = {{small|Vernon Coliseum, Vernon Club, Jeffries' Vernon Arena, Jack Doyle's Training Camp, Doyle's Vernon Arena, Vernon Athletic Club}}

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| address = Santa Fe & 26th (McCarey era), S Santa Fe Ave & E 38th St (Doyle era)

| location_city = Vernon, California

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The Vernon Arena, located just south of downtown Los Angeles, California, was a major early 20th-century west coast of the United States boxing venue. For much of its history the Vernon Arena was a "pavilion"—an outdoor boxing ring surrounded by seating for spectators—but the Vernon Coliseum, which stood from 1924 to 1927, was an indoor arena with capacity to host about 8,000 people.

History

Vernon Arena is largely significant because of the work of two fight promoters: "Uncle Tom" McCarey and Jack Doyle.{{Cite news |date=1913-09-22 |title=Azevedo-Dundee, One Southern Card |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-azevedo-dundee-one-sout/147512792/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=Oakland Tribune |pages=11}}{{Cite news |date=1909-10-27 |title=Fans Have Opportunity to Aid in Securing Heavyweight Battle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-herald-fans-have-opportunity/147513081/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=Los Angeles Herald |pages=12}}

= Jefferies, Long & McCarey era =

The original Vernon boxing "pavilion" was constructed by boxer Jim Jeffries and ubiquitous West Coast hotel-restaurant-club impresario Baron Long around 1908.{{Cite news |date=1915-10-25 |title=Fight Pavilion Burned Down |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-vanguard-fight-pavilion-burned-d/147515781/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=Evening Vanguard |pages=7}}{{Cite news |date=1909-01-05 |title=Jeffries Accepts Stage Engagement in This City |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-jeffries-acce/147512476/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |pages=10}}{{Cite news |date=1908-03-25 |title=Officers Are Chosen for Jeffries' Club |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-enquirer-officers-are-chosen-for/147518926/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=Oakland Enquirer |pages=5}} Jeffries himself refereed some of the first fights at the venue,{{sfnp|Johnston|1927|page=254}} although Vernon fights were not financially successful under Jefferies.{{Cite news |date=1912-01-01 |title=Thomas J. McCarey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-thomas-j-mccarey/147514647/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=92}}

The first Vernon boxing arena was being leased by McCarey from owner Jeffries when it caught fire and burned on September 16, 1911.{{Cite news |date=1911-09-16 |title=Fire Burns Big Arena |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-diego-sun-fire-burns-big-arena/147513990/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=The San Diego Sun |pages=9}} A newspaper profile of McCarey published 1913 reported that he had "controlled the boxing situation" in the city for a dozen years past.{{Cite news |date=1913-01-01 |title='Uncle Tom' M'Carey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-uncle-tom-mcare/147514276/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=90}} According to a history of California boxing, "The Jeffries Club staged a number of notable fights but finally succumbed to the stiffer competition of McCarey's downtown club and went out of business, the plant being taken over by McCarey and operated rather spasmodically for championship bouts for a while until he gave up the Naud Junction location entirely and confined his efforts to putting on 15, 20, and 25 round contests in the Vernon arena."{{sfnp|Van Court|Dobbs|1926|page=12}} McCarey's Vernon arena was located at 26th and Santa Fe. McCarey departed Los Angeles for New Orleans in December 1914, following the passage of 1914 California Proposition 20.{{Cite news |date=1914-12-07 |title=Uncle Tom to Hold Fights in New Orleans |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-uncle-tom-to-hold/147514945/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=17}} The state of California banned prize fighting (temporarily as it turned out) effective January 1, 1915.{{Cite news |last=Ashbaugh |first=Don |date=1936-02-02 |title=Sports World Mourns ' Uncle Tom's ' Passing - Father of Local Boxing, He Brought Ring Stars to L.A. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-sports-world-mourn/147530026/ |access-date=2024-05-17 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=28}}{{Cite news |date=1914-12-19 |title=Eight Initiative, Referendum Laws, Are Now in Effect |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/bakersfield-morning-echo-eight-initiativ/147577645/ |access-date=2024-05-17 |work=Bakersfield Morning Echo |pages=1}} The Vernon arena built by Long and Jeffries burned in October 1915.{{Cite news |date=1915-10-24 |title=Fire Destroys Old Vernon Arena |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-fire-destroys-old-vernon/147515146/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=Oakland Tribune |pages=25}}

= Doyle era =

File:Training Areas - Jack Doyles Vernon CA.jpg

File:Crop of 1923 Central Manufacturing District of Los Angeles map showing Vernon rail lines and streets.jpg showing rail lines and streets in Vernon in 1923]]

File:Photos 93363 large - Aerial view of Vernon in 1925, looking northeast near Santa Fe and Vernon Avenue.jpg

In the late teens, Doyle replaced McCarey as Vernon's boss of boxing.{{Cite news |date=1927-07-24 |title=Boxers Stare at Arena Ruins |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-boxers-stare-at-ar/147507704/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=23}} Doyle had long run a famous bar in Vernon (the city was a wet enclave within dry Los Angeles).{{sfnp|Van Court|Dobbs|1926|page=14}} According to Los Angeles historian Cecilia Rasmussen, Doyle's first venture in Vernon was "a gigantic saloon, where 37 bartenders rang up liquor sales on 37 cash registers at a 100-foot-long bar. Behind it hung a sign—'If Your Children Need Shoes, Don't Buy Any Booze'—and in the ceiling were peepholes from which to keep an eye on the barmen, patrons, and pickpockets."{{Cite web |last=Rasmussen |first=Cecilia |date=1997-06-23 |title=A Teetotaler's Bar and Boxing Mecca |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-06-23-me-6176-story.html |access-date=2024-05-16 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}

Doyle's bar closed in 1919 due to the national prohibition on the sale of alcohol, but he had already set up a training camp that was located out back, past the card room.{{sfnp|Van Court|Dobbs|1926|page=14}} The two-story hotel structure that a contractor reported he had completed at 38th and Santa Fe in June 1916 may have been the facility known as Jack Doyle's Training Camp.{{Cite news |date=1916-06-29 |title=Completes Two Jobs at Vernon |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/press-telegram-completes-two-jobs-at-ver/147535778/ |access-date=2024-05-17 |work=Press-Telegram |pages=10}} A show-business history published 1934 stated, "All the big fighters of the day, as well as preliminary boys, has-beens, and hope-to-bes, trained at Jack Doyle's camp. The crowds that gathered to watch were drawn from what reporters are wont to call 'all walks of life.' There were pickpockets, fences, promoters, and we-boys. Also there were such celebrities as Earl Rogers, famed criminal attorney and father of Adela Rogers St. Johns, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Cudahy, Anita Baldwin, and the entire movie crowd."{{Sfnp|Fowler|1934|page=252}} According to boxer-actor-trainer Dewitt Van Court, "The camp was patronized by the finest boxers in the land and their popularity drew such huge crowds, particularly on Sundays, that Doyle had to erect a regular arena and surround it with stands which would accommodate several hundred people. To pay for the stands, Doyle charged a nominal admission, and the crowds grew so large that he finally enlarged it to seat several thousand and roofed it over."{{sfnp|Van Court|Dobbs|1926|page=14}}

File:Annotated Sanborn Fire Ins. map of Vernon 1920 - Vernon Arena & Vernon Ballpark.jpg

File:Vernon Arena and Maier Park along 38th Street circa 1925.jpg fronting 38th Street {{circa|1925}}]]

Doyle's Vernon Arena became the center of boxing in Los Angeles.{{Cite news |date=1916-12-26 |title=May Ruin Some Ears at Doyle's |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-may-ruin-some-ears/147516568/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=7}} According to the Los Angeles Times, "With 'Wad' Wadhams as matchmaker, seven four-round bouts were staged at the Doyle Arena every Tuesday night from 1916 to 1923."{{Cite news |date=1944-01-31 |title=Jack Doyle, Promoter of Boxing Bouts, Dies; Founder of Famous Vernon Arena Passes in Santa Monica |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-jack-doyle-promot/147528688/ |access-date=2024-05-17 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=19}} With prizefighting illegal, the fighters were officially all "amateurs" engaged in "exhibition" matches.{{Cite news |last=Jones |first=Ray |date=1953-11-30 |title=Recollections of Vernon as Night-Life Capital |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-recollections-of-v/146825814/ |access-date=2024-05-17 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=36}} The prizes were medals and "maybe a little 'expense' money". In 1921 fight tickets were priced $1 to $3, and there was a section of the arena reserved for ladies.{{Cite news |date=1921-08-02 |title=Vernon Athletic Club—Boxing Tonight |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-express-vernon-athle/147512066/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=Los Angeles Evening Express |pages=28}} The last fight at Doyle's original outdoor arena was held August 21, 1923.{{Cite news |date=1923-08-22 |title=Colima Defeats Rice in First - Last Show in Doyle's Arena at Vernon for Benefit of Newboys Club |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-citizen-news-colima/147510479/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=Los Angeles Evening Citizen News |pages=5}}

= Doyle's "Coliseum" =

Doyle began planning an indoor arena as early as 1920, intending for a building that fronted on 38th Street "near the north entrance of Maier park [with] a frontage of 160 feet and a depth of 138 feet."{{Cite news |date=1920-10-20 |title=Jack Doyle to Erect New Vernon Arena |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-express-jack-doyle-t/147599279/ |access-date=2024-05-18 |work=Los Angeles Evening Express |pages=34}} Doyle's Vernon Coliseum, as he called it, was opened August 28, 1923,{{Cite news |date=1927-07-23 |title=Fire Destroys Doyle's Arena |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-post-record-fire-des/147508146/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=Los Angeles Evening Post-Record |pages=2}} with capacity for 8,000 spectators.{{Cite news |date=1927-07-26 |title=Rabbit Punches by Paul Lowry |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-rabbit-punches-by/147507865/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=38}}{{Cite news |date=1923-08-24 |title=Jack Doyle to Open New Coliseum Tuesday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-jack-doyle-to-open/147510658/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=37}} With the passage of California Proposition 7, prizefighting was made legal again.{{Cite web |title=California legalizes boxing after 10-year ban {{!}} November 4, 1924 |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/california-legalizes-boxing |access-date=2024-05-17 |website=HISTORY |language=en}} In the interim between the passage of Prop 7 and January 13, 1925, the date of the first fight under the new law, a planned 10-round bout between Jimmy McLarnin and Fidel LaBarba, Doyle added another 2,000 seats to the coliseum.{{Cite news |last=Henry |first=Bill |date=1937-02-10 |title=Revival of 10-Round Days Recalled |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-hollywood-in-sport/153245972/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |work=The Los Angeles Times |department=Hollywood in Sport |pages=33}} Promoter Jack Doyle moved his operation to the Olympic Auditorium in autumn 1926. The indoor arena was destroyed in a fire on July 23, 1927.{{Cite news |date=1927-07-23 |title=Vernon Arena Destroyed by Fire Today |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-citizen-news-vernon/147507498/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |work=Los Angeles Evening Citizen News |pages=2}} The fire started in a neighboring "sawdust and shavings" mill, and also destroyed the grandstand of the Maier Park stadium where the Vernon Tigers had once played baseball.

Additional images

{{gallery |mode=packed

|File:Vernon Arena, Wolgast - Rivers boxing match LCCN2007663641 JPEG.jpg|Panoramic photo of Wolgast–Rivers boxing match, July 4, 1912: "There are thousands in Los Angeles who saw Ad Wolgast fight Joe Rivers in a never-to-be-forgotten battle at Vernon about nine years ago when both men were knocked out in the 13th round and Wolgast staggered to his feet first and was awarded the decision."{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-express-benefit-boxi/147511575/ | title=Benefit boxing show for Wolgast | newspaper=Los Angeles Evening Express | date=April 5, 1922 | page=39 }} The words "Vernon Arena" were written on the print but this is actually the Vernon baseball field—Jack Doyle "used the ballpark for the really big fights (Ad Wolgast was very popular) because he could cram more bodies in more seats".Email from California boxing expert Catherine Johnson.|File:McFarland v Welsh" at Jeffries' Vernon Arena The Los Angeles Times, July 5, 1908.jpg|Packy McFarland versus Freddie Welsh, refereed by James J. Jeffries, at Jeffries' Vernon Arena, 1908

|File:Thomas J. McCarey - Uncle Tom McCarey - Silent Tom - 1913.jpg|McCarey (S.F. Bulletin, 1913)

|File:"Champion Wrestlers of Japan Grapple Today" The Los Angeles Times, September 4, 1915.jpg|Prepping the Vernon arena for a "Japanese wrestling" exhibition (Los Angeles Times, September 4, 1915)

|File:Central Saloon - Jack Doyles Vernon CA.jpg|Central Saloon - Jack Doyles Vernon CA (George Rice & Sons printers, Los Angeles, {{circa|1916}})

|File:Fighters Cottages - Jack Doyles Vernon CA.jpg|Fighters Cottages - Jack Doyles Vernon CA ({{circa|1916}})

|File:Reception Room - Jack Doyles Vernon CA.jpg|Reception Room - Jack Doyles Vernon CA ({{circa|1916}})

|File:A Rough Night at the Vernon Arena by Bud Counihan Los Angeles Times August 03, 1921.jpg|Bud Counihan comic (Los Angeles Times, August 3, 1921)

|"Doyle's Vernon Coliseum—Used Exclusively for Boxing" The Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1925.jpg|"Doyle's Vernon Coliseum{{mdash}}Used Exclusively for Boxing" (Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1925)

|File:California_boxing_promoter_Jack_Doyle_in_1926.jpg|Doyle (L.A. Times, 1926)

|File:Photos 17290 large 2.jpg|Hayden Phytian defeats Earl Little at Vernon Arena, possibly April 22, 1925{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pomona-progress-bulletin-loses-fight/147521431/ |title=Loses Fight to Herman |newspaper=The Pomona Progress Bulletin |date=April 22, 1925 |page=8 }}

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References

= Sources =

{{cite book |last=Fowler |first=Gene |title=Father Goose: The Story of Mack Sennett |location=New York |publisher=Covici, Friede |year=1934 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001437791 }}
{{cite book |last=Johnston |first=Alexander |year=1927 |title=Ten{{mdash}}and Out! The Complete Story of the Prize Ring in America |location=New York |publisher=I. Washburn |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006567934 }}
{{cite book |last=Van Court |first=Dewitt |last2=Dobbs |first2=Walter V. |year=1926 |title=The Making of Champions in California |location=Los Angeles |publisher=Press of the Premier Printing Company |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/101854464 }}