Harry Charles Witwer’s pugilist stories first appeared in Collier’s Weekly in 1920 and came to Reginald Denny’s attention thanks to producer Isaac Wolper. Given Denny’s background as a prize fighter, it was an ideal match, prompting negotiations between the actor, director Harry A. Pollard, and the author to bring them to the screen as a series of 12 two-reelers, with Denny starring as Kane “Kid Roberts” Halliday, a college boxing champ whose wealthy father loses his fortune, forcing Halliday to earn a living in the ring. Finances however were tough for everyone: Herbert Messmore formed the Knickerbocker Photoplay Corporation to produce the series at the former E.K. Lincoln Studio in Grantwood, New Jersey, but after shooting the first two chapters, the money ran out. According to Denny’s recollections, he and Pollard peddled the cans of film around New York hoping to find a buyer, but all the agents turned them down on the grounds that no distributor would want them: “Prize fighting? Who would go look at it? Nobody wants prize-fight stories these days.”
Broke again and in a last-ditch effort to sell the series, Reg dropped the cans off at Universal on his way to an audition for producer Pat Powers. Late one evening, the studio’s James Bryson finally got around to looking at the cans of film; on viewing the first reel, Bryson phoned up Carl Laemmle and urged his boss to watch the two shorts. After screening them with his team, the excited studio chief began a course of frantic telephoning: “Where is this feller Denny?” the actor recalled. “Find him, somebody. We gotta have him!” The next morning, Bryson battered on Reg’s door and brought him to Fort Lee to meet with Laemmle, but Denny had already signed with Powers. Fortunately, Powers sportingly let Reg out of his contract, and Laemmle gave Denny and Pollard a deal — $11,500 for the negative and one working print for distribution of the series.
It’s easy to understand Laemmle’s enthusiasm, as The Leather Pushers is a delightful, quick-paced series of stand-alone episodes, anchored by impressive fight sequences in which Denny, always doing his own stunts, was paired with real prize fighters from the New York scene. To ensure a minimum of background information was needed, Pollard fashioned a clever framing device in which Halliday’s gruff manager Joe Murphy (Hayden Stevenson) turns to the camera and, via pithy intertitles, sets the scene and comments on the Kid’s future. In “Round Two,” Halliday and Murphy are broke (a running theme!); while training in Central Park, Halliday meets his ritzy fiancée Irene Gresham (Helen Toombs), who rejects him on discovering his new prize-fighting career. Her returned engagement ring comes in handy later when Murphy has to pay up a losing bet, even though Halliday wins his match against “Special Delivery” Kelly.
Witwer’s reputation as “a slinger of slang and a concocter of colloquialisms” (New York Evening Telegram) is cleverly reproduced in the intertitles, though their heavy use of jargon can be challenging today, even for native English speakers. Authentic atmosphere is also provided by the real boxing denizens cast in small roles and cameos, including two of the most famed African-American pugilists of their day, Sam McVey (who died after “Round Two”) and Bob Armstrong.
The print  While prints of other episodes are known to exist in private collections, only “Round Two” and “Round Three: Payment Through the Nose” can be found in archives, in 16mm prints. The copy screened comes from the Moving Image Archive at Indiana University Libraries and has been scanned at 4K. Although some clean-up and stabilization have been performed, the DCP reflects the compromised yet more than watchable nature of the 16mm material.

Kimberly Pucci