Lost TV Classics Featuring The Joe Palooka Story

Joe Palooka, champion prizefighter, steps out of the comic strips and onto the TV screen in this rarely seen 1954 series. Debuting in newspapers in 1930, millions thrilled to the adventures of the kind-hearted boxer, his girlfriend (later wife) Ann, and manager Knobby. The strip soon inspired a popular CBS radio show and a 1934 film, Palooka, starring Stu Erwin, Lupe Velez, and Jimmy Durante. Monogram Pictures then began a series of 11 low-budget features starring professional golfer Joe Kirkwood. After the final entry, Triple Cross, screened in theaters in 1951, Kirkwood starred in this short-lived syndicated TV show with his wife, Cathy Downs, as Ann. Former boxing champion Maxie Rosenbloom played Joe's trainer, Clyde.

THE BIG BLOW OFF: In the first episode, Knobby and Clyde fear for Joe's safety when he's challenged by mountain man "Big Jim" Allen.

TURKEY FOR TERRY: A prank by Joe's friends backfires when he finds himself in the middle of a misunderstanding that threatens to ruin Thanksgiving for a poor young fan and his struggling mother.

CLYDE'S MISTAKE: With Palooka about to entertain a high-society matron, Clyde is enlisted to find a maid for Joe. The banquet turns into a fiasco when he accidentally hires a girl from the matrimonial agency instead.

BONUS: DICK TRACY VS. THE SWAMI (BW, 1950): The legendary comic strip detective runs afoul of a sinister mystic in this episode of the rare television series. Starring Ralph Byrd. Directed by Willard Sheldon.

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