Last Add Bad Stu Ledsam: A notable admission last week on my missive on one of Long Beach's most colorful characters was the fact he has saved two people from death in his life.
I saw first hand---I actually wrote an entire column on it in the Press Telegram---his Heimlich Maneuver savior in 2007 of the legendary Junk Bond Jimmy Werner at Mahe in Seal Beach.
Mr. Werner, a one-time New York state amateur welterweight boxing champion, was choking on a piece of meat and turning purple in front of me, LB State athletic director Vic Cegles, Seal Beach surfing icon Uncle John Narz and Ledsam, who had the wherewithal to quickly leap up off his chair and wrap his powerful arms around Mr. Werner to successfully apply the Heimlich in dislodging the impediment from Mr. Werner's larynx.
``I just couldn't breathe,'' says the grateful Mr. Werner. ``I always figured Bad Stu had to be good for something in life, not knowing it would be for saving my life.''
Junk Bond Jimmy Werner, onetime New York amateur welterweight champion, can thank Bad Stu Ledsam for still being able to hit a heavy bag.
A few years earlier, Mr. Ledsam went into a burning home near his Seal Beach residence, and brought out an elderly lady, sparing her from certain death, for which he received a citation from the state of California and was honored for his bravery at a Sacramento ceremony. . .
Last Add Characters: Shamefully, I forgot to mention perhaps the most zany one---and also among my closest friends the past 54 years---the Hall of Fame boxing publicist Bill (Bozo) Caplan.
Bill (Bozo) Caplan (left) holding a World Boxing Council championship belt with the organization’s president Mauricio Sulaiman
Actually, Mr. Caplan, now in his mid 80s who once had a spectacularly impressive tummy for his 5-foot-8, 325-pound anatomy, was an outrageous fellow and a close confidante of George Foreman going back to the former heavyweight champion's amateur days.
Mr. Foreman even officiated at the marriage of one of Mr. Caplan's daughters, Liz.
Mr. Caplan was celebrated for a lot of things---he's the only person to have worked for fight promoters George Parnassus, Aileen Eaton, Don Chargin, Don King, Bob Arum, Oscar De La Hoya and Dan Goossen---but it was his outrageous antics as a ringside announcer and publicist that earned him his well-deserved nickname that I gave him.
At a fight press conference once in LA's Koreatown, one of the participants was 30 minutes late, which incensed the then bantamweight champion Lupe Pintor, who finally departed the scene in a huff and repaired to a car in the restaurant's parking lot.
Of course, Bozo being Bozo, he wouldn't stand for such a rash act, and decided to be even rasher, laying his ample body in front of the vehicle for 15 minutes until the tardy other boxer finally showed up, and a picture of his goofy stunt was taken by an Associated Press photographer and it appeared in sports sections the next day around the country.
Once at a fight at Caesars Tahoe where he was serving as the ring announcer, Bozo's microphone didn't work, which prompted the CBS sportscaster, Tim Ryan, to say over the air, ``Bozo Caplan is one guy who doesn't need a mike.''
When he went on one of his endless diets and actually once pared down to 190, I incurred the wrath of his two daughters---his other one is named Debbie---during a meal at Michael's at the old Barbary Coast when I shrieked to him, ``Please, Bozo, put the weight back on, you look terrible without your trademark paunch.''
At a match at Hollywood Palladium one Saturday afternoon, one of his pre-fight introductions inspired much laughter in a crowd that included Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett when he thundered, ``You saw this fine gentleman get chainsawed into pieces in Scarface, but he somehow survived that gruesome attack and is here today! Give it up for Pepe Serna!'' . . .
