Madame Referee

In Los Angeles, citizens scarcely raise their eyebrows at sights that seem bizarre in other U. S. cities. On downtown streets they have grown accustomed to seeing women in pink pants & mink coats, sober grownups dodging in & out of traffic on motorized scooters, family sedans with Gospel quotations gold-lettered on their doors. Last week, Los Angelenos acquired another anomaly. Hereafter, when they go to the fights at the Olympic Auditorium, they will see a woman referee in the ring.

The woman the California Athletic Commission considers capable of refereeing boxing matches is wiry, 45-year-old Belle Martell. No upstart, Belle Martell has been in the boxing business for ten years--ever since her husband. Art Martell, onetime Australian lightweight champion, hired an old barn near Los Angeles (on the ranch of onetime World's Champion Jim Jeffries), started putting on amateur boxing shows.

To Jeffries Barn flocked Hollywood's upper crust, more to enjoy Belle Martell's entr'acte gags--picked up during 20 years of vaudeville trouping--than the bouts themselves. Four years ago, when Husband Martell was hired to promote the Los Angeles Athletic Club's boxing shows at the Olympic Auditorium, Mrs. Martell not only helped with promotion but promptly got an announcer's license, later a timekeeper's license--first ever issued to a woman. Last week, in the State examination for referees. Intruder Martell got 97 1/2. a higher mark than any of the 23 male applicants. After looking her over in the official grey trousers, however, the State Commissioners told Referee Martell she could wear a grey skirt.

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