At the Garden Gate

The sudden and simultaneous resignation of six directors from the board of a big corporation is a pretty good sign that somewhere the gears are clashing. Not so with Manhattan's Madison Square Garden Corp.--or so said resigning Board Chairman Bernard Gimbel last week when he and his old friend and fellow director, James Dougan Norris, fistfight promoter extraordinary, parted financial company.

A longtime fight fan, and an amateur boxer himself in his younger days, Department Store Magnate Gimbel, 70. had served on the Garden board for 25 years, been its chairman for ten. But Barney Gimbel said firmly that his resignation had nothing to do with State Athletic Commissioner Julius Helfand's investigation into the affairs of Jim Norris' International Boxing Club, which has a strangle hold on big-time professional boxing. Yes, Gimbel was aware that SPORTS ILLUSTRATED had exposed the connections between Multi-millionaire Norris and underworld characters such as Frankie Carbo. Yes, he had heard Norris testify to his friendship with Carbo. Still Barney Gimbel insisted, "I do not know the man [Carbo] nor do I know who he knows or what he does. What I do know is that I had contemplated this move for two or three years because of increasing outside activities." Rebellious Captive. Other retiring directors had even less to say. For the record, Stanton Griffis, onetime U.S. Ambassador to Spain, was in Paris. Investment Banker Jansen Noyes and Motor Millionaire Walter P. Chrysler Jr. were "out of town." Financier William M. Greve, a man who temporarily gave up his U.S. citizenship in the 1930s, then returned home hurriedly from Liechtenstein just two jumps ahead of Hitler, was keeping his own counsel. One of the departing directors, demanding anonymity, told reporters: "We figured we'd get out while the getting was good." Only Wall Street Investor (Goldman, Sachs) Sidney J. Weinberg, 63, a dollar-a-year man in Washington during World War II, spoke out. Norris and his friends, he said, had arbitrarily cut down the size of the Garden's executive committee from eight to three, making it clear that he wants a free hand in operations. "When one or two people control a company," said Weinberg, "you become a captive director."

Man-Size Job. Personable Jim Norris, whose inherited wealth is estimated conservatively at $50 million, has influence far beyond Manhattan. His assets run from Canadian wheat and West Indies sugar holdings to horses, hockey teams, Great Lakes steamships, sports arenas and questionable friends. He and Ice-Show Promoter Arthur Wirtz control the Chicago Black Hawks hockey team and the Chicago Stadium. His brother and two sisters have a firm hold on Detroit's Olympia arena and the Detroit Red Wings hockey team. Madison Square Garden owns the New York Rangers hockey team. (The Rangers, Black Hawks and Red Wings make up half of the National Hockey League.) Norris' I.B.C. has exclusive rights to promote prize fights in the Garden, Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds, the Detroit Olympia and the Chicago Stadium. Just running the Garden is likely to be a man-size job from now on. To assist him, President Norris will have as new chairman of the board the Garden's former president. Brigadier General (ret.) John Reed Kilpatrick, Phi Beta Kappa and two-time All-America end (Yale. 1909-10). Norris and Kilpatrick. along with Iceman Wirtz, own 60% of the Garden stock.

This ownership is not without its problems. The I.B.C., which can scarcely be distinguished from the Garden management by the naked eye, is faced with an antitrust suit challenging its monopoly of boxing matchmaking. And Commissioner Helfand's investigation, stirred up by the shabby boycott against Welterweight Vince Martinez (TIME, June 6), is hardly likely to cool off just because Norris' boys last week finally found Martinez a fight.

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