Seeing Stars
By The Breithaupt Brothers & Shelley McPherson
A black-and-blue romance with a bruising climax and a colorful cast of pugs, thugs and dames, Seeing Stars picks up where Broadway’s mid-century book musicals left off with a larger-than-life tale set in the rich milieu of New York’s 1930s boxing scene.
It’s 1937 in New York City. While reigning light heavyweight champion Eddie “Bare Knuckles” McSorley prepares to retire from boxing, his old friend and rival in the ring, “Gentleman” Joe Sullivan, returns to Hell’s Kitchen and Delaney’s Gym, where he and Eddie trained together as boys. Joe has been gone for a decade, having abandoned boxing after blinding an opponent in his first professional fight.
Jean Barker, an ambitious reporter who wants off the “ladies’ page” to cover sports, strikes a bargain with her editor at the World Chronicle: if she can convince a resistant Joe to challenge Eddie in the champ’s last bout before retiring, she will get the story. Joe and Eddie both fall in love with her. Although she is attracted to each of them and confused about her feelings, she lets ambition come first and manipulates Joe into agreeing to fight Eddie.
Doc Mulligan, a racketeer who owns a piece of Eddie, is the landlord of Delaney’s Gym, Charlie Delaney’s business and home (and hang-out for local boxers, trainers, and reporters). Doc threatens to shut down Delaney’s if Eddie retires. Despite this, Charlie tries to persuade Eddie that if he beats Joe he should use the prize money to square his debts with Doc and leave boxing. Meanwhile, Eddie confides in Joe that he cares for Jean, unaware that Joe feels the same way. In the ring, challenger Joe starts slow but wins the fight with a decisive right hook in a round-four TKO. Following the fight, Jean at last realizes she’s in love with Eddie, not Joe. During a party celebrating Joe’s victory, Charlie reveals an unexpected gift that allows him to save the gym, and newly minted sports writer Jean proposes to Eddie.
