#2: The Ghetto Avenger

TO HEAR IZZY GROVE IS TO UNDERSTAND DAMON RUNYON. UNNERSTAND?

One of the last Guys & Dolls characters to survive into the porn era, Grove was a welterweight fighter known as The Ghetto Avenger in the 1920s. In 1983, he is being thrown out of his office. Hustling in Times Square for 60 years, he booked Lonely Hearts dances and pasted up fight posters for Madison Square Garden. He swears he’s “never been a shylock, a bookie, a tough guy.” But do you believe him?

: Izzy Grove, “The Ghetto Avenger,” makes June 1929 cover of The Ring magazine

: Izzy Grove in 1983, putting up a last fight as Loew’s Theaters tossed him out of his living space in Times Square (illustration: Drew Friedman)

: Izzy’s beloved old Madison Square Garden (courtesy Life images)