Max Baer was a handsome Adonis who never saw a camera he didn't like, photogenic, charismatic; as he said, 'I'm a lover, not a fighter.' A lover he certainly was, but also a fighter. He became heavyweight champion of the world, a killer in the ring early in his career who went from the boxing ring to Broadway and Hollywood.

They called Max Baer the "Clown Prince of Boxing," but trainer Ray Arcel remembered a night in 1933 when he worked Baer's corner in what was probably Max's greatest triumph, the night he smashed Max Schmeling to defeat in 10 brutal rounds. That was no clown. A year later, Baer was heavyweight champion of the world. From a $4 a day foundry worker, Baer's rise was rapid. He bought so many suits he couldn't keep track of them; wore a new hat every week; bought a house like a hotel. Arcel cried like a baby when he read in the New York Times that Max had died from a heart attack in November 1959, at just 50 years old. This is the fascinating story of an iconic boxing figure who achieved so much in a life too short.