Prizefighter Hall of Fame champ Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini’s documentary “The Good Son,” based on his earlier biography, debuts Friday.
After 23 of 29 knockouts and 1982’s World Boxing Association belt, came a professional TKO. Divorce. His brother’s shooting death — then, total tragedy. After Mancini’s 14th round Vegas knockout, opponent Duk Koo Kim fell into a coma. He died four days later.
So, I asked, do I call you Boom Boom?
“Naaah. Raymond. I live on the West Coast now, but I’m calling you from Youngstown, Ohio. I have a place here. Family’s here. My office is here.
“See, this documentary sticks to the book. Reporter Mark Kriegel came to me years ago. We hooked up. I was flattered he wanted to do my biography, but I didn’t want just that Kim story alone. He said, ‘I got the hook. Your devotion to your father who’s from Sicily. I’ll do a father-son book.
“Of course, this episode’s a major chapter. It killed me. I’m a Roman Catholic who goes to church every Sunday. Youngstown’s Father Tim O’Neill held a mass afterward and helped me through with faith. Without that, you’ll jump off the bridge.
“I was 21. At the top of the world. With cereal and soft-drink endorsements. And all came crashing down. The medical society came after me. I became the poster child for all that’s wrong in boxing. TV talked about nothing else.”
He’s now acting, producing and has a wine company.
“Look, I’m making something from nothing . . . But I’m OK. I still have my health. And I can still spell the word ‘fight.’ ”
2 ladies who loathed unite
Unpublished Marilyn Monroe photo negatives, auctioned in LA, brought $30,000 per lot.
Befurred and diamonded Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, atop a Rolls-Royce hood, were estimated at $800. Including copyrights, a London collector paid $4,500.
They, who loathed one another, can now be licensed together for products. Bette’s favorite? Jim Beam bourbon. Joan’s? 140 proof vodka.
Prez tomes
Alright already with our presidents. More books on Lincoln, another new JFK bio, old info about Clinton, candidates plugging Reagan, a film on Roosevelt, more Bushes coming out from behind bushes to run for the office. And now, Da Capo’s “Young Mr. Roosevelt: FDR’s introduction to War, Politics and Life.” Plus: “Mr. President: George Washington and the Making of the Nation’s Highest Office.”
I can’t wait to read about Millard Fillmore.
’Roid watch
Pros involved in Operation Steroids: “Olympic athletes have also been known to be corrupt . . . Olympic officials knew of drug use but enabled it by covering up positive tests.” Designer steroids included “the Clear” — a yellowish liquid consumed orally and “the Cream,” a whitish substance rubbed onto the forearm. Informed in 1984, IOC officials allegedly replied: “Blow it out your a – -.” Every day (one player) took “so many combinations of supplements,” he had “capsules in 2-by-3-inch color-coded Ziploc bags. Morning supplements were yellow, afternoon red, evening blue.”
Explains the pro: “Only a dumb athlete fails a drug test . . . You get stuff early one evening then disappear — out of contact, you forgot your phone, whatever. The body expels it and late next day you test negative.”
Odds & ends
Jane Fonda, who’s in “The Butler” and “The Newsroom,” found a minute free so she’s writing a book about teenhood, friendship, relationships. Random House publishes it next year . . . Robert, Columbus Circle’s Museum of Arts and Design’s ninth-floor picture-window restaurant, overlooks our thrilling twinkling city, and the menu’s excellent. It’s a must.
A Loudly talking Republican voice at an East Side restaurant: “The White House is so nervous that everyone’s pitching in. Barack’s wife even stopped toning her armpits and planting turnips.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.