Firpo vs McAuliffe, May 12, 1923 Milk Fund benefit boxing event. There were 5 heavyweight bouts, and over $180,000 raised for the charity. Firpo KO'd McAuliffe in the 3rd round.

$180,000 in 1923 money is about $3,225,000 today. Milk funds were charities to raise money for milk for poor families. This one was Anne Morgan's Milk Fund, set up by JP Morgan's youngest daughter. She was a union activist, striking in New York City with women garment workers in the period immediately leading up to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. She founded the American Woman's Association, where a working woman could network and develop leadership skills, and helped found the New York Colony Club. She also co-funded Cole Porter's first musical.

During WWI, she donated the house in France that she was living in as a hospital, then immediately started setting up a massive aid organization to help non-combatants, a charity that continued for years after the war, helping with the reconstruction effort. She returned to France after WWII to help again with that reconstruction effort. The Upper East Side townhouse she had built as her home was eventually donated to the United Nations and is currently the residence of the UN Secretary-General.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

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