Kid Broad

Biography

Before entering films, William Thomas "Kid" Broad had been a professional boxer in the featherweight and lightweight classes, and had over 100 bouts in his career. Only twice did he suffer a knockout. Born in England in 1878, he began fighting in Cleveland in the late 1890s, and his career took off. His greatest ring triumph occurred in 1901, when he knocked out Young Corbett just two months before Corbett went on to win the featherweight title. Supposedly, at one of his bouts, the Kid was discovered by Douglas Fairbanks and approached about being in movies. He spent about a decade in the ring, and began appearing as an extra in films, and assisting with fight scenes. In 1916, he, along with several ex-boxers, appeared in the Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle short Bright Lights (1916). In one scene, he and his friends were supposed to be beaten up by a group of sailors. Instead, the boxers kept beating up the sailors, take after take. Arbuckle finally decided that the fight looked better that way. Douglas Fairbanks once called the Kid, asking him to play a tough guy part. The Kid thought someone larger would be better in the role, so he recommended wrestler Bull Montana, giving the grappler his start in pictures. In another version of the story, Fairbanks thought the Kid wasn't ugly enough for the part, and asked him to find someone uglier. It is not known exactly how many movies Kid Broad made, but by the time he appeared in Wanted: A Husband (1919) in 1919, some newspapers reported that he already had 89 films to his credit. Although virtually nothing is known about his wife, The Moving Picture World reported in 1920 that both the Kid and Mrs. "Kid" Broad were appearing in Frontier of the Stars (1921), and this was her film debut. In the early 1930s, the Kid worked as a banker's bodyguard on Wall Street. Kid Broad spent his last years in New York City, living on the west side. He would carry a picture of himself as a young boxer wearing green tights. He kept another picture in his hotel room; that of a young woman in a dance costume. The Kid claimed she was his wife, who had died decades earlier. His neighbors felt sorry for him and would give him some money for rent and food. Kid Broad's brother John offered him a home in Cleveland, but the Kid replied that he would rather die around a New York lamppost than in an Ohio cow pasture. In June of 1947, the Kid got his wish. A patrolman found a dead body in a doorway on the lower west side of the city. The victim's beard and unkempt hair initially made his identification difficult, but the cauliflower ears stood out. Several of his old-time friends identified the dead man as the Kid. Death had been caused by hardening of the arteries. When the funeral was held, only six people showed up. The Kid was not even shaved for his services, because his brother John felt that the boxer should go out as he had lived the last few years.