Standing Room Only

Boxing promoters, who have been complaining that TV is ruining the gate at prizefights, had something to cheer about. The Joe Louis-Lee Savold fight (see SPORT), put on without commercial radio or TV, drew to Madison Square Garden a crowd of more than 18,000 fans, a gate of $94,684. Contrast: last month's televised heavyweight championship bout between Ezzard Charles and Joey Maxim in Chicago drew only 7,226.

Movie theater owners, who have also been suffering from TV competition, had their own cheering section. Though not telecast over the air, the Louis-Savold fight was experimentally piped by coaxial cable over closed circuits to six cities, shown on eight theater TV screens at prices ranging from 64-c- to $1.30. More than 22,000 customers saw the show and every theater had a full house. In Baltimore, S.R.O. signs were up an hour before the fight began.

But TV set owners were not so happy about it all. The elated boxing promoters announced that the experiment would be repeated at next week's Jake LaMotta-Bob Murphy fight. The fight can be seen only in New York's Yankee Stadium or by paid admission, at the eight TV-equipped theaters.

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