The Bells of St. Mary's

The Bells of St. Mary’s

Noel Laflin

12-25-17

There’s a scene from the classic movie, ‘The Bells of St. Mary’s,’ where Ingrid Bergman’s character buys a book on boxing by former 1920’s heavyweight champion, Gene Tunney.  Bergman plays a nun – to Bing Crosby’s portrayal of Father O’Malley – so that she can teach one of her students how to box.  The boy needs to deal with a bully and the good sister becomes his new manager on the art of gentlemanly fisticuffs.

I know all of this as I caught the movie last night.  I had never seen it all the way through before.

When the Tunney reference came up I suddenly flashed to election night, November 1970.  I was in an elevator with the legendary, Gene Tunney.

We were at the Ambassador Hotel, having just watched his son, the newly elected junior senator from California give his victory speech.  He gave it in the same room where Robert Kennedy had delivered his victory speech just two years prior.  It was a strange moment to be in that room with a young senator clearly on the move up the political rungs.

Having worked for the Tunney campaign, I was granted a place at the Ambassador that night.

And when we were on our way down, in that elevator a short time later, there I was with the senator’s father, the former champ.  He was in a jocular mood.  It probably ranked right up there with defeating Jack Dempsey – twice.

The new senator would only serve one term, and the champ, his dad, would pass away eight years later.

A legendary Swedish actress, portraying a nun in a 1945 classic, brought to light the memory of a different kind of victory all these years later.