Sidney Franklin in 1932
An exhibit has opened in Israel highlighting Jewish athletes who competed prior to the state’s founding in 1948 and one of the most interesting deals with Sidney Franklin, who became the first American and first Jewish bullfighter in the world in 1923.
“It is no coincidence that very little has been heard up to now about the amazing story of the Jewish bullfighter who captured the Spanish people’s heart,” says the exhibition’s curator, sports journalist Adi Rubinstein. “He just did not fit in with the commonly accepted image of the weak, puny Jew from the ghetto who always gets beaten up by the gentiles.”
The exhibit in Tel Aviv is designed to show that Jews in that era weren’t all weak. Franklin was such an accomplished bullfighter that Ernest Hemingway praised his skill. He was also gay, but was not public about it, according to Rubinstein.
“He was an iconoclast who chose to lead a life that was far removed from what his Orthodox-Jewish parents wanted for him. He captured the entire world as well as the hearts of both women and men.”
Bart Paul, the author of a biography on Franklin, told this to the L.A. Times in 2010:
I think he was never outwardly gay, as we would think of being out today. As Barnaby Conrad said, if they had known, it would have killed him as a bullfighter in Spain. Not that there weren’t bullfighters who were gay. It was just a culture of machismo.
I love history and hearing these kinds of stories, which show us that gays in sports have been around a lot longer than many of us might think.
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 8:38 AM
Considering the long histories of both Jews (since the 3rd century) and bullfighting (since the 12th century) in the Iberian peninsula I would be truly amazed if he were the first.
But this is welcome addition to the many previously untold histories of gays.
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 10:21 AM
Given that gay people exist in all facets of life I doubt if anyone today is truly the “first gay” in their area of endeavor. It is interesting hearing the stories though.
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 10:38 AM
How do you say “Mazel tov” in Spanish?
No matter, what an interesting story! Would like to read Bart Paul’s biography
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 11:17 AM
Mazel tov in Spanish is Buona Fortuna Kinahora!
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 2:15 PM
Since when is torturing and killing animals a sport? I love Outsports but embracing somebody who habitually committed animal cruelty as ‘sport’ just because he liked men is a pretty despicable low for this site.
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 3:32 PM
More articles about Sydney Franklin from our archive:
http://archive.jta.org/article/1929/07/29/2778448/madrid-hails-jewish-boy-of-brooklyn-as-yankee-toreador
http://archive.jta.org/article/1929/08/15/2778643/brooklyn-jewish-bullfighter-returns-to-ring
http://archive.jta.org/article/1930/03/20/2782771/jewish-bullfighter-seriously-injured-during-appearance-in-marid-arena
http://archive.jta.org/article/1932/08/09/2794856/sidney-franklin-to-return-to-madrid-as-toreador
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 3:35 PM
What Sidney Franklin accomplished in the bullring is admirable, but he was not the first American bullfighter. Harper B. Lee was a successful matador in Mexico in the early 1900′s. The book “Knight In The Sun” by Marshall Hail chronicles his fascinating career. Bart Paul’s biography of Franklin, “Double-Edged Sword” is also a good read. While bullfighting is not a sport, but more of a performance art wherein the performer may be killed at any time, physical conditioning is important for the practitioner. While there will always be detractors, I believe Franklin does deserve inclusion here because he faced 1000 lb. bulls with bravery and was the first American to do so in Spain.
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 3:58 PM
If bullfighting isn’t a sport, then neither is boxing or wrestling.
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 6:37 PM
I can’t believe I just read an article making a hero out of an absolute villain. “Face 1000 pound bulls with bravery”? What an absurd statement. There is no such things as ‘bravery’ when you are armed with long metal spikes, not to mention are immediately rescued if anything should start going wrong, against a beaten and scared animal. Sidney Franklin was a swine and so is anyone in his profession. Bullying is the most fitting word to describe this so-called ‘sport,’ and anyone who roots for a creature that has done nothing to harm anyone is a bully, pure and simple. I guess if dog-fighting is made legal all you gay bullfighting-supporters will start cheering for those dogs to die. You all make me sick.
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 7:23 PM
Hey there, Fawkes and RVH, do you eat meat or wear leather? Even if you don’t, do you eat fish roe, or fish for that matter? Do you buy anything made in China from slave labor? Do you root for human sports where brain injuries are commonplace, like football, boxing, mixed martial arts, even horseback riding? Do you have any idea about the historical past, when such benevolent concepts of animal cruelty were eclipsed by social tradition and approbation? Why on your high horse about someone who overcame deadly societal norms to succeed where his oppressors would least expect? Today is in the year 2012. Sidney Franklin achieved his status in 1923, that’s 89 years ago. Can you say for certain that all that you do today will be considered “normal” in 2101? That’s the year twenty one thousand and one. Can you see that far beyond your 21st century nose, oh awesomely judgmental ones?
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 10:14 PM
Tom,
You can try to justify animal cruelty all you want. In 2101, it’s going to be people like Franklin who will be deemed an ‘oppressor.’
on Jan 25th, 2012 at 10:24 PM
Tom,
I neither eat meat nor wear leather. I try not to buy anything from China, but if I do I don’t prance around and say how great the Chinese are for subjugating their people. As for the rest of your whimpering questions, they’re rather pointless and you pretty much ignored my entire point. Sure, Sidney Franklin achieved a status that was viewed as great then. Plantation owners who were rich but owned hundreds of slaves were once considered great people who were financially successful and considered great role models despite all those pesky bleeding-heart anti-slavery activists yelling at for their crimes against humanity and decency. Grow up. There’s more to life than status.
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 12:20 AM
I’ve grown up all I need to for the time being, thanks. Your complaint is more along the lines that a house slave taught himself to read and write and then forged papers for escaping slavery. Damn that house slave, keeping that slavery system going instead of killing the slaveowners! Perpetuating a system over which one individual couldn’t dominate and end, but playing by the racists’ game. Damn that house slave!
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 1:18 AM
You can try to justify animal cruelty all you want
Where is he doing that? He’s simply pointing out how ludicrous it is to get on your high bull when every single one of us, to a person, is complicit in some form of animal cruelty or other, including the suffering of the human animal.
To take it to an absurd degree, if you so much as a watch a single pitch of major league baseball or a single down of college/NFL football, you’re complicit in the cruel treatment of cows in industrial farming, as the cover of a baseball and a football is made from cow hide and the cows that are used for slaughter are, to put it mildly, not treated very well.
I simply refuse to feel guilty because I like an In-n-Out Double Double once in a while or that the iPod I listen to music on is made by slave labor in China. I refuse to be a hypocrite and a I’ll-pick-this-issue-and-ignore-that-one hypocrite at that.
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 1:20 AM
Outsports’ double-standards are incredible. Let me quote from a (much) earlier article: “Anyone with a shred of humanity could have told him it was wrong to torture and kill animals and he should have known it was wrong.”
When Michael Vick, a black man, does it, it’s wrong, but when some white gay man does it, he’s a hero.
Wrong is wrong, no matter what the race or sexual orientation of the person is. I just wish Outsports and all its stupid readers would realize this.
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 1:41 AM
Jim Allen,
You can decide to not feel guilty and forfeit your conscience, that’s your right I suppose. But just because there’s evil everywhere in the world doesn’t mean you should just give up and start openly embracing it.
JBMartinez, Right on. I’ve noticed a very white bias in Outsports and all its readers’ comments. Why else is Glenn Burke’s coming out only the 54th most important moment in gay sports history, while Billy Bean, who came out in a much safer time for gays and lesbians to be out, is ranked 7th?
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 4:15 AM
I am not sure how this article endorses bullfighting. It was a piece about an exhibit on Jewish athletes from early last century and this guy was famous in the 1920s and ’30s. Attitudes about bullfighting have changed tremendous since then and the “sport” is seen as a relic of another era.
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 5:13 AM
But just because there’s evil everywhere in the world doesn’t mean you should just give up and start openly embracing it
I’m not “embracing evil everywhere in the world” or even just in the part of Los Angeles I live in, just being coldly realistic. Unless I decide to become a Trappist monk, as an American, every day I’m going to consume something that has a shitty origin, buy something that has exploitation written all over it. It’s unavoidable, full stop.
Unless you’re living in a remote part of the jungle in Borneo that’s untouched by civilization, which obviously you aren’t, you’re part of the problem too and bitching at others is pure hypocrisy. In other words, don’t get all huffy if other people don’t share the same level of concern as you do on an issue.
Sorry if I care more about the Keystone XL pipeline than a ghastly spectacle that most of the non-Spanish speaking world barely knows exists, that probably won’t exist in 100 years and that Jim in no way endorsed (unless you wanted a paragraph stating the obvious: OMG! Bullfighting is bad!!11!!1! OMG!!!).
I have my no-go’s about products I buy and businesses I patronize, but I certainly don’t give a damn if people use them because it’s that most pathetic, most feeble of protests: does nothing to change anything but makes the person bitching feel good.
Why else is Glenn Burke’s coming out only the 54th most important moment in gay sports history, while Billy Bean, who came out in a much safer time for gays and lesbians to be out, is ranked 7th?
I don’t know, why didn’t you ask them instead of implying they’re racists because a list that’s totally subjective didn’t meet your criteria?
What the hell is #25 doing so high up or even there in the first place? Why isn’t #33 higher up, especially since Cyd and Jim knew him?
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 6:03 AM
Jim Allen,
My, my. I think you woke up on the wrong side of the bathhouse.
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 7:52 AM
A bullfighter is immediately rescued if anything should start going wrong? Ha! Bullfighters are often gored, trampled, suffer concussions and broken bones, some have been paralyzed, but according to Mr. Fawkes the poor bull is defenseless. One bullfighter was recently gored in the head–the horn popped his eyeball from the socket. He has lost the sight in that eye and has partial facial paralysis. A goring happens in seconds, a veer of a charge, a lift of a horn–none of the other bullfighters can get there in time to stop that. You whine about the treatment of the bulls but don’t bother to think about what will happen to them if the spectacle is completely banned. No animal rights organization will ever spend the money to preserve this beautiful animal. They will become extinct–hooray for animal rights! As for how the bull dies after living in freedom far longer than factory farmed animals do–I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees–or trapped in a cage while being force fed hormones and antibiotics to stave off the sickness prevalent because of the filth I live in. Brave bulls live sheltered lives on open range, free and well fed, and they live longer than cattle bred for meat. A few are pardoned for exceptional bravery and return to the ranch to become stud bulls–an opportunity that doesn’t exist in any slaughter house. PETA and their ilk repeatedly spread lies about what happens during the corrida–you repeat them like a parrot–but what do you care about facts–you’re more interested in feeling superior and self-righteous and oh so politically correct.
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 8:18 AM
If you’re interested in seeing the truth check out these photos of some bullfighters who didn’t get “immediately rescued”.
http://es.paperblog.com/cornada-al-torero-juan-j-padilla-impresionantes-imagenes-711438/
http://www.larazon.es/noticia/sobrecogedora-cogida-de-israel-lancho-en-las-ventas
http://www.elpais.com/fotografia/cultura/Cornada/elpdiacul/20100521elpepucul_37/Ies/
Everyone has a right to their opinions on bullfighting–just don’t tell lies about what happens.
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 6:03 PM
My, my. I think you woke up on the wrong side of the bathhouse
Is that the best you’ve got? 3/10, please do better next time and could you please update your references? Bathouses are sooooooo 70′s.
you repeat them like a parrot–but what do you care about facts–you’re more interested in feeling superior and self-righteous and oh so politically correct
See, that’s how it’s done.
on Jan 26th, 2012 at 9:43 PM
lol @ people trying to justify torturing animals for fun
on Jan 28th, 2012 at 4:10 AM
David R.,
And I could show you thousands of pictures of bulls lying in incredible pain waiting for the sweet release of death. Those bullfighters got what was coming to them to say the least.
on Feb 2nd, 2012 at 6:45 PM
I am amused at some of the anti-bullfighter comments made by persons in a country that idolizes prize fights and football games.
on Feb 17th, 2012 at 4:23 PM
Cristino Xirau,
You completely missed the point of the criticisms here of bullfighting. Yes, those sports you mentioned are violent, but the participants in them are willing. Any other stupid comments?