4s ( M m Mki
Life
Johansson-of-all-trades rehearses one of his scenes from the TV
production of "The Killers" with Diane Baker and Dean Stockwell.
'-.". ' "i : i i il I - ; fit.- : ..
AM
He stands
over Floyd Patterson in the championship bout that brought the world to his feet.
Ingo kids with Dinah Shore while waiting to go on her TV show.
easy confidence that his interest will be recip
rocated. And, let's face it, the woman never
lived who didn't feel flattered by the knowl
edge that the handsome fellow taking her out
can beat the stuffing out of any other man
in the world.
Elaine Sloane, a perky brunette who works
for a sports magazine in New York, testifies
gigglingly to the celebrated Johansson charm.
"I had to deliver a note to him," she says,
"and when I got to his hotel he wasn't there,
so I made up my mind I'd wait until he showed
up. He came in at about 6 o'clock, and he was
really very nice to me. He read the note and
gave me an answer to take back to my boss,
and then, just like that, he took me out to the
Stockholm restaurant to make sure I didn't
miss my dinner. In fact, he took me out three
times that week end. He can really dance up a
storm."
Ingo's whirlwind social life isn't inhibited
by any legal ties. He was married to a Gote-
borg girl named Bertha Abramson when he
was a boy of 17, but they were divorced after
their two children, Jaen, nine, and Thomas,
five, were born. Since then, his only attach
ment has been his somewhat puzzling (to
Americans,' anyway) semi-engagement to his
secretary, pretty Birgit Lundgren. Birgit
runs his office for him,- travels with him al
most everywhere he goes, and never presses
him about when or if he intends to marry her.
"The striking, 23-year-old, green-eyed bru-r
nette came to America with Ingo when he set
up training quarters for the Patterson fight,
and wherever Ingo went, Birgit went, too.
Old-time American boxing men were shocked.
They didn't think a man could get ready for a
championship fight by living in a million
aire's mansion on the grounds of a famous re
sort hotel in the company of his mother, his
father, his sister Eva, his brothers Rolf and
Henry, Rolfs fiancee, Annette, and his own
secretary-fiancee. The 18 custom-made suits
in his closet made them uneasy, too.
What, they wondered, was this guy train
ing for, anyway, a prize fight or a honey
moon? But in the third round of the big bat
tle at Yankee Stadium, Ingemar let go his
destructive right hand, and he convinced
them. He convinced everyone.
EVERYBODY knows now that Ingo's one
round knockout of Eddie Machen more
than a year ago was no fluke. They know, too,
that his disqualification for "not fighting" in
his 1952 Olympic bout with big Ed Sanders
of the U. S. was a fluke.
"We both wanted to counterpunch," Ingo
says. "It was a very bad match." Of course, a
lot of fight buffs think Patterson was simply
overconfident the first time and was am
bushed, and that hell scientifically chop Ingo
to pieces if their return bout comes off as
scheduled in late June. Ingo is untroubled. He
doesn't like to talk about what he will do
(Continued)
Family Weekly, March 13, 1960
7