In 1931, The Champ, a movie starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper, captured the heart of America. The Champ told the tale of a down-on-his-luck boxer, but it wasn’t the uplifting story with a sad ending that gave Uncle Red the urge to high-tail-it off the family farm in Tightwad, Missouri. The reason? Because all 50 souls who called that tiny speck of hardscrabble land home, agreed on one thing. With Red’s rugged good looks, generous mouth and receding hairline, the big man from the Show Me State was a dead ringer for the famous movie star Wallace Beery. Uncle Red figured that once he’d made it all the way to tinsel-town, he’d get a starring role in a ‘moving picture’, playing Poncho Villa or Long John Silver. At the very least he could stand-in for the gruff-talking Beery.