Frazier’s gym is on the market

Has the bell rung for boxing legend Joe Frazier? His landmark gym in North Philly went up for sale last week.

The 100-plus-year-old former ballroom at 2917 N. Broad St., where he began training shortly after he went pro more than 40 years ago, has a price tag of $2.4 million. "A chance to own a piece of history," says the listing from broker Lisa Coakley of Washington, D.C.

Last month, word circulated that the gym had closed for good and that a few boxers who trained there had been forced out. The champ's camp dismissed the talk of closing, saying the gym was temporarily down for renovations.

In a phone chat, Coakley said she had been told that Frazier, 64, was "retiring from boxing."
Contacted Thursday, Frazier manager Les Wolff countered that Frazier was not retiring and added that an outright sale of the building was only one option. He said Frazier would consider a joint venture with a developer to refurbish the place.

City records show that in March, a long-standing real estate tax debt of about $130,000 was settled.

"It's sad," said John DiSanto, a historian who runs Phillyboxinghistory.com, when told of the real estate listing.

Wolff said Frazier had licensing deals in the works. Frazier was booked to sing R&B last month on the CBS reality series Secret Talents of the Stars, but his appearance was scrapped when the show was canceled after one episode.

Briefly noted
Patti LaBelle will be honored as mother of the year by Radio One - which owns stations WPHI, WPPZ and WRNB - at a sold-out brunch today at First District Plaza in University City.

Fox29's Jennaphr Frederick girl-gabbed with Sex and the City's Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon at a New York media junket last week after the lights went out at the hotel. Nixon and Frederick compared notes on their Louboutin shoes. Nixon's hurt; JFred's did not. SATC: The Movie opens May 30.

Flyers-Penguins food wager: Vik Dewan, head of the Philadelphia Zoo, and Barbara Baker, his counterpart at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. Dewan is putting up a dozen cheesesteaks from Rick's at the Reading Terminal Market, plus soft pretzels and bottles of Hires root beer, against a baker's dozen of Primanti Bros. sandwiches, complete with coleslaw and fries, and Iron City beer. (No zoo animals will be harmed in the bet.)

Old City restaurants including Philadelphia Fish & Co., the Plough and the Stars, Serrano, Nick's Roast Beef, Mad River, Ristorante Panorama, and La Famiglia plan to donate 10 percent of their take May 20 to the family of slain Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. It's the least they can do, says organizer Kevin Meeker of Philly Fish.

Moviemaking
Happy Tears, the drama starring Demi Moore, Parker Posey and Rip Torn, is about halfway through its 27-day shooting schedule. On Friday, the Snyderman Gallery in Old City subbed for a New York art gallery in a scene in which Posey's character meets her husband. While Moore worked, husband Ashton Kutcher entertained her daughters Tallulah and Scout Willis at the nearby Continental. Yesterday, Moore, Kutcher and girls lunched at Marathon on the Square; Kutcher ditched them when they shopped later at Knit Wit.

Tenure, the Luke Wilson-David Koechner college comedy shot mostly in the burbs, wrapped on schedule Friday. Besides Rosemont and Bryn Mawr Colleges, locations included Foulkeways at Gwynedd in Montgomery County and an old Colonial house in Media. Wilson lunched Thursday with a (legally) blond woman at Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen in Radnor; they were rousted outside briefly when a fire alarm went off in the fitness center next door.

Luke's brother Owen Wilson -- he probably hates being called that -- is due in The Inquirer's Broad Street newsroom Thursday to shoot scenes for the film adaptation of John Grogan's best-seller, Marley & Me, which costars Jennifer Aniston. Wilson plays the former Inquirer columnist, and filmmakers wanted authenticity. But Grogan worked out of the paper's much smaller office in Upper Merion. "I can see why they wanted to shoot downtown," Grogan says. His office "was like the bleakest work environment I've ever worked in."; Seeing Wilson play him is "a bit of an out-of-body experience, but in a good way," Grogan says.

Passes the sniff test
The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery in University City was searching for volunteer docents for its new exhibit, Odor Limits, which explores the potential of smell to redefine aesthetic experiences. It's on at 36th and Market Streets through June 28. One of three hires is Center City's Fran Levi, a retired city worker who impressed organizers not only because she's bright and chatty. Levi lost her sense of smell more than 30 years ago when construction debris clunked her on the head on Locust Street. "Maybe I'll learn something," she says.

Media personnel
WOGL (98.1) program director Anne Gress says she is only now starting to consider a replacement for the afternoon spot left by "Big Ron" O'Brien, who died April 27. The job seeker who left a voice-mail message for Gress on the very day that O'Brien died will not get an audition with the classic-hits station, she says. He did get a callback -- and an earful from Gress. "How was that person raised?" she asks. Top candidates seem to be in-house, including weekender/fill-ins Angela Mason and Cadillac Jack Seville, plus nighttimer Bob Charger. O'Brien's name will live on, as the station is preparing to rename its air studio in his honor and will maintain its tribute page on the Web site, www.wogl.com.

There's A doctor in the house, not two anymore: Brian McDonough, who had done medical reports on Fox29 since 1989, left the station as his contract expired last month. He says he's fielding other offers and still contributes to KYW-AM (1060). Fox29 will use Michael "Dr. Mike" Cirigliano, who is wont to wear a stethoscope on camera, probably in case he has to examine an anchor or someone.

The newborn raccoon rescued two weekends ago by anchors Larry Mendte and Dawn Stensland is expected to be released from the Schuylkill Center in September into the general vicinity where it was found. Which means new trash-can lids are in order for the Chestnut Hill couple.