Billy Sullivan — Reginald Denny’s Successor (1924) 🇺🇸

When Universal decided to give Reginald Denny a boost up the ladder and make him a star in their Jewel features, they looked far and wide for a suitable successor to take his place in the boxing pictures that have been so popular.

They finally picked on Billy Sullivan, the smiling young man whose picture you see on this page.

He is a nephew of John D. Sullivan, the famous world champion heavyweight of a generation ago, and a son of Jerry Sullivan, who was a professional boxer of some note.

Billy Sullivan, despite his family associates with the prize ring, has never been a professional fighter, although he is a skilled boxer, and has appeared many times in amateur bouts at different athletic clubs.

This training prepared him to take the leading part in a vaudeville sketch called “The Star Bout,” in which he toured the country, and this, in turn, led to his choice for his present job.

The first of the new series in which he appears is “A Tough Tenderfoot.” In it he is supported, as he will be in the subsequent ones, by the same cast that surrounded Reginald Denny.

It is a thankless task to follow in any one’s footsteps, and particularly in those of a man who made such an outstanding hit as’ Reginald Denny did. But Billy Sullivan, with his nice smile and likeable personality, seems quite capable not only of pleasing Reginald Denny’s admirers, but also of winning many of his own. Particularly, one might add, among the girls.

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Photo by: Roman Freulich (1898–1974)

Collection: Picture Play Magazine, April 1924