In a scene from “Cinderella Man,” a movie set in the Great Depression about boxer James J. Braddock, his wife, Mae Braddock, raps angrily at the door of Joe Gould, Braddock’s manager. “Joe, open the door,” she says, furious that Gould has encouraged her husband to return to the ring. “Don’t hide in your fancy apartment. I want to talk to you.”
When Gould opens the door and reluctantly invites Mae inside, her fury turns to shock. The luxury apartment has been stripped bare of its furniture, sold off, it turns out, to meet the expenses of training Braddock. “Sorry about that,” Gould says by way of explanation. “Just don’t want folks to see you down, that’s all.”
