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Jack Dempsey: A poem

 

Dempsey grew up poor, and left home at sixteen

His early fights were of the bar room variety

Where the purse came from passing the hat

And certainly created no national notoriety

 

But as his record of bar room victories grew

He became a professional fighter regarded as first rate

He was world champion from 1919 to1926

And one of his fights produced the first million dollar gate

 

And herein lies a strange paradox

Between the wealth of Dempsey

And the fact he almost bankrupted Shelby, Montana

As a result of his fight there in 1923

 

In 1923, Shelby was a growing oil town,

Where the population had grown fivefold in recent years, of which the town’s people were quite proud

The best way to bring some excitement thought the Chamber of Commerce

Was to host a Jack Dempsey fight, which they felt would draw a large crowd

 

Jack Kearns was Dempsey’s manager at that time

He was excellent at negotiating favorable terms

And Shelby guaranteed $300,000 would be paid to Dempsey in three installments before the fight began

Without regard to the actual gate, this commitment was firm

 

A stadium was constructed for the fight which would seat 40,000 people

However when Kearns said the fight would be cancelled because the third installment had not been made

Many would-be attendees cancelled their rail reservations to Shelby

And thus only 7,000 patrons attended the fight that actually paid

 

At the last minute, Shelby raised the final $100,000 guarantee to Dempsey

And the fight took place on July 4, 1923, with Dempsey the winner

The small paid attendance put the fight’s promoters in a severe financial hole

It was insufficient to pay Dempsey’s purse, let alone the cost of the new arena

 

After the fight three Shelby banks closed, and another left town

For many citizens of Shelby it caused financial mayhem

There was no Federal Deposit Insurance at the time to protect customers’ accounts

So many Shelby residents lost their entire savings

 

In the town of Manassa, Colorado, where he was born, there is a Jack Dempsey Museum

On Main Avenue, in Durango, there is a large representation of one of his fights on a building wall

But I venture to say that in Shelby, Montana, you probably won’t find

Any municipal tribute to Dempsey at all.

 

 

– Chester Salkind, Durango, chestersalkind.blogspot.com