› THE CHINA MAIL, MAY 22, 1939
How Kearns Trebled Size
Of Mining Town And Left It Broke
By Leo Fuller
Dempsey Meets Gibbons In Ring's Greatest Slugfest
There's a thriving little mining town in Montana called Shelby, and if you want to get yourself into considerable trouble, just mention the word boxing; if you want to leave Shelby in a wooden box, just speak of Jack Dempsey and his manager, Jack Kearns.
And the
reason why boxing is so drastically unpopular in Shelby, Montana, is one of the ring's true fight fan- tasies.
It began when Dempsey was at the height of his powers as the heavy- weight champion of the world. It was the Golden Age of the fight game, and the Manassa Mauler was its Midus. Money poured into Kearns' hands in a glittering flow, and he demanded a king's ransom for Jack's performances.
map. better
TOUGH TOM GIBBONS gave
Dempsey one of his hardest battles.
on,
tion was its worst when Kearns made an offer. He said he would allow Dempsey to battle, if he was allowed to take over the 'gate' himself, and to this straw the mayor and promoters clutched.
Actually the tickets had gone terri- bly slowly, as most of the population had been celebrating in the taverns. Also the prices charged were very high, but Kearns knew his fight fans. Going out to the wooden stadium, he closed all doors but one, and, with a couple of his body guards standing over him with drawn guns, he stood at the one entrance with a sack, charging ten dollars flat entrance fee. The news swept through the town, and they turned up in thousands. Bills, silver dollar pieces, dropped into the sack, as those western men poured into the stadium. For hour after hour, they swept by.
Eventually, when the money was counted, it came to a hundred and eighteen thousand dollars
.
Packed tightly into three suit cases, the small fortune was car- ried to the hotel, where the body guards sat on it, still with their guns drawn.
"Listen, if Dempsey wins you're in trouble, pard," sneered the gun- man, and added emphasis to his remark by jabbing the 'Doc' in the ribs with the steely barrel.
Kearns nailed him on the chin with the sheriff and his deputies arrived his naked fist, and it was lucky that that moment!
All this time the battle raged in the ring. All this time the crowd went crazy. in the last three rounds, the champion It was an incredible scene, and gave all he had-yet it wasn't enough to bring the lion-hearted, Gibbons to his knees. He finished the last round reeling, he was cut to pieces, blood poured from his mouth and nose, his eyes were closed, his knees quivered man, yet a man who had fought his but he was on his feet, a beaten
greatest battle.
Dempsey, breathing heavily, and sweating profusely from the effects of his exertions, and the blazing afternoon sun, was hurried under armed guard back to the hotel. And then followed a few of the tensest hours either he or Kearns ever experienced.
Shelby was then 4 boom mining town, and its proud leaders decided that something must be done to put their community right on the What, thought they, would be than staging a fight for the heavy-tors had been drawing heavily for this
That dangerous fight, crowd, dis- weight championship of the world? gala week. In short they were broke,
satisfied with the decision, and Everyone agreed. It was a magnificent and they had only been holding
knowing how Kearns had held up idea. The banks guaranteed the waiting for the fight to finish, and the
the town, were out for trouble. money, wealthy mine owners and farm- money to come in again.
Then came the fight. Whatever the They flocked to the saloons, and ers lent their financial backing.
financial troubles the championship the talk became wilder. The mayor was frantic, because hel
Eventually Dempsey was Jack Kearns travelled to Shelby, and realised that apart from the revellers fight between Tom Gibbons and Jack stepped out of the train to be greeted wrecking the town, the failure of the tempsey was one that will go down in out of town, but Kearns was leuggled by the mayor, a deputation and the contest would make Shelby the laugh- self has said that it was his hardest teen thousand dollars, and how to get the annals of the ring. Dempsey him- the problem of the hundred and eigh- town bandthe latter consisting of one ing stock of the United States. Some battle. Surging out of his crouch, he it away. To make matters worse, he trombone! Casting his shrewd
thing had to be done, and he himself;
attacked the challenger, smashing oyer had been tipped off that the state tax around the town, and seeing merely set an example, actually selling thou-lethal blows, hooking and wooden shacks, half finished
swinging collectors were waiting for him in the sands head of his sheep! Other farm-with a murderous insanity that would hotel lobby below. The mayor and the cow boys cantering by, miners throngers and cattle men followed, and to have mown down a hundred men, But others were determined to get their ing the taverns, Jack wondered if the gether they had scraped up a further Gibbons took it all, and fought back.
own back in some way. Yet the re- money was there. They asked him how hundred thousand dollars by the next
sourceful 'Doc' was far from defeat- much he wanted.
ed.
eyes
streets,
"Three hundred thousand dollars," he answered without batting an eye- lash.
They protested at once.
"Three hundred grand," was all he said.
morning. Kearns took the money, wir-
ed it to New York, and then turned Decision Angers Crowd
around with a frozen face, saying:
"Jack doesn't go until we get, the
other hundred grand
Heaven-Sent Engine
For round after round Dempsey bat- tered mercilessly, against this human granite shell. The spectators swarmed
At the back of the newly built hotel around the ring, yelling encouragement ran the railway, and Kearns slipped Whole 'Gate' Asked to the challenger, howling at the cham- out and walked along the tracks for pion. Time after time it seemed that about half a mile. In a siding he Kearns, one of the most generous Gibbons was on the verge of defeat, found a small engine, and, by a fan- Three hundred grand it became, and
men I have ever known, one of the but always, by superhuman courage he tastic stroke of luck, it had steam up... although Kearns showed no he must have been amazed when the people, was a wolf in business.
surprise, staunchest friends and pleasantest of pulled himself together, and met Demp-and the driver just ready to set off It was sey's assault, trading punches with for a small township twenty miles mayor produced one hundred thousand to this quality that Dempsey owes his him, and raising a huge lump on his down the line., dollars in notes, and handed it to him rise. It was this steel shrewdness that left eye.
"How would you like to earn five to bind the contract.
in hundred dollars, pal?" enquired Kearns. had guided him to the heavyweight In the twelfth round, Kearns, championship of the world.
And when the driver eagerly assent- Dempsey's corner, felt a hand on his shoulder, and whipped round to face ed, Jack told him how.. There was literally no more public two unshaven miners, one with a six money left in the town, and the situa-gun in his hand.
Tough Tom Gibbons
a
The outstanding challenger at the time was a tough battler by the name
from of Tom Gibbons, who came neighbouring state. He would go into a ring and fight wildcats if necessary, he could punch pretty well, and WES one of the stone wall men of the ring when it came to defence.
The fight was ballyhooed for weeks, and finally Dempsey and Kearns set off for Shelby. When they arrived, Kearns was astounded to find that the town had grown like a mushroom within a few weeks. Brand new taverns hnd grown up on every corner; three rodeos were presented daily; everywhere was the clank of cowboy's spurs, and the clink of silver dollars brought in by the miners. It was a seething, drinking, boisterous fight town.
Having deposited Dempsey in a ho- tel, guarded by his famous trainer, Jerry the Greek, Kearns interviewed the mayor. He wanted his further two hundred thousand dollars before the champion entered the ring. The mayor protested, and asked him to wait until after the fight, when all the gate money was in.
"Nothing doing," replied Kearns. "I want the money on the line, or Jack doesn't fight."
Frantically the mayor sent out an S.O.S. to the bankers and the leading citizens. A hurried conference WHE called, because the situation was indeed serious.
With all those tough miners and cowboys in town, all mostly' drunk, all determined to see the fight, a/ postponement would have been un- thinkable, not to sky highly dan- gerous!
Two banks admitted that they couldn't produce tile funds an deposi-
Right & Wrong Backswing
By BEST BALL
The above illustrations portray emphatically how important it is to take the club back correctly. Before the advent of slow motion pictures Walter Travis used to. maintain that the clubhead on the downswing travelled in the same path it initiated in the upstroke. So thinking he built up one of the most accurate strokes in golf- ing history and even if the latter day movies did show him to be slightly wrong in his surmise, he was close enough to the truth to be mentioned even to-day when past champions are talked of.
In the top drawing above the club has been taken back in the correct manner, the left arm push- ing the club back as the left hip revolves to the right, thus turn- ing the whole body in one smooth working process. At the top the golfer is in a perfect position to start the downstroke along correct line and hit the ball square- ly in the back with a sweeping blow. Furthermore, the muscles of the body lend themselves to the developing of greater momentum so that the stroke will be a forceful
оде.
the
In the lower illustration the club has been taken : back incor- rectly, lifted up to the position it occupies by the right arm. The weight is largely on the right leg but this position has been achieved only because the player has away--
GRAPHIC GOLE
RIGHT,
BODY TURN MADE. CORRECTLY LEFT HAND HAS PUSHED CLUB BACK
INCORRECTE CLUB HAS
BEEN LIFTED BY RIGHT ARM BODY SWAYED TO RIGHT
11-22
ed his body to the right. The down- swing will be largely an arm mo tion, the club head descending in a sharp are from this position and contacting the ball poorly if at all, for there is no definite centre to the swing.
Wednesday---Aiding The Pivot.
He ran back to the hotel, and, to- gether with his two bodyguards, drop. ped out of a back window, first throw ing the suit case in front of them. At that very moment, the sheriff and the tax collectors were in the lobby, wait. ing to have a word with Mr. Kearns. The three of them, grabbing the heavy cases, started to run towards the rail- way lines, just as the little engino chugged along. They were halfway to the engine when someone spotted them, and with a roar of wrath, the sheriff and his posse gave chase, Almost bow legged from the weight of the money, the three just managed to reach the engine, hurl the cases aboard, and clamber up.
The chagrined sheriff stood in the middle of the tracks, as the engine gathered speed, and, while Kearns made derisive signs at him, he pulled his forty-fives from his belt and fired furiously in the air. But it was too late. Jack Kearns had left the town broke and got away with it!
And that is, why it is dangerous, even to-day, to speak of boxing in Shel by, Montana !!!
(COPYRIGHT) To-morrow They never come back!
DAZZLING SPECTACLE! GLORIOUS FUNSTERS! Filmed in Wondrous TECHNICOLOUR!
Jeanette Nelson MacDONALD ● EDDY
"SWEETHEARTS”