The Battle of the Century : Dempsey, Carpentier, and the Birth of Modern Promotion / Jim Waltzer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Waltzer, Jim, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dempsey, Jack, 1895-1983.

Dempsey, Jack.

Carpentier, Georges, 1894-1975.

Carpentier, Georges.

Boxing--United States--History.

Boxing.

Boxing--New Jersey--History.

Boxers (Sports)--United States--Biography.

Boxers (Sports).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (260 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 2023.

Place of Publication:

Santa Barbara : Libraries Unlimited, 2022.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

text file HTML

Summary:

This exciting account of the 1921 heavyweight boxing title fight between champion Jack Dempsey and Frenchman Georges Carpentier relates how it originated and how it became a template for modern sports promotion. Immortalized as the battle of the century by Ring Lardner, the Dempsey-Carpentier heavyweight title bout marked America's first experience with the intersection of show business, high society, politics, and the underworld at a single sporting event. The Battle of the Century: Dempsey, Carpentier, and the Birth of Modern Promotion offers the definitive history of this landmark event's genesis and impact. To explain why the fight had such a far-reaching influence on mass entertainment and modern culture, newspaperman Jim Waltzer invites readers to travel the path to the 1921 heavyweight championship. Along the way, they will meet a cast of outsize characters, including the savage defending champion (and alleged World War I slacker) Jack Dempsey, French pretty-boy war hero Georges Carpentier, promoter Tex Rickard, Dempsey's slippery manager Doc Kearns, and Jersey City boss Frank Hague. As the tale unfolds, so does an understanding of the forces that shaped the Roaring Twenties and established promotional hype as the MO of business.

Contents:

Acknowledgments Prologue 1. Gold and Gambling 2. Dustup in the Desert 3. The Mouths That Roared 4. Color of the Crown 5. Conjuring an Unlikely Champion 6. Ships in the Night 7. Tornado from the West 8. Across War and Continents 9. Dynamic Duo 10. Near Death in the Afternoon 11. Right Hands and Steamer Trunks 12. Slacker Trial 13. An Earful at the Garden 14. Cuban Capitalists 15. Going Solo in Jersey City 16. The Fight Finds a Home 17. Sketches from Training Camp 18. Girding for Battle 19. Battle du Jour Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index Photo essay following page 114.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9798400616815

9786613317292

9781283317290

128331729X

9780313382451

031338245X

OCLC:

760887101