Jack Dempsey and the Roaring Twenties : The Life and Times of a Boxing Icon (Hardcover)

The Roaring Twenties was an era of high living and extravagance, of hot jazz and new fashions, when America lived as if there were no tomorrow. It was a time when the heavyweight boxing champion of the world reigned supreme in sport and Jack Dempsey was the idol of the age. This definitive biography takes us through the thrilling career of the "Manassa Mauler." Dempsey's fights are part of boxing folklore: the massacre of giant Jess Willard, the first million-dollar gate against French hero Georges Carpentier, the sensational war with Luis Firpo, the bout with Tom Gibbons that bankrupted a town and the controversial "Battle of the Long Count" with Gene Tunney. Dempsey packed more drama into his career than almost any other boxer in history. A one-time hobo and saloon fighter, he came up the hard way and punched his way to fame and fortune. Tom Myler had the benefit of interviewing Dempsey in his retirement years, and he draws on their exchanges to give you the full inside story of Jack's life and times.