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Shelby's Folly: Jack Dempsey, Doc Kearns, and the Shakedown of a Montana Boomtown, by Jason Kelly
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In 1923, not long after oil had started gushing from northern Montana fields, declining real-estate sales in nearby Shelby were dimming the little town’s prospects of becoming the “Tulsa of the West.” Then the mayor’s son dreamed up a marketing ploy: offer to host heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey’s next fight. What began as a publicity stunt soon spiraled into a civic drama unlike any Montana had ever seen. Shelby’s Folly tells this story in full for the first time.
Against the background of boom-and-bust Montana history, the folly of Shelby’s would-be promoters unfolds in colorful detail. It took months to persuade Dempsey’s conniving manager, Jack “Doc” Kearns, to sign a $300,000 contract. With less than two months before the July 4 fight, the town still had no stadium and no accommodations for tens of thousands of expected fans. Jason Kelly describes the promoters’ desperate measures and their disastrous results, from the first inkling of the idea to the bitter end of the fifteen-round boxing match. Shelby residents identified with the underdog challenger, Tommy Gibbons, who went toe-to-toe with the champion in an atmosphere crackling with tension. A soap opera of financial intrigue and chicanery, Shelby’s Folly chronicles how Big Sky ambition and Doc Kearns’s scheming mind collided to produce one of the most preposterous series of events in boxing history.
Watch the Shelby's Folly book trailer on YouTube.
- Sales Rank: #3122907 in Books
- Published on: 2012-07-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.35" h x .62" w x 5.26" l, .67 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 240 pages
Review
"A simply marvelous book by author Jason Kelly detailing the tale of a little-known Montana mining town trying to break into the sporting world big leagues by promoting a heavyweight championship fight featuring the immortal Jack Dempsey."--"USA Boxing News"--John Rinaldi "USA Boxing News "
"["Shelby''s Folly" is] a great story of a town prostituting itself to sport--and one that has been repeated many times since."--D. R./i>--D. R. Danbom "Time Out for Entertainment "
"Mr. Kelly, in his second book, tells this story in a highly entertaining fashion with great detail. . . . The book is a fine read, even for those who know the story well."--David Crisp, "Billings Outpost"--David Crisp"Billings Outpost" (07/22/2010)
""Shelby''s Folly" is such fun to read. Kelly builds toward the fight with insight into the backgrounds and personalities of Dempsey and Kearns, Gibbons, the Shelby town leaders, and the web of fight arrangers and their negotiations."--Ken Robison, "Montana, The Magazine of Western History"--Ken Robison "Montana, The Magazine of Western History "
"Jason Kelly''s "Shelby''s Folly" is a highly entertaining slice of Am--Richard Arlin Stull "ARETE "
"Enjoyable. . . . Mr. Kelly writes sympathetically, not mockingly, of Shelby, and he has a proper appreciation for the brazen roguery of Doc Kearns, whose greed and manipulativeness made the fight possible--and doomed Shelby's self-promotional hopes."--Bill Kauffman, "Wall Street Journal "--Bill Kauffman"Wall Street Journal" (03/23/2011)
"["Shelby's Folly" is] a great story of a town prostituting itself to sport--and one that has been repeated many times since."--D. R./i>--D. R. Danbom "Time Out for Entertainment "
"Jason Kelly's "Shelby's Folly" is a highly entertaining slice of Am--Richard Arlin Stull "ARETE "
""Shelby's Folly" is such fun to read. Kelly builds toward the fight with insight into the backgrounds and personalities of Dempsey and Kearns, Gibbons, the Shelby town leaders, and the web of fight arrangers and their negotiations."--Ken Robison, "Montana, The Magazine of Western History"--Ken Robison "Montana, The Magazine of Western History "
About the Author
Jason Kelly is an associate editor of the University of Chicago Magazine. He is the author of Mr. Notre Dame: The Life and Legend of Edward “Moose” Krause.
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
It's Just Business
By Amazon Customer
Kelly, Jason. Shelby's Folly: Jack Dempsey, Doc Kearns, and the Shakedown of a Montana Boomtown, by. Hardback: 214 pages. University of Nebraska Press (2010) ISBN-978-08032-2655
It's Just Business
Jason Kelly's Shelby's Folly is a highly entertaining slice of American history using Jack Dempsey's July 4, 1922, heavyweight title fight versus Tommy Gibbons as a backdrop for brazen American optimism, small town politics, and snake oil salesmanship. The real protagonists in this story are the small boom-and-bust town of Shelby , Montana , and Dempsey's manager, charismatic con man Doc Kearns. Shelby 's mayor, "Body" Johnson, lets the news media know that Shelby, the pretender to the title of " Tulsa of the West," is out to become the center of the American sports world. Though initially it was a publicity stunt, private citizens and business interests become enamored of the opportunity to host the fight, despite, as Kelly writes, "having no arena, no transportation, infrastructure, no restaurants, and no hotel rooms to accommodate even a fraction of the crowd."
Enter Dempsey's manager , Doc Kearns. Kearns was a former Alaskan adventurer, boxer, baseball player, taxi driver, bartender, Barbary Coast carouser, fancy dressing, champagne-drinking, fast-talking, and womanizing manager of the heavyweight champion. "Every day was New Year's eve," as one notable sportswriter referred to Kearns . He put the "ooze in schmooze," according to Kelly. His rise to the top of the fight game is a classic "only in America" story, not unlike another boxing promoter half a century later by the name of Don King. Kearns gets varied interests in the town to pony up $100,000 as the first installment on a guaranteed total of $300,000 for the privilege of hosting the fight. Somehow, the town manages to build a new 40,000 seat outdoor octagonal stadium, "transportation, infrastructure, restaurants, hotel rooms, etc."
Kelly does an admirable job in the opening chapter of setting up the fight, segues into describing the characters in the town, its history and the heroic efforts not only to get the fight, but to accommodate the fans. Dempsey, age 34, was enjoying the trappings of fame and wealth that came with the championship. Though past his prime, he was still a fearsome puncher who bored in on his opponent and rarely took a step back. "Cerebral slugger" Tommy Gibbons, age 32 and a 5-1 underdog, was a master boxer in the mold of former heavyweight champion Gentleman Jim Corbett. Confident that he had the stamina and style to beat Dempsey, Gibbons was even willing to fight without a guaranteed cut of the gate. The townsfolk of Shelby identified with and embraced the straight-arrow family man Gibbons. Even Chief Curly Bear of the local Blackfoot contingent made Gibbons an honorary member of the tribe before the fight.
Kelly also describes the fight itself in the penultimate chapter where Gibbons surprised many in giving Dempsey all he could handle. Kearns broke countless investors and four local banks before he absconded after the fight, leaving everyone but himself and Dempsey the poorer for it. As with modern day examples of cities hosting the Olympic games, Shelby 's balance sheet in the end was bright red. The town of Shelby and Tommy Gibbons, however, "went the distance."
Kelly's final chapter is a great "where-are-they-now" (or "where did they go?") wrap-up, letting the reader discover what happens to the town characters you get to know in the story. Kelly has a wonderful ironic writing style - he is a storyteller, the kind of person you would have liked to have had teaching your college history class. Describing the Shelby townspeople with fond appreciation and tossing out enough alliterations to rival Robert Louis Stevenson, Shelby's Folly is a quick read night table soap opera that you enjoy coming back to after a hard day's work. It recreates a time and place in America with just the right combination of romanticism, humor, and reality. It could easily be made into a three-act play or movie. Too bad we can't resurrect James Cagney to play Doc Kearns. Kelly's book also has twenty-three photos including Dempsey, Gibbons, the town of Shelby and its characters, and a bibliography.
And what about Kearns' bilking of the good people and four banks in Shelby ? Wasn't this just "business?" as usual? Kelly slyly slips the reasons for Kearns ' real motivation into one of the chapters, giving even more flavor to this Wild West comedy/tragedy of errors. Turns out it was personal after all.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Roaring 20's go Rural
By Pugwash
Jack Dempsey was one of the most recognizable celebrities of the Roaring 20's. His celebrity status was equal to Babe Ruth. Football was yet to become a mainstream professional sport, and pro basketball was not in existence. Boxers were at the top of athlete hero worship, and Dempsey was the heavyweight champion. The celebrity capital of such an athlete was enormous, and Dempsey had crafted a reputation for ferocity unknown since the days of John L Sullivan. His ring persona, and his pulverizing punches bought huge crowds to his fights.
His promoter, Doc Kearns was part con-man, and may have been the original party animal. His roguish charm helped him sell almost promotion that struck his fancy, and with Jack Dempsey lined up in his stable, the ante was massive.
Shelby, Montana was a small western outpost in the middle of an oil bubble. It's civic leadership felt that a heavyweight title promotion would bring the town into public consciousness and create a boom that would make its inhabitants wealthy. With that in mind, they brought in Doc Kearns to negotiate a fight against a skilled, veteran fighter named Tommy Gibbons. Kearns negotiated a $300,000 guarantee for Dempsey, and the city set about building a 40,000 seat stadium to host the fight. For 1923, the stadium was quite modern.
The fight was in financial trouble from the start, and Kearns threatened to pull his fighter from the card several times. If Kearns vs the Civic leadership of Shelby was a fight, Kearns ruthless guile against Shelby's innocence would have made Kearns a prohibitive betting favorite.
The promotion itself was a disaster. Few of the non-natives of Shelby traveled to see the fight, and ticket sales never really materialized. By the day of the fight, most of spectators were non-paying gate crashers who the meager security detail failed to stop from entering.
The drama of the fight was how Gibbons, who earned $7500, a tidy sum in 1923, but a piddling amount compared to Dempsey, would acquit himself against Dempsey's fury. He became the crowd favorite, and used his sharp boxing skills to become the first fighter to last 15 rounds against Dempsey.
This is a rich Roaring 20's story detailing the vivid characters of a rollicking period of our history. It is well told by the author, but could be described even more colorfully.
Dempsey and Kearns were both very colorful people, and where the author fails is in understating their appeal. Still, a worthwhile boxing read.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
More of a good story than a boxing book
By Peter
While this is listed as a boxing book, boxing is a side issue to the main story.
Shelby was a small town in Montana in 1923 who decided that they wanted to be bigger and prosperous. How could they do this quickly? Claim to be bidding for the biggest sporting event in the world at the time, the World's Heavyweight Championship.
The bid organisers had no real prospect of raising the $300,000 as well as paying for the facilities that would be required to feed and house an influx of maybe 100,000 people into a small town but they hoped that the resulting publicity from the failed bid would be enough to get the town some name recognition.
Little did they know that the bid would be accepted and they would actually be duty bound to find the money and organise the event in record time.
This is the story of big dreamers from a little town. It is the story of Jack Kearns who was the manager of Jack Dempsey. It is the story of people with good intentions making some terrible mistakes.
This is a good book, it reads well and the author has the ability to keep one entertained.
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