Jack Dempsey v Tommy Gibbons

Promoters Make Elaborate Plans for Staging of Dempsey-Gibbons Bout at Shelby, Montana

Big arena to be built in natural amphitheater designed to accommodate 100,000 spectators-Rodeo and Wild West Show will be features of big entertainment to be put on in connection with world’s championship boxing contest-Over $100,000 cash raised to meet guarantees demanded by principals to bind match

SHELBY, Mont.-Elaborate plans are being outlined for the Jack Dempsey-Tom Gibbons world’s championship boxing contest which the Montana American Legion is confident of staging here next July 4th. Over $100,000 cash had been raised already as this is written to meet the forfeits and guarantees to bind the match demanded by Managers Jack Kearns and Eddie Kane for Dempsey and Gibbons.

The next step will be to sign the champion and the challenger and this is expected to be accomplished by the time this issue of the Boxing Blade is published.

The program in addition to the world championship match will include a rodeo and entertainment designed to portray the early western frontier life that is rapidly disappearing. A huge arena, greater in dimensions than the old Coliseum of Rome, will be built to care for the thousands of spectators that are expected. E. H. Keane is drawing plans for the building and arena, and Ralph V. Ruckner is planning the engineering work.

Building of Grecian Style

The architecture of the building which will form an entrance to the arena, and the arena itself, will be of Grecian design and patterned after the old Greek amphitheaters. The great bowl of the arena will rise from the ringside in tiers of seats accommodating 100,000 spectators. The plans are so drawn and the topography of the ground is such that additional thousands of spectators may be accommodated. The whole original structure will cover 12½ acres and with extensions to accommodate a greater crowd it will spread over 25 acres. The Coliseum of Rome was elliptical in shape, measuring 512 feet along the major axis, and 167 feet along the minor axis. The seating capacity was 87,000 persons. The Shelby arena will be nearly circular in shape and will measure 864 feet in diameter. The capacity without extensions will be 100,000 spectators. It is estimated that 200 cars of lumber will be needed for the bowl alone. The entrance building will be artistic in design and the architecture will conform to the general scheme. Inclined planes will rise from the entrance way to the different aisles of the arena. Lavatories and rest rooms will be provided at convenient points in the building.

Ringside Boxes to Seat 725

An innovation in seating arrangement has been introduced into Mr. Keane’s plans providing ringside boxes that will accommodate 725 persons. These boxes will be used for the seating of dignitaries that may be present, and also for press correspondents and operators. There will also be a tower for the motion-picture-camera reporter. The ring itself will measure 24 feet square. Next to the ringside will be 2,500 first class seats and 2,500 second class ringside seats. Back of these will be tiers divided into 86 sectors rising to the bowl’s brim. Landings and aisle space will be arranged to provide for the rapid entrance and exit of the spectators.

The rodeo program will consist of bucking contests, racing and bull-dogging, for which attractive enough prizes to draw the best performers will be awarded. An Indian band may be engaged that will wear full regalia at all times, give native dances, and run some fast strings of horses in the Indian races. The program will be elaborated to an extent that will provide really an exposition of western life and sports. Not many remnants of the typical western frontier life remain, and Shelby wishes to portray for the easterner who comes here western life as it was. In addition to the strictly western entertainment some crack baseball teams may be engaged, aerial stunts, auto polo and other forms of entertainment featured. A complete landscape gardening scheme will be carried out, and everything done to add to the natural beauty of the surroundings.

A radio broadcasting station will be installed at the arena in order to give out the fight round by round. This sending station will be of such power that its messages will be picked up all over the United States and Canada.

HAD TO HUSTLE TO SAVE FIGHT

GREAT FALLS, Mont., June 17-The Jack Dempsey-Tom Gibbons heavyweight championship fight, sagging at the knees and ready to collapse, was shoved back on its feet last night with new executives in charge, and Jack Kearns, manager of the champion, happy with the receipt of a $100,000 draft, the second instalment due on the $300,000 guarantee.

The fight will be staged as scheduled in Shelby on the fourth of July afternoon.

Payment of the $100,000 was made by George H. Stanton, president of the Stanton Trust and Savings Bank, early last night. The story of the raising of the $100,000 is one of the rarest tales of financing in the history of boxing. Mayor Jim Johnson of Shelby, 60 years of age, was individually responsible for raising $76,000 in less than 24 hours, while Great Falls business men raised the balance.

Financial Difficulties Serious for Big Fight

RUMORS ASSERT BATTLE TO FAIL WHEN PAYMENT DUE ON MONDAY

GREAT FALLS, Mont., June 28—The confusion into which the financing of the Jack Dempsey-Tommy Gibbons fight, scheduled for Shelby, July 4, was thrown yesterday as a result of the resignation of Dan Tracy as business manager, grew in volume all day today until it became apparent tonight that the promoters have no definite plan for raising the final $100,000 due Dempsey on his $300,000 guarantee.

From none of the men associated with the promotion of the battle could it be learned tonight that the $100,000 installment for Dempsey was definitely in sight or that plans are under way that bring from the promoters anything more than “expressions of hope” that the money can be raised.

Johnson in Charge

The day was filled with rumors, contradictions, denials and evasions originating with various men identified with the promotion. All through it, Mayor Jim Johnson of Shelby, treasurer of the fight, who has personally sunk a fortune of $150,000 in the venture, continued to make announcement that the fight would be held as scheduled and that Jack Kearns manager of the heavyweight champion, would receive the $100,000 when due next Monday, if not before. Mayor Johnson, however, gave no indication of where he expected to raise the money or how, aside from saying that he was working on two or three different plans.

Early in the day, J. W. Speer, a state senator and attorney for Johnson, announced that $50,000 had been assured by one individual to help make up the $100,000 installment. Attorney Speer declined to make public the name of this individual, but it was understood that Johnny O’Neill, a wealthy oil operator and a member of the American Rugby team that competed in the Olympic games of 1920, had agreed to furnish $50,000 of the amount to be raised. O’Neill tonight emphatically denied this but declared he was working on a plan to raise the money that gave him reason to hope that he would be suceessful. He declined to say with whom he was negotiating further than to admit that he was trying to deal with parties located in the Middle West.

Kearns Holds Talks

Kearns returned from Shelby along with Mayor Johnson today and remained at his hotel conferring with bankers and influential Great Falls citizens who want the fight held. He gave no intimation that he would agree to any compromise of his contract, which provides that Dempsey shall receive $300,000 as his guarantee for meeting Gibbons in addition to $10,000 for training expenses. Kearns already has received $210,000.

“I am in no position to make any statement,” Kearns said. “I don’t believe it is up to me to say anything until the Shelby promoters fail to go through with thelr contract, which provides that Dempsey shall get his last $100,000 next Monday. I have been assured by Mayor Johnson of Shelby that the money will be paid and my hands are tied until he fails to make good.”

Johnson said, following the retirement of Tracy, that he was in position to personally guarantee that the $100,000 due Dempsey would be paid when due and itemized a list of property which he said he would pledge if necessary to make the payment. This property, he declared, has a value of $300,000 and is unincumbered.

Would Finance Alone

This statement was repeated several times today by Johnson, with the assertion that he would draw upon his personal resources to put the fight over if it became necessary,

E. F. Cobb of Geyser, Mont., a real estate dealer, offered Kearns a deed to a ranch in the Snow mountains, valued at $150,000, as a substitute for the $100,000 installment. The ranch is one of the show places of Montana and formerly was owned by R. A. Harlow, former railroad builder and now a resident of Washington, D. C. Kearns said he could not discuss any alteration in his contract with anybody except the promoters.

Cobb said that if Kearns accepted the ranch he was satisfied that he could make a satisfactory adjustment with the promoters after the gate receipts are in.

The opinion prevails in Great Falls tonight that unless the $100,000 installment is paid Kerns before next Monday, the fight will result in heavy financial failure, which seems already probable, and that to delay paying the installment until Monday would so seriously interfere with the plans of many fans that it would be too late for them to come from distant points.

CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT TO BE STAGED TOMORROW

AGREEMENT REACHED AT LAST MINUTE

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Kearns to Take Sportsman’s Chance in Hope Dempsey Will Get His Contract Money Out of Receipts.

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WHOLE NIGHT IN PARLEYS

GREAT FALLS, Mont., July 3.—Taking a gambler’s and a sportman’s chance, Jack Kearns, in the “wee hours”, of this morning, agreed to send Jack Dempsey into the ring against Tommy Gibbons in Shelby on July 4.

Kearns is taking a “studgame” chance that he will be able to obtain the remainder of the $300,000 purse guaranteed him in his contract.

Kearns Made Many Offers.

After a whole night spent in conferences, during which Kearns made overture after overture to help the promoters out of their difficulties, it was finally agreed that Kearns should accept the $200,000 that has already been paid him on behalf of the champion and gamble on the gate receipts to make additional $100,000.

Throughout the conference, Kearns offered every proposition that he knew of to make the fight good. He suggested a postponement a month, he offered to fight for $250,000 and he expressed his willingness to go on with the $200,000 that had already been paid to him and to take his chances of getting the rest of his $300,000 purse from the gate after the expenses of the show, including the purses for the preliminaries, the salaries of the ushers and the special police had been paid.

Wants to be Good Sport.

After the agreement had been affected, Kearns said he was actuated throughout by the desire to be a “good fellow” and “sportsman” he declared he felt he had done his part in as much as he had not declared the contract invalidated at midnight when the final payment of his purse was not forthecoming and when it was within his legal right to declare the fight off.

During the early morning conference, George Stanton, Great Falls banker and all the committee of financiers interested in the fight admitted they have not one single cent with which to guarantee the final payment of the Dempsey purse.

It was then that Kearns made terms by which a settlement was affected.

During the excitement the champion was spending his time at the training camp playing hearts with his sparring partners and a few friends who had jumped away from the financial frenzy of the town to keep him company.

Signed in Good Faith.

Kearns said he had signed the contract in good faith and had turned down several offers for the champion on the national holiday, but that he had signed a contract with persons he thought responsible and that he was willing and ready to go through with it.

Kearns also declared he had been unable to learn who was in charge of the Shelby ticket office and that he was leaving this morning to watch the sale of tickets.

The manager of the champion said also that he had reached an agreement with Eddie Kane, manager of the challenger, and that they had agreed there would be a fight for the world’s heavyweight championship in Shelby July 4, between Jack Dempsey and Tommy Gibbons.

Kearns left for Shelby on an early train. He intended to look over final arrangements there, and see how the last minute ticket-sales were coming on.

Promoters Face Certain Loss.

As matters now stand, the promoters would appear to be facing a certain loss of thousands of dollars in putting on the fight. The sale of tickets has been stopped and started so many times that no one appears to have a very definite idea of how many have been sold.

Consequently, in view of the complete financial chaos prevailing the conferences las night began to develop a willingness on the part of the promoters to let the match go by default.

For the past week Kearns has been the object of criticism for insisting upon payment of the final $100,000 before permitting Dempsey to go in the ring. But when the final conferences were reached, Kearns appears to have been the aggressor in seeking a way out of the financial tangle, and putting on the fight. The promoters, appearing to be getting to the point where they figured calling the fight off would be the cheapest way out for them.

Anxious To Get It Over.

Shelby’s greatest desire now is to go ahead and get the fight over. Despite the optimism caused by the dispatches from Great Falls the excitement was not as great as it might have been, because heretofore every time the fight was declared on it was shortly afterwards called of.

Tommy Gibbons had to beawakened to hear the news.

Dempsey v Gibbons photos

DEMPSEY WINS VERDICT AFTER FURIOUS MILL

Huge Gaps in Shelby Stands Mark Missing Fans at Glove Feast

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FEW GUESTS STROLL IN UNTIL SALE DAY STARTS ON TICKETS

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Crowd Under Burning Sun Impatiently Demands Action During Delay Over Preliminaries and Big Shout Goes Up When Main Event Principals Appear in Arena; Colorful Assemblage.

Picture a feast fit for the gods, a banquet table groaning with epicurean delights, set for hundreds. Then visualize a few dozen guests strolling in, and one has something of the Dempsey-Gibbons fight atmosphere.

A mammoth arena, the last word in construction and pronounced superior to any fight terrain in the world, had but a few thousand souls pocketed in its huge maw when the heavy champion of the world and his challenger came down to fight what the oldest heads declare one of the greatest battles in the history of the title.

Full Press Quota

The only section of a heavyweight championship crowd which had its full quota was the press. Clinking typewriters, telegraph keys, and rows crammed with perspiring scribes surrounded the ring. High in the air a quartet of densely populated towers fairly bristled with cameras and moving picture machines, busily snapping and clicking off their photographic messages to a sport loving nation.

The ringside sections, the “inner circle”, were fairly well filled shortly after 1 p.m. But extending back were the “great open space”, row upon row of pine boards, shining in their newness and pathetic in emptiness. Here and there dotted little groups of a score or more of the $20 bench farmers.

Off on the hill to the southwest, a score of automobiles and several hundred fans had gathered. The knob, rising above the arena rim, was packed with the young mob of those who deemed from necessity of choice that the difference in distance was not worth the price of the pasteboards.

West Part Best Filled

Western sections of the ringside seats were the best filled. The number of women present was astonishing. There has never been a fight in history where the feminine portion of the gate has approached its July 4 percentage. This made it a more colorful gathering, of course, the more so since nearly all the feminine devotees simulated “native” apparel to the extent of highly colored neck kerchiefs. Yellow was the predominating kerchief motif, and this vied with the green eyeshades which found a liberal sale to ward off a blazing sun.

Josh Hanthorne, who found time to divulge his name and the fact that he was from Calgary, took the busy announcer’s role and was the first to grace a ring empty for some time after the alleged start of the big show.

What a magnet his megaphone was. No sooner had the curtain raising boys appeared and been introduced than there was a mob scene as all the holders of poorer seats rushed in one mad scramble for better perches. Down they clattered, leaping benches to the dismay and utter rout of the ushers. Like water drains from a washbowl, the scattered humanity swooped down on the ring from all sides and threatened to engulf it.

Perhaps dismayed by their brashness in taking matters thus into their own hands, the first rush brought the rim hounds down only part of the way. It was not long, however, before succeeding waves packed the thousands into a compact nucleus.

Demand Action

There were hints of impatience as time went on, but the crowd became good humored as the first bout started, at 1:30. To the chagrin of the promoters, who were reported engaged in argument over the rest of the pre-titular clashes, this was short, bloody and never got past the opening seconds of the second round. The knockout caused evident delight, however, serving to whet the appetite of a humanity which had been living on expectation for over an hour. There wasn’t anything to do except turn to one’s neighbor and utter some fervent if trite observation on the weather. The fire hazard was so great, for the lumber was dried to a tinder and all the exits were on top the outer rim. So the ushers warned all incomers “kindly to refrain”. Great saving of smoldering materials at that, and many the man who left the fight with the same cigar or cigarette in his mouth which he had intended lighting just as soon as parked.

There was a long wait after the first fight, the bands doing valiant service trying to pick up the slack. An Elks band on the south side sounded off alternately with the Calgary Hie’landers in the north stands. The northern kilties made a brave show in the striking red and black tarletons, breasts of the long-winded pipers ablaze with medals that would have shamed a village constable’s parading star. There was also a drum corps, which inspires the question, “Why is a drum corps?”

A pair of soloists were introduced, both soldiers in uniform. The first was a blind sergeant who lost his sight with the Canadian forces, the same who sang at the ball park show here. He is J. C. McMahon and handles the managerial end of Middleweight Billy Conley’s fistic progress. Soldier Caruse was the other.

Vocal Efforts Vain

But the crowd was impatient to encores. It had come there to see fights and not to listen to vocal efforts, no matter how much a favorite the selection or how pleasing the rendition.

The baking sun was not an inspiration of a Pollyanna vintage, and an eye trained across the level of the ring canvas focused on heat waves traveling across the ring to height of several inches from the footing.

There were cries of “We want a fight.” “Where are the fighters.” “Bring on Dempsey.” Rumors that there was no money to pay the preliminary boys sifted and grew to breed grumbles and more audible remonstrances.

Appearance of Harry Drake and Bud Gorman for their battle put the crowd in good humor again. Bud seemed to have the favor of the crowd over the rangy Englishman, who absorbed so many of the champion’s blows during the training weeks. But as the fight went on and ’Arry scrapped with a bulldog tenacity, refusing to be knocked out despite a stream of blood, which is his usual ring contribution, there were many exhortations for the Londoner to win. Particularly was this true after Gorman began his bantering and arm biting tactics.

The Champ Appears

Then this fight was over and the ring was deserted again. Were Pimmy Delaney and Jack Burke going to fight a semi-windup? The afternoon was no longer young. Reports threaded the ringside that Mike Collins would not put Delaney in the ring unless he got his $1,000 promised for the bout. And thousand-dollar pots were allowed to be growing in Shelby with their usual speed, which was not at all.

The appearance of the champion at the north gate was assurance that the big scrap was next and every mother’s son—and daughter-stood up and turned around and craned to glimpse the heavy king. He was flanked by Detective Mike Trant, and all the camp followed. Jack received a generous welcome and the ring swarmed with photographers as he arrived. Trant and his trainer, Jerry Lavattas, took turns holding an umbrella because of the sun. Jack sat in his corner, a blue sweater over his shoulders and bath towels over his legs.

Sitting just below the champion’s corner, a nervous twitching of the legs was the only sign that Dempsey realized the importance of the occasion. His face was a mask.

Gibbons came in by the south gate five minutes later and received an ovation. Clad in a faded brown bathrobe, the challenger climbed through the ropes and crossed directly to Dempsey and shook hands.

Then all the business of the final preparations had to be done. The ring ropes had to be tested, new resin had to be strewn. Up went Gibbons’ umbrella, the victorious Gorman playing Man Friday with the bumbershoot. Camera men were stepping all over one another. Jerry was rubbing Dempsey’s neck and Jack Kearns was smearing the champion’s face with vaseline.

Preliminary Delays

Up bounced a nurse in khaki skirt to climb through the ropes and give Jack a well wisher’s embrace.

Then the taping of the hands, and the breaking of the seals on a pair of “Sol’s” best six-ounce gloves, shipped up from San Francisco from the maker of gloves for title frays for the last quarter of a century.

The managers then tied on the gloves and the photographers got ready. Dempsey was in white trunks with a red, white and blue ribbon sash around his waist. Shedding of the challenger’s robe revealed him clad in darge green trunks.

Referee Dougherty called fighters and managers to the center and issued his perfunctory orders. The tenseness in the stands had increased since the fighters’ appearance to a point where it was well nigh hysteria, as the ring was cleared and the fighters returned to their corners to await the bell.

An instant before the bell, Dempsey turned to Kearns and whispered, “I’m going to do it quick”, and then the bell startled for the first round.

Although the main sympathy was with Gibbons, there was a realization that it was the champion’s fight before many rounds had been unwound. Any other opinion must have been inspired from Gibbonsomania. Filled with reports of the tremendous hitting power of the champion, the majority of the crowd sort of prayed for Gibbons to stay away and sighed its audible relief as the bell stopped each round with the challenger still on his feet.

Master of Defense

Before many rounds, the spectators realized that Gibbons was a master of defense and sincere were the tributes voiced as he foiled every attempt of the champion to land knockout blows. Shrieks of delight followed the frequent jabs which Tom planted on the glowering champion.

Jack Kearns was a study as he watched round after round unfold with Gibbons still on his feet. Near the end he was asked by ringside friends if it had not been a pretty fight.

“Yes,” was the reply, “but they can not say now that Dempsey is not a boxer. They’ve called him a slugger only, but he has outboxed Gibbons this afternoon.” Which may be stretching it a bit, but the statement contained much truth.

It was in the final round that hearts went out to the challenger. Jack. annoyed over 14 rounds at his inabiilty to land squarely, went after Gibbons hammer and tongs. Tom realized his danger, had been slowed by punishing body socks and rabbit jabs to where he could not longer attack, and it was something of a question whether he could complete a brave battle on his feet. But feinting, clinching, hanging on and retreating with all his skill, Tom Gibbons kept his record of no knockdowns clear and received a tribute of wild cheering which must have salved the soul of him who had tackled too big a job in trying to wrest the heavyweight crown of the world.

Here’s What Fight Means To Gibbons

Here’s just about what yesterday’s fight at Shelby, Mont., means to Mister Thomas Gibbons:

It means that he’s just about as good a fighter as Champion Jack Dempsey.

It means that at 32 he “can take ‘em” as well as he could five years ago.

It means that within the next year, he should be a box office attraction throughout the country to the tune of at least $100,000.

It means that he is due for another battle with the champion.

It means that he stands high over all the other heavyweight challengers, who will now have to contend with Gibbons before they get a chance at Dempsey.

It means that if he and Dempsey fight again, he will command nearly as much of a purse as the champion.

It means that he has a powerful lot more friends today than he had yesterday.

MAYOR JIM JOHNSON WANTS SHAVE PRICE FOLLOWING CONTEST

Executive Out $150,000 on Promotion but May Recoup From Rights in Movies.

Shelby, July 4.-(By The Associated Press.j)-Major Jim Johnson, the 60-year-old executive of this boom town, who is reported to have personally lost $150,000 in convincing the world that Shelby would keep its word in staging the Dempsey-Gibbons fight, smiled a weak smile when seen standing in a doorway on the busy Main street Wednesday night.

“Well,” he said; “we saw a fight, didnt we?”

“Slip me the price of a shave.”

Maybe Mayor Johnson, who holds a fat interest in the moving picture rights, may recoup some of his losses from this source. The pictures probably will prove to be valuable as Gibbons is the only fighter who has ever stayed the limit with Dempsey since the Utah mauler became champion.

Neither Kearns nor Dempsey have a dime’s interest in the moving picture rights. They relinquished their share to the promoters when the difficulty arose of digging up the final $100,000 installment due Dempsey. Gibbons has a 25 per cent interest

RICKARD TO MATCH CHAMP WITH FIRPO WILLARD GO VICTOR

Veteran Promoter Expects to Sign Bout Next Week; Praises Gibbons.

New York, July 4.-(By The Associated Press.)—Tex Rickard announced Wednesday that he will start negotiations at once to match Jack Dempsey with the winner of the Luis Firpo-Jess Willard bout for the world’s title fight; probably at Boyle’s Thirty Acres, Jersey City, in September or October.

Willard and Firpo, who will battle at the Jersey City arena July 12, have signed an agreement under the terms of which the winner will be matched with Dempsey, Rickard said. The promoter has made no definite offer to the champion but expects to sign articles when Dempsey comes east next week with his manager, Jack Kearns, to witness the Firpo-Willard go.

The promoter was warm in his praise of Tom Gibbons’ showing against Dempsey in Wednesday’s fight.

“I have said all along that Gibbons is the best man of his weight in the country, and his fight today proves it,” Rickard declared. “He was under a heavy handicap in weight, but battled gamely and cleverly. I don’t think Dempsey has gone back. He simply had a hard man to beat.”

THE LITTLE TOWN’S AMBITIONS COST IT $150,000

SHELBY NOW DIGGING BACK INTO OBLIVION

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Rush to Get Away Began When Fight Was Over---Total Receipts Announced As $225,000---Gibbons Gets Nothing.

Shelby, Mont. July 5.—(United Press.)—Shelby’s folly!

It’s a long story and the last chapter is still in doubt, but this is the gist of the plot:

A little cow town of the Montana plains got ambitious. It stopped talking cows, dance halls and girls and started yelling for a bout for the heavyweight championship of the world in figures with six ciphers.

Jack Dempsey was obtained for $300,000 and Tommy Gibbons for a percentage of the gate receipts. Today Jack Dempsey has about $250,000 and Gibbons has nothing but the honors and a chance at some of the picture money, and everyone in Shelby who was interested in the affair is counting his losses. Just exactly what was lost probably will never be known, because Shelby is proud, but the experts figure it at something more than $150,000.

Rising up out of the mud to stand in headlines on the first pages of newspapers throughout the country for a few weeks, Shelby now is digging itself back into oblivion.

There is just one place where Shelby will be remembered a year from now and that is in the sporting records which will recall the brilliant performance of Tommy Gibbons in a fight for the championship.

Otherwise, it will be just the same little cow town-with nearly everybody broke-marked with an “F” on the Great Northern timetables to signify trains will stop if flagaed.

The thousands who came here are evacuating today. The streets already are thinning out. The girl shows are folding their tents and stealing away. Even they lost money.

All night long, quiet, tired crowds trudged the streets making a more or less Fourth of July celebration, while a gang of armed revenue agents stood guard over the debris-the last two days’ receipts in the safe deposit vaults of a local bank. Jack Kearns, manager of Dempsey, who took a loss that may amount to $50,000, would not let the cash get out of his possession. He will take his share out today.

“We got about $75,000 out of it these last two days,” Kearns said. (Skeptics doubt this.) I reduced the price of $20 tickets to $10 at the last hour rather than have the tickets go to waste entirely.

“The government made me pay taxes on the face value or $2 on every $10 sale, but every sale was like picking up $8. The last big crowd to come in crashed the gates and didn’t pay anything.

“Someone cut the wires around the outside of the arena. The sheriffs fired five shots but they kept coming and we could not stop them.

“Dempsey hadn’t fought for two years and this was a good workout for him.

“Gibbons was just in there to stay the limit and he was a hard, slippery man to fight.

“Jack is going to Salt Lake City from Great Falls and I am going to New York to arrange a fight with Harry Wills.”

Kearns said he had to pay the referee, the preliminary boys, the workers around the arena and part of the police costs when the Great Falls bankers failed at the last minute to keep a promise to furnish $8,000 for these purposes.

The promoters’ statement sald the official attendance by the government’s check was only 7,202 and the receipts $223,000, of which the government took a total of $22,500.

But whoever is right, Shelby was wrong.

And now all the inhabitants want to have the crowds go back where they came from and let Shelby sleep the peace of the just in the full-baked mud out here, a million miles from Broadway.

Total Bout Revenue is Set at $201,485

7,966 Pass Gate, Says Rasmussen; Kearns Short $48,000 on Third $100,000; Loss to Promoters and Business Men $80,000.

Shelby, July 4.-(By The Associated Press.)-The approximate total of gate receipts at the Dempsey-Gibbons heavyweight title bout Wednesday afternoon was $201,485, according to figures made public Wednesday night by Charles Rasmusson, Montana collector of internal revenue.

The department of internal revenue will collect a total of $22,448.50 on the receipts, Rasmusson announced.

Many at Half Price

Approximately 2,300 tickets in the $20 seat section were sold at half price, he said, and on these tickets the government tax of 10 per cent was collected, even though the promoters suffered a loss of $10 on each ticket thus sold.

The total number of tickets taken in at the gate was 7,202, Rasmusson’s figures showed. A total of 764 passes were given out, bringing the recorded attendance on the face of the collector’s figures to 7,966.

Jack Kearns, Dempsey’s manager, fell approximately $48,000 short of getting the third $100,000 of the champion’s guarantee.

He received approximately $52,000 in receipts Tuesday and Wednesday, it was announced. He paid the federal tax on $75,000 worth of tickets, however, owing to the fact that he assumed a tax at the rate of 10 per cent on tickets which he sold at half price, just before the crowd surged through the gates and into the arena.

Rest “Gate Crashers”

The discrepancy betWeen the number of paid admissions and the number that actually witnessed the fight was due to the faet that thousands of persons “crashed” the gate. In other words, they overwhelmed the gate keepers and police and swarmed into the arena.

The total loss on the fight to the promoters and business men of Shelby, Great Falls and other Montana towns will be approximately $80,000, the figures made public Wednesday night revealed.

Tommy Was Fouled Says Timekeeper

Gibbons Bears Marks That Show He Was Hit Low

Glacier Park, Mont., July 6—Richard T. Burke, of New Orleans, who acted as official time keeper for the Dempsey-Gibbons fight today made the statement that as the result of Dempsey’s low body blows Tom Gibbons bears on his groins black and blue marks as large as a man’s hand.

Burke said, however, he did not believe that Dempsey intentionally fouled Gibbons.

The only words spoken by the combatants during the fight were uttered by Gibbons, Timekeeper Burke said. It was in one of the early rounds and Gibbons, while exchanging blows with Dempsey, addressed himself to his opponent, saying, “For God’s sake, Jack, get ‘em up.” He was referring to three or four body blows struck him in the groins, Burke explained.

“I saw Gibbons this morning before I left Shelby for Glacier Park,” Burke went on, “and Tommy showed me the black and blue marks on his groins. I immediately said: ‘Why, Tom, the press ought to know about this, whereupon, Gibbons beseeched me not to tell the newspaper men. ‘I don’t have to have any alibi in this fight,’ Gibbons said.”

Tip O’Neil, well-known Great Falls oil magnate, told the same story in the lobby of the Glacier Park hotel, last night, declaring he saw the marks on Tommy’s body.

Going Down?

Has Dempsey passed the peak?

Is he on the down grade?

There is considerable difference of opinion about Dempsey’s showing in Shelby. Many think the champion was always overrated. A few think that he didn’t try very hard. And all seem to agree that Jack is not as good as he was a year or so ago.

It doesn’t seem probable that Dempsey, who is just 28, should have seen his best days. Yet time is a flighty old thing, and man gets a rough deal as he passes through this vale. He is either going up or down! Man spends long years climbing upward to the top and is rewarded with only a few fleeting moments on the pinnacle where he balances dizzily before he begins to slide downward.

Is Dempsey going down?

Others have gone over the top at a much earlier age than the present champion. Terry McGovern had gone up the hill and down again before he was old enough to vote. Frankle Neil won and lost the bantamweight title before he was 21. Kid Williams was through at the age of 24. Eddie Hanlon passed the peak and was a “has-been” at the age of 19!

Happy, little, cock-eyed Knockout Brown was a sensation 10 years ago. He is almost forgotten now—and he is only 30 years old today.