Crazy Fourth
Crazy Fourth
How Jack Johnson Kept His Heavyweight Title and Put Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the Map
In 1912 boxing was as popular a spectator sport in the United States as baseball, if not more so. It was also rife with corruption and surrounded by gambling, drinking, and prostitution, so much so that many cities and states passed laws to control it. But not in New Mexico. It was the perfect venue for one of the biggest, loudest, most rambunctious heavyweight championship bouts ever seen. In Crazy Fourth Toby Smith tells the story of how the African American boxer Jack Johnson--the bombastic and larger-than-life reigning world heavyweight champion--met Jim Flynn on the Fourth of July in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The civic boosters, bursting with pride in their town, raised a hundred thousand dollars for the fight, pushing events like the sinking of the Titanic to the back pages of every newspaper. In the end, once the dust finally settled on the whole unseemly spectacle, Las Vegas would spend the next generation making good on its losses.
Smith, a former sportswriter for the Albuquerque Journal, researched microfilm news clips and photographs at the New Mexico Highlands University library in Las Vegas, New Mexico, to produce this delightfully entertaining yarn about a farcical fight and the colorful characters who somehow made it happen. Smith's remaining sources, ninety-six books and newspapers, yielded literary gold in collective histories and personalities.'--Michael Hurd, Southwestern Historical Quarterly
An in-depth look at the fight, the months leading up to it, and its aftermath.'--David Steinberg, Albuquerque Journal
Filled with an assortment of colorful characters, Crazy Fourth is a highly entertaining and funny account of the events that take place in the run-up to a heavyweight title defense by the great Jack Johnson in the unlikely setting of tiny Las Vegas, New Mexico.'--Jack Cavanaugh, author of Tunney: Boxing's Brainiest Champ and His Upset of the Great Jack Dempsey
Many know of this 1912 fight, but few realize that the contest was a complete fiasco, from the first day of planning to its controversial last round. Toby Smith uses his wit and storytelling skills to write this boxing equivalent to Jimmy Breslin's classic The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.'--Richard Melzer, coauthor of A History of New Mexico Since Statehood
A tale of ambitious promoters, desperate fighters, and America's obsession with the color line. It's a Las Vegas story set in the other Las Vegas.'--Randy Roberts, author of Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes
Toby Smith is a former sportswriter for the Albuquerque Journal. He is the author of nine previous books, including Kid Blackie: Jack Dempsey’s Colorado Days and Bush League Boys: The Postwar Legends of Baseball in the American Southwest (UNM Press). He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Introduction
Chapter One. Birth of a Debacle
Chapter Two. The Minister of Propaganda
Chapter Three. Home Sweet Hype
Chapter Four. Which Way to South Porcupine?
Chapter Five. Ladies' Man
Chapter Six. A Welcome Mat and a Doormat
Chapter Seven. Jack Does Santa Fe
Chapter Eight. A Familiar Voice
Chapter Nine. On the Road with the Fireman
Chapter Ten. Some Sweat, Lots of Play
Chapter Eleven. Two Little Words
Chapter Twelve. Getting the Old Ring-Around
Chapter Thirteen. Here Come the Cars
Chapter Fourteen. All Aboard!
Chapter Fifteen. He's Got Mail
Chapter Sixteen. Rolling Out the Stereotypes
Chapter Seventeen. Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe
Chapter Eighteen. The Necklace
Chapter Nineteen. Cornermen
Chapter Twenty. Weighing In
Chapter Twenty-One. Old Acquaintances
Chapter Twenty-Two. Clickety-Clickety-Click
Chapter Twenty-Three. Disturbing Days
Chapter Twenty-Four. Getting Closer
Chapter Twenty-Five. A Very Short Warm-Up Act
Chapter Twenty-Six. Antic Climax
Chapter Twenty-Seven. A Misbegotten Mess
Chapter Twenty-Eight. Shouts, Shots, and Megaphones
Chapter Twenty-Nine. The Rewards of an Ugly Afternoon
Chapter Thirty. Final Gong
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
