This is the second of two articles detailing Jack Dempsey’s comeback tour. For part one, click here.
Dempsey took a brief break on the first leg of the tour to attend the divorce hearing. After failing to reach an agreement, Jack eventually filed for divorce in Reno, while Estelle filed her own case in a Los Angeles court. In September, after a hearing that had Dempsey on the stand for twenty minutes, the court granted the divorce with a default judgment. Estelle was not represented because she was pursuing the case in California, but she eventually agreed to Reno’s divorce and dropped her lawsuit. In the end, Estelle received $30,000 for herself, $10,000 for her lawyers, and the $150,000 mansion in Los Angeles with all of her furniture and paintings, plus three cars.
Dempsey later stated that “I resented her more than I disliked her. In fact, he would have accepted her if she had snapped her fingers.” Estelle was not so forgiving. Shortly after her divorce, a fan approached him for an autograph. When Estelle signed her name, she noticed that Dempsey’s autograph was already at the top of the same page and commented, “This is the last time that son of a bitch is on top of me.”
As the second leg of the tour began in Provo on November 6, 1931, Dempsey was weakened. Between the first two legs of the tour he had hunted moose and played golf, but he had also spent five days in bed with the flu. At this stage he fought against 32 opponents in thirteen cities. He beat three fighters in Provo and whipped three more in Des Moines.
But Dempsey struggled at the next stop, fighting Edward “Bearcat” Wright in Omaha. Although he won the decision, Dempsey’s legs were so weak that he felt they could barely support him as he walked behind “Bearcat.” By the end, the crowd of eight thousand booed Dempsey and loudly cheered Wright. In fairness to Jack, it should be noted that “Bearcat”, unlike most of the other comeback tour opponents, was a serious pugilist with victories over Jack Johnson and Sam Langford under his belt.
Still, it was almost as bad in Moline, where Dempsey was once again booed while going the distance with two heavyweights, one of whom managed to open a cut over Jack’s left eye. But even though he looked tired and dejected, the man they once called “Kid Blackie” still bested both of his opponents. Dempsey had better performances in the remaining fights in Kansas City, Wichita, Tulsa, Phoenix, Fargo, Duluth, St. Paul, Winnipeg and finally Sioux Falls in December.
Critics were quick to dismiss the violent fighting as comical, and Dempsey largely agreed with them. Boxing several opponents in a single night, none of whom would have lasted more than one round with him in his prime, became embarrassing for the former champion. He had fought in million dollar doors and now he was stepping into the ring against no one. It was not “easy money,” and Jack later wrote that he found it all “somewhat humiliating.”
When Dempsey called off the tour just before Christmas 1931, rumors of big fights against top heavyweights gained steam. There was speculation that matches against Sharkey, Carnera or Ernie Schaaf were in the works, all culminating in a title match against current champion Max Schmeling. There was talk of salaries of up to half a million. Madison Square Garden proposed that Dempsey fight a major opponent in February 1932, followed by Sharkey in May or June, and then Schmeling in September. Jack told the press, “I can crush any man I meet,” and that some of the fighters he had faced up to that point on the tour, such as Babe Hunt, Charley Retzlaff and a few others, were “pretty good boxers.” “.
The tour resumed on February 1, 1932 with two bouts at Stockton, after which Dempsey headed east to Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Flint. But the comeback came to a crossroads in Chicago in mid-February. The true test of Dempsey’s worth would be decided in a fight against King Levinsky, who owned a rather spotty record of 41-15-4. Despite this, the party presented a legitimate challenge. Levinsky was a hard-hitting young heavyweight with wins over Tommy Loughran and Paolino Uzcudun, and had recently gone the distance with Max Baer at Madison Square Garden. A victory over Levinsky would prove that Dempsey was still a viable force and propel him towards fights with Sharkey or Scheming; A defeat would leave his comeback at a dead end.
There was great excitement in Chicago as the popular former champion prepared to face Levinsky, with a crowd of three thousand filling the Arcade Gymnasium just to watch him train. Lena Levy, Levinsky’s sister and manager, told the press that while Luis Firpo had only taken Dempsey out of the ring, his brother would take him out of the building. On February 18, a crowd of some twenty-three thousand people, a record for an indoor boxing match in the city, filled every corner of the Chicago stadium. Thousands more lined up outside hoping to find a lost ticket. The box office for the fight was almost seventy-five thousand dollars, with Dempsey pocketing thirty grand and Levinsky ten.
The fight was reported to be a “smackdown,” with a lot of face-to-face action. But for four furious rounds, it was not the old “Manassa Mauler” who imposed his will, but the young Levinsky who outslugged the once-fearsome Dempsey. One journalist wrote that Levinsky was rugged, powerful and brave, hitting Jack any way he wanted and taking everything the former champion had to offer. Jack was “dead game,” but the old style of swaying and moving, aggressive stalking and catlike speed, was reduced to a heavy shuffle. Dempsey later said that Levinsky had two advantages over him: youth and enthusiasm. Jack finally had to face the fact that his heart was no longer in this.
According to accounts, in the fourth and final round Dempsey was in “sad shape” and, as the clock ran out, Levinsky stood in the middle of the ring and confidently gestured for Jack to come fight. Had Levinsky been a more skilled boxer, or had the fight gone two or three more rounds, Dempsey might have been knocked out. The heated action continued after the final bell and referee Eddie Purdy had to separate the fighters.
The winner was decided by the journalists in the front row: eighteen voted for Levinsky, two for Dempsey and four were tied. By his own account, when he finished the fight, Jack realized that he “no longer had anything to do in the ring.” He was done. Later, Levinsky told reporters that Dempsey “isn’t that good, but he can still hit.”
As he took off his gloves in the dressing room, Dempsey knew he had been whipped. He was just a “training of the once champion fighter” and he had to admit that he was lucky to have been slapped by Levinsky. If he had been boxing with Schmeling or Sharkey, he would have been knocked out. But although Jack finally accepted that his boxing days were over, he still had contracts to fulfill for exhibition fights. He would have to finish the tour.
Five days after losing in Chicago, Dempsey won a decision over Frankie Wine in Louisville and then fought fifteen opponents in just over three weeks in Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, Akron, Toledo, Clarksburg, Huntington and Toronto. While his business manager continued to talk about the possibility of a fight against Primo Carnera and speculated that the exhibitions could continue for the next two years with tours of Australia, South America and the Philippines, Jack had decided otherwise. He was already done.
Dempsey finally ended his comeback tour once and for all with a four-round victory over Babe Hunt in Detroit on March 31, 1932. He had the crowd of fifteen thousand on its feet as he chased Hunt in the final round and He hit with strong blows. . And that was it. Dempsey left the ring for good and immediately resumed promoting, refereeing, and performing in vaudeville. He later served in World War II and owned a successful restaurant in New York City for several years. An icon from a more glamorous time, Jack remained a popular celebrity for the rest of his days. He died in 1983 at the age of 87.
Upon his return, Dempsey had boxed exhibitions in forty cities against 103 opponents, winning all but the bout against Levinsky. Although press estimates varied widely, over the course of the numerous shows he attracted more than 300,000 spectators, with an estimated total of more than $700,000. As Dempsey’s take was just under half the gate at most shows, he probably earned approximately $350,000, the equivalent of more than six million dollars today. The intense tour may not have marked a return to championship form for the former heavyweight king, but it proved financially lucrative. The tour allowed Jack Dempsey to live out the rest of his days as he befits a living legend and one of the greatest boxers in heavyweight history. -Thomas Dade
