Shelby's Folly: Jack Dempsey, Doc Kearns, and the Shakedown of a Montana Boomtown - Softcover

Kelly, Jason

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080324004X ISBN 13: 9780803240049

Publisher: Bison Books, 2012

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080324004X
• ISBN 13: 9780803240049
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240