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

Kelly, Jason

4.08

26 ratings by Goodreads

9780803226555: Shelby's Folly: Jack Dempsey, Doc Kearns, and the Shakedown of a Montana Boomtown

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803226551 ISBN 13: 9780803226555

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2010

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In 1923, not long after oil had started gushing from northern Montana fields, real-estate sales in nearby Shelby were declining, 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—or ever would again. 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 4th 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. Nerves were so frayed that a holiday firecracker exploding in the arena sent shockwaves of fear through the crowd. A soap opera of financial intrigue and chicanery, Shelby’s Folly chronicles how Big Sky ambition and the scheming mind of Doc Kearns collided to produce one of the most preposterous series of events in boxing history.
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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.

Review:

"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."—Richard Arlin Stull, ARETE (Richard Arlin Stull ARETE)

"[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. Danbom, Time Out for Entertainment (D. R. Danbom Time Out for Entertainment)

"The University of Nebraska Press has published 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."—John Rinaldi, USA Boxing News (John Rinaldi USA Boxing News)

"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)

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