As discussed before, much of the inspiration behind the characters and topics conveyed in Wind at My Back came from Canadian writer Max Braithwaite’s autobiographical novels. In Never Sleep Three In a Bed, Max discusses his era’s love affair with boxing.
“It is often assumed that because there were no radios or television in 1921, we didn’t know what was going on in the world. This is totally wrong. There was still the telegraph, which could bring us blow-by-blow, or pitch-by-pitch accounts of heavyweight championship fights or world series ball games.
It is the boxing that I remember best. Every kid in Prince Albert knew all about Jack Dempsey and hated his guts. This, of course, was all due to the great publicity campaign developed by his handlers. By making Dempsey the most hated fighter in history they assured a big gate for his fights against Sir Galahad-type challengers…Well, Dempsey signed to fight Georges Carpentier of France, and I’m sure no sporting event since the days of the Roman gladiators received more publicity. Every day the sports pages were full of it….
We all loved Georges and hated Jack. During the entire spring of 1921 we talked of little else. We staged impromptu boxing matches on the street in which the hero, Georges, always clobbered the rat, Jack. Nobody wanted to play the villain role, of course, and so we had to take turns. Many a kid was content to go home with a bloody nose or thick ear because once again the ogre had been bested.
Jack Dempsey (right) and Georges Carpentier in the 1921 International Heavyweight Championship.
We followed all the press reports. By the night of the fight, on July 2, we knew that close to a hundred thousand fight fans, many of them women, would crowd into Boyles thirty-acre field in Jersey City [shown in the top photo], and pay well over a million and a half dollars to watch the “Manassa Mauler” finally get his come-uppance. There was no doubt that Carpentier would win. Why, didn’t he represent right and goodness and virtue, and didn’t those things always triumph in 1921?
On the night of the fight, half of Prince Albert filled the street in front of the Herald office. From an upstairs window a strong-voiced reporter, using a megaphone, relayed the blow-by-blow accounts to us as it came in over the wire. It was a festive occasion – men in straw hats, women in long dresses, kids in bare feet. The popcorn vendor, who usually sold his wares at Central Avenue Park during band concerts, had arrived with his cart and was doing a good business. Enthusiasm was so high that at least two fist-fights got going before the main bout, and there were three dog-fights….
The fight? Well, it’s history. Dempsey demolished Carptentier in four rounds, and smashed the poor chap up so badly that it was rumoured that he’d never fight again.” Dempsey went on demolishing opponents until he ran into Gene Tunney much later, and was himself pretty badly smashed up. And because of that – such is the whimsy of fight fans – he became the most popular ex-heavyweight champion of all time!”
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