The making of that eventnot just the fight itself but the whole public frenzy that attended itis the subject of Bruce J. Evensen’s fascinating new book. When Dempsey Fought Tunney examines the mass media’s cultivation of celebrity during the Jazz Age. Evensen shows how Jack Dempsey, a Colorado hobo turned heavyweight boxer, came to represent in popular iconography the last vestige of the raw pioneering spirit that had tamed the American wilderness. Against the image of Dempsey as noble savage, Evensen explains, the press and fight promoters cannily contrasted that of Gene Tunney, the urbane easterner who seemed to be everything Dempsey was nota “scientific” fighter, all defense and strategy. Dempsey and Tunney thus became, in their different ways, prime exemplars of the new celebrity culture that emerged during the early twentieth century.
Filled with entertaining details about great moments in boxing history, the book also traces the journalistic developmentssuch as the rise of the star sportswriterthat played a critical role in creating and sustaining public excitement over sporting events. The result is a colorful, insightful account of America’s appetite for heroes and spectacle as well as of the network of promotion and publicity that nurtures that appetite.
The making of that eventnot just the fight itself but the whole public frenzy that attended itis the subject of Bruce J. Evensen’s fascinating new book. When Dempsey Fought Tunney examines the mass media’s cultivation of celebrity during the Jazz Age. Evensen shows how Jack Dempsey, a Colorado hobo turned heavyweight boxer, came to represent in popular iconography the last vestige of the raw pioneering spirit that had tamed the American wilderness. Against the image of Dempsey as noble savage, Evensen explains, the press and fight promoters cannily contrasted that of Gene Tunney, the urbane easterner who seemed to be everything Dempsey was nota “scientific” fighter, all defense and strategy. Dempsey and Tunney thus became, in their different ways, prime exemplars of the new celebrity culture that emerged during the early twentieth century.
Filled with entertaining details about great moments in boxing history, the book also traces the journalistic developmentssuch as the rise of the star sportswriterthat played a critical role in creating and sustaining public excitement over sporting events. The result is a colorful, insightful account of America’s appetite for heroes and spectacle as well as of the network of promotion and publicity that nurtures that appetite.
When Dempsey Fought Tunney: Heroes Hokum Storytelling Jazz Age
240When Dempsey Fought Tunney: Heroes Hokum Storytelling Jazz Age
240Paperback(First Edition, First Edition)
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780870499180 |
---|---|
Publisher: | University of Tennessee Press |
Publication date: | 07/29/1996 |
Edition description: | First Edition, First Edition |
Pages: | 240 |
Product dimensions: | (w) x (h) x 0.60(d) |