
Crazy Fourth
How Jack Johnson Kept His Heavyweight Title and Put Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the Map
Toby Smith(Author)
University of New Mexico Press
Published on 30. March 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-0-8263-6143-1 (ISBN)
Description
In 1912 boxing was as popular a spectator sport in the United States as baseball, if not more so. It was also rife with corruption and surrounded by gambling, drinking, and prostitution, so much so that many cities and states passed laws to control it. But not in New Mexico. It was the perfect venue for one of the biggest, loudest, most rambunctious heavyweight championship bouts ever seen. In Crazy Fourth Toby Smith tells the story of how the African American boxer Jack Johnson-the bombastic and larger-than-life reigning world heavyweight champion-met Jim Flynn on the fourth of July in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The civic boosters, bursting with pride in their town, raised a hundred thousand dollars for the fight, pushing events like the sinking of the Titanic to the back pages of every newspaper. In the end, once the dust finally settled on the whole unseemly spectacle, Las Vegas would spend the next generation making good on its losses.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Albuquerque, NM
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
17 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
318 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8263-6143-1 (9780826361431)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Toby Smith
Crazy Fourth
How Jack Johnson Kept His Heavyweight Title and Put Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the Map
E-Book
03/2020
Unm Press
€9.88
Available for download
Person
Toby Smith is a former sportswriter for the Albuquerque Journal. He is the author of nine previous books, including Kid Blackie: Jack Dempsey's Colorado Days and Bush League Boys: The Postwar Legends of Baseball in the American Southwest (UNM Press). He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.