In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

48 ARRAYS
spelling out advertising slogans with colored lights, diving and zooming
near the crowd, but, by the luck which seems to attend aviators in the
air above fight crowds, never landing" (New York Times, September 24).
Journalists-in the general excitement that unites them with the crowdannounce
a record number of records broken by their own media coverage.
For the first time ever, the fighters will talk "directly from the
ringside." The live radio broadcast, for which Rickard has sold the rights
after an intense bidding war, is transcribed "in the New York Times
office by three expert shorthand writers of the State Law Reporting
Company, working in relays." An estimated 15 million listeners all
across the United States follow the broadcast in their apartments or at
dinner parties, as do fans in Argentina, Mexico, and Europe (including
the Belgian crown prince, who is a declared supporter of Gene Tunney).
Indeed, the "radio has replaced the [admission] ticket." This is true even
for some of those whose disabilities prevent them from listening in: "the
managing officer of the Illinois School for the Deaf has arranged with
the Jacksonville Journal and the Associated Press to pass the details of
each round to deaf-mutes standing in the streets outside the newspaper
office" (New York Times, September 22). [see Wireless Communication]
Then the "lights [come] on and [flood] the horseshoe of the stadium
with a soft radiance. The battery of loud speakers over the ring [begin]
distilling dance music from Broadway successes, and set feet to tapping
on the dusty ground of the ringside section in time to the latest song hits
of Broadway." As Dempsey and Tunney make their entrance wearing
"the most up-to-date covering in the bathrobe line that has ever been
seen in the history of the prize ring," a heavy rain begins to fall on the
open-air arena and on the crowd, and it continues throughout the fight.
Their public images have shaped them into allegories of two different
social groups, or, rather, of two different versions of the American
dream. Jack Dempsey, the current champion, who bills himself as the
"Manassa Mauler," comes from a large Colorado farming family,
avoided military service in the Great War, and has made enormous
amounts of money since he won the heavyweight title in 1919. In the
intervening years, he has spent most of his time producing Hollywood
movies and traveling the world with his wife, an ambitious actress. He
is embroiled with his former manager in a nasty lawsuit, which has
jeopardized the possibility of the Philadelphia bout. In contrast, Gene
Tunney, the "Fighting Marine," possesses (and makes much of) an ex-