Evening star., 1924-02-01
Ivo Navy Cre,us Likely in Olympic 7youts Brooks Make
CHAPTER XIV.
How a Promoter Bumps the Bumps.
BY TEX RICHARD.

BY TEX RICHARD.
MY efforts to have the Jeffries-
- Johnson fight at Salt Lake City
proved futile l am still of the opin-
ion that it should have gone there.
AS I have said, my judgment was
based on the fact that Salt Lake
City is nearer the center of popula
tion and would get the people from
other sections.
1t is very important to consider
the centers of population in staging
big spectacle like a world cham
plonship fight. | make a point of
considering that first.
lhe California crowd argued and
argued. though. They brought every
possible influence to bear for hold
ing the big fight in San Francisco.
The newspaper men of the coast
took up the fight for San Francisco.
One of my objections was the gov
ernor might not permit it. There
upon the newspaper writer's saw Gov.
Gillett. He told them that the laws
OF California permitted boxing and
ne saw no reason why the fight
should not be held in San Francisco
With this they finally wore me
down and I gave in. The people Of
Salt Lake City were disappointed. but
L had done my best.
Then our troubles started anew To
begin with; they made me buy a Ii
cense. which cost $4,000 Under the
law promoter had to- have license
for fight on certain day. Another
man had that date and l had to buy
his license.
=
an arena That in itself was a big
job. After many negotiations final
ly secured a lot at Market and Sth
streets. We built an arena at a cost
Of $4,000. which, by the way, was a
| total loss.
Tex Forced I'm as Third Man.
Then. right in the midst of other
difficulties, dispute arose over the
| referee. Bergen and Jeffries would
not agree to any man who suited
johnson and Johnson would not agree
to any man selected by them. Every
| body soon took n huld in the arSu-
ment. Jack Welsh. Ed Smith and
| Eddie Graney We're all suggested. i
couldn't get the principals to agree
! on any one of them. There We're still
| others. but these were the main ones
| Whats the matter with YOU being
| referee"' Johnson finally suggested
! to me in desperation.
| The idea of being referee had never
| occurred to me. I had had no expert
| ence.
You don't need any" Johnson said
| "as long as YOU are square"
| This got to Jeffries in a few hours.
| Jeffries aSsented.
others came to me, and to settle the
matter ] decided to be the referee.
' did not take II as a joke, because j
realized the responsibility of the job.
In the meantime we had starte ed
selling tickets. all of which had been
printed at big cost. Much jealousy
had arisen over one thing and an
other. Everybody seemed confused
and irritable.
We had out tickets for $780, 900 and
the money was in the bank. I am
sure that the fight would have drawn
100000. 1t looked as If we were to
see the record attendance of all times
| Then came the bombshell - Gov
! Gillett forbade the fight.
Out $4,000 Before the Start.
| You can imagine what consterna-
| tion this caused. And this on top of
all the troubles and expenses and
| arguments. 1t was enough to make a
man throw up his hands. But we
| didn't.
I have never been able to discover
| why Gov. Gillet changed his mind
after giving US the assurance on
which we spent so much money. He
| curtly declared that he would not
permit the fight, and that ended it.
He gave no explanation.
| Mind you, l was now out the $35.-
| 900 for the arena, not a cent of which
l ever got back. was out the $4,000
| for the license, not cent of which
! was ever returned to me. / was out
all the incidental expense of promo
tion. such as the tickets and innu-
merable details-more than $4,000.
In that troublesome time l will
| never forget Jim Jeffries.
TEX" he said to me. "if we don't
| make success of it now you can
| forget about the guarantee. Even if
| the fight is not held at all / will go
anywhere and fight for you. or I Will
| go on the road with show to see
| that you don't come out loser
A man who will do that is a real
man. AS long as live 1 can never
| sured him.
1t was now too late to go back to
the Salt Lake City people. l didn't
have the nerve even If 1 had had the
but to go to my own state-Nevada
got in touch with Reno. They
| agreed to build an arena at no cost
to me II we would bring the fight
there. That was finally decided upon.
| Then came the big move to Nevada.
| Those were exciting days. Training
| camps had to be moved, headquarters
closed and everything. The news
paper colony moved out in body.
| Big Tim In Stakeholder.
Some ugly rumors arose about the
| stake money. They were quickly
silenced. Big Tim Sullivan of New
York was there as stakeholder. and
he had the money, mostly in $1,000
| bills. I was ready to go through with
my end Of it and take a chance.
Now arose the biggest problem of
all. The money had to be returned to
those who had bought seats in Sam
! -=