Jack Dempsey vs rocky Marciano

This may be of use to you guys in your discussion:

http://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1900-1909

 

It isn't 2017 dollars. That figure is from the New York Times of July 7, 1919.

 

Nobody is loaning a fighter one step from being a hobo $145,000.

 

A reasonable point. This does raise all kinds of questions. But the gate of $5000 for the Flynn fight might point to Dempsey being a better draw than some acknowledge.

 

I am going to do more research on this article in the New York Times.

One thing, though. This was paid on July 7, 1919. Much of this money could have been loaned after Dempsey became a contender.

 

The $6,126 is in 1919 dollars.

As I said in the other post, this was paid on July 7, 1919, after Dempsey became champion. w/o knowing more, we don't know when the loans were made. Some could have been made after he became a top contender. Auerbach was Dempsey's manager as far back as 1916.

 

Except the New York Times article is from July 7, 1919, so the figure is in the dollar value of that day. But I repeat. Dempsey had been a top contender for a while. I have no reason to doubt the article. But remember that we don't know when the loans were made.

 

Check that link out. It's got wages and food prices up to 1925. May help.

 

Thanks for the heads up. It won't apply to the amount Dempsey paid back,

but it is full of interesting information.

 

Raises the issue of at what point was he one step from a hobo? Was he really that bad off all the time?

 

Arcel saw Dempsey in 1916 fight Lester Johnson. The manner in which he spoke of Dempsey at that time was as an up and coming fighter not as an established hwt who would have $145,000 laying around.

 

Ok. So if it were 1919 that's like 90,000 in today's dollars. A small fortune.

 

Yes, but it would have been a great investment. Dempsey got $300,000 in 1921 dollars for the Carpentier fight only two years later. What would THAT be in today's money.

$90,000 today is money, but hardly a small fortune.

"up and coming fighter"

Okay. That would be the point, wouldn't it.

You seem to be really hung up on $6,126,00 in 1919 dollars. Well, it was good money, but Auerbach seems to have been a guy who owned businesses in Salt Lake and dabbled in boxing. w/o knowing more, how can you be certain it was not an amount he could risk in an investment?

 

$90,000 is a small fortune for a former hobo. It's a large sum of money. Dempsey in 1916 had yet to fully develop into the killer hwt that destroyed Willard in Toledo. The Dempsey Arcel saw in NY was not very impressive.

 

Hold it. That's FOUR years prior to mid 1919 so Dempsey was loaned $90000 in 1915.