Читать книгу Jacobs Beach. The Mob, the Garden and the Golden Age of Boxing онлайн

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That first Garden was knocked down, rebuilt and repackaged, opening on the same site in 1890. And the new darling of the fight fraternity was an Irish Californian, James J. Corbett, whose nom de guerre “Gentleman Jim” owed more to alliteration and the vivid imagination of his publicists than any pedigree polished while mixing in high society. When 10,000 sadists flocked through the doors of Garden II on February 16, 1892, Corbett obliged them by fighting three men in a row, knocking two of them out cold. Eight months later, Jim was champ and John L. was chump, washed up and in the grip of the bottle. Corbett “near murdered” the old man and was the new heavyweight king. Gentleman Jim—in the spirit of brotherly love unique to fighters—staged an exhibition in the Garden for the retirement pot of his vanquished foe.

By the time the teenage Jacobs was making a name for himself as a resourceful ticket mover, the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, at Times Square, laid claim to being the center of the universe. It was gloriously lit, flashing its temptations twenty-four hours a day. And not many, rich or poor, resisted the temptation to make Broadway and the Garden their preferred place of pleasure.