Читать книгу Sporting Blood. Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing онлайн

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In Barcelona, Johnson was still enough of a curiosity to attract his share of attention. He opened a short-lived advertising agency called “The Information,” performed in parody bullfights, revived his vaudeville act, and played the carefree boulevardier for a retinue of hangers-on. Even without the 24/7 digital age paparazzi of today, Johnson remained part of the international glitterati. In fact, he might even have been the generator of the worldwide press he received while in exile. Wire stories about Johnson could be read from Australia to England to Toronto to all the major cities in the United States. If “The Information” could be said to be a functioning enterprise, then it was on behalf of Johnson himself. Here is Johnson single-handedly destroying a submarine; there is Johnson ready to run for mayor of Barcelona; and now a report or two on how Johnson has acquired King Alfonso as a patron.

Ultimately, however, Johnson knew that making enough pesetas to continue living high style under straitened Old-World circumstances would involve his fists. Nearly a year after losing his title to Willard, an out-of-shape Johnson returned to boxing by scoring a dubious seventh-round stoppage over Frank Crozier on a theater stage that doubled as a ring in Madrid.