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1925 Jack Dempsey Letter w/Tunney Fight Content
I purchased a very large IP boxing collection last year that included hundreds upon hundreds of signed 8x10s and magazines from the late 80's and early 90's, as well as many index cards and album pages. In the box of index cards and album pages that I had neglected to go through, I had quite the surprise - and the item is quite out of place with this collection as it clearly was not IP.
The first letter is a handwritten letter from Jack Dempsey to Jimmy DeForest sent on 06/06/1925 from Hotel Adlon in Berlin (later destroyed during the war). The letter is on Hotel Adlon stationary with an embossed logo. The letter is signed "Jack" but the return address on the envelope includes a full signature. The envelope has an embossed hotel logo as well but the back flap has fallen off. The second letter is a carbon copy (unsigned) of the response that Jimmy DeForest sent back to Jack Dempsey on 06/17/1925. The content of this letter is tremendous, including much mention of Gene Tunney - which was fought at a later date and was part of a string of losses to end Dempsey's storied carrier after quite the layoff. The folds on this letter are all over the place and it was tucked inside a "Polo Ground Athletic Club" envelope that includes "Jimmy De Forest, Matchmaker" on the return address (printed). This was very exciting to find but I have not really ever dealt with handwritten letters. Any idea what the value on this might be? Regardless, I just wanted to share because I thought this was very neat. I wish Dempsey's letter would have been as detailed as DeForest's! I included large photos below so everyone can read the content, very cool! https://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/2/0/...15862775_o.jpg https://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/2/0/...15862779_o.jpg https://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/2/0/...15862787_o.jpg https://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/2/0/...15862793_o.jpg https://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/2/0/...15862798_o.jpg https://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/2/0/...15862802_o.jpg |
Neat companion pieces. Dempsey makes reference to his time in 1925 Germany and opening up at Luna Park in Berlin. He apparently had an exhibition with a then unknown 19 year old and future heavyweight champion Max Schmeling. He also mentions moving on to a July 4th charity exhibition in Brighton, England all of which have been recorded. Jimmy Deforest around the same time is putting on the Tunney-Gibbons bout at the Polo Grounds in New York. Not sure of the value but definitely authentic. Nice score!!
http://fighttoys.com/Dempsey%201925%20record%20AP.jpg http://fighttoys.com/Dempsey,Jack%201925-4-15%20SR.jpg http://fighttoys.com/Tunney-Gibbons%...elope%20AP.jpg |
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