[ARETE] Crazy Fourth

Sat Feb 27 09:38:30 CST 2021

All,
Please find attached and below Daniel Taradash's review of Toby Smith, *Crazy
Fourth: How Jack Johnson Kept His Heavy Weight Title and put Las Vegas, New
Mexico on the Map.*
Thanks
Duncan

*Book Review*

Smith, Toby. *Crazy Fourth: How Jack Johnson Kept His Heavyweight Title and
Put Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the Map*. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 2020. 200 pgs. $24.95

Reviewed by Dr. Daniel Taradish

            For many native New Mexicans (including the author of this
review), one of the most amusing yet puzzling things to explain to people
outside of the southwest and western United States is exactly what New
Mexico is and is not. Though the image has shifted somewhat in recent years
with the success of television shows like *Breaking Bad *and *Better Call
Saul*, New Mexico has struggled with an identity crisis even before
statehood in 1912 that continues to the present day.  From the violence and
lawlessness wrought by Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War in the
late 1870s and early 1880s, to my own experiences having to explain to
people in the east that no, New Mexico is no longer part of Mexico, and
yes, you can drink the water, the state and its people have a long history
of asserting their identity to the rest of the United States, with varying
degrees of success.

            It is this push for identity and recognition that makes Toby
Smith’s *Crazy Fourth* such an interesting, informative, and amusing work.
Set against the backdrop of then heavyweight champion’s Jack Johnson’s 1912
title defense against “Fireman” Jim Flynn, *Crazy* *Fourth *chronicles the
saga of how this small New Mexico town was able to successfully secure and
stage a contest for the heavyweight championship of the world. Smith’s
primary source research, which includes newspapers from the
*Albuquerque* *Evening
Herald* to the African American owned and operated *Chicago Defender* to
the world-renowned *New York Times *to the *Shreveport News* offer the
reader a glimpse into the phenomenon that Johnson created as the first
black heavyweight champion in American history. The reader is often given a
window into the intense, often times rabid, fascination that much of white
America had with finding a white fighter who had even the slightest hope of
beating Johnson and restoring glory and honor to the white race. When Flynn
agreed to the fight, only half the problem was solved.  Where would this
resurrection of white American manhood take place? Why, Las Vegas, New
Mexico, of course. So begins Toby Smith’s retelling of the wild,
improbable, and often bizarre saga of how this little town that had once
been frequented by outlaws like Jesse James, Doc Holliday and the
colorfully named “Handsome Harry the Dancehall Rustler” found itself
hosting a racially charged boxing match for the heavyweight championship of
the world.

            Some of the most enjoyable and illustrative components of
Smith’s research come in his descriptions of the citizens and civic leaders
of Las Vegas as they attempted to not only prepare the town for the flood
of outsiders who promoters believed were sure to flood the city (they did
not) but also to craft an image of themselves that was distinct from the
lawlessness and violence that Americans from other parts of the country
still assumed were part of daily New Mexican existence. As Smith writes,
Las Vegas sought to recreate itself from the bottom up, leaving no stone
unturned. Though Mayor Robert Taupert’s order to crack down on price
gouging hotels was the most publicized declaration of law and order, it was
by no means his last. Card sharks, hustlers, and thieves of all stripes
found themselves closely monitored, harassed and jailed by the Las Vegas
police, while idlers, “[V]agrants, drunks, and hobos were either jailed or
encouraged to leave the city.” City officials not only punished litterers
and those who kept unclean stables, but they even made it their mission to
clean every alleyway and to pull and remove as many weeds and nuisance
grasses from the city streets as possible. Even houses of gambling and
prostitution were sacrificed on the altar of civic respectability. Gambling
dens were ordered closed until after the match, while information on the
location of brothels was kept as secret as possible. Las Vegas had
exchanged the wild west for common decency. At least on the surface

            Smith’s presentation of the various schemes, machinations and
questionable deals that brought the heavyweight championship of the world
to a tiny town between Albuquerque and Denver is effective because of the
readily accessible nature of his research and the narratives that give it
life. For those interested in New Mexico history, it offers a glimpse into
the daily lives, politics and powerbroking that defined New Mexico in the
earliest days of statehood. For fans of boxing history, Smith has provided
rich insight and access into the trials and tribulations that dogged
fighters, managers, and promoters as they struggled to not only arrange and
stage professional prizefights, but also to lend an air of legitimacy and
respectability to the sport while attempting to distance itself from its
historically unsavory reputation. For those interested in studying
Johnson’s life and career, we see a champion who was just as physically
dominant, confident, self-assured, friendly, and at ease in the bucolic
mesas and mountains of New Mexico as he was in the high-profile
metropolitan cities of New York, Chicago or Paris.

            In the end, the Johnson-Flynn battle in Las Vegas was a dismal
failure on multiple fronts. Lackluster attendance, an awful fight (referee
Ed Smith remarked that Flynn’s constant head butting and fouls throughout
the fight “disgraced everybody”) and over-confident promoters turned the
bout into a forgettable farce, with the memories of it largely revolving
around the staggering amounts of money that had been lost in its
production. But for a brief moment on July 4th, 1910, little Las Vegas
would be ground zero in a number of battles that extended far beyond the
ring. For Johnson, he fought not only for the title, but for the hopes and
dreams of African Americans across the country who found special, often
personal meanings in his victory. For Flynn, it was a quest to restore
honor and glory to white America, who collectively reeled every time
Johnson knocked out the latest “white hope.”  For the people of Las Vegas,
the fight opportunity to show the rest of the nation that this little town
was ready, willing and able to punch above its weight. A crazy fourth?
Absolutely.

Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past

Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.
Professor of History
Book Review Editor
*AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature*
Ashland University
Ashland, OH  44805
USA
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