Chicago, September 22, 1927. In front of 104,943 people, Jack Dempsey knocked Gene Tunney down — and then forgot the one rule that mattered. By the time the count began, the clock had already been running. Tunney got up at nine, about fourteen seconds after he fell.
This is the story of Jack Dempsey — the hobo and saloon brawler once called a slacker in the newspapers, who became the heavyweight champion of the world, drew boxing’s first million-dollar gate, and is remembered most for a fight he lost. Told through the real fight films of 1919 to 1927.
0:00 The Long Count
0:50 Fourteen seconds in Chicago
1:57 Kid Blackie
3:17 Toledo, 1919: Dempsey vs. Willard
5:18 “Slacker”
6:04 The million-dollar gate: Dempsey vs. Carpentier
7:41 Shelby, and the Wild Bull of the Pampas
9:08 The long wait
10:24 Rain in Philadelphia
11:34 The Long Count
13:39 Commander Dempsey
15:20 End
Every film clip in this documentary is public-domain archival footage: Dempsey vs. Willard (1919), Dempsey vs. Carpentier (1921), Dempsey vs. Firpo (1923), Dempsey vs. Sharkey (1927), Tunney vs. Dempsey (1927), 1920s newsreels, and U.S. Coast Guard film of Commander Jack Dempsey, March 28, 1945 (National Archives, 428-NPC-7718). Photographs: Library of Congress, Bain News Service collection. The blueprint-style maps and diagrams are illustrations made for this video.
Sources: Library of Congress; National Archives and Records Administration; the historical record of the Dempsey–Tunney fights of 1926 and 1927.
Legends Reel — the greatest athletes in history, told through the real film.
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