Today is the 84th anniversary of the Gene Tunney--Jack Dempsey fight for the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship. And this is the publishing date in the United States for the book "The Prize Fighter and the Playwright: Gene Tunney and Bernard Shaw." Why am am I excited about this? Because the author of the book, Jay Tunney, son of Gene Tunney, is married to my wonderful niece Kelly Tunney, and I have long awaited this book, detailing the interesting relationship between Gene Tunney and George Bernard Shaw. Back in the 1920s a fight for the title of Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World was comparable in significance to today's game for Super Bowl championship. There were two fights between Dempsey and Tunney. The first one, being celebrated today, was held in Philadelphia Sept. 23, 1926. The second, a rematch, was held at Soldiers Field in Chicago on Sept. 22, 1927, drawing a crowd of over 100.000 people, and resulting in gate receipts of over two million dollars, by far the largest gate in entertainment history as of that time.
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