DEMPSEY, Jack.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Signed postcard and a menu from Dempsey's International Restaurant. A attractive pair of items from Dempsey's famous New York eatery, the card inscribed "For Dorothy, Thanks and good luck from Jack Dempsey." Both incorporate James Montgomery Flagg's "Million Dollar Masterpiece", the specially commissioned mural - showing Dempsey knocking out Jess Willard - that adorned the restaurant for decades..Dempsey opened at 1619 Broadway in November 1944, after his retirement from the ring. "At almost any hour, Mr. Dempsey was on hand to greet friends and strangers with a cordial, 'Hiya, pal,' in a voice close to a boyish treble. (He wasn't much better at remembering names than Babe Ruth, who called people 'kid.') He posed for thousands of photographs with an arm around a customer's shoulders or - if the customer preferred, and many males did - squared off face to face. Autographing tens of thousands of menus, he never scribbled an impersonal 'Jack Dempsey' but always took the trouble to write the recipient's name and add 'good luck' or 'keep punching'" (Smith).

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