Biography Samuels, Charles: The Magnificent Rube, v1, 15 March 2009

[mrmikel]

From the book:
"Every move Tex had made for years had been front-page news. In addition, his past held for many a storybook quality. Before creating the "million-dollar gate" with Jack Dempsey, Tex had been, successively, a cowboy, a town marshal in Texas, a prospector in the Yukon, a gambling-saloon owner in the Klondike and Nevada gold rushes, a soldier of fortune in South Africa, and a cattle baron in Paraguay.

More difficult to explain than the tremendous press coverage of his death was the widespread emotional reaction of the public. Thousands of men and women who never had known Tex personally mourned him as though he had been their lifelong friend. This first became apparent as his remains were being taken to New York.

In death as in life, George Lewis Rickard traveled in style. His body in a $15,000 solid bronze casket that weighed 2,200 pounds was shipped north in a private railway car hooked onto the end of the Havana Special."

Since his death in 1929, Tex Rickard's name has become almost unknown. Yet he was well known in the early 20th century as THE promoter of professional boxing. His colorful story is well told by Charles Samuels.

As Mr. Samuels died in 1982 his work is still in copyright worldwide, except in the US where the copyright was not renewed.

Pictures in this 1957 book are not included as clearance for them is complicated.