THE OVERRE ACHER
“IT’S easy for a guy like me to live violently, as if there were no tomorrow.”
Although nearly every historical overview of the 1920s has Jack Dempsey listed in its index, it was, boxing-wise, at least, Mickey Walker, “The Toy Bulldog”, who truly embodied the madcap Roaring Twenties. While Dempsey, the ex-hobo now heavyweight champion and permanent newspaper headline, was hobnobbing with Hollywood luminaries in Beverley Hills mansions, Walker was pure hell-bent-for-leather among the hoi polloi in settings as diverse as armories, dancehalls, and weather-beaten arenas; where Dempsey was largely a teetotaler, Walker guzzled Scotch by the barrel; where Dempsey spent most of his time with high society and made a conscientious effort to learn table manners, Walker caroused speakeasies overflowing with riffraff and scuffled on the streets and in hotel rooms.
More important, perhaps, Walker had a nearly insatiable craving for fisticuffs. “The Magnificent Mick was one of the last of a wild breed who loved to brawl for the hell of it,” wrote John McCallum in The Encyclopedia of Champions, “drunk or sober, regardless of the time, place, or circumstance.” And Dempsey, by contrast, hardly stepped into a ring during the 1920s. In 1924 alone, Walker, then welterweight champion of the world, fought eight times, equaling the total number of fights Dempsey had for the duration of The Jazz Age.
“WALKER WAS ONE OF THE LAST OF A WILD BREED WHO LOVED TO BRAWL FOR THE HELL OF IT”
If not for the looming
