Free to All

Dempsey

vs.

Gibbons

July 4, 1923

Well, not exactly free to all, but free to many. As the camera captured the partially filled arena on the hot Montana July afternoon, fully half of the faces ,frozen in time ,did not pay to get a seat.

The massive wooden arena, with 85 tiers of seats, was built to accomodate 40,208. Paid attendance was reported varyingly at 7,202 to 7,966, (many of which paid only $10 for a ticket scaled from $25 to $50.00) Kearns having yeilded to pressure from the increasingly hostile milling throng threw the gate open at $10.00 per ticket. The final attendance was estimated at from 12,000-20,000, the additional 4,000-12,000 attendees having crashed the gate.

Size: 4 5/8 x 6 /5 8 in.