Jack Johnson
World Heavyweight Champion
1908 - 1915

   

JOHN ARTHUR JOHNSON
b. March 31, 1878
d. June 10, 1946

 

WON
77

LOST
13

DRAWS
14

KO'S
48
 

Former world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson has boldly signed and inscribed this vintage photograph in black fountain pen ink... "To my friend Mike Mendlin from Jack Johnson"... The portrait shows Johnson as he appeared post career in his finest attire... Most likely signed in the late 20's to early 30's during Johnson's self-proclaimed band leading days... One of the nicest signed Johnson photographs we've come across!!

ALDENE PHOTOGRAPH

measures: 7.25 x 9.25"
condition: some minor soiling, some minor chipping at edges

$6,500
$75 insured shipping

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Unforgivable Blackness
The Rise And Fall Of Jack Johnson
 

  
      In December (1929), Johnson was filmed leading an orchestra at a place called the Checkers Club in Harlem. He is in evening clothes, wearing patent leather shoes with velvet bows. He speaks directly to the camera, declaiming in his now-familiar short phrases.

    Ladies and gentlemen,
    I have been requested by many
    To tell you just how
    I knocked out
    So many of my oh-pponents.
    As far as I am concerned that day is past.
    I have a new way of knocking them out
    And I will show you.

Then the eleven-piece band breaks into "Tiger Rag" and Johnson pretends to lead it, baton in hand. The musicians seem amiably disposed toward him but pay little actual attention as he begins a lumbering soft-shoe and manages to end with an uppercut more or less at the same moment they reach the tune's climax. The band and the club lasted just long enough for Johnson to give his profession as "orchestra leader" when the police pulled him over in January 1931 for racing down Central Park West at forty-four miles an hour.		  
 


Geoffrey  C.  Ward
 

  
 
 
 
   
 

exemplar #1
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exemplar #3
   

exemplar #5
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The signed item appears to be a promotional photo from Johnson's band leading days of the late 20's to early 30's. Note the similar attire from the video and the signed photograph.