Jack Dempsey as Rodin's Tenseur'

FLASHBACK

Vanity Fair, February 1923

Photographer Ira Hill pulled a Bruce Weber when he posed Jack Dempsey as a statue. Floating like a butterball and stinging like a sledgehammer, the pudgy pugilist was then halfway through his golden-gloved seven-year reign as heavyweight champion of the world. Nicknamed the "Manassa Mauler," he was knocked off his throne sixty years ago this month by his legendary adversary, Gene Tunney. Perhaps the Dempseyde nos joursis Mike Tyson, currently battling through the HBO Heavyweight World Series (September 6). He even trains by watching films of the classic Dempsey-Tunney slugfests.