Judge, 1927-08-13 · page 11 of 36
Judge — August 13, 1927 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation of Judge Magazine Page This page satirizes the famous Dempsey-Sharkey heavyweight boxing match. "Tex Rickard" was the real boxing promoter notorious for theatrical publicity stunts and inflated ticket prices. The cartoon attacks Rickard (represented as "Takes us" Rickard—a pun on his name) for victimizing ordinary fans ("Battling Sucker" Public). The satire targets: - **Obstructed seating**: Rickard sold ringside seats placed impossibly far from the actual ring - **Collapsed bleachers**: Cheap cardboard seats that collapsed under spectators' weight - **Reserved seats for elites**: Front rows filled with firemen and politicians rather than paying fans - **Exploitation**: Fans paid premium prices for terrible views and dangerous conditions The cartoon mocks working-class spectators ("the poor sap") for repeatedly accepting such treatment, while launching the "American Sucker Club" to organize consumer resistance. The underlying message: Rickard and similar promoters deliberately defraud the public while media focuses on peripheral controversies instead of actual fraud.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SHARKEY D! ard fixed it so that practically no one could see a thing! Ladeez and gentlemen! In this cornah, Mr. “Takes us” Rickard, heavyweight publicity champ of the Wwoild, and in that cornah, “Battling Sucker” Public, the woild’s champion lightwit! = “Takes us’ leads thousand columns of publicity, catching “Battling Sucker” in both eyes. He follows it up with a blow to the pocketbook. . . . “Battling Sucker” is out! > There's been a great deal of talk about whether or not Shar: key was fouled, but not one word about what “Takes us” Rickard did to poor “Battling Sucker” CLANG! with thre | IN DIP GRNER —= —— = AN IN DIS Q@RWER, LaveeZ AN’ GENTMEN JUDGE Public! nothing has been aid about the rows and rows of 50 seats laid out flat on the ground so that it was impossible to see a thing, nor has it been mentioned that when the poor fight fans tried to stand up on these same seats that they col- lapsed . . . and we've heard no complaining over the fact that the front rows of these “ringside” seats were filled with Firemen, Politicians, etc. . . . but why worry about “Battling Sucker” Public! He'll come back for more! . . . It’s the old circus game! He'll 4 AMONG HE BRAKEN BATTLING 9 cS kick about the terrible jams on the subway and feel awfully sorry for sardines and then he'll cough up twenty or thirty or fifty bucks for a ticket labeled “ring- side” that’s about a mile from the ring and stand on the back of cardboard seats with a thousand other suckers trying to get a glimpse of two bums dividing up half a million dollars ! —f— And after he’s picked himself up from beneath the mass of kindling wood and found that the fight is all over he'll rave about what a crooked thing the whole fight game is until—the next big fight comes along! or The poor sap! He's the same bird that let ’em get away with prohibition ! . it’s high time that the suckers of this coun- try got organized! . . . I hereby Jaunch the American Sucker Club (Continued on page 32) y EATS, QyKER PUBLIC /// - NGSIPE = QPRAINED NECK 4 SKINNED CHINE comicbooks.com