Jack Dempsey’s Rolex

When I was a child, my parents always received a cheesecake from Jack Dempsey’s Broadway Restaurant at Christmas. I didn’t really understand who Jack Dempsey was or why he sent us a cheesecake every year, but the cheesecake was delicious. As I got older, I came to understand that my grandfather had at one point served as Dempsey’s attorney, and my grandparents had become friends with Dempsey and his fourth wife Deanna. Sadly, however, Dempsey’s restaurant closed in 1974, marking the end of an era for my family.

Unknown photographer. March 17, 1961. ”Lend an Ear—Jack Dempsey, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world is shown shouting advice into the ear of his attorney, Longview’s Fred Erisman.” Longview Daily News, p. 9.

Jack Dempsey was, of course, a boxer and the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. His story is a rags-to-riches tale of a young man from a poor mining town in Colorado who gained fame and fortune with his fearless and aggressive style in the boxing ring. As his fame grew, he enjoyed life in the Roaring Twenties, hobnobbing with celebrities, mob bosses, rich businessmen, and beautiful women, including his second and third wives, film star Estelle Taylor and Broadway singer Hannah Williams (Dempsey 1977; Roberts 2003).

Summerville, H. L, photographer. 1925. Gus Wilson, Jack Dempsey, Ray Newman, San Antonio, Tex., Sept. 25. Image from the Library of Congress.

Although Dempsey retired from boxing in 1927 after losing his title to Gene Tunney, he remained in the limelight for many years, participating in exhibition bouts, promoting and refereeing boxing and wrestling matches, and acting in Hollywood movies. He was also a businessman, with deep stakes in the hospitality industry, most notably his eponymous restaurant, where he could often be found engaging with customers. He also invested heavily in mining and oil production, including a number of Texas oil properties (Dempsey 1977; Roberts 2003),

It was one of those Texas oil deals that brought Dempsey and my grandfather, Fred R. Erisman, Jr., together. Fred Erisman grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas, where his father and grandfather owned a grocery store. He graduated from Texas Christian University in 1929, studied economics at Brown University, and then moved to Longview, Texas, where he read the law and was admitted to the Texas bar in 1931. He was elected criminal district attorney for Gregg County in 1938, and in 1950, he was appointed by the governor to fill an unexpired judgeship term on the 124th District court. When he resigned from the court, he entered private practice, focusing primarily on criminal defense, although he did take on some civil cases. Judge Erisman, as he was always called, is still remembered in Texas legal circles as the author of Erisman’s Manual of Reversible Errors in Texas Criminal Cases (“Fred Erisman 1978”). [1]

Jack and Deanna Dempsey with Fred and Dorothy Erisman. March 17, 1961. Longview, Texas. Erisman family photo.

The oil deal in question began with Bobby Manziel, a former flyweight boxer and longtime friend of Dempsey’s who moved to Texas in the 1930s to seek his fortune. [2] This was the era of the wildcatter, independent investors who gambled on drilling for oil in new areas, and the East Texas oil field, the largest oil reservoir in the continental United States, had only just been discovered. Manziel was one of thousands of oil “boomers” who hoped to strike it rich—or at least make some sort of living in the era of the Great Depression. These new inhabitants flooded into East Texas towns, and watching new oil wells go in became a spectator sport (Johnson 1975). Manziel, at least, was very successful in his new profession, striking oil in nine different times, and like Dempsey, he used his money to invest in the hospitality industry, although his pet project, the Oil Palace arena near Tyler, Texas, was not completed until long after his death (“Texas Oil Millionaire” 1956; Tedesco 2016).

Unknown photographer. c 1950. Oil Wells Along U.S. 80 Between Gladewater and Longview, Texas. Image from DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.

In the early 1950s, Dempsy loaned Manziel some money to drill in Marion County, Texas, in return for a share in what became a productive oil well. However, Mike Davis, another Dempsey friend involved in the deal, sued Manziel, alleging that the share he had received was not what he had been promised. Davis was himself quite a character. At the age of 29, he married 69-year-old Helen Bonfils, owner of the Denver Post, for whom he had been working as a chauffeur. He used her money to start Tiger Oil Company in Houston, Texas, where he terrorized his employees with a barrage of grouchy memos. After his divorce from Bonfils, he moved to Las Vegas, where he gained a reputation as a high stakes gambler and took up with singer Phyllis McGuire (Gates 2016; Kaplan 2016).

In response to Davis’s suit, Dempsey countersued, alleging that he had been promised a share of Davis’s share as a commission for introducing Davis to Manziel (“Jack Dempsey Awarded” 1959). The whole affair was greatly complicated by Manziel’s sudden death in 1956 but finally went to trial in 1959, with my grandfather representing Dempsey. When the court ruled in Dempsey’s favor, he took off his Rolex watch and tossed it to my grandfather in thanks. Dempsey recalls this incident in his 1977 autobiography but doesn’t mention that the watch was originally given to him by Mike Davis (Dempsey 1977, p. 289). Every aspect of the case—the colorful personalities, inflated egos, dubious wheeling and dealing, and extravagant gestures—seems to sum up the East Texas oil boom, an era when guts and brashness could take you to the top or drop you off a cliff and who you knew mattered far more than what you knew.

Rolex watch given to Fred R. Erisman, Jr., by Jack Dempsey at the conclusion of the Manziel trial, June 1959. Erisman family photo.

Although my grandfather did not continue to represent Dempsey after the Manziel case, they remained friends, exchanging Christmas cards every year and visiting when my grandparents were in New York City or the Dempseys were in Texas. Dempsey came to my aunt’s wedding in Longview in July 1965 and was, at the time, still well-known enough to cause a stir in the local press. During one wedding event, someone took the picture below of my mother joking around with Jack Dempsey. That picture, even more than the Rolex, is my favorite memento of the friendship. Although I wish we could still have some of that cheesecake!

Patricia L. Erisman and Jack Dempsey. July 24, 1965. Longview, TX. Erisman family photo.

[1] This book has really taken on a life of its own, becoming a brand name. There are now Erisman’s manuals of reversible errors for Illinois, California, and the federal criminal courts, none of which my grandfather had anything to do with.

[2] If the Manziel name sounds familiar to any Texans (or football fans), it’s probably because Bobby Manziel’s great-grandson Johnny won the Heisman Trophy in 2012 while playing for Texas A&M.

Works Cited

Dempsey, Jack, with Barbara Piattelli Dempsey. 1977. Dempsey. New York: Harper & Row.

“Fred Erisman, Prominent Jurist, Civic Leader, Dies in Houston.” April 28, 1978. Longview Daily News, p.1.

Gates, Anita. September 25, 2016. “Mike Davis, ‘World’s Grumpiest Boss,’ Dies at 85.” New York Times, section A, p. 25

“Jack Dempsey Awarded Share of Marion Field.” June 14, 1959. Longview Daily News, p.1.

Johnson, Bobby H. 1975. “Oil in the Pea Patch: The East Texas Oil Boom.” The East Texas Historical Journal 13 (1): 34-42.

Kaplan, Michael. October 2, 2016. “How the biggest gambler in Vegas stole Giancana’s girl and lost over $20M.” New York Post.

Roberts, Randy. 2003. Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press.

Tedesco, John. February 5, 2016. “Manziel family was larger than life long before Johnny.” MySanAntonio.com.

“Texas Oil Millionaire, Bobby Manziel, Rags-to-Riches Figure Dies at 51.” November 19, 1956. Fort Worth Star-Telegram, p. 20.