There's a very interesting back story to this wonderful
Moon Mullins daily from September 19, 1927. My good friend, the late Sy Schechter, bought this piece many, many years ago. After he passed away, it was purchased by another close friend, Larry Shell. I recently purchased the daily from Larry. But that's not the back story.
Before I received the daily, I knew the main details about the piece. Moon has a chance to spar with Gene Tunney, the heavyweight champion of the world at the time. Things don't go so well for Moon, though he doesn't realize it. Funny gag. Nice art. But wait, there's more. After I received the piece, I thought about the mention of some specific people in the strip, particularly George Halas, the legendary coach and owner of the Chicago Bears, Billy Gibson, and a character named Pegler who appears in the strip. Willard sometimes used real people as characters in the strip, so off I went to Google some names. It turns out Pegler refers to James Westbrook Pegler, who was a top sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune from 1925 to 1933. The previously mentioned Halas was a fixture in Chicago. And Billy Gibson turns out to be the manager of Gene Tunney. Hmmm. When I began Googling some of these names together, the threads of the story pulled together. Gene Tunney fought Jack Dempsey at Soldier Field in Chicago, the home of the Bears, on September 22, 1927, three days after this piece saw print. So Willard took advantage of the timing of the fight and made Tunney one of the characters in the strip. But it gets better. This particular heavyweight championship fight went down in history as "The Long Count Fight". Around this time, boxing changed its rules, ordering fighters to a neutral corner after they knocked down their opponent. But Jack Dempsey would have none of that. He typically stood over his opponent, and knocked them back down as soon as they got up. In this fight, Tunney was in control for the first six rounds. He got into trouble in the seventh and was knocked to the floor by Dempsey, who stood over his fallen foe. Dempsey would not go to his corner, even after being ordered by the ref numerous times. Finally, Dempsey obeyed, and at that time, the ref started the count on Tunney, who was already recovering. Tunney wound up winning the fight by unanimous decision in the tenth round. It was Jack Dempsey's last fight, and Tunney's second-to-last. He retired as world champion.
