[Illustration: Rickard’s death in 1929 closed as exciting an era as the fight game has ever known. Though marred by depression, the decade that followed was almost as eventful, with shrewd Mike Jacobs the heir to Tex’s promotional mantle. I negotiated Mike’s first title fight between Henry Armstrong and Petey Sarron (above) at Madison Square Garden, October 29, 1937. Jacobs’ meal ticket was Detroit “Brown Bomber” Joe Louis (below), who ruled the heavyweights from 1937 to his retirement in 1949.] [Illustration] [Illustration: Joe’s first title defense saw him gain a fifteen-round decision over the Welshman Tommy Farr in the Yankee Stadium in New York City, August 30, 1937. Farr earned the respect of the American sporting crowd, but he never would have gotten the match had it not been for my trans-Atlantic telephone negotiations in Jacobs’ behalf.] [Illustration: A devastating puncher with either hand, Louis was one of the greatest finishers the ring has ever seen. His destruction of Max Schmeling in 2:04 of the first round of their meeting, June 22, 1938, at Yankee Stadium is often compared with the carnage wrought by Dempsey at Toledo.] [Illustration: Jacobs had to wait five years to rematch Louis with Irish Billy Conn after their sensational 1941 meeting. This $100 a ringside seat offering saw a heavier and not so daring Conn fall beneath Louis’ fists in the eighth round at Yankee Stadium, June 19, 1946. Conn is shading his eyes as did Jack Johnson in his bout with Willard.] [Illustration: Joe retired in 1949, but financial difficulties forced him to return to the ring wars in 1950. He lost a fifteen round decision to then champion Ezzard Charles, but managed to campaign successfully among the other challengers until hard punching Rocky Marciano belted him into permanent retirement with an eighth round kayo at Madison Square Garden, October 26, 1951.] [Illustration: This shot of me in a familiar ringside setting was made for a fight sequence in Rocky Graziano’s 1957 film biography, “Somebody Up There Likes Me.” Also shown with me are some of my longstanding pals among the fight scribes: (l. to r.) the late Jim Jennings of the _Mirror_, the late Caswell Adams of the _Journal-American_ and Joe Nichols of the _Times_.] [Illustration: My work has taken me around the world several times through the years. The picture above shows part of the crowd of 69,962 that sat in the huge Bangkok stadium to watch the Chamrern Songkitrat-Robert Cohen bantamweight championship match on September 19, 1954, despite a terrific downpour that lasted until the main event was about to get under way. Cohen, shown (left) in an early exchange below, won the title by decision. I am proud to have been associated in the negotiations for the battle and to have acted as judge.] [Illustration]