Jack Dempsey to Joe Louis

They were two of boxing's greatest decades - featuring two of the finest heavyweight champions of all time. Dempsey and Louis fought their way from nothing to world titles at a time when the sport was winning a mass audience. Boxing grew through the roaring twenties and when depression struck in the thirties fans saw it as a symbol of their daily struggles. A spectacular new champion was crowned when the coming star Jack Dempsey destroyed the ageing Jess Willard in the Slaughter of Toledo. Dempsey was a hero who went to zero and back - then lost to Gene Tunney. The thirties were busy days in blood spattered times and the cast of characters was huge. It included men like Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom who had nearly 300 fights then ran a nightclub in Hollywood. Before the days of alphabet titles Hurricane Henry Armstrong held three at once. There was the charismatic Irish American Billy Conn, fun loving champion Max Baer who carried a hammer in his right fist and James Braddock, christened Cinderella Man by Damon Runyon. Star promoter Tex Rickard created the first million dollar fight. Dempsey's manager Doc Kearns had way more tricks than Don King. Jewish manager Joe Jacobs enraged Hitler's Nazis when he took charge of their champion Max Schmeling and the great Joe Louis fought for all America when he annihilated the German in the first round.But boxing has always been more than just a sport. The determined fighter who takes charge and battles his way through has a place deep in American culture. This is the story of how in difficult decades boxing provided champions.