Heroes and Ballyhoo

Name: Heroes and Ballyhoo
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ISBN: 9781597974127

How the Golden Age of the 1920s Transformed American Sports

Michael K. Bohn

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Hardback

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English

Potomac Books Inc
01 November 2009

Social & cultural history; Sport & leisure industries; Sports & outdoor recreation

A handful of star athletes, along with their promoters and journalists, created America's sports entertainment industry during the 1920s, the Golden Age of American sports. The period had an extraordinary impact, profoundly changing individual sports, establishing the secular religion of sports and sports heroes, and helping bond disparate social and regional sectors of the country. It's when sports became a cornerstone of modern American life. Heroes and Ballyhoo profiles the ten most prominent Golden Age heroes and describes their effect on sports and society. Babe Ruth saved baseball after the Black Sox Scandal. Boxer Jack Dempsey made the """"sweet science"""" a respectable sport. Red Grange single-handedly set professional football on a path to eventual success. Knute Rockne helped transform college football from a game to a colossal enterprise. Bobby Jones changed golf into a spectator sport, and Walter Hagen sparked the first national interest in professional golf. Bill Tilden put tennis on the front of the sports section. Tennis player Helen Wills Moody joined swimmer Gertrude Ederle in empowering women athletes. Johnny Weissmuller astonished international swimming before becoming Tarzan. The book also explores the ballyhoo artists - sportswriters, promoters, and press agents - who hyped the stars to a receptive public. Simultaneously, the spectators established themselves as the focus of popular sports. The personalities and events of the 1920s thus created today's entertainment conglomerate of heroes, promoters and advertisers, fans, arenas - and money. Sports as a profit center started with the Golden Age's heroes and PR artists, and the public's obsessive interest in sports helped shape America's emerging mass society. Heroes and Ballyhoo tells the story of what was both a symptom and a cause of modern America.

By: Michael K. Bohn
Imprint: Potomac Books Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 626g
ISBN: 9781597974127
ISBN 10: 1597974129
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 01 November 2009
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Michael K. Bohn's latest book, Money Golf: 600 Years of Bettin’ on Birdies (Potomac Books, Inc., 2007), was one of Golf Digest’s top golf books of 2007. A freelance writer, Bohn is the golf reporter for nineteen weeklies in Northern Virginia. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Reviews for Heroes and Ballyhoo: How the Golden Age of the 1920s Transformed American Sports

Michael Bohn provides a rare opportunity to experience the American sporting scene in the Roaring Twenties. A constant stream of legendary characters marches across these pages. You ll meet them all: the Babe, the Four Horsemen, the Manassa Mauler, the Wheaton Iceman, Bill Tilden, Gertrude Ederle, and Grantland Rice, the sportswriter whose purple prose made them all come alive. Peter Golenbock, author of <i>George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankee Empire</i>--Peter Golenbock (10/25/2009)