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Show mm H nil . ..A While Waller Winchell i) away, this month, his column will be conducted con-ducted by guest columnists. Looking Back and Ahead By COMDR. JACK DEMPSEY As I take over WW's chair, I find myself at a disadvantage. I have jeen so little of Broadway in the last couple of years that I really don't know the score. My absence from the old street is only temporary. tempo-rary. Like every sailor, I am looking look-ing forward to wearing a wide-brimmed wide-brimmed Panama again, complete with a loud sports jacket and the brightest necktie I can find. That should be a matter of no more than eight months for the Nips are hanging hang-ing on the ropes and the bell isn't going to save them. In the meantime I am in the Coast Guard for the duration, or as long as Uncle Sam has a job I can do. By the time this reaches you I expect to be somewhere in the Pacific. My assignment is that of military morale mor-ale officer for the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Naval districts. Included in this group is Pearl Harbor and my duties may take me farther westward as our fleet hammers at the very doors of Hirohito's hovel. Wants to Hold the White Horse If I can only ha"e the privilege oi holding the Mikado's white hors. when Admiral Halsey mounts aim for his victorious ride through downtown down-town Tokyo it will be a bigger thrill than I experienced when Jess Wil-lard Wil-lard failed to answer the bell for the 4th round on that sunbaked day in Toledo, 25 years ago. Speaking from experience I can assure you that a morale officer hasn't a tough assignment. Not with the Navy and the Coast Guard. I have trained thousands of seamen and I went ashore on Okinawa during dur-ing that bloody campaign for the sole purpose of observing what benefits, if any, the men had received re-ceived from our training program. There isn't a sailor out there who doesn't dream of coming home, but none of them want to return until the shooting stops. If you could talk with them at their battle stations you would be proud of just being with them. As for myself, the war has been a wonderful, though hardly a pleasant, pleas-ant, experience. It has been amusing, amus-ing, too. I was in England the day Jack London won the British Empire Em-pire heavyweight championship from Tommy Mills. A British reporter re-porter asked me what I thought of Jack London and I replied that I had enjoyed reading his books and that I thought he was one of the truly great American writers. "I am so sorry," replied the startled' and polite Englishman. "I was referring to Jack London, the British prize fighter, and not Jack London, the American author." I had to confess that I had never seen London fight and had no opinion opin-ion to offer on the subject. I have since met London, a bald-headed veteran of 32 years. His defeat by Bruce Woodcock recently came as no surprise to rr.9, as I judged from London's appearance that he was well past his prime. A NEW FIGHTER You may have gathered by now that I am still interested in the fight game. I am, and I expect to be active in it during the years that will be left to me after the war. Re-rpntlv Re-rpntlv there arrived from the Ar- gentine Abel Cestac, a young South American giant, sent to me by my old friend and foe, Luis Angel Firpo. If you know Firpo you will realize that he didn't lay out the money for his passage unless he was convinced con-vinced Abel can fight. Cestac hasn't been thoroughly tested yet, but I'm willing to take a chance. He's big, strong and rough. Of course I can't be active In handling the South American. Wliile I am in uniform, Max Wax-man Wax-man is looking after him. Waxman has managed several champions and he has been my personal manager for a great many years. I am fortunate fortu-nate to be associated in a business way with Max and also with Job Amron and Louis Brooks. Because of them I have not had to make the financial sacrifice so many others had to make when they entered the armed forces. I couldn't have conducted my Broadway restaurant res-taurant nor the Great Northern hotel any better than they have. We're a going concern and we are looking forward to tho postwar years together. IIOXING WAS GOOD TO ME Looking lineli from the exulted ngi' of 50 years, I can truthfully say that boxing has been good to me. In the years Just ahead I believe it will offer even greater opportunities to some Jack IVmpsey of tho future. fu-ture. Naturally 1 am convinced that tho next heavyweight champion will coiuo from the ranks of our dchtlnn men. It was so after World War I mid If I nni not mistaken his luuno was Geuo Tunney, a nuivlno. 1 seem to roenll inert Iiik him on n rainy nlWht In Philadelphia. |