BoxRec

Tiajuana was a "wide-open" town back then.
It first really became a tourist town in 1885 when the Hot-Spa Hotel opened for tourists wanting to swim in the thermal Springs.
It soon had bars,casinos,a Bull ring ,dog and horse racing track .
In 1915 there was a big push to attract vistors to there from the Panama-California Expostion being held.
and really expanded when as a vice-town when Prohibition was enforced in America in January 1920.
It is only 16 miles south of San Diego (California)
and backin the days then when people traveled on trains only 45 minutes to get there from San Diego.
However Most people cameto visit there in cars by the hundreds every day across the wooden bridge over the river.
Jack Johnson had lived in Tiajuana with his wife and his nephew Gus Rhodes for a bout 6 months
when he was still a fugitive.
He boxed in the Bull ring there,played horses at the Racetrack
and opened a cafe called THE MAIN EVENT which was located on Avenida Madero in Tia Juana.
I wonder if the cafe is still there or if it was demolished years ago ?
I remember seeing a photograph of Jack Johnson and his wife standing in front of it.

On occasion (like for every mega PPV boxing match) I visit Tijuana and take in the bar and gambling scene.

I'm familiar with Avenida Madero and I can assure you that no trace remains of Johnson's bar/cafe.

It would be interesting to find where it was located on that street.

I know a Tijuana historian who owns a restaurant in TJ and when I return, I'll be sure to ask him if he knows the exact location of The Main Event.

Tijuana is a much, much different city today than it was in Johnson's era. An old building there is one dating back to the 50s.

The 1910s and 20s? Not too much is left of that period in TJ history.

I like how you use the very dated 'Tia Juana' instead of the modern 'Tijuana.'

Not so well known is that Jack Johnson had a second night-club in Tia Juana, called "The Newport".
It was a club that exclusively catered to Black folks who came to gamble and go to the race track.
It had all-black employees and dancers and hosts ,It was located just off of Main Street there.
( similar to the Moulin Rogue Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas that was located just off of downtown Freemont
Street in Las Vegas back in the 1950's during segregation that was partly owned by Joe Louis)

I was watching an old documentery short a few moths ago from the early 1960's about Tiajuana
and even from that it looked to have had better days..
The Aqua Caliente Hotel and Casino and Horse Racetrack was built in the late 1920's.
I think part of the old Grandstand of it still may exist.
The Toreo de Tijuana Bull ring was built in the 1930's
but demolished in 2007.

The restaurant owner/historian was once able to tell me the former location of a 1920s downtown TJ bar that was the scene of a notorious rape of 2 American girls by the Tijuana police chief.

Few in Tijuana nowadays know anything about that 90-year-old case which was headline news in Southern California for months.

So if anyone in that border town is aware of the one-time site of Jack Johnson's former bar/club/cafes, it would be that man.

His restaurant's walls are plastered with countless photos of old time Tijuana, dating back to the late 19th century.

Fittingly enough, the restaurant is named El Museo (The Museum).

Wanna see a rarely seen and really cool photograph of Jack Johnson in Tia Juana taken in July 1920 ?
then check this out.

http://books.google.com/books?id=znhxIm ... g=PA156&dq

The Old bull Ring in Tijuana, "El Toreo of Tiajuana" was located on Boulevard Agua Caliente".
It was demolished in 2007,but a lot of people wanted it preserved as a Hostorical monument.
I think you can see the old Bull ring in this video clip from 50 years ago (1967) here.

Yeah, the downtown bullring was demolished some years back. It was the site of the Erik Morales destruction of Junior Jones in 1998.

Nowadays they use the so-called "Bullring by the Sea" even though bullfighting is losing favor with modern Mexican aficionados.

It's considered a "blood sport" and eventually figures to disappear south of the border. Hopefully they won't realize that boxing is also a blood sport and look to phase it out too.

Boxing would be a much poorer sport without the presence of Mexican warriors.

Have you ever read the book Black Champion by Finis Farr? A comprehensive bio of Johnson?

As a kid, I bought it in the very late 1960s at a time when Johnson, dead more than 20 years, was enjoying a rebirth in popularity due to the release of the film "The Great White Hope" with James Earl Jones.

I still have that book and I'm making an effort to locate it boxed somewhere in my garage. I'm certain that in the book is that photo of Johnson and his wife standing in front of the Tijuana bar he owned.

The border at Tijuana and the US is where Johnson finally surrendered to American authorities in 1920 for violation of the Mann Act.

He had lost political protection in Mexico, his saloons had been shut down, and Johnson decided it was preferable (and safer) to return to the US and serve his sentence.

Despite being a fugitive, Johnson's prison sentence was not increased and remained only about a year long.

I believe he boxed exhibitions while serving time at Leavenworth. He was practically a 1920s version of James Scott.

Was that the Jack Johnson biography published in 1959 ?
I think that may be one of the earliest ever done on him..
It would sure be interesting to know who the author may
have interviewed for the book who actually knew or had worked with Jack Johnson directly.
I think he may have interviewed the person Jack Johnson was driving with
when he died in the car crash.

One of his boxing exhibitions there was actually filmed and intended to be in documentery film
about Leavenworth Prison
,but the warden ordered ithe footage cut from the final print when he previewed it.
I wonder if the rest of the documentery film about Leavenworth still exists somewhere however ?

Caractacus wrote: ↑18 Dec 2017, 13:53 Was that the Jack Johnson biography published in 1959 ?
I think that may be one of the earliest ever done on him..
It would sure be interesting to know who the author may
have interviewed for the book who actually knew or had worked with Jack Johnson directly.
I think he may have interviewed the person Jack Johnson was driving with
when he died in the car crash.

I found the book, laying with my Ring Magazines of the 60s and 70s.

It was first published in 1964, so no, it wasn't the earlier Johnson bio you referenced.

It shows that the book, Black Champion, was then re-published in 1969, undoubtedly capitalizing on the renewed interest in the Galveston Giant with the release of The Great White Hope.

I bought the paperback version.

And yes, that photo of Johnson standing in front of the Main Event café is in the book. Johnson and a woman (identified in the caption as "a friend") are both shown with their hands on hips outside the saloon.

I would assume that the woman was not a friend, but was Johnson's 2nd wife (Johnson said 3rd) Lucille, who accompanied him around the world during his fugitive years.

Interesting book and I'll do a re-read on it after all these many years.

On the back it says: "I have no hesitation in naming Jack Johnson as the greatest of them all." Nat Fleischer.

I think possibly the MAIN EVENT saloon may have been actually owned by
Sa Francisco Boxing promoter Jim Coffroth (who also opened the first racetrack there)
and he had Jack Johnson run the saloon while he was in Tiajuana.(less then 6 months)
( because where was Jack Johnson going to get that type of money to buy a saloon when he was on the lam ?)

There was a movie released in 1983 entitled LOSIN IT .
the story takes place in Tijuana in 1965
(although it was actually filmed in Calexico California ( about 125 miles East of San Diego)

Caractacus wrote: ↑17 Jan 2018, 18:27 There was a movie released in 1983 entitled LOSIN IT .
the story takes place in Tijuana in 1965
(although it was actually filmed in Calexico California ( about 125 miles East of San Diego)

One of my favorite films ever. A true Tom Cruise classic.

In later years Cruise said he was embarrassed by Losin' It, but it gave him a start.

It was a box office flop but still shows up frequently on cable.

Archie Moore fought Howard King in the Bullring in Tijuana (KO 2 ).May 1962.