{"id":3287,"date":"2015-06-11T10:26:06","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T14:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/preserving\/?p=3287"},"modified":"2015-06-11T10:26:06","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T14:26:06","slug":"the-greatest-horse-racing-bookmaker-of-the-sport-of-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/2015\/06\/11\/the-greatest-horse-racing-bookmaker-of-the-sport-of-kings\/","title":{"rendered":"The greatest horse racing bookmaker of the “Sport of Kings”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In October of 1896, the New York Times reported\u00a0the recent arrest of Joseph Ullman, claiming him to be the ‘greatest bookmaker’ in the U.S. He, along with his sheetmakers, were arrested by the storied “vice fighter” and enforcer of public morality, Anthony Comstock, for gambling violations.\u00a0Ironically, the period 1895-1908 was considered\u00a0the golden age for New York horse racing and gambling, in spite of the enactment of the Percy-Grey law of 1895. Loopholes in the act\u00a0allowed for flagrant disregard for the law’s original intent for\u00a0curbing\u00a0gambling, resulting in rampant and conspicuous\u00a0bookmaking activity. Horse racing was extremely popular at the turn of the century, being referred to as “The Sport of Kings”, but eventually the sport dropped from 314 racetracks to a mere 25 in 1908. In spite of his legal entanglements, Ullman continued to be a legendary bookie or turf accountant, publishing an insiders view of bookmaking stories in 1903. Ullman explains\u00a0the origins of the book:<\/p>\n

Of all known sports, undoubtedly none<\/em>
\n has gained such popular favor as RACING,<\/em>
\n usually termed “The Sport of Kings,” and of<\/em>
\n all the places in the world, there is none<\/em>
\n where one may study human nature in the<\/em>
\n same manner as at the race track.<\/em>
\n When one realizes that during the hours of<\/em>
\n from two to five every afternoon, there is a<\/em>
\n daily exchange between the public and the<\/em>
\n bookmakers of from two to three million<\/em>
\n dollars, and with a daily attendance of from<\/em>
\n ten to forty thousand people, there happen<\/em>
\n very many ludicrous incidents and funny sayings.<\/em><\/p>\n

A number of bookmakers, including myself,<\/em>
\n were dining one evening at a celebrated<\/em>
\n cafe, and began telling comical stories and<\/em>
\n humorous episodes. My experience of<\/em>
\n twenty-eight years on the turf had taught me…Hey, Joe,<\/em>
\n what’s the odds, a book of these yarns<\/em>
\n wouldn’t be a go ?<\/em><\/p>\n

The book is a collection of\u00a0true or fabled stories about the world of bookmakers. The New York\u00a0Times Book Review was not so kind with its evaluation of Ullman’s\u00a0work.<\/p>\n

“When a bookmaker makes a book it is not usually literature. And this book of Mr. Ullman’s is no more literature than the other books he has made at the race track”<\/em><\/p>\n

Ullman’s\u00a0life was\u00a0a rags to riches to rags story. Ullman was an orphan who started out working as a newsboy before moving into the gambling world. His operation was known as “The Big Store”, taking in bets of $100,000. Later in his life, Ullman suffered major financial losses, particularly investing in an opera company that failed miserably. Soon afterwards, he suffered a mental and physical\u00a0breakdown, eventually being placed in an insane asylum where he died in 1908.<\/p>\n

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\n
Description:<\/dt>\n
Ullman, Joseph Frederick. What’s the odds? :funny, true and clean stories of the turf. New York City : Metropolitan Print. Co., c1903.<\/span><\/dd>\n
Persistent Link:<\/dt>\n
http:\/\/nrs.harvard.edu\/urn-3:FHCL:2381059<\/a><\/dd>\n
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Repository:<\/dt>\n
Widener Library<\/dd>\n
Institution:<\/dt>\n
Harvard University<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In October of 1896, the New York Times reported\u00a0the recent arrest of Joseph Ullman, claiming him to be the ‘greatest bookmaker’ in the U.S. He, along with his sheetmakers, were arrested by the storied “vice fighter” and enforcer of public morality, Anthony Comstock, for gambling violations.\u00a0Ironically, the period 1895-1908 was considered\u00a0the golden age for New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2559,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3287"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3301,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions\/3301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}