Whiskey, Boxing, and Politics: The Lost New Orleans of Big Jim Comiskey
Gallier Historic House 1132 Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70116
Join the Gallier Historic House in New Orleans for a free, online Gallier Gathering this month with guest speaker Justin Nystrom, the Peter J. Cangelosi/BEGGARS Distinguished Professor in the History Department at Loyola University New Orleans and author of New Orleans After the Civil War: Race, Politics, and a New Birth of Freedom (Johns Hopkins, 2010) and Creole Italian: Sicilian Immigrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture (University of Georgia Press, 2018). This talk explores the life and times of one of New Orleans's larger-than figures of the twentieth century, "Big Jim" James Comiskey. Whether he was boxing or playing baseball, promoting fights, selling both illegal and legal whisky, or active in the political arena, James Comiskey never did anything small. His outsized life in many ways symbolizes a New Orleans that has long since disappeared but also one that would have been quite familiar to our grandparents' generation. 6 pm–7:30 pm. Free. To register, visit hgghh.org/events/aug-gallier-gathering.