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His efforts to do so started in disgraceful failure. In the first big match he staged, Paulino Uzcudun knocked out an overrated Canadian named Soldier Jones in two minutes. To rehabilitate himself Promoter Dickson put Paulino into the ring against an English fighter named Harry Drake. Boxer Drake was so terrified at the sight of his bronzed opponent from the Pyrenees that it took several handlers to push him into the ring. There was a quick and ugly knockout and variorum reports of what happened to Promoter Dickson, who was supposed to have been hit on the head with a wine bottle. He discharged his matchmaker, packed the house for his next fight by giving free tickets wholesale to Citroen mechanics. Thus began the Golden Age of French boxing.
In 1929 Promoter Dickson made Primo Camera an international attraction principally by two fights with the late William Lawrence ("Young") Stribling, one in London and one in Paris, both of which ended in fouls. In 1931 he built his,Palais des Sports, patterned on Tex Richard's Madison Square Garden, on the site of the old Velodrome d'Hiver. Tex Rickard was proud of his "600 Millionaires." Jeff Dickson organized a "Club de Mille" whose members have their own clubroom and bar in the Palais des Sports. By this time he had achieved the unprecedented distinction of being made a member of the boxing boards of both England and France. He later acquired boxing rights at London's Royal Albert Hall and White City Stadium, two bullfight arenas in Madrid and Barcelona which he uses for boxing and wrestling, and became sports Tsar of the Continent.
In Paris Promoter Dickson has staged tennis, hockey, concerts, wrestling, the circus, an indoor "lion hunt" with 100 lions, and a show called "The Jungle at Midnight," with denizens of the Pare de Vincennes Zoo under flood lights. When 300,000 people visited Dickson's Jungle in the first eight nights, the authorities decided it made the animals nervous, stopped the show. Promoter Dickson finds London crowds the most tractable in Europe, Paris crowds the most excitable. In the Palais des Sports, to prevent a recurrence of the wine bottle incident, a net can be lowered around the arena to protect occupants from injury by spectators.
Promoter Dickson's Boswell is ancient little Sparrow Robertson, sports columnist of the Paris Herald, in whose writings it is a 5-to-1 bet that Promoter Dickson's name will appear on any given day. Dickson's secretary is Count Nicolas Ignatieff, son of Prince Nicolas Ignatieff, who once commanded the Tsar's Imperial Guard. When they discovered each other, the Count was a taxi driver and Promoter Dickson was his first fare. Apologizing for his incompetence as a chauffeur, the Count admitted he could speak twelve languages and take shorthand dictation. Dickson ordered him to drive home, telephone the company to call for its cab. As a sideline to being Dickson's secretary, Count Nicolas heads an organization which classifies Russian noblemen in Paris according to the genuineness of their pretensions.