Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 - April 12, 1981), best known as Joe Louis and nicknamed "Brown Bomber", was a professional American boxer who competed from 1934-1951. He ruled as heavyweight world champion from 1937 to 1949, and is considered one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. Louis's championship power lasted 140 months in a row, where he participated in 26 championship games. The 27th fight, against Ezzard Charles in 1950, was a challenge for Charles's heavyweight title and thus was excluded from Louis's government. Louis won in 26 defense titles, second only to Julio CÃÆ'Ã… © sar ChÃÆ'¡vez with 27. In 2005, Louis was ranked as the best heavyweight of all time by the International Boxing Research Organization, and was ranked number one in the magazine listing Ring on "100 greatest hitters of all time".
Louis's cultural influence felt well outside the ring. He is widely regarded as the first African American to achieve status as a national hero in the United States, and was also the epicenter of anti-Nazi sentiment ahead of and during World War II. He was instrumental in integrating the game of golf, breaking the sport's color barrier in America by appearing under the sponsorship sponsorship of the PGA event in 1952.
Detroit Joe Louis Arena, former home of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League, and Forest Preserve District Cook County's Joe Louis "The Champ" Golf Course, located south of Chicago in Riverdale, Illinois, is named in his honor.
Video Joe Louis
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Born in rural Chambers County, Alabama (in a dilapidated house located on Bell Chapel Road, located about a mile from state route 50 and about six miles (9.7 km) north of LaFayette), Louis is the seventh of eight the children of Munroe Barrow and Lillie (Reese) Barrow. He weighs 11 pounds (5 kg) at birth. Both his parents were the children of a former slave, alternating between harvest sharing and rent farming. Munroe is predominantly African American, with several white ancestors, while Lillie is half Cherokee.
Louis spent 12 years growing up in rural Alabama, where little is known about his childhood. He suffers from speech disorders and speaks very little until about the age of six. Munroe Barrow committed himself to a mental institution in 1916 and, as a result, Joe knew little about his biological father. Around 1920, Louis's mother married Pat Brooks, a local construction contractor, after receiving word that Munroe Barrow had died when instituted (in fact, Munroe Barrow lived until 1938, unaware of his son's fame).
In 1926, shaken by a group of white men in the Ku Klux Klan, the Louis family moved to Detroit, Michigan, forming part of World War I post Migration. Joe's brother works for the Ford Motor Company (where Joe will work temporarily at River Rouge Plant) and his family settled in a house at 2700 Catherine (now Madison) Street in the Black Bottom neighborhood of Detroit.
Louis attended Bronson Vocational School for a time to study cabinet making.
Maps Joe Louis
Amateur career
The Great Depression hit the Barrow family hard, but as an alternative to gang activity, Joe began spending time at the local youth recreation center at 637 Brewster Street in Detroit. His mother tried to get him interested in playing the violin. Legend has it that he tried to hide his pugilistic ambitions from his mother by bringing his fist holster into his violin box.
Louis made his debut in early 1932 at the age of 17 years. Legend has it that before the fight, Louis was almost illiterate writing his name so big that there was no room for his last name, and came to be known as "Joe Louis" for the rest of his fist career. More likely, Louis just eliminated his last name to keep his boxing secrets from his mother. After this debut - losing the Olympian future Johnny Miler - Louis garnered numerous amateur wins, eventually winning his Brewster Street recreation club championship, home to many aspiring Golden Gloves fighter.
In 1933, Louis won the Detroit Area Golden Gloves Division championship against Joe Biskey for the light heavyweight classification. He then lost the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions. The following year, competing in the Golden Glove Open Division, he won the light heavyweight classification, this time also winning the Chicago Tournament of Champions. However, a hand injury forced Louis to miss a cross-New York/Chicago cross-battle for the Golden Gloves championship. In April 1934, he followed up on his performance in Chicago by winning the National AAU National Amateur Champion at St. Louis, Missouri.
At the end of his amateur career, Louis's record is 50-3, with 43 knockouts.
Professional career
Joe Louis has 69 professional fights with just three defeats. He counted 52 knockouts and held the championship from 1937 to 1949, the longest range of all heavyweight titles. After returning from retirement, Louis failed to regain the championship in 1950, and his career ended after he was knocked out by Rocky Marciano in 1951. The man who had called the Bomber Brown finished.
Initial years
Louis's amateur appearance attracted professional promoters, and he was soon represented by a Detroit-area gambler-black area named John Roxborough. As Louis explains in his autobiography, Roxborough assures the young fighter that white managers will have no real interest in seeing black boxers working the way for a title quarrel:
[Roxborough] told me of the fate of most of the black fighter, who had white managers, who were burnt and ruptured before they reached their peak. White managers are not interested in the men they handle but with the money they can earn from them. They do not take the time to see that their fighters have proper training, that they live comfortably, or eat well, or have their allowances. Mr. Roxborough talks about Black Power before it becomes popular.
Roxborough knows a boxing promoter in the Chicago area named Julian Black who already has a stable boxer cage that Louis can use to hone his skills, this time in the heavyweight division. After becoming part of the management team, Black hires Chicago fellow Jack Jack "Chappy" Blackburn as coach Louis. Louis's early professional fight was all in the Chicago area, his professional debut coming on July 4, 1934, against Jack Kracken at Bacon Casino on the south side of Chicago. Louis earned $ 59 to beat Kracken in the first round. $ 59.00 in 1934 is equivalent to 1,098.77 in 2016 dollars. Louis won all 12 of his professional bout that year, 10 with a knockout.
In September 1934, when promoting Detroit's "return trip" to Louis against Canadian Alex Borchuk, Roxborough was pressed by members of the Michigan State Boxing Commission to sign Louis with white management. Roxborough refused and continued to advance Louis's career with a bout against the heavyweight rivals, Art Sykes and Stanley Poreda.
When practicing against Lee Ramage, Louis noticed the young woman's secretary for the black newspaper at the gym. After Ramage was defeated, the secretary, Marva Trotter, was invited to a celebration party at the Grand Hotel Chicago. Trotter later became Louis' first wife in 1935.
During this time, Louis also met Truman Gibson, the man who would become his personal lawyer. As a young associate at a law firm hired by Julian Black, Gibson was charged with Louis who personally entertained during pendency of business transactions.
Title title
Although the management of Louis finds him fighting against a legitimate heavy class contender, there is no way to go to an upcoming title. While professional boxing is not officially separated, many white Americans have become wary of the prospect of another black champion behind the highly unpopular Jack Johnson (among whites) "ruling" over the heavyweight division. During a period of intense anti-black persecution, Jack Johnson's unmarried manhood and marriage with a white woman sparked a massive backlash that severely limited the chances of blacks in the heavyweight division. The black boxer was denied the championship game, and there were some heavyweight black competitors at the time, although there were African-Americans who fought for titles in other weight divisions, and some famous black champions, such as Tiger Flowers. Louis and his keepers will emulate Johnson's legacy by emphasizing Brown Bomber's modesty and sportivity. Biographer Gerald Astor stated that the early boxing career "Joe Louis" was followed by the specter of Jack Johnson ".
If Louis had risen to national prominence among such cultural attitudes, a change in management would be necessary. In 1935, boxing promoter Mike Jacobs sought out Louis' handlers. After Louis suffered a minor defeat of Natie Brown on March 29, 1935, Jacobs and Louis's team met at the Frog Club, a black nightclub, and negotiated a three-year exclusive boxing promotion deal. The contract, however, did not make Roxborough and Black from trying to monetize it as Louis's manager; When Louis was 21 years old on May 13, 1935, Roxborough and Black each signed Louis for an aggravating long-term contract that collectively dedicates half of Louis's future income to the couple.
Black and Roxborough continue with caution and deliberately shaping the image of Louis's media. Given Johnson's extraordinary public reaction to his unrepentant attitude and the flamboyant lifestyle, they set up the "Seven Commandments" for Louis's personal behavior. These include:
- Never his picture was taken with a white woman
- Do not laugh at a fallen opponent
- Never get into a constant fight
- Live and clean opponents
As a result, Louis is generally portrayed in the white media as a simple, clean-living person, who facilitates his growing celebrity status.
With great promotional support, Louis fought thirteen times in 1935. The fight helped put him in the media spotlight that occurred on June 25, when Louis beat 6'6 ", former 265-pound world heavyweight Primo Carnera in six rounds Imagining the upcoming Louis-Schmeling rivalry, Carnera's battle represents a political dimension, Louis's victory over Carnera, symbolizing Benito Mussolini's regime in popular eyes, is seen as a victory for the international community, especially among African Americans, sympathetic to Ethiopia, independence by fending off an invasion by fascist Italy.The American white press began to promote the image of Louis in the context of racism of the time: their nicknames include "Mahogany Mauler", "Chopper Chocolate", "KO Coffee King", "Safari Sandman" and one that sticks: "The Brown Bomber".
Helping the white press to overcome its reluctance to display a black competitor is a fact that in the mid-1930s boxing was in dire need of marketable heroes. Since Jack Dempsey's retirement in 1929, the sport has turned into a dirty mixture of poor athletes, gambling, constant fighting, thrown matches, and sports control by organized crime. New York Times columnist Edward Van Ness writes, "Louis... is a boon to boxing Just as Dempsey leads the sport out of lethargy... so does Louis lead the boxing game from the slump." Likewise, Bill Libby's biography confirms that "The world of hungry sports will be a great champion when Louis arrives in New York in 1935."
While the mainstream press began to embrace Louis, many still oppose the prospect of other heavyweight black champions. In September 1935, on the eve of Louis's battle with former champion Max Baer, ​​Washington sports writer Shirley Povich wrote about some American expectations for a white competitor, "They say Baer will surpass him in the knowledge that he is the only white hope to defend the Nordic superiority in the prize ring. "However, the hopes of white suprematists will soon disappear.
Although Baer had been dropped once before in his professional career (by Frankie Campbell), Louis dominated the former champion, knocking him down in the fourth round. Unwittingly, Baer suffered a unique loss in the fight; early that night, Louis married Marva Trotter in a friend's apartment and was anxious to end the fight in order to realize that relationship. Later that year, Louis also got rid of Paolino Uzcudun, who had never been dropped before.
Louis vs. Schmeling I
By this time, Louis was ranked as the No. 1 contender in the heavyweight division and had won the Associate Press "Atlet of the Year" award for 1935. What was considered a final bout before the title was finally taken scheduled for June 1936 against Max Schmeling. Despite the former heavyweight world champion, Schmeling was not considered a threat to Louis, then with a professional record of 27-0. Schmeling had won his title on technical when Jack Sharkey was disqualified after giving Schmeling a low blow in 1930. Schmeling was also 30 years old at the time of Louis's battle and allegedly through his prime. Louis's training retreat is located in Lakewood, New Jersey, where he can first practice golf, which will then become a lifelong passion. Renowned creator Ed Sullivan has initially sparked Louis's interest in sports by giving instructional books to Joe Marva's wife. Louis spends significant time on the golf course rather than training for the game.
Instead, Schmeling prepares for the fight. He really studied Louis's style and believes he has found weakness. Taking advantage of Louis's habit of dropping his left hand low after a puncture, Schmeling handed Louis his first professional loss by dropping him in the 12th round at Yankee Stadium on 19 June 1936.
World Championships
After beating Louis, Schmeling expects the title shot against James J. Braddock, who unexpectedly defeated Max Baer for the heavyweight title in June. Madison Square Garden (MSG) has a contract with Braddock to defend the title and is also looking for a Braddock-Schmeling title fight. But manager Jacobs and Braddock, Joe Gould have been planning a Braddock-Louis match for months.
Schmeling's victory gave Gould a tremendous influence, however. If he offered Schmeling the title as a substitute for Louis, there is a very real possibility that the Nazi authorities will never let Louis get the title. Gould's demands are therefore heavy: Jacobs must pay 10% of all future boxing campaign profits (including any future gains from Louis's future bout) for ten years. Braddock and Gould will eventually receive over $ 150,000 from this arrangement. Well before the actual fight, Jacobs and Gould publicly announced that their fighter would fight for a heavyweight title on June 22, 1937. Thinking that the New York State Athletics Commission would not support the fight in honor of MSG and Schmeling, Jacobs scheduled the fight for Chicago.
Each of the parties involved worked to facilitate Braddock-Louis's controversial fight. Louis did his part by defeating former champion Jack Sharkey on August 18, 1936. Meanwhile, Gould fabricated anti-Nazi sentiments against Schmeling, and Jacobs defended a lawsuit by MSG to stop Braddock-Louis fights. A federal court in Newark, New Jersey, finally decided that Braddock's contractual obligations to wage his title defense on MSG were unworkable due to a lack of reciprocal considerations.
The stage is set for the title of Louis. On the night of the fight, June 22, 1937, Braddock was able to defeat Louis in the first round, but afterwards could reach a little. After dropping the penalty constantly, Louis beat Braddock in the eighth round, chilling him with a strong right hand that broke James's teeth through his gum shield and lips and sent him to the ground for a few minutes. This was the first and only time Braddock was knocked out (another Braddock career termination was TKO because there was a pruning). The ascent of Louis to the world heavyweight championship is over.
Louis's victory was a pivotal moment in African American history. Thousands of African-Americans live all night across the country to celebrate. Renowned writer and Harlem Renaissance member Langston Hughes describes the effect of Louis in the following terms:
Every time Joe Louis wins the battle in those depressed years, even before he becomes champion, thousands of black Americans who are in aid or WPA, and poor, will storm into the streets across the country to line up and cheer and shout and crying because of Joe's one-man victory. No one else in the United States has ever had such an effect on Negro emotions - or on my emotions. I lined up and cheered, yelled, and cried, too.
Defense title
Despite his championship, Louis is haunted by his previous defeat to Schmeling. Shortly after winning the title, he was quoted as saying, "I do not want to be called a champion until I whip Max Schmeling." Manager Louis Mike Jacobs attempted to set up a rematch in 1937, but negotiations failed when Schmeling demanded 30% of the gate. When Schmeling instead attempted to organize a struggle against British royal champion Tommy Farr, known as "Tonypandy Terror", - as if for a world championship to rival the claims of American boxing authorities - Jacobs defeated him, offering Farr a $ 60,000 guarantee to fight Louis instead. The offer was too much for Farr to reject.
On August 30, 1937, after a four day delay due to rain, Louis and Farr finally touched a glove at the New York Yankee Stadium before a crowd of about 32,000. Louis fought one of the toughest battles of his life. The fight was tightly contested and went through all 15 rounds, with Louis unable to bring down Farr. Referee Arthur Donovan was even seen shaking Farr's hand after the fight, as a clear congratulation. Nevertheless, after the score was announced, Louis has won a controversial round decision. Time after describing the scene: "After accumulating the voices of the judges, referee Arthur Donovan announced that Louis had won the battle on points, the crowd of 50,000... was amazed that Farr had not been knocked out or even knocked down, scorning the decision."
It seems the audience believes that referee Arthur Donovan, Sr. has lifted Farr's gloves in victory. Seven years later, in his published report on the fight, Donovan spoke of "mistakes" that might have caused this confusion. He writes:
When Tommy walked back to his corner after shaking Louis's hand, I followed him and grabbed his gloves. "Tommy, great performance..." I started... Then I dropped his hand like hot red coal! He started raising his arm. He thinks I've given him a fight and a world championship! I actually ran, shook my head and yelled. "No, no, no!" realized how I had raised her hopes for a few seconds just to bolt them to the ground... That was the last time my emotions would get better than me in a prize fight! There is a lot of derision on the published results, but, as I said, it's all emotional. I gave Tommy two laps and one even - and both rounds of his victory were near.
Speaking via radio after the fight, Louis admits that he has been injured twice.
In preparation for an inevitable rematch with Schmeling, Louis adjusts to the attack against Nathan Mann and Harry Thomas.
Louis vs. Schmeling II
The re-match between Louis and Schmeling will be one of the most famous boxing matches of all time and is remembered as one of the major sporting events of the 20th century. After his defeat of Louis in 1936, Schmeling has become a national hero in Germany. Schmeling's victory over an African American was mentioned by Nazi officials as proof of their doctrine of Aryan superiority. When a rematch is scheduled, Louis retreats to boxing camp in New Jersey and endless practice for the fight. A few weeks before the fight, Louis visited the White House, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt told him, "Joe, we need muscles like yours to defeat Germany." Louis later admitted: "I know I have to get Schmeling good.I have my own personal reasons and the whole cursed state is up to me."
When Schmeling arrived in New York City in June 1938 for a rematch, he was accompanied by a Nazi party publicist who issued a statement that a black man could not defeat Schmeling and that when Schmeling won, his prize money would be used to build a tank in Germany.. Hotel Schmeling was guarded by anti-Nazi protesters in the days before the fight.
On the night of June 22, 1938, Louis and Schmeling met for the second time in the boxing ring. The fight was held at Yankee Stadium before the crowd 70,043. It was broadcast by radio to millions of listeners around the world, with radio announcers reporting about combat in English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Before the fight, Schmeling weighed 193 pounds; Louis weighed down on £ 198.
The fight lasted two minutes and four seconds. Louis hit Schmeling with a series of rapid attacks, forcing him against the rope and giving him a crippling body blow (Schmeling later claimed it was an illegal kidney blow). Schmeling was dropped three times and only managed to throw two strokes throughout the fight. On the third knockdown, Schmeling's coach threw a towel and referee Arthur Donovan stopped the fight.
Despite his nickname is insulting, most of the group is the top ten heavyweights. Of the 12 Louis fighters encountered during this period, five were ranked by The Ring as top 10 heavyweights in their struggling years. Louis: Galento (overall heavyweight # 2 in 1939), Bob Pastor # 3, 1939), Godoy (# 3, 1940), Simon (# 6, 1941) and Baer (# 8, 1941); the other four (Musto, Dorazio, Burman and Johnny Paychek) are ranked top 10 in a different year.
Billy Conn fight
The lightweight Louis strike is considered the competition ended in his fight against Billy Conn, a light heavyweight champion and a highly respected rival. The fighters met on June 18, 1941, in front of a crowd of 54,487 fans at Polo Grounds in New York City. The fight turned out to be one of the greatest heavyweight fighting of all time.
Conn will not add weight to the challenge against Louis, instead saying that he will rely on the hit and run strategy. Louis's famous response: "He can run, but he can not hide."
However, Louis clearly underestimated Conn's threat. In his autobiography, Joe Louis said:
I made a mistake in the fight. I know Conn is a bit small and I do not want them telling me in newspaper that I beat a little guy so the day before the fight I did a little road repair to sweat and drink as little water as possible so I can weigh under 200lbs. Chappie really crazy. But Conn is an intelligent fighter, he's like a mosquito, he stings and moves.
Conn had a better fight through 12 rounds, though Louis was able to make Conn severed with a left hook on the fifth, cutting off his eyes and nose. In the eighth round, Louis began to suffer from dehydration. In the twelfth round, Louis was exhausted, with Conn leading on two of three boxing cards. But against his advice from his angle, Conn continues to tightly engage Louis in the final stages of the fight. Louis took most chances, kicking Conn out with two seconds left in the thirteenth round.
The contest created an instant competition that Louis's career had lacked since the Schmeling era, and a rematch with Conn was planned for late 1942. The re-match should be suddenly canceled, however, after Conn broke his hand in a much publicized bout with his father-in-law, Main Jimmy "Greenfield" Smith. By the time Conn was ready for a rematch, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had taken place.
World War II
Louis fought for the Navy Relief Society against his former opponent Buddy Baer on January 9, 1942, who raised $ 47,000 for the fund. The next day, he volunteered to register as a private in the United States Army at Camp Upton, Long Island. Newsreel cameras record the induction, including a staged scene in which an officer-soldier asks, "What is your job?", Which Louis replied, "Fought and let us attack Japan."
Another military charity fight on March 27, 1942 (against another former opponent, Abe Simon) earned $ 36,146. Before the fight, Louis had spoken at the Help Fund meeting, saying about the war effort, "We will win, because we are on God's side." The media widely reported the comments, inciting a spike in popularity for Louis. Slowly, the press began to remove stereotypical references when covering Louis and instead treated him as an ineligible sporting hero. In spite of the public relations award, Louis's charitable fight proved financially costly. Although he does not see any of the approximately $ 90,000 raised by this and other charity fights, the IRS then credits this amount as taxable income paid to Louis. After the war, the IRS pursued the matter.
For basic training, Louis is assigned to a separate cavalry unit based in Fort Riley, Kansas. The job was on the advice of his friend and lawyer Truman Gibson, who knew about Louis's love for horseback riding. Gibson had previously been a civilian adviser to the War Department, which was in charge of investigating claims of abuse against black troops. Therefore, Louis uses this personal connection to help cause the various black soldiers who come into contact with him. In one famous episode, Louis contacted Gibson to facilitate the Pioneer School Candidate (OCS) application from a group of black recruits at Fort Riley, who had been delayed indefinitely for several months. Among the OCS apps that Louis facilitated was the young Jackie Robinson, who then broke the baseball color barrier. The episode gave birth to a personal friendship between the two men.
Realizing the potential of Louis to raise the esprit de corps among troops, the Army placed him in the Special Services Division rather than send him to battle. Louis went on a celebrity tour with other characters, including fellow boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. He traveled more than 35,000 km (22,000 mi) and held 96 boxing exhibitions before two million soldiers. In England during 1944, he was reportedly listed as a Liverpool Football Club player as a publicity stunt.
In addition to his journeys, Louis is the focus of media recruitment campaigns that encourage African-Americans to enlist in the Armed Forces, despite racial splits. When he was asked about his decision to enter the racially segregated US Army, he said: "There are many things wrong with America, but Hitler will not fix it." In 1943, Louis made an appearance in the Hollywood wartime musical This Is the Army , directed by Michael Curtiz. She appears as herself in a musical number, "The Well-Dressed Man in Harlem," which emphasizes the importance of African-American troops and promotes their enrollment.
However, the strength of celebrity Louis is not solely aimed at African Americans. In the famous wartime recruitment slogan, he echoed his earlier comments in 1942: "We will win, because we are on the Lord's side." Publicity campaigns make Louis very popular in the United States, even outside the sport world. Never before has white Americans embraced a black man as their representative for the world.
Although Louis never saw the battle, his military service saw his own challenge. During his journey, he often experienced striking racism. On one occasion, a military police (MP) ordered Louis and Ray Robinson to move their seats to a bench at the back of a camp depot of the Alabama Army camp. "We're not moving," Louis said. MPs tried to arrest them, but Louis firmly urged the couple out of the situation. In another incident, he allegedly had to take a bribe to persuade a commanding officer to drop the charges against Jackie Robinson for punching a captain who called Robinson "negro".
Louis was eventually promoted to the rank of a technical sergeant on April 9, 1945. On September 23 of the same year, he was awarded the Legion of Merit (a rare military decoration given to enlisted soldiers) for "untold contributions to common morals." received the honor of being eligible for immediate release from military service on October 1, 1945.
Later career and retirement
Louis emerged from his wartime service significantly in debt. In addition to his towering tax bill - which had not been determined at the time, but it was estimated at more than $ 100,000 - Jacobs claimed that Louis owed him $ 250,000.
Despite financial pressure on Louis to continue boxing, the long-awaited match against Billy Conn had to be postponed for the summer of 1946, when weather conditions could accommodate large outdoor audiences. On June 19, a disappointing 40,000 saw a rematch at Yankee Stadium, where Louis was not tested seriously. Conn, whose skills deteriorated during long layoffs, was largely spared from contact until it was dispatched by a knockout in the eighth round. Although his presence did not meet expectations, the fight was still the most profitable from Louis's career to date. His share of the wallet is $ 600,000, in which Louis's manager gets $ 140,000, his ex wife $ 66,000 and the state of New York US $ 30,000.
After the difficulty of finding another suitable opponent, on December 5, 1947, Louis met with Jersey Joe Walcott, a 33-year-old veteran with a 44-11-2 record. Walcott entered the fight as a 10-to-1 underdog. Nevertheless, Walcott knocked Louis twice in the first four rounds. Most observers at Madison Square Garden felt Walcott dominated the 15-round bout. When Louis was declared the winner in a separate decision, the crowd was derided.
Louis was not confused about the state of boxing skills, but he was too embarrassed to stop after Walcott's fight. Determined to win and retire with his title intact, Louis signs for a rematch. On June 25, 1948, some 42,000 people came to Yankee Stadium to see the aging champion, who weighs 213Ã,½, his toughest career to date. Walcott dropped Louis in the third round, but Louis survived to beat Walcott in the eleventh round.
Louis would not defend his title again before announcing his resignation from boxing on March 1, 1949. In his battle with Conn and Walcott, it was clear that Louis was no longer a fighter he had ever experienced. As he has done before in his career, however, Louis will continue to appear in many exhibition matches around the world.
Post-retirement replies
At Louis's early retirement, the IRS was still completing an investigation into previous tax returns, always handled by private accountant Mike Jacobs. In May 1950, the IRS completed a complete audit of Louis's past return and announced that, with interest and penalties, he owes the government more than $ 500,000. Louis had no choice but to return to the ring.
After asking Gibson to take over his personal finances and transfer his management from Jacobs and Roxborough to Marshall Miles, the Louis camp negotiated a deal with the IRS in which Louis would be out of retirement, with all the net proceeds Louis going to the IRS. A match with Ezzard Charles - who had earned an empty heavyweight title in June 1949 with outpointing Walcott - was set for September 27, 1950. By then, Louis was 36 years old and had been away from competitive boxing for two years. Weigh in 218, Louis is still strong, but his reflexes are gone. Charles repeatedly hit him with a punch. At the end of the fight, Louis is cut above both eyes, one of them tightly closed due to swelling. He knew he had lost even before Charles was declared the winner. The result is not the only disappointing aspect of the struggle for Louis; only 22,357 spectators paid to watch the show at Yankee Stadium, and his share of the wallet was only $ 100,458. Louis had to keep fighting.
After facing several club-level opponents, the International Boxing Club secured Louis $ 300,000 to face heavy opponent of the oppressed class of Rocky Marciano on 26 October 1951. Although he became a 6-to-5 favorite, some people in boxing believed Louis had a chance. Marciano himself was reluctant to participate in the fight, but understood Louis's position: "This is the last person in the world I want to fight against." It is feared, especially among those who have witnessed the power of first-handed Marciano's punching, that Louis's reluctance to quit will result in serious injury. Holding back tears, Ferdie Pacheco said in a SportsCentury documentary about his fight with Marciano, "He [Louis] will not lose, he will do a savage and barbaric beating." Before the eyes of the nation, Joe Louis, the American hero if ever, be beaten. "Louis was dropped in the eighth round by the remaining Marciano and crashed into the rope and out of the ring less than thirty seconds later.
In the dressing room after the fight, a traveling companion of the Louis Army, Sugar Ray Robinson, wept. Marciano also tried to cheer Louis, saying, "I'm sorry, Joe." "What's the use of crying?" Louis said. "Better people win, I think it all goes for the best."
After facing Marciano, with another significant pay prospect, all gone, Louis retired for good from professional boxing. He will, as before, continue on tour at the exhibition circuit, with his last contest taking place on December 16, 1951, in Taipei, Taiwan, against the Corporal Buford J. deCordova.
Taxes and financial matters
Although Louis' wallet was profitable for many years, most of the proceeds went into his handling. Of the $ 4.6 million earned during his boxing career, Louis alone received only about $ 800,000. Louis remains very generous to his family, paying homes, cars, and education to his parents and siblings, often with money funded by Jacobs. He invested in a number of businesses, all of which failed, including Joe Louis Restaurant, Insurance Company Joe Louis, a softball team called Bomber Brown, Joe Louis Milk Company, Joe Louis Pomade (Hair Product), Joe Louis Punch (Drink) -Rower, Horse Farm and Rhumboogie Cafe in Chicago. He gave freely to the government as well, paying back the city of Detroit for the welfare money his family had received.
This combination of government interference and intervention eventually put Louis in severe financial hardship. He entrusted his finances to ex-manager Mike Jacobs haunting him. After the $ 500,000 IRS tax bill is assessed, with interest accumulating annually, the need for cash precipitates the return of Louis post-retirement. Despite his return he got a significant wallet, the additional tax rate in place at the time (90%) meant that this boxing result did not even pursue interest on Louis's tax debt. As a result, in the late 1950s, he owed more than $ 1 million in taxes and interest. In 1953, when Louis's mother died, the IRS took the $ 667 he wanted to Louis. To bring in money, Louis was involved in various activities outside the ring. She appeared on various quiz shows, and an old Army friend, Ash Resnick, gave Louis the job of welcoming tourists to the Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas, where Resnick was an executive. For earnings, Louis even became a professional wrestler. He made his professional wrestling debut on March 16, 1956 in Washington, D.C., defeating Cowboy Rocky Lee. After defeating Lee in several games, Louis discovers he has heart disease and retires from wrestling competition. However, he continued as a wrestling referee until 1972.
Louis remains a popular celebrity in old age. His friends include ex-rival Max Schmeling - who gave Louis a financial aid during his retirement - and the mafia Frank Lucas, who, disgusted by the government's treatment of Louis, had paid the $ 50,000 tax held against him. This payment, together with the final agreement in the early 1960s by the IRS to limit his collection to the amount based on Louis's current earnings, enabled Louis to live comfortably towards the end of his life.
After the battle of Louis-Schmeling, Jack Dempsey expressed his opinion that he was glad he never had to face Joe Louis in the ring. When Louis falls in a difficult financial time, Dempsey serves as honorary chairman of the fund to help Louis.
Professional golf
One of Louis's other passions is the game of golf, where he also plays a historic role. He was a long-time sports devotee since he was introduced to the game before his first Schmeling fight in 1936. In 1952, Louis was invited to play as an amateur at the San Diego Open on the sponsorship exclusion, becoming the first African American. to play the PGA Tour event. Initially, the PGA of America was reluctant to allow Louis to enter the event, having rules at the time of restricting PGA membership to Caucasians. However, the celebrity Louis status eventually encouraged the PGA to abolish the regulation, but the "Caucasian only" clause in the PGA American constitution was not changed until November 1961. This paved the way for the first generation of professional African-American golfers like Calvin Peete. Louis himself financially supported the careers of some other early professional black golfers like Bill Spiller, Ted Rhodes, Howard Wheeler, James Black, Clyde Martin and Charlie Sifford. He also plays a role in founding The First Tee, a charity that helps underprivileged children get to know the game of golf. His son, Joe Louis Barrow, Jr., currently oversees the organization.
In 2009, the PGA of America granted posthumous membership to Ted Rhodes, John Shippen and Bill Spiller, who were denied the opportunity to become members of the PGA during their professional careers. The PGA has also awarded posthumous honorary membership to Louis.
Personal life and death
I do my best with what I have
Louis had two children by Marva Trotter's wife (Jacqueline's daughter in 1943 and son of Joseph Louis Barrow Jr. in 1947). They divorced in March 1945 only to remarry a year later, but again divorced in February 1949. Marva moved into an acting and modeling career. On Christmas Day 1955, Louis married Rose Morgan, a successful Harlem businesswoman; their marriage was canceled in 1958. Louis's last marriage - to Martha Jefferson, a lawyer from Los Angeles, on St. Louis Day. Patrick 1959 - ended until his death. They have four children: another son named Joseph Louis Barrow Jr., John Louis Barrow, Joyce Louis Barrow, and Janet Louis Barrow. Joe Louis Barrow Jr. the younger living in New York City and involved in boxing. Though married four times, Louis secretly enjoys other female companies such as Lena Horne and Edna Mae Harris.
In 1940, Louis supported and campaigned for Republican Wendell Willkie as president. Louis said:
This country is good to me. It gives me everything I have. I have not been out for any candidate before, but I think Wendell L. Willkie will give us a square deal. So I am for Willkie because I think he will help my people, and I think my people should be for him too.
Beginning in the 1960s, Louis was often derided by segments of the African-American community (including Muhammad Ali) for being "Uncle Tom." Drugs had an effect on Louis in his last years. In 1969, he was hospitalized after collapsing on the New York City road. While the incident was initially credited to "physical impairment," the underlying problem would soon emerge. In 1970, he spent five months at the Colorado Psychiatric Hospital and Veterans Administration Hospital in Denver, hospitalized by his wife, Martha, and his son, Joe Louis Barrow Jr., for paranoia. In a 1971 book, Brown Bomber, by Barney Nagler, Louis reveals the truth about this incident, stating that his collapse in 1969 was caused by cocaine, and that subsequent hospitalization has been fueled by his fears. from a plan to destroy it. Stroke and heart disease caused Louis's condition to deteriorate further in this decade. He underwent surgery to repair aortic aneurysm in 1977 and afterwards used POV/scooters for mobility assistance.
Louis died of a heart attack at Desert Springs Hospital near Las Vegas on April 12, 1981, just hours after his last public appearance saw the Heavy Weight Championship of Larry Holmes-Trevor. Ronald Reagan revoked the eligibility rules for funerals at Arlington National Cemetery and Louis was buried there with full military honor on 21 April 1981. His funeral was paid in part by former rival and friend Max Schmeling, who also acted as a bearer.
Movies
Louis appeared in six long films and two shorts, including a lead role in the 1938 Spirit of Youth film, in which he played a boxer with much in common with himself.
In 1953, Robert Gordon directed a film about the life of Louis, The Joe Louis Story . Filmed in Hollywood, it starred Golden Gloves combat Coley Wallace in the role of Louis.
Legacy
Overall, Louis made 25 defense heavyweight titles from 1937 to 1948, and became world champion for 11 years and 10 months. Both still record in the heavyweight division, the first in any division. His most remarkable record is that he beat 23 opponents in 27 title matches, including five world champions. In addition to his achievements in the ring, Louis expressed two of his most famous boxing observations: "He can run, but he can not hide" and "Everyone has a plan until they are hit."
Louis was named this year's warrior four times by The Ring magazine in 1936, 1938, 1939, and 1941. His fights with Max Baer, ​​Max Schmeling, Tommy Farr, Bob Pastor, and Billy Conn is called this year's fight by the same magazine. Louis won the Sugar Ray Robinson Award in 1941. In 2005, Louis was named the No. 1 heavyweight of all time by the International Boxing Research Organization. In 2007, he was ranked # 4 in 50 Biggest Boxer, ESPN.com, from an all-time list. In 2002 The Ring put Louis # 4 on his 80 best fighters from the last 80 years list. Louis is also ranked # 1 on the The Ring ' list of 100 Greatest Punchers of All Time.
Louis is also remembered in sports outside boxing. An indoor sports venue was named after him in Detroit, Joe Louis Arena, where Detroit Red Wings played their NHL games from 1979 to 2017. In 1936, Vince Leah, then a writer for the Winnipeg Tribune > using Joe Louis's nickname to refer to Winnipeg Football Club after the game. From that point on, the team became popularly popular as the Winnipeg Blue Hunters.
His confession also surpassed the world of sports. In 2002, Moleci scholar Kete Asante enrolled Joe Louis on the list of 100 Greatest African Americans. On 26 August 1982, Louis was posthumously approved for the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given to civilians by the U.S. legislative branch. Congress declared that he "did so much to boost the spirit of the American people during one of the most important moments in American history and which has been going on for years as a symbol of power for the nation". Following Louis's death, President Ronald Reagan said, "Joe Louis is more than a sports legend - his career is a charge against racial bigotry and a source of pride and inspiration for millions of whites and blacks around the world."
A memorial to Louis was dedicated in Detroit (on Jefferson Avenue and Woodward) on October 16, 1986. Sculpture, commissioned by Time, Inc. and executed by Robert Graham, is a 24-foot-long arm (7.3 m) with a hand held with a 7.3 m (7.3 m) pyramidal skeleton. It represents the power of the blow both inside and outside the ring.
In an interview with Arsenio Hall in the late 1980s, Muhammad Ali stated that his two biggest influences in boxing were Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis.
On February 27, 2010, an 8 foot (2.4 m) bronze statue of Louis was unveiled at his home in Alabama. The statue, by sculptor Casey Downing, Jr., sits on a red granite base just outside the Chambers County Courthouse.
In 1993, he became the first boxer to be honored on postage stamps issued by the US Postal Service.
Various other facilities have been named after Joe Louis. In 1984, four streets around Madison Square Garden were named Joe Louis Plaza in his honor. Former Pipe O 'Peace Golf Course in Riverdale, Illinois (suburb of Chicago), in 1986 renamed "Joe Louis The Champ Golf Course". American Legion Post 375 in Detroit was also named after Joe Louis. Done in 1979 at a cost of $ 4 million, Joe Louis Arena, nicknamed The Joe, is a hockey arena located in downtown Detroit. It is the home of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League from 1979 to 2017. With the Arena scheduled for demolition, the Inner Circle Greenway in Detroit is renamed to Joe Louis Greenway in 2017. When completed, this 26 mile bike ride and walk will pass through town Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park, and Dearborn.
In one of the most widely cited awards for Louis, the sports writer Jimmy Cannon, when responding to Louis's characterization as "credit for his race," states, "Yes, Joe Louis is a credit for race - the human race. "
Professional boxing record
Cultural reference
- In its heyday, Louis was the subject of many music awards, including a number of blues songs.
- Louis plays a boxer in the 1938 Spirit of Youth racing movie.
- He was a guest at You Bet Your Life , Season 5, Episode 25 in 1955. In the television series, Hawkeye Pierce said she enjoyed her childhood because "You know where you stand at that time." Roosevelt has always been president and Joe Louis is always the champion. "
- In the 1988 film Coming to America, Eddie Murphy Clarence's character states that Frank Sinatra once told him that Joe Louis was 137 years old, should have been his age when he lost to Rocky Marciano. In the 1999 film Angela's Ashes, teenage protagonist Frank McCourt explained the bruised face he received in a fight with his simple-minded uncle by saying that he had been punched by Joe Joe Louis. "The gullible uncle expressed his astonishment that the" American heavyweight champion "would come all the way to Limerick, Ireland, where the film was taking place, and his dismay that the great fighter allegedly beat his skinny nephew. (The film is different from the memoir McCourt's underlying autobiography in this case: in this book, young McCourt, a fan of American boxing champion, explains his injuries to his uncle by saying that he fell - but he fantasized about going to America, meeting Joe Louis and asking the boxer to teach him how to be a fighter strong, so that McCourt can then return to Limerick to win beating the man who actually hit his face.)
- Louis is played by actor Bari K. Willerford in the movie American Gangster .
- In 2009, the band Brooklyn Yeasayer made their debut single "Ambling Alp" from their upcoming album Odd Blood , who imagined what Joe Louis's father had suggested before becoming a prizefighter. This song refers to Louis's boxing career and his famous rivalry with Schmeling in the first person, with lyrics like "Oh, Max Schmeling is a formidable enemy/The Ambling Alp too, at least that's what I say/But if you learn one thing, learn it well/In June, you have to give fascist hell. "
- Opera based on his life, Shadowboxer , aired on April 17, 2010.
- The previously mentioned Louis boxing statue (see Legacy above) is one of the few Detroit landmarks depicted in "Imported from Detroit", a two minute advertisement for Chrysler 200 featuring Eminem that aired during Super Bowl XLV in 2011.
- Joe Louis's name is known in Quebec, Canada because of Jos's snack. Louis is made by the Vachon family. Although similar to the name, the snack did not get its name from Joe Louis. This snack is named after two sons of Vachon, Joseph and Louis.
- Louis is the inspiration behind "Louis" by Jesse Jagz, a song from Jagz Nation Vol's third studio album. 2: Royal Niger Company (2014).
- The first song of the 2002 LP debut of John Squire Time Changes Everything was titled "Joe Louis", and the lyrics included references to his boxing and army careers.
See also
- List of straight line world champions
- List of heavyweight boxing champions
Note
References
This article incorporates material from the Citizendium article "Joe Louis", licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License but not under the GFDL.
External links
- Professional boxing record for Joe Louis from BoxRec
- the FBI file at Joe Louis
- Joe Louis Amateurs Record from BoxArec
- Joe Louis's Profile on Cyber ​​Boxing Zone
- The Fight of the Century NPR is specialized in the selection of radio broadcasts to the National Recording Registry
- Joe Louis on IMDb
- "Given Joe Louis", WTVM
- Louis to practice at Thomas about old newspaper clippings
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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