Robert P. Laurence

San Diego Television

A new HBO documentary celebrates Joe Louis

By Robert P. Laurence
Posted on Feb 22 2008
Last updated Feb 22 2008

As happens to too many athletes, Joe Louis lived his life between his early 20s and his middle 30s. The next 30 years were postscript, a wandering existence of memories and handshakes and autographs.

Heavyweight champion of the world for nearly 12 consecutive years, he was a hero to millions of Americans both black and white. Later, he became an object of pity, hounded by the Internal Revenue Service, the prime example of the world champion who blows his money during his glory years and spends his declining decades dining on the decreasing value of his name and the kindness of strangers.

In his prime, Louis was generous beyond belief, too often handing out $100 bills to anyone who asked. He forgot, however, to include the taxman in his largesse. In the end, his government forgot the services he had given his country freely during World War II and seized even the trust fund he had set aside for his children.

Now, after what seems like too many years of historical neglect, Louis' story gets a worthy and memorable re-telling in HBO's stirring and cautionary new documentary "Joe Louis: America's Hero ... Betrayed." (9 p.m. Pacific Saturday, Feb. 23, with several more showings in coming weeks.)

All sorts of people help tell the story, including several old enough -- or almost old enough -- to remember what the celebrations were like in America’s black ghettos that night in 1938 when Louis knocked out Germany's Max Schmeling in the first round. They include New York Congressman Charles Rangel, comic Bill Cosby, poet Maya Angelou and comedian-activist Dick Gregory.

Jerry Lewis remembers that when he was making $125 a week as a struggling young comic, he spent $75 for a ticket to a Joe Louis fight but didn’t see it. He was still finding his seat when Louis' opponent fell in the first round.

Boxing has always provided a path out of poverty for the few young men lucky enough to be good at it. For those not wise enough to manage their earnings, boxing can also lead straight back into poverty.

Louis, born in 1914 in Alabama, was a classic case. Historian Randy Roberts succinctly describes his beginnings: "He's poor, he's black, he's one of eight children." His family moved to Detroit, where he worked briefly on a Ford assembly line and delivered ice. He began boxing as an amateur and proved an apt student.

Soon after he turned professional in 1934, he was a sensation, a withering combination of size, strength and speed. His boxing skills, however, get short-changed in HBO's film. The fight clips are too short and they go by too fast. To show a complete round now and then, or at least a minute or two, does not seem like asking too much.

In 1937, Louis won the title from James Braddock. What he may not have realized, however, was that his manager agreed to give Braddock a cut of Louis' purses for the next 10 years.

Louis was a national hero, particularly to America's black people. "He was everything," recalls Rangel. "He was the epitome of racial pride." He was also an acceptable black hero for white America in that time when Jim Crow still ruled much of the nation, as soft-spoken outside the ring as he was dominant and unrelenting inside.

He joined the Army in January 1942, willingly giving up his boxing income for the opportunity to serve his country. He spent the war fighting in exhibition matches before GI audiences, turning over his purses to the government to help support the war. But everywhere he went, he met with black soldiers in the segregated armed services, and frequently took up their grievances with military brass. He also continued to spend money as he had in his best days.

Once the war was over, the government honored Louis’ service by informing him that he owed $100,000 in back taxes. His troubles were just beginning. As his boxing abilities declined, his debts grew and the Internal Revenue Service proved a far more implacable opponent than any he had faced in the ring. What money he made, it seemed, the government wanted. And the more he paid, the more the debt grew.

What followed were humiliating years as a wrestler, a pitchman for various products, a game show contestant, a paid greeter - a human decoration, really - at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Even that was an act of charity, though. He was given the job by an old Army buddy who was a casino executive.

Then, crippled by a stroke, Joe Louis died of a heart attack at age 66.

As Rangel recalls, Louis had "decency, flair. A helluva professional, a nice person, a guy that gets screwed by the United States of America. Hey, that's Joe Louis."

Today, the sport of boxing is in its own declining years, nearly as forgotten as any champion of yesteryear. Once, if an American knew only one fact about the world of sports, it was the name of the world heavyweight champion. How many can name today's champ?

That's a trick question. There are four who claim the title, actually. Two of them, Ukraine's Wladimir Klitschko and Russia's Sultan Ibragimov, duke it out Saturday in New York in what's billed as a title unification fight. It's on HBO at 6:30 p.m. Pacific, preceding the Joe Louis documentary.

A last word: Joe Louis' 92-year-old sister, Vunies High, who had Alzheimer's disease, died Monday. She was found frozen to death outside her apartment at an assisted-living facility in Southfield, Mich., a Detroit suburb. She had spent 25 years as a teacher and counselor in Detroit public schools.

About the author: Robert P. Laurence was television critic at the San Diego Union-Tribune for 21 years. He previously wrote about politics, jazz, rock 'n' roll and all manner of news. He graduated in journalism from San Francisco State University, and earned an M.A. in political science at San Jose State. He's lived in San Diego since 1971.
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