Joe Louis

Joe Louis

Why Joe Louis? Not only was he the greatest heavyweight of all time [don't take my word, Bert Sugar picked him; "Ringside: The Ten Greatest Heavyweights," ESPN Classic, 1991], he was the most important boxer of the 20th Century.

The century was bookended by two very influential fighters, Jack Johnson [the first black heavyweight champ] and Muhammad Ali. However, Louis is the boxer who changed the white public's perception of a black heavyweight champion. Johnson was a polarizing figure and at the end of his reign he was hated and blacks were hated just the same as before. Ali was...Ali, but he built himself on the shoulders of Joe Louis. If there is no Louis, there is no Ali. Also consider this: Joe Louis became the first black man to be allowed to contend for the heavyweight title in a generation and he did so 10 years before Jackie Robinson set foot in Ebbetts Field.

Joe Louis was born in Alabama, moved to Detroit as a child, and grew up boxing there. He won the Golden Gloves tournament and went pro in 1935. He took the title from Jim Braddock in 1937 and defended it a record 25 times.

It was as a man where Joe Louis stood out. He was acutely aware, as were his advisors, that he was a representative of his race and that if he did anything inside or outside the ring that offended the white public he would never get a shot at the title. His trainers and advisors made him the model of rectitude in public. Where Johnson was outspoken and flaunted his money and his white wives, Louis was made to be quiet and non-controversial, marrying a black woman, never taunting downed opponents, and never, ever speaking out against the nonsense he had to endure.

His second fight with Max Schmeling in 1938 was the turning point in white America's view of the black man as athlete. In 1936 as an up and coming heavyweight he was matched with ex-champion Schmeling who was seen as more of a gatekeeper than a real threat. Schmeing studied Louis's fights and realized that Louis had a technical flaw in his style: he dropped his lead hand and exposed his jaw when he threw a certain combination. Schmeling cryptically remarked that he saw something in Louis's style and KO'd Louis in their 1936 bout by exploiting it.

Schmeling had his own demons to contend with. After beating Louis he returned to Nazi Germany a national hero, meeting with Hitler and being used by the regime for its racist propaganda. Schmeling was not a Nazi party member and was not a supporter of their positions [it came out many decades after the fact that he had hidden Jewish children in his Berlin apartment during an officially sanctioned antisemitic riot, at considerable personal peril]. His willingness to be used by the Nazis led to a string of events where the Americans who controlled boxing decided that they would not allow Braddock to risk sending the title to Germany. Rather than getting a shot at title holder Braddock, Schmeling was denied and the chance was given to Louis, though Louis's management had to cede 10% of their fighter's future earnings to Braddock to get the shot.

Louis beat Braddock but stated that he did not consider himself the champ until he beat Schmeling. That bout took place in 1938. It almost never occurred. The Nazi regime wanted Schmeling to fire his [Jewish] American manager, but he refused, convincing the Germans that without Joe Jacobs as his manager he stood no shot at getting a title bout. World War II was less than a year away and to many Americans Schmeling was a symbol of the Nazis.

The American public reaction to the Schmeling-Louis bout was amazing given the context of the times. In 1910 Jim Jeffries had been drafted out of retirement to win back the title from Johnson for the white race and after he lost there were race riots across the country. Many 'white hopes' then were sent to do the job. The Federal government went after Johnson for allegedly violating the Mann Act by transporting a woman across state lines for immoral purposes. He ended up roaming around the world fighting, ultimately agreeing to a bout in Havana where he lost the title to Jess Willard, came home, and was thrown in Leavenworth. In 1938 while preparing for the Schmeling bout, Louis was invited to the White House as a guest. President Roosevelt heralded him as having the strength America would need to beat the Nazis. Much of the American public agreed and openly rooted for a black man in a previously unimaginable manner.

The fight itself stands a a testament to Louis's skills and power. He had trained out the flaw in his style and perfected his techniques in the two years since the first fight. Louis simply tore Schmeling to pieces. Check out the bout on Youtube if you have a chance; it only runs 2 minutes. The beatdown was so devastating that it put Schmeling in the hospital for ten days with several cracked vertebrae.

When World War II broke out he donated the purses of his title fights to war relief charities and while in the Army was transported all over the world with a team of boxers [including Sugar Ray Robinson] and referee Ruby Goldstein, entertaining the troops in all the theaters of operations.

After the war he fought a few more times then retired as champion. Louis was forced back into the ring by financial woes, which is when time finally caught up with him. He went into various ventures like pro wrestling, and lent his name to a variety of products. Eventually he found his way to Las Vegas, where he worked as a casino host/greeter for a number of casinos and bars until finding a permanent home at Caesar's Palace. where he worked until his death. A statue of Louis stands in the entry to the casino at Caesar's in tribute to him to this day.

November 29, 2014150 Images77202 visitsAlbum by Adam Warshaw

1 June 21, 1935 Acme Newsphoto. An early and iconic image of Louis, it has appeared in many books on boxing history.	2 1935 Detroit Free Press: This premium was issued in the summer of 1935 and can be pinned down to a precise week of issue by advertising from the era.	3 1935 Brown & Bigelow Joe Louis premium. B & B issued a number of Louis related pieces. The first two are my personal favorite Louis items. They are roughly a foot square, on cardboard, and sometimes are found with advertising specially printed on them.	4 A variation with a caption. Also 1935.	5 1935 Pattreiouex Joe Louis. Widely understood to be his first insert card.	6 Brown & Bigelow also made fans using the Louis artwork, and sold them to various businesses for use as promotional products.	7
8	9 This is a December 1936 light rail ticket from Los Angeles depicting Louis and advertising the Golden Gloves tournament. Louis fought in Los Angeles in 1935.	10 In 1935 Louis started working as a pitchman for Fletcher's Castoria, a laxative. This premium is ca. 1935-36 and is one the earliest Louis endorsement pieces I've seen	11 1936 Mitchell's	12	13	14
15 An interesting piece circa 1937 made by an Oakland photogravure artist purportedly for a Louis appearance.	16 One of the things that intrigues me is that an item like this survives all these years. This mailer was intended to be hung on doorknobs of newsstands to solicit sales of a newspaper special on the fight. Someone saved this circular all these years...fascinating, no?	17 1938 [G.S. series] Ardath	18 1938 Churchman's Joe Louis	19 How freakin' cool this is! A betting slip from Louis-Schmeling II. It gives the bettor a chance at a specified outcome. BTW, there was no commission--the seal is a fraud. Betting on the match was entirely illegal.	20	21
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43	44	45	46 1930s Lucky Heart Co. Joe Louis premium.	47	48 Circa 1937 advertising piece for cosmetics products using Joe Louis photos as a promotional aid.	49
50 Advertisement for Lucky Heart Co. offering the Louis premium, from The Chicago Defender newspaper on June 5, 1937. Thanks to collector Arthur Rich for his research in finding this ad.	51 One of a series of Joe Louis cards issued by Cincinnati manufacturer Orcajo.	52 Two more of the same. Variations are known of the card of Joe and his wife, and non-Orcajo cards with the boxing pose also are known.	53 Joe Louis visited Camp Beale during WWII and the California-based military installation issued a series of postcards to commemorate the visit. This one shows him with Sugar Ray Robinson. I have seen four different; there are apparently at least 11 since all are numbered.	54 Another Camp Beale Louis	55 And another.	56 1950s giant sized PC of Joe Louis from the Moulin Rouge in Las Vegas. The first integrated casino, it lasted less than a year, accounting for the rarity of the PC.
57 A very tough die-cut Joe Louis restaurant PC from the 1950s.	58	59	60	61	62	63
64	65 1942 Chicago Tribune Joe Louis, from a set of 70 WWII related strip cards issued in the newspaper with corresponding album.	66 Coney Island Louis and Johnson. The pictures in the set were sourced from a variety of other issues and publicity photos.	67 1948 Leaf Joe Louis. Printing quality is the biggest condition concern with 1948 Leaf cards. The card stock itself is fairly thick and holds up well, but the printing can vary from atrocious to breathtakingly nice. Front image registration is the single worst problem with the set. The set was printed in three passes -- black, red and blue – and relatively few of the cards actually align perfectly for all three phases. When the printing lines up exactly, the result is a crisp, sharp image and a very nice card indeed, but if any phase misses the mark by even a millimeter, the entire image is thrown off. Many collectors of this issue will sacrifice corner sharpness or centering to get a properly printed card. The card fronts also suffer from inking irregularities.	68 Joe Louis made after his retirement as the date "1946-" has been removed from the card.	69 In 1935 Louis started working as a pitchman for Fletcher's Castoria, a laxative. This premium is ca. 1935-36 and is one the earliest Louis endorsement pieces I've seen	70 Joe Louis Wittone premium.
71 A very early premium for a 'snake oil' called Wittone. It is the size of a snapshot and is photographic. There are other premiums that resemble postcards.	72 Another Wittone premium, this one much larger, with the ad cut off the bottom. You can just make out the top of the "TONE".	73 Same image as the Wittone, but this one for Murray's hair pomade. Over a foot square and very damaged from framing but the only one I've ever seen.	74	75 A handbill for a Joe Louis fight film.	76 This fantastic premium is a full newspaper page in size but printed on glossier paper with a blank back, for insertion into several papers that served the black community in the 1930s.	77 A newspaper premium before the Baer-Louis fight.
78 A Joe Louis printed pin-up that is a full page in a Life magazine.	79 Don't know the ID of the issuer of this Louis piece.	80 A blank-backed Louis premium from the 1930s.	81 In the late 1940s Louis lent his name to a ring novelty item. This premium/advertising piece is from that endeavor.	82 Issued in conjunction with a French-Canadian radio show at various times from 1943-47, the Parade Sportive issue is known for its hockey cards but there were boxers issued as well. The premiums are usually blank backed, paper stock. Sizes vary between series.	83 Ticket envelopes and correspondence envelopes were commonly made for fights.	84
85	86	87 Joe Louis shilling for Canadian Ace beer. The company was long a front for organized crime and was trying to go legit when this was issued in the 1950s.	88 1950s Joe Louis Milk Co. premium. PC sized.	89 1950s Joe Louis Milk Co. premium. PC sized.	90 A cut from a Joe Louis broadside or other promotional item.	91
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99 1946 newspaper premium for the Louis-Conn II bout.	100 1930s press photo of Joe Louis and Hank Armstrong. Louis had his own baseball team for exhibitions.	101	102	103	104	105
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113	114	115	116	117	118 1938 NX5 Joe Louis. Issued in Manila in 1938.	119 1938 Churchman's Joe Louis
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127	128 This is a known secretarial autograph. Not signed by Louis.	129	130	131	132	133
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