How much was Joe Louis worth?
| Net Worth: | $1 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Boxer |
| Date of Birth: | May 13, 1914 |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 1.88 m |
About Joe Louis
After winning the World Heavyweight Championship in 1937, professional American boxer Joe Louis, sometimes known as the Brown Bomber, was regarded as the most well-known black person in his day. Louis held the championship for an incredible 12 years before he retired in 1949. In addition, Joe Louis was regarded as the first black person to become a national hero after defeating German boxer Max Schemling in the renowned 1938 rematch.
On May 13, 1914, Munroe and Lillie Barrow, sharecroppers in rural Lafayette, Alabama, welcomed Joe Louis Barrow, the seventh of their eight children. Joe, who was quarter Cherokee on his mother’s side, was born weighing an amazing 11 pounds.
modest beginnings
The family of Joe had a really difficult life. Joe’s father was admitted to the Searcy State Hospital for the Colored Insane when Joe was just two years old. The news of Joe’s mother’s husband’s passing arrived shortly after. In actuality, he hadn’t. Munroe lived another 24 years while being held in a mental hospital and was unaware of the accomplishments of his renowned son.
Lillie, who saw of herself as a widow, began a life of solitary labor in the fields to provide for her enormous family.
Lillie got remarried in 1920, four years later. When Lillie married Pat Brooks, a local construction worker who was a widower with five kids, the Barrow family’s situation slightly improved.
Joe had a mild stammer as a child, which made him timid and reserved. He played and spent a lot of time outside, climbing trees. He and his family would go to a little Baptist church on Sundays. Joe made an effort to avoid going to school as much as he could during the week.
Twelve-year-old Joe and his family relocated to Detroit, Michigan, as part of the Great Migration in 1926 because there was a lot of factory jobs there.
unwilling schoolboy
Joe was severely unprepared for Detroit’s public school system due to his rural origins and scant formal schooling. Joe felt humiliated and started to despise school as a result of being put in classes with kids who were smaller and much younger.
At the age of 16, a teacher suggested that Joe Louis attend a trade school instead. As a result, Louis enrolled at the Bronson Vocational School to study cabinet making. At the trade school, Joe got off to a fantastic start, but the Great Depression changed everything. As a result of Joe’s stepfather’s job loss, the family found itself in dire straits once more. Joe started skipping classes and working odd jobs around town to support his family.
It was simple to get involved with the wrong crowd during a period when many people were in need of some extra money. Joe had already begun to do precisely that. He had been hanging out with the neighborhood Catherine Street Gang and, when necessary, using his fists. Lillie had good reason to be concerned. She responded unexpectedly with violin lessons.
Lillie found a way to give Joe 50 cents each week for violin tuition. Despite her best efforts, a little kid who was big for his age and had strong hands was not precisely the proper fit for a violin.
Thurston McKinney, a buddy and amateur boxer, advised Joe to forego violin lessons and instead spend the money to rent a locker at Brewster’s East Side Gymnasium after only a few violin sessions. Joe did so while toting his violin. Joe Louis was accidentally exposed to boxing at this facility.
turning into Joe Louis
Joe dropped his last name and went by Joe Louis at the gym in an effort to conceal from his mother how his violin lesson money was being spent. Additionally, when he went home, he would stow his boxing gloves in the violin case.
But as all moms do, Lillie finally found out the untruth. She was delighted that Joe had finally discovered something he liked, so Joe was surprised to find out that she wasn’t upset at him.
Louis had amazing potential as a fighter right away. At the age of 17, Joe competed in his first amateur match against the skilled Olympic boxing team member Johnny Miler in 1932. Louis suffered a severe beating. In the first two rounds, he was knocked to the ground a total of seven times, and the fight was over. Louis felt terrible. Instead of boxing, he made the decision to follow his stepfather’s advise and work toward maintaining a full-time job.
Louis was fortunate enough to land a job at the Ford Rouge auto plant working full-time for $25 per week. That was a lot of money back then. Even though his work at the auto industry required physical labor, he did not love it. After working at Ford for a while, Joe Louis made the dangerous decision to quit his well-paying position and pursue a career as a real boxer, which was extremely difficult to do during the Great Depression.
To Start With
Louis quickly compiled a long series of victories after quitting his job and concentrating on his boxing training. Louis won 50 out of 54 amateur tournaments, including 43 via knockout. Louis triumphed in the St. Louis competition for the United States Amateur National Champion in April 1934.
John Roxborough, a renowned numbers runner in Detroit’s black community, became interested in his record.
Roxborough was a civic leader who helped many young people in Detroit achieve their goals. Young Louis was taken into Roxborough’s home as part of his mentorship program. Roxborough made sure Louis had “pocket change” so he and his family could live comfortably, put him on a rigorous, appropriate diet, and purchased enough training gear.
Dealing with the Business
Louis was being prepared for heavyweight fights when Roxborough took him to Chicago to train with Jack “Chappy” Blackburn, who had turned two white boxers into world champions, and to meet fellow boxer Julian Black.
Blackburn was reluctant to work with a boxer of color.
Especially considering that Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion (1908–1915), openly insulted white America by annihilating white opponents and getting married to a non-white woman. Promoters promised never to allow another black man to win the heavyweight belt following Johnson’s defeat.
Blackburn, though, was impressed by Louis’ promise and put him through a rigorous training program, teaching him to a form of boxing that incorporated precise footwork, powerful jabs, and lightning-quick blows.
The management group established stringent guidelines in an effort to separate Louis’ reputation from that of Jack Johnson. Louis was forbidden from starting fights and from publicly celebrating an opponent’s defeat. He was expected to present a godly, moral, and courteous image to the public. Above importantly, Louis was never to be photographed or shown with a white woman.
It was hoped that Joe Louis’s preparation and image-building efforts would propel him to the top.
Going Pro
On July 4, 1934, Joe Louis made his professional debut when he faced off against Jack Kracken in Chicago. Louis earned $59 for eliminating Kracken in the opening round.
The Michigan State Boxing Commission put a lot of pressure on Roxborough in September 1934 to sign Louis to white management so he could compete for the title. However, Roxborough refused; he and Black kept in charge of Louis.
Louis defeated Jack O’Dowd in the second round in October 1934 and was awarded $62. Louis won 12 professional fights at the conclusion of the year, including 10 knockouts.
The fact that Louis had outgrown his opponents was evident, despite the fact that his managers had meticulously chosen respectable heavyweight contenders. Charley Massera, the eighth-ranked top heavyweight contender, was found by Roxborough and Black as they started looking for more challenging opponents. In the third round on November 30, 1934, Louis eliminated Massera.
Louis faced Lee Ramage, who was seen as a serious threat, at the beginning of December 1934. Ramage’s defense strategies and quick footwork proved to be a struggle for Louis. Before being knocked out in the eighth round, he was able to block Louis’ powerful jabs.
Louis, according to Roxborough, was prepared for New York and Madison Square Garden.
Success in the Big Time
Louis was practicing for a match against Lee Ramage when Marva Trotter, a stunning, young reporter for the neighborhood daily, entered the gym to speak with him. Louis invited Marva to the victory party at Chicago’s Grand Hotel following Ramage’s defeat. A year later, on September 24, 1935, the pair got hitched.
Louis’s professional handbags expanded as his reputation did. He had made a staggering $371,645 by the year’s end of 1935, despite the Great Depression. Louis was earning 300 times the typical yearly wage while the rest of America was struggling.
Louis led a wealthy lifestyle, but he also sent money to his relatives back home frequently. In his private life, Joe Louis indulged in all manner of excesses, developing bad habits that followed him till his passing. He enjoyed mingling with ladies of many races, including actors Lena Horne and Lana Turner, and driving Buicks and wearing expensive outfits.
Black Bomber
The crown was in sight, but Louis had to first establish himself as a respectable opponent by overcoming a number of “great white hopes” for the world championship. He wouldn’t have an opportunity to face Heavyweight Champion James “The Cinderella Man” Braddock until after that.
The match’s timing was perfect as feelings were running high worldwide — particularly among blacks — at news of an invasion of Ethiopia by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. In pre-match hype, Joe Louis was portrayed as an ambassador for his race and country. On June 25, 1935, in front of 60,000 spectators, Joe Louis defeated the heavyweight contenders like Sherman defeated Georgia.
The media focused on Louis’ race and some sportswriters exaggerated his lack of education to portray him as an uneducated savage who could only sleep, eat, and fight. Nicknames like “Mahogany Mauler,” “Saffra Sandman,” and the “Chocolate Chopper” were thrown around. One name stuck: “The Brown Bomber.”
Attempting the Championship
On September 24, 1935, the highly-publicized fight between Louis and Max Baer took place; Baer had previously lost his heavyweight title to James Braddock. Baer’s hesitation to fight Louis was foresighted; Louis’ brutal punches knocked Baer to one knee in four rounds, where he stayed. According to legend, Louis quickly dispatched of Baer so he could be with his new wife, Marva, whom he had married earlier that day; the couple would have two children together (1947).
The boxing commission informed Max Schmeling he would have to fight Louis first, and the two management teams agreed to a fight in 1936. Schmeling, a German-born former heavyweight champion, was on the comeback trail, looking to regain the title, but with Baer’s defeat, Louis was now the top heavyweight contender.
Joe Louis and Max Schmeling’s initial fight
In spite of the fact that Joe Louis had won all 27 of his professional fights, 23 of them by knockout, and was now known as “an American idol.” he instead took up golf because he was too preoccupied with his wealth and idol status to devote himself to Schmeling’s forthcoming fight.
The loss was likened to a funeral and proved especially upsetting to blacks who had invested an unrealistic hope in Louis. On June 11, 1936, a confident Louis was surprised when a well-conditioned Schmeling handed him his first professional defeat with a 12th-round knockout.
Fresh Inspiration
After his humiliating loss, Louis focused all of his training on defeating Schmeling, but first he had to face James Braddock, the World Heavyweight Champion at the time. The highly anticipated bout took place on June 22, 1937, in front of 45,000 people at Chicago’s Comiskey Park Stadium.
The heavyweight champion knocked Louis out in the opening round, but Louis delivered a knockout blow to a bloodied, worn-out Braddock in the eighth round.
Joe Louis, the most well-known black man in the nation after his victory against Braddock, did not have time to celebrate because he was too focused on organizing his 1938 rematch victory over Max Schmeling.
The Century-Marking Battle
Most Americans believed the fight against Max Schmeling, Hitler’s poster boy for his much-touted Nazi and Aryan superiority philosophy, was an opportunity to overthrow Hitler and prevent war. This fight against Max Schmeling has been referred to as “the fight of the century” because it was much more than just two fighters competing for a championship — it was a battle of two ideologies.
It is said that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler called Schmeling before the fight, first warning him he’d better win for the glory of the Third Reich, then reminding him of his superior manhood. President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited Louis to the White House to tell him that the entire country depended on his success.
When the two fighters exited their changing rooms to enter the ring for the fight of the century on June 22, 1938 in New York’s Yankee Stadium, they felt they had no choice but to fulfill the historical role that had been assigned to them.
It took Louis only 124 seconds to win justice for himself and his country — finally feeling like an undisputed heavyweight champion — as he beat the unwilling Aryan image into the mat in front of 70,000 witnesses.
Hero of America
The first 15 times Louis defended his championship after the Schmeling bout were against opponents who were so undeserving that were referred to as “Bums of the Month.”
On December 7, 1941, a bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbor, and 27-year-old Louis enrolled in the Army. In order to support the American military services and improve morale among the troops, he engaged in roughly 100 exhibition fights.
Louis furthered his good reputation in white America by giving the proceeds from two title fight purses to the Navy Relief Fund twice. Louis took involved in intergroup activism as well, secretly pushing for military integration.
Louis was well-liked when he returned from combat in October 1945. When reporting on Louis, the press began to utilize phrases like “integrity” and “all-American hero”
Louis forever shattered the color barrier in boxing by successfully defending his title 25 times and collecting tremendous sums of money.
Joe Louis held his championship for 12 years, which is the longest tenure of any boxer before or since. He retired unbeaten in 1949.
Not Doing Well
While things seemed to be going well on the surface, Louis’ personal life was out of control. His marriage to Marva was ended in 1945 as a result of his covert but persistent prostitution. Despite getting remarried in 1946, the pair finally got divorced in 1949.
Louis’ financial condition was a complete mess despite earning $5 million. Louis’ tremendous generosity toward family, friends, strangers, and every black cause was a contributing factor in the issue. Even the welfare money his family got during the Great Depression was repaid to him by the city of Detroit.
Louis made a variety of poor business mistakes, including buying multiple failing enterprises and placing his trust in dishonest people, which contributed to the situation in part.
However, the IRS dealt Joe Louis’ finances the most severe damage. Louis owed $500,000 in overdue taxes, which after further fines reached over $1.2 million. Louis ended up in this situation as a result of poor bookkeeping, an absurdly high tax rate of almost 90%, and extravagant living.
Joe Louis reentered the ring in an effort to make some money because he lacked the funds to pay his back taxes. After only one year of retirement, Louis challenged the reigning heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles, but was stopped in the 15th round. (The fight’s $100,000 payout left Louis with virtually little money after taxes.)
Joe Louis retried. On October 26, 1951, Louis battled Rocky Marciano and displayed his advanced age. While his opponent was neither old nor fatigued, Louis was. Marciano knocked Louis out in the eighth round, ending the fight for good.
Joe Louis had retired from boxing. However, Joe Louis was still on the IRS’s radar.
Decline in Hero’s Life
Joe Louis attempted pretty much anything to make money because the IRS was always after him. He delivered speeches, appeared in person, and provided product endorsements. He also endured humiliation from his brief career as a professional wrestler, which he had to end due to a major injury.
Louis wed Rose Morgan, a prosperous black woman who had a beauty parlor in Harlem, on December 25, 1955. She made valiant attempts to assist Louis in clearing up his IRS issues, but all he did was continue squandering his money. The marriage was dissolved in 1958 as a result of Louis’ propensity for staying up late and having extramarital affairs.
Martha Malone Jefferson, a criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles, wed Louis in 1959 and catered to his every whim. Martha remained with Louis until his passing despite his philandering, financial difficulties, and erratic conduct because she thought he had been cruelly used.
Also in 1959, the IRS came to the conclusion that Louis would never be able to pay back everything he owed to the government. They therefore came to an agreement with Louis to settle his tax burden by paying a still prohibitive $20,000 yearly.
In 1967, a prostitute introduced a baby boy to Louis under the guise of being his kid under the alias “Marie” in his book. Martha felt the pair should adopt the child after learning about it. Louis and Martha later adopted three more of Marie’s children whose fathers were unknown, in addition to Joseph, the baby’s name.
Louis is rumored to have spent a good deal of the 1960s golfing, having affairs, and abusing narcotics, particularly cocaine. Around this period, he also started displaying symptoms of mental illness. Louis spent a period of time in a Colorado mental hospital for a number of months.
Louis eventually stopped using cocaine with Martha’s assistance, but his paranoid beliefs persisted.
Recent Years
When Louis was nearing the end of his life, things began to take shape. He started working as a greeter at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas in 1970, where he signed autographs and wagered casino money with notable patrons. The casino paid Louis $50,000 a year and gave him lodgings.
But Louis’ health had suffered as a result of years of boxing, bingeing, and abuse. He had a heart condition and had surgery in 1977 to repair an aortic aneurysm. Louis spent the final four years of his life in a wheelchair due to a series of strokes.
On April 12, 1981, Louis made his final public appearance at a heavyweight championship match between Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. A few hours later, Louis, age 66, passed away at Desert Springs Hospital, not far from his Las Vegas home, following a severe heart attack.
Joe Louis Barrow was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors at the president’s request.
the year 1938…
“Pay attention to this, friend, for it comes from a guy whose throat is still dry, whose fingers are still moist from witnessing Joe Louis knock out Max Schmeling, and whose jaw is still gaping. On a steamy June night in 1938 in New York, a young Bob Considine wrote, “It was a shocking thing, that knockout – short, sharp, merciless, complete.”
Even before that, Joe Louis had already achieved legendary status as he tore through the heavyweight rankings starting on the 4th of July in his debut when Louis knocked out one Jack Kracken in one round. Even in his professional debut, Louis was setting records (To this day Joe Louis is the only heavyweight champion of the world to debut as a Main Event f
Louis and Mike Jacobs signed a three-year contract with an option for a fourth in 1935. Jacobs guaranteed Louis a then-unheard-of 37 1/2% of the gate, even though up until then the industry standard between a fighter and his promoter was 12 1/2%. But more importantly, Jacobs offered him the Carnera fight in New York. Who knows how far Louis would have progressed without Mike Jacobs, and who would have known on that March night in 1935 how much money they were going to
Louis-Schmeling I was scheduled for June 18th, 1936, but was postponed one day due to rain. On June 19th, 1936, eight years Louis’ senior, Max Schmeling, did the unthinkable and knocked out Louis in twelve rounds. The fight is shrouded in rumors as to how exactly Schmeling defeated Louis. Among the most popular stories is that Louis spent too much time on the golf course.
Personally, I have another theory as to why Louis didn’t look like the Louis we had seen before. Going into the Schmeling fight, Louis had been a very active fighter, participating in nearly thirty fights prior to signing contracts to fight Schmeling. Contracts were signed in December of 1935 to fight Schmeling, and one of the clauses that Schmeling’s people wanted inserted into the contract was that neither fighter was to engage in a fight before June.
When Jimmy Braddock defeated Max Baer, he signed a contract with Madison Square Garden to have them promote his first defense of the title. Schmeling defeated Louis and signed to fight Braddock in September 1936. Fortunately for Louis, that fight did not go as planned.
The whole story is this: One night, John Roxborough, Louis’ manager, was “abducted” and asked to go for a ride, and that ride ended up at a nightclub where he was met by Joe Gould, the manager of Braddock. Gould laid it out plain and simple: Braddock wasn’t going to beat Louis and that was that. Let’s clear up the issue of Jimmy Braddock getting 10% of Louis’ ring earnings for the remainder of his championship reign.
Braddock would receive 10% of Mike Jacobs’ profits from heavyweight title fights that Jacobs promoted. With that out of the way, Louis-Braddock was signed on February 19, 1937. As heavyweight fights go, Louis-Braddock was a good one. A short right uppercut from Braddock dropped Joe in the first and it was even up after the fourth. Gould wanted 10% of Louis, but Jacobs said no can do but promised 10% of himself.
From the moment Referee Tommy Thomas announced James J. Braddock’s defeat until he left Comiskey Park and strode into the Chicago night, that is all Joe Louis remembers saying: “Bring on Max Schmeling, bring him on.” He would have to wait one year, and what transpired in that year, when closely examined, is as fine an example as one would find into how shady and cutthroat the business of boxing was some 70 years ago, and I dare say
Schmeling kayoed Louis in the summer of 1936, and both Mike Jacobs and Lou wanted a quick rematch. In July 1936, less than a month after their fight, Jacobs made Schmeling an offer to fight again for $300,000. Sensing himself in the driver’s seat, Schmeling countered with a demand for $600,000. After all, Schmeling already had a signed contract to face James J. Braddock for the title, and if Mike Jacobs and
Mike Jacobs approached Farr and made an offer of $60,000 plus 25% of the radio and movie profits; Farr accepted, and Louis-Farr was scheduled for August 26th, 1937. In an occurrence that would become customary during Louis’ reign, the fight was delayed by four days due to rain, and Louis broke his hand in the fourth round, leading to a less than stellar Louis performance in his first title defense.
Schmeling faced off against fringe contender Harry Thomas in December 1937 and was defeated in 8 rounds. As if to sow even more doubt in Schmeling’s mind, Louis defended his title on April 1st, 1938, against the same Harry Thomas and defeated him in 5 rounds. Louis and his management had no intention of sitting around waiting for next June to come around with no fights in between.
The Anti-Nazi League and The American Jewish Committee threatened boycotts and picketed Jacobs’ office, Madison Square Garden, and Yankee Stadium to have the fight cancelled. This was all too much for Jacobs and he sat down with all parties involved and promised that Louis would beat Schmeling. The promise worked and the threatened boycott was called off, and the very next day $100,000 worth of advance payments were made to Louis.
Bundists would regularly show up at Louis-Schmeling II’s training camp in Pompton Lakes wearing swastikas while generally making an ass of themselves. Max Machon, who served as Schmeling’s trainer, would parade around in a Nazi uniform babbling about the superior race. We frequently read and have heard that sometimes training camps can devolve into a circus and the bigger the fight sometimes the bigger the circus.
Louis and Schmeling would only come face to face once more before they entered the ring that night, at the weigh-in the morning of the fight. Schmeling weighed in at 193, Louis at 198 1/2. Again, no words were exchanged between the two, only a slight nod. After the weigh-in Louis had a meal of chicken and rice. Schmeling had a meal of beef and veal.
Anyone who knows me knows that in addition to having a soft spot in my heart for boxing, I also have a soft spot in my heart for the big red chestnut, Secretariat. With that affection in mind, allow me to quote from an article that appeared in Sports Illustrated in 1990 following the death of Secretariat, entitled Pure Heart, written by William Nack. It describes Secre
Normally, Louis would shadow box for 10 minutes, but on this particular night, Blackburn woke him up and got him ready for the ring; those who were there swear they could hear Louis’ punches blasting through the air. On the way to the ring, Louis’ manager John Roxborough nervously pulled a cigar out of his pocket and nervously bit it off; this time, Louis reached into Roxborough’s pocket and grabbed t
