Joe Louis

Who is Joe Louis?

Joe Louis is a professional boxer. Joe Louis is regarded as one of the greatest and most boxers of all time and was given the nickname” brown boomer”. He also won 25 consecutive championship defenses.

The young boxer earned $370,000 by defeating former heavyweight champions Primo Carnera and Max Baer by the year’s end in 1935.

Childhood and Early Years

Joe Louis was born on May 13, 1914, in a cabin outside Lafayette, Alabama.

Louis was the eighth child born to Munroe and Lillie (Reese) Barrow. He was born weighing 11 pounds (5 kg).

Additionally, his parents were both sharecroppers and rent farmers who were descended from former slaves.

While Lillie was half African American and half European, Munroe was part Cherokee and also had some European ancestry.

Louis and his siblings shared a bed three or four to a bed when their father was committed to an asylum when Louis was just two years old. 

Similar to how his education was insufficient, he eventually started to stutter.

Louis’ mother later wed Pat Brooks, a local builder, in 1920 after hearing rumors that Munroe Barrow had passed away while in the hospital.

The family relocated to Detroit from the north shortly after Lillie Barrow’s second marriage to widower Patrick Brooks.

Louis Brooks studied cabinet making at the Bronson Trade School, but after losing his job at Ford, he was forced to take on odd jobs.

Lillie enrolled Louis in violin lessons after he started hanging out with a neighborhood gang in order to keep him saf.

Louis, on the other hand, started boxing training at Brewster Recreation Center with the money from the violin after learning about it from a friend.

Net Worth

Joe Louis’s net worth is unknown.

He paid Detroit back for the money it had given his family during the Great Depression.

Another problem was that Louis made a number of bad financial decisions, including buying several unsuccessful businesses and putting his trust in people who misled him.

The biggest financial blow was handled by Joe at the IRS. Louis owed $500,000 in back taxes, and the total after extra fines was more than $1.2 million.

Poor accounting, an absurdly high tax rate of nearly 90%, and the excessive expense of living contributed to Louis’ collapse.

Facts of Joe Louis

Hobby Career

Early in 1932, Joe made his stage debut at the age of 17. 

Louis, who was known as “JoeLouis” for the remainder of his boxing career, is said to have scrawled his name so large before the fight that there was no room for his last name.

He lost, though, at the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions.

The following year, he defeated Max Bauer in the Chicago Tournament of Champions and took first place in the light heavyweight division of the Golden Gloves Open Division.

In April 1934, Louis won the light heavyweight United States Amateur Champion National AAU competition in St. Louis, Missouri, as a follow-up to his success in Chicago.

In addition, he had a 50-4 record and 43 knockouts at the end of his amateur career.

Loss and Professional Beginnings

As a professional boxer in 1934, Louis made an immediate impression, destroying opponents with his lethal combinations and potent jab.

The young boxer earned $370,000 by defeating former heavyweight champions Primo Carnera and Max Baer by the year’s end in 1935.

Match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling

He did not, however, put much effort into his preparation for his first fight against German former heavyweight champion Max Schmeling.

On June 19, 1936, Schmeling defeated Louis by knockout in the 12th round, handing him his first defeat as a professional.

On June 22, 1937, Louis was given the chance to challenge James J. Braddock for the heavyweight title.

Despite Braddock’s renown for tenacity, his younger, stronger opponent defeated him after taking Louis to the ground early.

In order to win the heavyweight championship, the “Brown Bomber” repeatedly hit Braddock in the middle rounds before finishing him off in the eighth.

On June 22, 1938, Louis was given the opportunity to face Schmeling once more.

Adolph Hitler hailed Schmeling as an example of Aryan domination, raising the stakes and giving the fight more overtly nationalistic and racial overtones.

Louis became a hero to both black and white Americans after he eliminated his German opponent in the first round.

Invoice Conn Fight

When Louis met Billy Conn, the light heavyweight champion and a well-known challenger, his streak of low-profile opponents came to an end.

On June 18, 1941, the fight took place at the Polo Grounds in front of 54,487 spectators.

Similar to that, many people considered the fight to be one of the best heavyweight boxing matches of all time.

A rematch with Conn was set for late 1942 after the bout ignited an immediate rivalry in Louis’ career that hadn’t existed since the Schmeling period.

The rematch had to be canceled because Conn broke his hand during a well-publicized altercation with his father-in-law, Major League Baseball player Jimmy “Greenfield” Smith.

When Conn was prepared for the rematch, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had already taken place.

Defeat by Marciano

Despite having financial issues, Louis returned to the ring in September 1950 to take on the newly crowned heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles, losing a 15-round decision.

He cobbled together a recent winning streak against a slew of inferior opponents, but he was no match for Rocky Marciano, the front-runner.

With a 68-3 record and 54 knockouts following their battle on October 26, 1951, which ended horribly in the eighth round TKO, Louis officially announced his retirement.

Television and the movies

Louis played a boxer who resembled him in many respects in the 1938 racing movie Spirit of Youth. Louis also starred in two short films and six full-length features.

He made a guest appearance on the television program You Bet Your Life in 1955.

Similar to this, he made an appearance in Michael Curtiz’s 1943 full-length movie This Is the Army, which starred Ronald Reagan and featured Irving Berlin and Kate Smith singing “God Bless America.”

The JoeLouis Story, a 1953 movie on Louis’ life directed by Robert Gordon, also depicts the athlete’s life and career.

Louis’ lookalike Coley Wallace, a Golden Gloves boxer, performed the title role in the Hollywood production.

The movie also had a low production value and money, intercutting scenes from Louis’s actual fights slowly and having bad audio sync.

After Retired Career

Louis experienced turbulent years after he left the ring. Although he was still well-liked by the public, his financial situation was never stable because of unpaid taxes.

He briefly competed in professional wrestling in the middle of the 1950s before transitioning to refereeing matches in both boxing and wrestling.

The former champion was able to work as a greeter at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and regain some financial stability when the IRS ultimately forgave his debt.

As he got older, Louis experienced a number of health problems. He was finally brought to mental therapy in 1970 after developing a cocaine addiction.

Sadly, he used a wheelchair after having heart surgery in 1977.

Professional golf was another one of Louis’s passions, and he was a well-known player in the game.

Having been introduced to the sport before the 1936 debut of Schmeling, he had been a longtime enthusiast.

Louis became the first African American to play on the PGA Tour when he was asked to participate as an amateur on a sponsor’s exemption in the San Diego Open in 1952.

Early black professional golfers for that Louis provided financial support were Ted Rhodes, Bill Spiller, James Black, Howard Wheeler, Clyde Martin, and Charlie Sifford.

Similar to this, he had a big hand in creating The First Tee, a charity that teaches underprivileged kids how to play golf.

Joe Barrow, Jr., his son, is now in command of the business.

Relationships and Personal Life

Two children were born to Joe Louis and his wife Marva Trotter (daughter Jacqueline in 1943 and son Joseph Louis Barrow Jr. in 1947).

They did, however, divorce in March 1945, remarry a year later, and then divorce once more in February 1949.

Later, on Christmas Day 1955, Louis wed Rose Morgan, a well-known businesswoman from Harlem; their union ended in divorce in 1958.

Louis’ final union, on St. Patrick’s Day 1959, with Los Angeles attorney Martha Jefferson, lasted until his passing.

Joseph Louis Barrow Jr., Janet Louis Barrow, and John Louis Barrow were their three other children.

The younger brother of Joe Barrow, Joe Barrow Jr., is a boxer who resides in New York City.

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A Legend’s Demise

Drug usage ruined Louis’ last few years. In 1969, after tripping on a street in New York City, Joe Louis was rushed to the hospital.

Although the “physical collapse” was first blamed for the catastrophe, underlying problems quickly became apparent.

He was admitted to the Colorado Psychiatric Hospital and the Veterans Administration Hospital in 1970 for paranoia by his wife, Martha, and son, Joe Barrow Jr.

Later in the decade, Louis’s health deteriorated as a result of cardiac issues and strokes. After having surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm in 1977, he eventually needed a POV/scooter to go around.

Only hours after his final public appearance, which was to see the Larry Holmes-Trevor Berbick Heavyweight Championship battle, Louis passed away from a heart attack in Desert Springs Hospital outside of Las Vegas on April 12, 1981.

On April 21, 1981, President Ronald Reagan waived the requirements for interment at Arlington National Cemetery, and Joe was laid to rest there with full military honors.

Likewise, Max Schmeling, a former foe and friend who also served as a pallbearer, contributed financially to his burial.