Joe Louis, aka the Brown Bomber, took out Hitler's favorite boxer, Max Schmeling, in just over two minutes. He wasn't so lucky with the IRS. Here's my review: Joe Louis Shamed Hitler, Was Hounded By IRS By Dave Shiflett In the annals of performance anxiety, German boxer Max Schmeling holds a special place, as we are richly reminded in “Joe Lewis, American Hero … Betrayed,” an engrossing and bittersweet HBO special airing Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. New York time. On June 22, 1938, Schmeling and Louis duked it out in Yankee Stadium before 80,000 fans, augmented by a worldwide radio audience estimated at 100 million. Schmeling’s performance was of special interest to Adolf Hitler, who expected his Aryan superman to defeat America’s “Brown Bomber.” With Louis at his throat and the Fuhrer at his back, Schmeling definitely found himself between the fabled rock and hard place. It turned out to be a short visit: Schmeling, who had earlier defeated Louis, kissed the canvas is just over two minutes. Louis became an instant hero while Schmeling went home to a career change: he was made a paratrooper. Yet Schmeling would later bounce back while Louis’s triumph would be followed by a series of setbacks and humiliations painfully detailed in the film. Bill Cosby, Maya Angelou, Dick Gregory and Charles Rangel all recall how Louis, in Rangel’s words, was “the epitome of racial pride” at a time when there were simply no prominent blacks. He was born Joe Louis Barrow on May 13, 1914, the seventh child in an Alabama sharecropping family that eventually departed for Detroit seeking opportunity and escape from the lynch mobs terrorizing the rural south. He gravitated to boxing, which the film says was the province of tough characters both inside and outside the ring. Louis’s management team included men deeply involved in the numbers racket and one who had done time for murder. Yet they sensed his potential and helped Louis break through the color barrier to take on white boxers, which where the big money was. He had fists of gold. While the average Depression-era American earned $1,400 a year, the film says, Louis made as much as $400,000. His private life was equally dynamic. The public was fed a story of monogamous bliss though Louis was a lady’s man with few rivals. Son Joe Louis Barrow Jr. recalls his father once going out for a loaf of bread and not returning home for several weeks. He was nothing, however, if not faithful to his country and fellow blacks. He quit boxing during World War II and traveled the world putting on exhibition matches for troops. Yet he would only box if blacks were allowed to attend, a policy that initially found resistance. He entertained several million troops during the war, the show says. His greatest battles, however, lay ahead. Louis ran up a massive tax bill and thus discovered an eternal truth: Nothing is so ferocious as a tax collector scorned. The film goes into great detail about Louis’s attempt to pay off his debt. He became a pitch man for cigarettes and booze and even started a song and dance routine, archived film of which indicates he would not have fared well on “American Idol.” He eventually re-entered the ring – as a professional wrestler. He told a friend “it beats stealing.” In a particularly galling development, Coke hired Schmeling as a distributor, which made him a millionaire. The company made no such offer to Louis -- who, as the film reminds us, had been an American hero and who also had no association with Hitler. His later years were as grim and his early ones were glorious. He developed drug problems and a severe paranoia, often fearing antagonists were attempting to poison him. Another blow came from Muhammad Ali, who called him an Uncle Tom. He did enjoy the loyalty of friends, however, especially Frank Sinatra, who assisted with medical care. Louis was to suffer one more slight: Following his death April 12, 1981, bureaucrats determined he was not qualified to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Then-president Ronald Reagan waved the rules and ordered a full military funeral. One hopes no IRS agents are planted nearby. www.homeboxoffice.com
