Joe Louis: America's Hero.... Betrayed

Starting in a few minutes on HBO-West (9:30 PM EST) Great documentary, check it out if you havn't seen it or wanna watch it again.

http://www.hbo.com/sports/joe-louis-americas-hero-betrayed/index.html

a great documentary, sad what this country did to Louis who did so much for our country

ive seen that several times and ring its an injustice..sadly joe had what i call a few great real friends..frank sinatra rocky marciano and yes max schmeling..theres another injustice what they did to max in germany but god bless he overcame it al land became a huge success in business...a few years ago i walked threw the arlinton cemetary to see the kennedy graves again and caught the changing of the gard amoung other things then by accident i came upon the gravesite of joe louis and the first thing that came to my mind was the injustice that was tossed upon him..that is a fantastic doc..thanks

sad thing was he wasnt very educated and his people quit paying taxes the day his career ended

dmar5143 wrote:

ive seen that several times and ring its an injustice..sadly joe had what i call a few great real friends..frank sinatra rocky marciano and yes max schmeling..theres another injustice what they did to max in germany but god bless he overcame it al land became a huge success in business...a few years ago i walked threw the arlinton cemetary to see the kennedy graves again and caught the changing of the gard amoung other things then by accident i came upon the gravesite of joe louis and the first thing that came to my mind was the injustice that was tossed upon him..that is a fantastic doc..thanks

I thought HBO did an exellent job with this Documentary Dmar. There's no doubt that Louis got screwed royally by the IRS, but as was pointed out in this piece, Louis's spending habits were terrible. It's just too bad he didn't get some professional help running his finances early on in his career.

Glad you enjoyed the Doc, i'd seen it once before, but hadn't remembered how good it was, and yes, it was sad as hell.

Joe Louis an american Icon and hero

IRS the scum bag pieces of fucking shit of the world

Birdofthad wrote:

Joe Louis an american Icon and hero

IRS the scum bag pieces of fucking shit of the world

Up until the last 15-20 years or so the IRS could do just about anything they wanted to someone they thought wasn't paying their taxes. Fortunately a lot of that has changed, and we no longer have the "tax gestapo", in the U.S..

yep just like when they seized Louis kids trust funds, they should e forced to give that money back

cant remember who but some guy 20 years ago or so killed himself and blamed the IRS in the suicide note, things got changed after that

anoyone knowwhwere i can watch this on the internet

Birdofthad wrote:

anoyone knowwhwere i can watch this on the internet

Here's the trailer for the documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nhI9m6lWs8

Good doc, one thing that kind of got overlooked was how his handlers were robbing him blind, in addition to his spending habits/gambling. Can't totally blame it all on the IRS (who still were pieces of shit to him)

I liked Assault in the Ring better, looking foward to the one about the Cuban fighters.

NJBeatdown86 wrote:

Good doc, one thing that kind of got overlooked was how his handlers were robbing him blind, in addition to his spending habits/gambling. Can't totally blame it all on the IRS (who still were pieces of shit to him)

I liked Assault in the Ring better, looking foward to the one about the Cuban fighters.

I liked the Documentary, I guess one thing I never fully realized was how little black folks had to cheer about back in the day, Louis was pretty much worshiped by them. I also liked the video footage of the Louis era, as well as the people they interviewed who recalled things about Louis.

joe lost a lot of money gambling on golf..he was a sucker..and he was generous indeed..there is nooo evidence promoter mike jacobs screwed him nor blackborn his trainer..i do believe joe was taxed on his benefit fights where he donated his entire purse..its not 100 percent writeoff..the irs and goverment was cold hearted.thats the bottom line..a hero that did much for moral of this nation in a horrible time but that ment nothing..

[quote="dmar5143"]joe lost a lot of money gambling on golf..he was a sucker..and he was generous indeed..there is nooo evidence promoter mike jacobs screwed him nor blackborn his trainer..i do believe joe was taxed on his benefit fights where he donated his entire purse..its not 100 percent writeoff..the irs and goverment was cold hearted.thats the bottom line..a hero that did much for moral of this nation in a horrible time but that ment nothing..[quote]


Agreed, the IRS could have easily forgiven the "debt", instead they dogged Louis for it most of his life, going to ridiculous extremes.. I figure it was just purely racist, Louis was a popular "black" champion, the white powers that be at the time couldn't stand that, and were doing their level best to discredit him.

your right dmar

they taxed him on the fights that he donated entire purses to the Army Relief Fund

Joe Louis fought over 100 exhibitions for them while in the military

IRS was pieces of shit Joe Louis is a national hero as far as i am concerned