American Experience (1988) s17e02 Episode Script

1
♪
ANNOUNCER:
The Studebaker Corporation,
featuring Richard Himber
and his Studebaker champs,
usually heard at this time
over some of these stations,
is courteously relinquishing
as much of their program
as will be necessary
in order that a special program
may be presented.
ANNOUNCER:
Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen.
This is Howard Planey speaking,
and in a moment we will present
a ringside,
blow-by-blow description
of the Louis/Schmeling fight.
This broadcast
COURTNEY B. VANCE:
June 19, 1936.
Yankee Stadium is host
to the first meeting
of two heavyweight fighters
German Max Schmeling
and American Joe Louis.
ANNOUNCER:
There's no time
in this swiftly moving drama
to broadcast who's who
in the Yankee Stadium.
It's an amazing cross section
of America
rich man, poor man,
beggar man, thief,
doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief.
VANCE:
Though they have come
from far and wide to see it,
few in the crowd
expect much of a fight.
In one corner, Joe Louis
is the rising star
of the heavyweight division,
undefeated and,
by most accounts, unbeatable.
A combination of speed, power,
and aggression,
he is considered
a near-perfect fighter.
(crowd cheering)
The German Max Schmeling,
by contrast,
is eight years older
and on the downward slope
of a checkered career.
Though possessed
of a dangerous right hand,
he is considered no match
for the American phenom.
ANNOUNCER:
And in about five seconds,
the fight will be on.
They're twisting
in their corners.
(bell dings)
There's the bell!
And they step out.
Both men, cautiously, are
VANCE:
In the early rounds,
those in the stadium expecting
a quick knockout
were instead surprised
by a closely contested slugfest
as first Louis,
and then Schmeling,
gained the upper hand.
But as the fight wore on,
it began to take a decided turn,
and with it the lives
of these two fighters.
♪
Theirs was a rivalry
born that night
that would draw in two nations
inching closer to war
and take the measure of two men
who had been fighting
all their lives.
TV ANNOUNCER:
Joe Louis, tonight,
"This Is Your Life."
(audience clapping)
Now, to get all the answers
in your case, Joe,
find out what makes a champ,
let's go back to 1914, May 13
your birth date.
Where were you born, Joe?
In Lafayette, Alabama.
On a farm near Lafayette.
120 acres of poor land
rented by your father
and mother,
Monroe and Lily
Barrow.
Barrow.
Now, how many of you
children were there, Joe?
Eight.
Of whom you were the seventh.
Your sister Susie
died some years ago
Yes.
And your brother Lonie
passed on just last June.
That's right.
But here from Detroit,
Chicago, and Los Angeles
are the others:
Emerelle, Alvanious, DeLeon,
Eulalie, Vunies,
and your stepbrother, Pat.
(Louis laughing
as audience applauds)
♪
VANCE:
In 1926, 12-year-old
Joe Louis Barrow and his family
decided to leave the South.
Behind them were 120 acres
of Alabama red-clay soil
and the privations
of a sharecropper's life.
Ahead lay Detroit and the
promise of five dollars a day
at the Ford automobile factory.
For thousands of southern blacks
like the Barrows,
the job at Ford offered a living
and a bit of dignity
in their new world.
Joe, too, went to work at Ford
while still a teenager,
pushing 200-pound truck bodies
on a conveyor belt.
Joe never had much use
for school
or anything else
that required him to speak.
He had battled a stammer
since early childhood
and learned the habit
of silence.
All his life,
people would mistake
this silence for dullness,
and Joe never bothered
correcting them.
Was there anything
about Joe as a boy
that showed he would someday
be a great champion
in the ring, DeLeon?
I hardly think so.
He could run faster
than most boys
kids bigger than himself.
But Joe was mostly quiet
and stayed to himself.
ANNOUNCER:
In the 75-pound division,
Slugger Sullivan meets up
with K.O. Nolfo
VANCE:
It was only natural
that Joe Louis should find
the boxing ring.
Two bits for a locker
was all a kid needed.
In the teeming ghettos
of America's big cities,
boxing became a flag
of ethnic pride.
Every neighborhood
had a champion.
MAN:
In the '20s, there were
great Irish fighters,
there were great
Jewish fighters,
there were great
Italian fighters.
Particularly in New York
and Chicago,
there were these rivalries
built on ethnic tension, and
you could get 10,000 people, uh,
for a fight
between two neighborhood heroes.
♪
VANCE:
Boxing promised Louis not only
a way to escape poverty.
It was a way
to reinvent himself,
to leave behind
the slow, stammering kid
from the cotton fields
and become the fast,
fearsome fighter.
He quit school for good,
dropped "Barrow" from his name
and went simply by "Joe Louis."
ANNOUNCER:
Madison Square Garden puts on
a cauliflower show
VANCE:
Louis first made his mark in the
1934 Golden Gloves Tournament,
where he made it all
the way to the finals.
There were plenty of other
good fighters around.
Some worked harder,
some moved better,
but nobody could remember seeing
a kid punch like this.
MAN:
Punching power is something,
to a large extent,
that cannot be taught.
It can be strengthened.
You can make a fair puncher
into a good puncher.
A great puncher like Louis,
they say, is born.
It's the right coordination,
the right build,
everything coming together
in a number of ways.
And it is a sure ticket
to the big money.
VANCE:
The scent of money
is what brought around
a small-time racketeer
named John Roxborough.
Roxborough was king
of the illegal numbers lotteries
in Detroit.
But one glimpse at Joe
in the ring,
and he knew it was time
for a different scheme.
Roxborough partnered up
with a wealthy and connected
numbers man from Chicago
named Julian Black.
Here he is, Joe
Your good friend
and co-manager
with John Roxborough,
Julian Black of Chicago.
VANCE:
Roxborough and Black
could manage
Joe's business affairs,
but they knew they needed help
teaching him how to box.
Tell us now, what was
the next step, Julian?
Well, uh, Ralph,
our first big problem
was to get the best trainer
available we could find.
So we were fortunate to get
the late Jack Blackburn.
VANCE:
Blackburn, a convicted murderer
with a notorious mean streak,
had already trained
several white world champions.
MAN:
When Roxborough fist called
him in to take young Joe on,
Blackburn's reaction was that he
didn't want to waste his time.
He said, "A black heavyweight?
"What's the use?
"I'm just wasting my time,
because nobody will give
a black heavyweight a chance."
He was very bitter
and totally cynical.
VANCE:
In the end, Blackburn
couldn't pass up
the guaranteed $35 a week.
And then, too, he thought he saw
something special in Joe.
SCHULBERG:
I think Blackburn
really loved nobody
White or black
or green or brown.
I think he really loved Joe.
He also saw the enormous
possibility in him.
VANCE:
Blackburn would teach Joe
the finer points of boxing,
but perhaps more importantly,
he warned him about what
to expect as a black fighter.
"What you got to do
"every single time
you get in the ring," he said,
"is to knock
the other fellow down.
You gotta let your right hand
be your referee."
("Happy Days Are Here Again"
begins playing)
(male ensemble
singing in German)
The same year
that a young Joe Louis
first landed in Detroit,
another future heavyweight,
20-year-old Max Schmeling,
arrived in Berlin.
♪
Liberated from
the tyranny of the Kaisers,
Berlin in 1926
was a fantastic whirl
of cabarets, theaters
and drinking spots.
The son of a working-class
sailor,
Schmeling had discovered
boxing in small clubs
in his hometown of Hamburg.
Once in Berlin,
his talent caught the eye
of Germany's leading
boxing writer, Arthur Bulow.
Bulow agreed to pay
his training fees
and become his manager.
(crowd shouting)
With Bulow's patronage,
Schmeling rose quickly,
becoming first German,
then European champion.
By 1928, Max Schmeling
had achieved everything he could
in European boxing.
He and his manager, Arthur
Bulow, set sail for New York
and a shot
at boxing's biggest prize,
the heavyweight championship
of the world.
♪
Since the late 19th century,
the heavyweight championship
had been largely
the property of America,
and, within America,
of the white race.
There had only been one black
heavyweight champion before,
and many white Americans vowed
that he'd be the last.
His name was Jack Johnson.
♪
Johnson cut a broad swath
through the consciousness
of America
with his fists and his mouth.
As he brawled his way to
the world championship in 1908,
Johnson became notorious
for taunting and humiliating
his white opponents.
But he was even more provocative
outside the ring,
consorting openly
with white women.
He desegregated more whorehouses
than anybody in history.
He was a wild man.
There's a famous story that
he's driving through Georgia
and the sheriff stops him
and says, "You're driving
80 miles an hour.
You're fined $50."
And Jack Johnson hands
the sheriff
a hundred-dollar bill and says,
"I'm coming back the same way."
♪
JEFFREY SAMMONS:
Jack Johnson had to be
the bravest man in America.
I'm amazed at what
he did publicly
that many would not dare
to do privately.
In fact, even looking
at a white woman
could be a death sentence
at the time.
VANCE:
Fight promoters began
to look high and low
for a "great white hope" who
could end Jack Johnson's reign.
When none was found,
federal prosecutors stepped in
with a trumped up morals charge.
But it would be
other black fighters
who would pay the steepest price
for the bigotry Johnson stirred.
For the next decade, while
Jack Dempsey ruled the ring,
his best competition
watched from outside the ropes.
Joe, I'm satisfied
you're going to be
the next heavyweight
champion of the world.
I hope so.
Well, Joe, as your manager,
I'm going to do
everything possible
to get you a chance
to fight for
the championship.
Thank you.
VANCE:
John Roxborough
refused to be discouraged
by boxing's color line.
He believed it was time
for another
black heavyweight champion,
and he thought he had
the fighter to do it.
The person who was going to get
the shot at
the heavyweight title
had to be a special individual
not only a great boxer,
but this person had to be more.
This person had to be
nonthreatening to white society,
to white dominance,
to white values.
VANCE:
Roxborough and Black set down
a series of rules
for their young fighter,
which they shared freely
with reporters.
SAMMONS:
He could not gloat
over opponents.
He could not be seen
in public with white women.
He had to be seen
as a Bible-reading,
mother-loving,
God-fearing individual
and not to be too black.
♪
VANCE:
Joe had already seen
what happened
to impudent blacks
in his own lifetime,
so he willingly donned
the mask of the "Good Negro."
MAN:
Nobody knew how deeply Joe
really felt,
because remember,
Black and Roxborough
had schooled him
to suppress his emotions.
So he never really showed them.
(crowd clamoring in distance)
VANCE:
Only in the ring could Joe
really let himself go,
and he did so with a fury
that thrilled and terrified.
(crowd roaring)
By the middle of 1935,
Louis had won his first
23 professional bouts,
an average of one
every two weeks,
and was beginning to earn
glowing notices.
But he hadn't fought
east of Detroit yet.
The road to the big prize,
the heavyweight championship,
stretched ahead
1,000 miles to New York.
(ship horn blares)
Seven years earlier, in 1928,
Max Schmeling
had arrived in New York
with his own roadmap
to the heavyweight crown;
but New York hardly took notice.
GOLDMAN:
In the 1920s,
foreign fighters were not
treated well in New York City.
One could be a national champion
of Germany or France or Italy
or any other country.
You were still treated like
a six-round fighter in New York.
VANCE:
In typical fashion, Schmeling
adapted to his new surroundings.
He abruptly fired
his mentor, Arthur Bulow,
and hired in his place
a wily New Yorker
named Joe Jacobs,
known widely
as "Yussel the Muscle."
MAJESKI:
This was the quintessential
boxing manager
of the '20s and '30s
cigar-smoking,
fedora-wearing guy,
had the, uh,
the boutonniere on his lapel,
would go in and talk
a mile a minute.
He was the guy
that opened doors.
He was the guy
who'd give him the publicity.
He was the guy
who had the contacts.
That's the biggest thing
in boxing he had contacts.
VANCE:
In 1930, after only two years
in America,
Schmeling landed a bout
with Jack Sharkey
for the vacant
heavyweight championship.
(round bell rings
as crowd clamors)
80,000 fans
filled the Yankee Stadium
in a fight billed as
a battle between the continents.
Sharkey came out swinging
and was out-pointing Schmeling
on all the judge's cards.
But in the fourth round,
he made a fatal mistake.
Corralled against the ropes,
he slugged Schmeling
below the belt.
MARGOLICK:
Schmeling clutched himself
and fell onto the canvas
and started to get up.
And it was at that point
that Joe Jacobs sprung
into action
and stood up
and started shouting,
"Don't get up, don't get up!
You were fouled,
you were fouled!"
He starts
running around the ring,
he starts running to the ref,
he starts pleading
Schmeling's case.
There's this moment of great
indecision and tumult
in the ring
and outside the ring.
And finally, um, Schmeling
was declared the victor.
VANCE:
Schmeling returned to Germany
with a heavyweight title
but little honor.
VON DER LIPPE:
He's called
"the low-blow champion."
He becomes the punchline
of jokes.
He becomes an object of disdain
for many cabaret routines.
VANCE:
The Germany Max returned to
was a far darker place
than the one he had left.
♪
(crowd chanting "Sieg Heil")
In January 1933,
Adolph Hitler assumed
sole power over Germany
and immediately began
a quiet campaign of terror.
Many of Schmeling's
old friends
Jews, homosexuals, communists
Who had found a home
in the Weimar cabarets
suddenly found themselves
outcasts
and fled or were banished
from the new Germany.
(bells tolling)
But Max had already tacked again
and set himself
with the prevailing winds.
In 1932, he had married
the Czech-born movie star
Anny Ondra.
Blond and beautiful,
she was the picture
of an Aryan princess
and a favorite
of Hitler's inner circle.
The same year,
Schmeling fought a rematch
against American Jack Sharkey.
The winner
and new world champion
VANCE:
This time, he lost his title
in a widely condemned
split decision.
(crowd cheering)
MARGOLICK:
He got redemption in
the only way that he could.
He was seen to be a victim,
a victim of a political
decision, in a way.
And so when
he came back to Germany,
all of a sudden he was a hero.
♪
VANCE:
Max's fame brought him freedom
to pursue his career in America,
great wealth, and access
to the highest echelons.
At first, Schmeling had no
particular fondness for Hitler.
In fact, he and Anny laughed
over the Fuehrer's resemblance
to Charlie Chaplin.
But Max did admire power
and understood its usefulness.
(Martin Krause speaking German)
KRAUSE (translated):
When he wanted to help somebody,
he always turned directly
to Hitler or his aides.
He liked to associate with them.
This doesn't necessarily show
a love for the Nazis,
but rather a love
of the powerful,
of people who stood
in the spotlight.
Schmeling wanted to be
the center of attention.
VANCE:
As he prepared to return
to New York in June 1933,
Hitler summoned him
for a meeting.
BATHRICK:
And toward the end,
Hitler says two things.
"If you run into problems,
feel free to contact me
if I can be of any help."
The second thing he says is,
"When you go
to the United States,
"you're going to obviously
be interviewed by people
"who are thinking that
very bad things are going on
"in Germany at this moment.
"And I hope
you'll be able to tell them
that the situation isn't
as bleak as they think it is."
And that basically was
the contract
under which the two of them
would operate
from that point on.
It certainly was
a devil's contract.
VANCE:
Only days after their meeting,
Hitler purged German boxing
of Jews.
He ordered a national boycott
of Jewish stores.
Many business were ransacked
and destroyed
and Jews paraded in the streets.
Nevertheless,
upon his return to New York,
Schmeling upheld
his end of the bargain.
(man speaking German)
MAN (translated):
After arriving in the States,
Schmeling held
a press conference.
Many journalists were
waiting to hear
about conditions in Germany.
Schmeling told them that
everything was okay and quiet
in his home country.
He denied that Jewish people
were persecuted.
His assignment was to calm down
the American people.
♪
VANCE:
While Max Schmeling rode out
the vicissitudes
of an up-and-down career,
Joe Louis was heading in one
direction only: straight up.
By 1935, Louis had raced through
the lower ranks
of professional boxing.
Next stop, the big time:
New York.
♪
NEWFIELD:
In the 1930s, New York was the
capital of boxing, the Mecca.
There were no casinos,
there was no Las Vegas,
there was no Atlantic City.
Big fights happened
at 50th Street and 8th Avenue
in the old
Madison Square Garden.
(man shouting)
VANCE:
New York boxing was controlled
by one company
the giant Madison Square
Garden Corporation.
The Garden promoted the fights
and owned the fighters
and they wanted nothing to do
with a black heavyweight.
There was one fight promoter
willing to take a chance on Joe:
Mike Jacobs,
otherwise known as "Uncle Mike."
♪
Jacobs no relation
to Schmeling's manager
owned a thick New York brogue
and a set of poorly molded
false teeth
through which he'd mutter
his signature line
"What's in it for Uncle Mike?"
Uncle Mike could turn anything
to his advantage
even the Depression, which
finally gave him his chance
to go after the Madison Square
Garden's monopoly on boxing.
For years, the Garden
had donated generously
to the Milk Fund for Babies
the favorite charity of
Mrs. William Randolph Hearst,
wife of the newspaper tycoon.
In gratitude, Hearst's stable
of big-time sportswriters
spilled gallons of ink
promoting the Garden's fights.
But with boxing in the doldrums,
thanks to the Depression,
the Garden had cut back
on Mrs. Hearst's charity.
Uncle Mike stepped in.
He made a deal with them
to promote his own shows,
with a bigger portion going
towards the Milk Fund charity.
And in doing so,
he became very chummy
with some of the major newspaper
reporters for and columnists
for the Hearst newspapers.
This was a masterstroke.
VANCE:
Jacobs convinced three of
Hearst's biggest sportswriters
to join him in a new venture:
the 20th Century Sporting Club.
♪
With the backing
of the Hearst papers,
20th Century began to compete
with the Garden
for the biggest
boxing promotions,
drawing thousands to the
cavernous New York Hippodrome.
SAMMONS:
Mike Jacobs has the venues,
he has the press behind him,
but he needs a big draw.
And he sees something special
in Joe Louis.
MARGOLICK:
There were these stories
working their way back East
about this mythical boxer
who was going to be
the Moses of boxing.
So you have
this incredible scene
where Joe Louis comes
to New York for the first time
in May of 1935
and the bellhops carry him
off the train.
They all knew who he was
and they were waiting
for him to get there.
VANCE:
With an evangelical following
of black fight fans,
Mike Jacobs rushed to set up
a coming-out party for his
heralded young phenom.
SILVER:
What they needed was
a name opponent
and a sacrificial lamb
to show Louis at his best.
♪
VANCE:
Jacobs settled on
an ex-heavyweight champion,
the Italian giant Primo Carnera,
otherwise known as
the "Ambling Alp."
GOLDMAN:
Carnera was between
six foot five and six foot six.
He weighed generally
between 260 and 280 pounds.
There were people,
sportswriters included,
who claimed there should be
a special dreadnought class
for men like Carnera.
♪
VANCE:
In fact, Carnera was hardly
a fighter at all.
Over time, Carnera had learned
some rudimentary skills
in the ring,
but what was most important
to Mike Jacobs
was that the paying public
loved him.
(newsreel theme music plays)
The Louis-Carnera fight was
the most anticipated
to hit New York in a decade.
RING ANNOUNCER:
Regardless of race,
creed, or color
may the better man
emerge victorious!
(crowd cheering)
VANCE:
In the end,
the man mountain turned out
to be more like a molehill.
Louis knocked him out
in the sixth round.
"Primo came down slowly,"
one reporter wrote,
"like a great chimney
that had been dynamited."
♪
Overnight, Louis had become the
biggest draw in the fight game.
Over the next year,
Jacobs easily set up opponents
for Joe,
and Joe just as easily
knocked them down.
CAB CALLOWAY:
Rip-bop-mcgostic-
mcgostic-me-joy ♪
Knock me some of that
good, fine hoy ♪
Rip-bop-mcgostic-me-
jumping with joy! ♪
You jump, jump, jump
when you jump with joy! ♪
Come on, Joe, let's go! ♪
VANCE:
With each victory, Joe's stature
in black America rose higher.
BILLY HICKS:
with a poker face ♪
Joy for Louie,
no jive to McCoy ♪
That's Joe the Bomber. ♪
MAN:
We invested so much
in Joe Louis
when he started winning.
We needed some victories.
BILLY HICKS:
Jackie's murder
of the first degree ♪
JARRETT:
The fact that Joe Louis
was winning
without any dispute
over white America
he was our nonviolent violent
way of expressing ourselves.
VANCE:
Joe tried to live up
to people's expectations,
but the adulation of the outside
world was making it harder
to play the "Good Negro."
VANCE:
Joe never flaunted
his personal life,
and sportswriters
kept his secrets.
But that didn't mean
they treated him well.
In the end, the mask
could only offer Joe
so much protection
from white racism.
NEWFIELD:
America was a different
country in 1934 and 1936,
and if you go back and read
the sports writing of the '30s,
there are despicable,
repugnant stereotypes
of Louis as dumb, as lazy,
on one hand,
or as an animal of the jungle
on the other hand.
READER:
"I felt myself strongly
ridden by the impression
"that here was
a truly savage person,
"a man on whom civilization
rested no more securely
"than a shawl
thrown over one's shoulders.
I had the feeling that I was
in the room with a wild animal."
Paul Gallico,
"New York Daily News."
VANCE:
Louis was picking up
a growing number of white fans.
Laid low
by the Depression themselves,
they responded
to his rags-to-riches story.
But there were still millions
who wished to see Joe
stopped in his tracks.
"Good Negro" or not,
he was still a black man
physically dominating
his white opponents;
and so many hankered
for the return of
a "great white hope."
But few imagined that
the savior might come
in the form of an aging fighter
from across the Atlantic.
(announcer speaking German)
By 1936, Max Schmeling's
up-and-down career
was on an upswing.
He'd won four fights
in a row in Europe
and scrapped his way
back into contention
in the heavyweight division.
Despite his age,
he had become the next
logical opponent for Joe Louis.
The fight would be crucial,
the winner to get a shot
at the world champion,
Jimmy Braddock,
a former longshoreman
with brittle hands
who had come to be known
as the "Cinderella Man."
MARGOLICK:
When Louis fought Schmeling,
the idea was that either one
of them could beat Braddock
and therefore what mattered
was who would have the privilege
of fighting Braddock first.
This was really the fight
for the world championship.
VANCE:
Schmeling began
to study Louis's fights,
looking for something, anything
he could use to his advantage.
SCHULBERG:
I think that with
a Germanic thoroughness
that Schmeling had
uh, looked at every
every available
foot of film on on Louis.
He not only ran it forward,
he would stop it,
he would actually
run it backward,
he would put it in slow motion.
VANCE:
After weeks of study,
Schmeling believed the film
had yielded something,
a small defect in Louis's
overwhelming attack.
KAPLAN:
When Joe Louis jabbed
and he was a great
he had the great greatest jab
in the history of boxing
up to that time
he would jab, but his jab
would come down to his waist
rather than up to his face.
REIMANN:
And that was
the split second
where Schmeling
could land his right hand.
He believed in that.
REPORTER:
Max, have you discovered
any particular weakness
in the Brown Bomber?
Yes, I did, but I won't tell.
ANNOUNCER:
And in about five seconds,
the fight will be on.
(bell rings)
They're twisting
in their corners.
There's the bell,
and they step out,
sparring around
the center of the ring there.
VANCE:
Both fighters came out
cautiously,
feeling each other out.
KAPLAN:
Schmeling would probe
with his left jab.
He didn't care if he
if he touched
the opponent or not,
but it was out there,
he would probe with it
and he'd move and he'd be
looking for openings.
Every time Louis jabbed,
he'd return his left hand
low at his side
rather than up here
where it's supposed to be,
where he could block
a counter right hand.
ANNOUNCER:
Now Schmeling
tries with a left
VANCE:
At just over two minutes
into the fourth round,
Louis jabbed
and Schmeling pounced.
ANNOUNCER:
Schmeling backing away
cautiously,
waiting for some opening
that he wants.
And, ah
Schmeling with a right hand high
on Louis's jaw!
That made Louis rock his head!
Schmeling has sent Louis down!
Joe Louis is down!
KAPLAN:
He saw Joe Louis's hand drop
and when that hand dropped, he
came over with that right cross.
Boxing is a very unique sport.
You can have all the great
assets like Joe Louis had
speed, great boxing ability,
great footwork,
great left jab, tremendous power
in your punches
but if you're hit on the chin,
all those assets
go right down the drain.
VANCE:
At that moment,
Schmeling would later say,
Louis changed from
an indestructible force
to a hurt and bewildered boy.
KAPLAN:
He was out of it,
he he wasn't himself
for the rest of the fight.
He was fighting on heart
and instinct alone.
After that,
it wasn't Joe Louis anymore,
he was just a punching bag.
PACHECO:
You just can't get hit
by right hands
by a heavyweight repeatedly.
I don't care who you are,
you get hit enough right hands,
you're going.
And Schmeling could punch.
And Schmeling was a good boxer.
And Joe was slow
and overconfident
and believed nobody
could beat him.
And he found out different.
ANNOUNCER:
Schmeling got over two more
hard rights to Louis's jaw.
VANCE:
Finally, in the 12th round,
the punishment became too much.
ANNOUNCER:
with hard rights and lefts
to the jaw.
He has puffed up
Louis's left cheek
And Louis is down!
Louis is down!
Hanging to the ropes,
hanging badly!
He's a very tired fighter;
he is blinking his eyes,
shaking his head.
And the count is done.
The fight is over!
The fight is over!
And Schmeling is the winner!
Louis is completely out!
MAN:
You talk about
after the fight now,
there were throngs of people
coming down
the middle of the street.
Everybody was just as quiet,
and all you could hear was
"Oh, Louis was doped,"
or "Think he was doped."
SMITH:
Everybody was sick.
Usually after Joe Louis
got through fighting,
everybody would be
out in the streets,
driving, honking their horns
and doing
and not only in Detroit,
Philadelphia, New York
and Chicago, everywhere.
Not that night;
no, it was a sad night.
It was like a funeral, it was.
Nobody came out,
no horns honking, no nothing.
BARKSDALE:
I was sitting
in my husband's lap,
and he was losing the fight.
I was crying because
he was losing the fight.
If I think about it
hard enough, I'll cry again.
READER:
"I just can't help thinking
of the bitter disappointment,
"the shattered hopes,
the tears and the heartaches
"that fell upon an entire race
just before 11:00 last night.
"An idol fell, and the crashing
was so complete, so dreadful,
"and so totally unexpected
that it broke the hearts
of the Negroes of the world."
"The New York Post."
VANCE:
As fast as Louis had been built
up, he was now torn down.
SAMMONS:
The press denunciations
were vehement, brutal
that he was a fabrication,
that this was all a kind
of buildup of of a nobody.
READER:
"This brown god had crumbled
before our eyes
"and his substance
was dross and alloy and clay.
"Louis, the flawless fighter,
was a myth, a delusion
and a legend
that never happened."
Davis Walsh, Hearst Newspapers.
VANCE:
Louis himself
immediately left New York
for the solace of his hometown.
Even there, he hid out,
too ashamed to show his face.
♪
VANCE:
Max Schmeling could finally
return to Germany
to a hero's welcome.
Upon landing in Frankfurt,
he was greeted by thousands
of his countrymen
lining the roadway for miles.
Within days of his return,
Max was invited
to dine with Hitler.
(man speaking German)
MAN (translated):
Hitler sensed
the great enthusiasm
the masses had for Schmeling.
Most of all he was electrified
when he watched the fight.
He immediately ordered
the film to be screened
in theaters throughout Germany
prior to each feature.
It was to be called "Schmeling's
Victory: A German Victory"
a title Goebbels had invented.
(announcer speaking in German):
VANCE:
The public acclaim
was intoxicating.
This is what Schmeling
had always wanted:
the adulation
of a grateful nation.
But the cheers
also made it easier
for Max to turn away from what
was happening in his country.
By 1935, no one could miss
the giant rallies
exulting the master race,
new laws evicting Jews from the
professions and civil service,
and the arrests, beatings,
and executions
of political enemies.
MARGOLICK:
Schmeling writes about how he
would go to his favorite clubs,
and every week there'd be
somebody new who was gone.
But he just he just looked
the other way.
He just didn't think
about the larger questions.
VANCE:
In later years, Schmeling would
make much of the fact
that he never became a member
of the Nazi Party.
But, in fact, the Nazis had no
interest in recruiting him.
Schmeling was most useful as
somebody who was apolitical.
He was very useful
as being apolitical
because he then would be
believable.
VANCE:
As a reward
for having beaten Louis,
he inked a contract to fight
world champion Jimmy Braddock,
the Cinderella Man.
The prospect of a
Schmeling-Braddock bout
panicked the Louis camp.
GOLDMAN:
Mike Jacobs thought
that if Schmeling
won the championship,
he would go back to Germany
and Hitler would actually
take over the title
and use it for his own purposes.
VANCE:
Mike Jacobs went to work,
spreading rumors that the fight
would be widely boycotted
by Jewish fans.
Braddock wouldn't earn a dime.
But if Braddock agreed
to fight Louis instead,
Jacobs promised he'd never
have to work again.
MAJESKI:
He started offering more money,
more money, more money.
(match strikes, ignites)
So, finally, he came
up with a deal.
He said, "I'll give you not only
the biggest guarantee,
"but you will have ten percent
of the profits
of Joe Louis's fights
for the next ten years."
VANCE:
This was an offer Braddock
couldn't afford to pass up.
He dropped his plans
to fight Schmeling
and signed on to face Louis
in June 1937 in Chicago.
For the first time
in more than two decades,
a black man would fight
for the heavyweight title.
More than 60,000 fans converged
on Chicago's Comiskey Park
to watch it.
ANNOUNCER:
Here they come.
Joe jumping out as usual.
Jim Braddock steps out fast and
lets go with a hard right hand.
VANCE:
In the first round,
Braddock knocked Louis down.
(crowd cheering)
For an instant, it looked like
a repeat of the Schmeling fight.
ANNOUNCER:
Braddock is pounding him
to the ropes.
Braddock is
VANCE:
But Louis quickly recovered
and in the eighth round,
knocked Braddock senseless.
ANNOUNCER:
And Louis gave him
And Braddock is down!
One, two, three
VANCE:
The Cinderella Man had to be
carried to his dressing room.
ANNOUNCER:
Eight, nine, ten.
A new world champion!
ANNOUNCER 2:
and new champion
of the world, Joe Louis.
(crowd cheering)
VANCE:
Louis had scaled the summit
of the boxing world,
becoming the first black man
since Jack Johnson
to attain the heavyweight
championship.
♪
VANCE:
Max Schmeling was furious over
the way the world championship
had been snatched from him.
He complained bitterly to the
New York Athletic Commission,
to no avail.
SCHMELING:
I think I got a runaround.
I traveled 25,000 miles to face
Jimmy Braddock for the title.
VANCE:
Now, Schmeling was as hungry
for the rematch as Louis.
Terms for the fight
were quickly agreed upon,
and the date was set for
June 1938 in Yankee Stadium.
From the start, the match was
seen as much more than boxing,
much more than sports.
It was going to pit
whole nations, whole ideologies,
against each other.
NEWFIELD:
This is 1938
Hitler's intentions were clear
by then,
Hitler's hatred of Jews
was clear,
Hitler's militarism and
expansionism were clear,
and Schmeling is probably
unfairly seen
as an extension of Hitler.
He is seen as a Nazi.
VANCE:
Confronted with a choice
between a white Nazi
and a black American,
all but the most hardened
racists backed Louis.
ROOSEVELT:
This nation is asking
VANCE:
Even President Roosevelt
enlisted Louis
in the war of propaganda
against Nazism.
Squeezing Joe's arm, he said,
"These are the muscles we need
to defeat the Germans."
But Joe had little use for
the hypocrisy of geopolitics.
NEWFIELD:
I think Joe Louis understood
that while he was being held up
as the symbol of democracy,
black people couldn't vote,
black people did not have
equal rights,
the army was segregated.
♪
(crowd chattering)
VANCE:
The evening of June 22
was hot and sticky.
More than 90,000 fans,
white and black,
streamed into Yankee Stadium,
one of the largest crowds ever
to pass through the turnstiles.
GOLDMAN:
It is a sea of humanity.
It is something out
of a tremendous political event.
There is a rush,
there's an excitement
which it is almost impossible
to describe today.
MAN:
So now it is June 22, 1938
VANCE:
In a nation of 130 million,
some 70 million
would tune in to the fight
on the radio that night,
the biggest audience ever
for a single program.
JARRETT:
I remember walking
down the street
and people were sitting
on their front porches
and they had their little radios
ready.
And it was real quiet,
as though there was just
something out here saying,
"We are about to experience
an indescribable event
in our lives."
(speaking German)
VANCE:
It was 3:00 a.m. in Germany
when Nazi broadcaster
Arno Helmis
finally took the microphone.
In Austria, the young Jewish boy
Fritz Mandelbaum stayed up late
to listen with his father.
MAN:
The fight was ballyhooed
in Germany
as, well, as the fight
of the century.
There was the Negro
an inferior race,
and the man, Joe Louis,
who represented the Negro
all brawn and animal brutality
versus German noble strength.
It is amazing to me
in retrospect
how much the Nazis really
gambled on a victory.
The gamble was if you hype it
that much, what if you lose?
(crowd clamoring)
VANCE:
Schmeling made his way to the
ring under a bombardment
of banana peels,
cigarette packs, and spit.
MAN:
He was pallid.
There was something about him
You could smell it, you know.
You know, it's scary
you you can get killed here,
as they say.
The roar that began was just
an unimaginable, constant roar.
You couldn't hear the subway
coming out nothing.
The roar up into
that Bronx night
If you had any imagination,
you felt the whole country
watching.
ANNOUNCER:
Joe Louis in his corner,
prancing and rubbing his feet
on the rosin.
Max Schmeling standing calmly,
getting a last word
from Doc Casey.
And they're ready, with the bell
just about to ring.
(bell rings)
And there we are.
And they got to the ring
right together
with Arthur Donovan
stepping around them.
And Joe Louis is in
the center of the ring,
Max going around him.
Joe Louis led quick with two
straight lefts to the chin,
both of them (indistinct)
as the men clinch.
Joe Louis tries to get over
two hard lefts
and Max ties him up
on the breakaway clean.
On the far side of the ring now,
Max with his back to the ropes,
and Louis hooks a left
to Max's head quickly
and shoots over a hard right
to Max's head!
Louis, a left to Max's jaw,
a right to his head.
Max shoots a hard right
to Louis.
Louis with the old one-two,
the first
PACHECO:
Almost in the first 30 seconds
you could see the way
it was going to go.
ANNOUNCER:
And watching for the champ.
He is crowding Schmeling
PACHECO:
You see his desire
just boring in on him.
ANNOUNCER:
His face is already marked
It's a spider,
and the fly ain't got a chance.
ANNOUNCER:
He's landed more blows
in this one round
than he landed in five rounds
of the other fight
GOLDMAN:
He pressed he drove Schmeling
back, he rained punches.
Schmeling tried to defend,
he tried to counter,
he tried to get out of the way.
ANNOUNCER:
Fighting from the clinch
and rope (indistinct).
Back against the ropes
again there.
Not too close to the ropes
And Louis misses!
VANCE:
At just over a minute
into the first round,
Louis struck Schmeling with
a ferocious blow to his side.
ANNOUNCER:
Again, a right to the body!
RODNEY:
And Schmeling emitted a scream.
(faint scream)
I think everybody went,
you know, sort of like this.
They had never heard
a fighter scream
in a high-pitched voice
in agony.
ANNOUNCER:
And again, a right to the body!
A left hook,
a right to the head,
a left to the head, a right!
Schmeling is going down!
(crowd roaring)
But he held to his feet,
held to the ropes
Looks to his corner
in helplessness.
And Schmeling is down!
(crowd roaring)
Schmeling is down!
And he's up!
And Louis, right and left
to the head!
A left to the jaw,
a right to the head!
(crowd roaring)
And Donovan is watching
carefully.
Louis measures him.
Right to the body,
a left up to the jaw
and Schmeling is down!
VANCE:
In a meaningless gesture,
Schmeling's corner
threw in the towel.
Arthur Donovan threw it back,
where it hung on the ropes
as "limp as the German himself,"
one writer put it.
ANNOUNCER:
The count is five
five, six, seven, eight
The men are in the ring,
the fight is over
on a technical knockout!
Max Schmeling is beaten
in one round
in less than a round!
(bell clanging)
RINGSIDE ANNOUNCER:
The time!
VANCE:
It was "two minutes
and four seconds of murder,"
one writer marveled
the second shortest heavyweight
title fight in history.
RINGSIDE ANNOUNCER:
The winner and still champion:
Joe Louis!
RODNEY:
People are hugging each other,
and black and white
embracing.
You know, women and men,
and strangers.
And the scenes were wild;
jubilation and tears,
people crying.
ACUNTO:
It was tremendous.
It was almost as though
we had defeated the Nazis
there and then.
(German announcer speaking)
VANCE:
In Germany, millions
had listened to the fight
in growing disbelief.
To suddenly hear on the air
that, uh the announcer,
very confident,
saying, (speaking German).
It was a sense of jubilation
that we had, my father and I,
and for the first time
there was an inkling
that Hitler might somehow
be stopped.
(bluesy jazz playing)
MAN:
Big Joe Louis
from Alabam' ♪
VANCE:
In Harlem, news of the victory
sent 100,000 people
into the streets.
"This is their night,"
the police commissioner said,
and closed off 30 blocks
for the celebration.
MAN:
Hooks a left
with all his might ♪
RODNEY:
I took the subway down to
Harlem place was going wild.
Little kids, you know,
they're dancing,
and old, elderly people
hobbling on canes,
you know, they
they were looking like,
"Oh, boy, good, good," you know?
It's the most wonderful thing
that ever happened.
MAN:
Then they all forget
to duck ♪
♪
VANCE:
The celebration wasn't confined
to black America alone.
For the first time, blacks and
whites, even in the deep South,
had rooted with all their hearts
for the same guy.
JARRETT:
Right after Joe Louis's victory,
we got to work ahead of time.
And I will say this
for this fellow where I worked,
he says, "Well, looks like
your man won."
I said,
"He sure did, didn't he?"
He says, "Maybe that'll teach
Hitler a lesson."
MAN:
Big Joe Louis from Alabam',
he don't play ♪
VANCE:
Joe had shattered the mask
of the "Good Negro"
once and for all.
All Americans loved him
not because he was docile
and unassuming
but for the opposite reason:
when they were at their weakest,
he had reminded them
of their strength.
VANCE:
When Schmeling
finally recovered enough
to return to his native soil,
there was no berth of honor
on the Hindenburg,
no Luftwaffe escorts,
or personal meetings
with Hitler.
REIMANN:
They dropped him
like a hot potato.
Never even consoled
or "Poor Max" and so no, no.
He was he he they had
lost every interest in him.
VANCE:
Schmeling's career
was all but over.
He fought a few more times,
but never again in America.
Freed from his entanglements
with the Nazi government,
Schmeling felt able
to take risks
he'd never been willing
to take before.
Schmeling rebuilt his life
one more time.
The Nazi idol earned a fortune
as a bottler for the Coca Cola
company in Germany.
VANCE:
Joe Louis went on to become
the greatest heavyweight
champion in history,
defending his title
24 more times
over the course of 12 years.
His opponents
were so overmatched,
they earned the title
"Bum of the Month Club."
VANCE:
Joe served his country honorably
during World War II.
His country didn't return
the favor.
He was relegated to a segregated
unit and hounded for back taxes
on money he had donated to
the Army and Navy Relief Fund.
♪
To pay his debt,
he fought on too long.
His career finally ended
for good in 1951
by a young Rocky Marciano,
who wept in his dressing room
after the fight.
As the years went on,
Louis's stature in black America
also suffered.
New, more assertive
black leaders were ashamed
of what they regarded as
Joe's "accommodationism"
and were eager to dismiss him.
I wish he had been
a vocal leader.
But he did enough for me
by stimulating hope
and causing me as a boy
to fantasize victories,
and that despite everything,
nobody is going to stop you
from winning
if you really
set your mind to it.
That was enough; I didn't need
anything else from Joe Louis.
When Joe Louis knocked out
Max Schmeling,
he opened a door of history
for every great black athlete
in the coming generations
who could be themselves,
who did not have to mask
their feelings,
who did not have to hide
their emotions,
did not have to say "Yes, sir"
and "No, sir" to reporters.
(fanfare playing)
SHOW HOST:
Well, it took three years
and 35 fights
for you to get a crack
at the world title, Joe.
VANCE:
Halfway through the broadcast
of "This Is Your Life" in 1960,
there was a surprise guest.
HOST:
And the only one you lost?
SCHMELING:
I won that one on June 19, 1936,
at Yankee Stadium in New York.
HOST:
Yes, he's here, Joe,
himself a former world
heavyweight champion
from Hamburg, Germany,
the Black Uhlan of the Rhine,
Max Schmeling!
How are you?
(chuckling):
Fine. How are
you doing?
Nice to see you.
(applause,
indistinct conversation )
VANCE:
It had been more than 20 years
since the two fighters
had seen each other
in the heat and chaos
of Yankee Stadium,
but it would mark another stage
in their relationship.
They would meet
a dozen more times,
always with a great show
of warmth.
Schmeling assisted Louis
with money,
and when Joe died in 1981,
Max helped pay for the funeral.
Much of the world came to
believe Hitler's favorite boxer
and America's great black hope
had finally
come to love each other.
MARGOLICK:
We all love happy endings,
and it's become convenient
in a way to say
that Joe Louis and Max Schmeling
ended up as great friends.
I don't think they were
really great friends.
I think they were
barely friends
they barely knew one another.
They spent only 40 minutes
together in the ring.
But history tied
these two men together.
History brought Joe Louis
and Max Schmeling together,
and in history
they'll always be together.
RINGSIDE ANNOUNCER:
Now in the center of the ring
they're measuring each other
with left hands
and doing little damage.
So far Schmeling has done
(announcer fades)
♪
♪
♪
♪