<http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-sound22feb22,1,6970123.column>http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-sound22feb22,1,6970123.column
From the Los Angeles Times
Documentary chronicles Joe Louis' place in history
New HBO Sports program portrays boxer as a patriot who helped integration efforts but was betrayed by his country as he battled the IRS. Christine Daniels
February 22, 2008
A new HBO Sports documentary about one of boxing's all-time greatest legends gives away its intentions with its title: "Joe Louis: America's Hero . . . Betrayed."
The documentary, to be aired Saturday about 9 p.m., following the network's live coverage of the Wladmir Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov fight, argues that Louis was a pivotal figure in the history of American race relations, laying the essential groundwork for Jackie Robinson's baseball breakthrough, yet was abandoned by the U.S. government after his public-relations value peaked.
That peak occurred 70 years ago, when Louis knocked out Max Schmeling in the first round of their June 22, 1938, heavyweight championship match. The victory was a unification bout of a different kind -- bringing together a segregated America to root for a young black fighter born in LaFayette, Ala., against the very symbol of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.
"This was probably the first time and the only time in the history of America that a black man ends up being a white hope," civil rights activist Dick Gregory says during the program. "He'd become the great white hope."
But Louis' triumph was only symbolic. Less than four years later, America was engaged in war against Hitler, and Louis quickly enlisted, serving four years in the Army, visiting the troops and fighting exhibitions to raise money for the government.
After the war, Louis was thrown against an opponent that would hound him for the rest of his life: the IRS. Executive producers Ross Greenburg and Rick Bernstein chronicle Louis' quicksand struggle against his debt, following Louis as he lent his name to seemingly every item that could be hawked, appeared on game shows, delved into professional wrestling and worked as a greeter at Caesars Palace.
The champion's depressing decline ended with his death on April 18, 1981. The documentary concludes with narration that describes Louis as a man who "loved his country, and stood up for her in a time of need. He forgave her even when she betrayed him."
The Klitschko-Ibragimov fight, which starts at 6:30 p.m., underscores another decline -- fan interest in boxing's heavyweight division.
"The last great fighters who were loved were charismatic, and they engaged the fan base," Louis' son, Joe Louis Barrow Jr., recently told Times reporter Lance Pugmire. "It's that outward engagement with the fan base that these boxers may lack.
"These other guys, my father, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, are entertainers, showmen in their own right."