Joe Louis: Biography

Jack Johnson And Miles Davis

A slide show with part of Miles' tribute to Jack Johnson. There's a slide mixed in of James Earl Jones portraying Jack in "The Great White Hope"
About the Jack Johnson recordings from jazzitude.com

The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions represents a stunning crossroads where boxing, the Black Power movement, the development of rock music as an expression of vast changes in American society, the electronic amplification of jazz, and Miles Davis all came together. That the music heard on this newly-released 5 CD set was boiled down to a mere hour's worth of a soundtrack album, with snippets turning up on Live-Evil and Get Up With It, is amazing. Listening to the music here, most of which has never been released previously, is like finding out something new about someone you thought you knew well.
That Miles Davis should have been drawn to the figure of Jack Johnson is no surprise. Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion and star black sports figure, fought during the early 1900s, at a time when racism was de rigeur and jazz music was only beginning to develop. Johnson liked the high life, enjoyed fast cars and liked women, particularly white women. While Miles preferred black women, he certainly appreciated beautiful ones, had sartorial style, like his home to be well appointed and modern, and also adored fast sports cars. Much has been made of the fact that Miles was born into a middle class background (his father was a successful dentist) but that only seems to have made the racism that he encountered that much more unpalatable, and Davis did encounter his share. The well known incident that occurred in front of Birdland, when Miles was hassled by police for standing outside the club and took a blow to the head from a white detective, seems to have set him firmly on the path of not taking any crap from anyone, an attitude that was certainly in line with that of Jack Johnson as well as boxers that Davis had seen during his lifetime.
Davis was in a highly productive and inspired mode at this time, a mode that had started with the recording of In a Silent Way and continued through Bitches Brew. He also made a big switch with his live bands, moving from the repertoire he had been playing, which was comprised largely of music he’d created with his second great quintet between 1963 and 1967, to the new material he was recording. His live bands changed personnel more frequently, with Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Michael Henderson, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Steve Grossman, Gary Bartz, and others moving into and out of the band at various times. “I was seeing it all as a process of recording all this music” said Davis, “just getting it all down while it was flowing out of my head.” In A Silent Way had been a bellwether, signaling that changes were afoot, not only in Davis’ performances of his new music, but in the very methods that were used to create that music in the first place. Both In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew were recorded in small sections, with Davis directing the musicians and allowing them to play freely without worrying about what the final mix for release would be like—in fact, many times the musicians had no idea what would or would not be released. Davis and producer Teo Macero then constructed the final tracks from these performances. On In A Silent Way they took shapeless but incredible segments of music and spliced the performance together to create a piece that had form and structure. The technique was used again on the Bitches Brew album, both on Joe Zawinul’s “Pharoah’s Dance” and on the title track.
The album A Tribute to Jack Johnson, the soundtrack to the William Clayton-directed film of the same name, was probably the end of the high point of the Davis/Macero edited recordings cycle. The same approach was applied to live recordings such as At Fillmore and to source recordings done at Washington D.C.’s Cellar Door club, resulting in the album Live-Evil. The results were decidedly mixed, with the continuity and structure of the live performances missing. But on Jack Johnson, the producer was able to take what was essentially a studio jam and turn it into the best melding of jazz, funk, and rock music of all time. Considering the furor that Bitches Brew had caused, it is amazing today to consider that Jack Johnson sank without a trace when it was released more than a year after it was recorded, in the summer of 1971. By that time, Miles had rolled his electric band out to live audiences, performing at Fillmore East and West as well as at other important venues, generally as an opening act for some of the most successful rock bands of the day. At the end of August 1970 Davis performed at the Isle of Wight Festival, one of the major rock festivals held in the wake of the successful fests at Monterey and Woodstock. The sessions that are represented on this box set, all recorded between February and June of 1970, were Davis’ last recording sessions until 1972, when he recorded the sessions for his highly controversial On the Corner album. Consider this, though: by the time the public heard the recording Bitches Brew (released in April 1970) Davis was already unleashing a much more heavy electric sound on audiences at the Fillmore West (released unedited as the Black Beauty album). And, three days before this performance, he had recorded most of the source material that would be edited into the Jack Johnson album—material that was based much more on straightforward rock and funk concepts with fewer free jazz leanings and which would represent probably his most accessible music until his return to the scene in 1981 after a self-imposed five year silence. In other words, by the time the record-buying public heard Bitches Brew, Davis had already moved another several steps ahead. No wonder the public was unable to keep up with him during this tumultuous period—the man simply had too much music, and too many ideas spilling out of his head for the slow-moving recording industry to keep up with.

Jack Johnson: Unforgivable Blackness 2

youtube user mrbumpandgrind has 15 segments that comprise the whole movie
This Ken Burns' film was excellent, the pbs site for the film

Ken Burns's documentary style is so unencumbered; the subject matter is effortlessly presented. His regular mix of photos, subtle sound effects, excellent musical score, and actor readings of historical text hasn't changed since his breakthrough of The Civil War. And it doesn't need to. Even though this 220-minute production is a biography--on heavyweight champion Jack Johnson--the film resonates about the how race was dealt with in the early part of the 20th century. Four decades after the Emancipation, the American black was still struggling to find elementary terms of equality. Along came a strong and headstrong man who took on sport decades before Jackie Robinson and became the key figure in heavyweight fighting, a champion against the longest odds.
Samuel L. Jackson voices Johnson's words with great verve and helps create an absorbing picture of Johnson along with various historians and boxing experts laying down the tale of the tape. Here's a man so smart and patient in the ring who took great liberties in his day-to-day life, unafraid to showcase his success, and ruffle the morals of the time (including, most scandalously, marrying a white woman). Viewing film of his prizefights, the amateur eye can understand Johnson's style and bravura. Burns's certainly takes his time and, as usual, has a vast awry of facts of how the world reacted to news of Johnson's success and the conspiracy which led to his downfall. The highlight, natch, are two of Johnson's epic fights near the end of his reign as champ (and the search for a "Great White Hope"). The appearance of James Earl Jones (who won a Tony for his portrayal of Johnson in 1959) and Wynton Marsalis's musical score are grand touches.

teacher resources are available on the pbs site

Jack Johnson: Unforgivable Blackness 1

youtube user mrbumpandgrind has 15 segments that comprise the whole movie
from african americans.com

Jack (John Arthur) Johnson
(1878-1946)
The First African American Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World
Jack Johnson was the first African American, and first Texan, to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world.
Born in Galveston on March 31, 1878, he was the second of six children of Henry and Tiny Johnson. Henry was a former slave and his family was poor. After leaving school in the fifth grade, Johnson worked odd jobs around South Texas. He started boxing as a sparring partner and fought in the "battles royal," matches in which young blacks entertained white spectators who threw money to the winner.
Johnson turned professional in 1897 following a period with private clubs in Galveston. His family's home was destroyed by the great hurricane of 1900. A year later he was arrested and jailed because boxing was a criminal profession in Texas. He soon left Galveston for good. Johnson first became the heavyweight champion of Negro boxing. Jim Jeffries, the white champ at the time, refused to fight Johnson because he was black. Then, in 1908, Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Australia to become world champion, although he was not officially given the title until 1910 when he finally fought and beat Jeffries in Las Vegas. Jeffries had come out of retirement to become the first of many so-called "great white hopes."
Race rioting was sparked after the Johnson-Jeffries fight. The Texas Legislature banned films of his victories over whites for fear of more riots. In 1913, Johnson fled because of trumped up charges of violating the Mann Act's stipulations against transporting white women across state lines for prostitution.
During his exile from the U.S., Johnson lost his championship to a white man, Jess Willard, in Cuba in 1915. He returned to the U.S. on July 20, 1920 and was arrested. Sentenced to Leavenworth in Kansas, Johnson was appointed athletic director of the prison. Upon his release, he returned to boxing, but only participated in exhibition fights after 1928.
Although married three times to white women, Johnson never had children. He died in a car crash June 10, 1946, near Raleigh, North Carolina.
This trio of fighters ruled the heavyweights during the first ten years of the century. James J Jeffries retired as undefeated champion in 1905, after which Tommy Burns, a diminutive Canadian took charge. Burns tenure was doomed the moment he was forced to face Jack Johnson (left), a man destined to become the first black heavyweight champion ever.
During a shameful period in American history, a great white hope was sought, with Jeffries brought out of retirement to take on Johnson. He was stopped in 15 rounds and Johnson ruled until 1915.
Jack Johnson patented a wrench (U.S.patent# 1,413,121) on April the 18th, 1922.
Congress Seeks Pardon for Boxing Champion Jack Johnson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thu Apr 7, 2005 - U.S. lawmakers are seeking a presidential pardon for Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, convicted more than 90 years ago in a racially motivated morals case.
At the height of his career in 1913, the boxer was convicted and sent to federal prison for one year and one day for violating the Mann Act by transporting a white woman across state lines for immoral purposes.
"No one should be punished for choosing to go their own way," said Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, the leader of the congressional effort for a pardon.
"A pardon "would be a strong and necessary symbol to the world of America's continuing resolve to live up to the noble ideals of freedom, opportunity and equal justice for all," McCain said on Wednesday as lawmakers joined professional boxers and other supporters to press their appeal.
The Mann Act of 1910 outlawed the transport of women across state lines for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for "any other immoral purpose."
"Mr. Johnson's conviction was motivated by nothing more than the color of his skin, as such it injured not only Mr. Johnson, but also our nation as a whole," McCain wrote in a letter to President Bush last month.
A pardon would help relieve the nation from the weight of racism and bigotry, the letter said.
Five other senators -- Republicans Orrin Hatch of Utah and Ted Stevens of Alaska and Democrats Harry Reid of Nevada and Edward Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts -- signed the letter urging a full posthumous presidential pardon.
Johnson died in an automobile accident in 1946.
U.S. lawmakers are seeking a presidential pardon for Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, convicted more than 90 years ago in a racially motivated morals case. At the height of his career in 1913, the boxer was convicted and sent to federal prison for one year and one day for violating the Mann Act by transporting a white woman across state lines for immoral purposes.

Joe Louis: HBO And Everlast Open The Joe Louis Gym In Harlem

image of Harlemites celebrating Joe's victory with inset of Joe walking in Harlem with his wife
from the nytimes of 2/22/08Joe Louis and Harlem, Connecting Again in a Police Athletic League Gym by JOHN ELIGON

It was the evening of June 22, 1938, and nearly everyone in Harlem was doing the same thing. Huddled around radios on their fire escapes and roofs, in their kitchens and living rooms, people were listening to the heavyweight boxing match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling.
“Harlem was in stereo,” said Representative Charles B. Rangel, who grew up in Harlem and was 8 years old at the time of the fight. “Everyone had on the same station, the same fight. You heard the same screaming and yelling when he was winning, and the same sighs when he got hit.”
Louis once captivated the minds and hearts of New Yorkers, especially those in Harlem’s thriving black community. But as New York’s mantle as boxing’s premier stage ebbed over the past several decades, so too did Louis’s legacy in the city.
On Thursday, HBO and Everlast, a company that specializes in boxing equipment, took a step toward rekindling the memory of Louis in New York City. They opened the Joe Louis Boxing Gym in the basement of the Police Athletic League building on Manhattan Avenue near 119th Street in Harlem.
“I think it’s a wonderful tribute to my father,” Joe Louis Barrow Jr., Louis’s son, said by telephone. “It will continue to keep the Joe Louis connection to New York, and specifically Harlem.”
Though he was born, as Joe Louis Barrow, in Chambers County, Ala., and lived most of his life in Detroit and Chicago, Louis rose to international prominence in New York.
Louis’s first fight in New York was in 1935. His promoter brought him to the city because the owners of Madison Square Garden controlled the heavyweight title and he wanted to get his fighter a shot.
Louis lost his first fight against Schmeling, who was from Germany, at Yankee Stadium in 1936. A year later, he won the heavyweight title for the first time, by knocking out Jim Braddock in Chicago, and returned to New York to defend his title. In 1938 came a highly anticipated rematch against Schmeling.
This fight, also at Yankee Stadium, was billed as the United States versus Nazi Germany. It was a black American, of all people, carrying the torch for a country that was deeply segregated.
Mr. Barrow called his father one of the true pioneers of race relations in the United States, saying that even white Americans cheered for him.
“That was the single event that allowed him to transcend from a heavyweight champion to a true American hero,” Mr. Barrow said of the rematch.
Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round, and the streets of Harlem erupted. According to an article in The New York Times the day after the fight, people jumped on cars and pushed over traffic signs. The police commissioner ordered officers to reroute traffic on Seventh Avenue between 125th and 145th Streets, saying, “This is their night, let them have their fun.”
People raced to the Hotel Theresa on the corner of 125th Street and Seventh Avenue, now known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, trying to catch a glimpse of Louis returning from the fight.
“It was madness when the fight was over,” Mr. Rangel said.
Still, The Times reported, there were only 13 minor injuries and most of the celebration, including the one in Yorkville, the German-American quarter around East 86th Street, was peaceful.
Louis, who died in 1981, later said a farewell of sorts to New York. In 1951, he was knocked out by the much younger Rocky Marciano at Madison Square Garden in his final professional bout.
Many of Louis’s accomplishments in New York are captured in the documentary “Joe Louis: America’s Hero ... Betrayed,” which is to be broadcast on HBO on Saturday night.
Today, it is difficult to find a relic of Louis’s time in New York, where he fought more than two dozen times. The area surrounding Madison Square Garden is known as Joe Louis Plaza, as noted on street signs that thousands of New Yorkers probably walk past each day without a glance.
The Police Athletic League building in Harlem now has a plaque at its front entrance that reads, “Home of the Joe Louis Boxing Gym.” Inside hangs a painting of Louis by Duhirwe Rushemeza, a Brooklyn-based artist. The newly renovated boxing gym has fluorescent lighting, walls of bright red and glossy gray brick, a new ring with black canvas and a glass case holding pictures of professional boxers like Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Zab Judah.
Mr. Barrow said his father often reminisced about the time he spent in New York, about the Harlem night life and the people who yearned for just a glimpse of him in the street.
“He loved the energy in New York,” Mr. Barrow said. “He loved Harlem particularly because in those days it was a very hopping town. New York was a place where he really made his career.”

Joe Louis: The Second Max Schmeling Fight, June 22, 1938

Audio and Audio Transcript from the American Experience

Harry Ballow (ring announcer):
This is the feature attraction. Fifteen rounds for the world's heavyweight championship. Weighing 193, wearing purple trunks, outstanding contender for heavyweight honors, the former heavyweight title holder, Max Schmeling. Weighing 198 and three-quarters, wearing black trunks, the famous Detroit Brown Bomber, world heavyweight champion, Joe Louis.
Clem McCarthy:
Joe Louis in his corner, prancing and rubbing his feet in the rosin. Max Schmeling standing calmly getting a last word from Doc Casey. And they're ready with a bell just about to ring. 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 light, but as the men clinch, Joe Louis tries to get over two hard lefts and
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/fight/sfeature/sf_radio.html
Max ties him up in the breakaway clean. On the far side of the ring now, Max with his back to the rope. 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. First a left and then the right. He's landed more blows in this one round, then he landed in five rounds of the other fight. And there Max Schmeling caught him with his guard down and got that right hand to Louis' jaw but Louis was going away with a punch at the time. Now Max is backing away against the ropes and Louis is following him and watching for that chance. He is crowding, trailing. Schmeling is not stepping around very much but his face is already marked and they stepped into a fast clinch and at close range Louis fights desperately to bring up a left to the jaw and a right to the body. And coming out of that clinch he got over a hard right and then stabbed Max with a good straight left jab. And Max backed a way and missed a right. Louis then stopped him with two straight lefts to the face and brought over that hard right to the head, high on the temple. And Max [unintelligible] clinch and broke ground. He's back against the ropes now again, not to close to the ropes. And Louis missed with a left swing but in close quarters brought over a hard one to the jaw 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. But he held to his feet, held to the ropes, looked to his corner in helplessness. And Schmeling is down. Schmeling is down. The count is four. And he's up and Louis, right and left to the head, a left to the jaw, a right to the head, and Donovan is watching carefully. Louis measured him, right to the body, a left up to the jaw, and Schmeling is down. The count is five. Five, six, seven, eight. The men are in the ring. The fight is over -- on a technical knock out. Max Schmeling is beaten in one round. The first time that a world heavyweight championship ever changed hands in one round -- in less than a round.

Floyd Patterson

from my google map of Homes of Famous Brooklynites and Other Places of Interest

Google Maps: Floyd Patterson

from wikipedia:

Floyd Patterson (January 4, 1935 – May 11, 2006) was an American heavyweight boxing champion. At 21, Patterson became the youngest man to win the world heavyweight championship. He had a record of 55 wins 8 losses and 1 draw, with 40 wins by knockout. Born into a poor family in Waco, North Carolina, Patterson was the youngest of eleven children and experienced an insular and troubled childhood. His family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Floyd was a truant and petty thief. At age ten, he was sent to the Wiltwyck School for Boys, a reform school in upstate New York, which he credited with turning his life around. He stayed there for almost 2 years.
At age fourteen he started to box, trained by Cus D'Amato at his Gramercy Gym. Aged just 17, Patterson won the Gold medal in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics as a middleweight. 1952 turned out to be a good year for the young Patterson; in addition to Olympic gold Patterson won the National Amateur Middleweight Championship and New York Golden Gloves Middleweight championship.
By the 1950s, Patterson was a resident of Rockville Centre, New York.[1]
Patterson's amateur record over 44 fights was 40-4, with 37 knockouts.
Patterson carried his hands higher than most boxers, in front of his face. Sportswriters called Patterson's style a "peek-a-boo" stance.
Patterson turned pro and steadily rose through the ranks, his only early defeat was an eight-round decision to former light heavyweight champion Joey Maxim on June 7, 1954, at the Eastern Parkway Arena in Brooklyn, New York.
Although Patterson fought around the light heavyweight limit for much of his early career, he and manager Cus D'Amato always had plans to fight for the heavyweight championship. In fact, D'Amato made these plans clear as early as 1954, when he told the press that Patterson was aiming for the heavyweight title.[2] However, when Rocky Marciano announced his retirement as heavyweight champion of the world on April 27, 1956, Patterson was ranked by Ring magazine as the top light heavyweight contender. At the time of Marciano's announcement, Jim Norris of the International Boxing Club stated that Patterson was one of the fighters who would take part in an elimination tournament to crown Marciano's successor. Ring then moved Patterson into the heavyweight rankings, at number five.
After beating Tommy "Hurricane" Jackson in an elimination fight, Patterson faced light heavyweight champion Archie Moore on November 30, 1956, for the world heavyweight championship. He beat Moore by a knockout in five rounds, and became the youngest world heavyweight champion in history, at the age of 21 years and 10 months. As a result, he was the first Olympic gold medalist to win a heavyweight title.
After a series of defenses, Patterson met Ingemar Johansson of Sweden, in the first of three fights. Johansson triumphed over Patterson on June 26, 1959, with the referee Ruby Goldstein stopping the fight in the third round after the Swede had knocked Patterson down seven times. Johansson became that country's first world heavyweight champion, thus becoming a national hero in Sweden as the first European to defeat an American for the title since 1933.
Patterson knocked Johansson out in the fifth round of their rematch on June 20, 1960, with a left hook to become the first man to recover the world's undisputed heavyweight title. Johansson hit the canvas with a thud, out before he landed flat on his back. With blood trickling from his mouth, his glazed eyes staring up at the ring lights, and his left foot quivering, the Swede was counted out. Johansson lay unconscious for five minutes before he was placed on a stool brought into the ring. He was still dazed and unsteady fifteen minutes after the knockout as he was helped out of the ring. With this win, Patterson became the first man in the history of boxing to regain the world heavyweight championship.
A third fight between them was held on March 13, 1961, and while Johansson put Patterson on the floor, Patterson retained his title by a knockout in six to win a wild rubber match in which Patterson was decked twice and Johannson once in the first round.
Some of the more questionable opponents he faced as Champion, including 1960 Olympic Champion Pete Rademacher fighting in his first professional match, led to charges that Patterson was ducking number one contender Sonny Liston. Patterson, stung by the criticism, agreed to fight Liston.
After one more defense, Patterson lost his title on September 25, 1962, by a knockout in the first round to Liston. The two fighters were a marked contrast. In the ring, Liston's size and power proved too much for Patterson's guile and agility. Ten months later on July 22, 1963, Patterson attempted to become the first boxer ever to win the world's heavyweight title three times, but Liston once again knocked him out in the first round.
Following these defeats, Patterson went through a depression, often donning sunglasses and hats to disguise himself in public. However, he eventually recovered and began winning fights again, including victories over Eddie Machen and George Chuvalo. Patterson became the number one challenger for the title now held by Muhammad Ali. On November 22, 1965, in yet another attempt to be the first to win the world's heavyweight title three times, Patterson lost by technical knockout at the end of the 12th round. Despite this loss, Patterson was still a legitimate contender. In 1966 he traveled to England and knocked out British boxer Henry Cooper in just four rounds at Wembley Stadium. In comparison, Ali never scored a knockdown against Cooper in two fights with the Britisher. In September of 1969 he divorced his first wife Sandra Hicks Patterson. She wanted him to quit boxing. He was not ready to quit yet, he knew he could get another chance at the title.
The World Boxing Association staged an eight-man tournament to determine Ali's successor. Patterson lost a controversial twelve round decision to Jerry Quarry in 1967. Then Patterson, in a third and final attempt at winning the title a third time, lost a controversial fifteen-round referee's decision to Jimmy Ellis in Sweden despite breaking Ellis' nose. This fight also included a disputed Patterdown knockdown of Ellis. Patterson went on, defeating Oscar Bonavena in a close fight over ten rounds in early 1972. However, a final defeat to Muhammad Ali in a rematch for the North American Boxing Federation heavyweight title on September 20, 1972, convinced Patterson to retire at the age of 37.
In retirement, he and Johansson became good friends who flew across the Atlantic to visit each other every year, and he became chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission. He was also inducted into the International Boxing Hall Of Fame.
In 1982 and 1983 he ran the Stockholm Marathon together with Ingemar Johansson.
Patterson lived in New Paltz, New York for many years and was known as a true gentlemen around town. He was a Latin Rite Catholic convert and a member of the Knights of Columbus.
His adopted son, Tracy Harris Patterson, was a world champion boxer in the 1990s and was trained by Floyd during part of his career. The New Paltz High School football field was named "Floyd Patterson Field" in 1985.

Sugartime 2

originally from 3/11/07: Here I put together images I found ( source: www.antekprizering.com/robinson.html) of Sugar Ray with an interview he did with BBC

Sugartime

from 3/12/07:There was a great documentary on HBO last month on Sugar Ray Robinson. It was made about 7 years ago (2000). People seem to have forgotten how great Sugar Ray was. The movie mentioned that Sugar Ray (a Harlem resident) at one time owned many of the businesses between 123rd and 124th on 7th Avenue on the western side of the block. He also maintained a couple of suites at the nearby Theresa Hotel supposedly for his lady friends. I was wondering whether any remnants of those businesses remain (especially Sugar Ray's Bar where a lot of celebrities like Lena Horne, Jackie Gleason, Sammy Davis Jr, Nat King Cole and Sinatra would hang out). I went to check and they're gone and a new ugly building takes up the entire block. The picture shows that block along with an image of Sugar Ray's vehicle registration which has him residing at 2074 7th Avenue (now Adam Clayton Powell Blvd) Here's a clip of Sugar Ray in action I found on youtube