Joe Louis: America's Hero Betrayed

*hits record on HBOHD*

Should be good, I wanted to watch this a while back and I forgot to save it.

 

Its pretty decent. I dont think America betrayed Louis. Louis didnt manage his money right, and had to pay tax's on it.

 

Did'nt he donate his whole fight purse to the U.S goverment as an example of giving too the war effort & then the U.S govermant wanted taxes from the purse as it was earnings?

 

That he did, but Louis still didnt pay the taxes on other purses, when your busy spended money as fast as Louis did(Gambling, drinking, Women ete)

And before you know it, you wont have the money to pay Sam. Louis was a big spender.

 

Yes, he was irresponsible with his earnings sometimes, but giving away two championship purses to the Army and Navy relief funds and then sacrificing around five years of his athletic money earning prime to military service entitled him to a little more slack than a nice tombstone in Arlington.

Bottom line is that no good deed goes unpunished. (I wish I had what it took to be a conscienceless *******, apparently the key to wealth, health, happiness and success in life. "Morality" sucks.)

 

Obviously something went wrong with his finances but I have never heard he was a gambler or drinker there have been stories about womanising though nothing defenitive.

 

:good I feel the same way. Just because he was a great champion and did some good things does not mean he doesn't have to pay taxes like every other person.

 

The media hide Louis's flaws.

He was not a heavy drinker on the level of John L, but he like to go clubbing.

He was pretty much going though money like paper in his championship days.

The Buddy Baer fight cover Louis's money problems shortly before the event(Film, not the fight itself)

So Louis was having issues with money before his first retirement.

 

Essentially the documentary concludes that America stole Joe Louis' earnings because he was a fantastic golfer. Corrie Sanders should watch out. :good

 

I'm not sure if it is true or not, but I heard he bet $100,000 on a game of golf.

I'm pretty sure he got himself into some cocaine for a bit, and I know he was having money problems throughout the mid point of his career. Joe Louis wasn't the all american hero everyone likes to think he was. He had flaws just like everyone else.

 

Louis did handel his finances verry badly but that does not excuse the way he was treated by the IRS, charging him tax on a charitable donation to the US government.

The fact that sombody manages their finances badly dosnt mean that it is right to rip them off.

 

If he would have handled his money properly and paid his taxes none of this ever would have happened. Fighters who made less money than him don't have trouble with the IRS, there it is nobodies fault but his own for what the IRS did.

 

Charging somebody for tax on money they never earned? That's got little ornothing to do with financial mismanagement on the individual's part.

 

At the time that Louis donated his purses to the Army Navy releif fund, his only other income was his army sergeants salary.

They were charging him tax out of money that did not exist that he had not earned, because he had basicaly given them everything.

Had the purses been paid directly to the releif funds there would not have been a problem. The fact that the money passed through Louis's acount breifly meant that he was liable for this nonexistant tax. In that respect it takes two parties to mismanage the finances. The Army Navy relif fund should have looked after his interests better in taking the money.