The wit and wisdom of Joe Louis.

This thread is devoted to the wit and wisdom of Joe Louis Barrows.


"Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die"


When asked by a journalist why he didnt knock out a man who was verbaly abusive towards him:

"If you insult Carusso dose he sing you aria?"


"Understand I dont need money it just steadies my nerves"


Discusing with Muhamad Ali the outcome of a hypothetical fight between them:

"If you beat me in a dream kid you better wake up and apologise"


When asked after the Carnera fight his opinions on a cosmetic product that made black womens skin look whiter:

"Would I want to look like Primo Carnera?"


Speaking to his wife Marva after he married her just before the Max Baer fight:

"Now I have got a date with Max Baer"


When asked whether Primo Carnera had been drugged prior to their encounter:

"Sure it was the knockout drops in my gloves"


After the first Conn fight Conn said:

"You could have let me win the title Joe. I would only have held the title for six months and then you could have won if back"

Joe:

"How was you going to hold it for six months when you couldnt hold it for thirteen rounds?"


On body punching:

"If you kill the body the head will soon die"



More to come

 

I had no idea those were Joe Louis originals.

 

This is one most will know, but i thought i'd get involved. On 'the way it was', with don dunphy, jersey joe walcott claimed that joe louis came over to him at the end of their first bout and apologised to him (on the show they were discussing the first decision being a possible bad one),

Louis replied 'i apologised to everyone after i fought them'

 

"There is no such thing as a natural boxer. A natural dancer has to practice constantly. A natural painter has to paint all the time. Even a natural fool has to work at it".

"They say money talks but the only thing it ever said to me was goodbye".

"I play golf in the low 80s. If its any hotter than that I wont play".

 

These are good, any others guys??

 

That one is sad.

 

ditto

 

this is totally off-topic, but i was discussing Bivins' extraordinary arms the other day, and just curius, you dont know the dimensions of Burley's reach do you? Ive lent his book out and im guessing you may know, him being obviously of interest to you.

If anyone knows by the way, please tell.

Must be 70-something inches?

 

On that footage they do look ridiculously long though for his body! SuzieQ did post that Bivins' was 80 inches, that seems absolutely unbeleivable, a man who was 5 foot 11 at very very most, more like 5 foot 9 probably.

Thanks for the info there.

 

Wow... Great stuff. Had zero idea Louis was so cunning.

 

I thought the same.

And Suzie, when you read this its not saying anything bad about you like you're a liar or anything, so dont go crazy!!!!!!

Just my brain finds them dimensions hard to comprehend!

 

Joe Louis was once asked to pose for a photo eating fried chicken and water melon. He turned the shot down, politely, on the basis that he didn't like those foods. Apparentely, Louis's management smiled to themselves when this happened: they knew that Louis loved fried chicken and water melon, but was savvy of the fact that his photographs didn't just tell a story about Joe Louis, but also about all African Americans. Arguably Louis understood his role as an icon better than any other heavyweight champion.

 

Great thread.

After the Galento fight:

Reporter: "He hit you with a pretty good left, Joe."

Joe: "Yeah well, I hit him with my right too."

After the same fight:

Reporter: "Did he hit you hard, Joe?"

Joe: "He hit me hard enough to knock me down, and I guess that's hard enough."

Joe, commenting on Schmeling after the weigh-in for their first fight:

"Boy, that German sure was a cool bird." (Joe was surprised at how confident Max looked.)

There is some contention about Joe's famous comment (which later became a rallying cry) in a speech he gave about America entering the war, "We're gonna win, because we're on God's side."

Some contend that it was a Louis original, other claim Louis botched up a prepared speech, which originally read "We're gonna win 'cause God is on our side."

Whatever the truth, it was used on recrutement posters during the war and Joe even received a phone call from the President praising him for that particular quote.

He of course is also responsible for the classic line "He can run, but he can't hide." before the second Conn fight.

 

"What's the use of crying? The better man won, that's all. I'm not too disappointed. I just hope everyone feels the same way that I do." - Louis after losing to Rocky Marciano.