The other day, the cable station TCM aired The Joe Louis Story a biopic from 1953. Like The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) both the subjects of the bios were still alive at the time. In fact, Robinson played himself in the 1950 movie. The two films were tributes to Black progress. Louis famously knocked out Hitler’s Aryan darling Max Schmeling in 1938; Robinson broke the color line in Major League Baseball in 1947.
What was curious about the Joe Louis film was that it ended on a sour note. While the movie chronicled the champ’s rise to fame, it also documented his fall, literally at the hands of Rocky Marciano in 1951. This while Louis was still an icon of the Black community and would live on for another 20 years. Joe’s mistake was to come out of retirement which the movie rubbed in with the closing line “Joe, we wish you luck.” Ouch!
The fight that did Joe Louis in was fought on October 26, 1951. Louis had finished his first career as the Heavyweight champ but seriously in debt to the IRS. He had to return to the ring, worn out though he was. His first fight was against Ezzard Charles a fellow Black which he lost on a decision but still standing. The “White hope” at the time was contender Rocco Marchegiano, a New Englander who fought undefeated as Rocky Marciano. Everyone knew it was a mismatch but Louis had debts to pay. By the eighth round Louis was knocked out of the ring by Rocky’s left hook. Louis had suffered the final indignity and waged his final battle.
Marciano went on to become world Heavyweight champ from 1952-1956, the only boxer to win every fight (49-0 with 43 knock-outs). Not even Mohammad Ali equaled that record. Yet, this Rocky has been papered over by Stallone’s Rocky (“Balboa”). His memory resides tenuously within the Boomer generation despite a couple of low budget biopics. Hollywood paid greater attention to Rocky’s contemporaries: Middleweight Rocky Graziano (née Barbella) and Middleweight Jake LaMotta. Somebody Up There Lkes Me (1956) starring Paul Newman and Raging Bull starring Robert DeNiro (1980), respectively, exploited their checkered and controversial lives. Essentially, Rocky Marciano was too upstanding to be a box office draw.
My associate Anthony Vecchione did an excellent piece on Marciano that you can read in Issue XLII of The Italic Way, in our online Research Library. Nicknamed the “Brockton Blockbuster” (south of Boston), this Rocky wasn’t a dese dem and dose denizen of the street. His regional accent was closer to the Kennedy’s than the Corleones. He was a devoted family man, a gentleman who apologized after decking Joe Louis, and a successful businessman in retirement. Sadly, he died in a private plane crash in 1969 a day before his 46the birthday. In short, not the stuff for a Hollywood stereotype.
Back to Jackie Robinson’s story, a name that has been implicated in Jackie’s ‘forced’ retirement from the LA Dodgers is “Buzzie Bavasi” the team’s longtime General Manager. The story has it that Bavasi ‘disrespected’ Robinson and was trading him to the NY Giants in 1957. It was supposedly the last straw for Jackie, being ‘forced’ into retirement. But his age and diabetes were having their effects, and he already had a job lined up as a vice president at Chock Full o’Nuts.
Bavasi was Manhattan-born. His father had emigrated from Marseilles, France, a heavily Italian city at the time, his mother’s surname was Maggio. Whether he was a bigot is clearly deniable. This is from an interview of the Bavasi family by a Seattle reporter in 2003:
The truth is, all the Bavasi boys revere their dad (and their overlooked mom, Evit), who served as an infantryman in World War II and once, as general manager of the Dodgers’ Nashua farm club, challenged to a fight an entire opposing team that had been race-baiting black players Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe. [Note: Newcombe later named his daughter Evit. Corroboration?]
Ending someone else’s career isn’t a great memory to carry around. But as you can see, there’s more behind such tales. Rocky Marciano and Buzzie Bavasi knew their craft well, each rubbed shoulders with sports legends of every shade. But, too soon forgotten. -JLM
Recent Comments