Happy 100th birthday to Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber, who was perhaps the greatest heavyweight champion. I think he had a better range of opponents than Muhammad Ali.
Here we have an ad from the February, 1944
Moviemakers for 8 or 16mm movies of Joe Louis' famous fights. I remember ads like from
The Ring magazine. I could never afford the movies.
Castle Films was an early home movie distributor, which later became famous for cut-down 8mm versions of Abbott and Costello and Universal horror films. They offered two reels, with two fights each.
The huge Buddy Baer, brother of former heavyweight champ Max Baer, acted in many Hollywood movies. After their second fight, Buddy Baer said "The only way I could have beaten Louis that night was with a baseball bat." Here is their first fight.
Abe Simon later appeared in
On the Waterfront.
Billy Conn, former light heavyweight champ, did well in his first fight against Joe Louis until he tried to knock him out in the thirteenth round. Louis knocked him out in the thirteenth round.
In On the Waterfront, after Marlon Brando said the famous line "I coulda been a contender," his brother, played by Rod Steiger, said "You could have been another Billy Conn."
Click on the image to see a larger version.
