Читать книгу Jacobs Beach. The Mob, the Garden and the Golden Age of Boxing онлайн

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However good and fleeting a story Braddock's was, everyone at the time knew the best heavyweight boxer in the world was Joe Louis. Mike Jacobs knew, the kids stealing nickels from the pay phones knew, the president of the United States knew. Jimmy Johnston wasn't so sure. And the reason was Joe Louis was black. Johnston's reign as matchmaker at the Garden was, predictably, troublingly racist. The Garden, advised by Johnston, reflected the wider view in the business that fight fans wanted a white heavyweight champion. It was a prejudice that was to cost Jimmy the ride of his life.

In a single phone conversation with Joe's manager, John Roxborough, Johnston properly gave the game away.

Roxborough phoned Johnston to see if he could find a place for Louis on a Garden bill, after Joe's string of impressive wins in the Midwest, including two over the well-regarded Lee Ramage.

“If he comes here,” Johnston told Roxborough, “he'll be expected to lose a few. I don't care if he's knocked out Ramage. He's still colored. . . . Don't you have any white boys out there?”