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

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Having made no progress with Johnston, Roxborough got to work on Jacobs. Roxy went out of his way to assure the almost totally white fight-writing fraternity that Joe Louis would not be photographed with white women, wouldn't be seen alone in nightclubs, wouldn't have an easy or fixed fight, wouldn't humiliate a beaten foe by standing over him in triumph, would not “showboat” in any way, but would be a clean-living young athlete of which America, all of America, could be proud.

Joe went along with most of it—apart from the “clean-living” bit; he chased women, white or black, voraciously.

But they did a deal. Jacobs did the deal of his life; Joe did the only deal on offer. He wasn't complaining. All he wanted to do was fight. He didn't read the contracts, he just listened to his handlers, got fit, and knocked out anyone they put in front of him. To Joe, it could not be simpler. Eventually, of course, it would become so complex it would wreck his life. For now, though, he was a young, black, fighting genius rushing toward his destiny.