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

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After the deal was done—behind Louis's back—the fighter would go to work to make everyone rich. First, though, Gould had to get Braddock out of his fight with Schmeling.

Germany in 1937 was an arrogant, menacing place. Hitler had held his Olympics the year before and he had in Schmeling a high-profile heavyweight with whom to peddle the message of Aryan supremacy.

There is a story, first written in 1950 by Budd Schulberg, that Joe Gould told Germany's propaganda minister Josef Goebbels in uncomplicated terms what he thought of Hitler's wish that Braddock defend his title against Schmeling in Germany.

The telephone exchange is said to have finished with Gould informing Goebbels that $500,000 up front and an American referee would not be enough to clinch the fight.

“The third point,” Gould said matter-of-factly, “is that you get Hitler to stop kicking the Jews around. Unless he gives them back full citizenship and property rights, you know what you and Max can do with your fight.”

Gould the saint and wit? It is a departure from everything we know about Gould to regard him as a moralist first and a businessman second. Besides, who'd want to take the title to Germany?