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

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Joe, simply, was too good for Max. Defeat did embarrass the Nazis, of course. And how good was that? But it had no tangible effect on their evil intent. It did not stop them annexing the Sudetenland in October. It did not delay their invasion of Poland the following September to start a world war. It hardly shamed them into treating Jews, Gypsies, and communists as human beings. But it did give Max Schmeling the opportunity to acknowledge that Joe Louis was the best heavyweight in the world and, by so doing, secure his own place in history.

It did also, briefly and dramatically, make America and what would come to be called the Free World feel uplifted. But soon enough the clamor faded, and everyone got back to business. It was, in the end, just a fight. As Mike Jacobs knew, it was business.

For Joe, and others, the money kept rolling in as the world slipped into its second global conflagration: John Henry Lewis, January 25, 1939, at Madison Square Garden, earned Joe $34,413; Jack Roper, April 17, 1939, at Wrigley Field, $34,850; Two-Ton Tony Galento, June 28, 1939, at Yankee Stadium, $114,332.17.