Joe Louiseducational

MY SCRIPT
an original screenplay by
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Joe Louis: An American Romance
By David Sherman January 2011
OLD JOE LOUIS, 66, is in a tuxedo, lying on a rubbing table

in the centre of a boxing ring, his arms folded across his
chest. Behind him are the gaudy bright colours of a Las
Vegas casino, purples, reds and blues. Above is the flashing
marquee of Caesar's Palace. Video screens capture his image
from above. He's dressed in a tux, a small cut over his
eye.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Why you say that? ... I ain't
scared. I'm Joe Louis. I'm not
afraid of anything. ... I have
everything I need. ... Great left.
(Punching the air.)
Great right.
(Punching the air.)
Great women.
(Thrusts his pelvis
upward.)
I'm the heavyweight champion of the
world. ... I shake hands for a living.
'How are ya? Looking good.'
(Hollow laugh.)
Me? Still got a few rounds left.
(Punches the air with
both fists.)
Right? I do, don't I?
(Loud, angry.)
Don't I?
OLD JOE LOUIS takes a violin that's under the table and begins
to play as he lies there. He is tired, looking as if he's
just gone 10 rounds with the devil.
He begins to play poorly, the bow scratching the strings.

Then a string orchestra comes in, transcending his violin,
overpowering it and is soon joined by the rest of the
orchestra. The music is haunting, beautiful. On the video
screens we see him play, his eyes closed, lost in the music
and in time. The Vegas marquee gives way to black and white
footage of moments of Louis's life, in and out of the ring,
the way a drowning man might see images of his past flash
before him. Lights come up over a woman, THE AUDITOR,30-
40, in a business suit, ENTERING. She sits at the table,
unpacks her attaché case, displaying an array of files.
Then a package of cigarettes and a Zippo lighter. The
orchestra falls away. Louis watches her amused. The orchestra
fades out.
2.
THE AUDITOR
Good afternoon, Mr. Louis. ... Sorry
I'm late.
(Unpacking her attaché
case.)
OLD JOE looks confused as she takes out a little clock,

pencils, pens, an electric calculator with a roll of paper
attached, which she plugs into the floor socket, arranges
them in front of her, neatly, purposefully. He climbs off
the table and stands watching her, his arms folded.
THE AUDITOR (CONT'D)

I'm Frankie. Remember? ... Good.
Mr. Louis, the office is getting
impatient.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Want a drink?
OLD JOE LOUIS studies her in his characteristic deadpan. She

shuffles through her case.
THE AUDITOR
(Forceful.)
Remember? IRS? World champion of
life destroying?
(Arranges papers,
files, her clock)
Think of me as Ms. Robin Hood. I
collect from people that have it to
give to people who don't.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I do the same thing. I have it. I
give it away.
THE AUDITOR
(OLD JOE is not paying
attention. He's
watching people stroll
by in the casino.)
You won't find chorus girls in federal
prison.
OLD JOE LOUIS

They'll find me.
THE AUDITOR
We're going through all of this,
year by year, fight by fight, see
if we can't come to some conclusions.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Nice figure. You jog?
3.
THE AUDITOR
(She pauses, taking
him in, it seems,
for the first time.)
You're bleeding.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Some old lady wanted to kiss me, cut
me with a hat pin. ... Last night
or ... When was that? ... They love
me, you know. They really love me.
THE AUDITOR
I'm sure they do. Personally, I
think prize fights are a bunch of
macho bullshit, but ...
(Reading through a
file, showing him a
yellowed clipping.)
You once beat a man in 27 seconds?
Fastest fight in history?
OLD JOE LOUIS

Was feeling a little sluggish that
day.
THE AUDITOR
(Working the
calculator, punching
numbers quickly, the
printer grinding out
the paper.)
You made thirty-five thousand dollars
for 27 seconds work.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Warm up took a few minutes.
THE AUDITOR
That works out to exactly seventy
thousand a minute. In an hour that
would be exactly four million, two
hundred ... that's a lot of money
for a ... anyone.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Laughing.)
Eddie Simms. Cleveland. 1936. Poor
Eddie.
Came to, asked the ref to take a
walk up on the roof. Thought he was
a she. ... Him or me, you know? It
was always him or me.
(MORE)
4.
OLD JOE LOUIS (CONT'D)

... Fight a white man in front of
75,000 white people ... you get the
hell out of there as fast as you
can.
THE AUDITOR
(Measuring him
thoughtfully.)
If I punched out a man in front of
75,000 people, I'd hang around and
gloat.
(She flips through a
file.)
ENTER BLACKIE, Louis's trainer, a black man in a cap,

sweatshirt and trousers held up by suspenders and YOUNG JOE
LOUIS, in boxing trunks and gloves.
BLACKIE
You got to jump when I say jump,
sleep when I say sleep. ... I'm
not working with you you going to be
another Jack Johnson. Goddamn Johnson
was one uppity nigger. Understand
me?
YOUNG JOE LOUIS/OLD JOE LOUIS

Sure.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I never learned to be an uppity
nigger. I was a cultured negro.
Played violin, played golf, had
horses, right kid? We were the cat's
ass.
BLACKIE
Listen up, Chappie.
(Reading from a sheet
of paper, a bottle
in a brown paper bag
in his other hand
that he sips from on
occasion. )
Only way they'll let you climb in
that ring for a title shot is to be
is to be whiter than a goddamn
snowflake. Whitey gotta love ya.
You got those commandments burned
into your brain?
KU KUX KLANNER ENTERS in hood and robe. Stands beside YOUNG

JOE.
5.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Before a fight I say the bum is great.
KU KUX KLANNER
You call us sir!
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

After a fight, I say the bum is
great.
KU KUX KLANNER
We call you boy or George.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I beat a white man, I don't gloat, I
don't smile. I never smile. I got
it.
KU KUX KLANNER
You come into my livingroom, you
better be holding a cleaning rag.
Got it?
OLD JOE LOUIS

I always got it.
BLACKIE
(He takes the bag the
bottle is in and
holds it up to YOUNG
JOE's face.)
Good, good, Chappie. Easier on the
white man if they get the shit beaten
out of them by a darkie that's not
too dark.
KU KUX KLANNER
We come down the sidewalk you make
room, right?
BLACKIE
Starting now, you drink milk, read
your bible, love your mother to death.
And, listen up Chappie, don't be
caught with no white woman.
A slinky WHITE WOMAN ENTERS, stylishly dressed and made up.

She walks up to YOUNG JOE, caresses him, nibbles on his ear.
WOMAN
Me and you, Joe ... Just the two of
us. ... Quietly.
(She rubs his biceps,
strokes his thighs.)
6.
YOUNG JOE
I can't.
WOMAN
I hear you can. The girls are saying
"You don't know it's broke until Joe
Louis fixes it."
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Got to keep away from white women.
WOMAN
Only in public, Joe. If you come
softly 'round the back, behind the
bedroom door, I can sure use some
fixin'. ...
KU KUX KLANNER
You come knocking, you use the
backdoor.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Lead the way.
The WOMAN glides away and EXITS with YOUNG JOE as OLD JOE
watches them. UK KUX KLANNER disappears.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I loved women. White, black, yellow,
didn't matter. Could never get
enough. And neither could they. I
was a killer. Wasn't even fair.
THE AUDITOR digs through her large bag, taking out yogurt
containers, chocolate bars, nuts.
THE AUDITOR
I have a Band-Aid in here somewhere.
She pulls out a pair of pantyhose she quickly stuffs into

her jacket pocket and then a Band-Aid from her bag.

Here.
(She hands it to him
but he just looks at
her.)
You want to bleed all over the table?
OLD JOE LOUIS

That's not blood.
He takes it, wipes the blood with his bare hand and sticks
the band-aid on his face, missing the cut.
7.
The AUDITOR looks at him then adjusts the Band-Aid, takes a

tissue and wipes the blood from his face.

Never had a corner man as foxy as
you.
THE AUDITOR
(Lighting a cigarette.)
I told you, you're wasting your
breath. I am here to twist your arm
until you say, "Uncle, I am going to
pay." And you will pay. 'Cause, Mr.
Louis, when it comes to income tax,
I'm the champion of the world.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Mr. Louis. I like that. You know
I'm a hell of a puncher. Knocked
out the first six men I fought.
REPORTER ONE
(Banging away at her
typewriter.)
Louis is one-cell beastie of the
mire and steaming ooze period.
OLD JOE watches as YOUNG JOE LOUIS finishes his workout with
BLACKIE and BLACKIE hands him a newspaper and picks up a
bottle and pours a drink. Toasts OLD JOE.
REPORTER TWO
The Chocolate Chopper, the Mahogany
Mauler is a splendid, vicious male
animal.
REPORTER THREE
The Ebony Elephant, the Polished
Puma, the Harlem Hippo was made for
fighting and nothing else.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I hear the shit they write about me.
What do I need to read it for?
BLACKIE
They think it, they write it, you
read it. Make you tough. Make you
angry. Get in the ring, use it.
Read!
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(Reading slowly. )
Oscillating Ocelot? ... Why am I
always some kind of weird animal?
8.
BLACKIE
You an animal, you ain't human.
That way they don't feel so bad when
you kick their ass.
YOUNG JOE tosses the paper aside and picks up his golf clubs.
OLD JOE picks up the newspaper and begins to crumple pages.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Laughing.)
How about we shoot nine holes? Not
a bad course for the desert. ...
Sand traps are a bitch.
(Looking for something
to do with the
crumpled paper.)
Got to plug up the air-conditioner.
Damn Texan's listening.
BLACKIE
You're supposed to be sparring,
running, jumping rope. Not cooking
yourself under the sun chasing a
little white ball. No wonder I drink.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(Swinging a club.)
C'mon Chappie. I'm twenty-seven and
zero.
I got women, important friends,
money, power and a hell of a right
hand. Max Smellin's just another
bum.
BLACKIE
(To YOUNG JOE LOUIS.)
His name's Schmeling.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Yeah. Smellin'.
BLACKIE
Chappie, coloured men don't play
golf. It's like booze with you.
You're an addict.
OLD JOE looks around the casino, pauses, thinks, watches

YOUNG JOE LOUIS swing a club as BLACKIE looks on.
BLACKIE (CONT'D)
And you're following your dick around
like a school boy, collecting women.
You never get rid of them, you just
keep adding to your harem.
9.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

What can I tell you? They love me,
man?
BLACKIE
I can tell you Schmeling's going to
beat the shit out of you, if Marva
doesn't do it first.
(He sips again from
the bottle, sees
Young Joe's
displeasure.)
Just a small one. You're training.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Back then, golf was the only way to
get close to a white man with a club
and not get shot.
THE AUDITOR
Mr. Louis. I took black studies,
read Black Like Me. I watched the
riots. I saw the hoses. I marched
in spirit with Dr. King. I know about
oppression. I've read Betty Friedan.
... I don't suppose you've read Gloria
Steinem's After Black Power, Women's
Liberation.
OLD JOE LOUIS watches her curiously, sizing her up.

Okay, okay, they don't lynch us.
But they rape us. And just cause
you don't see them doesn't mean the
chains don't cut our flesh.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Which college you go to? ... Sent my
sister to college. First one in the
family. Full ride. I have a real
good life now.
THE AUDITOR
(Talking like a nurse
to a patient, almost
as if he's a child.)
Listen to me. The guys in the office
have your picture on the wall. And
every day they throw a few more darts
into it. They live to bring down
high rollers like you. And I'm going
to show them.
(MORE)
10.

There's a job open, District Manager,
and I'm the first woman to have a
shot at it and I want it. It would
be a hell of a promotion. So we're
going to work this out, right? Just
you and me.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Amused.)
Tell your buddies in the office they
can put on the gloves, step into the
ring with me anytime.
THE AUDITOR
We put handcuffs on you, you're going
to step into a cell. We're going to
go through this file, the fights,
the purses, the expenses ...
(Flipping through a
file.)
You fought Billy Conn ...
OLD JOE LOUIS

Tough little kid. He could run but
he couldn't hide.
THE AUDITOR
... Five hundred thousand dollars.
And, Mr. Louis, Primo Carnera, sixty
thousand dollars.
(She punches a few
numbers into the
calculator, and it
noisily pushes out a
ribbon of white paper.)
OLD JOE LOUIS

Call me Joe.
THE AUDITOR
(Flipping through her
file.)
Harry Levinsky, fifty-three thousand
dollars, that was a lot of money for
...
OLD JOE LOUIS

For a black man?
THE AUDITOR
I didn't say that.
11.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Those were the days. Sitting around
the Cotton Club with some sweet,
beautiful girls.
DUKE ELLINGTON ENTERS is a tuxedo jacket and sits down, begins

to play A Sad Night in Harlem as THE AUDITOR disappears.

Remember Duke? Champagne flowed
like water, cigarette girls, chorus
girls, movie stars. They didn't let
coloureds in, but they let us in.
Me and Jack, Paul Robeson, Louis
Armstrong.
(OLD JOE listens to
the tune Duke plays.)
We used to laugh. "Talk softly and
carry a big stick, and ..."
DUKE ELLINGTON/OLD JOE LOUIS

"Make sure you forget the stick."
OLD JOE LOUIS

Just get along.
(Gesturing to the
casino.)
Got me in here, too. You did okay,
Duke. ...
DUKE ELLINGTON
Change the world one song at a time,
Whitey swings, maybe he won't hate.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I used to bring Marva here, sit at
the piano. Bought her a beautiful,
long shiny car. Bigger than the
shack we had back on the farm. Every
time I messed up, I bought her
something. Man, bought that woman a
lot of somethings. ... She was maybe
19. Married her. Twice.
MARVA
(Beautifully dressed,
dripping furs and
jewelry.)
You really think furs, jewelry, cars,
would make up for the fact you fucked
everything in a skirt? All I wanted
was a real husband.
(She turns and EXITS
and OLD JOE watches.)
12.
DUKE stands and EXITS. THE AUDITOR reappears as the lights

go up.
OLD JOE LOUIS

They say money talks. All it ever
said to me was goodbye. I had four
wives, more girlfriends than a rooster
in a hen house. ... I was alive. I
was the man! Why can't you people
leave me alone?
THE AUDITOR
Everybody let you do exactly what
you wanted. And look at the mess
you're in.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Look around, girl. I shake hands
for a living.
People line up to take their picture
with me. I smile all I want. Nobody
writes garbage about me anymore.
Beautiful women everywhere. I'm in
heaven.
THE AUDITOR
What if your next front-page photo
shows you dragged into federal prison?
OLD JOE LOUIS

Get real, lady. I was a war hero
before the war even started.
Everybody's my friend.
THE AUDITOR
It's 1981, Mr. Louis. 1981. No one
gives a damn how many fights you won
a hundred years ago.
OLD JOE LOUIS watches YOUNG JOE LOUIS, prepped for a fight,
with BLACKIE, in his dressing room, shadowboxing as he walks.
MAX SCHMELING ENTERS in overcoat, carrying a suitcase, and
walks to a radio microphone that drops from the rafters.
Ship foghorn sounds.
MAX SCHMELING
I am happy to be back in America to
finally meet Joe Louis. I have seen
a weakness. When he shoots his left
I can cross my right over it and
score.
13.
BLACKIE
You want to be heavyweight champion
of the world? Max Schmeling is the
first step. Go get 'im.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

He's DOA, man.
They EXIT to the sounds of a fight crowd. OLD JOE LOUIS is

suddenly somber, watches for several beats.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Shoulda listened to Blackie, kid,
thrown away the golf clubs and kept
it in your pants. ... It was ugly.
PAUSE. CROWD NOISE, roar, shouts, boos. ... BLACKIE RETURNS

to the dressing room, supporting a groggy and bruised YOUNG
JOE LOUIS still in trunks and gloves.
YOUNG JOE has just had his bell rung. BLACKIE helps him
flop onto the training table between OLD JOE LOUIS and THE
AUDITOR.

(Talking to groggy
YOUNG JOE.)
You fucked up.
YOUNG JOE is lying on the training table between The AUDITOR

and OLD JOE LOUIS, crying, Blackie massaging his arms and
legs.
They stare at each other like prizefighters, daggers in their

eyes. OLD JOE stands, his fists clenched. LENA HORNE ENTERS.
BLACKIE
Coloured people are pissed. They're
rioting in Harlem. Lighting bonfires,
stoning streetcars. Your face is a
mess. You let everyone down.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Don't I have the right to lose once
in a while?
BLACKIE
No. You're Joe Louis. You can't
lose. You're a coloured man, see?
(Holding up the paper
bag to YOUNG JOE's
face.)
If you want a shot at the title, you
got to be perfect.
14.
MAX SCHMELING ENTERS in a robe, sweaty and exultant, steps

up to a radio mike. Nazi flags descend, triumphant music
plays.
MAX SCHMELING
(In thick German
accent.)
I would not have taken this fight if
I did not think I, a white man, could
beat a coloured man. I will tell
the Führer that he and his faithful
people gave me the courage to win
for Germany.
REPORTER
Hitler is so in love with Joe Jacobs
Max Schmeling's Jewish manager, he's
going to name a concentration camp
after him.
(Laughing at her own
prose.)
MAX SCHMELING
(To YOUNG JOE LOUIS.)
You were a little cocky, yah, Joe?
You really think a negro was going
to beat me?
REPORTER at the typewriter at ringside, a Swastika on her

arm.
REPORTER
Max Schmeling has saved the reputation
of the white race. The myth of Joe
Louis is smashed, smashed for all
times.
MAX SCHMELING
(Laughing, reading
from a newspaper. )
Schmeling made the chocolate drop.
... Max smashed that nigger.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I don't want to see anyone. ...
Couldn't make my left hooks behave,
couldn't make anything behave.
REPORTER
Louis was obviously drugged.
REPORTER TWO
Someone slipped a virus into his
water.
15.
REPORTER THREE
His wife just plain wore him out.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(Lying on training
table, hands over
his eyes.)
I just forgot to duck.
REPORTER
The black terror is just another
human being. The big bad wolf has
been chased from the door.
REPORTER TWO
An idol fell last night and the
crashing was so complete, so dreadful,
it broke the hearts of the negroes
of the world.
REPORTER ONE
Hey Joe, Jack Johnson says you can't
jab.
REPORTER TWO
Digest says lazy's in your blood.
REPORTER THREE
Is it true you can eat half a dozen
chickens before your nap?
REPORTER ONE
What d'ya say, Joe? That why
Schmeling got you, you piece of shit?
LENA HORNE SLIDES onto the table with YOUNG JOE LOUIS, cradles
him in her arms.
LENA HORNE
Every time Schmeling hit you, he was
hitting me and everyone I've ever
known. Guys in the band were crying.
For the first time, it sounded like
you were just another negro being
beaten by a white man.

Just another negro.
LENA HORNE
But I know you're not. You can't
be. I'll never let you be just
another anything.
16.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

What does Lena Horne want with a
sharecropper's son? I can barely
read. I think a thick steak is almost
as beautiful as you. When you sing,
I get tears in my eyes.
LENA HORNE
I love the way you look at me so
innocent. Like a boy. I love how
you think a steak is beautiful.
How you have a touch like a feather
but you step into the ring and make
a white man wish he had never been
born.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I lost. I fucked up. I'm nothing.
LENA HORNE
You are the champ. You're the one
invincible negro, the one who stands
up to the white man and beats him
down with his fists. And you never
say a bad word about anybody.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Not sure talking solves anything.
LENA HORNE
When you have to, you're all steel
and fury. You teach the white man
humility. It's like a calling.
Like Moses, coming down from the
mountain, saying we can do it. With
you we have hope.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

My mother gave me money for violin
lessons, make me a respectable
coloured person. Use my hands without
breaking them on people's heads.
She wanted me to be someone. I used
her money for boxing lessons. Never
learned the violin.
LENA HORNE
You're Joe Louis, the only someone
we got. You'll never be just another
negro!

I love you. /I loved her.
17.
YOUNG JOE and LENA climb off the table. YOUNG JOE EXITs but
Lena seems to move around the ring, watching OLD JOE. THE
AUDITOR opens a small tub of yogurt and picks up a spoon.
OLD JOE LOUIS

You ever been to a fight?
THE AUDITOR
It's macho bullshit.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I climb through the ropes, all I'm
thinking is 'Him or me, him or me.'
I smell blood. They're dying to see
the coloured boy go down. ... How
can you do that without knowing
anything about this?
THE AUDITOR
Everything is about numbers on a
page.
(They stare at each
other again.)
Fifteen rounds? Twenty-five title
fights? You'd like to hit me,
wouldn't you?
OLD JOE LOUIS

(He's watching LENA
nervously as she
finally EXITS slowly,
her eyes on him.)
Don't hit women.
THE AUDITOR
You don't? ... But you'd like to,
wouldn't you? I mean that's what
you do. ... I could see how it might
be cathartic. ... There're a few
guys I'd like to hit. Like the freak
who keeps grabbing my ass in the
elevator.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Let me tell you a secret.
(Looks around as if
to make sure no one
can hear him.)
I loved to hit white men, see their
eyeballs spin like cherries in a
slot machine. DOA.
THE AUDITOR
I'd like to knock the guys in the
office on their ass.
18.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Know how far a good jab travels?
(He demonstrates.)
Six, eight inches and you can damn
near take a man's head off.
(He throws a few jabs.)
Bam! Bam! Try it. Right from the
shoulders, get the body behind it.
Make you feel good.
THE AUDITOR
No.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Try it. Bam! Bam! Like that. Bam.
Bam.
THE AUDITOR
No, thanks.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Don't know how to defend yourself,
they walk all over you. ... They
walk all over you anyway.
THE AUDITOR
I won't walk all over you, Mr. Louis.
I'll drop a building on you.
(Running through the
calculator keys, the
machine spitting out
paper.)
You earned four million, six hundred
and seventy seven thousand, nine
hundred and ninety two dollars.
Your federal income tax is one
million, one hundred and ninety nine
thousand dollars. With penalties
and interest you owe one and one
quarter million dollars. One and
one quarter million. So here it is,
Mr. Louis. I don't know how and I
don't care, but you got two days.
Two days. You write me that check
or you'll be shaking hands with the
cons at Leavenworth.
(Collects her papers
and stuffs them in
her attaché case.)
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Puts his fists down.)
How am I supposed to defend myself
against the United States of America?
19.
THE AUDITOR
You don't. Have a nice day.
(She EXITS.)
OLD JOE LOUIS

I got a headache.
OLD JOE rubs his temples. Enter JACK JOHNSON, tall, beautiful
black man in well-cut suit, carrying a walking stick, looking
elegant and well groomed, two gold teeth shining in the middle
of his mouth.

Go away! I got to deal with her. I
can't deal with you, too, Jack. Get
out!
JACK JOHNSON
Can't get rid of me. You bought into
all that shit and look where it got
you.
OLD JOE LOUIS

What about you? Least I was discreet.
Did my white women where no one had
to know.
JACK JOHNSON
White women are worth the trouble
cause they're easy to find in the
dark. And they love us because we
eat cold eels and think distant
thoughts.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I need something for my head.
JACK JOHNSON
Stop taking crap from the white girl!
White girls are supposed to be afraid
of us, worried we're going to go
tribal. Makes 'em lubricious. One
night with us, they're singing Motown.
You got to show her, man.
OLD JOE LOUIS

You've always been one uppity ...
black man.
JACK JOHNSON
Nigger.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I don't like that word.
20.
JACK JOHNSON
Say it. I'm an uppity nigger. Isn't
that what they told you?
OLD JOE LOUIS

They hated you.
OLD JOE LOUIS and JACK JOHNSON face each other in the centre
of the ring and start to circle each other with raised fists.
JACK JOHNSON
They hate us all! We didn't fight
boxing matches. We fought race wars.
OLD JOE LOUIS

You never knew your place.
JACK JOHNSON
I'm Jack Johnson. My place was in
the centre of the ring with my fists
raised. My place was between the
delicious legs of every woman that
wanted me. My place was at the table!
OLD JOE LOUIS

You never had the patience. ... We
all paid for your ...?
JACK JOHNSON
Impertinence? That the word you
looking for? You think they love
you? Yassuh, boss, they love you.
That's why you're broke, snorting up
coke and kissing the white man's
hand. They should be anointing your
feet with oil.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I got friends. Paul Anka, Frank
Sinatra ...
JACK JOHNSON
You're their Sammy Davis the Second.
They don't love you. They feel sorry
for you.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I'll knock you on your ass. I was
the man. You hate 'em and you're
just like 'em. Just gotta stay cool.
They'll come around.
They circle each other, OLD JOE LOUIS moving slow, fists up.
21.
JACK JOHNSON
They'll come around ... with a long
rope, looking for a high branch.
Strange fruit, my ass! ... You're
nothing but a doorman dressed like a
penguin. ...
OLD JOE LOUIS

You were always bad mouthing me. Why
don't you leave me alone? Why can't
someone turn the damn air conditioner
off?
OLD JOE reaches into his pocket and counts a few bills.
JOHNSON shakes his head and majestically EXITS. OLD JOE
LOUIS, fists up, slowly stalks the ring, head cocked,
listening.
OLD JOE is watching YOUNG JOE struggling with a newspaper as

Blackie stacks towels.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Says I'm controlled by group of
'nigger mobsters.'
BLACKIE
I'm no mobster, Chappie. I don't
just sell numbers, I sell dreams.
Man don't have a dream, he starts in
with booze and dope – and that's a
one-way ticket to the new American
slavery – prison. I know that trip
too damn well.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

All I need to do is keep on hitting
people.
BLACKIE
And learn to read for when you can't
hit 'em no more.
THE AUDITOR ENTERS, places her case on the table and pulls
out a sheaf of papers. YOUNG JOE EXITS.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Hey, how you doing today? It's a
scorcher, reminds me of Alabama in
August. 'How about a nice swim?
Cool you right down.
THE AUDITOR
You know what would be cool? A check.
I need your check.
22.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I'm working on it.
THE AUDITOR
I'm not some little woman afraid to
piss you off!? I'm really not!
OLD JOE LOUIS

You a black man, you piss someone
off just by showing up.
THE AUDITOR
This has nothing to do with the colour
of your skin.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Everything I am begins with that one
five-letter word. Black. I'm a black
man. Black boxer. Black celebrity.
Black. It don't wash off. See?
He takes THE AUDITOR's hand. She's surprised and almost

pulls it away. He presses it against his, turning their
hands to marvel at the difference in their skin colours.

My colour is the lock on the door
and there is no key.
THE AUDITOR
My sex is the lock on the door. And
sex is the key. ... My mother told
me nice girls don't use it.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Your mother shoulda met the girls I
knew. They were all nice.
BLACKIE hands YOUNG JOE LOUIS a skipping rope and YOUNG LOUIS
starts skipping toward OLD JOE LOUIS.
BLACKIE
This is it, Chappie. We got it!
They're going to let you fight Jimmy
Braddock, the Cinderella Man, the
heavyweight champion of the world.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Yes! All right! I can taste the
sweet steak, I can smell the perfume.
Braddock couldn't wipe his ass with
his right hand.
23.
BLACKIE
Chappie, you're the first coloured
man in 30 years to step in the ring
and fight for the championship.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Smellin's was next in line. How'd
you do it, Chappie?
BLACKIE
We made a deal. Schmeling's Hitler's
buddy. They figured better a nigger
than a Nazi. But Cinderella Man
only going to give you a shot if you
pay him.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Whatever it is, pay the man. I'm
going to turn Cinderella Man into a
goddamn pumpkin. And then, Smellin's
next.
BLACKIE
It's a deal with the devil, Chappie.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Don't care. This right hand is a
printing press, Blackie, going to
keep printing those greenbacks.
JACK JOHNSON ENTERS, his arm around WHITE WOMAN, laughing,

with REPORTER who's scribbling notes.
REPORTER ONE
The Shufflin' Sambo gonna fight the
Cinderella Man for the title, Jack,
what do ya think? Can he take 'im?
JACK JOHNSON
Louis can't dance, moves as slow as
a streetcar, trips over the crack in
the sidewalk. He can't block a punch,
good thing he has such a thick head.
Braddock going to mutilate him.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Cinderella Man wanted ten per cent
of everything I made for the next 10
years. He knew he was a mug. I
paid. I always paid. Get your back
taxes from Braddock.
THE AUDITOR
Where is he?
24.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Six feet under.
THE AUDITOR
You made a fortune, Mr. Louis. Where
did it all go?
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Laughing to himself.)
Half of it went on wine, women and
song. ... The other half I wasted.
THE REPORTER SITS and starts typing. JACK JOHNSON, smiling

broadly, moves toward OLD JOE. ARMY OFFICER ENTERS.
JACK JOHNSON
Go on, tell her what a fool you are.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I joined the army, fought a
championship bout with Max Baer and
gave the whole purse to the Navy
Relief Fund. I didn't burn my draft
card, didn't burn the flag. ... I
served my country.
JACK JOHNSON
Tell her how many of your brothers
and sisters were fighting in the
white-glove navy. None, man, none.
Those boats as lily white as a fish
belly. 'Cept for the servants of
course.
ARMY OFFICER
Men live in such intimacy aboard
ship we simply cannot have negroes
above the rank of messmen.
JACK JOHNSON
Tell her. You fought a hundred times
for the army.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Gave the navy fund eighty-six thousand
dollars from one fight alone. You
taxed me on that too.
THE AUDITOR
It was income. We had to tax you.
JACK JOHNSON
Tax for being black.
25.
ARMY OFFICER
(In military cap, to
OLD JOE.)
You push the right buttons: heroism,
patriotism and you keep the coloured
soldiers happy. We need you, boy.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Stands face to face
with ARMY OFFICER.)
My friend Jackie Robinson...
ARMY OFFICER
He knocked out an officer's teeth.
Several teeth. A white officer's
teeth.
OLD JOE LOUIS

The officer called him a nigger,
sir.
ARMY OFFICER
How much you making now, Joe?
OLD JOE LOUIS

Twenty-one dollars a month, sir.
ARMY OFFICER
Not quite the paydays you're used
to, are they boy? My wife back home
needs a new car. You want to save
your friend Robinson, it's going to
cost you a hell of a lot more than
twenty-one dollars.
BLACKIE ENTERS and hands the OFFICER an envelope. The OFFICER

opens it and counts the cash.
ARMY OFFICER (CONT'D)

Thank you boys. Keep your head down.
(OLD JOE watches ARMY
OFFICER EXIT.)
JACK JOHNSON
Yeah, Joe, keep your head down.
Right in the sand.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I never liked money much but it sure
quieted my nerves.
OLD JOE LOUIS laughs as YOUNG JOE LOUIS sips water as BLACKIE
rubs his shoulders and arms.
26.

A fucking saint. Living life in the
shadows; going through the back door.
THE AUDITOR
Try wearing a skirt sometime. Smile
at his jokes. Don't be a tease.
Don't be a slut. ... I don't feel
well.
(She takes a bite of
a chocolate bar.)
BLACKIE
Chicago's never seen so many people.
Black hotels are filled, black people
sleeping in lobbies, nightclubs,
Comiskey Park is sold out. Bleachers
full of black people at $3.50 a
ticket.
He takes the newspaper out of YOUNG JOE LOUIS'S hands and

starts to tape them.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Says here Braddock's going to kill
me. Jack's always mouthing off about
me. Why doesn't he try stepping in
the ring with me?
BLACKIE
Some things you don't need to read.
Remember what I told you. This is
it, Chappie, your shot, championship
of the world. Let 'im come to you.
Make 'im walk into your right. Don't
chase 'im.
(Holding his head.)
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

What's the matter?
BLACKIE
Too much medicinal brandy.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I take Braddock, you stop drinking.
Okay?
BLACKIE
C'mon Chappie, he's waiting.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I take 'im you stop.
27.
BLACKIE
Spent a lot of time behind bars,
Chappie, thirsty for a taste. ...
Sure kid. You win. You take him,
I'm off the sauce. Let's go. Don't
let that man breathe!
YOUNG JOE LOUIS sheds his robe and walks to the centre of
the ring as BLACKIE watches from the corner. LENA HORNE is
in another corner. The crowd roars and suddenly YOUNG JOE
LOUIS is knocked backward and falls onto the canvas, shaking
his head.
BLACKIE (CONT'D)
(Standing over YOUNG
JOE.)
Take your nine count! Take your
nine count!
OLD JOE LOUIS

But stubborn as shit.
Braddock knocked me down. Imagine.
The Cinderella Man knocked me down.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS clambers up, embarrassed, back in fighting

form. Then shadowboxing, heads back to the ring, disappearing
into the darkness.

The crowd loved it. The thought of
a black champ made them want to load
their guns.
THE AUDITOR
Mr. Louis? I have a plan, get you
out of this mess.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Everyone's got a plan ... until they
get hit.
THE AUDITOR
Don't give me any more macho crap.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Telling you the facts of life.
THE AUDITOR
You've been hitting people all your
life. Did it make you feel better?
OLD JOE LOUIS

Yes!
28.
THE AUDITOR
I got hit. I had plans and I got
hit. Okay? Below the belt. But
damned if it's going to stop me. ...
(Chewing furiously.)
OLD JOE LOUIS

Guy hits you with the jab, get right
in there with the uppercut.
(He stands and punches
slowly.)
Bam! See? Don't take no shit.
The AUDITOR stands, faces OLD JOE.
THE AUDITOR
You okay?
OLD JOE LOUIS

Right. Left. Right, left!
THE AUDITOR
That going to solve my problems, get
the guys off my back?
OLD JOE LOUIS

Damn right!
THE AUDITOR
(Still trading harmless
jabs.)
I don't know who to hit.
OLD JOE LOUIS

So many assholes and only two fists.
... You married?
THE AUDITOR
I was not born to make beds, ...
make babies. ... Even making nice
gives me trouble.
(She sits, starts
flipping through her
file, lighting a
cigarette. )
Listen, stay with me here. You got
lots of friends. Everyone loves Joe
Louis, right? Call them up. You're
starting an organization, Friends of
Joe Louis. And they'll donate, I
don't know, ten thousand, twenty-
five thousand. And then you'll write
us a big fat check.
29.
OLD JOE LOUIS

... This isn't work for a woman.
THE AUDITOR
(She bites off a piece
of chocolate.)
I am not some little woman. ... I
have a dream, too.
(Nervous, she flips
through the files,
looking for a
document.)
And that's to not end up like my
mother, a fry pan glued to my hand.
We have a deal?
OLD JOE LOUIS

I'm sorry. I'm relly sorry. But
I'm broke. I'll pay you four hundred
bucks a month.
THE AUDITOR
(Working on the
calculator.)
That would take about thirty-seven
thousand months.
THE AUDITOR reaches into her attaché case and takes out
another small tub of yogurt.

You were just an ignorant kid from
Alabama. Didn't know better. But
you weren't, were you? You had
everything you wanted, long buffet
table, piled high with women and
horses and golf and more women. You
grabbed it all but what'd you give
back? I don't see anywhere that you
paid for the privilege.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I paid in bruises and blood and
humiliation! You have no fucking
idea! I gave it everything I had.
And I deserved everything I got. I
had it, I just didn't keep it.
(He cocks his head as
if he's hearing voices
nibbling at the corner
of his psyche.)
The Texan. Got any newspaper? Need
to plug up those vents.
She puts the yogurt down, wipes her mouth.

30.
THE AUDITOR
I don't want to hear / about ...
OLD JOE LOUIS

The only way/ to get to Schmeling
again was to beat Braddock.
(Lost in the memory.)
He was slow and not too bright but
he could hit. They'll probably make
a movie about him one day. The Great
White Bum.
In the sixth, I fooled around and
waited and then I threw everything
into the right and it landed on his
mouth, splitting his lip. Right
then, I knew.
THE AUDITOR
Stop it!
OLD JOE stalks to the center of the ring, stonefaced, watching

YOUNG JOE LOUIS.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I hit him with a left to the body
and a right to the chin. Braddock
whirled in the air and fell on his
face. He was DOA. Dead On his Ass.
I had turned the Cinderella Man into
a bloody pumpkin. I was the
heavyweight champion of the world.
The Brown Bomber. The Detroit
Destroyer. Me, a cotton picker. I
could barely read. ... I couldn't
dream that big.
(Cocking his head,
listening to sounds
only he can hear.)
You hear that? They're telling you!
They're telling you!
THE AUDITOR
I don't care!
Jumping up and down, YOUNG JOE LOUIS is hugging Blackie.

Blackie kisses Louis's glove.
BLACKIE
Old glove, you sure had dynamite in
you tonight.
REPORTER ONE
Pickaninnies who should have been in
bed paraded the streets in dishpan
bands.
31.
REPORTER TWO
Something sly and sinister and perhaps
not quite human came out of the
African jungle.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

The whole world is my friend and I'm
going to live forever! I've reached
the mountain top! There's nothing I
can't do, nothing I can't have.
REPORTER
When did you think you had it won,
Joe?
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

When I took the match. My only regret
is that I didn't have Smellin' in
the ring tonight.
REPORTER
You mean Schmeling, right Joe?
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

That's what I said, Smellin.'
REPORTER
(Typing.)
It was Christmas Eve in darkest
Africa. For one night, in all the
lurid darktowns of America, the black
man was king.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

You going to stop drinking, Blackie?
BLACKIE
You ain't going to hold me to it,
are you Chappie? C'mon, son. A man
needs refreshment.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I wasn't the black champion, the
Shuffling Sambo. I was the champ!
Period! Of the whole damn world!
You the champ, you the toughest,
meanest son of a bitch on the planet.
Women want to be your lovers, men
want to be your friends. I didn't
talk much. And maybe I thought a
flush toilet was a thing of beauty.
But to my people I was the crystal
cold drink of water they'd never
taste. They cried. They laughed.
(MORE)
32.

I was Jesus Christ. ... They strapped
a man into the gas chamber, in Texas,
and when the pellets were dropping
and the fumes were rising, the poor
bastard was crying, "Save me Joe
Louis, Save me Joe Louis." They
loved me. ... Can't you just say,
'thanks, Joe?'
THE AUDITOR
No!
OLD JOE LOUIS

Cause I'm a black man needs saving?
Or a black man needs whipping? ...
What if I was the old Cinderella
Man? Would the liberal lady be
harassing me?
(He grabs her yogurt
and starts to smear
it on his face.)
THE AUDITOR
We harass everyone.
Frustrated, THE AUDITOR lights a cigarette and looks around,

embarrassed as OLD JOE spreads the yogurt all over his face.

You're making a scene.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Tell me, you still give a shit about
my taxes?
THE AUDITOR
You're a crazy old black man.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Isn't that why you're here?
Save the coloured man cause he's too
ignorant to save himself?
THE AUDITOR
I'm trying. No, that's not what I
... Stop it! I'm here to ...
OLD JOE LOUIS

People love me. Can you say the
same?
THE AUDITOR
No.
33.
JACK JOHNSON ENTERS, WHITE WOMAN at his side, amused as YOUNG

JOE LOUIS, in boxing gear, celebrates.
JACK JOHNSON
(To OLD JOE LOUIS.)
Pretty fucking happy with yourself.
The white man's black man.
(Laughing long and
hard.)
There's a war still raging out there,
Joseph, and you're hiding in here.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I gave my people hope.
JACK JOHNSON
I showed the coloured man the promised
land. Where we can eat the white
man's liver with a silver spoon.
Pluck his eyeballs like sweet grapes.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Where did it get you?
JACK JOHNSON
I gave the white man what he deserved
– bruised ribs – and didn't mind
smiling when I did it. Tell me
something, Mr. Dusky Destroyer, afraid
to show'em we're men? Show her you're
a man?!
OLD JOE LOUIS

I'm not afraid of anything.
JACK JOHNSON
They know we're better than them.
That's why they got to keep us
chained, one way or another. You
could've done more, Joe. You could
have changed things.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Why you always putting me down? I
read what you said in the papers.
JACK JOHNSON
Got to make a buck, Joe, you know
what that's about. They pay me to
talk shit. ... Tell me, Mr. Sepia
Slugger, you ever step in the ring
with Jim Crow? Lay one upside his
head?
34.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I can never be you.
JACK JOHNSON
You're headed to the same place as
the rest of us darkies. Deep down,
you blow off the dust of Jim Crow,
the shame of Uncle Tom, you want to
be like me.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I gave old Jim Crow a few shots, got
the boys into the press box, out of
the back of the bus, whatever I could
do. Just didn't talk about it all
the time. Least they didn't hate me.
What did you do?
JACK JOHNSON
I gave 'em pride! You so happy why
you putting all your money up your
nose?
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Long pause.)
Cause I can never be me again!! ...
I took on Hitler with this fist! I
was in the White House, shook hands
with the president. I was Moses on
the mountain, with my own goddamn
commandments. Now nobody cares if I
live or die.
JACK JOHNSON
(He struts around the
ring, twirling his
cane.)
It's not too late. Stand up to her
Joe, stand up to the man!
OLD JOE LOUIS

I got a headache.
JACK JOHNSON
The Brown Bomber had them dancing in
the streets, hearts full of hope.
And that should be worth a goddamn
tax exemption. But that's what the
tax is for, Joe. A tax on hope.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(To THE AUDITOR.)
You want me to pay for making my
people happy!
35.
THE AUDITOR
Wipe your face!
OLD JOE LOUIS

Here I am, just like they said. Joe
Louis the white man!
JACK JOHNSON
The Uncle Tom.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(To Jack.)
I was never no Uncle Tom! Never!
JACK JOHNSON
... You wanted it all. Big white
house for your mother. White horses.
Chased the little white ball. But
the white women, that was your little
secret. What would they have said
on Park Ave?
(Taking the paper bag
with Blackie's booze
bottle still in it,
holding it up for
comparison.)
You're the right colour. Maybe you
thought you could pass.
THE AUDITOR
You look ridiculous.
JACK JOHNSON
They fed you Braddock, Schmeling,
they never let you in the ring with
Jim Crow. He was the real man, made
sure we pissed in the coloured toilets
and kissed the white man's ass.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I rang his bell a few times, a jab
here and there, Bam! Bam!
The AUDITOR gets up, starts to wipe his face.

Should I've said no to the women,
the money? Stayed out of Hollywood?
Shoulda I have changed my name to
Muhammed X, preached against hair
straightener and skin bleach?
(Raising his arm into
a black power salute.)
Black is beautiful, right on!
36.
JACK JOHNSON
Afraid to freak out all your movie
star buddies.
(Imitating OLD JOE
LOUIS.)
"Everybody loved me."
OLD JOE LOUIS

If you could, wouldn't you forget
the mirror and be white? Wouldn't
you?
JACK JOHNSON
O my Lord, What a morning, O my Lord,
What a feeling; When Jack Johnson,
turned Jim Jeffries,' Snow-white
face, to the ceiling. ... They don't
write poems to white chumps. I'm
Jack Johnson. Heavyweight champion
of the world. I'm black. They never
let me forget it. I'm black all right!
I'll never let them forget it! ...
Jim Crow is still out there, living
the good life. You can take him on
once and for all. They'll listen to
Joe Louis. The city's'll tremble at
the sound of your voice!
OLD JOE LOUIS

Which of us is nuts?
JACK JOHNSON
Do it right this time.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Fight? Big purses now. Cable TV.
Pay per view. Real money.
JACK JOHNSON
We were meant to teach the white man
a lesson.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Why couldn't I fight again? I'm in
shape. I still got it. Yeah. I
can do it. Why not?
(Laughing, punching
the air, feeling
good about himself.
To The Auditor.)
I'm going to get your taxes for you.
All of it. With interest. Make you
a star. Get you that promotion.
(MORE)
37.

(THE AUDITOR watches
him skeptically.)
I'm going to put on the gloves ...
THE AUDITOR doesn't seem to hear him. She finds something

to munch, then looks at him quizzically.

Go back in the ring. I'm going to
fight again.
THE AUDITOR
Mr. Louis, you're 66.
OLD JOE LOUIS

They have old timers hockey, and
seniors golf. Why not old pro boxing?
Me and ... I don't know, maybe Max
and ... I can find people ... They
all need some ...
(Muttering to himself.)
THE AUDITOR
You'll get killed.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I can take Max. I can take anyone.
(He stands, takes off
his shirt.)
Look at me, I still got it.
(His body is flabby
and soft. He begins
to swing, a few jabs,
a slow uppercut. )
With the gate and the TV rights and
the film deal, I'll make twenty
million easy.
(Still swinging.)
I'll be champ again. I'll be Joe
Louis again, I'll ...
He tries a combination, right, left and then an uppercut,

loses his balance and falls down. The AUDITOR goes to help
him up.

... Leave me alone.
(She persists, taking
his arm, helping him
off the floor.)
THE AUDITOR
You all right? I can get a doctor.
38.
OLD JOE LOUIS

We can get $500 a ticket.
(Slow to rise,
grimacing.)
Maybe a thousand ringside. Just
need to train a bit. Get you every
last cent I owe.
THE AUDITOR
Why don't you sit down?
She pours some water, hands it to him. He's flushed and

breathing hard. She helps him put his shirt on.

Mr. Louis, get real. It's more macho
bullshit. ... You're not well.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Of course I'm not well. I got hit
in the head for a living. Goddamn
air conditioner talks to me. I need
a line. But I don't need your
sympathy.
BLACKIE hands YOUNG JOE LOUIS an envelope and YOUNG JOE opens
it, pulls out the bill, stares at it.
BLACKIE
Welcome to the big time. Uncle Sam
wants his cut. Called taxes.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Thirty-five thousand? That's as
much as I made and he didn't throw a
punch.
BLACKIE
Let me explain something to you,
Chappie. This is the management and
training expenses part of every dollar
you make.
(He takes a dollar
bill and tears a
strip off it, throws
it away and waves
what's left.)
This here's your life; horses, cars,
houses, friends, your momma, your
baseball team and girls. You could
start an airline all the girls you
fly to your fights.
(MORE)
39.
BLACKIE (CONT'D)
(Crumples up the rest
of the bill.)
Trouble is the government wants taxes.
Pays for armies so people can shoot
at you, and prisons to lock you in
if you step out of line.
(Taking another bill,
tearing most of it
away.)
So for every dollar you make, they
want about eighty cents.
(Tears a strip off
the bill.)
They also want interest and penalties
on that eighty cents that you haven't
been paying, see? So for every buck
in taxes, you need about a buck
twenty.
(Tossing away the
last piece of the
bill.)
But since your expenses and the high
life are costing you a buck, you in
fact need two dollars and twenty
cents for every dollar you earn.
I've never had a proper education,
no sir, but I can't see how even the
Heavyweight Champion of the World
can turn every dollar he makes into
two dollars and change. Not even
Joe Louis. Chappie, you're fucked.
The sign for the Hollywood Hills lights up and YOUNG JOE
LOUIS lies down on the training table. LANA TURNER climbs
on top of him, pulling a cover over them, and nestles into
his arm. OLD JOE LOUIS watches.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Near died of laughing. Jolson bets
if he wins, he pees on you. I saw
him do it. Just hosed a guy down.
Lana, he's crazy.
LANA TURNER
You punch people in the face for a
living.
(She climbs on top of
him.)
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Would I be in your bed if I was back
at Ford, working the line?
40.
LANA TURNER
Would you want to be in my bed if I
wasn't a movie star?
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Absolutely.
OLD JOE LOUIS

How could you not love America?
I played golf with Al Jolson, made
love with Lana Turner, how am I
supposed to go home to Catherine
Street?
JACK JOHNSON ENTERS and they stare at each other silently.
JACK JOHNSON
You're out there humping movie stars,
but they're still them and we're
still us. And us is still on the
sidewalk looking in at them.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I am not the saviour of the black
man.
(Lights come up over
THE AUDITOR.)
I paid and paid and paid and still
you want more. ... I had won 62
fights, lost only two, but I climbed
back into the ring just to try and
pay my taxes. Marciano was ten years
younger than me. He was a tough
kid.
(Punching the air.)
ROCKY MARCIANO ENTERS, dressed in fighter's robe, fresh from

the ring, victorious and vanquished all at once, wiping tears
from his eye.
ROCKY
Sorry Joe, Sorry. I didn't mean to
hit you so hard.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I thought you were killed in that
plane crash. ... You're a good kid.
ROCKY
I never meant to hurt you, Joe, you're
the best. I never shoulda put you
through the ropes like that.
(Wiping away tears.)
I love you, man.
41.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Hey, Rocky It's you or me. The best
man won.
ROCKY
Keep out of the ring. Promise me.
I'll sleep a hell of a lot better.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Can't promise you. That plane crash
of yours, might've been a blessing.
Least you can rest in peace.
ROCKY hugs him, wipes tears from his eyes and EXITS.

My head hurts. ... My blood's dried
up. ... My country made me God.
God doesn't pay taxes. What the
fuck was it all about? I lost Marva.
I lost Lena. Barely know my son.
Newspapers ignore me. People laugh
at me behind my back. Black people
piss on me. The air conditioner
talks to me. I thought if I just
got along, kept my mouth shut, hit
the bums, shake the hands, love the
women ...
THE AUDITOR
Rutting like a goat with every woman
that would lie still is not my idea
of love.
OLD JOE LOUIS

What is your idea of love?
THE AUDITOR
I have no idea. It's a new world,
Mr. Louis. Women can do fine without
a man. Ten, fifteen years, there'll
be a woman in the White House.
OLD JOE LOUIS

A woman president going to stop 'em
from grabbing your ass? Take the
fry pan out of your hand? It's all
lies.
JACK JOHNSON
You're getting it, Joe, you're finally
getting it.
42.
ENTER MAX SCHMELING in overcoat, suitcase in hand, the sound

of a ship foghorn blowing in the distance, talking to WOMAN,
the reporter.
MAX SCHMELING
(In overcoat.)
In Germany they call me the champion.
Dot is not so – only morally. They
recognize the artistry of the boxer,
how he represents man at his finest.
This Louis, he still has the same
weakness.
Pickets descend, proclaiming: SCHMELING IS AN AGENT OF HITLER.

SCHMELING IS A GERMAN COMMODITY. DO NOT BUY.
MAX SCHMELING (CONT'D)

Jews control all the New York boxing,
just like they control the banks,
and they do not want me to knock out
Joe Louis again. They have this
inexplicable animosity toward us
Germans.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS, dressed in horse riding outfit, at a verdant

training camp, reading a newspaper as BLACKIE folds towels.
WHITE WOMAN ENTERs and lies on the training table, posing
seductively, smiling at him.
BLACKIE
You look sillier than a rich white
man.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(Reading a newspaper.)
'Never a mental giant, Joe was the
personification of stupid. He
couldn't think his way out of a subway
turrr...
BLACKIE
Turnstile.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Turnstile. 'Schmeling will slaughter
him.'
(He balls up the paper.)
OLD JOE LOUIS, standing, watching the women lying on the

table.
BLACKIE
C'mon, it's fly time.
43.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

You been drinking again?
BLACKIE
Nevermind. Fly time. C'mon, there's
one.
(YOUNG JOE is in a
fighter's crouch,
bare hands out,
grabbing flies.)
Your left, your left. Now your right.
That's it. Get 'em. Tell me the
commandments, go on talk to me.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(Grabbing for the
flies.)
Never have my picture taken with a
white woman; don't go to a nightclub
alone. ... Live clean. ... Fight
clean.
BLACKIE
They want you in jail. Don't give
'em a chance. You got to be super
negro, got it? Grab it! Grab it!
OLD JOE LOUIS

Did what I was told.
JACK JOHNSON
Just like a woman.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Just like a woman.
THE AUDITOR
(Still lying on the
table with Lena Horne.)
You have no idea what it's like to
be a woman.
OLD JOE LOUIS

No. I don't.
A MAN ENTERS, walks up to YOUNG JOE.
MAN
Aren't you Joe Louis?
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

No.
44.
MAN
You're Joe Louis. Can I have an
autograph?
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I'm not Joe Louis.
MAN
I need ten bucks to make the rent,
Joe, get some milk for my kid.
(YOUNG JOE takes a
bill out of his back,
signs it on the man's
back and hands it to
him.)
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Here's the autograph, here's the
rent.
(He leaves the man
standing on the
street, keeps walking
with Len. The man
holds the bill
confused. Then EXITS.)
Sometimes it's like everyone in Yankee
Stadium is screaming in my head.
LENA HORNE
Sign and be happy. As long as you're
standing and the white man is on his
back looking up at you, we're on
top. And we can hope tomorrow will
be better than yesterday.
OLD JOE LOUIS

How the hell was I going to make
tomorrow better than today?
JACK JOHNSON
How about you make sure tomorrow's
not worse than today?
LENA HORNE
You got the whole world in your hands.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

All I got in my hands are dead flies.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I tried. I tried, goddamn it!
(MORE)
45.

(JACK JOHNSON EXITS,
laughing.)
(To THE AUDITOR, still
lying with LENA HORNE. )
I'm sorry. I hated when you yelled
at me but I loved the way you sang.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Let's get married. I'll divorce
Marva. We'll live in Hollywood.
I'm not just another negro.
The AUDITOR AND LENA HORNE EXIT as DRUG DEALER, a slinky

man, ENTERS, slaps Joe five and then slips him something.
DRUG DEALER
Got a little high-octane God right
here, champ. Religion you can count
on. Take a taste and you'll be
singing Amen. Be a sinner or be a
slave, Champ. Choice is yours.
OLD JOE LOUIS hands DRUG DEALER some money and he sashays
away. Joe opens the little packet and sticks a finger in
and snorts some, his face turned away, almost as if he's
protecting himself from a punch. He smiles and seems happier,
brighter. THE AUDITOR ENTERS, in business jacket, and sits
at the table.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Revitalized from the
cocaine.)
God was right here.
(Holds up his fist.)
Man stepped in the ring with me he
better've said his prayers cause it
was come-to-Jesus time. ... I loved
that woman. ... I didn't mean to
hurt her. I ... I hated myself. I
still hate myself.
THE AUDITOR
Join the club. I never met a woman
that liked herself.
BLACKIE ENTERS carrying towels and tape and scissors, watches

YOUNG JOE shadow box.
BLACKIE
Listen up, Chappie, you got what you
wanted. Your rematch with Max
Schmeling. Yankee Stadium.
(MORE)
46.
BLACKIE (CONT'D)
The whole fucking free world's
counting on you. Not to mention
you're going to make a fortune.
Cigarette smoke begins to waft in as the sound of a crowd

grows. A Nazi flag and a U.S. flag drop slowly from the
wings. Music starts, faint at first, but like the crowd, it
grows, louder and louder.
The AUDITOR is punching numbers into the adding machine, and

it spits out paper.
OLD JOE LOUIS

They'll pay big bucks to see me in
the ring again. You'll see. They
love me.
OLD JOE LOUIS stalks the stage, listening. The lights dim,
the casino lights go dark and soon OLD JOE LOUIS is lit only
by a single dim light hanging from the rafters, as in the
centre of a boxing ring. THE AUDITOR is in the shadows.
Soon the smoke and dark obscure her. The lights come up
with the music and noise of the crowd and YOUNG JOE LOUIS is
dressed only in signature shiny black boxing trunks and boxing
gloves. BLACKIE enters, with towels and corner man equipment,
tape, scissors, bandages. Louis's fists are at his side.
He's looking at the immense crowd in the arena, listening to
the taunts and shouts. OLD JOE watches, begins to shout at
YOUNG JOE.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(Throwing right jabs.)
Kidneys! Liver! Heart! What do
you want from me?
OLD JOE LOUIS

How many rounds? How many punches?
How many broken bones...? Should we
break his jaw?
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I could paralyze him so he can't
defend himself. Break his back.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Should we knock him out or just put'im
down for the count?
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I won't smile; I'll never smile.
Wouldn't want to make you
uncomfortable as I tear a man apart.
47.
OLD JOE LOUIS

We could kill him if they want. Is
sweat enough? Or they want it mixed
with blood?
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

You want to crush your cigars out on
my body. Here! I won't even scream.
... Maybe you'd like to hear me
scream.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(He slowly punches
combinations, jabs,
uppercuts, hooks. )
Or we could make 'im suffer slowly.
Jab! Jab! Jab!
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Maybe you'd want to throw chairs,
too. Keep the animal at bay. Would
that make you happy?
Lights fade. The sound slowly comes down, as MAX SCHMELING

and REPORTER ENTER in overcoat, carrying a suitcase, fog
blowing around his feet. He steps up to a standing radio
microphone. REPORTER is scribbling notes.
MAX SCHMELING
We have no strikes in Germany.
Everybody has a job. We have one
union. We have one party. Everybody
is happy.
Pickets descend. "Weaken Germany. Boycott the Louis-

Schmeling fight!" "Schmeling a Nazi tool!" "Aryan Show
Horse."
REPORTER
Max, you a Nazi or not?
MAX SCHMELING
I am part of a great race of people,
forging a new way of life in a new
world. Joe and me are part of a
brotherhood. We do not worry about
labels like black or white or Jew or
Nazi.
(Looking at OLD JOE.)
Right Joe? It's all nonsense.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(To THE AUDITOR.)
You have a nice figure. You jog?
48.
THE AUDITOR
No. ... I don't.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I owed Max. And I was there to pay
'im back. That second fight, it was
nineteen ... uh ...
THE AUDITOR
Thirty-eight.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS is training in the mountains at Pompton Lakes,

punching the bag as REPORTER watches.
REPORTER
(Sitting ringside
with typewriter,
press pass in hat
band, dictating as
she types.)
Dinner at Louis's training camp is
like feeding time at the zoo. Joe's
ears waggled, his lips made moist
smacking noises, and his eyes, as
impersonal as twin cough drops, roved
the company with the chill and
scrutiny of a house cat.
(YOUNG JOE LOUIS is
skipping rope.)
REPORTER TWO
Negroes can't stick to a plan. But
like Ellington and Cab Calloway,
that remarkable sense of rhythm and
timing makes him tough to beat.
(YOUNG JOE LOUIS
working the heavy
bag, shadow boxing.)
REPORTER THREE
Joe Louis will never admit it but
when he gets into the ring and looks
down at the German's right fist,
he's going to be one scared nigger.
THE AUDITOR
You not going to fight him again?
OLD JOE LOUIS

Max and me we're going to fight again,
right Max? A Schmeling-Louis rematch,
live from Joe Louis Arena, and I'm
going to give the whole purse to
you. We'll make a killing.
(MORE)
49.

... How about we go in there and
listen to the band and dance? Just
a little. ... We could get a drink,
a good steak. On the house.
He stands, ready to take her in his arms. A big band

arrangement of In the Mood comes up and Old Joe is swinging
his hips to the music.

You'll feel better.
THE AUDITOR
You'll pay us all of it, a million
plus? You know, we'll tax the purse,
too. ... You'll get killed.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Dance with me.
THE AUDITOR
No. You can't fight again.
OLD JOE LOUIS

'Fraid someone'll see you dance with
a black man?
THE AUDITOR
Don't be stupid.
OLD JOE LOUIS

One dance.
THE AUDITOR
I can't.
OLD JOE moves closer and, moving to the music, he gently

lifts her up and takes her in his arms.
OLD JOE dances with her. At first she is stiff and then
slowly she relaxes, letting herself be guided around the
floor. Then she pushes herself away from him and straightens
her clothes.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Tired, coming down
from his last line
of cocaine.)
What's wrong?
THE AUDITOR
Nothing.
(MORE)
50.

... I've heard about every fight,
every punch, every girl and every
insult. There's nothing I can do
about what this country did to black
people. ... There're women in there
selling drinks practically naked.
Women on stage that are naked. Women
all over town selling their bodies
for twenty bucks. It makes me sick.
I've never been champion of anything
just such a goddamn liberated woman
sometimes I don't want to get out of
bed. I spend my days with people
who hate me. I go home to an empty
house and work and work and work. I
feel like a damn leper.
She stands and takes a boxer's pose. OLD JOE follows, they
face each other. THE AUDITOR throws a soft jab.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Me too.
THE AUDITOR
I went to the library last night.
... Hank Aaron broke the home run
record and they wanted to kill him.
...
OLD JOE LOUIS

I know Hank.
THE AUDITOR
Forty years ago, they must've hated
you. You never hit back, you took
it all and ...
OLD JOE LOUIS

Ended up here, listening to the air
conditioner.
THE AUDITOR
And you really like it, giving the
girls the eye, charming the tourists.
... I wish I didn't have to do my
job. But I do.
(Looking into the
casino.)
I wanted it all. Good job, big
family, nice Volvo, garden in the
backyard. ... Men hate me.
... I go to the movies alone. I eat
alone. I do everything alone.
(MORE)
51.

... I'd like to say, Mr. Louis, let's
make a deal, how about one cent on
the dollar? That work for you?
Trouble is I can't and still salvage
a remnant of self esteem. And I'd
have to kiss that promotion goodbye.
(She sends a half
hearted jab toward
Joe.)
Bam! You can't fight again.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Who're you hitting?
THE AUDITOR
I don't know ... you. I'm hitting
men. ... I've never done it before.
OLD JOE LOUIS

It gets easier.
THE AUDITOR
You really think we're the weaker
sex, Mr. Louis? We want kids but
most of the time, we're afraid to
get pregnant. We find a guy, will he
beat us or leave us or just treat us
like shit? ...
OLD JOE LOUIS

Never knew a woman couldn't put me
down for the count with one look.
THE AUDITOR
(Softening. )
What was it like to have every man
on Earth afraid of you? To be the
best? To not have anyone in your
face?
OLD JOE LOUIS

Don't you know? The rules were for
everyone but me.
THE AUDITOR
(Throwing a punch.)
This is for Gerry, the asshole in
the next cubicle who makes twice
what I do, spends his days hitting
on every skirt in the office.
(Throwing a punch.)
For the bank manager who wouldn't
give me a loan without my husband's
signature.
52.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Tossing a punch.)
This is for the IRS, seized my
mother's inheritance, six hundred
and sixty seven dollars.
OLD JOE holds his punch, opens his hand, reaches out to her
face, tempted to touch her but stops. She takes his hand
between hers and slowly returns it to him.
THE AUDITOR
What if the only choice is the rusty
coat hanger? ...
The lights of Vegas come up again, the Casino marquee

flashing, the stage washed in bright colours.
OLD JOE reaches into his coat pocket and takes a little vial
and a spoon and snorts a bit, shakes his head. YOUNG JOE is
shadow boxing, jabs and uppercuts, combinations as OLD JOE
watches. BLACKIE watches Joe train.
The sound of a crowd slowly comes up, a haze of cigarette

smoke rolls in. Flags descend. BLACKIE joins YOUNG JOE as
they prepare for the fight.

(Self conscious, trying
to regain her
professionalism.)
You're making a mistake, Mr. Louis.
We're not friends.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Sure we are, sure we are. Hey, you
play the slots? They give me all the
silver dollars I want. ... We can
go in there...
THE AUDITOR
We can't go anywhere. I can't do
this anymore. You're a sick old bl
... man and I can't help you. You're
done. Tomorrow, I'll be here with
the warrant.
(She packs her things
and EXITS. OLD JOE
watches hurt and
surprised.)
BLACKIE
No fucking around this time, Chappie.
You get in the ring and you put
Schmeling down.
53.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(Punching the heavy
bag as WOMAN ENTERS.)
Yes sir, Smellin's going down.
BLACKIE
No golf.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(Skipping rope.)
No sir, Blackie.
BLACKIE
No horseback riding.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(Chopping wood.)
No sir, Blackie.
BLACKIE
Murder that bum, don't make an asshole
out of me. And keep your pants
zipped.
YOUNG JOE, with his arm around WOMAN, hair down, a swish in
her walk, WALKS OFF STAGE.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Gotta have a little fun.
Blackie watches YOUNG JOE as he opens a drawer and takes out

a bottle and has a drink.
REPORTER
(Reading from her
typewriter.)
Berlin. ... The world waits
breathlessly for the fight of the
century. Joe Louis against German
champ Max Schmeling. It is understood
here that a Louis victory would be
taken as a disgrace from the Nazi
racial viewpoint.
MAX SCHMELING
(In overcoat and scarf.)
Joe, being a Negro, will remember
how I beat him and he will be afraid.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I don't like Smellin'. His people
don't like my people.
54.
REPORTER
For 65 million Germans, Schmeling is
their hero, their Hermes, who will
herald to the world the Nazi
supremacy.
(JACK JOHNSON ENTERS,
his crotch bulging
prominently.)
MAX SCHMELING
The black dynasty of puglilism must
come to an end. I, Maximillian Adolph
Otto Siegfried Schmeling, will see
to it.
REPORTER
Schmeling's an outspoken
representative of perverted bestial
nationalism and race hatred. If he
loses, a concentration camp is the
best he could expect.
JACK JOHNSON
(To YOUNG JOE LOUIS
as he takes the arm
of the REPORTER and
begins to dance.)
Dance with him like he's your lover.
Whisper in his ear, pound his ribs,
lacerate his kidneys. Make his sweet
agony last.
MAX SCHMELING
(Training.)
Germany has nothing against the Jews.
My manager is Jewish. Joe's manager
is Jewish. I love the Jews. Mr.
Hitler has been very fair to the
Jewish people. It's just he suffers
from an occasional hormone imbalance.
JACK JOHNSON
(To YOUNG JOE.)
The best way to mess with the white
man's mind is to wrap your dick with
gauze before the fight, nice and
thick. The white man feels inadequate
when it comes to the size of his
dick. He won't be able to take his
eyes off the bulge in your shorts.
Before he knows what hit him, his
molars'll be imbedded in your glove
and he's crying for his mother.
55.
REPORTER
(Abandoning JACK and
sitting down to type.)
This is the fight of the century.
The world, free and fascist, one
hundred million people, will hang on
their radios for this titanic struggle
to define the new world order.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Max and I, we were going to save the
world. We were the war.
MAX SCHMELING
In the first round we will only feel
each other out.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I fight for America against the
challenge of a foreign invader, Max
Smellin'.
MAX SCHMELING
I will wait for Louis to make his
usual mistake and then I will shoot
him with my right hand and it will
be over.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

This isn't one man against another.
It's the good ol' USA against Germany.
MAX SCHMELING
He iss not more the same Louis.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

My mother raised me on Fletcher's
Castoria. And it sure kept me regular.
I can truthfully say this is one
reason I have never been sick a day
in my life.
Microphone is lowered into the centre of the ring under a

soft light, surrounded by the sound of thousands. The U.S
and Nazi flags are also lowered. MAX EXITS.
Lights up on YOUNG JOE LOUIS's dressing room, dull, green,

dimly lit, the roar of the crowd outside seeping through the
walls. Louis is sleeping on his table, dressed in his
trademark shiny black shorts, and gloves, looking as calm as
an infant. He wakes, stretches and begins a slow warmup,
shrugging, shadowboxing, jumping rope.
56.
REPORTER
It is a grab in the dark, a groping
in the fogs of chance ... This is
the fight nobody knows anything about.
(MAX SCHMELING ENTERS,
stage left, wearing
white trunks and
gloves.)
The microphone drops and RING ANNOUNCER steps forward.
RING ANNOUNCER
Former heavyweight champion of the
world, Max Baer.
MAX BAER
(VOICE ONLY)
I define fear as standing across the
ring from Joe Louis and knowing he
wants to go home early.
RING ANNOUNCER
British and Empire heavyweight
champion, Tommy Farr.
TOMMY FARR
(VOICE ONLY.)
Every time I hear the name Joe Louis,
my nose starts to bleed.
WOMAN hands SCHMELING an envelope which he tears open.
MAX SCHMELING
(Reading, in German
accent.)
"To the next world champion, Max
Schmeling. Wishing you every success.
Adolf Hitler." He always was a
gentleman.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS and MAX SCHMELING face each other, eye to
eye.
MAX SCHMELING (CONT'D)

We keep our cool, yah Joe ? Let the
press worry about Nazis and Jews and
war. We're two pros, yah?
(YOUNG JOE LOUIS
ignores him, shadow
boxing fiercely. )
This time, I shall make it quick. Do
not be afraid.
57.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I am afraid, Max. I'm afraid I'm
going to kill you.
The roar of the crowd reaches a crescendo. OLD JOE LOUIS

enters the ring and sits on his stool in his tux to watch.
SCHMELING and YOUNG JOE LOUIS are in separate corners.
BLACKIE has a bundle of cigars in his fist and chooses one.
SCHMELING bows gallantly to all four corners of the stadium

and then dances over to YOUNG LOUIS whose back is turned and
taps him on the shoulder and when LOUIS finally turns, they
tap gloves. SCHMELING then returns and sits in his corner,
serious, confident, energetic. The bell rings twice and
RING ANNOUNCER goes to the centre of the ring to announce
the fighters.
RING ANNOUNCER
(As ring announcer.)
This is the featured attraction,
fifteen rounds for the world
heavyweight championship. Weighing
193 pounds, wearing purple trunks,
outstanding contender for heavyweight
honours, the former heavyweight
titleholder, Mox Schmayling.
The crowd roars and SCHMELING bows in courtly fashion to two

sides of the stadium. The bell rings twice more.
RING ANNOUNCER (CONT'D)

Weighing 198 and three quarters,
wearing black trunks, the famous
Detroit Brown Bomber, world's
heavyweight champion, Joe Louis.
YOUNG LOUIS gets up and skips a few steps. The crowd cheers
but it is mixed with boos. YOUNG LOUIS returns to his corner.
The microphone rises, the ring goes to black, leaving two
small circles of light over OLD JOE LOUIS and, in the other
corner, MAX SCHMELING.
FIGHT ANNOUNCER
(VOICE ONLY)
(DING.)
And they're about to start with this
Yankee Stadium packed to the doors.
There isn't an empty seat. Joe Louis
in his corner, prancing and rubbing
his feet in the rosin, Max Schmeling
standing calmly, getting last word
from Doc Casey. And they're ready
with the bell just about to ring.
(MORE)
58.
FIGHT ANNOUNCER (CONT'D)

(RING.)
And there we are. And they got to
the ring right together with Arthur
Donovan. And Joe Louis is in the
centre of the ring, Max Schmeling
circling around him. Joe Louis lets
hit with two straight lefts to the
chin. Both go then lighten up as
the men clinch.
Joe Louis tries to get over two hard
lefts and Max ties him up on the
breakaway clean. On the far side of
the ring now, Max with his back to
the ropes and Louis hooks a left to
Max's head quickly and shoots over a
hard right to Max's head. Louis, a
left to Max's jaw, a right to his
head, Max shoots a hard right to
Louis, and Louis with the old one-
two, the first the left and then the
right.
MAX SCHMELING
I could see right away it was not
going to go good. I could see your
desire just burning in you – you
were the spider and I was the fly.
I thought, 'It's going to be a long
night.' ... I was wrong.
FIGHT ANNOUNCER
Louis has landed more blows in the
one round than he landed in five
rounds of the other fight. And there
Max Schmeling caught him with his
guard down. And got that right hand
to Louis's jaw but Louis was going
away with the punch at the time.
Now Max is backing away against the
ropes and Louis if following him.
And watching for that chance. He is
crowding Schmeling. Schmeling is
not stepping around very much but
his face is already marked.
MAX SCHMELING
You had the speed of the jungle,
like a panther stalking his prey.
And you could throw a triple left
hook. Whoever saw such a combination
of speed and power and instinct?
You would have made a perfect Nazi.
Unfortunately, you were black.
59.
FIGHT ANNOUNCER
And they step into a fast clinch.
And at close range Louis fights
differently, to bring up a left to
the jaw and a right to the body.
And coming out of that clinch he got
over a hard right and then stabbed
Max with a good straight left jab!
And Max backs away. And misses the
right. Louis then caught him with
two straight lefts to the face and
brought over the hard right to the
head. High on the temple. And Max
tying up in a clinch and broke.
MAX SCHMELING
No one could punch like you. You
were like a surgeon. The heart, the
liver, behind the ear, under the
ribs. When you hit me, Joseph, it
was like my life stopped. And if I
could still think, my only thought
was 'what the hell am I doing here?
I'm going to die.'
FIGHT ANNOUNCER
Back against the ropes again but not
too close to the ropes. ... And
Louis misses with a left swing...
But in close brought in a hard
right.... A right to the jaw. Again
a right to the body, a left hook, a
right to the head, a left to the
head. A right. ... Schmeling is
going down. But he held to his feet,
held to the ropes, he looks to his
corner in helplessness.
MAX SCHMELING
The first hit I got in the left
kidney, I was so paralyzed I couldn't
even move. I couldn't even fall.
It was all over.
FIGHT ANNOUNCER
And Schmeling is down! Schmeling is
down. The count is four. And he's
up. And Louis right and left to the
head, a left to the jaw, a right to
the head. And Donovan is watching
carefully. Louis measures him, a
right to the body, a left up to the
jaw and Schmeling is down.
60.
OLD JOE LOUIS

The ignorant, lazy, shuffling
sharecropper crippled their best
Aryan. We were better than them.
... World War Two was over before it
begun.
FIGHT ANNOUNCER
The count is five, six, seven, eight,
the men are in the ring. The fight
is over on a technical knockout.
Max Schmeling is beaten in one round!
BLACKIE
In less than one round, Chappie!
Two minutes and four seconds of
murder. You, chicken-eating son of
a bitch, beat their goddamned best.
You did it Chappie, you murdered the
bum. I'm proud of you, son.
OLD JOE LOUIS

This fist beat the Nazis, toppled
fascism, kicked Hitler right in the
ass! We were not just negros anymore!
We were not going to be negros ever
again! We were at the table. We
showed 'em. We were better than
them. It was a new age.
REPORTER ONE
Max Schmeling was no longer a man.
He was a broken, glassy eyed, silly
blubbering bum.
REPORTER TWO
The happiest people were not the
negroes but the Jews. They had the
best time of all their Jewish lives.
Old back and white footage comes in of people dancing and

celebrating after Louis's win in 1938. Amid the sounds of
celebration, YOUNG JOE dances with WOMAN. OLD JOE watches.
YOUNG JOE steps away from his partner and meets OLD JOE in
the centre of the ring.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(Ebullient, surveying
the room, the
celebrations that
envelope him. OLD
JOE approaches.)
From an Alabama outhouse to
Roosevelt's White House to the centre
(MORE)
61.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS (CONT'D)

of the universe. Yessir! ... You
need to lie down, old man. You look
like shit.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(They stare at each
other.)
Let me tell you something, keep your
head up. The rules change.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Don't worry about me, my head's always
up. Blackie taught me.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Maybe don't be so quick to forget
the violin. It's easy on the hands,
you still get the girls and no one
thinks you're Moses. My gift to the
champ.
(He offers him the
violin.)
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

(He pushes it away,
laughing.)
What am I going to do with that?
I'm king of the world.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(Watches his younger
self intently. )
Listen to Blackie and don't let 'im
drink too much. ... One more thing
kid, the money, the women, Hollywood?
If that's what you really want, then
savour every drop as if it's your
last. And if they tell you you're
Moses, climb the mountain and scream
"hallelujah." Remember, a black man
gets the keys to the kingdom for
only one short minute.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

You're a crazy old man.
He holds his arms aloft like the victor he is, turns from
side to side as if he's still in the ring, hearing the cheers
from all sides. DUKE ELLINGTON ENTERS, dressed in tux, sits
down at the table and begins to play as YOUNG JOE EXITS
slowly, shadowboxing, dancing, showing off for the crowd.
62.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(To Ellington.)
You were royalty, Duke, set the
example, got along real good. Maybe
we didn't change the world. But we
rocked it a bit.
REPORTER
Joe was the concentrated essence of
black triumph over white. In that
moment, all fear, all obstacles,
were wiped out. They were free,
invincible. A merciless victor over
a fallen foe. Yes, they had felt
all that ... for a moment.
RING ANNOUNCER
In this corner, representing the
allies, 5.5 million dead soldiers.
(Loud cheers.)
In this corner, representing central
Europe, 3.4 million dead soldiers.
(Loud cheers.)
In this corner, including everyone
from Austria Hungary to the Ottoman
Empire, six and a half million dead
civilians.
(More cheers.)
And in this corner, deaths from
disease, famine and the heavyweight
champs, the Spanish flu and the
Holocaust, 24 to 40 million dead
civilians.
(Loudest cheers.
Bell rings several
times, a judge hands
the ANNOUNCER a note.
Microphone rises.)
And this just in, including deaths
from the war in the Pacific and China,
judges have ruled that 85.6 million
have been slaughtered. 85.6 million!
We're a credit to our race. ... The
human race. ... What's left of 'em.
(Loud cheers!)
DUKE takes the arm of the woman, dances her to the lip of
the ring, and EXITS as THE AUDITOR ENTERS. She puts her
briefcase and purse on the table and stares at him, angry.
For OLD JOE it's as if she never left.
63.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(To THE AUDITOR.)
They treated me like I had won the
war. But it was just another fight.
The war went on and on and twenty
years later, they set fire to the
cities and they're still burning.
Black people are still black people,
white people are still white people
and everyone is still afraid of
everyone. ... I'm cold.
(Suddenly recognizing
her.)
How you doing? Love the hair. ...
Hey Jack, maybe you want to step in
the ring again, too?
THE AUDITOR
(Impatient.)
There's no Jack! ...
OLD JOE LOUIS

You don't want to see him.
THE AUDITOR
I told them you wouldn't pay. I
told them 'lock 'im up!'
OLD JOE LOUIS

Need a few more rounds.
THE AUDITOR
I told them send him to jail and
you'll see how fast he'll find the
money.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I'm going to fight ...
THE AUDITOR
I'm just a woman. So why the hell
would they listen to me?
OLD JOE LOUIS

I'm going to fight again, fifteen
rounds, him or me!
Throwing slow painful jabs, hooks, feinting with his shoulder,

his head, shadow boxing as he sits. LENA ENTERS.

Going to get my balls back. I'll
take Max in ten, take my time. Give
the people their money's worth. ...
(MORE)
64.

(To Lena.)
I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt
you. I'm going to be Joe Louis again!
THE AUDITOR
I don't care!
LENA HORNE ENTERS, stands beside THE AUDITOR, dressed in a

fur scarf, looking exotic, angry.
LENA HORNE
You've been in town for months and
you didn't even bother to call. I'm
not a big enough star for you, that
it?
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

Not now Lena! I got my hands full.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Don't do it!
LENA HORNE
Who is it this time? Sonja Henning?
Lana Turner? I'm not good enough
for you, you son of a bitch? You
say you love me but it don't mean
shit.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I do love you. I just got too much
to deal with. IRS is on my back,
my businesses gone to hell, I'm broke,
don't you understand?
OLD JOE LOUIS

I'm sorry. You're a nice girl. I'm
tapped out. The casino gives me
everything I have. But, soon, soon.
I'll be your favourite client.
THE AUDITOR
(Goes to the bell at
ringside and strikes
it.)
The money, the women, the life. You
wasted it all. You're not going to
take me with you!
OLD JOE LOUIS

Why don't we dance? Listen. ...
Dorsey Brothers.
65.
THE AUDITOR
The dance is over. I had a procedure
at the hospital. The bastards wanted
a man to sign the form.
LENA HORNE
(Standing next to THE
AUDITOR. )
I'm not sitting around waiting for
you ever again!
THE AUDITOR
I got that promotion, you know. I'm
the new District Manager. ... In
New Mexico! I'll be chasing black
bears and cactus for their taxes.
LENA HORNE
Sick of taking shit from you!
THE AUDITOR
I'm sick of men telling me how to
live and where to live and why to
live!
LENA HORNE
(She throws a bracelet
at him.)
Take this and shove it up your ass.
We're through.
OLD JOE LOUIS/YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I'm Joe Louis!
YOUNG YOUNG JOE hits Lena and starts to choke her. OLD JOE
LOUIS watches. LENA tries to defend herself by slapping and
punching YOUNG JOE LOUIS.
THE AUDITOR
Sick of it!
(She punches OLD JOE
in the face.)
LENA HORNE
(To YOUNG JOE LOUIS,
who stops, horrified.)
You bastard! You're a champ but
you're nothing. Nothing!
She slaps his face and EXITS. YOUNG JOE LOUIS stunned,
watches her walk away as OLD JOE LOUIS looks at The Auditor,
mystified, hurt. OLD and YOUNG JOE STAND side by side.
THE AUDITOR
I ... I'm sorry. I ...
66.
OLD JOE LOUIS

It's always him or me.
THE AUDITOR
They're going to forgive your debt.
They old me you're a sick old man
who's suffered enough. That we'd
look bad prosecuting Joe Louis.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I'm free?! I'm free? Can someone
turn off the damn air conditioner!
THE AUDITOR
Yeah, you're free. It's a hundred
degrees in the shade in New Mexico
but you're free!
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

She never spoke to me again.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I loved her.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

I had it all.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I just couldn't keep it.
OLD JOE LOUIS stands while YOUNG JOE LOUIS sits slumped and
exhausted in the corner of the ring, staring into space,
wondering what just happened. OLD JOE picks up the violin
and starts to play the violin but it sounds as it must have
when he was starting out at 17. Then the JOE LOUIS THEME
comes up, perhaps as he would be hearing it in his head.
LONG PAUSE WITH MUSIC. OLD JOE stares at YOUNG JOE, still
holding the violin.
MAX SCHMELING and JACK JOHNSON, with woman on his arm, APPEAR.
JACK JOHNSON
Sorry I shit on you, Joe, but they
paid me a good dollar. ... I'm
waiting for you, Mr. Brown Bomber,
Au revoir, mon ami.
THE AUDITOR
Mr. Louis, you taught me to punch
but you didn't teach me how to fight
dirty.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Remember it's always you or him.
(MORE)
67.

...I'm cold.. When they goin' to
turn off that damn air conditioner?
JACK JOHNSON
When they lower the casket.
THE AUDITOR takes the violin away, while THE MUSIC KEEPS
PLAYING. She begins to dance with OLD JOE LOUIS, dancing
him toward the training table.
OLD JOE LOUIS

A few years ago, you wouldn't have
been able to touch me. A few years
ago, I probably would've hit you
back. Maybe things do change.
THE AUDITOR
Things don't change. They just get
old.
BLACKIE ENTERS in a tux, a rose in his hand. YOUNG JOE behind

him. THE AUDITOR and OLD JOE keep dancing slowly toward the
table.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Miss you every day, Blackie. Where
you been?
BLACKIE
Death's a long trip.
OLD JOE LOUIS

When I was a kid I'd go into that
little shack that was a church and
I'd look for God. I didn't see him,
but I thought I felt him. But when
I climbed in the ring and I hit a
man and watched him go down that
very first time, I knew I found him.
God was there. The ring was my church!
Not a man alive that wasn't afraid
of me! I had the power! ... I was
the saviour, Moses on the mountain.
My people needed to believe in
something and I was all there was.
(He laughs.)
... Pride throws a mean uppercut and
the canvas can be hard as steel.
And I've been down for a hell of a
lot longer than 10 seconds. ... What's
it like Blackie? You cold? I hate
being cold.
68.
BLACKIE
Don't feel a thing. You don't see
the shovel and to the worms we're
all equal. Nobody bothers you.
Here, I don't need a drink.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I didn't kill you, did I?
BLACKIE
You kept me alive. Chappie, you're
a credit to your race. The human
race. ... I'm waiting for you.
MAX SCHMELING takes one of OLD JOE's arms and he and the
AUDITOR help OLD JOE lie down on the table as BLACKIE slips
off the table. They help OLD JOE cross his arms over his
chest. YOUNG JOE approaches OLD JOE.
OLD JOE LOUIS

(To YOUNG JOE,)
You shouldn't've hit her.
YOUNG JOE LOUIS

That's what we do. We hit people.
OLD JOE LOUIS

You embarrassed our mother.
JESSE JACKSON
We're honouring a giant who saved us
from a troubled time. Usually the
champion rides on the shoulders of
the nation and its people but in
this case, the nation rode on the
shoulders of the hero, Joe Louis.
MAX SCHMELING
Don't worry, Joe. I will pay for
everything. First class.
OLD JOE LOUIS

I won didn't I? How'd you end up
with all the bread?
MAX SCHMELING
Coca Cola, Joe, Coca Cola. The old
boxing commissioner, he went to work
for Coke down in Atlanta. He always
liked me. Gave me a franchise. Ah,
Joe, the old south is beautiful,
yah?
69.
JESSE JACKSON
We feel bigger today because Joe
came this way. He lifted us when we
were down, he made our enemies leave
us alone!
OLD JOE LOUIS

I'm dying with less money than I was
born with.
MAX SCHMELING
It's America. Hula hoops, cars,
clothes, boxers, we all end up on
the garbage heap.
JESSE JACKSON
Joe made the lion lie down with the
lamb. The black, brown and white,
the rich and the poor were together,
and none were afraid.
OLD JOE LOUIS

If you dance you got to pay the piper.
I danced. I paid the piper. ... and
I left him a big fat tip. I had it.
I just couldn't keep it.
JESSE JACKSON
(As Jesse Jackson.)
Let's give Joe a big hand clap.
This is not a funeral. This is a
celebration. Wave to the champ.
OLD JOE LOUIS

Max, I'm waiting for the rematch.
You and me. We'll make a killing.
JESSE JACKSON
God sent Joe from the black race to
the human race. With Joe Louis we
had made it from the guttermost to
the uttermost, from the slave ship
to the championship. Let's hear it
for the champ! Let's hear it for
the champ!
OLD JOE lies perfectly still. THE AUDITOR, JACK JOHNSON and
MAX SCHMELING watch him.
CURTAIN

Joe Louiseducational

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Joe Louiseducational

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MY SCRIPT

By David Sherman January 2011

OLD JOE LOUIS, 66, is in a tuxedo, lying on a rubbing table

OLD JOE LOUIS

He begins to play poorly, the bow scratching the strings.

OLD JOE looks confused as she takes out a little clock,

THE AUDITOR (CONT'D)

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS studies her in his characteristic deadpan. She

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS (CONT'D)

ENTER BLACKIE, Louis's trainer, a black man in a cap,

YOUNG JOE LOUIS/OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

KU KUX KLANNER ENTERS in hood and robe. Stands beside YOUNG

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

A slinky WHITE WOMAN ENTERS, stylishly dressed and made up.

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

She pulls out a pair of pantyhose she quickly stuffs into

THE AUDITOR (CONT'D)

OLD JOE LOUIS

The AUDITOR looks at him then adjusts the Band-Aid, takes a

OLD JOE LOUIS (CONT'D)

OLD JOE LOUIS

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE looks around the casino, pauses, thinks, watches

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS watches her curiously, sizing her up.

THE AUDITOR (CONT'D)

OLD JOE LOUIS

THE AUDITOR (CONT'D)

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

DUKE ELLINGTON ENTERS is a tuxedo jacket and sits down, begins

OLD JOE LOUIS (CONT'D)

DUKE ELLINGTON/OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

DUKE stands and EXITS. THE AUDITOR reappears as the lights

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

OLD JOE LOUIS

YOUNG JOE LOUIS

They EXIT to the sounds of a fight crowd. OLD JOE LOUIS is