title: The Chicks

text: With the addition of Natalie Maines, the new lineup had a more contemporary sound, as well as a new look, leaving their cowgirl dresses with their past, giving the band a broader appeal. Renshaw sent staff producer Blake Chancey to Austin to work with the band.


title: The Chicks

text: After Maines joined the band, the instrumental lineup was essentially the same, though Maines was not an acoustic bassist. Instead, she played acoustic and electric guitar, and occasionally electric bass guitar or papoose in concert. She sang lead vocals, with Maguire and Strayer singing backing vocals. Strayer was now contributing to the band's sound, adding guitar, accordion, sitar, and papoose to her mastery of the five-string banjo and dobro, while Maguire began adding guitar, viola, and mandolin chops more frequently to her expert fiddle. The sisters welcomed the change; Maguire said, "It's very rootsy, but then Natalie comes in with a rock and blues influence. That gave Emily and [me] a chance to branch out, because we loved those kinds of music but felt limited by our instruments."


title: The Chicks

text: Within the next year, Sony came to Austin to see the revamped Dixie Chicks and committed to sign them to a long-term deal and they were selected as the first new artist on the newly revived Monument Records label. A single "I Can Love You Better" was released in October 1997, and reached the Top 10 on American country music charts, while the new lineup recorded the rest of their debut album. "Wide Open Spaces" was released on January 23, 1998. Over the space of a year, the next three singles from "Wide Open Spaces" reached first place on the Country charts: "There's Your Trouble", "You Were Mine", and the title track. The album added a widespread audience to their original following, entering the top five on both country and pop charts with initial sales of 12 million copies in the country music arena alone, setting a record for the best-selling duo or group album in country music history. As of 2003, the 12 million copies sold in the United States of "Wide Open Spaces" made it a RIAA-certified diamond album.


title: The Chicks

text: In 1998, the Dixie Chicks sold more CDs than all other country music groups combined. Big Country music took note of the Chicks, awarding them the Horizon Award for new artists in 1998, given to those who have "demonstrated the most significant creative growth and development in overall chart and sales activity, live performance professionalism and critical media recognition".


title: The Chicks

text: By 1999, the album won the new lineup their first Grammy Awards as well as acclaim from the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, and other high-profile awards.


title: The Chicks

text: On August 31, 1999, the Dixie Chicks released another album, "Fly", which debuted at No. 1 on the "Billboard" 200 charts, selling over 10 million copies and making the Dixie Chicks the only country band and the only female band of any genre to hold the distinction of having two back-to-back RIAA certified diamond albums. Nine singles were released from "Fly", including country No. 1s "Cowboy Take Me Away" and "Without You". Dixie Chicks albums continued to place in the list of the 50 best-selling albums in American history over a half-decade after they were released. "Fly" again won Grammy awards and honors from the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music, and the Dixie Chicks received a number of honors from other sources for their accomplishments. The band headlined their first tour, the Fly Tour, with guest artists including Joe Ely and Ricky Skaggs appearing at each show, and also joined Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, and other female artists on the all-woman touring Lilith Fair.


title: The Chicks

text: The source of the Dixie Chicks' commercial success during this time came from various factors: they wrote or co-wrote about half of the songs on "Wide Open Spaces" and "Fly"; their mixture of bluegrass, mainstream country music, blues, and pop songs appealed to a wide spectrum of record buyers, and where the women had once dressed as "cowgirls" with Lynch, their dress was now more contemporary.


title: The Chicks

text: "Cowboy Take Me Away" from "Fly" became another signature song, written by Maguire to celebrate her sister's romance with country singer Charlie Robison, whom Emily subsequently married, exchanging her surname for Robison. However, a few of their songs brought controversy within their conservative country music fan base, and two songs caused some radio stations to remove the Chicks from their playlists: "Sin Wagon", from which the term "mattress dancing" takes on a new twist, and "Goodbye Earl", a song that uses black comedy in telling the story of the unabashed murderer of an abusive husband. (The band later made a video portraying the nefarious deed, with actor Dennis Franz playing the murdered husband.) In an interview, Maines commented about Sony worrying about the reference to "mattress dancing" in "Sin Wagon", refusing to discuss it in interviews. She said, "Our manager jokes, 'You can't say mattress dancing, but they love the song about premeditated first degree murder'! She continues, " ... so it's funny to us that "mattress dancing" is out and murder is in!"


title: The Chicks

text: After the commercial success of their first two albums, the band became involved in a dispute with their record label, Sony, regarding accounting procedures, alleging that in at least 30 cases Sony had used fraudulent accounting practices, underpaying them at least $4 million (£2.7m) in royalties on their albums over the previous three years. Sony held out, and the trio walked away, with Sony suing the group for failure to complete their contract. The Chicks responded with their own $4.1-million lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment on August 27, which added clout to claims made by singers Courtney Love, Aimee Mann, and LeAnn Rimes against the recording industry. After months of negotiation, the Chicks settled their suit privately, and were awarded their own record label imprint, Open Wide Records, which afforded them more control, a better contract, and an increase in royalty money, with Sony still responsible for marketing and distribution of albums.


title: The Chicks

text: During the time that they worked with Sony to reconcile their differences, the Dixie Chicks debuted their quiet, unadorned song "I Believe in Love" on the "" telethon following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The three women found themselves home, in Texas, each happily married, planning families, and writing songs closer to their roots, without the usual pressures of the studio technicians from the major labels. The songs they didn't write were solicited from songwriters who wrote with a less commercial emphasis.


title: The Chicks

text: The result was that "Home", independently produced by Lloyd Maines and the Chicks, was released August 27, 2002. Unlike the Chicks' two previous records, "Home" is dominated by up-tempo bluegrass and pensive ballads; and Emmylou Harris added her vocals to "Godspeed". In addition, the text of the opening track and first single, "Long Time Gone", was a pointed criticism of contemporary country music radio, accusing it of ignoring the soul of the genre as exemplified by Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, and Hank Williams. "Long Time Gone" became the Chicks' first Top 10 hit on the U.S. pop singles chart and peaked at No. 2 on the country chart, becoming a major success. Approximately six million copies of "Home" were sold in the United States.


title: The Chicks

text: "Home" also won Grammy awards, and other noteworthy accolades as before, though it fell short of reaching the diamond record status of the first two albums. Natalie Maines said afterward, "I want to check the record books and see how many fathers and daughters have won Grammys together."


title: The Chicks

text: By 2002, the Dixie Chicks were featured on three television specials: "An Evening with the Dixie Chicks", which was an acoustic concert primarily composed of the material from "Home"; "VH1 Divas Las Vegas" alongside Cher, Céline Dion, Shakira, Anastacia, Stevie Nicks, Mary J. Blige, Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston and host Ellen DeGeneres; and a CMT three-hour television special, the "40 Greatest Women of Country Music". Ranked No. 13 out of 40, they were "selected by hundreds of artists, music historians, music journalists and music industry professionals—looking at every aspect of what a great artist is".


title: The Chicks

text: On March 10, 2003, the Dixie Chicks performed at the [[Shepherd's Bush Empire]] theater in London, England"." Maines told the audience the band did not support the imminent [[2003 Invasion of Iraq|Allied invasion of Iraq]] and were "ashamed" that [[President George W. Bush]] was from Texas. Maines's remark triggered a backlash in the United States. The Dixie Chicks were [[Blacklisting|blacklisted]] by thousands of country radio stations, and the band members received death threats. Maines issued an apology, saying her remark had been disrespectful; in 2006 she rescinded the apology, saying she felt Bush deserved no respect. Their single "[[Landslide (Fleetwood Mac song)|Landslide]]", a [[Fleetwood Mac]] cover, fell from number 10 to 43 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|"Billboard" Hot 100]] in one week and left the chart a week later. The backlash also damaged sales of their next album and tour. [[File:DixieChicksMSG062003.jpg|thumb|left|274px| The Dixie Chicks performing at [[Madison Square Garden]] on June 20, 2003, during the [[Top of the World Tour]]]]


title: The Chicks

text: In 2005, [[Hurricane Katrina]] and [[Hurricane Rita]] battered the [[Gulf Coast]], with the group's home state of Texas directly in the wake of the disaster. In September, the Dixie Chicks debuted their song "[[I Hope (Dixie Chicks song)|I Hope]]" in the [[Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast]] telethon. The song was one of only two performed at the concert that was not donated for the subsequent DVD. The Dixie Chicks made their new single available as a download with proceeds to benefit hurricane relief through [[Habitat For Humanity]] and the [[American Federation of Musicians]] Gulf Coast Relief Fund.


title: The Chicks

text: In October 2004, the Dixie Chicks joined the [[Vote for Change]] tour, performing in concerts organized by [[MoveOn.org]] in [[swing states]], raising funds for political groups opposing Bush. In 2005, Maguire, Strayer, and Maines joined with 31 other recording artists, including [[Dolly Parton]], [[Christina Aguilera]], [[Yoko Ono]], and [[Mandy Moore]] supporting relationships of all kinds, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, on a two-disc release titled "[[Love Rocks]]", with their song from the album "Home" called "I Believe in Love".


title: The Chicks

text: On March 16, 2006, the Dixie Chicks released the single "[[Not Ready to Make Nice]]" in advance of their upcoming album. Cowritten with [[Dan Wilson (musician)|Dan Wilson]], it addressed the political controversy that had surrounded the group for the previous three years. Strayer said, "The stakes were definitely higher on that song. We knew it was special because it was so autobiographical, and we had to get it right. And once we had that song done, it freed us up to do the rest of the album without that burden." She said writing the song had become their "therapy", since they had to hold in so many stored emotions for so long. Thus, the band considered the album not so much political as very personal.


title: The Chicks

text: The question of how the group's new record would fare commercially attracted intense media interest. "[[Taking the Long Way]]" was released in stores and online on May 22, 2006. The album was produced by [[Rick Rubin]] who had worked with [[hard rock]] acts such as [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]] and [[System of a Down]], as well as idiosyncratic singers such as [[Johnny Cash]] and [[Neil Diamond]]. The band felt they had nothing to lose by a newer approach, and possibly quite a bit to gain. All 14 tracks were co-written by the three Chicks, alongside various other songwriters, including [[Neil Finn]] of [[Crowded House]].


title: The Chicks

text: The album contained several tracks that seemed to indirectly reference what the group called "the Incident", and the group remained defiant. Maguire commented that, "I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with [[Reba McEntire]] and [[Toby Keith]]. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do." Maines also retracted her earlier apology to President Bush, stating, "I apologized for disrespecting the office of the President, but I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever."


title: The Chicks

text: "Taking the Long Way" debuted at number one on both the [[Billboard 200|U.S. pop albums chart]] and the [[Top Country Albums|U.S. country albums chart]], selling 526,000 copies in the first week (the year's second-best such total for any country act) and making it a [[gold record]] within its first week, despite having little or no airplay in areas that had once embraced them. The Chicks became the first female band in chart history to have three albums debut at No. 1.


title: The Chicks

text: Both "Not Ready to Make Nice" and second single "[[Everybody Knows (Dixie Chicks song)|Everybody Knows]]" were largely ignored by U.S. country radio and failed to penetrate the top 35 of the [[Hot Country Songs]] chart. In June 2006, Emily Strayer noted the lack of support from other country music performers: "A lot of artists cashed in on being against what we said or what we stood for because that was promoting their career, which was a horrible thing to do. ... A lot of pandering started going on, and you'd see soldiers and the American flag in every video. It became a sickening display of ultra-patriotism." Maines commented, "The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism. Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country ... I don't see why people care about patriotism." In Europe, however, the two singles were well received by country radio, peaking at Nos. 13 and 11 respectively and remaining on the European Country Charts for more than 20 weeks each.


title: The Chicks

text: The band's [[Accidents & Accusations Tour]] began in July 2006. Ticket sales were strong in Canada and in some Northeastern markets, but notably weak in other areas. A number of shows were canceled or relocated to smaller venues due to poor sales, and in [[Houston]], Texas, tickets never even went on sale when local radio stations refused to accept advertising for the event.


title: The Chicks

text: In August, a re-routed tour schedule was scheduled with a greater emphasis on Canadian dates, where "Taking the Long Way" had gone five-times-[[platinum record|platinum]]. The tour's shows themselves generally refrained from any explicit verbal political comments, letting the music, especially the central performance of "Not Ready to Make Nice" (which typically received a thunderous ovation during and after the song), speak for itself. As part of the tour, the Dixie Chicks became the first major band to hire a designated blogger "all-access" to keep up with them in their promotional activities and tour. When the Chicks performed again at Shepherd's Bush Empire, site of "The Incident", Maines joked that she wanted to say something the audience had not heard before, but instead said, "Just so y'all know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas," to much laughter and applause.


title: The Chicks

text: In 2006, "Taking the Long Way" was the ninth-best-selling album in the United States. At the [[49th Annual Grammy Awards|49th Grammy Awards Show]] on February 11, 2007, the group won all five categories for which they were nominated, including the top awards of [[Grammy Award for Song of the Year|Song of the Year]] and [[Record of the Year]], both for "Not Ready to Make Nice", and [[Grammy Award for Album of the Year|Album of the Year]], for "Taking the Long Way". Maines interpreted the wins as being a show of public support for their advocacy of free speech. It had been 14 years since an artist had swept those three awards.


title: The Chicks

text: After the Grammys, "Taking the Long Way" hit No. 8 on the [[Billboard 200|"Billboard" 200]] and No. 1 on the country album charts and "Not Ready to Make Nice" re-entered the charts at No. 4 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|"Billboard" Hot 100]].


title: The Chicks

text: The music video for "Not Ready to Make Nice" was nominated for the 2007 [[CMT Music Video Awards]] in the categories of Video of the Year and Group Video of the Year, but did not win. The group was nominated for the 2007 [[Country Music Association]]'s award for Top Vocal Group, but lost to [[Rascal Flatts]].


title: The Chicks

text: At the [[2006 Toronto International Film Festival]], Cabin Creek Films, the production company of documentarian [[Barbara Kopple]], premiered "[[Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing]]". The documentary follows the Chicks over the three years since the 2003 London concert remark and covers aspects of their musical and personal lives in addition to the controversy.


title: The Chicks

text: An ad for "Shut Up and Sing" was turned down by [[NBC]] on October 27, 2006, citing a policy barring ads dealing with "public controversy". Ads were rebuffed by the smaller [[The CW Television Network|CW]] network as well, but local affiliate stations of all five major broadcasters, including NBC and CW, ran promotional spots for the film in New York and Los Angeles, the two cities where it opened that day. The film's distributor [[Harvey Weinstein]] said, "It's a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were [[blacklisted]] for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America."


title: The Chicks

text: Following "Shut Up and Sing", the band went on hiatus and spent time with their families until touring again in 2010 and 2013.


title: The Chicks

text: At a December 2007 rally in [[Little Rock, Arkansas]], Maines expressed support for the [[West Memphis Three]], three men convicted of a 1993 triple murder who many believe to be innocent. Maines cited a recent defense filing implicating Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the victims, and posted similar comments in a letter on the Dixie Chicks' web site. In November 2008, Hobbs sued Maines and the Dixie Chicks for defamation as a result of her statements. On December 2, 2009, a U.S. federal judge dismissed the defamation case on the grounds that Hobbs had not shown the statements were made with [[actual malice]]. A proposed April 2008 commercial spot to promote [[Al Gore]]'s "[[We Campaign]]" involving both the Dixie Chicks and [[Toby Keith]] was eventually abandoned because of scheduling conflicts.


title: The Chicks

text: In January 2010 Maguire and Strayer released new music without Maines as a duo known as [[Court Yard Hounds]]. Lloyd Maines, Natalie's father, said that the trio were "definitely still an entity". The Court Yard Hounds released their first album in May 2010, with Strayer on lead vocals. Beginning on June 8, 2010, the Dixie Chicks joined [[the Eagles]] on their stadium-based [[Eagles 2010 Summer Tour]], visiting cities such as [[Toronto]], [[Boston]], Chicago, [[Philadelphia]], [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], [[St. Louis]] and [[Winnipeg]] with a performance at the [[New Meadowlands Stadium]] in [[New Jersey]]. Country singer and guitarist [[Keith Urban]] appeared at selected shows.


title: The Chicks

text: The Dixie Chicks appeared in the 2010 music documentary "[[Sounds Like a Revolution]]" about [[protest music]] in America. They sang "You" on the March 2011 release of "[[Rare Bird Alert]]", a [[Steve Martin]] bluegrass album, accompanied by the [[Steep Canyon Rangers]]. In March 2011, Maines made a solo recording of the [[Beach Boys]] hit "[[God Only Knows]]" for the final episode of the HBO series "[[Big Love]]". In July 2011, Strayer and Maguire said that new music involving Maines is in the works. In October 2011, the Dixie Chicks played the Concert for Wildfire Relief in Austin, Texas. During the set, Maines stated that there was "zero hesitation" when the group was asked to do the show.


title: The Chicks

text: In December 2012, the Dixie Chicks replaced [[Lady Antebellum]] as headliners' at Canada's [[Craven Country Jamboree]] in July 2013. In July they also performed at the [[Ottawa Bluesfest]] and the [[Cavendish Beach Music Festival]] and in October 2013 on the [[Scotiabank Saddledome]]. In July 2013, the Court Yard Hounds also released their second album, "[[Amelita (Court Yard Hounds album)|Amelita]]". From October 2013 to March 2014, the Dixie Chicks went on their first full-length tour since 2007, the [[Long Time Gone Tour]] through various cities across Canada in 2013. The tour incorporated the [[C2C: Country to Country]] festival held in London and [[Dublin]] during March 2014.


title: The Chicks

text: In June 2015, a European tour was scheduled to commence in [[Antwerp]] on April 16, 2016; the [[DCX MMXVI World Tour]] initially included dates for [[Switzerland]], [[The Netherlands]], [[Scandinavia]], the UK and Ireland, however in November 2015, the tour was extended into North America, with over forty shows scheduled across the United States and Canada. This was the first time in 10 years that the Dixie Chicks had headlined a tour in North America. The tour was extended to Australia and New Zealand, culminating in the release of the live album and DVD, "DCX MMXVI Live". At the 50th anniversary of the [[Country Music Association Awards]] held on November 2, 2016, the Dixie Chicks performed alongside [[Beyoncé]] on her song "Daddy Lessons". A studio version of the performance was released to digital outlets the following day. They also collaborated with [[Taylor Swift]] on her song "[[Soon You'll Get Better]]" from Swift's 2019 album "[[Lover (album)|Lover]]." On May 3, 2018, the Dixie Chicks' manager, Simon Renshaw, retired after having managed them since 1995; they signed with Ian Montone and Rick Yorn at Monotone/LBI Entertainment.


title: The Chicks

text: On June 25, 2020, the band changed their name to the Chicks, dropping the word "[[Dixie]]". The change followed criticism that the word had connotations of [[Slavery in the United States|American slavery]]. The band said they had picked "that stupid name" as teenagers, and had wanted to change it for years; they said they were moved to change it when they saw the [[Modern display of the Confederate battle flag|Confederate flag]] described as "the Dixie Swastika" on social media in June 2020. They received the blessing of the [[The Chicks (duo)|Chicks]], a New Zealand duo, to share the name. Alongside the name change, the Chicks released the [[protest song]] "March March" with a music video directed by Seanne Farmer, in tribute to [[social justice]] movements. They also introduced John Silva as their new manager, with publicity by Cindi Berger of R&CPMK.


title: The Chicks

text: On July 17, 2020, the Chicks released their first album in 14 years, "[[Gaslighter (album)|Gaslighter]]", produced by [[Jack Antonoff]]. The first single, "[[Gaslighter (song)|Gaslighter]]", and its music video was released on March 4, 2020. On August 20, 2020, the Chicks performed "[[The Star-Spangled Banner]]" at the [[2020 Democratic National Convention]].


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya Balan (pronounced ; born 1 January 1979) is an Indian actress. Known for pioneering a change in the portrayal of women in Hindi cinema with her roles in female-led films, she is the recipient of several awards, including a National Film Award and seven Filmfare Awards. She was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2014.


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya aspired to a career in film from a young age and had her first acting role in the 1995 sitcom "Hum Paanch". While pursuing a master's degree in sociology from the University of Mumbai, she made several unsuccessful attempts to start a career in film, and featured in television commercials and music videos. She made her film debut by starring in the Bengali film "Bhalo Theko" (2003) and received praise for her first Hindi film, the drama "Parineeta" (2005). This was followed by commercial successes in "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" (2006) and "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" (2007), but her subsequent roles failed to propel her career forward.


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya went on to establish herself by starring as headstrong women in five consecutive commercial successes, which also earned her critical and awards recognition. These were in the drama "Paa" (2009), the black comedy "Ishqiya" (2010), the thrillers "No One Killed Jessica" and "Kahaani" (2012), and the biopic "The Dirty Picture" (2011). The last of these won her the National Film Award for Best Actress. Following a downturn, Vidya made a career comeback by playing cheerful women balancing work and family life in "Tumhari Sulu" (2017) and "Mission Mangal" (2019). The latter emerged as her highest-grossing release. Vidya has since starred in the Amazon Prime Video films "Shakuntala Devi" (2020), "Sherni" (2021), and "Jalsa" (2022).


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya also promotes humanitarian causes and supports the empowerment of women. She is a member of the Indian Central Board of Film Certification and has hosted a radio show. Early in her career, she drew criticism for her fluctuating weight and dress sense, but was later credited in the media for her unconventionality. Vidya is married to the film producer Siddharth Roy Kapur.


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya was born on 1 January 1979 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai), into a Tamil Brahmin family. Her father, P. R. Balan, is the executive vice-president of Digicable and her mother, Saraswathy Balan, is a homemaker. According to Vidya, they speak a mix of Tamil and Malayalam at home. Her elder sister, Priya Balan, works in advertising. The actress Priyamani is her second cousin.


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya grew up in the suburban neighbourhood of Chembur, Mumbai and attended St. Anthony Girls' High School. From a young age, she aspired to a career in film and was inspired by the work of actors Shabana Azmi and Madhuri Dixit. At the age of 16, she starred in the first season of Ekta Kapoor's sitcom "Hum Paanch" as Radhika, a bespectacled teenager. After the series ended, Vidya refused director Anurag Basu's offer to star in a television soap opera, as she wanted to concentrate on a film career. Her parents were supportive of the decision but encouraged her to complete her education first. She attended St. Xavier's College to pursue a bachelor's degree in sociology and later earned a master's degree from the University of Mumbai.


title: Vidya Balan

text: While pursuing her master's degree, Vidya was cast as the female lead in the Malayalam film "Chakram", opposite Mohanlal and was subsequently signed on for 12 other Malayalam language films. However, due to production difficulties, "Chakram" was shelved. The postponement of a film starring Mohanlal was an unheard occurrence in Malayalam cinema and producers blamed Vidya for bringing "bad luck" to the project; labelled her as a "jinx"; and replaced her in the films that she had been contracted for. She shifted focus to Tamil cinema. In 2001, she was cast as the female lead in N. Linguswamy's "Run" (2002). However, after completing the first shooting schedule, she was unceremoniously dropped and replaced by Meera Jasmine. She was signed up under false pretences for a sex comedy, a genre she was uncomfortable with, and decided to leave the project. She was also replaced by Meera Jasmine in "Bala" (2002). Thereafter, she signed on for a third Tamil film, "Manasellam" (2003), but was replaced by Trisha as the director was dissatisfied with her work. "Kalari Vikraman", another Malayalam film that she completed work for in 2003, failed to get a theatrical release. After failing to start a film career, Vidya appeared in approximately 60 television commercials and in music videos for Euphoria and Shubha Mudgal; a majority of these were directed by Pradeep Sarkar.


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya's film debut came with the Bengali film "Bhalo Theko" (2003), a drama directed by Goutam Halder. He cast her in the central role of Aanandi, a young woman reminiscing about her past, for the combination of innocence and experience that he found in her. Vidya was ecstatic about her involvement in Bengali cinema, later calling it a dream come true and highlighting its contribution to her subsequent progress.


title: Vidya Balan

text: She was awarded an Anandalok Purashkar for Best Actress for her performance. On Pradeep Sarkar's recommendation, Vidya auditioned for the lead role in his directorial venture—the Hindi film "Parineeta" (2005). The film's producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra initially preferred an established actress in the part, but agreed to cast Vidya after she underwent six months of extensive tests. Based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1914 Bengali novel of the same name, "Parineeta" tells the love story between Shekhar (played by Saif Ali Khan), the son of the local zamindar, and Lalita (Vidya), the dignified daughter of the family's tenant. Vidya's performance received praise from critics; Derek Elley of "Variety" found her to be an "acting revelation", adding that her "devoted but dignified Lalita is the picture's heart and soul". At the annual Filmfare Awards ceremony, she won Best Female Debut and received a nomination for Best Actress.


title: Vidya Balan

text: Continuing her collaboration with Chopra's company, Vidya starred opposite Sanjay Dutt in Rajkumar Hirani's comedy film "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" (2006). She played a radio jockey and the title character's love interest, for which she met up with radio hosts and watched them at work. While she acknowledged not having a substantial role in the film, she agreed to the project as part of a conscious effort to work in different genres to avoid being typecast in her "Parineeta" image. With earnings of , "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" emerged as one of the highest-grossing Hindi films to that point. Vidya began 2007 by accepting the supporting role of a multiple sclerosis patient in Mani Ratnam's drama "Guru", starring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, citing her desire to work with Ratnam. Raja Sen of Rediff.com bemoaned that she was "somewhat wasted in a role that isn't as well-etched". Her next two roles, in the ensemble films "Salaam-e-Ishq" and "", were similarly small, but she defended these choices as having been "part of my learning curve". Both films performed poorly at the box office, but the latter was selected as India's entry for the 80th Academy Awards. Citing date issues, Vidya refused Pradeep Sarkar and Sudhir Mishra's offers to star in their films "Laaga Chunari Mein Daag" and "Khoya Khoya Chand", respectively; she has said that both filmmakers were upset with her decision.


title: Vidya Balan

text: In her next release of 2007, the comedy "Heyy Babyy", she starred opposite Akshay Kumar in her first glamorous, westernised role. Her look was poorly received, with Namrata Joshi of "Outlook" writing, "Vidya is irritating, over-the-top, extremely affected and looks ghastly in figure-hugging frocks." She next teamed with Kumar once again in "Bhool Bhulaiyaa", a comedy horror film from Priyadarshan, which served as a remake of the Malayalam film "Manichitrathazhu" (1993). Played by Shobana in the original, Vidya was challenged by the role of a woman suffering from dissociative identity disorder; in preparation, she stayed in isolation for three days and once collapsed on set. Moreover, she was intimidated by the dancing that her role required and began learning kathak days before filming her scenes. Despite disliking the film and Vidya's dancing, Khalid Mohamed found her "bankably likeable", and Taran Adarsh described her as "splendid". Both "Heyy Babyy" and "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" were among the highest-grossing Hindi films of the year. The latter earned her a second Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.


title: Vidya Balan

text: In 2008's "Halla Bol", based on the life of activist Safdar Hashmi, Vidya played a supporting role opposite Ajay Devgn. She next took on a glamorous role once again in the romantic comedy "Kismat Konnection", co-starring Shahid Kapoor. She explained her choice of this part as a deliberate attempt to move away from her comfort zone, but she found it difficult to dance alongside Kapoor. Elvis D'Silva of Rediff.com found Vidya to be "woefully miscast" and criticised her look and wardrobe, as did Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express", who dismissed her as "determinedly frumpy". Both films had poor box office returns. Addressing her failure in portraying glamorous roles, Vidya has said that such parts did not suit her personality and blamed herself for "a complete lack of conviction on my part".


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya's career prospects improved in 2009 when R. Balki cast her in his comedy-drama "Paa". She played a single mother struggling with her son's (played by Amitabh Bachchan) progeria. She was initially skeptical about playing the part, wondering if she could be maternal towards an actor of Bachchan's stature, who is over 30 years her senior. After insisting on a look test with Bachchan, she said that his effective transformation into a young boy had convinced her to accept the part. Comparing her acting style to that of Dimple Kapadia, the critic Sukanya Verma wrote, "Balan is poignant yet restrained and projects an impressive figure of grace and integrity"; Nikhat Kazmi of "The Times of India" commended her for lending a "rare dignity to the image of the Bollywood mom". "Paa" was a commercial success, and won Vidya the Filmfare Award and Screen Award for Best Actress. Vidya has said that the film's reception gave her "courage to stick to my conviction".


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya described her next role, in Abhishek Chaubey's black comedy "Ishqiya" (2010), to be "an epitome of grey". In a departure from her wholesome on-screen persona, she starred as a seductive, manipulative widow from a village in Uttar Pradesh. The part required her to master the local dialect, which also involved the use of profanity. Anupama Chopra opined, "Vidya Balan's smoldering looks scorch the screen even as her eyes hint at tragedy. She proves that she is miles ahead of the cookie cutter Barbie dolls that clutter Bollywood and that sensuality has very little to do with showing skin." Vidya's work won her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress, a second consecutive Best Actress award at Screen, and a nomination for Best Actress at Filmfare.


title: Vidya Balan

text: The year 2011 was key in Vidya's career, as she had starring roles in two commercially successful female-led films. In "No One Killed Jessica", a thriller based on the murder of Jessica Lal, and co-starring Rani Mukerji, Vidya played the real-life character of Sabrina, who seeks justice for her sister's murder. Vidya was styled in men's dresses and loose-fitted clothing; several scenes were shot on location using hidden cameras, and she was pleased with the anonymity that her styling provided. Moreover, she spoke positively of her rapport with Mukerji, noting the rarity of two leading ladies within the same Hindi film. Sudhish Kamath of "The Hindu" took note of Vidya's ability to be "in sublime control over her emotions" and Savera Someshwar of Rediff.com added that "her hesitant body language, her faith, her helplessness, her rage, her sorrow and her gratitude all come across beautifully". Vidya earned another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. In the same year, she made a guest appearance in the Malayalam film "Urumi" and a retrospective of her films was held in Australia as part of the Bollywood and Beyond festival.


title: Vidya Balan

text: "The New York Times" reported that with her role in "The Dirty Picture" (2011), a drama based on the controversial Indian actress Silk Smitha, Vidya had "redefine[d] the Hindi film heroine". She was challenged by the overwhelming sexuality in the role, and spoke of the mental preparation she put into achieving a balance between the character's mix of innocence, vulnerability, and sex appeal. She gained to look the part. Khalid Mohamed observed of Vidya, "She's extraordinary: gutsy, consistently in character and unafraid of exposing her darker side. Here's the kind of complex performance which you haven't evidenced in years and years." With worldwide earnings of , "The Dirty Picture" emerged as Hindi cinema's highest-grossing female-led film to that point. Vidya won another Filmfare and Screen Award, in addition to the National Film Award for Best Actress.


title: Vidya Balan

text: She next starred in the thriller "Kahaani" (2012), directed by Sujoy Ghosh. Set in Kolkata during the Durga Puja festivities, the film starred Vidya as a pregnant woman in search of her missing husband. Made on a shoestring budget, it was shot for over 64 days in the streets of Kolkata by means of guerrilla filmmaking. Vidya drew media attention for wearing a prosthetic belly while promoting the film. Pratim D. Gupta of "The Telegraph" wrote that Vidya "gets into the physicality of a pregnant woman with unfailing mastery". Sanjukta Sharma of "Mint" summarised, "Balan’s existence, and indeed her flourishing, says something about the Hindi film industry finally breaking away from the “heroine" mould." As with "The Dirty Picture", "Kahaani" too emerged among the biggest earning female-led Hindi films, grossing over worldwide. Vidya won a fourth consecutive Best Actress Award at Screen and a third Best Actress Award at Filmfare.


title: Vidya Balan

text: After serving as a jury member at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, Vidya starred in the comic thriller "Ghanchakkar" (2013). Playing a boisterous Punjabi woman opposite Emraan Hashmi, she explained that unlike her previous few films, her part in it was secondary to the male star. Sarit Ray of "Hindustan Times" dismissed her "shrill, garish-dressing, magazine-devouring Punjabi housewife" character as "caricature-ish". Vidya then provided the voice of Draupadi for "Mahabharat", an animation film based on the Indian epic of the same name. She began 2014 with "Shaadi Ke Side Effects", a romantic comedy about a married couple, in which she was pitted opposite Farhan Akhtar. Critics liked their chemistry, but were unimpressed with the film. She was next drawn to the title role of an aspiring detective in the comedy-mystery film "Bobby Jasoos", after connecting with the character's struggle to prove herself. It required her to sport 12 elaborate disguises, and she trained with a language coach to adopt a Hyderabadi accent. Rohit Khilnani of "India Today" was appreciative of Vidya's performance but disliked the film's script and execution. All of these films were commercially unsuccessful, which led Vidya to admit that she felt "devastated" by their reception.


title: Vidya Balan

text: The series of poorly received films continued with the romantic drama "Hamari Adhuri Kahani" (2015). The writer Mahesh Bhatt, who based the film on his own mother, was keen to have Vidya play the lead role of a domestic abuse survivor. Shubha Shetty-Saha of "Mid-Day" bemoaned that she had been "saddled with a boring, outdated, weepy character" and that "there was nothing much even she could do". The following year, she took on the supporting part of a police officer in "Te3n" (2016), a thriller inspired by the 2013 South Korean film "Montage", co-starring Amitabh Bachchan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. She was drawn to playing a woman who commands respect and identified with her "silent aggression". Rajeev Masand criticised the film's predictable denouement, but liked Vidya's ability to act through gestures. She then portrayed the actress Geeta Bali in multiple songs for "Ekk Albela", a Marathi-language biopic of Bhagwan Dada. Journalists speculated if "" (2016), a spiritual sequel to "Kahaani", would help overcome her career decline. It was not as well-received as the first film, but Vidya received a Best Actress nomination at Filmfare for her portrayal of a child sexual abuse survivor. In a mixed review of the film, Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that "with tremendous commitment to the part, [Vidya] gives us a stirring performance free of vanity or obviousness".


title: Vidya Balan

text: In Srijit Mukherji's period drama "Begum Jaan" (2017), a remake of the filmmaker's own Bengali film "Rajkahini" (2015), Vidya played the title role of a procurer from the 1940s. She worked with Mukherji to provide a backstory to her character and researched the era by reading "The Other Side of Silence"; filming in the barren landscape of rural Jharkhand was physically daunting for her. Anna M. M. Vetticad of "Firstpost" wrote that she "issues one-liners in a monotone, but is unable to dig deep and summon up a relatable human being". Vidya next played Sulu, a spirited housewife who moonlights as a talk radio host of a relationship counseling show, in the comedy-drama "Tumhari Sulu". She identified with her character's lively personality and was pleased to play a rare comic part. She drew on her experience of playing a radio jockey in "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" and listened to late-night radio shows. Writing for "The Times of India", Neil Soans commended Vidya for "infusing Sulu with an abundance of infectious optimism without being aggravating", and Shubhra Gupta complimented the way she used "her distinctive voice and full-bellied laughter to invest Sulu with real warmth". NDTV listed her performance as the best by a Hindi film actress that year, and she won her fifth Screen Award and fourth Filmfare Award for Best Actress. It also proved to be Vidya's first commercial success since 2012; she called the film's reception a "major confidence booster".


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya expanded into South Indian cinema in 2019, with roles in the two-part Telugu biopic, "" and "", and the Tamil drama "Nerkonda Paarvai". In the former two, about the actor-politician N. T. Rama Rao, she played Rao's first wife. Both films failed commercially. In "Nerkonda Paarvai", a remake of the courtroom drama "Pink" (2016), she briefly played the wife of Ajith Kumar's character. Although not keen on remakes, she agreed to the project to bring attention to its theme of sexual consent. Srinivasa Ramanujam of "The Hindu" dismissed the portions involving Vidya as inessential. It emerged as one of the highest-grossing Tamil films of the year. Vidya teamed with Akshay Kumar for the third time in "Mission Mangal", about the Mars Orbiter Mission, which marked India's first interplanetary expedition. She liked the idea of playing a seemingly ordinary homemaker who balances her family life with her work as a scientist, and she was also pleased to work with four other leading ladies. Joe Leydon of "Variety" found Vidya to be "drop-dead perfect from wire to wire", and she was awarded with another Best Actress nomination at Filmfare. With global earnings of , "Mission Mangal" emerged as her highest-grossing release.


title: Vidya Balan

text: The short film "Natkhat" (2020), about a mother teaching her young son about gender equality, marked Vidya's first production venture. It premiered on YouTube as part of the . She then portrayed the mental calculator Shakuntala Devi in an eponymous biopic, which due to the COVID-19 pandemic could not release theatrically and instead streamed on Amazon Prime Video. The director Anu Menon cast Vidya as she believed that Devi's "gregarious and flamboyant" personality matched that of the actress; in preparation, Vidya listened to interviews of Devi's daughter and husband, and watched online videos of Devi. Mike McCahill of "The Guardian" praised Vidya's "all-shotguns-blazing performance" and "The Hindu" Kenneth Rosario took note of her "ability to smoothly transition between age and appearances, but even she can't salvage a rather mawkish finale to the film". She received two more Filmfare nominations for her performance in it.


title: Vidya Balan

text: The following year, Vidya starred as an Indian Forest Service officer tracking a man-eating tigress in the environmental thriller "Sherni" (2021). In preparation, she met two forest officers and went on forest trails with them, and read Peter Wohlleben's book "The Hidden Life of Trees". Sukanya Verma opined that Vidya's "refreshingly subdued portrayal" was a departure from the "self-aware feminist" roles that she had previously played. She was awarded with another Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for her performance. Vidya next starred alongside Shefali Shah in the thriller "Jalsa" (2022), which marked her third consecutive film to release on Amazon Prime Video. She played a journalist involved in a hit-and-run, a morally ambiguous character that she was initially hesitant to play. Monika Rawal Kukreja of "Hindustan Times" believed that the performances of Vidya and Shah had enhanced a mediocre picture.


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya will next feature alongside Pratik Gandhi in an as-yet untitled romantic comedy and reunite with Anu Menon for a murder mystery film titled "Neeyat".


title: Vidya Balan

text: The mass media has often speculated about a romantic relationship between Vidya and her co-actors, but she has strongly denied these reports. In 2009, Vidya was involved in a controversy when she mentioned a previous relationship in which "caustic remarks" were made at her due to her weight. She said, "If someone who matters to you takes you down, it can break you. That someone whose approval mattered to me started to constantly find faults with me. At that point of time, it was important to walk away from that relationship." Though she refused to name the person, tabloid reports suggested that she was referring to Shahid Kapoor (her co-star in "Kismat Konnection"). Kapoor, however, denied the allegations. During an interview in May 2012, Vidya announced that she was dating Siddharth Roy Kapur, the CEO of UTV Motion Pictures. On 14 December 2012, the couple were married in a private ceremony in Bandra, Mumbai.


title: Vidya Balan

text: Vidya is trained in Carnatic music and briefly studied the dance forms of Bharatnatyam and Kathak. Regarding her religious affiliations, Vidya said, "I am a person with a lot of faith and I have conversations [with God] all the time but I am not so religious in the conventional, organised sense". She practices vegetarianism and was listed as "India's hottest vegetarian" in polls conducted by PETA in 2011 and 2012. Her weight fluctuations over the years have been the subject of substantial media coverage in India.


title: Vidya Balan

text: In March 2011, Vidya endorsed World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour campaign in India. She campaigned for the cause of nutrition in India for Child In Need Institute (CINI), a non-profit organisation based in Kolkata. In September 2012, Vidya visited a village in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, where she participated in a campaign to promote children's education and the empowerment of women. For her attempts to empower women, Vidya was awarded the Prabha Khaitan Puraskar 2012 by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce; she was the youngest recipient of the award. In 2012, she became the first brand ambassador of the country's sanitation programme, later renamed as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Since then, she has been part of a nationwide television and radio campaign aimed to increase construction and use of toilets.


title: Vidya Balan

text: In 2013, Vidya served as the grand marshal of the India Day parade held in New York City. In the same year, she launched a technology-based learning platform for underprivileged children in the Thanapur village of Uttar Pradesh. Also that year, Vidya featured as the host of "No More Kamzor", a television special on women empowerment. On the occasion of International Women's Day in 2015, Vidya wrote an opinion column in "Hindustan Times" on the issues faced by women in India. In August 2017, Vidya was made a member of the Indian Central Board of Film Certification, to certify films for theatrical exhibition. The following year, she became the goodwill ambassador of Arpan, an NGO that creates awareness on sexual abuse. In 2019, she collaborated with BIG FM 92.7 to host a radio show named "Dhun Badal Ke Toh Dekho".


title: Vidya Balan

text: Following the success of "Parineeta" and "Lage Raho Munna Bhai", Vidya's film roles were subject to wide critical analysis. Vir Sanghvi noted that the films "Heyy Babyy" and "Kismat Konnection" were "strange films [...] in which she tried to pretend to be what she is not — a Bollywood bimbette." Vidya described that particular phase in her career as a "struggle to be someone else". Due to the criticism that her film choices evoked, Vidya decided to choose roles that she "believed in" rather than choose by convention. Members of the media have subsequently labelled her as "bold" and "daring" in her choices.


title: Vidya Balan

text: Her starring roles in "Heyy Babyy" and "Kismat Konnection" also led to considerable attention in the media for her "questionable wardrobe". Several publications listed her as the "worst dressed actress" and her costume designers attributed her failure to carry off western clothes due to her weight and body structure. She was later praised in the media for wearing saris at public events; designer Niharika Khan explained, "Vidya's beauty lies in her curves. She's comfortable in her voluptuousness, and therefore in a sari." Vidya has since been identified as defying "an anglicised idea of sexuality" and embody the idea of "raw Indian sexuality".


title: Vidya Balan

text: After portraying strong protagonists in "Paa", "Ishqiya", "No One Killed Jessica", "The Dirty Picture" and "Kahaani", Vidya was credited in the media for pioneering a movement that breaks the stereotypical portrayal of heroines in Bollywood. The major commercial success of the latter two earned her the title of a "female hero" and Kalpana Nair of "Firstpost" noted that with these two films Vidya spearheaded a change in the roles that were offered to actresses over 30. Critic Mayank Shekhar predicted, "Just a few smart male actors can completely change the face of a commercial, star-driven film industry. Looking at [...] Vidya Balan [...] it appears, that change could well originate from the leading lady instead."


title: Vidya Balan

text: "India Today" featured Vidya in their 2012 listing of the nation's most powerful women and noted that "she has toppled the all dominating hero, reducing him to a supporting role in a male dominated film industry". Vidya was featured by "Forbes India" in their annual Celebrity 100 list in 2012 and 2013. She occupied the top slot in Rediff.com's annual listing of the year's best performances for two consecutive years (2010–11). She also featured in the list for the years 2005, 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2016. In 2012, the magazine "Verve" featured her as one of India's "Young Power Women" and wrote, "In a reel world peopled by size zero-toned bodies and pretty-as-a-picture heroines, Vidya comes across as completely real and natural – a woman who has followed her own instincts and dared to live her destiny by being her own person and not morphing herself to fit into any conventional slot." Two years later, the magazine listed her as a power icon. In 2018, "The Economic Times" considered Vidya to be one of the most prominent celebrity brand ambassadors in India.


title: Vidya Balan

text: In 2014, Vidya was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India, for her contributions to the entertainment industry. The following year, she received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Rai University; the university also named a scholarship program for underprivileged girls after her. The chancellor of the university, Harbeen Arora said, "Among the league of iconic actors, Vidya is a pioneer in every way. Her films epitomise a distinct Indianness and a powerful womanhood".


title: Vidya Balan

text: Among Vidya's film awards are a National Film Award for Best Actress for "The Dirty Picture" (2011); and seven Filmfare Awards: Best Female Debut for "Parineeta" (2005); Best Actress for "Paa" (2009), "The Dirty Picture" (2011), "Kahaani" (2012), and "Tumhari Sulu" (2017); and Critics Award for Best Actress for "Ishqiya" (2010), and "Sherni" (2021).


title: Joe Louis

text: Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1937 until his temporary retirement in 1949. He was victorious in 25 consecutive title defenses, a record for all weight classes. Louis had the longest single reign as champion of any boxer in history.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis's cultural impact was felt well outside the ring. He is widely regarded as the first person of African-American descent to achieve the status of a nationwide hero within the United States, and was also a focal point of anti-Nazi sentiment leading up to and during World War II because of his historic rematch with German boxer Max Schmeling in 1938. He was instrumental in integrating the game of golf, breaking the sport's color barrier in America by appearing under a sponsor's exemption in a PGA event in 1952.


title: Joe Louis

text: Born on May 13, 1914 in rural Chambers County, Alabama—in a ramshackle dwelling on Bell Chapel Road, located about off state route 50 and roughly from LaFayette—Louis was the seventh of eight children of Munroe Barrow and Lillie (Reese) Barrow. He weighed at birth. Both of his parents were children of former slaves, alternating between sharecropping and rental farming. Munroe was an African American with some European ancestry, while Lillie was half Cherokee.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis suffered from a speech impediment and spoke very little until about the age of six. Munroe Barrow was committed to a mental institution in 1916 and, as a result, Joe knew very little of his biological father. Around 1920, Louis's mother married Pat Brooks, a local construction contractor, having received word that Munroe Barrow had died while institutionalized (in reality, Munroe Barrow lived until 1938, unaware of his son's fame).


title: Joe Louis

text: In 1926, shaken by a gang of white men in the Ku Klux Klan, Louis's family moved to Detroit, Michigan, forming part of the post-World War I Great Migration. Joe's brother worked for Ford Motor Company (where Joe would himself work for a time at the River Rouge Plant) and the family settled into a home at 2700 Catherine (now Madison) Street in Detroit's Black Bottom neighborhood.


title: Joe Louis

text: The Great Depression hit the Barrow family hard, but Joe still made time to work out at a local youth recreation center at 637 Brewster Street in Detroit. His mother attempted to get him interested in playing the violin. A classic story is that he tried to hide his pugilistic ambitions from his mother by carrying his boxing gloves inside his violin case.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis made his debut in early 1932 at the age of 17. Legend has it that before the fight, the barely literate Louis wrote his name so large that there was no room for his last name, and thus became known as "Joe Louis" for the remainder of his boxing career. More likely, Louis simply omitted his last name to keep his boxing a secret from his mother. After this debut—a loss to future Olympian Johnny Miler—Louis compiled numerous amateur victories, eventually winning the club championship of his Brewster Street recreation center, the home of many aspiring Golden Gloves fighters.


title: Joe Louis

text: In 1933, Louis won the Detroit-area Golden Gloves Novice Division championship against Joe Biskey for the light heavyweight classification. He later lost in the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions. The next year, competing in the Golden Gloves' Open Division, he won the light heavyweight classification, this time also winning the Chicago Tournament of Champions against Max Bauer. However, a hand injury forced Louis to miss the New York/Chicago Champions' cross-town bout for the ultimate Golden Gloves championship. In April 1934, he followed up his Chicago performance by winning the light heavyweight United States Amateur Champion National AAU tournament in St. Louis, Missouri.


title: Joe Louis

text: Joe Louis had only three losses in his 69 professional fights. He tallied 52 knockouts and held the championship from 1937 to 1949, the longest span of any heavyweight titleholder. After returning from retirement, Louis failed to regain the championship in 1950, and his career ended after he was knocked out by Rocky Marciano in 1951.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis's amateur performances attracted the interest of professional promoters, and he was soon represented by a black Detroit-area bookmaker named John Roxborough. As Louis explained in his autobiography, Roxborough convinced the young fighter that white managers would have no real interest in seeing a black boxer work his way up to title contention:


title: Joe Louis

text: [Roxborough] told me about the fate of most black fighters, ones with white managers, who wound up burned-out and broke before they reached their prime. The white managers were not interested in the men they were handling but in the money they could make from them. They didn't take the proper time to see that their fighters had a proper training, that they lived comfortably, or ate well, or had some pocket change. Mr. Roxborough was talking about Black Power before it became popular.


title: Joe Louis

text: Roxborough knew a Chicago area boxing promoter named Julian Black who already had a stable of mediocre boxers against which Louis could hone his craft, this time in the heavyweight division. After becoming part of the management team, Black hired fellow Chicago native Jack "Chappy" Blackburn as Louis's trainer. Louis's initial professional fights were all in the Chicago area, his professional debut coming on July 4, 1934, against Jack Kracken in the Bacon Casino on Chicago's south side. Louis earned $59 for knocking out Kracken in the first round. $59.00 in 1934 is equivalent to $1,148.60 in 2020 dollars. Louis won all 12 of his professional fights that year, 10 by knockout.


title: Joe Louis

text: In September 1934, while promoting a Detroit-area "coming home" bout for Louis against Canadian Alex Borchuk, Roxborough was pressured by members of the Michigan State Boxing Commission to have Louis sign with white management. Roxborough refused and continued advancing Louis's career with bouts against heavyweight contenders Art Sykes and Stanley Poreda.


title: Joe Louis

text: While training for a fight against Lee Ramage, Louis noticed a young female secretary for the black newspaper at the gym. After Ramage was defeated, the secretary, Marva Trotter, was invited to the celebration party at Chicago's Grand Hotel. Trotter later became Louis's first wife in 1935.


title: Joe Louis

text: During this time, Louis also met Truman Gibson, the man who would become his personal lawyer. As a young associate at a law firm hired by Julian Black, Gibson was charged with personally entertaining Louis during the pendency of business deals.


title: Joe Louis

text: Although Louis's management was finding him bouts against legitimate heavyweight contenders, no path to the title was forthcoming. While professional boxing was not officially segregated, many white Americans had become wary of the prospect of another black champion in the wake of Jack Johnson's highly unpopular (among whites) "reign" atop the heavyweight division. During an era of severe anti-black repression, Jack Johnson's unrepentant masculinity and marriage to a white woman engendered an enormous backlash that greatly limited opportunities of black fighters in the heavyweight division. Black boxers were denied championship bouts, and there were few heavyweight black contenders at the time, though there were African Americans who fought for titles in other weight divisions, and a few notable black champions, such as Tiger Flowers. Louis and his handlers would counter the legacy of Johnson by emphasizing the Brown Bomber's modesty and sportsmanship. Biographer Gerald Astor stated that "Joe Louis' early boxing career was stalked by the specter of Jack Johnson".


title: Joe Louis

text: If Louis were to rise to national prominence among such cultural attitudes, a change in management would be necessary. In 1935, boxing promoter Mike Jacobs sought out Louis's handlers. After Louis's narrow defeat of Natie Brown on March 29, 1935, Jacobs and the Louis team met at the Frog Club, a black nightclub, and negotiated a three-year exclusive boxing promotion deal. The contract, however, did not keep Roxborough and Black from attempting to cash in as Louis's managers; when Louis turned 21 on May 13, 1935, Roxborough and Black each signed Louis to an onerous long-term contract that collectively dedicated half of Louis's future income to the pair.


title: Joe Louis

text: Black and Roxborough continued to carefully and deliberately shape Louis's media image. Mindful of the tremendous public backlash Johnson had suffered for his unapologetic attitude and flamboyant lifestyle, they drafted "Seven Commandments" for Louis's personal conduct. These included:


title: Joe Louis

text: As a result, Louis was generally portrayed in the white media as a modest, clean-living person, which facilitated his burgeoning celebrity status.


title: Joe Louis

text: With the backing of a major promotion, Louis fought thirteen times in 1935. The bout that helped put him in the media spotlight occurred on June 25, when Louis knocked out 6'6", 265-pound former world heavyweight champion Primo Carnera in six rounds. Foreshadowing the Louis–Schmeling rivalry to come, the Carnera bout featured a political dimension. Louis's victory over Carnera, who symbolized Benito Mussolini's regime in the popular eye, was seen as a victory for the international community, particularly among African Americans, who were sympathetic to Ethiopia, which was attempting to maintain its independence by fending off an invasion by fascist Italy. America's white press began promoting Louis's image in the context of the era's racism; nicknames they created included the "Mahogany Mauler", "Chocolate Chopper", "Coffee-Colored KO King", "Safari Sandman", and one that stuck: "The Brown Bomber".


title: Joe Louis

text: Helping the white press to overcome its reluctance to feature a black contender was the fact that in the mid-1930s boxing desperately needed a marketable hero. Since the retirement of Jack Dempsey in 1929, the sport had devolved into a sordid mixture of poor athletes, gambling, fixed fights, thrown matches, and control of the sport by organized crime. "New York Times" Columnist Edward Van Ness wrote, "Louis ... is a boon to boxing. Just as Dempsey led the sport out of the doldrums ... so is Louis leading the boxing game out of a slump." Likewise, biographer Bill Libby asserted that "The sports world was hungry for a great champion when Louis arrived in New York in 1935."


title: Joe Louis

text: While the mainstream press was beginning to embrace Louis, many still opposed the prospect of another black heavyweight champion. In September 1935, on the eve of Louis's fight with former titleholder Max Baer, "Washington Post" sportswriter Shirley Povich wrote about some Americans' hopes for the white contender, "They say Baer will surpass himself in the knowledge that he is the lone white hope for the defense of Nordic superiority in the prize ring." However, the hopes of white supremacists would soon be dashed.


title: Joe Louis

text: Although Baer had been knocked down only once before in his professional career (by Frankie Campbell), Louis dominated the former champion, knocking him out in the fourth round. Unknowingly, Baer suffered from a unique disadvantage in the fight: earlier that evening, Louis had married Marva Trotter at a friend's apartment and was eager to end the fight in order to consummate the relationship. Later that year, Louis also knocked out Paolino Uzcudun, who had never been knocked down before.


title: Joe Louis

text: By this time, Louis was ranked as the No. 1 contender in the heavyweight division and had won the Associated Press' "Athlete of the Year" award for 1935. What was considered to be a final tune-up bout before an eventual title shot was scheduled for June 1936 against Max Schmeling. Although a former world heavyweight champion, Schmeling, who had been knocked out by the same Max Baer Louis had handily beaten, was not considered a threat to Louis, then with a professional record of 27–0. Schmeling had won his title on a technicality when Jack Sharkey was disqualified after giving Schmeling a low blow in 1930. Schmeling was also 30 years old at the time of the Louis bout and allegedly past his prime. Louis's training retreat was located at Lakewood, New Jersey, where he was first able to practice the game of golf, which would later become a lifelong passion. Noted entertainer Ed Sullivan had initially sparked Louis's interest in the sport by giving an instructional book to Joe's wife Marva. Louis spent significant time on the golf course rather than training for the match.


title: Joe Louis

text: Conversely, Schmeling prepared intently for the bout. He had thoroughly studied Louis's style and believed he had found a weakness. By exploiting Louis's habit of dropping his left hand low after a jab, Schmeling handed Louis his first professional loss by knocking him out in round 12 at Yankee Stadium on June 19, 1936. The event would lead to the historic rematch of the two, in one of the world's most famous sporting events.


title: Joe Louis

text: After defeating Louis, Schmeling expected a title shot against James J. Braddock, who had unexpectedly defeated Max Baer for the heavyweight title the previous June. Madison Square Garden (MSG) had a contract with Braddock for the title defense and also sought a Braddock–Schmeling title bout. But Jacobs and Braddock's manager Joe Gould had been planning a Braddock–Louis matchup for months.


title: Joe Louis

text: Schmeling's victory gave Gould tremendous leverage, however. If he were to offer Schmeling the title chance instead of Louis, there was a very real possibility that Nazi authorities would never allow Louis a shot at the title. Gould's demands were therefore onerous: Jacobs would have to pay 10% of all future boxing promotion profits (including any future profits from Louis's future bouts) for ten years. Braddock and Gould would eventually receive more than $150,000 from this arrangement. Well before the actual fight, Jacobs and Gould publicly announced that their fighters would fight for the heavyweight title on June 22, 1937. Figuring that the New York State Athletic Commission would not sanction the fight in deference to MSG and Schmeling, Jacobs scheduled the fight for Chicago.


title: Joe Louis

text: Each of the parties involved worked to facilitate the controversial Braddock–Louis matchup. Louis did his part by knocking out former champion Jack Sharkey on August 18, 1936. Meanwhile, Gould trumped up anti-Nazi sentiment against Schmeling, and Jacobs defended a lawsuit by MSG to halt the Braddock–Louis fight. A federal court in Newark, New Jersey, eventually ruled that Braddock's contractual obligation to stage his title defense at MSG was unenforceable for lack of mutual consideration.


title: Joe Louis

text: The stage was set for Louis's title shot. On the night of the fight, June 22, 1937, Braddock was able to knock Louis down in round one, but afterward could accomplish little. After inflicting constant punishment, Louis defeated Braddock in round eight, knocking him out cold with a strong right hand that busted James' teeth through his gum shield and lip and sent him to the ground for a few minutes. It was the first and only time that Braddock was knocked out (the one other stoppage of Braddock's career was a TKO due to a cut). Louis's ascent to the world heavyweight championship was complete.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis's victory was a seminal moment in African American history. Thousands of African Americans stayed up all night across the country in celebration. Noted author and member of the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes described Louis's effect in these terms:


title: Joe Louis

text: Each time Joe Louis won a fight in those depression years, even before he became champion, thousands of black Americans on relief or W.P.A., and poor, would throng out into the streets all across the land to march and cheer and yell and cry because of Joe's one-man triumphs. No one else in the United States has ever had such an effect on Negro emotions—or on mine. I marched and cheered and yelled and cried, too.


title: Joe Louis

text: Despite his championship, Louis was haunted by the earlier defeat to Schmeling. Shortly after winning the title, he was quoted as saying, "I don't want to be called champ until I whip Max Schmeling." Louis's manager Mike Jacobs attempted to arrange a rematch in 1937, but negotiations broke down when Schmeling demanded 30% of the gate. When Schmeling instead attempted to arrange for a fight against British Empire champion Tommy Farr, known as the "Tonypandy Terror"—ostensibly for a world championship to rival the claims of American boxing authorities—Jacobs outmaneuvered him, offering Farr a guaranteed $60,000 to fight Louis instead. The offer was too lucrative for Farr to turn down.


title: Joe Louis

text: On August 30, 1937, after a postponement of four days due to rain, Louis and Farr finally touched gloves at New York's Yankee Stadium before a crowd of approximately 32,000. Louis fought one of the hardest battles of his life. The bout was closely contested and went the entire 15 rounds, with Louis being unable to knock Farr down. Referee Arthur Donovan was even seen shaking Farr's hand after the bout, in apparent congratulation. Nevertheless, after the score was announced, Louis had won a controversial unanimous decision. "Time" described the scene thus: "After collecting the judges' votes, referee Arthur Donovan announced that Louis had won the fight on points. The crowd of 50,000 ... amazed that Farr had not been knocked out or even knocked down, booed the decision."


title: Joe Louis

text: It seems the crowd believed that referee Arthur Donovan, Sr. had raised Farr's glove in victory. Seven years later, in his published account of the fight, Donovan spoke of the "mistake" that may have led to this confusion. He wrote:


title: Joe Louis

text: As Tommy walked back to his corner after shaking Louis' hand, I followed him and seized his glove. "Tommy, a wonderful perform—" I began ... Then I dropped his hand like a red-hot coal! He had started to raise his arm. He thought I had given him the fight and the world championship! I literally ran away, shaking my head and shouting. "No! No! No!" realising how I had raised his hopes for a few seconds only to dash them to the ground ... That's the last time my emotions will get the better of me in a prize fight! There was much booing at the announced result, but, as I say it, it was all emotional. I gave Tommy two rounds and one even—and both his winning rounds were close.


title: Joe Louis

text: In preparation for the inevitable rematch with Schmeling, Louis tuned up with bouts against Nathan Mann and Harry Thomas.


title: Joe Louis

text: The rematch between Louis and Schmeling would become one of the most famous boxing matches of all time and is remembered as one of the major sports events of the 20th century. Following his defeat of Louis in 1936, Schmeling had become a national hero in Germany. Schmeling's victory over an African American was touted by Nazi officials as proof of their doctrine of Aryan superiority. When the rematch was scheduled, Louis retreated to his boxing camp in New Jersey and trained incessantly for the fight. A few weeks before the bout, Louis visited the White House, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt told him, "Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany." Louis later admitted: "I knew I had to get Schmeling good. I had my own personal reasons and the whole damned country was depending on me."


title: Joe Louis

text: When Schmeling arrived in New York City in June 1938 for the rematch, he was accompanied by a Nazi party publicist who issued statements that a black man could not defeat Schmeling and that when Schmeling won, his prize money would be used to build tanks in Germany. Schmeling's hotel was picketed by anti-Nazi protesters in the days before the fight.


title: Joe Louis

text: On the night of June 22, 1938, Louis and Schmeling met for the second time in the boxing ring. The fight was held in Yankee Stadium before a crowd of 70,043. It was broadcast by radio to millions of listeners throughout the world (including 58% of radio-equipped U.S. households), with radio announcers reporting on the fight in English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Before the bout, Schmeling weighed in at 193 pounds; Louis weighed in at 198¾ pounds.


title: Joe Louis

text: The fight lasted two minutes and four seconds. Louis battered Schmeling with a series of swift attacks, forcing him against the ropes and giving him a paralyzing body blow (Schmeling afterward claimed it was an illegal kidney punch). Schmeling was knocked down three times and only managed to throw two punches in the entire bout. On the third knockdown, Schmeling's trainer threw in the towel and referee Arthur Donovan stopped the fight.


title: Joe Louis

text: In the 29 months from January 1939 through May 1941, Louis defended his title thirteen times, a frequency unmatched by any heavyweight champion since the end of the bare-knuckle era. The pace of his title defenses, combined with his convincing wins, earned Louis's opponents from this era the collective nickname "Bum of the Month Club". Notables of this lambasted pantheon include:


title: Joe Louis

text: Despite its derogatory nickname, most of the group were top-ten heavyweights. Of the 12 fighters Louis faced during this period, five were rated by "The Ring" as top-10 heavyweights in the year they fought Louis: Galento (overall #2 heavyweight in 1939), Bob Pastor (#3, 1939), Godoy (#3, 1940), Simon (#6, 1941) and Baer (#8, 1941); four others (Musto, Dorazio, Burman and Johnny Paychek) were ranked in the top 10 in a different year.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis's string of lightly regarded competition ended with his bout against Billy Conn, the light heavyweight champion and a highly regarded contender. The fighters met on June 18, 1941, in front of a crowd of 54,487 fans at the Polo Grounds in New York City. The fight turned out to be what is commonly considered one of the greatest heavyweight boxing fights of all time.


title: Joe Louis

text: Conn would not gain weight for the challenge against Louis, saying instead that he would rely on a "hit and run" strategy. This prompted Louis's famous response: "He can run, but he can't hide."


title: Joe Louis

text: I made a mistake going into that fight. I knew Conn was kinda small and I didn't want them to say in the papers that I beat up on some little guy so the day before the fight I did a little roadwork to break a sweat and drank as little water as possible so I could weigh in under 200 pounds. Chappie was as mad as hell. But Conn was a clever fighter, he was like a mosquito, he'd sting and move.


title: Joe Louis

text: Conn had the better of the fight through 12 rounds, although Louis was able to stun Conn with a left hook in the fifth, cutting his eye and nose. By the eighth round, Louis began suffering from dehydration. By the twelfth round, Louis was exhausted, with Conn ahead on two of three boxing scorecards. But against the advice of his corner, Conn continued to closely engage Louis in the later stages of the fight. Louis made the most of the opportunity, knocking Conn out with two seconds left in the thirteenth round.


title: Joe Louis

text: The contest created an instant rivalry that Louis's career had lacked since the Schmeling era, and a rematch with Conn was planned for late 1942. The rematch had to be abruptly canceled, however, after Conn broke his hand in a much-publicized fight with his father-in-law, Major League ballplayer Jimmy "Greenfield" Smith. By the time Conn was ready for the rematch, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had taken place.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis fought a charity bout for the Navy Relief Society against his former opponent Buddy Baer on January 9, 1942, which raised $47,000 for the fund. The next day, he volunteered to enlist as a private in the United States Army at Camp Upton, Long Island. Newsreel cameras recorded his induction, including a staged scene in which a soldier-clerk asked, "What's your occupation?", to which Louis replied, "Fighting and let us at them Japs."


title: Joe Louis

text: Another military charity bout on March 27, 1942, (against another former opponent, Abe Simon) netted $36,146. Before the fight, Louis had spoken at a Relief Fund dinner, saying of the war effort, "We'll win, 'cause we're on God's side." The media widely reported the comment, instigating a surge of popularity for Louis. Slowly, the press began to eliminate its stereotypical racial references when covering Louis and instead treated him as a sports hero. Despite the public relations boon, Louis's charitable fights proved financially costly. Although he saw none of the roughly $90,000 raised by these and other charitable fights, the IRS later credited these amounts as taxable income paid to Louis. After the war, the IRS pursued the issue.


title: Joe Louis

text: For basic training, Louis was assigned to a segregated cavalry unit based in Fort Riley, Kansas. The assignment was at the suggestion of his friend and lawyer Truman Gibson, who knew of Louis's love for horsemanship. Gibson had previously become a civilian advisor to the War Department, in charge of investigating claims of harassment against black soldiers. Accordingly, Louis used this personal connection to help the cause of various black soldiers with whom he came into contact. In one noted episode, Louis contacted Gibson in order to facilitate the Officer Candidate School (OCS) applications of a group of black recruits at Fort Riley, which had been inexplicably delayed for several months. Among the OCS applications Louis facilitated was that of a young UCLA athletic legend Jackie Robinson, later to break the baseball color barrier. The episode spawned a personal friendship between the two men.


title: Joe Louis

text: Realizing Louis's potential for raising "esprit de corps" among the troops, the Army placed him in its Special Services Division rather than sending him into combat. Louis went on a celebrity tour with other notables, including fellow boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. He traveled more than and staged 96 boxing exhibitions before two million soldiers. In England during 1944, he was reported to have signed as a player for Liverpool Football Club as a publicity stunt.


title: Joe Louis

text: In addition to his travels, Louis was the focus of a media recruitment campaign encouraging African-American men to enlist in the Armed Services, despite the military's racial segregation. When he was asked about his decision to enter the racially segregated U.S. Army, he said: "Lots of things wrong with America, but Hitler ain't going to fix them." In 1943, Louis made an appearance in the wartime Hollywood musical "This Is the Army", directed by Michael Curtiz. He appeared as himself in a musical number, "The Well-Dressed Man in Harlem," which emphasized the importance of African-American soldiers and promoted their enlistment.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis's celebrity power was not, however, merely directed toward African Americans. In a famous wartime recruitment slogan, he echoed his prior comments of 1942: "We'll win, because we're on God's side." The publicity of the campaign made Louis widely popular stateside, even outside the world of sports. Never before had white Americans embraced a black man as their representative to the world.


title: Joe Louis

text: Although Louis never saw combat, his military service saw challenges of its own. During his travels, he often experienced blatant racism. On one occasion, a military policeman (MP) ordered Louis and Ray Robinson to move their seats to a bench in the rear of an Alabama Army camp bus depot. "We ain't moving", said Louis. The MP tried to arrest them, but Louis forcefully argued the pair out of the situation. In another incident, he allegedly had to resort to exerting his influence, even bribery to persuade a commanding officer to drop charges against now Lt. Jackie Robinson, who had also resisted being told to move his seat on a southern bus, resulting in his punching a captain who had called Robinson a "nigger".


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis was eventually promoted to the rank of technical sergeant on April 9, 1945. On September 23 of the same year, he was awarded the Legion of Merit (a military decoration rarely awarded to enlisted soldiers) for "incalculable contribution to the general morale". Receipt of the honor qualified him for immediate release from military service on October 1, 1945.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis emerged from his wartime service significantly in debt. In addition to his looming tax bill—which had not been finally determined at the time, but was estimated at greater than $100,000—Jacobs claimed that Louis owed him $250,000.


title: Joe Louis

text: Despite the financial pressure on Louis to resume boxing, his long-awaited rematch against Billy Conn had to be postponed to the summer of 1946, when weather conditions could accommodate a large outdoor audience. On June 19, a disappointing 40,000 saw the rematch at Yankee Stadium, in which Louis was not seriously tested. Conn, whose skills had deteriorated during the long layoff, largely avoided contact until being dispatched by knockout in the eighth round. Although the attendance did not meet expectations, the fight was still the most profitable of Louis's career to date. His share of the purse was $600,000, of which Louis's managers got $140,000, his ex-wife $66,000 and the U.S. state of New York $30,000.


title: Joe Louis

text: After trouble finding another suitable opponent, on December 5, 1947, Louis met Jersey Joe Walcott, a 33-year-old veteran with a 44–11–2 record. Walcott entered the fight as a 10-to-1 underdog. Nevertheless, Walcott knocked down Louis twice in the first four rounds. Most observers in Madison Square Garden felt Walcott dominated the 15-round fight. When Louis was declared the winner in a split decision, the crowd booed.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis was under no illusion about the state of his boxing skills, yet he was too embarrassed to quit after the Walcott fight. Determined to win and retire with his title intact, Louis signed on for a rematch. On June 25, 1948, about 42,000 people came to Yankee Stadium to see the aging champion, who weighed 213½ pounds, the heaviest of his career to date. Walcott knocked Louis down in the third round, but Louis survived to knock out Walcott in the eleventh.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis would not defend his title again before announcing his retirement from boxing on March 1, 1949. In his bouts with Conn and Walcott, it had become apparent that Louis was no longer the fighter he had once been. As he had done earlier in his career, however, Louis would continue to appear in numerous exhibition matches worldwide. In August 1949 Cab Calloway rendered homage to the “king of the ring” with his song "Ol’ Joe Louis".


title: Joe Louis

text: At the time of Louis's initial retirement, the IRS was still completing its investigation of his prior tax returns, which had always been handled by Mike Jacobs's personal accountant. In May 1950, the IRS finished a full audit of Louis's past returns and announced that, with interest and penalties, he owed the government more than $500,000. Louis had no choice but to return to the ring.


title: Joe Louis

text: After asking Gibson to take over his personal finances and switching his management from Jacobs and Roxborough to Marshall Miles, the Louis camp negotiated a deal with the IRS under which Louis would come out of retirement, with all Louis's net proceeds going to the IRS. A match with Ezzard Charles—who had acquired the vacant heavyweight title in June 1949 by outpointing Walcott—was set for September 27, 1950. By then, Louis was 36 years old and had been away from competitive boxing for two years. Weighing in at 218 pounds, Louis was still strong, but his reflexes were gone and Charles repeatedly beat him to the punch. By the end of the fight, Louis was cut above both eyes, one of which was shut tight by swelling. He knew he had lost even before Charles was declared the winner. The result was not the only disappointing aspect of the fight for Louis; only 22,357 spectators paid to witness the event at Yankee Stadium, and his share of the purse was a mere $100,458. Louis had to continue fighting.


title: Joe Louis

text: After facing several club-level opponents and scoring a knockout victory over EBU heavyweight champion Lee Savold, the International Boxing Club guaranteed Louis $300,000 to face undefeated heavyweight contender Rocky Marciano on October 26, 1951. Despite his being a 6-to-5 favorite, few boxing insiders believed Louis had a chance. Marciano himself was reluctant to participate in the bout, but was understanding of Louis's position: "This is the last guy on earth I want to fight." It was feared, particularly among those who had witnessed Marciano's punching power first-hand, that Louis's unwillingness to quit would result in serious injury. Fighting back tears, Ferdie Pacheco said in the "SportsCentury" documentary about Louis's bout with Marciano, "He [Louis] wasn't just going to lose. He was going to take a vicious, savage beating. Before the eyes of the nation, Joe Louis, an American hero if ever there was one, was going to get beaten up." Louis was dropped in the eighth round by a Marciano left and knocked through the ropes and out of the ring less than thirty seconds later.


title: Joe Louis

text: In the dressing room after the fight, Louis's Army touring companion, Sugar Ray Robinson, wept. Marciano also attempted to console Louis, saying, "I'm sorry, Joe." "What's the use of crying?" Louis said. "The better man won. I guess everything happens for the best."


title: Joe Louis

text: After facing Marciano, with the prospect of another significant payday all but gone, Louis retired for good from professional boxing. He would, as before, continue to tour on the exhibition circuit, with his last contest taking place on December 16, 1951, in Taipei, Taiwan, against Corporal Buford J. deCordova.


title: Joe Louis

text: Despite Louis's lucrative purses over the years, most of the proceeds went to his handlers. Of the over $4.6 million earned during his boxing career, Louis himself received only about $800,000. Louis was nevertheless extremely generous to his family, paying for homes, cars and education for his parents and siblings, often with money fronted by Jacobs. He invested in a number of businesses, all of which eventually failed, including the Joe Louis Restaurant, the Joe Louis Insurance Company, a softball team called the Brown Bombers, the Joe Louis Milk Company, Joe Louis pomade (hair product), Joe Louis Punch (a drink), the Louis-Rower P.R. firm, a horse farm and the Rhumboogie Café in Chicago. He gave liberally to the government as well, paying back the city of Detroit for any welfare money his family had received.


title: Joe Louis

text: A combination of this largesse and government intervention eventually put Louis in severe financial straits. His entrusting of his finances to former manager Mike Jacobs haunted him. After the $500,000 IRS tax bill was assessed, with interest accumulating every year, the need for cash precipitated Louis's post-retirement comeback. Even though his comeback earned him significant purses, the incremental tax rate in place at the time (90%) meant that these boxing proceeds did not even keep pace with interest on Louis's tax debt. As a result, by the end of the 1950s, he owed over $1 million in taxes and interest. In 1953, when Louis's mother died, the IRS appropriated the $667 she had willed to Louis. To bring in money, Louis engaged in numerous activities outside the ring. He appeared on various quiz shows, and an old Army friend, Ash Resnick, gave Louis a job greeting tourists to the Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas, where Resnick was an executive. For income, Louis even became a professional wrestler. He made his professional wrestling debut on March 16, 1956, in Washington, D.C. at the Uline Arena, defeating Cowboy Rocky Lee. After defeating Lee in a few matches, Louis discovered he had a heart ailment and retired from wrestling competition. However, he continued as a wrestling referee until 1972.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis remained a popular celebrity in his twilight years. His friends included former rival Max Schmeling, who provided Louis with financial assistance during his retirement—and mobster Frank Lucas, who, disgusted with the government's treatment of Louis, once paid off a $50,000 tax lien held against him. These payments, along with an eventual agreement in the early 1960s by the IRS to limit its collections to an amount based on Louis's current income, allowed Louis to live comfortably toward the end of his life.


title: Joe Louis

text: After the Louis-Schmeling fight, Jack Dempsey expressed the opinion that he was glad he never had to face Joe Louis in the ring. When Louis fell on hard financial times, Dempsey served as honorary chairman of a fund to assist Louis.


title: Joe Louis

text: One of Louis's other passions was the game of golf, in which he also played a historic role. He was a long-time devotee of the sport since being introduced to the game before the first Schmeling fight in 1936. In 1952, Louis was invited to play as an amateur in the San Diego Open on a sponsor's exemption, which was announced at the time as his being the first African American to play a PGA Tour event. However professional Howard Wheeler was one of seven Blacks to compete in the Tam O'Shanter Open in Niles, Illinois in 1942, and he appeared in subsequent PGA-sanctioned events in Philadelphia in the 1940s, and qualified for the 1950 and 1951 U.S. Open—all ahead of the 1952 San Diego Open that drew widespread coverage due to Louis's presence. Initially, the PGA of America was reluctant to allow Louis to enter the event, having a bylaw at the time limiting PGA membership to Caucasians. Louis's celebrity status eventually pushed the PGA toward removing the bylaw, although the "Caucasian only" clause in the PGA of America's constitution was not amended until November 1961. The change, however, paved the way for the first generation of African-American professional golfers such as Calvin Peete. Louis himself financially supported the careers of several other early black professional golfers, such as Bill Spiller, Ted Rhodes, Howard Wheeler, James Black, Clyde Martin and Charlie Sifford. He was also instrumental in founding The First Tee, a charity helping underprivileged children become acquainted with the game of golf. His son, Joe Louis Barrow, Jr., currently oversees the organization.


title: Joe Louis

text: In 2009, the PGA of America granted posthumous membership to Ted Rhodes, John Shippen and Bill Spiller, who were denied the opportunity to become PGA members during their professional careers. The PGA also has granted posthumous honorary membership to Louis.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis had two children by wife Marva Trotter (daughter Jacqueline in 1943 and son Joseph Louis Barrow Jr. in 1947). They divorced in March 1945 only to remarry a year later, but were again divorced in February 1949. Marva moved on to an acting and modeling career. On Christmas Day 1955, Louis married Rose Morgan, a successful Harlem businesswoman; their marriage was annulled in 1958. Louis's final marriage—to Martha Jefferson, a lawyer from Los Angeles, on St. Patrick's Day 1959—lasted until his death. They had four children: another son named Joseph Louis Barrow Jr, John Louis Barrow, Joyce Louis Barrow, and Janet Louis Barrow. The younger Joe Louis Barrow Jr. lives in New York City and is involved in boxing. Though married four times, Louis discreetly enjoyed the company of other women like Lena Horne and Edna Mae Harris.


title: Joe Louis

text: Joe and Marva Louis endorsed and campaigned for liberal, anti-segregation Republican candidate Wendell Willkie in the 1940 United States presidential election. Louis said:


title: Joe Louis

text: This country has been good to me. It gave me everything I have. I have never come out for any candidate before but I think Wendell L. Willkie will give us a square deal. So I am for Willkie because I think he will help my people, and I figure my people should be for him, too.


title: Joe Louis

text: Drugs took a toll on Louis in his later years. In 1969, he was hospitalized after collapsing on a New York City street. While the incident was at first credited to "physical breakdown," underlying problems would soon surface. In 1970, he spent five months at the Colorado Psychiatric Hospital and the Veterans Administration Hospital in Denver, hospitalized by his wife, Martha, and his son, Joe Louis Barrow Jr., for paranoia. In a 1971 book, "Brown Bomber", by Barney Nagler, Louis disclosed the truth about these incidents, stating that his collapse in 1969 had been caused by cocaine, and that his subsequent hospitalization had been prompted by his fear of a plot to destroy him. Strokes and heart ailments caused Louis's condition to deteriorate further later in the decade. He had surgery to correct an aortic aneurysm in 1977 and thereafter used a POV/scooter for a mobility aid.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis died of cardiac arrest in Desert Springs Hospital near Las Vegas on April 12, 1981, just hours after his last public appearance viewing the Larry Holmes–Trevor Berbick heavyweight championship fight. Ronald Reagan waived the eligibility rules for burial at Arlington National Cemetery and Louis was buried there with full military honors on April 21, 1981. His funeral was paid for in part by former competitor and friend, Max Schmeling, who also acted as a pallbearer.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis had a starring role in the 1938 race film "Spirit of Youth", in which he played a boxer with many similarities to himself.


title: Joe Louis

text: In 1943, he was featured in the full-length movie "This is the Army", which starred Ronald Reagan, with appearances by Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" and Irving Berlin, and which was directed by Michael Curtiz.


title: Joe Louis

text: In 1946 he played himself in Joe Palooka, Champ, a movie based on the comic strip Joe Palooka created by Ham Fisher.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis once again played himself in the short film Johnny At The Fair in 1947. The short film takes place at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) where a boy becomes separated from his parents and meets a host of celebrities including former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King and champion figure skater Barbara Ann Scott.


title: Joe Louis

text: In 1955 Louis is once again cast as himself in a small role in The Square Jungle written by George Zuckerman and starring Tony Curtis.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis's last feature-length movie role took place in the 1970 comedy The Phynx in which a rock band goes on tour in Albania in order to save Americans being held hostage.


title: Joe Louis

text: In 1953, Robert Gordon directed a movie about Louis's life, "The Joe Louis Story". Filmed in Hollywood, it starred Golden Gloves fighter and Louis lookalike Coley Wallace in the title role. The film suffered from low budget and production values, sluggishly intercutting clips from Louis's actual bouts with indifferent audio sync.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time. He reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949, during which he participated in 26 championship fights, defeated 21 fighters, made 25 defenses and was a world champion for 11 years and 10 months. The latter two are still records in the heavyweight division, the former in any division. Louis has won the most world heavyweight title fights in history, at 26. In addition to his accomplishments inside the ring, Louis uttered two of boxing's most famous observations: "He can run, but he can't hide" and "Everyone has a plan until they've been hit."


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis was named fighter of the year four times by "The Ring" magazine in 1936, 1938, 1939, and 1941. His fights with Max Baer, Max Schmeling, Tommy Farr, Bob Pastor and Billy Conn were named fight of the year by that same magazine. Louis won the Sugar Ray Robinson Award in 1941. In 2005, Louis was ranked as the best heavyweight of all time by the International Boxing Research Organization, and was ranked number one on "The Ring" magazine's list of the "100 greatest punchers of all time". Hank Kaplan, Bert Sugar, Teddy Atlas, George Foreman and Joe Frazier named Louis as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.


title: Joe Louis

text: Louis is also remembered in sports outside of boxing. A former indoor sports venue was named after him in Detroit, the Joe Louis Arena, where the Detroit Red Wings played their NHL games from 1979 to 2017. In 1936, Vince Leah, then a writer for "The Winnipeg Tribune" used Joe Louis's nickname to refer to the Winnipeg Football Club after a game. From that point, the team became known popularly as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.