Joe Louis: Performing Artist in New York

About Joe Louis

Joe Louis is remembered as a heavyweight champion whose bouts were shaped as much by politics and mass media as by athletic skill. In New York City, his story is revisited at The Paley Center for Media through programs such as *Inside a Boxing Battle of Global Proportions*, centered on his fights with Max Schmeling in 1936 and 1938. Nicknamed the “Brown Bomber,” Louis held the world title from 1937 to 1949 and defended it 25 times. His public persona favored discipline and restraint over spectacle.