Editing Joe Louis (section)

==Taxes and financial troubles==
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.<ref name="arlington">{{Cite web |title=Arlington National Cemetery Biography of Joe Louis |url=http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/joelouis.htm |access-date=April 28, 2009}}</ref> Louis was nevertheless extremely generous to his family, paying for homes, cars and education for his parents and siblings,<ref name=pbs2/> often with money fronted by Jacobs.<ref name="Gibsonp236">[[#Gibson|Gibson]], p. 236</ref> He invested in a number of businesses, all of which eventually failed,<ref name=pbs2/> 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.<ref name="clemson">{{Cite web|url=http://campber.people.clemson.edu/rsrf.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130403002017/http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/rsrf.html|url-status=dead|title=The Red Saunders Research Foundation|archive-date=April 3, 2013|website=campber.people.clemson.edu}}</ref> He gave liberally to the government as well, paying back the city of Detroit for any welfare money his family had received.<ref name=pbs2/>

[[File:Louis-schmeling-1971.jpg|thumb|left|Louis and [[Max Schmeling]], 1971. The former rivals became close friends in later life.]]

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.<ref name=si1985/><ref name=folsom/> 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.<ref name="folsom">{{Cite web |last=Folsom |first=Burton W. |date=June 6, 2005 |title=Schmeling K.O.'d by Louis! Louis K.O.'d by the U.S. Government! |url=http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=7128}}</ref> In 1953, when Louis's mother died, the IRS appropriated the $667 she had willed to Louis.<ref name=si1985/> To bring in money, Louis engaged in numerous activities outside the ring. He appeared on various [[Game show|quiz shows]],<ref name=folsom/> and an old Army friend, Ash Resnick, gave Louis a job greeting tourists to the [[Caesars Palace]] hotel in [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]], where Resnick was an executive.<ref name=folsom/> 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.<ref name=si1985/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Meltzer |first=Dave |date=March 27, 2008 |title=Boxers in wrestling a rich tradition |url=https://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=dm-boxers032608&prov=yhoo&type=lgns}}</ref>

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<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 4, 2005 |title=Max Schmeling, Joe Louis's Friend and Foe, Dies at 99 |url=http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?en/press/max-schmeling-joe-louis-s.2157.htm}}</ref>—and mobster [[Frank Lucas (drug dealer)|Frank Lucas]], who, disgusted with the government's treatment of Louis, once paid off a $50,000 tax lien held against him.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jacobson |first=Mark |date=August 14, 2000 |title=The Return of Superfly |url=http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/3649/ |website=New York Magazine Services}}</ref> 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,<ref name=si1985/> allowed Louis to live comfortably toward the end of his life.<ref name=pbs2/>

After the [[Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling|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.<ref name="PBSDempsey">{{Cite web |date=September 22, 2004 |title=Jack Dempsey (1895–1983) |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/fight/peopleevents/p_dempsey.html |access-date=June 24, 2012 |website=[[The American Experience]] The Fight |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting System]]}}</ref>