Sweet Thunder Page 48
Lemann, Nicholas. The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America. New York: Knopf, 1991.
Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Knopf, 1981.
W. E. B. DuBois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963. New York: Henry Holt, 2000.
Liebling, A. J. The Sweet Science. New York: North Point Press, 2004.
Litwack, Leon F. Trouble In Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow. New York: Knopf, 1998.
Manning, Frankie, and Cynthia R. Millman. Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2007.
Maraniss, David. Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Margolick, David. Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink. New York: Vintage, 2006.
Mead, Chris. Champion: Joe Louis, Black Hero in White America. New York: Scribner’s, 1985.
Meier, August, and Elliott Rudwick. Black Detroit and the Rise of the UAW. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2007.
Mercante, Arthur, with Phil Guarnieri. Inside the Ropes. Ithaca, N.Y.: McBooks Press, 2006.
Milford, Nancy. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay. New York: Random House, 2001.
Miller, Hack, and Gene Fullmer. The Story of Gene Fullmer. Unpublished manuscript, 1994.
Murray, Albert, and John F. Callahan. Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray. New York: Vintage, 2001.
Nichols, Charles H. Arna Bontemps–Langston Hughes Letters, 1925–1967. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1980.
Parks, Gordon. Voices in the Mirror: An Autobiography. New York: Harlem Moon, 2005.
Rangel, Charles B., with Leon Wynter. And I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007.
Remnick, David. King of the World. New York: Random House, 1998.
Robinson, Sugar Ray, with Dave Anderson. Sugar Ray. New York: Viking, 1969.
Roberts, James B., and Alexander G. Skutt. The Boxing Register, 4th edition. Ithaca, N.Y.: McBooks Press, Inc., 2004.
Silverman, Jeff. The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told. Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2002.
Stovall, Tyler. Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
Szwed, John. So What: The Life of Miles Davis. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. Jazz: A History of America’s Music. New York: Knopf, 2000.
________. Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. New York: Knopf, 2004.
Newspapers:
AN: Amsterdam News
CD: Chicago Defender
CPD: Cleveland Plain Dealer
CT: Chicago Tribune
DFP: Detroit Free Press
NYHT: New York Herald Tribune
NYT: The New York Times
WP: The Washington Post
notes
Prologue: Round Midnight
This fight isn’t on TV: Nat Hentoff interview by author.
Say Goodbye to Walker Smith Jr.
The Flight out of Egypt: Lemann, The Promised Land, 16.
I am Sick of the South: Litwack, Trouble In Mind, 491.
I’m goin’ to Detroit: Meier, Black Detroit, 5.
good salaries: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 7.
A city which is built: Boyle, Arc of Justice, 103.
He was a good dresser: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 9.
One time I hid in the rumble seat: ibid., 7.
Here I am: Boyle, Arc of Justice, 123.
The heroic defense of their homes: ibid., 221.
The law in America: ibid., 242.
I realized that defending [N]egros: ibid., 230.
Prejudices have burned: ibid., 333.
I ask you, gentlemen: ibid., 334.
We ate well: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 12.
The gray of winter: ibid., 13.
Sometimes we’d make a couple dollars: ibid., 26.
She’d give you a fucking beating: Breslin interview by author.
hot dogs and beans: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 24.
This nation asks for action: Evans, The American Century, 246.
A blue haze descended: Lewis, When Harlem Was in Vogue, 103.
Send it, and send it damn quick: ibid., 110.
Mom really had a time: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 24.
In Harlem he is called upon: Anderson, This Was Harlem, 319.
Harlem in those days: Royal interview by author.
St. Phillips was known: Barnes interview by author.
Salem Crescent was one of the top: Royal interview by author.
a strange perfume: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 37.
Sugar Ray had a nickname: Bristow interview by author.
You’re only as good: Fried, Corner Men, xiii.
You got good moves: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 39.
Smitty, you gonna get killed: ibid., 42.
At first he didn’t look: Saturday Evening Post, 12-9-1950.
Here’s my flyweight: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 43.
As scared as I was: ibid., 46.
at top speed: Watertown Daily Times, 1-5-1939.
tossed leather with reckless abandon: ibid.
The little Negro: ibid.
That’s a sweet fighter: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 53.
As sweet as sugar: ibid.
Sugar Robinson: Watertown Daily Times, 1-6-1939.
RAYMOND SCORES WIN: ibid.
born in Virginia: brochure, Mel Dick collection.
Walker Smith Jr.: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 61.
Ray’s going to be world’s champion: Watertown Daily Times, 4-13-1989.
unearth some unknown: Farrell, Cradle of Champions, 2.
It was a very depressed period: Mercante interview by author.
Among the more impressive youths: NYT, 3-7-1939.
Robinson took the fancy: ibid.
a roar of applause: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 69.
The greatest thrill: Saturday Evening Post, 12-9-1950.
the best showing: NYT, 2-20-1940.
He gamely made for his foe: “a spectacular knockout”: NYT, 3-5-1940.
With a terrific right: ibid.
set the standard: ibid., 26.
Robinson never has lost: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 72.
His family is wealthy enough: WP, 2-20-1942.
He can come up with: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 74.
I moved out: Sport magazine, 8-1958.
of superb handling: WP, 2-20-1942.
In another era: ibid.
rates among the welters: Ring, 6-1942.
Speed to burn: ibid.
In order to achieve the greatness: ibid.
I had learned: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 73.
Robinson is a comparative novice: CD, 11-1-1941.
Sugar Ray’s Uniform
Labor in America wants no war: Lewis. W. E. B. DuBois, Vol. 2, 462.
If you’d see both of them: Rangel interview by author.
I laid it solid: Erenberg, The Greatest Fight, 125.
For the benefit of: Anderson, This Was Harlem, 286.
We’re going to do our part: ibid., 185.
Why Ma?: Otto Friedrich, City of Nets, 107.
Draft dodger!: ibid., 160.
Everything’s over: Buckley, The Hornes, 151.
Lena Horne, a singer from the Downtown: ibid., 152.
And well, who is Lena Horne?: ibid., 159.
Now we have someone: ibid., 178.
SUPERMAN: CD, 6-6-1942.
Anyone Jackie Wilson can hit: ibid.
It may seem odd: NYT, 2-19-1943.
Corp. Ray Robinson: Ring, 9-1943.
[t]he world’s greatest boxing show: AN, 9-11-1943.
a quiet parable: Life, 9-13-1943.
RAY ROBINSON BOXES: CD, 4-24-1943.
JOE LOUIS SIGNS: ibid.
I turned to a friend: Allen interview by author.
It was a tremendous thing: Dundee interview by author.
Come on and fight: Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 123.
You Niggers are getting beside yourselves: Litwack, Trouble In Mind, 442.
[W]e wanted to see Joe and you: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 120.
Is it true that the Negro troops: ibid.
I understand that you are giving orders: ibid., 121.
under orders: ibid.
crazy: ibid., 122.
When you complained: ibid.
Picking up tabs: ibid., 126.
[W]e knew there was more money: ibid., 126.
JOE DIMAGGIO SLAMS: Cramer, Joe DiMaggio, 208.
We’d congregate: Peeks interview by author.
Sugar had the same effect: Murray interview by author.
the heirs and continuators: Murray, Trading Twelves, xxiii.
The domestic scene: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 444.
Here is an historic town: ibid.
If these “poor whites”: ibid.
We realize the fact: ibid.
No nigger is goin’ to join iron: ibid.
No use standin’ round: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 123.
Soldier … your color: ibid.
That’s Joe Louis: ibid.
If I was just an average G.I.: Erenberg, The Greatest Fight, 195.
Joe and I had a few laughs: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 124.
How a girl from Brooklyn: Buckley, The Hornes, 173.
Unlike most Negro chanteuses: ibid.
He was growing out of this world: Szwed, So What, 25.
Man, could that motherfucker: Davis, Autobiography, 44.
I thought I could play the trumpet: ibid., 50.
I wish to register herewith: Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 215.
if I did not wander: Nichols, Bontemps-Hughes Letters, 127.
I’m getting wonderful fan letters: ibid., 133.
Good news comes in: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 470.
If ever there was a time: ibid., 484.
[t]o put the touch: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 126.
I’d like to fight again: WP, 1-28-1943.
Four jacks: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 126.
Nurse … Nurse!: ibid., 127.
He was unable to give any information: ibid., 128.
So I just wrote it: Anderson interview by author.
conflicting versions: Halberstam, What a Time It Was, 90.
I’m sorry, but I just can’t: ibid., 90.
He was a guy: Heinz interview by author.
I arrived in New York City: Davis, Autobiography, 51.
Esquire Men
He was, like them, an entertainer: Schulberg interview by author.
I would say: Royal interview by author.
In Harlem Sugar Ray hung around: Murray interview by author.
He had a great flair: Gingrich, Nothing but People, 23.
That was the Cadillac page: ibid., 93.
the color line: ibid., 95.
He knew that this kid: ibid.
I wanted to yell Eureka: ibid.
To analyze its name: ibid., 102.
Conceived during the Bank Holiday: ibid., 142.
All these guys were influenced: Murray interview by author.
become my cup of tea: ibid., 290.
The most important influences: Barnes interview by author.
for a justifiable place: Esquire Jazz Book, 1944 edition, 7.
By 1932 Joe Marsala: ibid., 9.
Sugar Ray wasn’t the type: Breslin interview by author.
Over and above the beat: ibid., 87.
Featured as vocalist: ibid., 67.
A one-time lawyer: ibid., 66.
He was the unofficial ambassador: Royal interview by author.
the prettiest pair: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 90.
She walked with: Mel Dick interview by author.
Ray took Edna Mae: Robert Royal interview by author.
He really admired her: Allen interview by author.
You cannot steal: CD, 12-18-1943.
Edna Mae and Sugar: Billie Allen interview by author.
My business was: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 151.
Ray Robinson has class: AN, 10-10-1942.
The ungracious grumpy Mr. Parker’s: ibid.
Robinson is impossible; I didn’t need: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 131.
And the prices: AN, 1-18-1947.
The structure is a three-story: Anderson, This Was Harlem, 96–97.
nose trouble: Newsweek, 5-6-1946.
just where he has been: ibid.
He plays too rough: NYT, 12-20-1946.
Nobody wanted to fight Bell: Dundee interview by author.
I was taking Tommy Bell: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 134.
Will they stand up?: AN, 12-21-1946.
Gainford was brilliant: Royal interview by author.
That I, an American Negro: Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 241.
They were some country motherfuckers: Davis, Autobiography, 92.
Esquire magazine had voted me: ibid., 97.
one of the great welterweights: AN, 12-21-1946.
Tommy Bell’s Right: ibid.
a sizzling left: AN, 12-28-1946.
like a cobra striking: NYT, 12-21-1946.
My face was on the floor: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 135.
The Harlemite was hurt: NYT, 12-21-1946.
staggered Robinson: ibid.
For Bell made a fight: NYT, ibid.
Clear that aisle: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 136; New York Daily News, 12-21-1946.
From the beginning: AN, 12-28-1946.
The stringy colored sensation: Ring, 6-1942.
We heard him and knew: Ward, Jazz, 306.
Nothing like it in town: AN, 12-28-1946.
Sugar Ray Robinson’s cleverly designed bar: AN, 1-11-1947.
They didn’t have Sugar Ray: Rangel interview by author.
He was a wonderful person: Royal interview by author.
You’d ask yourself: Barnes interview by author.
And now the lights: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 137.
Outstanding Male Dressers: AN, 1-4-1947.
Bar hopping was so important: Rangel interview by author.
Duke Ellington used to come: Allen interview by author.
Outside on the sidewalk: ibid.
Sugar had gone down to Miami: Manning interview by author.
That car was the Hope Diamond: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 155.
A poem compresses much: Holiday magazine, 4-1949.
Golden girl: ibid.
He was generous: Royal interview by author.
A Lovely Set up for the Old Man
my boyhood idol: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 114.
being led across a river: Armstrong, Gloves, Glory and God, 20.
Oranges falling like manna: ibid., 78–79.
They weren’t friendly: ibid., 84.
It was neither jab nor hook: ibid., 127.
I lived in Los Angeles: Schulberg interview by author.
Armstrong hooked two lefts: NYT, 6-1-1938.
Like a human tornado: ibid.
It was the easiest fight: ibid.
This was my last fight: ibid.
Shhh … be quiet: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 113.
He’s trying to put a touch: ibid., 114.
Did you see what Mike Jacobs: ibid.
I’ll never fight Armstrong: ibid.
Ray Robinson definitely does not want: CD, 12-12-1942.
promoters would be blowing: AN, 10-3-1942.
That’s something few real fans: ibid.
You remember his first Golden Gloves: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 115.
God Forbid: CD, 12-12-1942.
[N]ever before has he met: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 8-26-1943.
near capacity: NYT, 8-27-1943.
Rooster Hammond of Detroit: CD, 10-9-1943.
never a champion: NYHT, 8-28-1943.
merely pecked away: NYT, 8-28-1943.
Armstrong would snort: ibid.
&nbs
p; The man who rose to fistic fame: NYHT, 8-28-1943.
spectacle: NYT, 8-28-1943.
ROBINSON OUTPOINTS ARMSTRONG: NYHT, 8-28-1943.
OLD MASTER TAKES BEATIN’: AN, 9-4-1943.
I’m through: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 8-28-1943.
I know it looked bad: ibid.
the greatest I ever; I never could: ibid.
At times Ray, failing to take: ibid.
The New York press was pretty bitter: NYHT, 8-29-1943.
It was highway robbery: ibid.
The boxing clients for years: ibid.
I couldn’t hurt an old man: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 115–116.
The old speed was gone: Armstrong, Gloves, Glory and God, 239.
You’re letting a million boys down: ibid., 246.
He had films of his fights: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10-25-1988.
To think that two guys: ibid.
He had a lot of fantastic friends: ibid.
He’d charge a rhinoceros: Los Angeles Times, 10-25-1988.
Killer
I was Jack’s press agent: CPD, 7-25-1981.
now that Ray is in training: Cleveland Call & Post, 6-14-1947.
New York’s crack Negro boxer: NYT, 6-24-1947.
Don’t know what all the fuss: ibid., 6-21-1947.
Not that I ever suspected: ibid.
Doyle could fight: Bivens interview by author.
He wasn’t afraid of nothing: ibid.
Once again … has Johnson sent down: Silverman, Greatest Boxing Stories, 54.
A right to the body: NYT, 1-13-1945.
rugged: ibid., 1-31-1945.
Jimmy Doyle last night: ibid.
He was a good little fighter: Schulberg interview by author.
We hope to put Doyle away: CPD, 6-24-1947.
They insist the Californian: NYT, 6-24-1947.
rallied from way behind: CPD, 6-21-1947.
You see, Levine had hit me: Cleveland Press, 6-27-1947.
All’s we gotta say: CPD, 6-24-1947.
A solid right cross: Cleveland Call & Post, 6-28-1947.
Man, … I threw everything at him: CPD, 6-25-1947.
GOOD LUCK, JIMMY: CPD, 6-25-1947.
The left hook that lifted Doyle: Los Angeles Herald Express, 6-25-1947.
I never seen anybody leave: Bertinelli interview by author.