Joe Louis - Cultural References

Cultural References

• In his heyday, Louis was the subject of many musical tributes, including a number of blues songs.
• Louis played a boxer in the 1938 race film Spirit of Youth.
• In the 1988 movie Coming to America, Eddie Murphy's character Clarence states that Frank Sinatra once told him that Joe Louis was 137 years old, supposedly his age when he lost to Rocky Marciano.
• Louis is also mentioned in the song "Save me Joe Louis" by Curtis Eller's American Circus from the album Wirewalkers and Assassins.
• Louis is played by actor Bari K. Willerford in the film American Gangster.
• In 2009, the Brooklyn band Yeasayer debuted the single "Ambling Alp" from their forthcoming album Odd Blood. The song makes reference to Louis' boxing career and his famous rivalry with Schmeling in the first person, with the lyrics such as "Oh, Max Schmeling was a formidable foe / The Ambling Alp was too, at least that’s what I’m told / But if you learn one thing, you’ve learned it well / In June, you must give fascists hell."
• An opera based on his life, Shadowboxer, premiered on 17 April 2010.
• The aforementioned sculpture of Louis's fist (see Legacy above) was one of several Detroit landmarks depicted in "Imported from Detroit," a two-minute commercial for the Chrysler 200 featuring Eminem that aired during Super Bowl XLV in 2011.
• Joe Louis' name is well known in Quebec, Canada because of the snack cake Jos. Louis made by the Vachon's family. Although similar in name, the snack did not get its name from Joe Louis. The snack cake is named after two of the Vachon sons, Joseph and Louis.