Lena, Joe and Johnnie

                                                     By kiki

The late Los Angeles boxing trainer, Johnnie “Mr. Golden Gloves” Flores once told me a story about how he met the beautiful Lena Horn. I was reminded of Johnnie’s story last night as I was watching Lena Horn in ‘Stormy Weather’

Johnnie’s story: soon after WWII ended Johnnie was in a fancy restaurant in New York City with WWII buddy; long time heavyweight champ Joe Louis. I don’t know if this was in the late 1940's or early 1950's. According to Johnnie, both he and Louis were broke. They were sitting there trying to figure out how to pay for dinner when in walked Lena Horn with a friend. Louis stood up and invited Horn and her friend to his and Johnnie’s table, and as he was doing so he told Johnnie to order anything he wanted.

They all had a fancy dinner with fancy drinks. After dinner Louis asked the waiter for the check, which he got, he then proceeded to check it out real good, making sure they were not over-charge, after making sure they were not, he handed the check to Lena Horn telling her “take care of this and don’t forget to add the tip to it”