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”

Jo Jo Torres vs Stan Ward

                                      

                                                   By kiki

In spring of 1973, I and the Southern California Coaches and Managers Association took a Los Angeles amateur boxing team to the state Capital, Sacramento, for a box off against their local champs. Our heavyweight was a part time amateur boxer, Jo Jo Torres, whom real passion was been a playboy. But for the Torres vs Ward fight it was for the most part a forgettable trip in which we lost 7 out of 10 fights. When Jo Jo found out he was fighting Ward, who was known to be the best amateur heavyweight in California, I could see in his eyes that he would rather be in some nite club in LA then in a boxing ring in Sacramento. In the first round Jo Jo went down from what seemed like a so-so right hand. Down on one knee he kept looking at the canvas as the referee counted. I could see that he wasn’t going to get up, even though he could have. As the ref was about to count nine I jumped in the ring and stopped the fight to save him face. As soon as I jumped in the ring Jo Jo jumped up too and he said to me “why did you stop the fight? I was going to get up” I said to him “of course you were” As we were flying back home he kept telling anybody on the plane that would listen “I was going to get up” Of course he was!