?He can do a lot of fighting on his own account, rather than selling himself as the brother-in-law of Champion Joe Louis who married his sister, Marva??
Orlando Trotter was already an amateur boxer when Marva Trotter, later identified as his sister but more likely his cousin, started dating Joe Louis in late 1934. After that Orlando got a lot better.
?Now and then when he?s in town Champion Joe boxes with Orlando,? reported the Chicago Tribune in 1938, ?but so far Joe hasn?t made any predictions as to his future in the prize ring. The kid must be pretty good, however, because he won the championship in the recent Illinois Athletic Club tournament and during two and one half years of boxing [Trotter had actually been fighting since ?33] has won 32 bouts while losing only one. A lot of his victories have been by knockouts.?
Joe Louis and 19-year-old Marva Trotter were famously hitched in Harlem on September 24, 1935, right before Louis fought Max Baer at Yankee Stadium. The timing horrified the 5,000 members of Detroit?s Joe Louis Boosters Club, who had petitioned the betrothed to put off their nuptials until a week after the Baer fight lest the jitters and fidgets that assail most bridegrooms at the altar soften the Brown Bomber up for Max. But nerveless (horny?) Joe took Baer out in four and nine months later he was heavyweight champion of the world.
A September 25 Chicago Tribune story about the new Mrs. Louis said she moved to the Windy City from Boley, Oklahoma in 1920, and had six sisters and three brothers. One of the latter, Walter Trotter, was a Baptist minister and officiated at her wedding.
When Orlando won the 175-pound south side Chicago Golden Gloves light heavyweight title on February 24, 1938, the Tribune called him ?a prot?g? of Joe Louis,? but that and other stories identified his manager, Booker Trotter, as brother-in-law of the heavyweight king without mentioning what Orlando?s relationship was to Joe?or even to Booker, who was about twice Orlando?s age, for that matter.
Whatever his relationship to Louis, it didn?t garner Orlando any special attention after he turned pro in late ?38. His first two bouts were draws, but then he won eight straight. If Booker was still calling the shots he was a poor manager and a worse Trotter for putting Orlando in with 100-plus bout veteran Tiger Jack Fox in his first main event on September 15, 1939. Fox stopped him in two.
Orlando?s public debut as alleged brother-in-law of Joe Louis came when he went to Minneapolis as a last-minute substitute against hometown heavyweight Johnny Hanschen, undefeated in his last five fights, on January 12, 1940. But in another mystery in the career of Orlando Trotter, he was billed in that and four subsequent Minneapolis bouts, and always identified in both daily newspapers, as Olinder Trotter.
The ?slender and youthful Negro pulled the prize upset of the (local) boxing season,? wrote George Barton of the Minneapolis Star Tribune after Trotter, outweighed by 20 pounds, ?jabbed Hanschen dizzy with left jabs, rocked him with right uppercuts to the jaw, and hurt Johnny badly with vicious blows to the body? to win a unanimous decision and show ?everybody that he can do a lot of fighting on his own account, rather than selling himself as the brother-in-law of Champion Joe Louis who married his sister, Marva.?
Star Tribune columnist Dick Collum sounded like he was talking about Louis himself when he wrote that Trotter ?must have been born with that turn for boxing. He couldn?t have learned it in the few fights he has had. He did things by instinct that seasoned fighters, including many good ones, never learn to do.?
Three days later, back in Chicago and Orlando Trotter again, he won a four-round decision over heavyweight Johnny Williams. Out-of-town papers carrying the result ID?d Trotter as brother-in-law of the heavyweight champion, but the Chicago Tribune?s one-sentence report of the bout described him only as a ?south side 178-pounder.?
Olinder Trotter was back in Minneapolis at the end of January and again wowed fans with a decision win over slugger Bob Ray. Two more victories in as many weeks followed, the second on February 9 a repeat decision over Johnny Hanschen. Trotter shared the bill that night with his famous ostensible in-law: during an intermission Joe Louis?s successful defense of his title via 15-round decision over Arturo Godoy at Madison Square Garden was broadcast over the loudspeaker at the Minneapolis Armory.
From the nationally syndicated sports column of Eddie Brietz 10 days later: ?Never heard of Olinder Trotter, did you? Sure you didn?t. He?s Joe Louis? brother-in-law and he?s making the local heavies behave around Minneapolis. Olinder doesn?t pack a kayo wallop, but he?s got a pretty good left and he knows how to stick it rite in your kisser.?
The winning streak ended when heavyweight Paul Hartnek, ranked eleventh by the National Boxing Association, outpointed Trotter on March 15, 1940. It was his last fight in Minneapolis and also as Olinder Trotter.
After going .500 in his next six bouts, another winning streak started on February 17, 1941 with an eight-round split-decision over Joey Maxim in Chicago?the future light heavyweight champion and Hall of Famer?s first defeat in three pro bouts. In March Trotter knocked out heavyweight Lee Oma, who?d beaten him earlier, and defeated veteran heavyweight Lou Thomas.
But then another mystery. ?Orlando Trotter ? has been forced to retire for an indefinite period because of serious illness,? reported the Chicago Tribune on May 15, 1941. The malady wasn?t specified.
Six years passed. Then Trotter came back for five more fights, winning two, losing two, with one draw, before vanishing into total obscurity. According to the Social Security Death Index, he died in 1996 at age 81.
Marva and Joe divorced in 1945, remarried a year later and divorced again in ?49. Marva was reportedly 85 when she died on November 28, 2000, which means that, like Orlando, she was born in 1915. That bolsters the probability that they were cousins, not siblings, and that Trotter?s Bomber-in-law billing in Minneapolis?it was never thus in his hometown?was manufactured to lend instant cachet to an unknown last-minute import. Trotter was a talented enough boxer on his own hook.
Puzzling out why Orlando became Olinder will take a more dogged gumshoe than me.
