Life After Boxing
After retirement, he went into private business and went back to his real name. He was an insurance salesman and later joined the Misco International Chemical Company as their New York-Philadelphia-New Jersey distributor. He had married his wife Rosalie, in 1950 with whom he had four children. He did a lot of work with the mentally handicapped, particularly for St. John of God School Community Services in Westville Grove New Jersey, where his son, Carman, afflicted with Down's Syndrome stayed for ten years. He met the Pope and was invited to President John F. Kennedy's Inaugertion. With his celebrity and title he participated in countless fundraising events for the mentally retarded and contributed his time and talent to the Special Olympics founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver. At one event he taught the Special Olympians to jump rope.
He had a small role as a man from "The Syndicate" in the 1975 movie Moonrunners.
He later filed a federal lawsuit against Universal Pictures, Beacon Communications and Aloof Films, for unspecified damages, for its "thoroughly false depiction" of his bout with Rubin Carter in Norman Jewison's 1999 film The Hurricane. "In a key scene, the film shows a punch-drunk, blood-spattered Giardello being clearly beaten by Carter but winning a racially-tinged decision... suffered only a small cut over the left eye caused by a butt in the 4th round and won what a majority at ringside thought was a clear decision over a listless Carter...." Giardello settled out-of-court for an undisclosed sum and Jewison's agreement to make a statement on the DVD version of the film that Giardello "no doubt" was a great fighter.
He died on September 4, 2008 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He was 78 years old.
Read more about this topic: Joey Giardello
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or boxing:
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