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Speaker 1: It's June nineteen seventy four, New York City. The Skylight

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Speaker 1: Lounge on the nineteenth floor of the opulent Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

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Speaker 1: The New York Boxing Writers Association plays host to a

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Speaker 1: gala event dedicated to violence and the men who write

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Speaker 1: about it for a living. The main attractions, Muhammad Ali

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Speaker 1: and George Foreman are present. Their upcoming title fight, which

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Speaker 1: was announced a few months earlier, has the tensions in

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Speaker 1: the room building Smokin' Joe Frazier and Jersey Joe Walcott,

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Speaker 1: Jack Dempsey and Floyd Patterson. These legends of the ring

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Speaker 1: gather together tonight to help honor the Boxing Writers Association's

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Speaker 1: annual Fighter of the Year award. It's like the Oscars

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Speaker 1: or Emmys, but for boxing. The evening also features a

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Speaker 1: presentation from Ring Magazine. The boxing periodical will present their

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Speaker 1: heavyweight championship belt to the current reigning chain MP, George Foreman.

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Speaker 1: Now for a little extra drama and entertainment, the featured

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Speaker 1: speaker for the gala event is you guessed it, Muhammad Ali.

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Speaker 1: This means the two rivals must share the dais toward

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Speaker 1: the end of the evening. The last to speak, Muhammad

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Speaker 1: Ali rises and approaches the mic. There in front of

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Speaker 1: the boxing press, Ali decides to use this podium as

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Speaker 1: his bully pulpit, a way to tease and mock Foreman.

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Speaker 1: It's a brash move since the reigning champ is being

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Speaker 1: honored and is seated just a few feet away from Ali,

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Speaker 1: but Foreman doesn't scare the people's champ, and Ali wants

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Speaker 1: everyone there to know it.

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Speaker 2: Hitting hard don't mean nothing if you don't find nothing

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Speaker 2: to hit, Are you serious? George fighting me? George Foreman,

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Speaker 2: do not hit hard. Joe Fraser can tell you that

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Speaker 2: he got a push punch. If a man hit hard,

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Speaker 2: he don't keep getting uh.

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Speaker 1: The crowd may laugh, but Foreman doesn't find it so funny.

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Speaker 1: He just sits there. He glowers at Ali, just like

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Speaker 1: his role model Sonny Liston would. Meanwhile, eager to show

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Speaker 1: that he's unafraid of this new reigning champ everyone is

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Speaker 1: so scared of, Ali talks up their upcoming title fight

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Speaker 1: in Zaiir. Ali turns towards Foreman and he personally warns.

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Speaker 2: Him, you coming to my country, There's gonna be thousand

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Speaker 2: shouting Ali Ali.

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Speaker 3: There's gonna be voodoo pins and dolls.

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Speaker 1: There's one man there that night who isn't just going

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Speaker 1: to sit there and take all this lip from Ali.

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Speaker 1: Foreman's manager, Dick Sadler. He hops up from his seat

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Speaker 1: and walks up to the podium, and as he does,

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Speaker 1: he heckles Ali up at the mic. Ali just laughs

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Speaker 1: at the old boxing trainer, dismissing him, but Dick Sadler

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Speaker 1: hits a nerve. He says, all these writers here tonight

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Speaker 1: are picking Foreman to win. Ali tries to laugh it off.

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Speaker 3: I don't pay no attention to writers.

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Speaker 1: But it's like a forgotten that he's in a room

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Speaker 1: packed with writers. One person finds it funny. Ali's swipe

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Speaker 1: at the press elicits a smile from George Foreman. Since

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Speaker 1: he is currently the baddest man in boxing, Foreman decides

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Speaker 1: to reassert himself and reclaim his role as the king

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Speaker 1: of the jungle. So Foreman stands up from the dais,

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Speaker 1: walks to the podium, leans down toward the microphone, and

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Speaker 1: Foreman says to no one in particular.

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Speaker 4: I don't know about anybody else, but I'm tired of

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Speaker 4: all this and I want.

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Speaker 1: To go home with that. Foreman walks over to grab

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Speaker 1: his award and his heavyweight championship belt. Headed for the door,

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Speaker 1: Ali isn't ready for the show to be over. He

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Speaker 1: follows Foreman and then Ali puts his hands on Foreman.

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Speaker 1: That's the last straw. In a sudden, surprising flash of anger,

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Speaker 1: Foreman slaps Ali's hand away. Still playing, Ali jokingly tries

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Speaker 1: to grab Foreman's awards and his new championship belt. Foreman

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Speaker 1: grabs Ali, but he doesn't get a solid grip. Instead,

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Speaker 1: Foreman only clutches the tail of Ali's blue suit jacket,

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Speaker 1: and so when Ali pulls away, well, that tears it

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Speaker 1: literally and figuratively. They start to tussle and wrestle. In

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Speaker 1: the midst of their two man melee, Foreman's tuxedo shirt

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Speaker 1: gets torn. Now it matches Ali's ripped sport coat. The

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Speaker 1: two fighters are close to throwing bare knuckle blows at

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Speaker 1: each other, but luckily the MC John Condon jumps in

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Speaker 1: and manages to separate the two boxers. It's quite the scene.

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Speaker 1: Good to his word, Foreman is indeed done with this spectacle.

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Speaker 1: He grabs his award and his heavyweight championship belt, ready

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Speaker 1: to go home, but Ali still isn't done with him.

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Speaker 1: Ali grabs drinking glasses from the dais and throws them

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Speaker 1: at Foreman as Ali shouts.

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Speaker 3: You toll Ma soup, You tall Ma soup.

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Speaker 1: Foreman stands there in the center of the starlight room,

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Speaker 1: torn tuxedo shirt, spilled liquor wets the champ's feet. Foreman

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Speaker 1: looks up at Ali and he just shakes his head.

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Speaker 1: He's disgusted at Ali's childish outburst. The champ turns to

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Speaker 1: leave yet again. Meanwhile, the former champ, Joe Frasier, is

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Speaker 1: equally disgusted with Ali's tomfoolery and pre fight hype for

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Speaker 1: the press. Fraser knows all too well Allie's antics, so

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Speaker 1: he joins Foreman as both fighters head for the elevator.

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Speaker 1: As the People's Champ continues to shout.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna beat you Christian Tale, I'm gonna beat your

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Speaker 2: Christian Tale.

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Speaker 3: You flag Waiver.

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Speaker 1: Boxing promoter and known fan of Spectacle Don King also

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Speaker 1: decides to leave Ali behind to throw his fit before

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Speaker 1: the boxing writers. King joins the two great champs in

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Speaker 1: the elevator just before the elevator doors slowly slide shut

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Speaker 1: as Foreman, Fraser, and Don King ride down to the

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Speaker 1: lobby together, no one speaks. Finally, after a long silence,

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Speaker 1: Foreman turns and looks at Don King, and he says, you'd.

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Speaker 5: Better get me two bodyguards anytime I'm going near him again.

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Speaker 1: The ugly scene at the Gala event guarantees the Ali

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Speaker 1: Foreman fight will be written about the next day in

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Speaker 1: the news. The New York Times does indeed write about

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Speaker 1: the Foreman Ali tensions at the Gala event and how

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Speaker 1: this might affect their upcoming title fight in Zaire. It's

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Speaker 1: free publicity in the nation's most important newspaper. Ali knows

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Speaker 1: that any news story of him acting out will surprise

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Speaker 1: no one, and he also knows the story will only

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Speaker 1: whet the appetite for more violence. Welcome to Rumble, the

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Speaker 1: story of Ali Foreman and the soul music of nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy four. I'm your host, Zarn Burnett, the third from

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Speaker 1: iHeart Podcast and School of Humans. This is Rumble.

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Speaker 6: Previously on Rumble, Don King said over and over again,

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Speaker 6: Cash is King and King is Cash.

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Speaker 5: This fight will be a tribute to the sports world,

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Speaker 5: and more importantly, to the black world. The prodigal sons

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Speaker 5: will be returning home to Africa.

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Speaker 7: That's the transition they once were slaves, and now look,

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Speaker 7: they trod the earth as giants of culture.

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Speaker 8: Music, sport.

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Speaker 9: Hugh Masakela is one of the greatest jazz trumpeters. He

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Speaker 9: worked with musicians from all over the continent, and each

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Speaker 9: different country had a different sound.

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Speaker 8: Q came up with the idea for Zaire for the festival,

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Speaker 8: and I signed up right away.

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Speaker 1: In his book The Fight, the writer Norman Mahler observed

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Speaker 1: the singular presence of George Foreman.

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Speaker 10: Other champions had a presence larger than themselves. They offered charisma.

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Speaker 10: Foreman had silence. It vibrated about him. One had not

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Speaker 10: seen men like that for thirty years, or was it more?

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Speaker 1: Never is Foreman's silence more evident than when the press

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Speaker 1: is there waiting on the champ to speak. One month

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Speaker 1: after the public scuffle at the Waldorf Astoria during the

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Speaker 1: Dog days of July nineteen seventy four, George Foreman holds

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Speaker 1: a rare press conference there. Before the bursting flash bulbs,

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Speaker 1: Foreman announces his plan to train in Pleasanton, California. This

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Speaker 1: is the same city where he first started boxing with

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Speaker 1: the Job Corps and his coach, Doc Brotus. Foreman also

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Speaker 1: informs the press that he will not be speaking with

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Speaker 1: them until the fight in Zaiir. Lastly, he suggests that

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Speaker 1: Muhammad Ali should strongly consider retiring from boxing. That's Foreman's

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Speaker 1: idea of a joke to win over the press, but

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Speaker 1: it mostly lands flat. He doesn't have an inkling of

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Speaker 1: Ali's charm when it comes to sportswriters. Even Ali throwing

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Speaker 1: a fit is still more fun to write about than

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Speaker 1: George Foreman. Ali, of course, takes the exact opposite approach

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Speaker 1: with the press. He invites them into his training facility

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Speaker 1: like a generous host. Later that same month, Ali also

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Speaker 1: announces to the press that he's beginning his training for

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Speaker 1: the upcoming title fight. He plans to prepare at his

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Speaker 1: training facility in the Pennsylvania mountains at Deer Lake. Sports

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Speaker 1: writers come up and watch him prepare. Ali jokes with

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Speaker 1: the reporters. He banters and boasts as he poses for

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Speaker 1: the cameras. Knowing he's on a roll, Ali likes to

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Speaker 1: do an impression of George Foreman. He walks slowly, arms

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Speaker 1: out before him. He sort of half mumbles and half

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Speaker 1: moans like a giant an oath, like Frankenstein, or rather

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Speaker 1: the Mummy of old horror films. Then Ali promises his

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Speaker 1: laughing audience.

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Speaker 3: Oo, there's gonna be a rumble in the jungle there.

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Speaker 1: It is the official name for the next great heavyweight

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Speaker 1: title fight is now set. Later on, during another impromptu

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Speaker 1: press conference during his training and a reporter predicts Foreman

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Speaker 1: will easily knock out Ali in the first round. Ali

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Speaker 1: pulls the man to the side and he shares with

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Speaker 1: him something that he urges the white sportswriter to always remember.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you something and I don't want you

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Speaker 2: to ever forget it. Black men scared white men more

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Speaker 2: than black men scared black men.

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Speaker 1: Of course, Ali meant that he is not scared of

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Speaker 1: his opponent. However, this statement also applies to George Foreman,

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Speaker 1: who feels he has little to fear from Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: there's Belinda, Muhammad Ali's wife at the time. She warns

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Speaker 1: her husband that he's spending far too much time talking

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Speaker 1: to the press, not enough time sparring. She cautions him

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Speaker 1: that if he loses in Zaire, he'll have wasted a

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Speaker 1: golden opportunity. If he loses to George Foreman on the

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Speaker 1: world stage, and specifically before the cheering African crowd. It

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Speaker 1: will be a great tragedy. Ali listens to his wife,

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Speaker 1: but the People's champ doesn't seem to fully hear her

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Speaker 1: words because he continues to expend his precious energy trying

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Speaker 1: to impress the media that trails him around and leaps

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Speaker 1: to lap up every opportunity for a SoundBite. Ali is

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Speaker 1: still attempting to rewrite the pre fight narrative, since he

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Speaker 1: greatly resents being the underdog in the rumble in the jungle.

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Speaker 1: The Miami Herald reports on Ali's pre fight training in

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Speaker 1: a story dated June third, nineteen seventy.

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Speaker 11: He was breathing hard. He had just finished the first

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Speaker 11: gut wrenching day of roadwork, and his breath was a

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Speaker 11: rasping reminder of the self torture that lies ahead as

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Speaker 11: he swept out the poison of easy living.

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Speaker 1: Muhammad Ali tells the gathered press between his gasps of

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Speaker 1: heaving breath, having just returned from his morning run.

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Speaker 3: That he just jogged today.

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Speaker 2: One mile felt like three, but there's joy in it,

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Speaker 2: running the same hills that took you to victory. Before

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Speaker 2: I know the route, I know how to force myself.

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Speaker 3: I know what I must do.

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Speaker 2: All some of them be up here, and then I'm

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Speaker 2: gonna come down faster and quicker than ever. And then

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Speaker 2: I'm going back to Africa, and you will hear the people.

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Speaker 2: They will chant the same, Ali ah Li. I will

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Speaker 2: wind up with my career in the home land, on

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Speaker 2: my continent. I will be a spiritual fighter.

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Speaker 1: Ali knows that he's the heavy underdog, favored to lose

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Speaker 1: three to one, and yet with all the comedic charm

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Speaker 1: he can muster. Ali describes how he plans to wear

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Speaker 1: out the Mummy by taking him past the second round

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Speaker 1: in a fight. That's something George Foreman hasn't done for

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Speaker 1: a few years now.

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Speaker 2: Round five, round six, round seven. George Foreman has never

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Speaker 2: heard the man say that he doesn't know what it's

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Speaker 2: like to be tied. He's never fought anybody with footwork

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Speaker 2: and speed. This will be his first true fight, and

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Speaker 2: he'll be fighting the real champion of the people.

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Speaker 1: Now that he's turned the reporters into a stenopool, Ali

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Speaker 1: keeps it rolling and he returns to a favorite punching bag.

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Speaker 2: George Foreman is like Joe Frazier. He is fat and

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Speaker 2: bloated and slow, and I will show him speed and skill,

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Speaker 2: not showmanship. I'll be up with my toes, no clowning,

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Speaker 2: and the jazz will be coming, Pa, Pa.

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Speaker 1: The sportswriters scribble down all these quotes and notepads between

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Speaker 1: their laughs. Alli's wife Belinda certainly wouldn't be happy with

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Speaker 1: this little performance. However, this show voting by Ali does

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Speaker 1: come after his morning run. Now he talks past the

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Speaker 1: reporters directly to the black and brown people of the world.

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Speaker 2: I'll carry him for maybe seven rounds, and then i

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Speaker 2: will tag him with a punch faster than he has

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Speaker 2: ever seen, and it will be a knockout, and things

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Speaker 2: will be fulfilled as they should. I will have won

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Speaker 2: before my people on my continent.

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Speaker 1: Ali is still talking about boxing, and yet the moment

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Speaker 1: becomes transcendent, as the Miami Herald records of that day

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Speaker 1: in June nineteen seventy four.

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Speaker 11: He said it soft and low, with the kind of

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Speaker 11: conviction that sounded as though he were reciting not a prophecy,

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Speaker 11: but a fact which had already been accomplished, a sort

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Speaker 11: of mystical reality history before it ever happened. The view,

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Speaker 11: Muhammad Ali explained simply is always clear from atop a Mountain.

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Speaker 1: In the late days of the summer of seventy four,

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Speaker 1: one of Muhammad Ali's greatest opponents suffers his own great defeat.

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Speaker 1: He's not a man Ali, what ever faces inside the ring.

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Speaker 1: Yet still Ali rejoices at the news of his downfall.

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Speaker 1: On August ninth, nineteen seventy four, Richard Nixon announces his

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Speaker 1: resignation in the office of the Presidency of the United States.

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Speaker 1: From CBS news coverage. I have never been a quitter.

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Speaker 12: The leave office before my term is completed as abhorrent

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Speaker 12: to every instinct in my body. But as President, I

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Speaker 12: must put the interests of America first. Therefore I shall

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Speaker 12: resign the presidency affective at noon tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Nixon is arguably the most powerful man in the world.

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Speaker 1: When he loses his long fight for power, the whole

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Speaker 1: world is shocked. For Ali is the fall of a

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Speaker 1: man who symbolizes everything he's fought against. Naturally, Ali turns

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Speaker 1: the ruinous downfall of the president into his next taunt.

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Speaker 2: If you are shocked when Nixon resign, just wait until

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Speaker 2: I whooped George Forman's behind.

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Speaker 1: Ali biographer Jonathan I believes this boast is like a

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Speaker 1: perfect crystallization of Ali's ego.

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Speaker 6: As usual, Alee thinks everything works out just the way

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Speaker 6: he wants. You know, he's the greatest, and he's the

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Speaker 6: center of the world.

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Speaker 1: And you know he took out Fraser, he took out Nixon.

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Speaker 1: You know what's he gonna do next. Ali's sense of

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Speaker 1: triumph at Nixon's humiliation has a shadows side. Ali also

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Speaker 1: suspects that he too would be blasted on the world

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Speaker 1: stage if the People's champ loses in Zaire, and he

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Speaker 1: recalls how his wife Belinda said as much to her husband.

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Speaker 1: As Jonathan Ig noted in his biography of Ali, quote,

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Speaker 1: losing in Africa would be a tragedy. She told Ali

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Speaker 1: not only would he blow his shot at a championship,

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Speaker 1: he would blow the chance to be a hero to

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Speaker 1: black people all over the world. In effect, Ali's wife

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Speaker 1: hopes his ego can see gave him from himself. The

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Speaker 1: upcoming Zayere seventy four Music Festival is scheduled to take

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Speaker 1: place in the days just before the Rumble in the Jungle.

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Speaker 1: Commitments are made, contracts are signed, Flights are priced to

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Speaker 1: see how much it'll be to carry all the musicians

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Speaker 1: and their equipment. Now it's just a matter of drawing

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Speaker 1: in the tourists. The music festival benefits from its association

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Speaker 1: with the heavyweight title fight. It isn't its own singular event.

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Speaker 1: It's an extra perk and enticing lead into the international event.

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Speaker 1: Yet still it will require some promotion of its own.

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Speaker 1: That's the job of one man, Gary Stromberg. And as

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Speaker 1: Gary recalls it, that was a major challenge.

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Speaker 8: Well, we didn't have social media. It's had television, but

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Speaker 8: primarily print media, magazines, newspaper articles. It was a much

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Speaker 8: different world than it is today.

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Speaker 1: Throughout the summer of seventy four, newspapers press releases and

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Speaker 1: give updates on the headliners. Getting the sports media to

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Speaker 1: cover a fight taking place thousands of miles away, that

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Speaker 1: was one hurdle, but not the only one.

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Speaker 8: It's expensive, as you can imagine, to go to Africa,

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Speaker 8: the hotels and all that stuff. There was no media

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Speaker 8: that we brought along. We could easily through the wire

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Speaker 8: services feed the media back home from Africa. The only

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Speaker 8: press that was there were important journalists who were there

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Speaker 8: to cover the fight, who are also going to write

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Speaker 8: about the festival maybe.

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Speaker 1: For instance, Gary recalls the presence of the three heavyweight

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Speaker 1: writers of the.

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Speaker 8: Time Norman Whaler and George Plimpton, and Bud Schulberg.

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Speaker 1: Bud Schulberg was most famous for the Marlon Brando film

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Speaker 1: On the Waterfront. George Plimpton was an outlier, a preppy writer,

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Speaker 1: yet he would bravely risk his body in service of

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Speaker 1: his sports writing, such as when, at thirty six years old,

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Speaker 1: Plimpton attempted to play third string quarterback for the Detroit Lions.

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Speaker 1: His doomed journey in the NFL is documented in his

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Speaker 1: book Paper Lion. Then there's Norman Mahler. He especially was

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Speaker 1: a champion of what's now known as new journalism. Mahler

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Speaker 1: sought to elevate boxing from being seen as a dirty, gritty,

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Speaker 1: unsavory sport, one that's rigged and run by the mob.

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Speaker 1: Mahler recognized it instead as an inherent contest of great heroes.

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Speaker 1: To Mailer, heavyweight boxing was culture writ large. It was

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Speaker 1: also a clear expression of a man's will, and these

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Speaker 1: men writing about these fights. They infused their novelistic perspectives

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Speaker 1: into their sports reporting. This was part of a larger

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Speaker 1: departure from the purely objective pov of older journalism. They

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Speaker 1: injected themselves into their stories. That was the big development.

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Speaker 1: That's what's set apart what was called new journalism. Think

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Speaker 1: Hunter S. Thompson, who was also there in Zaire. More

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Speaker 1: on him later now. The coverage by these journalists were

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Speaker 1: magazines like Life and Esquire were admired for how the

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Speaker 1: writers framed and contextualized Muhammad Ali. For their readers, he

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Speaker 1: was more than his persona. He was a new type

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Speaker 1: of hero and also a new type of anti hero,

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Speaker 1: a fighter who took on the powers that be. Those

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Speaker 1: same writers hold a special place of prominence were current

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Speaker 1: ESPN sportswriter Mark Kriegel. As he notes, writers like Mailer

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Speaker 1: and Plimpton and Schulberg popularized.

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Speaker 13: This idea that these great fights were literary happening and that.

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Speaker 3: The media should pay attention. The mass media should pay attention.

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Speaker 13: Because these great minds, these great artists were ringside.

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Speaker 3: I always thought that was really cool.

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Speaker 1: As sportswriters, of course, they covered the fights for the

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Speaker 1: drama they provide, But a fight is about so much

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Speaker 1: more than boxing. Sometimes what goes down between fighters inside

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Speaker 1: the ring speaks more to what's happening outside of the ring.

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Speaker 1: That was always the case with Muhammad Ali. The sharpest

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Speaker 1: writers understood that for a writer like Mahler, who was

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Speaker 1: no stranger to mixing it up, the boxing match provided

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Speaker 1: the barest metaphor for the cultural slugfest already playing out

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Speaker 1: in Cold War era America. It was a place to

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Speaker 1: play out Mahler's obsessions with gender, sexuality, race, and literary dominance.

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Speaker 1: You know, Mailer is performative.

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Speaker 3: He stays out at night, he gets drunk.

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Speaker 13: I think he goes to the Playboy Club and he

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Speaker 13: won't get off the stage. But he's still Mailer, and

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Speaker 13: it was still brilliant even when it was excessive. But

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Speaker 13: Plimpton says something really interesting about Mailer, essentially that he

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Speaker 13: worked his ass off, and he was so competitive. He

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Speaker 13: saw himself among the press as like fighting two hundred

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Speaker 13: guys all seated next to you.

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Speaker 1: These writers were raging bulls in their own right and

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Speaker 1: could easily see themselves in these fighters. They recognized their

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Speaker 1: own will in the fighter's will to greatness. For instance,

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Speaker 1: Norman Mahler famously examines the superhuman will of the prize fighter,

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Speaker 1: and in doing so he attend to explain how it's

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Speaker 1: both a psychological and physiological expression of Willpower. In his

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Speaker 1: book The Fight About the Rumble in the Jungle, when

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Speaker 1: Mahler visits Ali's Deer Lake facility, he notes that while

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Speaker 1: driving up the hill to Ali's training camp, all along

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Speaker 1: the road are these great, big painted boulders. Each one

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Speaker 1: bears the name of a fighter that Ali beat. The

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Speaker 1: first boulder a visitor passes reads Sonny Liston and there

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Speaker 1: at the end of the road at the top of

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Speaker 1: the hill. Maeler also notes how Ali's training facilities.

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Speaker 10: Are timeless timbers, dark with the hue of the old

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Speaker 10: railroad bridge from which they were removed. The interior, for

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Speaker 10: fair surprise, is akin to a modest slave cabin. The

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Speaker 10: furniture is simple but antique. The water comes from a

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Speaker 10: hand pump.

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Speaker 1: Yes, Ali had replica slave cabins built where he could

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Speaker 1: prepare for his fights, and Mailer intoits what that means

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Speaker 1: for Ali. He attempts to convey this to his readers

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Speaker 1: the long racial history in the US that motivates Ali's choice,

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Speaker 1: in the hopes that this context, coupled with his portrayal

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Speaker 1: of the champ, will offer novel style insights into the

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Speaker 1: boxer's character. There at Ali's training facility, watching the Great

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Speaker 1: Boxer work out and train. Mahler doesn't fully recognize what

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Speaker 1: he's seeing. Ali is preparing his body for a bludgeoning

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Speaker 1: from George Foreman Mailer, though like most everyone else assumes,

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Speaker 1: Ali plans to dance in the ring to stay away

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Speaker 1: from Foreman's punishing blows, and so Mahler, without knowing it,

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Speaker 1: bears witness to Ali developing what would later be called

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Speaker 1: the rope adope.

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Speaker 10: It was a study to watch Ali take punches. He

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Speaker 10: would lie on the ropes and paw at his sparring

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Speaker 10: partner like a mother cat goading her kittens to belt away.

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Speaker 10: That afternoon in dear Lake, it looked like he was

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Speaker 10: learning very little. He was getting hit by stupid punches,

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Speaker 10: and they seemed to take him by surprise. He was

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Speaker 10: not languid but sluggish. He looked bored, He showed as

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Speaker 10: he worked, all the sullen ardor of a husband obliging

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Speaker 10: himself to make love to his wife in the thick

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Speaker 10: of carnal indifference.

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Speaker 1: Only Norman Mahler would think to compare the act of

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Speaker 1: taking punches from a sparring partner to the act of

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Speaker 1: making love to one's wife and Mailer, Like Plimpton and

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Speaker 1: Schulberg and even earlier James Baldwin, seizes upon the fact

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Speaker 1: that Muhammad Ali is this undeniably potent symbol of American greatness,

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Speaker 1: a man bigger than life, more than a man. Ali

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Speaker 1: is truly the people's champ. The intellectuals and the streets

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Speaker 1: both agree. As Mahler wrote in Life magazine for its

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Speaker 1: March nineteenth, nineteen seventy one edition.

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Speaker 10: He was the mightiest victim of injustice in America. The

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Speaker 10: twentieth century was nothing if not a tangle of opposition.

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Speaker 10: He was also the mightiest narcissist in the land. Every beard, dropout, homosexual, junkie, freak, swinger,

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Speaker 10: and plain simple individualists adored him.

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Speaker 1: Above it all. There in the great fights against Liston

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Speaker 1: and later unexpectedly going the distance against Joe Frasier, Muhammad

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Speaker 1: Ali showed his many doubters that the People's champ indeed

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Speaker 1: had the soul and will of a champion.

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Speaker 10: Frali had shown America what we all had hoped was

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Speaker 10: secretly true.

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Speaker 1: He was a man.

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Speaker 10: He could bear moral and physical torture, and he could stand.

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Speaker 1: But now Muhammad Ali's ultimate test will arrive to meet

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Speaker 1: him when he steps into the ring to face the

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Speaker 1: giant George Foreman. The rumble in the jungle was fast approaching,

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Speaker 1: and with it the music festival known as Zayr seventy four.

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Speaker 1: In Zayir, teams of workers labor day and night in

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Speaker 1: preparation for the arrival of the fighters and the fans

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Speaker 1: and the musicians in the media that will soon be

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Speaker 1: on their way to Africa. But at this moment in

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Speaker 1: the late summer, the money men are on the scene

427
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Speaker 1: in Conshasa. Mostly the investors are watching how their money

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Speaker 1: is being spent and how their partner, Mabutu is overseeing

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Speaker 1: the modernization of his nation. Will he have Zayir ready

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00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:18,000
Speaker 1: for its big moment on the world stage In August,

431
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:21,160
Speaker 1: a month before the scheduled event. One of the moneymen,

432
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,840
Speaker 1: John Daly, downplays the challenge. It seems He's likely trying

433
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:27,840
Speaker 1: to instill confidence in their ability to pull off this

434
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 1: massive event. Daily tells reporters that quote.

435
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:34,399
Speaker 14: It's no different from all taking a feature film, putting

436
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,760
Speaker 14: dollars behind it, casting it, getting a director and a producer,

437
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:40,440
Speaker 14: making it, handing it over to someone else to exhibit,

438
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 14: and then collecting the revenue. There's no difference.

439
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 1: John Daily pauses thanks for a moment, and then adds.

440
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 7: Well, there is the danger that one of the fighters

441
00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:52,879
Speaker 7: could crack up. There's the danger Zaya could have a

442
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:55,359
Speaker 7: revolution of the eve of the fight and the tanks

443
00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 7: would roll into town instead of limousines.

444
00:26:57,560 --> 00:26:57,679
Speaker 5: Oo.

445
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:02,720
Speaker 1: Yes, there is always that concern. Let's call it the unexpected.

446
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:06,120
Speaker 1: One of the reporters jokes that Daily and his business

447
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:09,040
Speaker 1: partners could always just sell the film rights to the revolution,

448
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 1: and Daily jokes.

449
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 14: Back, right, we just turn the cameras around.

450
00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:18,480
Speaker 1: These jokes are meant to camouflage a very real concern,

451
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: you know, like a coup or a actual revolution. The

452
00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:25,960
Speaker 1: same nation of Zaiir is known for its recent periods

453
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,879
Speaker 1: of violence and chaos all throughout the early to mid sixties.

454
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 1: If they want to pull this off, the foreign investors

455
00:27:33,359 --> 00:27:38,399
Speaker 1: must trust in the repressive power of President Saysey Siku Mabutu.

456
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,199
Speaker 1: In those all important last few weeks just before the

457
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,120
Speaker 1: fight and music festival are set to start, Don King

458
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,199
Speaker 1: and his partner Hank Schwartz fly over to Zaire to

459
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:53,480
Speaker 1: check the progress of the construction and to inspect the

460
00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,119
Speaker 1: fight venue. To see it all with their own eyes.

461
00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 1: The venue is a one hundred thousand seat soccer stay.

462
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 1: It's going to take a lot of work to get

463
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:04,959
Speaker 1: it ready in time, just like how it'll take a

464
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 1: lot of effort and investment to turn Zaiir into a

465
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:13,280
Speaker 1: tourist destination worthy of an international flight. Don King and

466
00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 1: Hank Schwartz have plans to sell travel packages to wealthy

467
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,120
Speaker 1: Americans and Europeans. They want to see how the hotels

468
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 1: are looking. They also want to see if the workers

469
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 1: have installed the exact shade of raspberry red carpet that

470
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:29,520
Speaker 1: George Foreman requested for his dressing room in the Fight Venue.

471
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,120
Speaker 1: Press reports coming out on the conditions in Zayir are

472
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: not quite rosy. Don King wants to spin it all

473
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,160
Speaker 1: into his favor. He doesn't need any bad press to

474
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:43,280
Speaker 1: scare away all the rich Western tourists from kinshasa Don

475
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 1: King turns on his typical charm offensive, as he tells

476
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 1: the La Times in August of seventy four.

477
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 5: Now I read the thing about Zaire having worms that

478
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:56,720
Speaker 5: can get through your shoes and up your leg and

479
00:28:56,840 --> 00:28:59,360
Speaker 5: into your eye, and then they have to take your

480
00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:03,040
Speaker 5: eye out to get rid of it. That's preposterous. It's

481
00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:06,680
Speaker 5: anti black and plain evil. We've had to fight against

482
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 5: this kind of thing all along, and it's hurt us terribly.

483
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 5: In convincing white Americans to come.

484
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 1: Don King pushes back on the horror stories by touting

485
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,320
Speaker 1: in no uncertain terms the grandiosity of the event and

486
00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:23,000
Speaker 1: his achievements. He brags about the extent of his planning

487
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:26,600
Speaker 1: the fight, the music festival, the satellite broadcast set to

488
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 1: beam the Rumble in the Jungle Love across the US

489
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 1: and all across the globe. It is typical Don King.

490
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:37,880
Speaker 5: This spectacular event will be viewed by one billion plus.

491
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:40,920
Speaker 5: We have more than four hundred locations in the United

492
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 5: States and are looking for three million seats to be filled.

493
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 5: We have over one hundred countries committed. It's a formidable

494
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 5: task and awesome responsibility, but we will rise to the

495
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:57,600
Speaker 5: occasion because both fighters are anxious to make it succeed.

496
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,280
Speaker 5: The fight will create so much in interest and enthusiasm

497
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 5: about Africa. People can go and see what is really like,

498
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 5: witness his mysteries and intrigue. The concert before the fight

499
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:15,000
Speaker 5: will be super colossal. The cream of Afro American stars,

500
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 5: dynamite acts performing in a three day festival. It will

501
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:28,640
Speaker 5: make Woodstock look like an elementary school band concert.

502
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:35,400
Speaker 1: Mariam Mikiba, the woman known as Mama Africa, was scheduled

503
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 1: to be there in Kinshasa for the Zaire seventy four

504
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 1: music Festival. An incredible artist, activist and supremely regal presence,

505
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,960
Speaker 1: the dancer Lola Love shared the stage with Mikiba at

506
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 1: Zaire seventy four and she gushingly recalls how.

507
00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 9: Miriam was amazing, like meeting the Queen Royal, amazing and

508
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 9: warm and welcome. She was just an amazing artist.

509
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:08,640
Speaker 1: Now, someone who knew Miriam Akiba very well was Selemma Masekela,

510
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 1: son of Hugh Masekela, who lovingly refers to her as

511
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:13,600
Speaker 1: Auntie Miriam.

512
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 4: I loved her so so much. We really got to

513
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:20,880
Speaker 4: spend so much time together on the Graceland tour.

514
00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 1: That's Paul Simon's Graceland tour, the one with Lady Smith

515
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:29,240
Speaker 1: Black Mambazo, following the Graceland album that featured tunes like

516
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 1: Uh Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes and under

517
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:35,560
Speaker 1: African Skies. Hugh Masekela was part of the reason that

518
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 1: tour even happened and his son Selemma, just a teen

519
00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:41,920
Speaker 1: at the time, got to go with his father and

520
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:43,480
Speaker 1: Miriam on that tour.

521
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:46,880
Speaker 4: She would cook in her room and she'd be like, come,

522
00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,160
Speaker 4: food is red, and we just hang out.

523
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:52,840
Speaker 1: Selemma didn't know it then, but Anti Miriam's bond with

524
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:55,080
Speaker 1: his father was actually extra special.

525
00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 4: I remember the first time my father revealed to me

526
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 4: that they used to be married, that Auntie Mia was

527
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 4: actually my wife. I was like, what is your light,

528
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 4: my guy? But also like the beauty and the depth

529
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:13,680
Speaker 4: of their rooted friendship and support for each other. I mean,

530
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 4: either one of them would have killed for the other

531
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 4: for the rest of their days.

532
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:21,720
Speaker 1: They had a rare and true love.

533
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,160
Speaker 4: Because you just think that like people who used to

534
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:26,640
Speaker 4: be married and hate each other, not like hang out

535
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 4: and make music and dance on stage with each other

536
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,520
Speaker 4: and advocate for each other like side like back to

537
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 4: backside by side.

538
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:37,320
Speaker 1: Selma also recalls Miriam's power and how she saved it

539
00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 1: all for the stage.

540
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 4: And when you hung out with her, like backstage or

541
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:42,960
Speaker 4: just in life.

542
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 3: She was very quiet.

543
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,880
Speaker 4: She spoke from here, you know, she never really raised

544
00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:48,479
Speaker 4: her voice.

545
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 3: She laughed a loud but us very quiet.

546
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:55,600
Speaker 4: And when it came time to go on stage, she

547
00:32:55,640 --> 00:33:00,160
Speaker 4: could hit that button and release all of it and

548
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 4: suddenly like be fifty feet tall.

549
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 1: Mary Mkida bravely risked it all to live on her

550
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:09,440
Speaker 1: terms and to speak her truth to the powers that be,

551
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: to her lovers and partners, to her audience, to whomever.

552
00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:17,000
Speaker 1: And when she was performing, when her truth mixed with

553
00:33:17,040 --> 00:33:22,120
Speaker 1: the invisible magic of music, well she was transcendent.

554
00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:26,120
Speaker 4: She would just reach out and steal.

555
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:27,720
Speaker 3: She was a soul stealer.

556
00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:31,240
Speaker 4: She said, I'm taking your soul and I'm taking yours,

557
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 4: and I'm taking yours.

558
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: Not like some sort of soul vampire. No, Rather, she

559
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:41,160
Speaker 1: fully captured a person's attention, their consciousness, their soul for

560
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:44,120
Speaker 1: lack of a better word, and for that moment she

561
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:47,880
Speaker 1: beheld them in the palm of her hand, gently, like

562
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 1: a flower that held eternity in its petals.

563
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 4: She would come off stage almost ready to collapse, like

564
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:59,280
Speaker 4: she gave it all, Like every breath, every piece of

565
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:03,080
Speaker 4: her chest and heart, she gave it all, and it

566
00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 4: was She was just wonderful, wonderful to witness.

567
00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:09,759
Speaker 1: Salama was very lucky to spend time with Mary and

568
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 1: Mikiba at her peak to witness her soul gripping performance

569
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,400
Speaker 1: night after night and off stage. The love she shared

570
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:21,360
Speaker 1: with his father, Hugh was transformational for Solema's understanding of

571
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 1: what love can look like.

572
00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 4: And Mike I said, you know, I just knew them

573
00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 4: as brother and sister and as her as my auntie.

574
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:32,720
Speaker 4: But that was the power that they had to accept

575
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:36,840
Speaker 4: the decisions that they made in their youth, especially with

576
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:39,600
Speaker 4: all the challenges and circumstances that they had going on,

577
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,000
Speaker 4: they did not define them and it shouldn't define their

578
00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:44,320
Speaker 4: relationship for the rest of their life. And so because

579
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,560
Speaker 4: of it, they got to share an immense, immense, immense

580
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:50,239
Speaker 4: amount of joy with each other and creating with each

581
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:53,520
Speaker 4: other from many, many, many more days than they were ever.

582
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:57,960
Speaker 1: Together together, though they were a formidable force of love.

583
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:00,480
Speaker 3: Imagine if we could exist like that.

584
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 1: It's September ninth, nineteen seventy four, two weeks before the

585
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:11,800
Speaker 1: scheduled fight in Africa. Inside the opulent Waldorf Astoria Hotel

586
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 1: in New York, Muhammad Ali and Don King hold a

587
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,919
Speaker 1: press conference. The champ stands before a bevy of news

588
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 1: cameras as he announces his imminent departure for Zaire and

589
00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:26,759
Speaker 1: the rumble in the jungle. Also there amid the lavish tapestries,

590
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:31,280
Speaker 1: an excited murmur at the waldorfz James Brown. He comes

591
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:34,279
Speaker 1: to lend his fame and star power to help publicize

592
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 1: the three day music festival. Along with James Brown that

593
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 1: day was his dancer Lola Love and she was most

594
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:43,319
Speaker 1: impressed by Don King.

595
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:47,400
Speaker 9: All I remember when I got to that press conference.

596
00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 9: He was there with that big smile on his face,

597
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,080
Speaker 9: the white hair stand up in the air like he

598
00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:55,279
Speaker 9: put his hands in a socket, and he was just

599
00:35:55,360 --> 00:35:58,560
Speaker 9: a big personality. He was a what is it Bonham

600
00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 9: and Bailey selling what product he had, and it was

601
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:06,120
Speaker 9: this fight Don King, amazing huckster, amazing salesman.

602
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:10,239
Speaker 1: Don King tells the gathered press there at the Waldorf

603
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:11,480
Speaker 1: Astoria ballroom.

604
00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:14,120
Speaker 5: First of all, we'd like to thank all the newsmen

605
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:17,400
Speaker 5: for graciously coming out at this hour to see the

606
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 5: people's champion depart for Africa. The dream is now becoming

607
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:25,680
Speaker 5: a reality. So what I'm gonna do is add a

608
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:29,399
Speaker 5: little bit more to this. Some of the most dynamic

609
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 5: performers from Afro America are going to be appearing down there.

610
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:38,360
Speaker 5: He at the stadium in kinshasa on the twentieth, twenty first,

611
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:42,560
Speaker 5: and twenty second along with the world. Who will witness

612
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:47,480
Speaker 5: its theatrical release It will be James Brown, Soul Brother

613
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:53,680
Speaker 5: Number one will have bb King, the Spinners, Miriam mckeebob

614
00:36:54,719 --> 00:36:55,200
Speaker 5: all these.

615
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:58,839
Speaker 1: Trainer and cornerman Drew Bundini, Brown was also hyping his

616
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,319
Speaker 1: fighter and the fire in the press. Bundini reminds the

617
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:05,920
Speaker 1: journalists about the proper framing for the upcoming fight in zaire.

618
00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:08,520
Speaker 1: The New York Daily News notes how.

619
00:37:08,719 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 15: With Drew Bundini, his chief egger on feeding revival tent

620
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:15,760
Speaker 15: lines to increase the tempo of Ali's frenzy, the world

621
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:19,759
Speaker 15: was loudly informed the upcoming African collision quote is going

622
00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:23,840
Speaker 15: to be a holy war. Uncle Tom against Black Power.

623
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:29,320
Speaker 1: Uncle Tom against Black Power, a familiar and successful narrative

624
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,920
Speaker 1: for the people's champ. Ali hops back in to hand

625
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:36,960
Speaker 1: feed this preferred narrative to the gathered reporters. Yet again,

626
00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 1: Ali uses the press to convince the world that he's

627
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:42,280
Speaker 1: the black one in this fight.

628
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:48,360
Speaker 15: By reminding that foreman is quote, the establishment's fighter, the

629
00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:53,920
Speaker 15: white man's champion. Ali proclaimed himself the savior and rescuer

630
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:55,200
Speaker 15: of the black race.

631
00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:59,560
Speaker 1: Then Ali connects their heavyweight title fight in the Motherland

632
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:03,480
Speaker 1: to America's long history of enslaved black men and women.

633
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 2: We've been changed for four hundred years in slavery, and

634
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,720
Speaker 2: now I'm gonna free my people when I beat George Foreman.

635
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:13,440
Speaker 3: George Foreman is in trouble, big trouble. He can't hurt me.

636
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,960
Speaker 2: I'm the greatest, I'm the prettiest, the fastest fighter of

637
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 2: all time.

638
00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:21,720
Speaker 1: Muhammad Ali knows that soon he will bore the plane

639
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:25,440
Speaker 1: and fly off to Africa. He's been to the continent before,

640
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:29,160
Speaker 1: yet this trip will be special, as he later records

641
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:31,280
Speaker 1: in his autobiography.

642
00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:33,560
Speaker 2: I'm in the last week of training in America. We

643
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:37,080
Speaker 2: will fly to Kinshasa on September tenth, and the fight

644
00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:40,000
Speaker 2: is now set for September twenty four. I wanted to

645
00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:43,719
Speaker 2: go to Africa much earlier, to get used to the climate, the.

646
00:38:43,719 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 3: People, the gm, the roads, the food.

647
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,879
Speaker 2: To get as comfortable and at ease as I am

648
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:50,840
Speaker 2: up here in the Pennsylvania Mountains.

649
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,080
Speaker 1: Ali feels ready, and he's not afraid to say so.

650
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,759
Speaker 1: On that humid September day at the Waldorf Astoria on

651
00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:04,960
Speaker 1: the eve of his departure, for Zayir Muhammad Ali famously proclaims.

652
00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:08,760
Speaker 2: I wrestled with an alligator. I've done tussled with a whale.

653
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:14,920
Speaker 2: I done handcuffed, lightning, thrown thunder in jail. That's that's bad.

654
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:20,320
Speaker 2: Only last week I murdered a rock, I injured a stone,

655
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:22,160
Speaker 2: hospitalized the brick.

656
00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:23,839
Speaker 3: I'm so mean.

657
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:29,360
Speaker 2: I make medicine sick, ain't you, George Foreman? All of

658
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 2: you chumps are gonna bow when I whoop him. I'm

659
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:36,399
Speaker 2: gonna show you how great I am.

660
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:40,200
Speaker 1: For Ali's flight to Africa, President Mabutu sends his private

661
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:43,520
Speaker 1: Boeing seven forty seven, the jumbo jet, which was still

662
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,279
Speaker 1: a cool new idea in aviation in nineteen seventy four,

663
00:39:46,600 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 1: first transports Ali and his considerable entourage to Paris. As

664
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 1: Jonathan I documents in his biography of Ali, the oversized

665
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:59,320
Speaker 1: entourage includes quote Ali, his wife, his parents, his brother,

666
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 1: his trainer, his manager, his three sparring partners, his two

667
00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 1: assistant trainers, his two photographers, his two training camp supervisors,

668
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:10,480
Speaker 1: his cook, his massour, his biographer, and thirteen other friends

669
00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:13,319
Speaker 1: and relations, all of them flying from New York to

670
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:18,359
Speaker 1: Boston to Paris to Conshassa's Zayiir. That is one hell

671
00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:21,200
Speaker 1: of a way to roll into the Motherland. Because also,

672
00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:25,080
Speaker 1: according to ig, not one but two members of his

673
00:40:25,280 --> 00:40:30,560
Speaker 1: entourage were his mistresses. Alli's history with women is not

674
00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:33,840
Speaker 1: really talked about all that much. The man was bigger

675
00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:37,799
Speaker 1: than life. Yes, a champ, sure, but he was a man,

676
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:41,440
Speaker 1: a man raised in mid century America with all the

677
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:45,759
Speaker 1: trappings of that era's patriarchy and plain old fashioned sexism.

678
00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:49,800
Speaker 6: To bring two women with him to Zayir, in addition

679
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 6: to his wife, To travel with his wife and his

680
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:56,600
Speaker 6: mistress at the same time on the same plane, I mean,

681
00:40:56,640 --> 00:41:00,440
Speaker 6: that's a special kind of ego, to be sure, and women,

682
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:03,440
Speaker 6: you know, often learned to put up with it or

683
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 6: tried to put up with it, And I think it

684
00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:07,319
Speaker 6: just says a lot about how selfish he was.

685
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:11,239
Speaker 1: Typically you hear about how boxers will avoid sex for

686
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:14,720
Speaker 1: like a month or more before a big fight. Not Ali.

687
00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:16,600
Speaker 1: He couldn't get enough of women.

688
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:19,600
Speaker 6: It was a compulsion to sleep with sex workers right

689
00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:21,560
Speaker 6: before a fight, which he did numerous times.

690
00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:25,800
Speaker 1: His ego driven pursuit of greatness is not and should

691
00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 1: not be an excuse for his cruelty. His racist bullying,

692
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:33,600
Speaker 1: or his mistreatment of women and the many betrayals of

693
00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:37,920
Speaker 1: the women he loved. In his biography of Ali, Ig

694
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:42,760
Speaker 1: does his best to contend with Ali's admirable qualities alongside

695
00:41:42,840 --> 00:41:46,960
Speaker 1: this complexity of the darker, uglier aspects of his character.

696
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:51,040
Speaker 16: It's sad that Ali has these behaviors, that he treats

697
00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:53,359
Speaker 16: women this way, but I think it's important for us

698
00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:56,560
Speaker 16: to wrestle with it and to recognize that he was

699
00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:59,080
Speaker 16: a man with deep flaws as well as you know,

700
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:02,440
Speaker 16: an inspirational here at times, this.

701
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:08,080
Speaker 1: Is the conundrum of Ali. There on Mabutu's plane, on

702
00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:10,600
Speaker 1: the same flight as the women who have to share

703
00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:14,960
Speaker 1: this selfish, flawed man. There is another symbol of what

704
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:19,359
Speaker 1: Ali represents or hopes to represent, as an icon and

705
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:24,399
Speaker 1: a living emblem of progress, and Ali takes note of

706
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:29,080
Speaker 1: this symbolic value of what he sees. During the last

707
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:31,759
Speaker 1: leg of their journey, the flight from Paris to Conshassa,

708
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 1: Ali visits the cockpit. He's stunned by what he sees

709
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:40,200
Speaker 1: black pilots. Ali is flabbergasted by the fact that Mabutu

710
00:42:40,239 --> 00:42:43,759
Speaker 1: has an all black flight crew. The moment is caught

711
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:46,160
Speaker 1: on camera, as Ali says.

712
00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:49,000
Speaker 3: This is strange to the American.

713
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:53,279
Speaker 1: Negro dancer for James Brown, Lola Love knows exactly what

714
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:55,160
Speaker 1: Ali means. As she puts it.

715
00:42:55,520 --> 00:43:01,160
Speaker 9: Ali understood the connection of coming to Zayir, coming back home,

716
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:03,600
Speaker 9: being on a plane with black pilot.

717
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 3: I'm seventy two.

718
00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:09,000
Speaker 9: I didn't see that until I was on that plane.

719
00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:09,680
Speaker 3: Okay.

720
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:13,960
Speaker 9: So it's about having a foundation, and back in those days,

721
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:18,840
Speaker 9: we didn't have beautiful black images of professional black people

722
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:22,440
Speaker 9: doing anything doctors, nurses, lawyers.

723
00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:24,160
Speaker 3: That was not available to us.

724
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:27,759
Speaker 1: Then Ali recognizes what it means that he is being

725
00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:31,760
Speaker 1: flown to Africa by black pilots. It feels like the future,

726
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:34,799
Speaker 1: a future he's been fighting for as the people's champ.

727
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:38,359
Speaker 1: Ali is the man who refused the draft. He's the

728
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:40,840
Speaker 1: man who stuck it to the white establishment. When he

729
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 1: beat Nixon's favorite fighter, smoking Joe Frasier. He's waving the

730
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:49,160
Speaker 1: flag of black pride high over his head, and he

731
00:43:49,719 --> 00:43:52,880
Speaker 1: has the evident surge of black power flowing through every

732
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:56,640
Speaker 1: inch of his body. Ali is the fighter black America

733
00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 1: wants to win, in and out of the ring. Ali

734
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:03,759
Speaker 1: is now a symbol of all of this, and he

735
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:06,120
Speaker 1: knows he's got to keep that image going. While he's

736
00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:12,080
Speaker 1: across the Atlantic Ocean in Africa. During his flight to Kinshasa,

737
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 1: Ali's thoughts often returned to George Foreman and their title

738
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:19,480
Speaker 1: fight to come. Ali also knows this boxing match will

739
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:23,000
Speaker 1: be different than all his previous bouts. Not only is

740
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:26,080
Speaker 1: his opponent a freak of nature, a pure puncher who's

741
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:29,919
Speaker 1: battered every man he's ever faced, there are other key

742
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:34,600
Speaker 1: factors making this fight different. For one, the crowd will

743
00:44:34,600 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 1: be African, specifically Zayrean, and so Ali wonders how he'll

744
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:42,359
Speaker 1: win the people over to his side. He knows he

745
00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:45,560
Speaker 1: must if he has any hope to win. He knows

746
00:44:45,560 --> 00:44:49,080
Speaker 1: that Zayians may be black like him, but still there

747
00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:53,800
Speaker 1: are clear cultural differences. For instance, the Zayreans don't understand

748
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:56,719
Speaker 1: what an Uncle Tom is or why it matters that

749
00:44:56,800 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 1: now disgraced former President Nixon rooted for J. J. Frasier

750
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:03,880
Speaker 1: and rooted for George Foreman. While he's on the plane

751
00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:08,080
Speaker 1: to Kinshasa, Ali's mind casts about grasping for what he

752
00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:11,440
Speaker 1: can say once he lands something that will win the

753
00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:15,719
Speaker 1: people of this African nation to his side. Ali talks

754
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:18,720
Speaker 1: to the Zayirians aboard the flight and learns important things

755
00:45:18,719 --> 00:45:21,760
Speaker 1: from them. For instance, the majority of folks in Zayir

756
00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:26,360
Speaker 1: are Christians, just like George Foreman. That doesn't help things.

757
00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:30,040
Speaker 1: Ali asks questions of the African flight crew, still looking

758
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:32,560
Speaker 1: for that angle he can play, some way he can

759
00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:36,520
Speaker 1: win the people over to his side. Then Ali asks

760
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:39,800
Speaker 1: the Zayrians a very simple but revealing question.

761
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:41,640
Speaker 3: Who do these people hate?

762
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:48,240
Speaker 1: The answer is just two words, the Belgians. The plane

763
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:51,680
Speaker 1: lands in Zayir and almost as soon as Ali sets

764
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:54,880
Speaker 1: foot on African soil, he gives his first press conference.

765
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:59,719
Speaker 1: Ali tells the waiting journalists, I am the greatest, and

766
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:04,520
Speaker 1: then he adds George Foreman is a Belgian. Beyond the press,

767
00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 1: The gathered crowd reacts with impassioned booze. Ali has found

768
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:12,640
Speaker 1: his angle. He throws in that George Foreman is quote

769
00:46:12,840 --> 00:46:17,120
Speaker 1: the oppressor of all black nations. The crowd goes nuts

770
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:20,759
Speaker 1: at that. A chant erupts. The crowd shouts in the

771
00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:27,640
Speaker 1: Lingala language, Ali boom aye, Ali, boom aye, Ali, boom Aye.

772
00:46:29,080 --> 00:46:31,920
Speaker 1: Ali has no idea what these words mean. He turns

773
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:35,759
Speaker 1: and asks someone what these people are chanting. Ali is

774
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:41,279
Speaker 1: told the direct translation, it means Ali kill him. A

775
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 1: broad smile spreads across the champ's face. He's done it.

776
00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:48,879
Speaker 1: He hasn't even been in the country for a full

777
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:52,960
Speaker 1: day and he's already won the people. He knows he's

778
00:46:53,080 --> 00:46:57,480
Speaker 1: now the people's champ of Zaiir. Ali lifts his arms

779
00:46:57,480 --> 00:46:59,760
Speaker 1: and he conducts the crowds and their chance.

780
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:05,680
Speaker 12: Ali bo ayy Ali boo aye, Ali boo aye.

781
00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:09,520
Speaker 1: Yet again, Ali finds a way to use his pro

782
00:47:09,560 --> 00:47:13,200
Speaker 1: wrestling inspired hype game, but now he dresses it up

783
00:47:13,239 --> 00:47:18,080
Speaker 1: in the symbolism of colonialism, and it works brilliantly. The

784
00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:21,120
Speaker 1: people love him again.

785
00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:24,080
Speaker 16: Like only Ali could try to make sense out of this.

786
00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:25,799
Speaker 1: On the one hand, he's saying, George.

787
00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 6: Foreman is ignorant gorilla.

788
00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:30,400
Speaker 1: On the other hand, he's saying he's a white colonizer. Like,

789
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:32,320
Speaker 1: how do you make that work? You can't.

790
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:34,439
Speaker 6: Only Ali can like throw everything at.

791
00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:36,719
Speaker 8: You at once, and somehow it does seem to work.

792
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:39,360
Speaker 1: In fact, it works so well that.

793
00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:42,800
Speaker 6: When George Foreman gets off the plane, he's getting booed

794
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:45,719
Speaker 6: by the crowd in Zaiir. It's because Ali has told

795
00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:47,720
Speaker 6: him that he's a Belgian sympathizer.

796
00:47:48,360 --> 00:47:52,000
Speaker 1: Things only get worse for George because when Foreman arrives,

797
00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:56,239
Speaker 1: he's brought with him his dog. Except Foreman's dog is

798
00:47:56,280 --> 00:48:01,120
Speaker 1: this enormous German shepherd. As Lola Low remembers.

799
00:48:00,719 --> 00:48:06,200
Speaker 9: It, everybody was rooting for Muhammad Ali. Okay, Foreman made

800
00:48:06,239 --> 00:48:08,399
Speaker 9: the big mistake when he came. He didn't come with us,

801
00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:10,439
Speaker 9: and he came on his private plane and he got

802
00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:14,480
Speaker 9: off the plane with German shepherds, and the German shepherds

803
00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:19,040
Speaker 9: with the dogs the Belgiums used to control the Congalse people.

804
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:21,959
Speaker 9: So right away he made the wrong move.

805
00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:25,680
Speaker 1: Gary Stromberg also remembers the site of George and his

806
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:27,160
Speaker 1: police dog in Zaire.

807
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:30,600
Speaker 8: He'd should have hired me as a pr Guiye, I

808
00:48:30,640 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 8: would not let that have happened. You don't bring the

809
00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:38,840
Speaker 8: German shepherd to Zaire. Sorry, I don't know how anybody

810
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:39,719
Speaker 8: let him do that.

811
00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:40,880
Speaker 11: Now.

812
00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 1: Jonathan I g is a little kinder in his assessment.

813
00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:46,839
Speaker 1: He says it was just bad luck on George's part.

814
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:51,880
Speaker 1: Photographer Lynn Goldsmith is perhaps the most charitable in her memory.

815
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:56,360
Speaker 5: That poor guy had no d and so I felt

816
00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:57,319
Speaker 5: sorry for him.

817
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:01,680
Speaker 1: Remember, George Foreman is terribly sensitive and now, through no

818
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:04,280
Speaker 1: fault of his own. He's just set foot in Africa

819
00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:07,640
Speaker 1: and he's already being booed. It's like he's shoe Booty

820
00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:12,040
Speaker 1: all over again and all over again. The culture war

821
00:49:12,120 --> 00:49:15,960
Speaker 1: is playing out between these two fighters again. George Foreman

822
00:49:16,040 --> 00:49:18,400
Speaker 1: feels like he has little to no control over his

823
00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:23,080
Speaker 1: image because he can't fight words. Meanwhile, there's the three

824
00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:26,440
Speaker 1: day music Festival Zai Year seventy four and it's scheduled

825
00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:30,080
Speaker 1: to start soon. As Ali keeps telling Don King he's

826
00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:33,120
Speaker 1: excited to catch up with all the superstars like James

827
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:37,080
Speaker 1: Brown and Bill Withers. The People's champ can't wait for

828
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:40,080
Speaker 1: the musicians to arrive in conshasa. He's like a kid

829
00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:43,200
Speaker 1: waiting to open his presence. Ali keeps asking.

830
00:49:43,160 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 3: Where's baby getting here.

831
00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:49,640
Speaker 1: The answer to that question depends on one man, Henry Kissinger,

832
00:49:50,400 --> 00:49:53,920
Speaker 1: Well Kissinger and the US State Department. But we'll get

833
00:49:53,960 --> 00:50:05,120
Speaker 1: into that next time on the next episode of Rumbo.

834
00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:07,360
Speaker 8: This is my favorite part of this whole story.

835
00:50:07,719 --> 00:50:11,640
Speaker 9: When we finally got on the plane, James Brown says,

836
00:50:12,239 --> 00:50:15,400
Speaker 9: my entourvage sits in the front like it's a first class.

837
00:50:15,640 --> 00:50:21,120
Speaker 9: Everybody's on the plane and James Brown wouldn't move the

838
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:22,920
Speaker 9: plane was severely overload.

839
00:50:23,080 --> 00:50:24,760
Speaker 8: Literally you couldn't walk down the aisle.

840
00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:29,160
Speaker 9: You can hear Ray Barretto banging on stop. Johnny Perchecco

841
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:33,200
Speaker 9: is like blowing his flute bb king, clapping and singing.

842
00:50:33,719 --> 00:50:34,680
Speaker 5: See he was dashing.

843
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:36,160
Speaker 1: We just had a great table.

844
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:39,840
Speaker 3: Well we landed in Madrid. We hit bam and everybody

845
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:40,680
Speaker 3: was what's going on?

846
00:50:41,120 --> 00:50:43,080
Speaker 8: He pulls out a knife and he's walking down the

847
00:50:43,120 --> 00:50:46,800
Speaker 8: aisle enraged. He's going after James Brown.

848
00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:51,719
Speaker 17: Rumbo is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.

849
00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:54,959
Speaker 17: Rumbell is written and hosted by Zarn Burnett. The third

850
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:59,960
Speaker 17: produced and directed by Julia Chriscal. Sound designed by Jesse Niswanger,

851
00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:05,080
Speaker 17: Scoring by John Washington. Original music composed by Jordan Manley

852
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:09,920
Speaker 17: and T. J. Merritt. Series concept by Gary Stromberg. Executive

853
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:17,200
Speaker 17: producers are Jason English, Sean Titone, Gary Stromberg, Virginia Prescott, L. C. Crowley,

854
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:20,960
Speaker 17: and Brandon barr Our. Senior producer is Amelia Brock, Production

855
00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:26,040
Speaker 17: manager Daisy Church, fact checker Savannah Hugley. Legal services provided

856
00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:30,960
Speaker 17: by Canoel Hanley PC. Additional production by Claire Keating, Casting

857
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:36,000
Speaker 17: director Julia Christgau. Casting support services provided by Breakdown Express

858
00:51:36,160 --> 00:51:37,120
Speaker 17: Episode eight.

859
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:43,439
Speaker 18: Cast Abraham Amka as Mohammad Ali, Anthony Brandon Walker as

860
00:51:43,560 --> 00:51:48,160
Speaker 18: George Foreman, Terence Flint as Don King, John Washington as

861
00:51:48,239 --> 00:51:52,480
Speaker 18: news reporter, Julia Christgau as news reporter Special thanks to

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Speaker 18: Lewis Ehrenberg.

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Speaker 17: Check out his book Rumble in the Jungle. It's a

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Speaker 17: great resource.

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Speaker 18: Also thanks to Jonathan I for his book Ali a Life.

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Speaker 18: And finally thanks to Zarens pops Zeek, who grounds this

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Speaker 18: material like no one else. If you like the show,

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Speaker 18: let us know.

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Speaker 17: Like subscribe, leave five star reviews. It really helps.

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Speaker 18: Also check out our show notes for a full list

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Speaker 18: of reference materials.