Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's June nineteen seventy four, New York City. The Skylight
Lounge on the nineteenth floor of the opulent Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
The New York Boxing Writers Association plays host to a
gala event dedicated to violence and the men who write
about it for a living. The main attractions, Muhammad Ali
and George Foreman are present. Their upcoming title fight, which
(00:27):
was announced a few months earlier, has the tensions in
the room building Smokin' Joe Frazier and Jersey Joe Walcott,
Jack Dempsey and Floyd Patterson. These legends of the ring
gather together tonight to help honor the Boxing Writers Association's
annual Fighter of the Year award. It's like the Oscars
(00:48):
or Emmys, but for boxing. The evening also features a
presentation from Ring Magazine. The boxing periodical will present their
heavyweight championship belt to the current reigning chain MP, George Foreman.
Now for a little extra drama and entertainment, the featured
speaker for the gala event is you guessed it, Muhammad Ali.
(01:09):
This means the two rivals must share the dais toward
the end of the evening. The last to speak, Muhammad
Ali rises and approaches the mic. There in front of
the boxing press, Ali decides to use this podium as
his bully pulpit, a way to tease and mock Foreman.
It's a brash move since the reigning champ is being
(01:32):
honored and is seated just a few feet away from Ali,
but Foreman doesn't scare the people's champ, and Ali wants
everyone there to know it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Hitting hard don't mean nothing if you don't find nothing
to hit, Are you serious? George fighting me? George Foreman,
do not hit hard. Joe Fraser can tell you that
he got a push punch. If a man hit hard,
he don't keep getting uh.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
The crowd may laugh, but Foreman doesn't find it so funny.
He just sits there. He glowers at Ali, just like
his role model Sonny Liston would. Meanwhile, eager to show
that he's unafraid of this new reigning champ everyone is
so scared of, Ali talks up their upcoming title fight
in Zaiir. Ali turns towards Foreman and he personally warns.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Him, you coming to my country, There's gonna be thousand
shouting Ali Ali.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
There's gonna be voodoo pins and dolls.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
There's one man there that night who isn't just going
to sit there and take all this lip from Ali.
Foreman's manager, Dick Sadler. He hops up from his seat
and walks up to the podium, and as he does,
he heckles Ali up at the mic. Ali just laughs
at the old boxing trainer, dismissing him, but Dick Sadler
hits a nerve. He says, all these writers here tonight
(02:52):
are picking Foreman to win. Ali tries to laugh it off.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I don't pay no attention to writers.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
But it's like a forgotten that he's in a room
packed with writers. One person finds it funny. Ali's swipe
at the press elicits a smile from George Foreman. Since
he is currently the baddest man in boxing, Foreman decides
to reassert himself and reclaim his role as the king
of the jungle. So Foreman stands up from the dais,
(03:20):
walks to the podium, leans down toward the microphone, and
Foreman says to no one in particular.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
I don't know about anybody else, but I'm tired of
all this and I want.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
To go home with that. Foreman walks over to grab
his award and his heavyweight championship belt. Headed for the door,
Ali isn't ready for the show to be over. He
follows Foreman and then Ali puts his hands on Foreman.
That's the last straw. In a sudden, surprising flash of anger,
Foreman slaps Ali's hand away. Still playing, Ali jokingly tries
(03:55):
to grab Foreman's awards and his new championship belt. Foreman
grabs Ali, but he doesn't get a solid grip. Instead,
Foreman only clutches the tail of Ali's blue suit jacket,
and so when Ali pulls away, well, that tears it
literally and figuratively. They start to tussle and wrestle. In
(04:17):
the midst of their two man melee, Foreman's tuxedo shirt
gets torn. Now it matches Ali's ripped sport coat. The
two fighters are close to throwing bare knuckle blows at
each other, but luckily the MC John Condon jumps in
and manages to separate the two boxers. It's quite the scene.
Good to his word, Foreman is indeed done with this spectacle.
(04:40):
He grabs his award and his heavyweight championship belt, ready
to go home, but Ali still isn't done with him.
Ali grabs drinking glasses from the dais and throws them
at Foreman as Ali shouts.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
You toll Ma soup, You tall Ma soup.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Foreman stands there in the center of the starlight room,
torn tuxedo shirt, spilled liquor wets the champ's feet. Foreman
looks up at Ali and he just shakes his head.
He's disgusted at Ali's childish outburst. The champ turns to
leave yet again. Meanwhile, the former champ, Joe Frasier, is
(05:18):
equally disgusted with Ali's tomfoolery and pre fight hype for
the press. Fraser knows all too well Allie's antics, so
he joins Foreman as both fighters head for the elevator.
As the People's Champ continues to shout.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I'm gonna beat you Christian Tale, I'm gonna beat your
Christian Tale.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You flag Waiver.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Boxing promoter and known fan of Spectacle Don King also
decides to leave Ali behind to throw his fit before
the boxing writers. King joins the two great champs in
the elevator just before the elevator doors slowly slide shut
as Foreman, Fraser, and Don King ride down to the
lobby together, no one speaks. Finally, after a long silence,
(06:08):
Foreman turns and looks at Don King, and he says, you'd.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Better get me two bodyguards anytime I'm going near him again.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
The ugly scene at the Gala event guarantees the Ali
Foreman fight will be written about the next day in
the news. The New York Times does indeed write about
the Foreman Ali tensions at the Gala event and how
this might affect their upcoming title fight in Zaire. It's
free publicity in the nation's most important newspaper. Ali knows
(06:42):
that any news story of him acting out will surprise
no one, and he also knows the story will only
whet the appetite for more violence. Welcome to Rumble, the
(07:08):
story of Ali Foreman and the soul music of nineteen
seventy four. I'm your host, Zarn Burnett, the third from
iHeart Podcast and School of Humans. This is Rumble.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Previously on Rumble, Don King said over and over again,
Cash is King and King is Cash.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
This fight will be a tribute to the sports world,
and more importantly, to the black world. The prodigal sons
will be returning home to Africa.
Speaker 7 (07:43):
That's the transition they once were slaves, and now look,
they trod the earth as giants of culture.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
Music, sport.
Speaker 9 (07:52):
Hugh Masakela is one of the greatest jazz trumpeters. He
worked with musicians from all over the continent, and each
different country had a different sound.
Speaker 8 (08:03):
Q came up with the idea for Zaire for the festival,
and I signed up right away.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
In his book The Fight, the writer Norman Mahler observed
the singular presence of George Foreman.
Speaker 10 (08:20):
Other champions had a presence larger than themselves. They offered charisma.
Foreman had silence. It vibrated about him. One had not
seen men like that for thirty years, or was it more?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Never is Foreman's silence more evident than when the press
is there waiting on the champ to speak. One month
after the public scuffle at the Waldorf Astoria during the
Dog days of July nineteen seventy four, George Foreman holds
a rare press conference there. Before the bursting flash bulbs,
Foreman announces his plan to train in Pleasanton, California. This
(08:57):
is the same city where he first started boxing with
the Job Corps and his coach, Doc Brotus. Foreman also
informs the press that he will not be speaking with
them until the fight in Zaiir. Lastly, he suggests that
Muhammad Ali should strongly consider retiring from boxing. That's Foreman's
idea of a joke to win over the press, but
(09:19):
it mostly lands flat. He doesn't have an inkling of
Ali's charm when it comes to sportswriters. Even Ali throwing
a fit is still more fun to write about than
George Foreman. Ali, of course, takes the exact opposite approach
with the press. He invites them into his training facility
like a generous host. Later that same month, Ali also
(09:40):
announces to the press that he's beginning his training for
the upcoming title fight. He plans to prepare at his
training facility in the Pennsylvania mountains at Deer Lake. Sports
writers come up and watch him prepare. Ali jokes with
the reporters. He banters and boasts as he poses for
the cameras. Knowing he's on a roll, Ali likes to
do an impression of George Foreman. He walks slowly, arms
(10:03):
out before him. He sort of half mumbles and half
moans like a giant an oath, like Frankenstein, or rather
the Mummy of old horror films. Then Ali promises his
laughing audience.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Oo, there's gonna be a rumble in the jungle there.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It is the official name for the next great heavyweight
title fight is now set. Later on, during another impromptu
press conference during his training and a reporter predicts Foreman
will easily knock out Ali in the first round. Ali
pulls the man to the side and he shares with
him something that he urges the white sportswriter to always remember.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I'm gonna tell you something and I don't want you
to ever forget it. Black men scared white men more
than black men scared black men.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Of course, Ali meant that he is not scared of
his opponent. However, this statement also applies to George Foreman,
who feels he has little to fear from Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile,
there's Belinda, Muhammad Ali's wife at the time. She warns
her husband that he's spending far too much time talking
to the press, not enough time sparring. She cautions him
(11:14):
that if he loses in Zaire, he'll have wasted a
golden opportunity. If he loses to George Foreman on the
world stage, and specifically before the cheering African crowd. It
will be a great tragedy. Ali listens to his wife,
but the People's champ doesn't seem to fully hear her
words because he continues to expend his precious energy trying
(11:38):
to impress the media that trails him around and leaps
to lap up every opportunity for a SoundBite. Ali is
still attempting to rewrite the pre fight narrative, since he
greatly resents being the underdog in the rumble in the jungle.
The Miami Herald reports on Ali's pre fight training in
a story dated June third, nineteen seventy.
Speaker 11 (12:00):
He was breathing hard. He had just finished the first
gut wrenching day of roadwork, and his breath was a
rasping reminder of the self torture that lies ahead as
he swept out the poison of easy living.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Muhammad Ali tells the gathered press between his gasps of
heaving breath, having just returned from his morning run.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
That he just jogged today.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
One mile felt like three, but there's joy in it,
running the same hills that took you to victory. Before
I know the route, I know how to force myself.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I know what I must do.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
All some of them be up here, and then I'm
gonna come down faster and quicker than ever. And then
I'm going back to Africa, and you will hear the people.
They will chant the same, Ali ah Li. I will
wind up with my career in the home land, on
my continent. I will be a spiritual fighter.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Ali knows that he's the heavy underdog, favored to lose
three to one, and yet with all the comedic charm
he can muster. Ali describes how he plans to wear
out the Mummy by taking him past the second round
in a fight. That's something George Foreman hasn't done for
a few years now.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Round five, round six, round seven. George Foreman has never
heard the man say that he doesn't know what it's
like to be tied. He's never fought anybody with footwork
and speed. This will be his first true fight, and
he'll be fighting the real champion of the people.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Now that he's turned the reporters into a stenopool, Ali
keeps it rolling and he returns to a favorite punching bag.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
George Foreman is like Joe Frazier. He is fat and
bloated and slow, and I will show him speed and skill,
not showmanship. I'll be up with my toes, no clowning,
and the jazz will be coming, Pa, Pa.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
The sportswriters scribble down all these quotes and notepads between
their laughs. Alli's wife Belinda certainly wouldn't be happy with
this little performance. However, this show voting by Ali does
come after his morning run. Now he talks past the
reporters directly to the black and brown people of the world.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I'll carry him for maybe seven rounds, and then i
will tag him with a punch faster than he has
ever seen, and it will be a knockout, and things
will be fulfilled as they should. I will have won
before my people on my continent.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Ali is still talking about boxing, and yet the moment
becomes transcendent, as the Miami Herald records of that day
in June nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 11 (14:34):
He said it soft and low, with the kind of
conviction that sounded as though he were reciting not a prophecy,
but a fact which had already been accomplished, a sort
of mystical reality history before it ever happened. The view,
Muhammad Ali explained simply is always clear from atop a Mountain.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
In the late days of the summer of seventy four,
one of Muhammad Ali's greatest opponents suffers his own great defeat.
He's not a man Ali, what ever faces inside the ring.
Yet still Ali rejoices at the news of his downfall.
On August ninth, nineteen seventy four, Richard Nixon announces his
resignation in the office of the Presidency of the United States.
(15:14):
From CBS news coverage. I have never been a quitter.
Speaker 12 (15:20):
The leave office before my term is completed as abhorrent
to every instinct in my body. But as President, I
must put the interests of America first. Therefore I shall
resign the presidency affective at noon tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Nixon is arguably the most powerful man in the world.
When he loses his long fight for power, the whole
world is shocked. For Ali is the fall of a
man who symbolizes everything he's fought against. Naturally, Ali turns
the ruinous downfall of the president into his next taunt.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
If you are shocked when Nixon resign, just wait until
I whooped George Forman's behind.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Ali biographer Jonathan I believes this boast is like a
perfect crystallization of Ali's ego.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
As usual, Alee thinks everything works out just the way
he wants. You know, he's the greatest, and he's the
center of the world.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And you know he took out Fraser, he took out Nixon.
You know what's he gonna do next. Ali's sense of
triumph at Nixon's humiliation has a shadows side. Ali also
suspects that he too would be blasted on the world
stage if the People's champ loses in Zaire, and he
recalls how his wife Belinda said as much to her husband.
(16:41):
As Jonathan Ig noted in his biography of Ali, quote,
losing in Africa would be a tragedy. She told Ali
not only would he blow his shot at a championship,
he would blow the chance to be a hero to
black people all over the world. In effect, Ali's wife
hopes his ego can see gave him from himself. The
(17:06):
upcoming Zayere seventy four Music Festival is scheduled to take
place in the days just before the Rumble in the Jungle.
Commitments are made, contracts are signed, Flights are priced to
see how much it'll be to carry all the musicians
and their equipment. Now it's just a matter of drawing
in the tourists. The music festival benefits from its association
(17:28):
with the heavyweight title fight. It isn't its own singular event.
It's an extra perk and enticing lead into the international event.
Yet still it will require some promotion of its own.
That's the job of one man, Gary Stromberg. And as
Gary recalls it, that was a major challenge.
Speaker 8 (17:48):
Well, we didn't have social media. It's had television, but
primarily print media, magazines, newspaper articles. It was a much
different world than it is today.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Throughout the summer of seventy four, newspapers press releases and
give updates on the headliners. Getting the sports media to
cover a fight taking place thousands of miles away, that
was one hurdle, but not the only one.
Speaker 8 (18:10):
It's expensive, as you can imagine, to go to Africa,
the hotels and all that stuff. There was no media
that we brought along. We could easily through the wire
services feed the media back home from Africa. The only
press that was there were important journalists who were there
to cover the fight, who are also going to write
about the festival maybe.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
For instance, Gary recalls the presence of the three heavyweight
writers of the.
Speaker 8 (18:35):
Time Norman Whaler and George Plimpton, and Bud Schulberg.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Bud Schulberg was most famous for the Marlon Brando film
On the Waterfront. George Plimpton was an outlier, a preppy writer,
yet he would bravely risk his body in service of
his sports writing, such as when, at thirty six years old,
Plimpton attempted to play third string quarterback for the Detroit Lions.
His doomed journey in the NFL is documented in his
(19:01):
book Paper Lion. Then there's Norman Mahler. He especially was
a champion of what's now known as new journalism. Mahler
sought to elevate boxing from being seen as a dirty, gritty,
unsavory sport, one that's rigged and run by the mob.
Mahler recognized it instead as an inherent contest of great heroes.
(19:23):
To Mailer, heavyweight boxing was culture writ large. It was
also a clear expression of a man's will, and these
men writing about these fights. They infused their novelistic perspectives
into their sports reporting. This was part of a larger
departure from the purely objective pov of older journalism. They
(19:43):
injected themselves into their stories. That was the big development.
That's what's set apart what was called new journalism. Think
Hunter S. Thompson, who was also there in Zaire. More
on him later now. The coverage by these journalists were
magazines like Life and Esquire were admired for how the
writers framed and contextualized Muhammad Ali. For their readers, he
(20:06):
was more than his persona. He was a new type
of hero and also a new type of anti hero,
a fighter who took on the powers that be. Those
same writers hold a special place of prominence were current
ESPN sportswriter Mark Kriegel. As he notes, writers like Mailer
and Plimpton and Schulberg popularized.
Speaker 13 (20:26):
This idea that these great fights were literary happening and that.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
The media should pay attention. The mass media should pay attention.
Speaker 13 (20:35):
Because these great minds, these great artists were ringside.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I always thought that was really cool.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
As sportswriters, of course, they covered the fights for the
drama they provide, But a fight is about so much
more than boxing. Sometimes what goes down between fighters inside
the ring speaks more to what's happening outside of the ring.
That was always the case with Muhammad Ali. The sharpest
writers understood that for a writer like Mahler, who was
(21:01):
no stranger to mixing it up, the boxing match provided
the barest metaphor for the cultural slugfest already playing out
in Cold War era America. It was a place to
play out Mahler's obsessions with gender, sexuality, race, and literary dominance.
You know, Mailer is performative.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
He stays out at night, he gets drunk.
Speaker 13 (21:22):
I think he goes to the Playboy Club and he
won't get off the stage. But he's still Mailer, and
it was still brilliant even when it was excessive. But
Plimpton says something really interesting about Mailer, essentially that he
worked his ass off, and he was so competitive. He
saw himself among the press as like fighting two hundred
guys all seated next to you.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
These writers were raging bulls in their own right and
could easily see themselves in these fighters. They recognized their
own will in the fighter's will to greatness. For instance,
Norman Mahler famously examines the superhuman will of the prize fighter,
and in doing so he attend to explain how it's
both a psychological and physiological expression of Willpower. In his
(22:06):
book The Fight About the Rumble in the Jungle, when
Mahler visits Ali's Deer Lake facility, he notes that while
driving up the hill to Ali's training camp, all along
the road are these great, big painted boulders. Each one
bears the name of a fighter that Ali beat. The
first boulder a visitor passes reads Sonny Liston and there
(22:29):
at the end of the road at the top of
the hill. Maeler also notes how Ali's training facilities.
Speaker 10 (22:34):
Are timeless timbers, dark with the hue of the old
railroad bridge from which they were removed. The interior, for
fair surprise, is akin to a modest slave cabin. The
furniture is simple but antique. The water comes from a
hand pump.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yes, Ali had replica slave cabins built where he could
prepare for his fights, and Mailer intoits what that means
for Ali. He attempts to convey this to his readers
the long racial history in the US that motivates Ali's choice,
in the hopes that this context, coupled with his portrayal
of the champ, will offer novel style insights into the
(23:15):
boxer's character. There at Ali's training facility, watching the Great
Boxer work out and train. Mahler doesn't fully recognize what
he's seeing. Ali is preparing his body for a bludgeoning
from George Foreman Mailer, though like most everyone else assumes,
Ali plans to dance in the ring to stay away
from Foreman's punishing blows, and so Mahler, without knowing it,
(23:39):
bears witness to Ali developing what would later be called
the rope adope.
Speaker 10 (23:45):
It was a study to watch Ali take punches. He
would lie on the ropes and paw at his sparring
partner like a mother cat goading her kittens to belt away.
That afternoon in dear Lake, it looked like he was
learning very little. He was getting hit by stupid punches,
and they seemed to take him by surprise. He was
not languid but sluggish. He looked bored, He showed as
(24:08):
he worked, all the sullen ardor of a husband obliging
himself to make love to his wife in the thick
of carnal indifference.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Only Norman Mahler would think to compare the act of
taking punches from a sparring partner to the act of
making love to one's wife and Mailer, Like Plimpton and
Schulberg and even earlier James Baldwin, seizes upon the fact
that Muhammad Ali is this undeniably potent symbol of American greatness,
a man bigger than life, more than a man. Ali
(24:38):
is truly the people's champ. The intellectuals and the streets
both agree. As Mahler wrote in Life magazine for its
March nineteenth, nineteen seventy one edition.
Speaker 10 (24:48):
He was the mightiest victim of injustice in America. The
twentieth century was nothing if not a tangle of opposition.
He was also the mightiest narcissist in the land. Every beard, dropout, homosexual, junkie, freak, swinger,
and plain simple individualists adored him.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Above it all. There in the great fights against Liston
and later unexpectedly going the distance against Joe Frasier, Muhammad
Ali showed his many doubters that the People's champ indeed
had the soul and will of a champion.
Speaker 10 (25:19):
Frali had shown America what we all had hoped was
secretly true.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
He was a man.
Speaker 10 (25:25):
He could bear moral and physical torture, and he could stand.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
But now Muhammad Ali's ultimate test will arrive to meet
him when he steps into the ring to face the
giant George Foreman. The rumble in the jungle was fast approaching,
and with it the music festival known as Zayr seventy four.
In Zayir, teams of workers labor day and night in
(25:50):
preparation for the arrival of the fighters and the fans
and the musicians in the media that will soon be
on their way to Africa. But at this moment in
the late summer, the money men are on the scene
in Conshasa. Mostly the investors are watching how their money
is being spent and how their partner, Mabutu is overseeing
the modernization of his nation. Will he have Zayir ready
(26:14):
for its big moment on the world stage In August,
a month before the scheduled event. One of the moneymen,
John Daly, downplays the challenge. It seems He's likely trying
to instill confidence in their ability to pull off this
massive event. Daily tells reporters that quote.
Speaker 14 (26:31):
It's no different from all taking a feature film, putting
dollars behind it, casting it, getting a director and a producer,
making it, handing it over to someone else to exhibit,
and then collecting the revenue. There's no difference.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
John Daily pauses thanks for a moment, and then adds.
Speaker 7 (26:47):
Well, there is the danger that one of the fighters
could crack up. There's the danger Zaya could have a
revolution of the eve of the fight and the tanks
would roll into town instead of limousines.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Oo.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yes, there is always that concern. Let's call it the unexpected.
One of the reporters jokes that Daily and his business
partners could always just sell the film rights to the revolution,
and Daily jokes.
Speaker 14 (27:10):
Back, right, we just turn the cameras around.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
These jokes are meant to camouflage a very real concern,
you know, like a coup or a actual revolution. The
same nation of Zaiir is known for its recent periods
of violence and chaos all throughout the early to mid sixties.
If they want to pull this off, the foreign investors
must trust in the repressive power of President Saysey Siku Mabutu.
(27:40):
In those all important last few weeks just before the
fight and music festival are set to start, Don King
and his partner Hank Schwartz fly over to Zaire to
check the progress of the construction and to inspect the
fight venue. To see it all with their own eyes.
The venue is a one hundred thousand seat soccer stay.
It's going to take a lot of work to get
(28:02):
it ready in time, just like how it'll take a
lot of effort and investment to turn Zaiir into a
tourist destination worthy of an international flight. Don King and
Hank Schwartz have plans to sell travel packages to wealthy
Americans and Europeans. They want to see how the hotels
are looking. They also want to see if the workers
have installed the exact shade of raspberry red carpet that
(28:25):
George Foreman requested for his dressing room in the Fight Venue.
Press reports coming out on the conditions in Zayir are
not quite rosy. Don King wants to spin it all
into his favor. He doesn't need any bad press to
scare away all the rich Western tourists from kinshasa Don
King turns on his typical charm offensive, as he tells
(28:46):
the La Times in August of seventy four.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Now I read the thing about Zaire having worms that
can get through your shoes and up your leg and
into your eye, and then they have to take your
eye out to get rid of it. That's preposterous. It's
anti black and plain evil. We've had to fight against
this kind of thing all along, and it's hurt us terribly.
(29:10):
In convincing white Americans to come.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Don King pushes back on the horror stories by touting
in no uncertain terms the grandiosity of the event and
his achievements. He brags about the extent of his planning
the fight, the music festival, the satellite broadcast set to
beam the Rumble in the Jungle Love across the US
and all across the globe. It is typical Don King.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
This spectacular event will be viewed by one billion plus.
We have more than four hundred locations in the United
States and are looking for three million seats to be filled.
We have over one hundred countries committed. It's a formidable
task and awesome responsibility, but we will rise to the
(29:53):
occasion because both fighters are anxious to make it succeed.
The fight will create so much in interest and enthusiasm
about Africa. People can go and see what is really like,
witness his mysteries and intrigue. The concert before the fight
will be super colossal. The cream of Afro American stars,
(30:15):
dynamite acts performing in a three day festival. It will
make Woodstock look like an elementary school band concert.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Mariam Mikiba, the woman known as Mama Africa, was scheduled
to be there in Kinshasa for the Zaire seventy four
music Festival. An incredible artist, activist and supremely regal presence,
the dancer Lola Love shared the stage with Mikiba at
Zaire seventy four and she gushingly recalls how.
Speaker 9 (30:51):
Miriam was amazing, like meeting the Queen Royal, amazing and
warm and welcome. She was just an amazing artist.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Now, someone who knew Miriam Akiba very well was Selemma Masekela,
son of Hugh Masekela, who lovingly refers to her as
Auntie Miriam.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
I loved her so so much. We really got to
spend so much time together on the Graceland tour.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
That's Paul Simon's Graceland tour, the one with Lady Smith
Black Mambazo, following the Graceland album that featured tunes like
Uh Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes and under
African Skies. Hugh Masekela was part of the reason that
tour even happened and his son Selemma, just a teen
at the time, got to go with his father and
(31:42):
Miriam on that tour.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
She would cook in her room and she'd be like, come,
food is red, and we just hang out.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Selemma didn't know it then, but Anti Miriam's bond with
his father was actually extra special.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
I remember the first time my father revealed to me
that they used to be married, that Auntie Mia was
actually my wife. I was like, what is your light,
my guy? But also like the beauty and the depth
of their rooted friendship and support for each other. I mean,
either one of them would have killed for the other
(32:16):
for the rest of their days.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
They had a rare and true love.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Because you just think that like people who used to
be married and hate each other, not like hang out
and make music and dance on stage with each other
and advocate for each other like side like back to
backside by side.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Selma also recalls Miriam's power and how she saved it
all for the stage.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
And when you hung out with her, like backstage or
just in life.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
She was very quiet.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
She spoke from here, you know, she never really raised
her voice.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
She laughed a loud but us very quiet.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
And when it came time to go on stage, she
could hit that button and release all of it and
suddenly like be fifty feet tall.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Mary Mkida bravely risked it all to live on her
terms and to speak her truth to the powers that be,
to her lovers and partners, to her audience, to whomever.
And when she was performing, when her truth mixed with
the invisible magic of music, well she was transcendent.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
She would just reach out and steal.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
She was a soul stealer.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
She said, I'm taking your soul and I'm taking yours,
and I'm taking yours.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Not like some sort of soul vampire. No, Rather, she
fully captured a person's attention, their consciousness, their soul for
lack of a better word, and for that moment she
beheld them in the palm of her hand, gently, like
a flower that held eternity in its petals.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
She would come off stage almost ready to collapse, like
she gave it all, Like every breath, every piece of
her chest and heart, she gave it all, and it
was She was just wonderful, wonderful to witness.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Salama was very lucky to spend time with Mary and
Mikiba at her peak to witness her soul gripping performance
night after night and off stage. The love she shared
with his father, Hugh was transformational for Solema's understanding of
what love can look like.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
And Mike I said, you know, I just knew them
as brother and sister and as her as my auntie.
But that was the power that they had to accept
the decisions that they made in their youth, especially with
all the challenges and circumstances that they had going on,
they did not define them and it shouldn't define their
relationship for the rest of their life. And so because
(34:44):
of it, they got to share an immense, immense, immense
amount of joy with each other and creating with each
other from many, many, many more days than they were ever.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Together together, though they were a formidable force of love.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Imagine if we could exist like that.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
It's September ninth, nineteen seventy four, two weeks before the
scheduled fight in Africa. Inside the opulent Waldorf Astoria Hotel
in New York, Muhammad Ali and Don King hold a
press conference. The champ stands before a bevy of news
cameras as he announces his imminent departure for Zaire and
the rumble in the jungle. Also there amid the lavish tapestries,
(35:26):
an excited murmur at the waldorfz James Brown. He comes
to lend his fame and star power to help publicize
the three day music festival. Along with James Brown that
day was his dancer Lola Love and she was most
impressed by Don King.
Speaker 9 (35:44):
All I remember when I got to that press conference.
He was there with that big smile on his face,
the white hair stand up in the air like he
put his hands in a socket, and he was just
a big personality. He was a what is it Bonham
and Bailey selling what product he had, and it was
this fight Don King, amazing huckster, amazing salesman.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Don King tells the gathered press there at the Waldorf
Astoria ballroom.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
First of all, we'd like to thank all the newsmen
for graciously coming out at this hour to see the
people's champion depart for Africa. The dream is now becoming
a reality. So what I'm gonna do is add a
little bit more to this. Some of the most dynamic
performers from Afro America are going to be appearing down there.
(36:34):
He at the stadium in kinshasa on the twentieth, twenty first,
and twenty second along with the world. Who will witness
its theatrical release It will be James Brown, Soul Brother
Number one will have bb King, the Spinners, Miriam mckeebob
(36:54):
all these.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Trainer and cornerman Drew Bundini, Brown was also hyping his
fighter and the fire in the press. Bundini reminds the
journalists about the proper framing for the upcoming fight in zaire.
The New York Daily News notes how.
Speaker 15 (37:08):
With Drew Bundini, his chief egger on feeding revival tent
lines to increase the tempo of Ali's frenzy, the world
was loudly informed the upcoming African collision quote is going
to be a holy war. Uncle Tom against Black Power.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Uncle Tom against Black Power, a familiar and successful narrative
for the people's champ. Ali hops back in to hand
feed this preferred narrative to the gathered reporters. Yet again,
Ali uses the press to convince the world that he's
the black one in this fight.
Speaker 15 (37:42):
By reminding that foreman is quote, the establishment's fighter, the
white man's champion. Ali proclaimed himself the savior and rescuer
of the black race.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Then Ali connects their heavyweight title fight in the Motherland
to America's long history of enslaved black men and women.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
We've been changed for four hundred years in slavery, and
now I'm gonna free my people when I beat George Foreman.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
George Foreman is in trouble, big trouble. He can't hurt me.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
I'm the greatest, I'm the prettiest, the fastest fighter of
all time.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Muhammad Ali knows that soon he will bore the plane
and fly off to Africa. He's been to the continent before,
yet this trip will be special, as he later records
in his autobiography.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
I'm in the last week of training in America. We
will fly to Kinshasa on September tenth, and the fight
is now set for September twenty four. I wanted to
go to Africa much earlier, to get used to the climate, the.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
People, the gm, the roads, the food.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
To get as comfortable and at ease as I am
up here in the Pennsylvania Mountains.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Ali feels ready, and he's not afraid to say so.
On that humid September day at the Waldorf Astoria on
the eve of his departure, for Zayir Muhammad Ali famously proclaims.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
I wrestled with an alligator. I've done tussled with a whale.
I done handcuffed, lightning, thrown thunder in jail. That's that's bad.
Only last week I murdered a rock, I injured a stone,
hospitalized the brick.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
I'm so mean.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
I make medicine sick, ain't you, George Foreman? All of
you chumps are gonna bow when I whoop him. I'm
gonna show you how great I am.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
For Ali's flight to Africa, President Mabutu sends his private
Boeing seven forty seven, the jumbo jet, which was still
a cool new idea in aviation in nineteen seventy four,
first transports Ali and his considerable entourage to Paris. As
Jonathan I documents in his biography of Ali, the oversized
entourage includes quote Ali, his wife, his parents, his brother,
(39:59):
his trainer, his manager, his three sparring partners, his two
assistant trainers, his two photographers, his two training camp supervisors,
his cook, his massour, his biographer, and thirteen other friends
and relations, all of them flying from New York to
Boston to Paris to Conshassa's Zayiir. That is one hell
of a way to roll into the Motherland. Because also,
(40:21):
according to ig, not one but two members of his
entourage were his mistresses. Alli's history with women is not
really talked about all that much. The man was bigger
than life. Yes, a champ, sure, but he was a man,
a man raised in mid century America with all the
(40:41):
trappings of that era's patriarchy and plain old fashioned sexism.
Speaker 6 (40:46):
To bring two women with him to Zayir, in addition
to his wife, To travel with his wife and his
mistress at the same time on the same plane, I mean,
that's a special kind of ego, to be sure, and women,
you know, often learned to put up with it or
tried to put up with it, And I think it
just says a lot about how selfish he was.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Typically you hear about how boxers will avoid sex for
like a month or more before a big fight. Not Ali.
He couldn't get enough of women.
Speaker 6 (41:16):
It was a compulsion to sleep with sex workers right
before a fight, which he did numerous times.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
His ego driven pursuit of greatness is not and should
not be an excuse for his cruelty. His racist bullying,
or his mistreatment of women and the many betrayals of
the women he loved. In his biography of Ali, Ig
does his best to contend with Ali's admirable qualities alongside
(41:42):
this complexity of the darker, uglier aspects of his character.
Speaker 16 (41:47):
It's sad that Ali has these behaviors, that he treats
women this way, but I think it's important for us
to wrestle with it and to recognize that he was
a man with deep flaws as well as you know,
an inspirational here at times, this.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Is the conundrum of Ali. There on Mabutu's plane, on
the same flight as the women who have to share
this selfish, flawed man. There is another symbol of what
Ali represents or hopes to represent, as an icon and
a living emblem of progress, and Ali takes note of
(42:24):
this symbolic value of what he sees. During the last
leg of their journey, the flight from Paris to Conshassa,
Ali visits the cockpit. He's stunned by what he sees
black pilots. Ali is flabbergasted by the fact that Mabutu
has an all black flight crew. The moment is caught
on camera, as Ali says.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
This is strange to the American.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Negro dancer for James Brown, Lola Love knows exactly what
Ali means. As she puts it.
Speaker 9 (42:55):
Ali understood the connection of coming to Zayir, coming back home,
being on a plane with black pilot.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
I'm seventy two.
Speaker 9 (43:05):
I didn't see that until I was on that plane.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Okay.
Speaker 9 (43:10):
So it's about having a foundation, and back in those days,
we didn't have beautiful black images of professional black people
doing anything doctors, nurses, lawyers.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
That was not available to us.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Then Ali recognizes what it means that he is being
flown to Africa by black pilots. It feels like the future,
a future he's been fighting for as the people's champ.
Ali is the man who refused the draft. He's the
man who stuck it to the white establishment. When he
beat Nixon's favorite fighter, smoking Joe Frasier. He's waving the
(43:45):
flag of black pride high over his head, and he
has the evident surge of black power flowing through every
inch of his body. Ali is the fighter black America
wants to win, in and out of the ring. Ali
is now a symbol of all of this, and he
knows he's got to keep that image going. While he's
(44:06):
across the Atlantic Ocean in Africa. During his flight to Kinshasa,
Ali's thoughts often returned to George Foreman and their title
fight to come. Ali also knows this boxing match will
be different than all his previous bouts. Not only is
his opponent a freak of nature, a pure puncher who's
battered every man he's ever faced, there are other key
(44:30):
factors making this fight different. For one, the crowd will
be African, specifically Zayrean, and so Ali wonders how he'll
win the people over to his side. He knows he
must if he has any hope to win. He knows
that Zayians may be black like him, but still there
are clear cultural differences. For instance, the Zayreans don't understand
(44:53):
what an Uncle Tom is or why it matters that
now disgraced former President Nixon rooted for J. J. Frasier
and rooted for George Foreman. While he's on the plane
to Kinshasa, Ali's mind casts about grasping for what he
can say once he lands something that will win the
people of this African nation to his side. Ali talks
(45:15):
to the Zayirians aboard the flight and learns important things
from them. For instance, the majority of folks in Zayir
are Christians, just like George Foreman. That doesn't help things.
Ali asks questions of the African flight crew, still looking
for that angle he can play, some way he can
win the people over to his side. Then Ali asks
(45:36):
the Zayrians a very simple but revealing question.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Who do these people hate?
Speaker 1 (45:42):
The answer is just two words, the Belgians. The plane
lands in Zayir and almost as soon as Ali sets
foot on African soil, he gives his first press conference.
Ali tells the waiting journalists, I am the greatest, and
then he adds George Foreman is a Belgian. Beyond the press,
(46:04):
The gathered crowd reacts with impassioned booze. Ali has found
his angle. He throws in that George Foreman is quote
the oppressor of all black nations. The crowd goes nuts
at that. A chant erupts. The crowd shouts in the
Lingala language, Ali boom aye, Ali, boom aye, Ali, boom Aye.
(46:29):
Ali has no idea what these words mean. He turns
and asks someone what these people are chanting. Ali is
told the direct translation, it means Ali kill him. A
broad smile spreads across the champ's face. He's done it.
He hasn't even been in the country for a full
day and he's already won the people. He knows he's
(46:53):
now the people's champ of Zaiir. Ali lifts his arms
and he conducts the crowds and their chance.
Speaker 12 (47:00):
Ali bo ayy Ali boo aye, Ali boo aye.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Yet again, Ali finds a way to use his pro
wrestling inspired hype game, but now he dresses it up
in the symbolism of colonialism, and it works brilliantly. The
people love him again.
Speaker 16 (47:21):
Like only Ali could try to make sense out of this.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
On the one hand, he's saying, George.
Speaker 6 (47:25):
Foreman is ignorant gorilla.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
On the other hand, he's saying he's a white colonizer. Like,
how do you make that work? You can't.
Speaker 6 (47:32):
Only Ali can like throw everything at.
Speaker 8 (47:34):
You at once, and somehow it does seem to work.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
In fact, it works so well that.
Speaker 6 (47:39):
When George Foreman gets off the plane, he's getting booed
by the crowd in Zaiir. It's because Ali has told
him that he's a Belgian sympathizer.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Things only get worse for George because when Foreman arrives,
he's brought with him his dog. Except Foreman's dog is
this enormous German shepherd. As Lola Low remembers.
Speaker 9 (48:00):
It, everybody was rooting for Muhammad Ali. Okay, Foreman made
the big mistake when he came. He didn't come with us,
and he came on his private plane and he got
off the plane with German shepherds, and the German shepherds
with the dogs the Belgiums used to control the Congalse people.
So right away he made the wrong move.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Gary Stromberg also remembers the site of George and his
police dog in Zaire.
Speaker 8 (48:28):
He'd should have hired me as a pr Guiye, I
would not let that have happened. You don't bring the
German shepherd to Zaire. Sorry, I don't know how anybody
let him do that.
Speaker 11 (48:40):
Now.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Jonathan I g is a little kinder in his assessment.
He says it was just bad luck on George's part.
Photographer Lynn Goldsmith is perhaps the most charitable in her memory.
Speaker 5 (48:51):
That poor guy had no d and so I felt
sorry for him.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
Remember, George Foreman is terribly sensitive and now, through no
fault of his own. He's just set foot in Africa
and he's already being booed. It's like he's shoe Booty
all over again and all over again. The culture war
is playing out between these two fighters again. George Foreman
feels like he has little to no control over his
(49:18):
image because he can't fight words. Meanwhile, there's the three
day music Festival Zai Year seventy four and it's scheduled
to start soon. As Ali keeps telling Don King he's
excited to catch up with all the superstars like James
Brown and Bill Withers. The People's champ can't wait for
the musicians to arrive in conshasa. He's like a kid
(49:40):
waiting to open his presence. Ali keeps asking.
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Where's baby getting here.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
The answer to that question depends on one man, Henry Kissinger,
Well Kissinger and the US State Department. But we'll get
into that next time on the next episode of Rumbo.
Speaker 8 (50:05):
This is my favorite part of this whole story.
Speaker 9 (50:07):
When we finally got on the plane, James Brown says,
my entourvage sits in the front like it's a first class.
Everybody's on the plane and James Brown wouldn't move the
plane was severely overload.
Speaker 8 (50:23):
Literally you couldn't walk down the aisle.
Speaker 9 (50:25):
You can hear Ray Barretto banging on stop. Johnny Perchecco
is like blowing his flute bb king, clapping and singing.
Speaker 5 (50:33):
See he was dashing.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
We just had a great table.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Well we landed in Madrid. We hit bam and everybody
was what's going on?
Speaker 8 (50:41):
He pulls out a knife and he's walking down the
aisle enraged. He's going after James Brown.
Speaker 17 (50:48):
Rumbo is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
Rumbell is written and hosted by Zarn Burnett. The third
produced and directed by Julia Chriscal. Sound designed by Jesse Niswanger,
Scoring by John Washington. Original music composed by Jordan Manley
and T. J. Merritt. Series concept by Gary Stromberg. Executive
(51:09):
producers are Jason English, Sean Titone, Gary Stromberg, Virginia Prescott, L. C. Crowley,
and Brandon barr Our. Senior producer is Amelia Brock, Production
manager Daisy Church, fact checker Savannah Hugley. Legal services provided
by Canoel Hanley PC. Additional production by Claire Keating, Casting
(51:31):
director Julia Christgau. Casting support services provided by Breakdown Express
Episode eight.
Speaker 18 (51:37):
Cast Abraham Amka as Mohammad Ali, Anthony Brandon Walker as
George Foreman, Terence Flint as Don King, John Washington as
news reporter, Julia Christgau as news reporter Special thanks to
Lewis Ehrenberg.
Speaker 17 (51:53):
Check out his book Rumble in the Jungle. It's a
great resource.
Speaker 18 (51:57):
Also thanks to Jonathan I for his book Ali a Life.
And finally thanks to Zarens pops Zeek, who grounds this
material like no one else. If you like the show,
let us know.
Speaker 17 (52:09):
Like subscribe, leave five star reviews. It really helps.
Speaker 18 (52:13):
Also check out our show notes for a full list
of reference materials.