December 2, 2025 • 10 mins
Discover the fascinating story of Muhammad Ali’s venture into the world of theater on Daily Sports History. Explore his starring role in the 1969 musical Buck White, how the boxing legend showcased his charisma on Broadway, and the cultural significance of this unique chapter in Ali's life. Dive into this rare blend of sports, art, and activism.
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Ali singing:
https://youtu.be/mq6BZ4ofd54?si=aiESZ2l6XAyGhPEv
Check out BoxHard Podcast
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https://open.spotify.com/show/5eIOO67pzqDPyu8KYPrqML
#DailySportsHistory, #MuhammadAli, #BuckWhite, #BroadwayHistory, #SportsAndCulture, #AliOnStage, #TheaterHistory, #BoxingLegend, #CulturalIcons, #SportsPodcast
Listen now! 👉 DailySportsHistory.com 📲 Follow for more daily sports history insights!
Email: dailysportshistory@gmail.com
YouTube: YouTube.com/@dailysportshistory
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On December second, nineteen sixty nine, the world was given
the chance to see a possible career change for the
heavyweight champion of the world, Muhammad Ali, as he took
the stage on Broadway for a new musical called Buck White,
where he took the leading role of the same name
and one of the hottest tickets in town when it opened,
(00:23):
and yet it only lasted one week. Here's the story
behind this crazy moment where Muhammad Ali took to Broadway
On Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm
Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about
(00:45):
sports history, increasing your sports knowledge. As today we learn
about the musical of Buck White, and today's trivia question
to listen out for is what was the first acting
role Muhammad Ali had. Muhammad Ali is one of the
greatest athletes that ever lived, and he changed the world
of boxing, making it even more popular. But it wasn't
(01:08):
just because of who he was in the ring. No,
it was actually because who he was outside of the ring.
He was one of the greatest speakers and amped up
a fight more than anyone else. He was so charismatic
that people just gravitated to him, and that is actually
what led him to possibly a career change. The reason
this happened was not because of the boxing ring. There
(01:30):
was actually Ali's beliefs outside of the ring. Seeing in
March of nineteen sixty six, Ali refused to join the
armed forces as he did not believe in combat due
to his Islamic religion, and because of this, he was
denied a boxing license in every state and he was
stripped of his passport, which meant he could not fight abroad.
(01:51):
He could not fight in the States, and so he
lost his heavyweight title, and from nineteen sixty seven to
nineteen seventy, of the ages of twenty five almost twenty nine,
he did not fight a single boxing match. But that
doesn't mean he was outside of the media. He was
a larger than like figure. He was a true superstar.
And what he dove into even more after this was
(02:13):
getting into his civil rights, as this is why he
lost his boxing His civil right was he had the
right to refuse to join, being a conscientious objector. But
this made him a villian in many people's eyes, as
everyone viewed being a part of the army as just
your national right, and when such a public figure didn't join,
(02:33):
it put a sour taste in everyone's mouth. And it
wasn't like professional athletes and the stars hadn't joined the
Armed Forces before. Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, some of the
biggest baseball players ever had joined the Armed Forces before,
including superstars like Elvis had actually joined the army as well.
So what made Ali different, Well, he had more of
a religious belief and that was different, and it was
(02:56):
a different belief than everyone had at the time. See,
he had joined the Islamic faith when most people in
America at the time were Christian, So everyone viewed him
as being anti American, and it's an anti Christian And
one way people were protesting or putting out protests was
in the theater. One of the most popular plays of
(03:16):
all time is the play Hair. Now, if you've never
seen Hair, there's actually a movie of it, and one
of the most popular songs from it, Aquarius, was at
the very end of forty year old version, so you
probably heard at least that song. It was a very
famous song and it's been revived multiple times on Broadway
and done in theaters across the world. And it started
in nineteen sixty seven. It's a Broadway in following year
(03:37):
in nineteen sixty eight. With its success, other plays wanted
to get involved, and one of those plays was called
Buck White, and it was a similar concept. It really
focused on, you know, the rights of African Americans and
rights of people to protest. It was a protest type
play and originally was not musical. See Actually, Muhammad Ali
(03:58):
actually attended the play back in San Francisco and he
actually was able to hang out with some of the
actors and directors after the play and they got to
have a kind of party scene and he got to
singing with him and we'll put a clip in the
description below of him actually singing a song from this
play on the Ed Sullivan Show in the description below,
and he is able to sing pretty good. And this
(04:22):
caused the directors to actually think about taking this play
and putting it into a musical, and they brought the
idea to Muhammad Ali with like would you start in this?
It gave them a star for the play as the
play revolved around Buck White, a black activist who was
very charismatic, and no one was more charismatic than Muhammad Ali.
And this wasn't Ali's first acting role. He actually appeared
(04:44):
in the film Requiem for a Heavyweight in nineteen sixty two.
He just had a small role and wasn't a whole
lot of acting, so he agreed to this and they
started to put together songs to make this into a musical,
and they actually took it onto Broadway with the support
of Broadway veterans behind it, including the writer and the director,
(05:05):
and they had a star in Cassius Clay who's one
of the biggest well known people in the world, so
they were able to get on Broadway and the promotion
behind the show was actually really good. See, they got
on the Ed Sullivan Show, which was at the time
one of the most popular programs in the world, being
seen by millions and millions of viewers every week. And
you don't know what the Ed Sullivan Show is, Well,
(05:27):
it was a variety show where they would have musicians
on and they would talk to important people and to
where the Beatles got their big break. And this was
a big break for Buck White, and their preview went
extremely well. Now, if you don't know what a preview
is in theater or even in films, they do a
(05:47):
preview for critics so they can review the film, have
something written up ready to go and get put out
good information about the show. In films, you go to
a theater, you watch it, then you write it. It's easy.
But in theater, it's a live show. It's basically a
dress rehearsal, a practice run for the real show that
the critics are seeing, and that is definitely different because
(06:10):
anything can happen. You can still make mistakes, you can
still have issues. It's not going to be precise. That's
the fun of a live performance. But this went great.
The preview went great. Critics were praising the show, praising
the music, and praising Muhammad Ali. But why if this
was such a popular and there was so much buzz
around this and it went so well, why have we
(06:32):
never heard of it? Well, the problem was, and he
was doing great until opening night when it all kind
of fell apart. He wasn't as charismatic, he wasn't as
into it, he didn't have the flow he had in
the preview, and the show just kind of felt dull.
And after that that's what critics wrote about. That's what
everyone was talking about. And it's just a play. It's
(06:53):
not anything to go see. And it quickly fizzled out
and within a week the show had closed. I had
such promise, but the challenge was, I think Ali when
you look at the Ali as in his profession, you
put all your time and effort and getting ready for
one show, that one fight, and you fight that one
fight and then you're done. And he put all this
(07:15):
time and effort in getting this role ready, he put
into that one show, that preview, and after that he
just couldn't muster up the same excitement, the same vigor
for the other performances. And Broadway is a hard thing.
The leading actor is usually done eight shows a week.
That's two on the weekends, and they usually get Monday
or Tuesday off and the rest of the day they
(07:36):
do one show. So you are working usually six days
a week at least, if not even more, and gets
so heavily focused and takes it's so draining. It's a
hard thing, but that's how Broadway actors need to make
a living. You have to do a live show be
able to have a paycheck, so it's very difficult. And
coming from the boxing world where you box that one
fight and then you rest until the next fight, and
(07:57):
there's a lot of time in between, there's not the
same and Broadway, and it's a challenge, and that's probably
what happened. He put all of his might into that preview,
and he couldn't get the same mte the second time
and the third time. In the fourth time. It becomes
repetitive and it becomes hard. That's why actors are so good.
Even though they're doing the same thing they've done over
and over and over and over, they still make it
(08:19):
look engaging and exciting. And that's a hard thing to do,
especially if you've not really done it before. Now, this
wasn't his only foray into acting. In nineteen seventy seven
he wrote an autobiography called The Greatest where he starred
in it, and in nineteen seventy eight he'd start in
Freedom Road, set around the Civil War times, where he
was a slave and a Union soldier. But that was
(08:40):
his last acting role. We've seen other other professional athletes
getting to acting. Most prominantly is Dwayne the Rock Johnson,
even though he wasn't the greatest football player, he was
a professional football player in the Canadian Football League. And
there have been other great athletes that have made the
four way into acting. Some love it and some don't.
And for Amahar Ali, he had his chance, and he
(09:01):
eventually stepped away and focused more on boxing and his
civil rights activism, and that's what he's known for and
that's what he will be remembered for. But it's nice
to know he also had another side with a beautiful
singing voice, and maybe if it went well, he could
have had another career in acting. Thank you for listening
today's episode, And if you want more boxing content, check
(09:23):
out the box Hard Boxing podcast where your hosts Joey
Joey Kostman and fast Eddie Chambers go through all this stats, news,
opinions and have great boxing guests so you can stay
up all you need to know on boxing. And if
you joined today's episode, please like and share it on
all your social media's. Get the word out there about
Daily Sports History so we can continue to grow this
(09:45):
community and give you even more Daily Sports History. And
did you catch today's trivia question? What was Muhammad Ali's
first acting role. He first made a cameo role in
nineteen sixty two in the film Recoro Were Ahead Vweight.
It was a small role, but that got him ready
for his Broadway debut. M hmmm mm hmm.
On December second, nineteen sixty nine, the world was given
the chance to see a possible career change for the
heavyweight champion of the world, Muhammad Ali, as he took
the stage on Broadway for a new musical called Buck White,
where he took the leading role of the same name
and one of the hottest tickets in town when it opened,
(00:23):
and yet it only lasted one week. Here's the story
behind this crazy moment where Muhammad Ali took to Broadway
On Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm
Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about
(00:45):
sports history, increasing your sports knowledge. As today we learn
about the musical of Buck White, and today's trivia question
to listen out for is what was the first acting
role Muhammad Ali had. Muhammad Ali is one of the
greatest athletes that ever lived, and he changed the world
of boxing, making it even more popular. But it wasn't
(01:08):
just because of who he was in the ring. No,
it was actually because who he was outside of the ring.
He was one of the greatest speakers and amped up
a fight more than anyone else. He was so charismatic
that people just gravitated to him, and that is actually
what led him to possibly a career change. The reason
this happened was not because of the boxing ring. There
(01:30):
was actually Ali's beliefs outside of the ring. Seeing in
March of nineteen sixty six, Ali refused to join the
armed forces as he did not believe in combat due
to his Islamic religion, and because of this, he was
denied a boxing license in every state and he was
stripped of his passport, which meant he could not fight abroad.
(01:51):
He could not fight in the States, and so he
lost his heavyweight title, and from nineteen sixty seven to
nineteen seventy, of the ages of twenty five almost twenty nine,
he did not fight a single boxing match. But that
doesn't mean he was outside of the media. He was
a larger than like figure. He was a true superstar.
And what he dove into even more after this was
(02:13):
getting into his civil rights, as this is why he
lost his boxing His civil right was he had the
right to refuse to join, being a conscientious objector. But
this made him a villian in many people's eyes, as
everyone viewed being a part of the army as just
your national right, and when such a public figure didn't join,
(02:33):
it put a sour taste in everyone's mouth. And it
wasn't like professional athletes and the stars hadn't joined the
Armed Forces before. Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, some of the
biggest baseball players ever had joined the Armed Forces before,
including superstars like Elvis had actually joined the army as well.
So what made Ali different, Well, he had more of
a religious belief and that was different, and it was
(02:56):
a different belief than everyone had at the time. See,
he had joined the Islamic faith when most people in
America at the time were Christian, So everyone viewed him
as being anti American, and it's an anti Christian And
one way people were protesting or putting out protests was
in the theater. One of the most popular plays of
(03:16):
all time is the play Hair. Now, if you've never
seen Hair, there's actually a movie of it, and one
of the most popular songs from it, Aquarius, was at
the very end of forty year old version, so you
probably heard at least that song. It was a very
famous song and it's been revived multiple times on Broadway
and done in theaters across the world. And it started
in nineteen sixty seven. It's a Broadway in following year
(03:37):
in nineteen sixty eight. With its success, other plays wanted
to get involved, and one of those plays was called
Buck White, and it was a similar concept. It really
focused on, you know, the rights of African Americans and
rights of people to protest. It was a protest type
play and originally was not musical. See Actually, Muhammad Ali
(03:58):
actually attended the play back in San Francisco and he
actually was able to hang out with some of the
actors and directors after the play and they got to
have a kind of party scene and he got to
singing with him and we'll put a clip in the
description below of him actually singing a song from this
play on the Ed Sullivan Show in the description below,
and he is able to sing pretty good. And this
(04:22):
caused the directors to actually think about taking this play
and putting it into a musical, and they brought the
idea to Muhammad Ali with like would you start in this?
It gave them a star for the play as the
play revolved around Buck White, a black activist who was
very charismatic, and no one was more charismatic than Muhammad Ali.
And this wasn't Ali's first acting role. He actually appeared
(04:44):
in the film Requiem for a Heavyweight in nineteen sixty two.
He just had a small role and wasn't a whole
lot of acting, so he agreed to this and they
started to put together songs to make this into a musical,
and they actually took it onto Broadway with the support
of Broadway veterans behind it, including the writer and the director,
(05:05):
and they had a star in Cassius Clay who's one
of the biggest well known people in the world, so
they were able to get on Broadway and the promotion
behind the show was actually really good. See, they got
on the Ed Sullivan Show, which was at the time
one of the most popular programs in the world, being
seen by millions and millions of viewers every week. And
you don't know what the Ed Sullivan Show is, Well,
(05:27):
it was a variety show where they would have musicians
on and they would talk to important people and to
where the Beatles got their big break. And this was
a big break for Buck White, and their preview went
extremely well. Now, if you don't know what a preview
is in theater or even in films, they do a
(05:47):
preview for critics so they can review the film, have
something written up ready to go and get put out
good information about the show. In films, you go to
a theater, you watch it, then you write it. It's easy.
But in theater, it's a live show. It's basically a
dress rehearsal, a practice run for the real show that
the critics are seeing, and that is definitely different because
(06:10):
anything can happen. You can still make mistakes, you can
still have issues. It's not going to be precise. That's
the fun of a live performance. But this went great.
The preview went great. Critics were praising the show, praising
the music, and praising Muhammad Ali. But why if this
was such a popular and there was so much buzz
around this and it went so well, why have we
(06:32):
never heard of it? Well, the problem was, and he
was doing great until opening night when it all kind
of fell apart. He wasn't as charismatic, he wasn't as
into it, he didn't have the flow he had in
the preview, and the show just kind of felt dull.
And after that that's what critics wrote about. That's what
everyone was talking about. And it's just a play. It's
(06:53):
not anything to go see. And it quickly fizzled out
and within a week the show had closed. I had
such promise, but the challenge was, I think Ali when
you look at the Ali as in his profession, you
put all your time and effort and getting ready for
one show, that one fight, and you fight that one
fight and then you're done. And he put all this
(07:15):
time and effort in getting this role ready, he put
into that one show, that preview, and after that he
just couldn't muster up the same excitement, the same vigor
for the other performances. And Broadway is a hard thing.
The leading actor is usually done eight shows a week.
That's two on the weekends, and they usually get Monday
or Tuesday off and the rest of the day they
(07:36):
do one show. So you are working usually six days
a week at least, if not even more, and gets
so heavily focused and takes it's so draining. It's a
hard thing, but that's how Broadway actors need to make
a living. You have to do a live show be
able to have a paycheck, so it's very difficult. And
coming from the boxing world where you box that one
fight and then you rest until the next fight, and
(07:57):
there's a lot of time in between, there's not the
same and Broadway, and it's a challenge, and that's probably
what happened. He put all of his might into that preview,
and he couldn't get the same mte the second time
and the third time. In the fourth time. It becomes
repetitive and it becomes hard. That's why actors are so good.
Even though they're doing the same thing they've done over
and over and over and over, they still make it
(08:19):
look engaging and exciting. And that's a hard thing to do,
especially if you've not really done it before. Now, this
wasn't his only foray into acting. In nineteen seventy seven
he wrote an autobiography called The Greatest where he starred
in it, and in nineteen seventy eight he'd start in
Freedom Road, set around the Civil War times, where he
was a slave and a Union soldier. But that was
(08:40):
his last acting role. We've seen other other professional athletes
getting to acting. Most prominantly is Dwayne the Rock Johnson,
even though he wasn't the greatest football player, he was
a professional football player in the Canadian Football League. And
there have been other great athletes that have made the
four way into acting. Some love it and some don't.
And for Amahar Ali, he had his chance, and he
(09:01):
eventually stepped away and focused more on boxing and his
civil rights activism, and that's what he's known for and
that's what he will be remembered for. But it's nice
to know he also had another side with a beautiful
singing voice, and maybe if it went well, he could
have had another career in acting. Thank you for listening
today's episode, And if you want more boxing content, check
(09:23):
out the box Hard Boxing podcast where your hosts Joey
Joey Kostman and fast Eddie Chambers go through all this stats, news,
opinions and have great boxing guests so you can stay
up all you need to know on boxing. And if
you joined today's episode, please like and share it on
all your social media's. Get the word out there about
Daily Sports History so we can continue to grow this
(09:45):
community and give you even more Daily Sports History. And
did you catch today's trivia question? What was Muhammad Ali's
first acting role. He first made a cameo role in
nineteen sixty two in the film Recoro Were Ahead Vweight.
It was a small role, but that got him ready
for his Broadway debut. M hmmm mm hmm.
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