October Legends
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/2/2013
Oh to have been present at the 5th Street Gym in Miami on February 18, 1964 when the Fab Four dropped in on The Greatest’s (Muhammad Ali was still Cassius Clay) training session for his upcoming Heavyweight title bout with Sonny Liston. Both the Beatles and Ali were on their way up in meteoric fashion. The Beatles were on the last leg of their first tour of America having recently performed on the Ed Sullivan Show and played concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall and The Coliseum in Washington D.C. Beatlemania was fast spreading across the country.
Four years removed from his Olympic Gold medal, Ali was 19-0 as a professional and had earned the right to fight Sonny Liston for his title. The impromptu visit by the Beatles was arranged by a photographer Harry Benson who was traveling with the band and was actually plan B as their first choice was to get a photo with Liston the champ, but always the showman, challenger Clay willingly obliged. The Beatles and Cassius clowned around for a while giving the photographers present ample opportunity to come up with some of the most iconic pop-culture images of all-time. “Man you guys are the greatest,” said Clay, sounding like he could have been talking about himself, “The whole world is shook up about you.”
This 20” x 24” B/W photo is of Clay throwing a mock right jab having a domino effect on the Beatles and is signed by “Muhammad Ali” in bold gold Sharpie on Ringo Starr and comes with an Online Authentics.com Certificate of Registration #OA-8205780.