The Birth of a Legend, Miami, 1961-1964
Flip Schulke with Matt Schedule
This book suddenly appeared in the coffee-table section of QP Books before Christmas and was irresistible. I briefly considered buying it for David as his present, but in the end decided not to mess around and got it for myself
Amen!
It is a beautiful book – and it complements the other great Ali photographic volume whose name I’ve temporarily forgotten. (It’s “I am King”, I just checked.)
The book is a batch of photos that Schulke took of Ali in the interval between his becoming Olympic champion (1960) and his defeating Sonny Liston (1964) for the World Championship.
I knew the story already: Clay arrives in Miami to train with the already legendary Angelo Dundee and grows into the finest heavyweight and the most outrageous self-promoter of all time. The photos, though, are just something else. Clay was astonishingly handsome! And pure and fresh and light! And although he was to become more complex – deeper, battle scarred, politicised, ingenious – these, somehow, are the photos: Cassius Clay the perfect athlete, poised on the brink of his eternal greatness.
About ten years ago Audrey Brown invited me to an Ali photo exhibition at a gallery by Embankment. I guess she knew I was an Ali fan – she was one too – and she encouraged me to buy a picture for myself. I would have done, even though they cost £300 each, except that they featured Ali with what looked like business associates – all men in suits and Ali big and heavy – probably some time after his exile – and I didn’t really fancy them so much.
These youthful pictures I would have bought!
Schulke had a super-interesting career in photography – centered on his pictures of the Civil Rights movement – but this was the only time he ventured into boxing. In fact, he hadn’t even heard of Clay when he was sent (by Sports Illustrated) to shoot him at the 5th Street Gym in Miami. When he got there he immediately was bowled over by the charm of the young boxer. The two men (Schulke was aged 30 and Clay 18) seemed to click. Schulke took Clay shopping in downtown Miami – where staff refused to let Clay try on the shirts – Olympic champion or not – and then Clay, knowing that Schulke specialised in underwater photography, came up with the idea of a photo shoot at his hotel swimming pool.
Thus the extraordinary sequence of pictures of the young Greek God underwater – striking attitudes, blowing bubbles, horsing around. He’d kidded Schulke (who’d believed him) that this was how he did his boxing training: In the water!
The most memorable picture though is Cassius Clay running along the causeway that connects Miami to Miami Beach – with the ocean in the background and beyond that the hotels – and Clay wearing trousers and army boots – his usual running gear.
All of it – the whole book in fact – shot in stunning 1960s black and white.
Book Reviews by Nathan Bronx 