Playful. Proud. Provocative. Meet Muhammad Ali, late-night sensation
by Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles Times
Feb 13, 2020
4 minutes
LOS ANGELES - Talk show host Dick Cavett can still picture the day in 1963 when he first met legendary heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali, then still known as Cassius Clay. The new champion was drawing a crowd outside the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.
"It was like seeing a god," Cavett, 83, recalled in a recent interview. "People were just standing there in awe, just stricken by his presence, and it was really a wonderful thing to see and feel. He had what you call 'it.'"
Once inside the theater, Ali appeared on "The Jerry Lewis Show," an ABC variety show where Cavett worked as a writer and provided the fighter with a
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