Day at Night was an interview series on the public television station of the City University of New York that aired from 1973-4. CUNY TV is in the process of digitizing and uploading the 130 episodes that were produced, with 46 done so far. The episodes are just under half an hour in length. Among the people interviewed by host James Day are author
Ray Bradbury, actress
Myrna Loy, medical researcher
Jonas Salk, singer
Cab Calloway, writer
Christopher Isherwood, nuclear scientist
Edward Teller, comedian
Victor Borge, tennis player
Billie Jean King, linguist and activist
Noam Chomsky, composer
Aaron Copland, actor
Vincent Price and boxer
Muhammad Ali.
posted by Kattullus
on Jan 16, 2012 -
6 comments
On November 13, 1982, in an outdoor arena next to Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini beat Duk Koo Kim to retain his World Boxing Association lightweight championship title. It was a
thrilling match, but its aftermath
quickly turned into a nightmare, as Kim fell into a coma, and, a few days later, died. The bout's effects have rippled outward ever since.
[more inside]
posted by ocherdraco
on Jan 5, 2012 -
51 comments
'Few Americans today can name more than one or two
current boxers, but boxing once stood at the center of American life. It has become a ghost sport, long discredited but still hovering in the nation’s consciousness, refusing to go away and be silent entirely. But there was a time when things were very different. Boxing's history
winds a thread through the broader history of the nation.'
posted by zarq
on Sep 14, 2011 -
95 comments
"I used to say that Ali was the best I'd ever seen," says Arum, an industry legend who co-promoted the Ali-Frazier "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975. "I had never said that about another man. I don't use those words cheaply. But here it is:
Manny Pacquiao is the best I have ever seen, including Ali.
posted by AceRock
on Mar 14, 2010 -
59 comments
At 104, fit & spry
Joe Rollino was the last classic
strongman -- the sport of
strength athletics, which evolved into modern bodybuilding. Standing 5'10" and weighing a mere
145 pounds, he was a fixture on
Coney Island, known for feats of strength like 450 pound teeth lifts, or bending quarters with his fingers. Rollino also boxed in the 1920's as
"Kid Dundee", and returned from World War II decorated with the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. Joe Rollino never drank, never smoked, was a lifetime vegetarian and a confirmed bachelor. He
died today after being struck by a minivan.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot
on Jan 11, 2010 -
34 comments
"For a long time it has been a kind of martial arts Loch Ness monster: an American fighting form with supposedly sinister origins that many have heard of but few have seen or experienced. No one, it seemed, had any concrete proof that it existed, or at least none they were willing to share.
Until (2:36) recently." Longer (5:19) ver
here [more inside]
posted by P.o.B.
on Jun 25, 2009 -
68 comments
Dambe is a form of boxing associated with the
Hausa people of the Saharan regions of West Africa.
It is essentially a striking art. The primary weapon is the
strong-side fist. Known as the spear, it is wrapped in a piece of cloth covered by tightly knotted cord. The lead hand, called the shield, is held with the open palm facing toward the opponent. The lead hand can be used to grab or hold as required. Officials generally discourage the use of magical protection on the grounds of fairness.
posted by hob
on Nov 6, 2007 -
7 comments
Forgive Some Sinner.
"With age 70 bearing down hard upon him, Dad had by then written for better than 40 years, during which he had become celebrated, later disgraced, and I would like to think ultimately redeemed... Good as some of his old stories are, it always seemed to me that his own was better than any of them; I only wish he had written it himself." Mark Kram Jr. examines his late father's complicated legacy.
posted by amyms
on Oct 27, 2007 -
9 comments
Harry Reid accepted free boxing tickets from the Nevada Athletic Commission says John Solomon of the AP. Solomon implies that Reid might have gotten himself into an ethical dilemma as the
NAC opposes the creation of a federal boxing commission, something the Senate was
considering at the time. The article also tosses in some digs at Reid by repeating the claim that Reid is involved in the
Abramoff scandal.
However,
Media Matters points out that Reid did not act in the NAC's favor and instead allowed the passage of legislation that would create a federal commission, in opposition to the giftgiver's wishes. This is
not the
first time Solomon has attacked Reid.
Politics/News-filter
posted by papakwanz
on May 31, 2006 -
34 comments
What have you told your children about Muhammad Ali? "I was frequently left with tingling all over because I had been in the presence of such a great
man and still humbled by his compassion, tolerance and understanding." Inspired by this weekend's airing by ESPN Classic of most of
Tyson's fights, I started thinking about the difference between these two men. Ali obviously transcended his sport and has become
more than just a boxer while Tyson is clearly a lost and troubled
soul. And yet Tyson's story still
inspires reflection.
Nietzche's statement that "What someone is, begins to be revealed when his talent abates, when he stops showing us what he can do" is perfectly illustrated by the twilight years of these two legendary boxers.
posted by spicynuts
on Nov 27, 2005 -
47 comments
On this day in 1974 in
Kinshasa, Zaire, 32 year old Muhammad Ali knocked out 25 yead old George Forman and regained the World Heavyweight Title. "
The Rumble in the Jungle was a fight that made the whole country more conscious," Ali wrote at the time. "The fight was about racial problems, Vietnam. All of that." Above all the fight was a demonstration of
Ali's inventiveness in the ring. After dazing Foreman with his trademark quickness in the first rounds, Ali fell back against the ropes, and waved Foreman to come get him. Protecting his head,
Ali let Foreman pound away at his ribs and his gut. "At about the seventh round, I had him beaten, I knew I had him," Foreman recounted after the fight. "He fell on my side and whispered, ‘Is that all you got George?’ I knew something strange was happening in my life especially because that was all I had." In the eight round Ali came off the ropes and unleashed
a fury of punches against his exhausted opponent.
The dope went down. "I did it," Ali boasted after the fight. "I told you he was nothing but did you listen? I told you I was going to jab him in the corners, I told you I was going to take all his shots. I told you he had no skill. I told you he didn't like to be punched."
posted by three blind mice
on Oct 30, 2005 -
58 comments
Everyone is talking about Clint Eastwood's new movie,
Million Dollar Baby (
trailer). What you may not know however is that the movie was based on a short story in a book by the name of
Rope Burns: Stories From The Corner by the late F.X. Toole (aka Jerry Boyd). The book by the way was called, "...the best boxing short fiction ever written," by
James Ellroy of L.A. Confidential fame. Back in 2000 Toole gave an amazing
interview on Fresh Air about spending the last 20 years of his life as a cut man and the last 40 years of writing while trying to overcome his fear of rejection before getting his first book published at age 70.
posted by pwb503
on Jan 18, 2005 -
19 comments
"Mr. President, pardon Papa Jack" In 1908 a former Texas
dockworker and
inventor named
Jack Johnson became the first African American boxer to ever win the world heavyweight title. His victory
sparked race riots and prompted
a search for a "great white hope" (writer
Jack London asked white fighters to "wipe that smirk off Johnson's face"). But then Johnson defeated two "white hopes", one of whom was the legendary Jim Jeffries. In 1912, authorities went after
Johnson in court. His crime? Messin' with the white woman. Charges were brought against him
for violating the Mann Act, a
federal law that made it a crime to transport a woman across state lines for "immoral purposes." He married the woman, but he was sentenced to a year in prison anyway. Johnson fled the country, living in Europe as a fugitive for seven years,
losing his title Havana in 1915 to a much younger white opponent
after a 26-round fight in 100-degree-plus heat (Johnson possibly threw the fight in exchange for leniency that he never received). He returned to the U.S. in 1920, surrendered and served a year.
He never again was given a chance to reclaim the title. When
he died in poverty aged 68 in a car crash, not one boxer attended his funeral. Now
a group of US Senators (among them Hatch and McCain), prominent African Americans (Samuel L. Jackson, Jesse Jackson, many others) and boxing writers
seek a posthumous Presidential pardon for "Papa Jack".
(more inside)
posted by matteo
on Jul 22, 2004 -
26 comments
Chess Boxing. "The basic idea in chessboxing is to combine the #1 thinking sport and the #1 fighting sport into a hybrid that demands the most of its competitors – both mentally and physically, yet which can be performed by easiest means.
In a chessboxing fight two opponents play alternating rounds of chess and boxing. The contest starts with a round of chess, followed by a boxing round, followed by another round of chess and so on."
Radio Netherlands recently
did a show about it.
(RealAudio, 29m30s)
posted by tpoh.org
on Dec 9, 2003 -
15 comments
Tyson spouting off again In Thursday night's "The Pulse" on Fox, Mike Tyson goes on the record about his 1992 trial that put him in jail for three years. (sentenced to six, paroled after three). He denies raping Desiree Washington and says "I just hate her guts. She put me in that state, where I don't know...... I really wish I did now. But now I really do want to rape her.''
Reuters has
an article on it too
I thought after Tyson's statements about breaking his back after his last fight he would calm down a bit....but it's Tyson.
posted by meanie
on May 29, 2003 -
35 comments
Amy Fisher vs. Tonya Harding The good people at FOX have put together another award winning special. 3 boxing matches featuring Danny Bonaduce vs. Greg Williams (Brady), Tonya vs. Amy and a third bout to be named later. Isn't this a sign of the apocolypse??
posted by Lanternjmk
on Feb 27, 2002 -
41 comments
Frat Boys Gone Wild! "...the last straw came when the national office discovered the chapter's recreational boxing tournament in which members recruited local homeless persons, "liquored" them up, gave them large boxing gloves and "let them go to town,"" apparently as part a "...tradition of cock fighting and gambling in the house's basement."
posted by n9
on Feb 21, 2002 -
59 comments
