Smokin' Joe

by Mark Kram, Jr.

  Plates of delicious food were ferried into the room and placed on the table by waiters. Ali sat at one end of the table, Joe at the other end. “There would be days when it was hard to watch Ali eat,” said Prince. “He would drool and have to have a bib on. Lonnie would have to wipe his face.” As Lonnie recommended to Joe a back specialist her husband had used—Joe had told her he had been experiencing some back pain—Ali looked at Frazier across the table, bit his bottom lip in a gesture of pretend ferocity and said:

  “Joe Frazier.

  “Joe Frazier.

  “Joe Frazier.

  “I want you. Hey, Gorilla.”

  Joe dropped his fork on his plate, looked him in the eye, and said, “Man, Butterfly. I kicked your ass for three goddamn fights. Are we going to have to go at it again?”

  Prince remembered, “Muhammad was crying ’cause he was laughing so hard.”

  As the dinner came to a close, Marvis suggested they hold hands and pray. He stood between his father and Ali. As he began, his father stopped him and said, “Hey, son, I got this.”

  Joe then lowered his head and prayed: “Dear Lord. We have forgotten and we have forgiven. Please heal this man, because he has given so much to the world. And he has grandkids and babies, and it’s time that he can really enjoy his life. So please do whatever you can to make this man right again.”

  At the all-star game the following day, the NBA seated them side by side at courtside. Photographers snapped their picture, which would appear in papers across the world. Celebrities who had been just children or not even born yet when the two of them were at the height of rivalry looked on in something close to reverence: Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Jamie Foxx, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Samuel L. Jackson, and on and on. Alicia Keys sang “America the Beautiful,” and as the crowd settled back into their seats at the end of the song, Ali and Frazier remained standing together. When the spotlight moved to them, the crowd once again stood and began cheering. As the noise washed over them, so loud and so long that it seemed to go on forever, Ali turned to Joe and whispered in his ear.

  “Hey, Champ.”

  “Yeah, Champ?”

  “We’re still two bad brothers, aren’t we?”

  “Yes, we are, man. Yes, we are.”

  Joe with three of his children (L to R): Jacqueline, Weatta, and Marvis, 1968. Philadelphia Bulletin

  Acknowledgments and Sources

  By a coincidence that now somehow seems to me to have been oddly ordained, the first prizefight I ever saw in person was the rematch between Joe Frazier and Jerry Quarry on June 17, 1974, at Madison Square Garden. Then seventeen years old, I had come to New York as an end-of-the-school-year getaway to spend a week with my father, Mark Kram, who was then at the height of his career as a writer for Sports Illustrated. While he covered the brawl that unfolded from a seat at ringside, I sat thirty or so rows back and became swept up in the havoc Frazier wreaked upon poor Jerry, whose face let loose geysers of scarlet before the referee, Joe Louis, halted the fight. At the office with Dad the following day, I looked on from a chair behind a tower of books and old newspapers as he fed a piece of paper into his typewriter, lit the pipe he clenched between his teeth, and began writing. I remember thinking as the room became clouded with smoke that he attacked the keys with the same gusto with which Joe had imposed himself upon Quarry.

  Dad was a formidable figure in the realm of sportswriting. At the Thrilla in Manila, in October 1975, he produced one of the finest event pieces in the annals of journalism. Near the end of his life, at age sixty-nine, he revisited the Ali-Frazier trilogy in his book, Ghosts of Manila: The Fateful Blood Feud Between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier (HarperCollins, 2001). The book was an essayistic take on the world he knew so well, a deep blend of reporting and contrarian views that would elevate Frazier in the public eye. But Ghosts of Manila was not a biography, and a comprehensive one had still not been done when it occurred to me in 2016 to give it a whirl. By then, it had been just under five years since Joe had passed away and just under forty since he had faced Ali in Manila. Ten years from now or even five, it seemed to me that it would be impossible to do the book that I envisioned, one that coupled whatever remaining primary sources I could find with my own experiences with Joe during a twenty-six-year career as a sportswriter in Philadelphia.

  This book would not have been possible without the generous help of Weatta Frazier-Collins, who has dedicated her life to keeping the spirit of her father alive through The Legacy Exists, a foundation that hands out scholarships to underprivileged children. I am thankful to Weatta and her husband, Gary, for their trust and support. I have interviewed members of the Frazier family including Martha (Mazie) Rhodan, Joe’s last remaining sibling; Marvis Frazier; Joseph Jordan Frazier; Derek Dennis Frazier; Lisa Coakley; Dannette Frazier; Rodney Frazier; Mark Frazier; Miriam Frazier; Ollie Frazier; Annie Green; Frances Morrell; Vernell Williams; and Tom and Ginger Bolden. I am particularly grateful to Mazie, who sat down with me for a total of six hours of interviews and provided me with the written account that appears in chapter 1 about the day Joe was born.

  Significant assistance also came from Denise Menz, who spoke candidly with me about her forty-odd-year relationship with Joe. From 1968 until Joe died in 2011, Denise was a behind-the-scenes fixture who had shied away from public attention. I would also like to thank Sharon Hatch and Sherri Gibson, both of whom also had long relationships with Joe and provided me with some valuable insights.

  Over the two-year span during which I reported the book, I made two extended trips to Beaufort, South Carolina, including one for the 2017 Frazier family reunion. With the cheerful guidance of Dannette Frazier, I found my way to John Trask III, whose family had owned the commercial farm where Dolly Frazier worked and became an invaluable aid. Interviews in Beaufort also included John Trask Jr., Pastor Kenneth Doe, Isaac Mitchell, Matthew McAlhaney, and Lottie Antley. Historian Lawrence S. Rowland provided me with an overview of Beaufort County in both an extensive interview and in the book he coauthored with Stephen R. Wise, Bridging the Sea Islands’ Past and Present (1893–2006): The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volume 3 (University of South Carolina Press, 2015). For a deeper understanding of the Gullah culture, I referred to the book by Roger Pinckney, Blue Roots: African-American Folk Magic of the Gullah People (Sandlapper Publishing Co., 2007). For background on day-to-day life in Beaufort in the 1940s and ’50s, the visit by Joe Louis, and the Stinney and Feltwell cases, I appreciate the assistance I received at the Beaufort County Library, where I was also able to unearth old copies of the Beaufort Gazette on microfilm. The Beaufort County School System provided me with Joe’s academic record.

  Key interviews in Philadelphia and elsewhere included Kevin Dublin, who helped inform my portrayal of Hector Frazier; Philadelphia boxing promoter J Russell Peltz; the late boxing trainer George James, who shared with me his observations on Yank Durham, Sonny Liston, and Gypsy Joe Harris; the ex-PAL boxer Al Massey, who I interviewed at the Chester State Correctional Institution; Joe Hand, who was with Frazier during his Cloverlay years; Joe Hand Jr.; Frank Rizzo Jr.; Philadelphia disc jockey Jerry Blavat; Tad Dowd, who owned a piece of Oscar Bonavena; Jerry Ellis, whose brother Jimmy twice fought Frazier; the late Los Angeles matchmaker Don Chargin; promoter Don Elbaum; former Ali aide Gene Kilroy, who provided me with perspective on the feud between Ali and Frazier; Gloria Hochman, who shed light on the long relationship between Frazier and her late husband, Stan; Gene Seymour, who analyzed the relationship between Chuck Stone, Frank Rizzo, and the City of Philadelphia; Les Pelemon, who helped Frazier launch his singing career and was with him in the days up to and including the Fight of the Century; ophthalmologist Dr. Myron Yanoff, who furnished me with a written account of his treatment of Frazier; publicist Bob Goodman, who shared his memories of the old Madison Square Garden and the row that occurred between Frazier and Ali on the Cosell set; Gordon Peterson, who worked publicity for promoter Don King and wa
s attached to the Frazier camp in the weeks leading up to the Thrilla in Manila; Patti Dreifuss, who also worked publicity for that promotion; New Jersey boxing commissioner Larry Hazzard; heavyweight champion Larry Holmes; assistant trainer Val Colbert; the singer Michael Averona; Philadelphia boxing historian John DiSanto; former business manager Burt Watson; cardiologist Dr. Nicholas DePace; former promoter Joe Verne; photographer George Kalinsky; artist Richard Slone; Dr. John Kelly, the orthopedic surgeon who helped Frazier coordinate his cancer treatments; and Dr. Robert Cantu, clinical professor of neurology and cofounder of the Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center at the Boston University School of Medicine. Agent Darren Prince shared with me the tender encounter between Frazier and Ali at the 2002 NBA All-Star Game.

  For my portrayal of Gypsy Joe Harris, I conducted an extensive interview with his brother, Anthony Molock, who authored the book Gypsy Joe Harris: Son of Philadelphia (AuthorHouse, 2006). For the argument that occurred between Frazier and Gypsy at the gym at the beginning of chapter 11 and other interactions between the two, I used the dialogue as Molock presented it. For the angry confrontation with Ali on his doorstep in Philadelphia, I used a trimmed-down version of what appeared in Ghosts of Manila, which was also confirmed and used by Molock in his book. Useful as well were the two profiles of Gypsy Joe that my father published in Sports Illustrated, in June 1967 and March 1969. For an overview of Gypsy Joe in his later years, there was no better source than the profile written by Robert Seltzer for the Philadelphia Inquirer in February 1989.

  For my portrayal of Eddie Futch, I augmented extensive interviews I had with him in Reno, Nevada, in 1986 and in the Poconos in 1993 with additional reporting from the journalist Sunni Khalid, who provided me with the transcripts of six hours of interviews he had conducted with Futch. I also spoke at length with Eva Futch, his widow, who gave me a copy of the congratulatory letter that Joe sent Eddie prior to being honored by the NAACP. Gary Smith also penned a probing profile of Futch in Sports Illustrated.

  Some splendid writers chronicled the career of Joe Frazier. One of the delights of doing this book is that I became reacquainted with some of them on the page and in conversation. To a man, they were knowledgeable, irreverent, often hilarious, and there every day. I had the good fortune to work with one of them for years at the Philadelphia Daily News—Stan Hochman, who covered Joe from the infancy of his career with flair and scrupulous attention to the facts. Although Stan had passed away by the time I started this book, I conducted long interviews with some of his more distinguished colleagues on the beat, including Larry Merchant, who, as sports editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, reinvented the American sports pages into a place where journalism actually happened; the late Tom Cushman, a lovely writer who covered the Ali beat for the paper; the late New York Times columnist Dave Anderson, whose reporting skills were only surpassed by his generosity of spirit; Newark Star-Ledger columnist Jerry Izenberg, who knew Frazier and Ali as well as anyone; and Robert Lipsyte, the erudite former New York Times columnist who charmed me fifty years ago with the publication of his young adult novel The Contender.

  Work that appeared in three of the big papers then in Philadelphia informed the historical context for the book. Along with Hochman and Cushman at the Philadelphia Daily News, I drew on the work of Will Bunch, Bill Conlin, Ed Conrad, Paul Domowitch, Ray Didinger, Bernard Fernandez, Thom Greer, Rich Hofmann, Jack McKinney, Larry McMullen, Bill Shefski, Elmer Smith, Leon Taylor, Gary Smith (later of Sports Illustrated), Chuck Stone, and Mark Whicker (whose columns appeared previously in the Philadelphia Bulletin). Coverage at the Philadelphia Inquirer included reporting by Gene Courtney, Frank Dolson, Lewis Freedman, Tom Fox, Hoag Levins, Jack Lloyd, Bill Lyon, Joe McGinniss, Skip Myslenski, Sandy Padwe, Samuel L. Singer, and Bill Thompson. Star columnist Sandy Grady served up the laughs over at the Philadelphia Bulletin, where he had a support staff that included Jim Barniak, Hugh Brown, Jack Fried, George Kiseda, Claude Lewis, Daniel J. McKenna, Lee Samuels, and Bob Wright. At Philadelphia Magazine, Maury Z. Levy chimed in with an illuminating profile of Ali.

  From outside Philadelphia, an array of journalists weighed in on Joe and his opponents. Along with Dad at Sports Illustrated: Robert H. Boyle, Houston Horn, Martin Kane, Douglas S. Looney, Tex Maule, William Nack, Jack Olsen, Pat Putnam, Gilbert Rogin, Mort Sharnik, and Edwin Shrake. Along with Anderson and Lipsyte at the New York Times: Arthur Daley, Michael Katz, William C. Rhoden, Richard Sandomir, Red Smith, and Peter Wood. At the Los Angeles Times: Don Hafner and Jim Murray. At the Associated Press: Ed Schuyler Jr. At the Washington Post: Shirley Povich. At the New York Post: Milton Gross. At the New York Daily News: Phil Pepe, who also authored the early biography of Frazier Come Out Smokin’: Joe Frazier—The Champ Nobody Knew (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1972). At Sport magazine: Dick Schaap. At Life magazine: Thomas Thompson. At Esquire: Cal Fussman. Time magazine also provided a plethora of unbylined reporting.

  Key articles consulted: Joe Flaherty profiled Sonny Liston for Esquire in March 1969. Flaherty also covered the Thrilla in Manila in a series for The Village Voice. At The Saturday Evening Post, Bruce Jay Freidman had a September 1967 profile of Joe that delved into his childhood in South Carolina. Harper’s Magazine carried a piece by Perry Deane Young in February 1972 that was set at the Brewton Plantation and included a wealth of information on Dolly Frazier. Playboy magazine interviews with Cassius Clay, in October 1964; Joe, in March 1973; and George Foreman, in December 1995, provided insight into a wide range of topics; Playboy also ran a piece on Joe by Katherine Dunn in March 2012 that I found useful. Nik Cohn reported a compelling piece for New York magazine in October 1975 entitled “Ali, Racist,” which I quoted from liberally in chapter 9.

  Along with Ghosts of Manila, books that were helpful included Smokin’ Joe: The Autobiography, by Joe Frazier with Phil Berger (Macmillan, 1996); Only the Ring Was Square, by Teddy Brenner as told to Barney Nagler (Prentice-Hall, 1981); Once There Were Giants: The Golden Age of Heavyweight Boxing, by Jerry Izenberg (Skyhorse Publishing, 2017); Cornermen: Great Boxing Trainers, by Ronald K. Fried (Four Walls, Eight Windows, 1991); My View from the Corner: A Life in Boxing, by Angelo Dundee with Bert Randolph Sugar (McGraw-Hill, 2008); Inside the Ropes, by Arthur Mercante with Phil Guarnieri (McBooks Press, 2006); Muhammad Ali and the Greatest Heavyweight Generation, by Tom Cushman (Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2009); Facing Ali: 15 Fighters, 15 Stories, by Stephen Brunt (Lyons Press, 2002); Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, by Thomas Hauser (Simon & Schuster, 1991); Champion: Joe Louis, Black Hero in White America, by Chris Mead (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985); and Ali: A Life, by Jonathan Eig (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017). For an overview of Frank Rizzo and his political climb, I used The Cop Who Would Be King: The Honorable Frank Rizzo, by Joseph R. Daughen and Peter Binzen (Little, Brown and Company, 1977). For an understanding of organized crime in Philadelphia, I drew on Black Brothers, Inc.: The Violent Rise and Fall of Philadelphia’s Black Mafia, by Sean Patrick Griffin (Mile Books, 2007). I also sat down with Sean for a lengthy interview in Charleston, South Carolina.

  For their advice and review of the manuscript, I owe a debt of gratitude to the expertise of Sunni Khalid, who also assisted me with his comprehensive analysis of the Ali and Foreman bouts; former Daily News colleagues Doug Darroch and Bernard Fernandez; David Borsvold; Dan Trigoboff; John DiSanto; and Tom Lachman, a talented former Washington Post editor who years ago gave me my first assignment on our college paper. Help along the way also came from George Bochetto, Dave Gambacorta, David Hanna, Gene Bonner, Ken Hissner, Glenn McCurdy, Trudy Menz, Michael Mercanti, Marc Steiner, Ashley Sylva, and Spencer Wertheimer. I am also appreciative of the staff at the Special Collections Research Center, Samuel L. Paley Library at Temple University and to Jackie Koenig for her assistance in the transcription of interviews.

  For their encouragement through the years: John Schulian, who has not written a word that has not inspired me; Michael and Teresa Capuzzo; Stephen Car
roll; Norman Chad; Joe and Dottie Distelheim; Mike Downey; Eliot Kaplan; Michael Leahy; Jeannie Leto; and Ron Rapoport. Chances are I would not have been in a position to do this book had I not found my way to Philadelphia in 1987. For that, I am thankful to former Daily News sports editors Mike Rathet, Brian Toolan, and Pat McLoone, along with two assignment editors who were enormously helpful, the late Jeff Samuels and Paul Vigna.

  No one has been more supportive of me than Andrew Blauner, who is not just a talented literary agent but one of the true gentlemen of his profession. I could not have been more pleased when he placed the book at Ecco with Daniel Halpern, nor with the careful attention it has since received from editor Gabriella Doob.

  To my family . . . thank you. My wife, Anne Johnson, has been as giving as any spouse could hope to expect and is as an astute an editor as any I have come across. No word goes out the door without it passing under her eyes. Our daughters, Cory and Olivia, have been an enduring source of pride for us both; this book is dedicated to them with the prayerful hope that they find their way in this troubled world. Love and peace to Greg and Tracey Franz and their children, Lily and Theo; Peter and Kerry Goldberg and their children, Emily, Ben, and Charlie; Rene; Alix and Matthew; Raymond and Hoi-Ling and their children, Dylan and Ava; and Robert and Heather.

  A parting word: My mother, Joan, passed away during the writing of this book. Whenever I think of her—and it is often—I am reminded of something Joe once said: “When your mom dies, that’s you.” No one ever had a finer one.