[Does anyone remember when Cassius Clay became Mohammed Ali? Did anyone like all that “I am the greatest” bluster? Is the popularity of Rush and O’Reilly validation that loud-mouthed hypocrisy is acceptable in polite society? I understand that this is one way to become famous, but why does this pop culture reward such shameless self-promotion when it is so damaging?… As a country America has been on its own Ali path for many years.]

Mr. Boyd, a little history lesson is in order. Or maybe you should just read David Remnick’s  (The New Yorker’s current editor) King of the World, a thoroughly engrossing narrative of Ali’s early years. You’d then know that to equate Mr. Ali, to mention him into the same paragraph with Rush and Billo the Clown, a paragraph that includes the word hypocrisy is American sacrilege, and just plain (uninformed) wrong.

Ali knew what he was doing from the moment he won Olympic gold and turned pro, and he knew who had come before him, a white guy with long golden hair and he wasn’t to proud to take some direction from an admitted showman for it was then and is now, showmanship that sold tickets:

FROM WIKIPEDIA

“George Raymond Wagner or Gorgeous George (March 24, 1915–December 26, 1963) was an American professional wrestler. In the United States, during the First Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the 1940s-1950s, Gorgeous George gained mainstream popularity and became one of the biggest stars of this period, gaining media attention for his outrageous character, which was described as flamboyant and charismatic.[2]

At 5’9” and 215 pounds, Wagner was not particularly physically imposing by professional wrestling standards, nor was he an exceptionally gifted athlete. Nevertheless, he soon developed a reputation as a solid in-ring worker. In the late 1930s, he met Betty Hanson, whom he would eventually marry in an in-ring ceremony. When the wedding proved a good drawing card, the couple re-enacted it in arenas across the country (which thus enlightened Wagner to the potential entertainment value that was left untapped within the industry). Around this same time, Vanity magazine published a feature article about a pro wrestler named Lord Patrick Lansdowne, who entered the ring accompanied by two valets while wearing a velvet robe and doublet. Wagner was impressed with the bravado of such a character, but he believed that he could take it to a much greater extreme. As a result, he debuted his new “glamour boy” persona on a 1941 card in Eugene, Oregon; and he quickly antagonized the fans with his exaggerated effeminate behavior, which prompted the ring announcer to introduce him as “Gorgeous George.” Such showmanship was unheard of for the time; and consequently, arena crowds grew in size as fans turned out to ridicule George (who relished the sudden attention).

Gorgeous George was soon recruited to Los Angeles by promoter Johnny Doyle. Known as the “Human Orchid,” his persona was created in part by growing his hair long, dyeing it platinum blonde, and putting gold-plated bobby pins in it (which he deemed “Georgie Pins” while distributing them to the audience). Furthermore, he transformed his ring entrance into a bona-fide spectacle that would often take up more time than his actual matches. He was the first wrestler to really use entrance music, as he strolled nobly to the ring to the sounds of “Pomp and Circumstance“, followed by his valet and a purple spotlight. Wearing an elegant robe sporting an array of sequins, Gorgeous George was always escorted down a personal red carpet by his ring valet “Jeffries,” who would carry a silver mirror while spreading rose petals at his feet. While George removed his robe, Jeffries would spray the ring with disinfectant (which reportedly consisted of Chanel No. 5 perfume), which George referred to as “Chanel #10″ (“Why be half-safe?” he was famous for saying) before he would start wrestling. Moreover, George required that his valets spray the referee’s hands before the official was allowed to check him for any illegal objects, which thus prompted his now-famous outcry “Get your filthy hands off me!” Once the match finally began, he would cheat in every way he could. Gorgeous George was the industry’s first true cowardly villain, and he would cheat at every opportunity, which infuriated the crowd. His credo was “Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!” This flamboyant image and his showman’s ability to work a crowd were so successful in the early days of television that he became the most famous wrestler of his time, drawing furious heel heat wherever he appeared.

It was with the advent of television, however, that George’s character exploded into the biggest drawing card the industry had ever known. With the networks looking for cheap but effective programming to fill its time slots, pro wrestling’s glorified action became a genuine “hit” with the viewing public, as it was the first program of any kind to draw a real profit. Consequently, it was Gorgeous George who brought the sport into the nation’s living rooms, as his histrionics and melodramatic behavior made him a larger-than-life figure in American pop-culture. His first television appearance took place on November 11, 1947 (an event that was recently named among the top 100 televised acts of the 20th century by Entertainment Weekly) and he immediately became a national celebrity at the same level of Lucille Ball and Bob Hope (who personally donated hundreds of chic robes for George’s collection) while changing the course of the industry forever. No longer was pro wrestling simply about the in-ring action, but George had created a new sense of theatrics and character performance that had not previously existed. Moreover, in a very real sense, it was Gorgeous George who single-handedly established television as a viable entertainment medium that could potentially reach millions of homes across the country (in fact, it is said that George was probably responsible for selling as many TV sets as Milton Berle).

Legacy

Muhammad Ali and James Brown acknowledged that their own approach to flamboyant self-promotion was influenced by George. A 19-year old Ali met a 46-year old George at a Las Vegas radio station. During George’s radio interview, the wrestler’s promo caught the attention of the future heavyweight champion. If George lost to Classy Freddie Blassie, George exclaimed, “I’ll crawl across the ring and cut my hair off! But that’s not gonna happen because I’m the greatest wrestler in the world!” Ali recalled, “I saw 15,000 people comin’ to see this man get beat. And his talking did it. I said, ‘This is a gooood idea!’” In the locker room afterwards, the seasoned wrestler gave the future legend some invaluable advice: “A lot of people will pay to see someone shut your mouth. So keep on bragging, keep on sassing and always be outrageous.”[1]

In September 2008, the first full length biography of Gorgeous George was published by Harper Entertainment Press. The title of the 304 page book is Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad Boy Wrestler who Created American Pop Culture by John Capouya. In the 2005 book, I Feel Good: A Memoir in a Life of Soul, James Brown said he used many of Gorgeous George’s antics to “create the James Brown you see on stage”.[1]

Bob Dylan said meeting George changed his life. In Dylan’s book The Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan recounts a story of meeting Gorgeous George in person. He wrote, “He winked and seemed to mouth the phrase, `You’re making it come alive. I never forgot it. It was all the recognition and encouragement I would need for years.”[1] [3]” [sic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wagner

Now we know Muhammad Ali’s legacy much more than that of George Wagner. Yes, he was loud and proud, and he knew that his prefight antics did two things: they sold tickets, and in the case of his first title bout against Sonny Liston, a huge and terrifyingly powerful opponent, who’d been a mob enforcer in his day and seen the inside of the crowbar hotel – that the one person in a prison yard you do not want to mess with is the crazy guy – the one who could give a toss whether he lives or dies. Angelo Dundee (CC’s trainer) thought Ali was gonna lose, and Ali wasn’t all that sure himself. But by the time they entered the ring, Ali’s mouth had accomplished his goal of so unsettling Liston that he was by his own admission frightened of a man he thought he might kill. After cheating by juicing his gloves, which blinded Ali for one entire round (He told Dundee to cut his gloves off), Liston literally threw in the towel, and refused to fight another round with “the kid.” Dundee had refused to cut Ali’s gloves off of course. He told him to run away for a round. The rest is history.