'Fetch Clay, Make Man': Ali, Fetchit And The 'Anchor Punch'
Will Power, artist-in-residence at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, talks about the backstory of his new play "Fetch Clay, Make Man".
By Mike Pesca
Muhammad Ali's first title defense, a first-round TKO of Sonny Liston in 1965, propelled Ali to the status of icon. In Ali's training camp before the fight was an icon from an earlier era: Lincoln Perry. He was the first African-American movie star, who went by the stage name Stepin Fetchi. The relationship between the two men is the subject of an off-Broadway play called Fetch Clay, Make Man.
By the spring of 1965, Muhammad Ali had spent less than a year as heavyweight champion of the world. He had recently joined the Nation of Islam and shed his former name, Cassius Clay. Ali was a newlywed, his friend Malcolm X had been assassinated, and boxing fans considered him an underdog in the upcoming fight against Sonny Liston.
Playwright Will Power knew all that....