The Boy Who Wouldn't Die... Amazing piece in SI about Rae Carruth's son

BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo · Feb 19, 2018

If he's at CNN, probably.

typefitter · Feb 20, 2018

Thomas did a big three-part series on police shootings in the summer. He also helped write CNN's Trump election book.

How this deadly traffic stop is training the future of law enforcement

LanceyHoward · Feb 21, 2018

Double Down said: ↑

Here is Kram's lede to his Thrilla in Manilla story, which is probably the best deadline story ever written for a magazine.

It was only a moment, sliding past the eyes like the sudden shifting of light and shadow, but long years from now it will remain a pure and moving glimpse of hard reality, and if Muhammad Ali could have turned his eyes upon himself, what first and final truth could he have seen? He had been led up the winding, red- carpeted staircase by Imelda Marcos, the first lady of the Philippines, as the guest of honor at the Malacaûang Palace. Soft music drifted in from the terrace as the beautiful Imelda guided the massive and still heavyweight champion of the world to the long buffet ornamented by huge candelabra. The two whispered, and then she stopped and filled his plate, and as he waited the candles threw an eerie light across the face of a man who only a few hours before had survived the ultimate inquisition of himself and his art.

The maddest of existentialists, one of the great surrealists of our time, the king of all he sees, Ali had never before appeared so vulnerable and fragile, so pitiably unmajestic, so far from the universe he claims as his along. He could barely hold his fork, and he lifted the food slowly up to his bottom lip, which had been scraped pink. The skin on his face was dull and blotched, his eyes drained of that familiar childlike wonder. His right eye was a deep purple, beginning to close, a dark blind being drawn against a harsh light. He chewed his food painfully, and then he suddenly moved away from the candles as if he had become aware of the mask he was wearing, as if an inner voice were laughing at him. He shrugged, and the moment was gone.

A couple of miles away in the bedroom of a villa, the man who has always demanded answers of Ali, has trailed the champion like a timber wolf, lay in semidarkness. Only his heavy breathing disturbed the quiet as an old friend walked to within two feet of him. "Who is it?" asked Joe Frazier, lifting himself to look around. "I can't see! I can't see! Turn the lights on!" Another light was turned on, but Frazier still could not see. The scene cannot be forgotten; this good and gallant man lying there, embodying the remains of a will never before seen in a ring, a will that had carried him so far -- and now surely too far. His eyes were only slits, his face looked as if it had been painted by Goya. "Man, I hit him with punches that'd bring down the walls of a city," said Frazier. "Lawdy, Lawdy, he's a great champion." Then he put his head back down on the pillow, and soon there was only the heavy breathing of a deep sleep slapping like big waves against the silence.

Time may well erode that long morning drama in Manila, but for anyone who was there those faces will return again and again to evoke what it was like when two of the greatest heavyweights of any era met for a third time, and left millions limp around the world. Muhammad Ali caught the way it was: "It was like death. Closest thing to dyin' that I know of."
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Double Down said: ↑

I have a vague recollection of that allegation, but have completely forgotten the details.
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Kram was a fabulist. Perhaps the best ever.

According to Michael MacCambridge's history of SI Kram had found a girlfriend in Manilla, who later replaced his then wife. Kram spent very little time actually going out and reporting because he was preoccupied with her and he was afraid of traveling in Manila. He wrote the story off of his photographer's notes. Kram did not attend attend the banquet that he opens with. Which leads one to wonder how he was able to vividly describe Ali's appearance off of a set of notes.

Kram also was not physically in the bedroom where he quotes and describes Frazier. Kram does not name who Frazier was talking to. No one has ever been able to confirm the person Frazier was conversing with, much less the quotes. Kram said he got the quotes second hand. Even if you accept Kram's explanation the use of direct quotes is an ethical breach (the quotes do frame the story beautifully, though).

It was disappointing to read MacCambridge's book and learn this. I still remember reading that story in the cafeteria of Sewall Hall at the University of Colorado my freshman year and thinking it was the greatest story of an event I had ever read and wondering how anyone could be that good a writer.

goalmouth · Feb 21, 2018

If nothing else, I'm sure Kram spelled 'Manila' correctly.

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The Boy Who Wouldn't Die... Amazing piece in SI about Rae Carruth's son

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