Norman Mailer Thinks Muhummad Ali Was Unfairly Treated | The Dick Cavett Show

Norman Mailer pays his respects to Muhammad Ali, and believes that the fighter was let down by the Nation when he refused to fight in the Vietnam War.

Date aired - 5/25/1970 - Muhammad Ali, Norman Mailer

#MuhammadAli #NormanMailer


Dick Cavett has been nominated for eleven Emmy awards (the most recent in 2012 for the HBO special, Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again), and won three. Spanning five decades, Dick Cavett’s television career has defined excellence in the interview format. He started at ABC in 1968, and also enjoyed success on PBS, USA, and CNBC.

His most recent television successes were the September 2014 PBS special, Dick Cavett’s Watergate, followed April 2015 by Dick Cavett’s Vietnam. He has appeared in movies, tv specials, tv commercials, and several Broadway plays. He starred in an off-Broadway production ofHellman v. McCarthy in 2014 and reprised the role at Theatre 40 in LA February 2015.

Cavett has published four books beginning with Cavett (1974) and Eye on Cavett (1983), co-authored with Christopher Porterfield. His two recent books -- Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets (2010) and Brief Encounters: Conversations, Magic moments, and Assorted Hijinks(October 2014) are both collections of his online opinion column, written for The New York Times since 2007. Additionally, he has written for The New Yorker, TV Guide, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere.

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[pianoarmond]

"When you're not depending on nobody or relying on nobody for nothing, then they can't hurt you!" - Muhammad Ali

[roberthealey]

Ali's presence is so powerful his just sitting there was a statement in itself

[kimpymannen]

Muhammad Ali was really a special human being. Both on and off the ring. May he rest in peace!

[swaggedoutcoffey]

Now I see why Muhammad Ali is everybody hero to look up to he really fought the good fight let's say his best his fights wasn't in the ring but when it counted most

[DimitrisKalandranisArt]

I am not American, I do not master English - American...but I do enjoy these old shows very much. The intellectual level that these people have, is a complete breath of fresh air....

[sammavacaist]

I'm really enjoying these old Dick Cavett shows. It seems back then people valued intellect.

[kaysi]

This host doesn't exist nowadays in TV, he is so calm and collected

props to Dick Cavett for organizing so many amazing meetings of great intellectuals of the 20th century, so many serously important conversations for people to study, then and now

[mohammedabid]

The best thing about this interview is how Ali stood up for handshake that's a real gentlemen. ♥️

[phillipecook]

Ali here strikes me as being impervious to praise or criticism.

[SDC_BIGTIME]

Norman Mailer never fails to say everything that's already been said while making the conversation about himself.

[jadentrez]

Mailer got to know Ali quite well in Zaire. They even went running together. Mailer's book The Fight is actually an excellent first hand account of the Rumble in the Jungle

[DinoLondis]

Such thoughtful comments from people who visit this channel. Cavett continues to bring out the best in us.

[vvargas]

One summer day in lovely Kalamazoo Michigan 1998 BEST day every!! Ali was eating at his favorite pizzeria and meeting fans. Was driving on the same road had to stop and omg thank God I did. He wasn't able to talk anymore but his silence spoke louder! RIP to the softest but toughest soul 💙

[atifmir]

"Fruitless questions are the death of a nation". Wise words from Mailer and something that is very apparent in this day and age.

[fassilhabisso]

Mohammed Ali the champ not only the greatest heavy weight boxer of all time but the greatest role model for people of color fearless, Graceful and thought invoking mind i can listen to him talk for days never went to college but still smarter than guys with phd's Rest in paradise you will be dearly missed . You were the real one

[ubet]

Ali is the only person I’ll remember from this life.

[clareomarfran]

Wow, wow. Any historian of Americana has to rejoice at this: Ali and Mailer, both in their prime. Seen from any angle, this is prime primary source material. It doesn’t get better than this. Thank you, Dick Cavett.

[jamesdrynan]

Ali was treated as a political puppet by the powers- that- be of the time. Stripping him of his achievements was obscene and calculated. However, it was this very act that allowed him to take a stance against not only political chicanery but the country as a whole. He was a driving force in civil rights and the re- education of black youth in America.

[baccaratfitness]

I'm listening to Norman and thinking, 'who does he sound like?' and it hit me, George Costanza from Seinfeld