FORTY YEARS AGO
AFRICAN ACES HIGH
Sobers, Eusebio, Muhammad Ali
A Summer of Excellence – 1966
Forty Years ago …. African heritage sport hit the international headlines with three performances of explosive force within a few days in England at the end of July and beginning of August 1966. Oh yes, there had been Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, George Headley and Jesse Owens before to shake the complacency of the world sport establishment – but the triple strike in less than a fortnight in the place where and at a time when the international media was gathered had something special. Besides, it was the first time that satellite television could carry the football World Cup, a Test Match cricket series and a world heavyweight boxing championship match into millions of homes throughout the globe.
The World Cup dwarfed everything – or rather it should have done so (and generally did). The brilliant Brazilians spearheaded by the incomparable Pele were expected to stroll to victory. They have triumphed in the two previous competitions in Sweden in 1958 and Chile in 1962, and would do so again next time around in Mexico in 1970. That they did not do so here in England, too, was not due to the home country or West Germany, who contested the Final, but to the mercurial Portuguese, who were making their debut in the final stages f the tournament, and to one of their forwards in particular,
Eusebio da Silva Ferreira, who was born at Maputo (then known as Lourenco Marques) in Mozambique, a colony of Portugal at the time, was top-scorer in the World Cup 1966 competition with nine goals. He won the affection and admiration of millions of television viewers, as well as those spectators at the matches, with his powerful running and dribbling past even the most powerful opposition. The Portuguese started well with preliminary round victories by 3-1 over Hungary and 3-0 over Bulgaria (both at Old Trafford Manchester). Then came the showdown with the champions presumptive Brazil on the Everton ground at Goodison Park in Liverpool on 19th July.
The South American masters received something of the treatment they had handed out to others as Eusebio tore their defence apart to score twice in the 3-1 victory which sent Brazil tumbling out of the tournament. Yet four days later the Portuguese seemed to be suffering from the after-effects of their own exertions when they found themselves 0-3 down against North Korea, the surprise side who had already humiliated the Italians, in their quarter-final on the same Goodison ground. Yet Eusebio rose to the occasion magnificently by scoring four goals as Portugal hit back to win spectacularly by 5-3.
The Portuguese were the popular choice as they went into the semi-finals with the more methodical teams from England, who were improving match by match, West Germany and the Soviet Union. They may well have peaked too soon, lacked experience and temperament for the later stages of the competition, or have been upset by the move to South. At Wembley on 26th July the England team kept their heads and a sound defence to end Portugal’s dream by 2-1 in the semi-final. At the end Eusebio was in tears at having come so near and yet so far. On 28th July his team gained some consolation in beating the Soviet Union by the same score to win the “third place”.
So a World Cup which had been expected to bring Brazil’s hat-trick of triumphs and confirm Pele as the world’s best player has come to be remembered for Geoff Hurst’s three goals in the Final, for commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme’s much-quoted remark “they think it’s all over – it is now”, and, above all, for the excellence of Eusebio. Alas, although he continued to play at the highest level for another eight years, Eusebio did not compete in another World Cup finals just because his country overall were not good enough to get there – and Pele was able to reclaim his crown.
The West Indies cricketers had been invited to return to England in 1966, appreciably earlier than had been scheduled, after their popular and exciting tour three years earlier. Also, these tourists were considered to be the game’s only attraction likely to counter – however inadequately - the all pervading obsession with football. Even so the administrators took care to arrange the first three Test Matches before the World Cup started and the remaining two after it had finished. They would not risk a direct confrontation in public popularity. Nevertheless if one man could rival the charisma and “pulling-power” of Eusebio, Pele and the stars of the soccer it was the West Indies captain Garry Sobers, the greatest ever all-round cricketer – and what a summer of all-round excellence the brilliant Barbadian enjoyed.
He threw out his challenge immediately. While the footballers were still warming up for their tournament Sobers stormed through the first three Test Matches with both bat and ball. Garry set the tone by striking a match-winning 161 in the first match at Manchester. Next at Lord’s, the international home of cricket, he rescued his team from the verge of defeat by hammering 163 not out in a record-breaking match-saving unbroken sixth-wicket partnership with his cousin David Holford. After that Sobers struck 94 in the victory at Nottingham. Then he could sit back and leave the scene to the soccer stars.
(Sir) Garry Sobers was outstanding by even his own outstanding standards in the Fourth Test Match at the Headingley ground in Leeds from 4th-8th August. Anything Eusebio, Bobby Charlton and all could do – he could do better. Sobers hammered a magnificent 174, sharing in a run-riot partnership of 265 for the sixth-wicket with his compatriot Seymour Nurse. Afterwards, in spite of West Indies having one of the best bowling attacks ever seen in cricket, Garry grabbed 5-41 and 3-39 with the ball as the tourists won the match by an innings and 5 runs and with it the series to confirm their position as the pre-eminent team in the world.
Muhammad Ali was world heavyweight boxing champion at this time, but he was not yet the international icon that he was to become …. far from it. His fights to win, and then to retain, the crown against Sonny Liston were sufficiently controversial to be considered likely to bring the sport into disrepute. The reputation of pugilism was at its lowest ebb. To confirm his championship credentials Muhammad Ali commenced a world tour to meet – and beat – his leading challengers on their own ground. He had already outpointed tough Canadian George Chuvalo, and later in the year he would defeat Karl Mildenberger in West Germany and chop down Cleveland Williams in the U.S.A.
That summer the (then) self-proclaimed “Greatest” had a double-date in London. Firstly, he had a score to settle with Henry Cooper, the British champion, who had put him on the floor in their previous, non-title clash at Wembley on 18th June 1963. There is an ongoing, but erroneous, belief that Cooper had been the first man to knock down Muhammad Ali, who was known then as Cassius Clay, professionally but that honour belongs to the ill-fated Lucien “Sonny” Banks who had achieved the feat the previous year and was later to lose his life in the ring.
This time the American did not have to get up from the canvas to win: his stinging punches cut Cooper’s notoriously fragile face to ribbons. ‘Enery did not have a chance to land his famed left hook. The bout at the Arsenal Stadium on 21st May was over inside six rounds. Now Muhammad Ali returned to London for a fight at Earl’s Court on 6th August, the very time at which Sobers was putting his opponents to the edge of both willow and leather, against a man after whom the British capital may have been named. Brian London was a lantern-jawed bruiser with much tenacity and courage, but with limited artistry or ability at the highest level.
London had surprised critics by lasting into in the 11th round against Floyd Patterson in his previous challenge for the championship at Indianapolis in 1959. There was to be no repeat. Brian was battered from the moment that he stepped into the ring and he succumbed to the fusillade of punches in the third round. He had hardly laid a glove on his opponent. Complaints about the one-sided nature of the contest obscured one very obvious fact …. Muhammad Ali was now well on his way to establishing himself as one of the great world heavyweight champions (maybe, indeed, “The Greatest”.
Eusebio’s easy dexterity with his feet, Sobers’ heroic achievements with bat and ball, and Muhammad Ali’s annihilation of a potentially formidable adversary would have been outstanding at any time. That they should have occurred within a few days of each other provided added impact, and that the attention of the world media was on hand in England that summer was more than just a bonus. There was something more – England was celebrating the 900th anniversary of the greatest date in the country’s history, the Battle of Hastings and the accession of William the Conqueror from whom all subsequent rulers have been numbered. It provided the perfect stage (playing-field, pitch or arena) from which the new conquerors – Eusebio, Garry Sobers, Muhammad Ali – could launch a similar new era in world sport.
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JOSEPHINE BAKER
There has never been anybody quite like her
She was the epitome of the sexotic
Fought bravely for so many things
To established society she was the epitome of the sexotic; she was married several times (occasionally unofficially) – and was said to be bisexual, she was a superlative dancer, a star comedienne and a more than competent singer; she was a Civil Rights campaigner and a decorated war heroine; she raised a multi-ethnic family of adopted children, and fell from riches back into poverty; she loved and betrayed love, she was adored and she was detested; and she was the best-known woman of African heritage of her generation. She was born a hundred years ago this month – and when she died she was given a state funeral. She was a legend in her own life-time, and beyond.
She was Josephine Baker.
Freda Josephine McDonald was born on 3rd June 1906 in St Louis, Missouri in humble circumstances to washerwoman Carrie McDonald and vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson – her father soon abandoned mother and daughter. As a child she “got by” by baby-sitting and cleaning houses for wealthy white families. Josephine dropped out of school at 12 years old and was working as a waitress a year later. While employed there she had a brief marriage to Willie Wells, and shortly afterwards married Willie Baker, from whom she parted soon afterwards but whose name she kept throughout her life. The youngster learned “the ropes” of the entertainment business by touring with The Jones Family Band and The Dixie Steppers. Yet when she auditioned to be a chorus girl in the production Shuffle Along she was rejected for being “too skinny and too dark”.
Disappointed but not deterred Josephine watched, and developed her skills, from the vantage-point of being a wardrobe-assistant and understudy. Soon she was promoted to the chorus-line itself, but the comic touches she brought to the act – such as rolling her eyes, criss-crossing her legs and her clumsy stage-movements – were not in the script. Even so by 1924 young Ms Baker had become the star of the show and of the ill-fated Chocolate Dandies, and was soon up-staging established favourites including Florence Mills, the darling of both Harlem and white society.. It was the reluctance of another “name” entertainer, Ethel Waters, to accept an engagement with La Revue Negre at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris the following year that gave the young artiste her chance.
Josephine took Paris by storm. Dressed in nothing more than a skirt of feathers in the Danse Sauvage and of bananas for La Folie du Jour she was an overnight success - though the show generally received poor reviews. Her act, which was described as being outrageously funny as well as sexy, and her zany personality inspired both painters and writers. She toured the continent extensively and within two years was already one of the most photographed women in the world and the highest-paid entertainer in Europe. This was at the end of the Roaring Twenties, just before the onset of the Great Depression and the rise of Nazism. Hitherto the young American in Paris had appeared to be little more than a transient symbol of a transient decade: her true mettle was yet to be tested.
Baker had witnessed at first-hand the infamous St Louis race riot in 1919, and the injustice of that society still rankled with her. She, herself, was still not accepted in her homeland. Although Josephine had developed into a sophisticated, mature and – indeed – powerful woman, now famous for an extensive range of costumes and fashionable clothes (which belied the sparseness of attire by which she had made her initial impact), American audiences and critics refused to welcome her when she returned as an international star in 1936 – the New York Times referred to her as a “Negro wench”. She took the rejection badly: shortly afterwards she became a French citizen..
While some of well-known contemporaries were suspected of making an accommodation with the German invaders in the Second World War, nobody could doubt where Josephine stood. As a Red Cross nurse and also a sub-lieutenant in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force she used her celebrity to travel extensively, “sweet-talking” diplomats into processing visas for associates, carrying secret messages and reporting back on what she had seen. For her hard work and dedication she was awarded the Medal of the Resistance with rosette and named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by the French government. Josephine’s activities were curtailed only by a serious illness which almost took her life for which she was taken into hospital in Casablanca.
Baker, who could be capricious, was also generous in supporting colleagues, appearing at charity occasions, and, in war-time, entertaining the troops. She had a keen personal rivalry with French entertainment idol Maurice Chevalier. When they appeared on the same concert for soldiers on the famous Maginot Line of defensive forts Chevalier claimed the right (as being the bigger star) to close the show. He did not get the chance to do so. Josephine’s performance was so popular that she received “encore” after “encore” which extended her act appreciably and, at that time of curfew, prevented Maurice from taking the stage.
Josephine Baker had not backed down to the Nazis, and was not afraid to take the fight against racism to the U.S.A. She refused to perform before segregated audiences. After the popular Stork Club in New York denied her service, Josephine contested an acrimonious feud with the powerful newspaper columnist Walter Winchell. At first the then leaders of the Civil Rights movement did not relish having such a controversial recruit to their cause, but eventually the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) named 20th May as being Josephine Baker Day.
By now the entertainer was in severely distressed financial circumstances due to her extravagance, her purchase of a medieval chateau, her clothes, her extensive menagerie of exotic animals, and to her pursuit of a dream. Josephine adopted a dozen boys and girls of differing racial origin – the “Rainbow Tribe” – to prove that “children of different ethnicities and religions could still be brothers”. The “Rainbow Tribe” comprised Akio, Janot, Luis, Jari, Jean-Claude, Moise, Brahim, Marianne, Koffi, Mara, Noel and Stellina. Furthermore she was now increasingly out of step with the new age of more militant civil rights agitation, whose younger representatives did not always appreciate the full extent of her commitment.
By the 1960s – although she spoke and stood with Dr Martin Luther King at the “I have a dream” Lincoln Memorial demonstration in 1963 – Baker’s career and fortunes were in free fall. She had to sell the castle, making “The Rainbow Tribe” homeless. Her marriage to fourth husband, orchestra-leader Jo Bouillon, ended in separation as had that to Jean Lion, by which she had acquired her new nationality, and the two of her youth. Yet her life had shown several times already that Josephine Baker was never out until she was out – and she wasn’t out yet. No scriptwriter could have given her a better “departure” from the stage.
In 1973 she performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York, the city in which she had been so reviled previously. This time Josephine received a standing ovation – American attitudes had come a long way in the intervening years – they had begun to catch up with Josephine. Then on 8th April 1975 Baker starred in Josephine, a show of her life, at the Bobino Theatre in Paris with celebrities such as Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco – who had rescued her from poverty by giving her a villa in which to live, actresses Sophia Loren and Jeanne Moreau, and rock-star Mick Jagger in the audience. President Giscard D’Estaing sent her a telegram: “In tribute to your limitless talent, and in the name of a grateful France, I send you fond wishes, dear Josephine, on the golden anniversary. Paris is celebrating with you”. The 68 year-old entertainer, who reprised her hits of half-a-century, was a sensation once more, as she had been 50 years earlier. The reviews were the best that she had ever received.
Four days later Josephine was dead (from a cerebral haemorrhage).
The French government honoured her funeral with full military honours including a 21-gun salute as befitted a national heroine. Some 20,000 people crowded the streets of Paris to watch the procession on its way to the Church of the Madeline. She was buried at the Cimetiere de Monaco in Monaco. It wasn’t a bad “exit” for “kid” from the slums of St Louis, but then ……..
Whatever the initial impression may have been – the wide rolling eyes, the clumsy stage-movements, the banana dance – Josephine Baker was never just a “kid” from anywhere. The French government had got it right – she was a heroine. As biographer Ean Wood describes, her life had been a battle. “She fought bravely for so many things over so many years: for her success as an entertainer, for blacks (by which she meant anyone who was oppressed or slighted), for the Allied cause in the war, for her animals, and for her children, who – in spite of the oddness of their upbringing – turned out well and remember her with affection”.
Josephine Baker – whichever way you look at it, there has never been anybody quite like her
