Contextualizing Don King

Apologies for the pointy-headed title of this post. It came as the result of a little dance I did. Upon learning that Don King (b. 1931) was still alive I considered something purely celebratory a la “Don King Lives!” in the spirit of “Vive Le Roi”. But upon remembering how he’s a supporter of the other Don, and some other unsavory facts from his dossier, I mulled “Dethroning Don King”. But that seemed too harsh in light of his historical significance. So this is what I arrived at. And if you’re wondering why do something on a boxing promoter at all, you’ve been asleep during class. I’ve written over 50 boxing related posts on Travalanche, including profiles of promoters far back into the 19th century. Sport and show business are very much intertwined, with boxing and wrestling surely being the closest kinship-wise to theatre. Go here for my Travalanche piece on the boxing-show biz connection, and here for my similar piece for The New York Times. Colorful characters like King are entertainers. On occasion he’s even “acted”. Also: he has that tall hair.

But though he’s been known to sing for his supper King’s no choir boy. Don King was gangsta long before hip hop was a gleam in Russell Simmons’ eye. It started out innocently enough. When he was a kid in Cleveland, his mother sold pies and bags of peanuts. King and his brothers began slipping “lucky numbers” for policy players into the bags as a sales gimmick. They weren’t involved in the numbers racket initially, just putting random numerals in bags. But of course, an inevitable result was that it encouraged people to bet on the numbers. And the hoods who ran those schemes liked that, so they became friendly. King briefly attended college (Kent State and Case Western) but had trouble raising the tuition to continue. He tried boxing but had no aptitude. So he became a bookie, initially to cover tuition, but when the money started rolling in, he realized he didn’t actually need to bother with school.

Theoretically, bookmaking is the genteel end of the criminal spectrum. Many otherwise solid citizens bet on sports events, and it’s often done in a friendly spirit. But there’s no way to be a “nice” bookie when serious money gets involved. And so what starts out as a “harmless, victimless” operation turns violent. In 1954 King shot a man to death for trying to steal from him, and was let off. In 1957 gangsters exploded a bomb on his porch, and shot him in the head and neck with a shot gun. He was nabbed for tax evasion and blackmail in 1957 and 1958. In 1966 he beat and stomped one of his underlings to death in the street in front of witnesses and this one sent him up the river.

In 1972, soon after being paroled, King partnered with singer Lloyd Price, a.k.a. Mr. Personality to produce a charity event. In so doing, he persuaded Muhammad Ali, only recently released from jail himself (for draft evasion) to box in an exhibition bout. And this is how he got involved in boxing promotion. This led to “The Rumble in the Jungle” (1974) which pitted Ali against George Foreman in Zaire, and “The Thrilla in Manilla” (in 1975), Ali vs. Joe Frazier in the Philippines. In between, there was the Ali vs. Chuck Wepner fight, which took place outside Cleveland, and is said to have been the inspiration for the movieRocky (1976). Scores of bouts followed over the decades. As of last year, King was reported to have still been involved in that end of the biz. This in spite of the fact that almost every boxer who ever fought for him has charged that he shorted them on their end of the take, and some, like Ali and Mike Tyson have taken him to court for stiffing them for amounts in the millions.

In 1984, King promoted The Jacksons’Victory tour, and this is around the time he became a celebrity outside of boxing fandom. He showed up in cameos on MTV, and on variety and talk shows like Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, David Letterman, The Arsenio Hall Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and dozens more. He played himself in episodes of Knight Rider, Moonlighting, Miami Vice, Frank’s Place, Not Necessarily the News, D.C. Follies, Blossom, Roseanne, etc and in the Al Pacino movie Devil’s Advocate (1997). He has been portrayed in films and television by the likes of Paul Winfield,Damon Wayans, Dave Chapelle, Mykelti Williamson, and in fictionalized form by Richard Gant and Samuel L. Jackson.

In 1997 there was even a bio-pic Don King: Only in America on HBO starring Ving Rhames.

Well, it shouldn’t be a shocker that King would make common cause with another guy named Don who made millions in sketchy ways. Why should he be different from, oh, Vince McMahon? Reportedly, the two Dons have been pals for decades. He’s near the end of life’s adventure so I won’t waste my time castigating him about that today. In fact, I’ll let him speak for himself. He did this interview for Politico in 2017. It’s illuminating. For many in the MAGA camp, it’s not remotely about policy, and yet on the other hand, it very much is. (That’s a pun, I’ll leave you to contemplate the double meaning).

For more on show biz history consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.