Muhammad Ali and Me

The “me” in this article is not me. I didn’t meet Muhammad Ali. But let me rewind my story a bit to explain the background.

A bunch of former hotel employees have decided to put a book together about their work experience at the Manila Hilton. “Let’s include interesting personalities who were billeted at the Hilton,” Marla Yotoko, formerly the hotel’s public relations manager, remarked. “Hollywood stars like Gregory Peck, sport icons like Muhammad Ali, teen idols like Frankie Avalon, and countless others, not forgetting the grand hotelier himself, Conrad Barron Hilton (founder of the Hilton chain of hotels and grandfather of Paris Hilton).”

“Muhammad Ali?” I exclaimed. “Arthur (my husband) was the manager on duty at that time (circa 1975). Not only did he welcome and meet Ali but Ali invited him to watch the fight and ride in the same limousine with him. That was the day the whole nation stopped to watch the live telecast of the heavy weight title fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.”

“Do you have pictures?” asked Marla. “Yes and no,” I replied with a pout. “The PR office took lots of photos but we lost them all.”

Without pictures as proof, we scratched Muhammad Ali from the list.

A few months after, an old friend, Omar Oteyza, invited me to a reunion of the “Fireflies” (the group we formed in the ‘70s in Washington, DC). At the party, I sat down to join the rest of the fireflies, Lirio Calixto and Papoose Owens, when Omar stood up to introduce his old high school classmate.

“Letty, Arthur, this is Romy Macalintal.” We exchanged handshakes and then Omar turned to Romy. “Tell them about how you met Muhammad Ali at the Manila Hilton.”

“Muhammad Ali?” I exclaimed and my ears got hot. Oh, boy! Maybe, we can still “save” our Ali story.

Romy smiled and said, “I was already a law student at the University of the East. I saved, cut and pasted every clipping and write-up about Cassius Clay, also when he changed his name to Muhammad Ali. I followed his career; I was such a great fan that not a single news item escaped me. When I read that his next fight was going to be in Manila, this ‘Thrilla in Manila’ literally thrilled me to bits. I thought, ‘Why not go to Manila Hilton and show him my scrapbook?’ With hopes flying high I approached the front desk.

“‘I am a fan of Muhammad Ali,’ I said. ‘Can I go up to the presidential suite to meet him?’ Without butting an eye, the desk clerk politely declined my request. ‘I’m sorry, but Mr. Ali is not accepting any visitors.’ I knew that. When I turned around, I noticed two security guards towering above me. They drove home the point that a sports legend like Muhammad Ali would not have any time to meet a simple, local fan like me.

“Deeply disappointed, I was about to leave the hotel when I decided to give it another shot. ‘Listen,’ I said. ‘If I can’t see Muhammad Ali, will you at least bring up this scrapbook to him?’ The guards rolled their eyes, looked at the ceiling and, perhaps with a combined feeling of boredom and exhaustion, said, ‘Sige na nga, dadalin ko na yan kay Mr. Ali.’ (Oh, all right, I will bring it up to Mr. Ali.)

“That was the longest ‘cooling of the heels’ that I ever made. I watched the guard enter the elevator and counted the minutes until the elevator door reopened. My jaw dropped when I noticed the guard didn’t have my scrapbook anymore. ‘You,’ he said, pointing with his mouth. ‘Yes, you,’ he repeated. ‘Go up to the 22nd floor.’ ‘Me?’ I asked. ‘Don’t be makulit (facetious),’ the guard said. ‘They want you upstairs.’

“Almost stumbling, I pressed the button of the elevator and my heart was thumping, running wild. I rang the bell and two humongous guards opened the door. Taking a deep breath, I said, ‘Uh, I was asked to come up here.’ A man who turned out to be Ali’s attorney — Albert Griffin — went to the door and asked, ‘Do you own this scrapbook?’ I nodded. ‘Okay, come in.’

“Ali stood up when we entered his suite. He had no expression on his face. ‘Do you own this scrapbook?’ he asked. I nodded. Muhammad turned to Atty. Griffin and said, ‘Close the door and leave us alone.’

“Muhammad laughed and patted me on the shoulder, ‘Wow, man! These are great clippings and photos. Do you mean you’ve been collecting all these publicity materials from way back when? This is great!’ I kept nodding with my mouth wide open — in disbelief — and then, he told me to sit down. ‘Not on the sofa, come sit on the floor with me.’ I think he could not believe that a fan could document everything that was said and written about him and he started signing the pages of my scrapbook.

“‘Do you have a camera?’ Ali asked. I shook my head. In my excitement, I didn’t think of that. Ali called Atty. Griffin and said, ‘Make sure to bring Romy to the Folks Art Theatre (FAT) so we could have a photo together after my training.’

“I spent two hours with Ali in his suite,” Romy told us.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, he had this movie projector. I watched his aide set up this 8mm roll of film and we watched The Lawbreakers, a miniseries with Lee Marvin with each episode running for about 15 to 20 minutes. It’s a crime show. Once in a while, he’d talk about juvenile delinquency problems in the States. And you know what his other favorite was? Cartoons. I could not believe that a great fighter would like cartoons. I thought only kids liked them. While we were watching the movie, Ali would occasionally stand up to get juice and biscuits from his fridge; he served them to me. The most popular boxing champ in the world was serving me.

“A few days after, I went to FAT. Atty. Griffin pulled me to one side and said, ‘Stick with me.’ Immediately after Ali’s training, he took me to Ali’s dressing room and there, Ali gladly had his photo taken with me.”

This was Romy’s unplanned encounter with Muhammad Ali.

“Muhammad Ali was a profound person,” he continued. “He was not only a strong boxer but he used psychology to defeat his opponents and win more fans. He really stung like a bee and floated — nah, danced — like a butterfly.”

At this point, I was eager to ask one question, “Romy, do you have the pictures?” “Yes,” he replied. “I’ll e-mail them to you, if you like.”

Yes, yes. I like, I like!

* * *

To all former employees, friends and colleagues of Manila Hilton Hotel, please e-mail your golden nuggets and memories to lettyjlopez@hotmail.com by March 1, 2009.