{"id":146,"date":"2024-05-19T01:27:16","date_gmt":"2024-05-19T01:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1968yr.com\/?p=146"},"modified":"2024-05-19T01:27:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-19T01:27:16","slug":"muhammad-alis-iconic-esquire-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1968yr.com\/?p=146","title":{"rendered":"Muhammad Ali\u2019s Iconic \u2018Esquire\u2019 Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Muhammad Ali\u00a0was suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Stripped of his heavyweight title and banned from boxing because he refused to be inducted into the U.S. military due to his opposition to the Vietnam War, the world\u2019s most famous athlete was smeared as a draft-dodger and was battling to stay out of prison. (It would be three years until the Supreme Court heard his case.) Plus, his 1964 conversion to Islam, which prompted him to change his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali, drew additional ire during a time when the Civil Rights movement roiled America. So when\u00a0Esquire\u00a0<\/em>art director George Lois began thinking of how best to portray the embattled boxer on the magazine\u2019s cover, which would become one of the most famous of the 1960s, he hit upon the idea of having his subject be struck by actual arrows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBack in those days, there was no Wikipedia or Google, so I did some research on Saint Sebastian,\u201d Lois tells\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/em>\u00a0after\u00a0Ali\u2019s death on Friday. An iconic third-century Christian martyr who was slain with arrows for his faith, Sebastian (and his violent death) was a popular subject for artists. As Lois recalls, \u201cThere were many, many paintings of him, and I was trying to find one where his body was solid and strong, but his arms were behind his back and he was in pain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n