STEPIN FETCHIT, CASSIUS CLAY (1965) Photo

New York: UPI, 1965. Vintage original 10 x 8″ (25 x 20 cm.) black-and-white print still photo, date stamp and mimeographed text affixed to verso. There is some waviness caused by the attached text, very good+.

Unusual dual portrait of Cassius Clay (before he changed his name to Muhammad Ali) clowning around at the piano with Stepin Fetchit looking on. Fetchit had been a great African American film star in the 1930s, known for his stereotyped caricature of a lazy, witless Black man. Clay and Fetchit became friends in the early-1960s. Fetchit was frequently present at Clay’s training camp and even participated in some of his press conferences.