George Plimpton in "The Paris Review". He also appeared in the 1996 documentary "When We Were Kings" about the "Rumble in the Jungle" 1974 Ali-Foreman Championship fight opposite Norman Mailer crediting Muhammad Ali as a poet who composed the world's shortest poem: "Me? Whee!!" Plimpton was a member of the cast of the A&E TV series "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (2001–02). In 2013, the documentary "Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself", directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling, was released. The film used archival audio and video of Plimpton lecturing and reading to create a posthumous narration. Plimpton was a demolitions expert
The Rumble in the Jungle coming in as a 41 underdog against the unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight is famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide, becoming the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time. This included a record estimated 50million viewers watching the fight pay-per-view on closed-circuit theatre TV. The fight grossed an estimated $100million (inflation-adjusted $million) in worldwide revenue. Don King arranged this fight with the music businessman Jerry Masucci, who took his famed musicians, Fania All Stars, to play at the venue. King managed to get