The Great White Hope (film) over their marriage and Duryea's death by suicide in 1912. Set between 1910 and 1915, the story follows Jack Jefferson, patterned after real-life boxer, Jack Johnson, going on a hot streak of victories in the boxing ring as he defeats every white boxer around. Soon the press and racists announce the search for a "great white hope", a boxer who will defeat Jefferson for the heavyweight title. Meanwhile, Jefferson prepares for a few more matches, but he lets his guard down by courting the beautiful, and very white, Eleanor Bachman, and when everyone, including Jack's black "wife", discover this, the
The Great White Hope That's my story!" Ali was fighting being drafted into the Army at the time on grounds of being a conscientious objector. "The Great White Hope" premiered at the Arena Stage in December, 1967. The initial production at Arena Stage, paid for in part by two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, was so well-received that the entire original cast, including James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander, moved to Broadway. It was the first time the cast of a regional theater production was brought to Broadway. The play opened on Broadway on October 3, 1968, and closed on January