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CABLE WORLD STAFF
It's Stilla the Thrilla "It's gonna be a killa, a chilla, a thrilla, when I get the gorilla in Manila."
Muhammed Ali's fightin' words did more than set the stage for one of the greatest heavyweight championship bouts ever. The Oct. 1, 1975, showdown between Ali and arch-rival Joe Frazier was the cable industry's first commercial satellite transmission, thrilling HBO viewers in Jackson, Miss., Ft. Pierce and Vero Beach, Fla., as Ali trounced Frazier in 14 unforgettable rounds in the Philippines.
The National Cable Television Center and Museum's Hauser Foundation Oral and Video History Project will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the historic event with a reception and panel discussion taking place during the Western Show Nov. 28 at the Museum of Television and Radio in Los Angeles.
Featured will be six of the "founding fathers" of satellite television who made this landmark transmission a reality: HBO's Gerald Levin, Monroe M. Rifkin of American Television Communications, Hubert J. Schlafly of TelePrompTer, Sidney Topol of Scientific-Atlanta John P. Cole of Cole, Raywid and Braverman, and Robert M. Rosencrans of UA-Columbia Cablevision. The panel discussion will be videotaped for inclusion in the Cable Center archives.
"Everything went off beautifully," recalls Topol. "It was a heck of a fight and a heck of a night."
The 28th promises to be just as memorable.
"These men chanced their careers, satellite transmission's popularity and the ultimate success of satellite television on this legendary Ali-Frazier fight," says Cable Center CEO/president Marvin Jones.
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