This supposedly authentic ticket to Muhammad Ali’s debut pro fight isn't genuine, according to many

Matteo B.

PSAcard very recently graded this ticket to [title].

To me, it looks pretty sus...
Right now they're talking about it on Twitter and Reddit (second link), and resident type investigator @Thomas Phinney has also replied to some of the tweets.

I've got my personal take regarding its authenticity after analyzing the available pictures of the tickets and some more yesterday, but I'll hear what you all have to say first.

Edit: pressed Enter to input a tag but it accidentally posted this straight away. Oh well, this'll be the OP.

Mark Simonson

To me it looks like the type on lines 1 and 4-6 is ITC Franklin (1980).

John Savard

The original Franklin Gothic, of course, was in existence long before 1960, and was popular in that year. Also, City was in use by IBM before 1960, so line 2 isn't immediately suspicious.

That there may be features which distinguish ITC Franklin from ATF Franklin Gothic, of course, is true enough, and I don't doubt your expertise may be sufficient to see them.

A web search led me to this page:

https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/CASSIUS_CLAY_FIRST_PROFESSIONAL_FIGHT_TICKET_STUB_-LOT282529.aspx

but other boxing tickets from that era had a very different general appearance.

https://www.phillyboxinghistory.com/tickets/relics_tickets_1960s.htm

That is not necessarily decisive, as the style of tickets depends on the type of venue.

Jens Kutilek

A ticket at that time would probably have been printed in letterpress. How would they realize the white on red type? “AT” and “AY” in SATURDAY are clearly kerned. Very unlikely for throwaway item like a sports ticket.

“Professional Boxing” is set in Varsity by Brøderbund Software with fake small caps. I don’t know if it is a version of an older font, but I doubt it because of the weird letter proportions, e.g. in the X and Y. I also doubt that this type of "athletic" fonts would have been available as metal fonts in the early 1960s.

The serial number would have been printed in later, or would have been printed with a numbering machine like this (source):



I doubt that Berthold City was available on these devices.

Here's a newspaper ad for the same fight:



Why does the ticket say 7 pm but the ad says 9 pm? The venue is called "Fairgrounds Coliseum" in the ad, which matches this contemporary postcard:



"THE COLISEUM

KENTUCKY FAIR AND EXPOSITION CENTER

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

Completed in 1956, the gigantic Coliseum has a maximum seating capacity of 20,220 and this auditorium is one of the largest in the world.

The new state fairgrounds cover an area of 375 acres and the entire cost is $16.000,000."

The “ticket” calls the venue “Freedom Hall” which apparently is the same building, but was it called that at the time?

Florian Hardwig

Lots of good things have been said in the linked threads already.
[edit: and Jens just added more]

Here’s what tickets typically looked like in the 1960s (and sometimes still in the 1980s):

• printed in a single color (black), often on colored paper
• no reversed type
  
• consecutive numbers using crash numbering, which tend to dance around a little, and also use different styles
  
• in North America often using a Ludlow Typograph

Font IDs aside, it would have been technically possible to print such a ticket as the one shown in the images in 1960, but it would have been unreasonably laborious and expensive, and thus highly unlikely.

For Franklin Gothic, this is what ATF’s greater family looked like at the time. There was no exact match for the styles seen on the ticket. As Mark said, it’s (a version of) ITC Franklin Gothic. Here’s a comparison of digital versions of classic Franklin Gothic and ITC’s version. See for example the S.

The contoured slab with small caps is Collegiate FLF, which was made around 1988.

Definitely inauthentic.

John Savard

I noticed one howler I made. ITC Franklin may come in a variety of weights, but Franklin Gothic is bold. I should have compared lines 4 and 5 to News Gothic.

Jens Kutilek

Thank you @Florian Hardwig for clarifying the origins of the font I only knew as “Varsity”. Collegiate FLF it is.

Jens Kutilek

Here’s another “rare item” supposedly from the same fight, which I think is fake too.



Looks like inkjet printed, and Cassius Clay signed “Muhammad Ali” ...? Suspicious, unless he signed it years after the fight

The font on this is Gill Sans, again with kerning and all. The upright dumb quote in the first line is a nice touch and matches the digital font.

Mark Simonson

It also seems unlikely that it would be set in Gill Sans. I don't think many printers/typesetters in the U.S. would have carried it in 1960. Plus, the underscores.

Thomas Phinney

Agree, the vertical typewriter apostrophe in the middle of the italic headline is a strong indicator of modern digital fakery.

The old metal (and photo) typefaces generally literally did not have the non-curved typewriter vertical quotes.