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c. 1968 Manuel Benítez—better known as El Cordobés—was an international hero to match Pelé or Cassius Clay. The press dubbed him “the Beatle of the Bullring”—and, despite the derision of purist aficionados, he was, at up to $50,000 per bullfight, one of the highest-paid entertainers in the world. He squired the world’s most beautiful women, went hunting with Generalissimo Franco, drove his fans into ecstatic fevers—until, one day in 1972, he suddenly bowed out.