A Potpourri of Mat Lore, History and Legend

The WAWLI Papers by J Michael Kenyon

A POTPOURRI OF MAT LORE, HISTORY AND LEGEND
Reprinted in The WAWLI Papers, Volume 2, Number 50

The time is January, 1951 and we're looking at the television wrestling listings for the week in the New York City area ... Monday -- 9 p.m. WABD from Columbia Park, North Bergen to 11 p.m.; Tuesday -- WATV Elizabeth NJ, 8:35 to 10:15 p.m.; Wednesday -- WJZ TV Ch. 7 from Chicago at 10 p.m.; Thursday -- WOR TV from Ridgewood Grove 9 to 11:15 p.m.; Friday -- WATV Ch 13, 8:35 to 11 p.m. from Laurel Gardens, Newark; WOR TV from Jamaica Arena, Ch 9, 9-11 p.m.; Saturday -- WPIX Ch. 11, 9-11 p.m., wrestling from Bayonne NJ Naval Base; WABD TV Ch. 5, Wrestling from Chicago, 11 to 12 p.m.
Ed (Strangler) Lewis, in a July 16, 1953 interview with Bill Bono in Spokane, Wash., claims 6,200 bouts and "not a blemish on me.   I have the blood pressure of a man of 30.   Oh, it's a good game."   Lewis, in the same interview, claims to have been a wrestler for "44, no, 45 years."   Makes his home in Tulsa, says he has crossed the Atlantic Ocean 22 times, and has been across the U.S. via plane no less than 279 times.   In 1952, alone, he says he traveled 200,000 miles in the company of world champion Lou Thesz.
On April 13, 1933, Daisy Florence Savoldi wins divorce in Los Angeles.   Says the only time she knew Joe's whereabouts was when papers chronicled his progress from city to city.   They were married Aug. 20, 1931, were separated in October, 1932.   Her settlement is $25 a week for two years.   It was after Savoldi's marriage to Daisy was revealed, late in the fall of 1931, that he was excused from the Notre Dame football team and made his way into the wrestling business.
Two great names in wrestling history not often mentioned are Throckmorton Cohn and Hercules Wergeles.   They handled publicity in the 1930s for Jacques Armand Schuel (Jack Curley), the famous wrestling promoter.
Curley, in those days, was large, plumpish, with a moon face, gray hair and a "mixed grill" accent.   His health was none too good, either.   Jack Dempsey came to visit him in the hospital after a major operation in July, 1934.   Jack Curley died July 12, 1937, beloved husband of Bessie, father of Jack and Jean.   Services were conducted at Fairchild Chapel, 141-26 Northern Blvd., Flushing, on Wednesday, July 14, at 10 a.m.   Burial was at Nassau Knowles Cemetery, Port Washington, Long Island.   Curley managed boxers, opera stars, swimmers, actors and circuses during a legendary career that spanned some four decades.
A contemporary who went on to equal renown was Jake (Hassen) Pfeffer, the "great impresario of the grimacers." Also known as the "weary wanderer from Warsaw," Pfeffer was an erstwhile piano player who had been, literally, a spear carrier for Pavlova in 1918.   He wore his trousers up to the armpits, and generally sported a wilted white carnation in his lapel.   His shoes had elevated heels, an attempt to disguise his height: five feet tall, net, with hat on.   Pfeffer also carried silver knobbed cane, "clutched amidships, like a pole vaulter about to take off."   The same chonicler said he "sounds like George Arliss being put through a concrete mixer."   His office was on the 10th floor of the old Times Bldg, 42nd and Broadway, "the double-crossroads of the world."   Said Pfeffer of his matmen: "A few of them can wrestle but I don't hold that against 'em."
More Pfeffer: "I've never seen an honest wrestling bout in my 20 years in the game.   Maybe there was one, but I wasn't there."
On November 17, 1941, the Public Control Committee of the London County (England) Council asked for a wrestling ban.   Their statement, in part: "In our view, all-in wrestling cannot be regarded as true wrestling.   We do not consider that it contains any element of sport, and we regard it as a degrading and unhealthy form of entertainment."
An advertisement headed "Champions All" -- appearing in papers around the country on May 27, 1933 featured wrestling champ Jim Browning, boxers Benny Leonard, Maxie Rosenbloom and Jack Dempsey, plus baseball pitcher Carl Hubbell all bedecked in Adam Pandara hats.
The Ripley's "Believe It Or Not" for September 6, 1941: "Strangler Lewis engaged in 104 matches in one year."
Billy Watson went to England 1936 with Al Korman, Pat Flanagan and Tiger Tasker.   Relwyskow, the promoter, made him WHIPPER BILLY WATSON.   He defeated Mike Denitri in France for the European lightheavy crown by 1939, married Mary Patrician Utting of England (kids Georgina, Phillip, John) and returned to Canada in the early '40s to become a headliner for nearly three more decades.
On April 2, 1945, in Boston, George Herman (Babe) Ruth, 51, announced that he'll try his hand at refereeing wrestling matches.   He denied being broke.   "I've been out of baseball for 11 years now and, since my old game does not appear to want me anywhere, I haven't had much chance to keep in touch with the crowds."   Ruth says he must have reffed 10 shows while in baseball.   He was booked into Portland, Maine, on April 3 and Boston April 4.   Ruth adds that he's "had some throat trouble recently" and has cut down his smoking.
In 1943, 146 licensed wrestlers put on 369 cards watched by 276,000 at Rockford, Alton, East St. Louis, Sterling, Springfield, Aurora and Chicago, Illinois.
Jack Reynolds, former world middleweight champ, was indicted, age 38, on April 12, 1934, by a Cincinnati grand jury for the second degree slaying of James Meyers and Philip Citron on March 11, 1934.   Reynolds was acquitted May 28 but his halcyon days on the mat were over.   A decade later, he was running AT shows in the Pacific Northwest.
Sandor Szabo was a pupil of Dr. Baylor Varga, a four-time member of Hungarian Olympic team, Szabo was a member of the Greco-Roman wrestling and water polo teams.   Later, while wrestling in the area, he was a member of same water polo team in Santa Monica as movie stars Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weismuller.   Szabo appeared in "Once in a Blue Moon" by Paramount, "Mission to Moscow" by Warner Bros., and "Passage to Marseilles" by Warner Bros.
From Punjab, in India, came Daula
He had shoes but not any caula
But his shoes they were tight
And he threw them one night
At a wrestler who started to haula.
On June 23,1927, the Associated Press reported from San Francisco's Dreamland Rink that Angelo Tarmacchi defeated Alexander Yermerkoff in 9 minutes, 22 seconds "without using any recognized wrestling hold."

Click HERE to e-mail J Michael Kenyon

Information on "The WAWLI Papers" in print form can be found HERE