1.
St. Louis
–
St. Louis is an independent city and major U. S. port in the state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River, on the border with Illinois. Prior to European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, in 1764, following Frances defeat in the Seven Years War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase, during the 19th century, St. Louis developed as a major port on the Mississippi River. In the 1870 Census, St. Louis was ranked as the 4th-largest city in the United States and it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics, the economy of metro St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. This city has become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical. St. Louis has 2 professional sports teams, the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the city is commonly identified with the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis. The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture and their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 AD to 1500 AD. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the Mound City and these mounds were mostly demolished during the citys development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane. The earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste. In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years War, Pierre Laclède, the early French families built the citys economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe, French colonists used African slaves as domestic servants and workers in the city. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces, mostly Native American allies, the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River, before then, Laclede had been a very successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area
2.
Hartsdale, New York
–
Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census and it is a suburb of New York City. Hartsdale is located at 41°2′N 73°48′W, major roads include NY100 and the Bronx River Parkway. For mass transit to NYC, residents can take either Metro-North Railroads Harlem Line or the Bee-Line Bus routes 1X,3,20,21, Bee-Line also provides local service on bus routes 34,38,39,43, and 65. According to the United States Census Bureau, the community has an area of 0.9 square miles. As of the census of 2000, there were 9,830 people,4,314 households, the population density was 3,068.0 per square mile. There were 4,478 housing units at a density of 1,397. 6/sq mi. The racial makeup of the community was 76. 14% White,8. 71% African American,0. 19% Native American,10. 17% Asian,0. 04% Pacific Islander,2. 64% from other races, and 2. 10% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9. 55% of the population,31. 8% of all households were made up of individuals and 12. 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the family size was 2.86. In the CDP the population was out with 18. 2% under the age of 18,4. 8% from 18 to 24,30. 3% from 25 to 44,28. 8% from 45 to 64. The median age was 43 years, for every 100 females there were 86.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.2 males, the median income for a household in the community was $81,824, and the median income for a family was $100,330. Males had an income of $62,362 versus $47,380 for females. The per capita income for the community was $45,691, about 1. 6% of families and 2. 6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1. 5% of those under age 18 and 4. 6% of those age 65 or over. Hartsdale, a CDP/hamlet/post-office in the town of Greenburgh, New York and it is served by the Metro-North Harlem River commuter rail line into Grand Central Terminal. Hartsdale is the home of Americas first canine pet cemetery, and the worlds first Carvel Ice Cream store, hartsdales earliest settlers were the Weekquaeskeeks, a sub-tribe of the Algonquian tribe that lived in most of southern New York, from Westchester down through Manhattan. Weekquaeskeek is an Algonquian term believed to place of the bark kettle
3.
Professional wrestling
–
Professional wrestling is a dramatized athletic performance that portrays a combat sport. Various forms of weaponry are sometimes used, the content – including match outcomes – is scripted and choreographed, and the combative actions and reactions are performed to appear violent without injuring the wrestlers. Before the 1980s, these facts were considered trade secrets, in the mid-90s, the presentation of scripted events as legitimate is known as kayfabe. Although the combative content is staged and communicated between the wrestlers, there are physical hazards involved - including permanent injury and death. While it has declined in Europe, in North America it has experienced several different periods of prominent cultural popularity during its century. The advent of television gave professional wrestling a new outlet, unlike in Europe, show wrestling has become especially prominent in Japan and in North America. In Brazil, there was a popular wrestling television program from the 1960s to the early 1980s called Telecatch. High-profile figures in the sport have become celebrities or cultural icons in their native or adopted home countries, although professional wrestling started out as petty acts in sideshows, traveling circuses and carnivals, today it is a billion-dollar industry. Revenue is drawn from live event ticket sales, network television broadcasts, pay-per-view broadcasts, personal appearances by performers, branded merchandise, pro wrestling was also instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery. Annual shows such as WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and formerly Bash at the Beach, Halloween Havoc, home video sales dominate the Billboard charts Recreational Sports DVD sales, with wrestling holding anywhere from 3 to 9 of the top 10 spots every week. Due to its persistent cultural presence and to its novelty within the performing arts, there have also been many fictional depictions of wrestling, the 2008 film The Wrestler received several Oscar nominations and began a career revival for star Mickey Rourke. Because actual events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines for the performers, special care must be taken when talking about people who perform under their own name. The actions of the character should be considered fictional events, wholly separate from the life of the performer and this is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers will incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and those who participated felt that it was necessary that spectators should be kept in a constant and complete illusion of a real competition to keep audience interest. For decades, up until the mid-1980s, wrestlers lived their lives as though they were their characters. Wrestlers, bookers and promoters all rigorously enforced the illusion and very few were allowed into the society of professional wrestling to maintain suspension of disbelief. The practice of keeping the illusion, and the methods used to do so, came to be known as kayfabe within wrestling circles. An entire lexicon of slang jargon and euphemism developed to allow performers to communicate without outsiders knowledge of what was being said, occasionally a performer will deviate from the intended sequence of events
4.
Catch wrestling
–
Catch wrestling is a classical hybrid grappling style that was developed in Britain circa 1870 by J. G. The training of some modern submission wrestlers, professional wrestlers and mixed martial artists is founded in catch wrestling and this new departure was the forerunner of the total abolition of the sport at that athletic, and within a short period the wrestling, as an item in the program. When catch wrestling reached the United States in the late 19th, eventually, the carnivals wrestlers began preparing for the worst kind of unarmed assault and aiming to end the wrestling match with any tough local quickly and decisively via submission. A hook was a submission which could end a match within seconds. Travelling wrestlers brought together a variety of folk wrestling disciplines including the Indian variety of Pehlwani, Judo/Jujutsu, each of these disciplines contributed to the development of catch wrestling in their own way. The British term catch as catch can is generally understood to mean catch anywhere you can, as this implies, the rules of catch wrestling were more open than the earlier Folk styles it was based on and its French Greco-Roman counterpart which did not allow holds below the waist. Catch wrestlers can win a match by submission or pin. Often, but not always, the chokehold was barred, also just as today tapping out signifies a concession as does shouting out Uncle. Back in the heyday of catch wrestling rolling to ones back could also signify defeat, Frank Gotch won many matches by forcing his opponent to roll over onto their back with the threat of his toe-hold. Some matches however didnt include pins as a way to win but they were used for control and to get submissions However, in traditional catch wrestling, hooks are used rather than submissions. Hooks are a form of submission where the submission may be executed so fast that the loser has no time to tap out & were probably derived from the Rough & Tumble mindset, therefore, another name for a catch wrestler is a hooker. A hook can be defined as a move that stretches. Almost all moves have their own variations and different predicaments they can be pulled off in, many of such novel techniques were a result of cross cultural exchanges with Jujutsu proponents. The rules of catch wrestling would change from venue to venue, matches contested with side-bets at the coal mines or logging camps favoured submission wins where there was absolutely no doubt as to who the winner was. Meanwhile professionally booked matches and amateur contests favoured pins that catered to the broader, the impact of catch wrestling on modern day amateur wrestling is also well established. In the film Catch, The Hold Not Taken, US Olympic Gold Medalist Dan Gable talks of how when he learned to wrestle as an amateur the style was known locally, in Waterloo, Iowa, as catch-as-catch-can. The wrestling tradition of Iowa is rooted in catch wrestling as Farmer Burns, modern international freestyle wrestling and American folkstyle wrestling are amateur catch wrestling without the submissions. Santel defeated Ito and proclaimed himself World Judo Champion, the response from Jigoro Kanos Kodokan was swift and came in the form of another challenger, 4th degree black belt Daisuke Sakai
5.
Geek
–
Although often considered as a pejorative, the term is also used self-referentially without malice or as a source of pride. Its meaning has evolved to refer to someone who is interested in a subject for its own sake and this word comes from English dialect geek or geck. Geck is a term in modern German and means fool or fop. The root also survives in the Dutch and Afrikaans adjective gek, as well as some German dialects, in 18th century Austria, Gecken were freaks on display in some circuses. In 19th century North America, the term referred to a performer in a geek show in a circus. The 1976 edition of the American Heritage Dictionary included only the definition regarding geek shows and this variation of the term was used to comic effect in an episode of popular 1970s TV show Sanford & Son. Professional wrestling manager Classy Freddie Blassie recorded a song in the 1970s called Pencil-Necked Geek, the definition of geek has changed considerably over time, and there is no longer a definitive meaning. The term nerd has a similar, practically synonymous meaning as geek, technologically oriented geeks, in particular, now exert a powerful influence over the global economy and society. At the time, Zuckerberg’s company had grown to one billion users. According to Mark Roeder the rise of the geek represents a new phase of human evolution, previously, such people may have been at a disadvantage, but now their unique cognitive traits enable some of them to resonate with the new technological zeitgeist and become very successful. The Economist magazine observed, on June 2,2012, Those square pegs may not have a time in school. They may be mocked by jocks and ignored at parties, but these days no serious organisation can prosper without them. Meanwhile, in the world, many NBA players wore geek glasses during post-game interviews. The term geek chic was appropriated by some self-identified geeks to refer to a new, Geek Culture, The Third Counter-Culture, an article discussing geek culture as a new kind of counter-culture. The Origins of Geek Culture, Perspectives on a Parallel Intellectual Milieu, are you a nerd or a geek. Geek Chic, USA Today, October 22,2003 How Geek Chic Works
6.
Chicken
–
The chicken is a type of domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the red junglefowl. It is one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, humans keep chickens primarily as a source of food, consuming both their meat and their eggs. From India, the chicken was imported to Lydia in western Asia Minor. In the UK and Ireland adult male chickens over the age of one year are known as cocks, whereas in America, Australia. Males less than a year old are cockerels, females over a year old are known as hens and younger females as pullets although in the egg-laying industry, a pullet becomes a hen when she begins to lay eggs at 16 to 20 weeks of age. In Australia and New Zealand, there is a generic term chook /ˈtʃʊk/ to describe all ages, the young are called chicks and the meat is called chicken. Chicken originally referred to domestic fowl. The species as a whole was then called domestic fowl, or just fowl. This use of chicken survives in the phrase Hen and Chickens, sometimes used as a British public house or theatre name, the word chicken is sometimes erroneously construed to mean females exclusively, despite the term hen for females being in wide circulation. In the Deep South of the United States chickens are also referred to by the slang term yardbird, in the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even animals as large as lizards, small snakes or young mice. Chickens may live for five to ten years, depending on the breed, the worlds oldest chicken was a hen which died of heart failure at the age of 16 according to Guinness World Records. However, in some breeds, such as the Sebright chicken, the rooster has only slightly pointed neck feathers, the identification can be made by looking at the comb, or eventually from the development of spurs on the males legs. Adult chickens have a fleshy crest on their heads called a comb, or cockscomb, collectively, these and other fleshy protuberances on the head and throat are called caruncles. Both the adult male and female have wattles and combs, a muff or beard is a mutation found in several chicken breeds which causes extra feathering under the chickens face, giving the appearance of a beard. Domestic chickens are not capable of long distance flight, although birds are generally capable of flying for short distances. Chickens may occasionally fly briefly to explore their surroundings, but generally do so only to flee perceived danger, Chickens are gregarious birds and live together in flocks. They have an approach to the incubation of eggs and raising of young. Individual chickens in a flock will dominate others, establishing an order, with dominant individuals having priority for food access
7.
Snake
–
Snakes are elongated, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales, many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile jaws. To accommodate their bodies, snakes paired organs appear one in front of the other instead of side by side. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of claws on either side of the cloaca. Additionally, sea snakes are widespread throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans, more than 20 families are currently recognized, comprising about 500 genera and about 3,400 species. They range in size from the tiny,10.4 cm -long thread snake to the reticulated python of 6.95 meters in length, the fossil species Titanoboa cerrejonensis was 12.8 meters long. Snakes are thought to have evolved from either burrowing or aquatic lizards, perhaps during the Jurassic period, the diversity of modern snakes appeared during the Paleocene period. The oldest preserved descriptions of snakes can be found in the Brooklyn Papyrus, most species are nonvenomous and those that have venom use it primarily to kill and subdue prey rather than for self-defense. Some possess venom potent enough to cause injury or death to humans. Nonvenomous snakes either swallow prey alive or kill by constriction, the word ousted adder, as adder went on to narrow in meaning, though in Old English næddre was the general word for snake. The other term, serpent, is from French, ultimately from Indo-European *serp-, the fossil record of snakes is relatively poor because snake skeletons are typically small and fragile making fossilization uncommon. Fossils readily identifiable as snakes first appear in the record during the Cretaceous period. The earliest known snake fossils come from the marine simoliophiids. Based on comparative anatomy, there is consensus that snakes descended from lizards, pythons and boas—primitive groups among modern snakes—have vestigial hind limbs, tiny, clawed digits known as anal spurs, which are used to grasp during mating. The families Leptotyphlopidae and Typhlopidae also possess remnants of the pelvic girdle, front limbs are nonexistent in all known snakes. This is caused by the evolution of Hox genes, controlling limb morphogenesis, the axial skeleton of the snakes’ common ancestor, like most other tetrapods, had regional specializations consisting of cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and caudal vertebrae. Early in snake evolution, the Hox gene expression in the axial skeleton responsible for the development of the thorax became dominant, as a result, the vertebrae anterior to the hindlimb buds all have the same thoracic-like identity. In other words, most of a skeleton is an extremely extended thorax
8.
Dime (United States coin)
–
The dime, in U. S. usage, is a ten-cent coin, one tenth of a United States dollar, labeled formally as one dime. The denomination was first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792, the dime is the smallest in diameter and is the thinnest of all U. S. coins currently minted for circulation, being.705 inches in diameter and.053 inches in thickness. The obverse of the coin depicts the profile of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the reverse boasts an olive branch, a torch, as of 2011, the dime coin cost 5.65 cents to produce. The word dime comes from the French word dîme, meaning tithe or tenth part, from the Latin decima. In the past prices have occasionally been quoted on signage and other materials in terms of dimes, abbreviated as d or a d with a slash through it as with the cent. The Coinage Act of 1792 established the dime, cent, and mill as subdivisions of the equal to 1⁄10. The first known proposal for a coinage system in the United States was made in 1783 by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, the nations first Secretary of the Treasury, recommended the issuance of six such coins in 1791, among the six was a silver coin, which shall be, in weight and value, one tenth part of a silver unit or dollar. Thus dimes are made small and thin, with the passage of the Coinage Act of 1965, the dimes silver content was removed. Dimes from 1965 to the present are composed of layers of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel. Starting in 1992, the U. S. Mint began issuing Silver Proof Sets annually and these sets are intended solely for collectors, and are not meant for general circulation. Since its introduction in 1796, the dime has been issued in six different major types, the name for each type indicates the design on the coins obverse. The composition of the disme was set at 89.24 percent silver and 10.76 percent copper, in 1792, a limited number of dismes were minted but never circulated. Some of these were struck in copper, indicating that the 1792 dismes were in fact pattern coins, the first dimes minted for circulation did not appear until 1796, due to a lack of demand for the coin and production problems at the United States Mint. The first dime to be circulated was the Draped Bust dime and it featured the same obverse and reverse as all other circulating coins of the time, the so-called Draped Bust/Small Eagle design. This design was the work of then-Chief Engraver Robert Scot, the portrait of Liberty on the obverse was based on a Gilbert Stuart drawing of prominent Philadelphia socialite Ann Willing Bingham, wife of noted American statesman William Bingham. The reverse design is of a bald eagle surrounded by palm and olive branches. Since the Coinage Act of 1792 required only that the cent and half cent display their denomination, all 1796 dimes have 15 stars on the obverse, representing the number of U. S. states then in the Union
9.
Patriotism
–
Patriotism is an attachment to a homeland. This attachment can be viewed in terms of different features relating to ones own homeland, including ethnic and it encompasses a set of concepts closely related to those of nationalism. An excess of patriotism in the defense of a nation is called chauvinism, the abstract noun patriotism appears in the early 18th century. The general notion of virtue and group dedication has been attested in culture globally throughout the historical period. For the Enlightenment thinkers of 18th-century Europe, loyalty to the state was considered in contrast to loyalty to the Church. It was argued that clerics should not be allowed to teach in schools since their patrie was heaven. One of the most influential proponents of this notion of patriotism was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Enlightenment thinkers also criticized what they saw as the excess of patriotism, in 1774, Samuel Johnson published The Patriot, a critique of what he viewed as false patriotism. On the evening of 7 April 1775, he made the famous statement, however, there is no direct evidence to contradict the widely held belief that Johnsons famous remark was a criticism of patriotism itself. Patriotism is the will of the members of a country to support the country, Patriotism may be strengthened by adherence to a national religion. This is the opposite of the separation of church and state demanded by the Enlightenment thinkers who saw patriotism and faith as similar and opposed forces. Michael Billig and Jean Bethke Elshtain have both argued that the difference between patriotism and faith is difficult to discern and relies largely on the attitude of the one doing the labelling. Wellman calls this position patriotist rather than nationalist to single out the members of territorial, political units rather than cultural groups, marxists have taken various stances regarding patriotism. On one hand, Karl Marx famously stated that The working men have no country, the same view is promoted by present-day Trotskyists such as Alan Woods, who is in favour of tearing down all frontiers and creating a socialist world commonwealth. On the other hand, Stalinists and Maoists are usually in favour of socialist patriotism based on the theory of socialism in one country. Several surveys have tried to measure patriotism for various reasons, such as the Correlates of War project which found some correlation between war propensity and patriotism, the results from different studies are time dependent. For example, patriotism in Germany before World War I ranked at or near the top, since 1981, the World Values Survey explores peoples national values and beliefs and refer to the average answer for high income residents of a country to the question Are you proud to be. Charles Blatberg, From Pluralist to Patriotic Politics, Putting Practice First, craig Calhoun, Is it Time to Be Postnational. in Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Minority Rights, Stephen May, Tariq Modood and Judith Squires
10.
Gimmick (professional wrestling)
–
These in-ring personalities often involve costumes, makeup and catchphrases that they shout at their opponents or the fans. Gimmicks can be designed to work as good guys or villains depending on the desire to be popular or hated by the crowd. A tweener gimmick falls between the two extremes, a wrestler may portray more than one gimmick over their career depending on the angle or the wrestling promotion that they are working for at that time. Razor Ramon was portrayed by both Scott Hall and Rick Bognar, occasionally, a wrestler uses a gimmick as tribute to another worker, such is the case of Ric Flairs Nature Boy persona which he took on as an homage to the original Nature Boy, Buddy Rogers. When a wrestler acts outside his or her gimmick this is known as breaking kayfabe, a term showing pro wrestlings linkages to theatre, the two awards are given to the best and worst gimmick of that year. Current winners are The New Day and Stardust respectively, pro wrestlings history has been tied to the use of gimmicks from its infancy. It was not until the First Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the United States during the 1940s–1950s and his heel character focused on his looks and quickly antagonized the fans with his exaggerated effeminate behaviour. Such showmanship was unheard of for the time, and consequently, Gorgeous Georges impact and legacy on wrestling gimmicks was enormous, demonstrating how fast television changed the product from athletics to performance. Before him, wrestlers imitated ethnic terrors, but his success birthed a more individualistic. He was one of the first pro-wrestlers to use music, Pomp. In Britain, television took British wrestling to the level when in 1964. The style of wrestling at the time was unique with strong emphasis on clean technical wrestling, heels made up a minority of the roster, with most shows containing an abnormally high proportion of clean sportsmanly matches between two blue-eyes. This would remain the case for decades to come. Gimmick matches were a rarity, midget wrestling failed to catch on, during the Second Golden Age of pro wrestling in the 1980s–1990s a rise of cartoonish, outlandish gimmicks became popular with the increase of World Wrestling Federations popularity. Most notable was the muscular Hulk Hogan, who marked the 1980s with his all-American gimmick and his dominant role in the industry at that time led to this era to be also known as Hulkamania. Around this time, wrestling became a form of entertainment rather than an official sport, other wrestlers from this era with similarly outlandish characterisation include Ric Flair, Sting and The Undertaker. In recent years, the emphasis has been on more realistic gimmicks which portray the wrestler as a person, sometimes using their real names. Wrestlers Randy Orton, Batista, and John Cena are prime examples of this, exaggerating the characteristics of a wrestlers origin is one of the most commonly exploited gimmicks, in which overarching characteristics of a character play up to clichés and stereotypes
11.
Jack Pfefer
–
Jack Pfefer was a professional wrestling promoter during the early-to-mid 1900s. He pioneered a form of sports entertainment, as he was one of the first promoters to visualize the pro wrestling business in the mold of theater. However, he developed a reputation when he exposed the sports inner secrets to the mainstream press in a spiteful attack that nearly destroyed the entire industry. Jacob Pfefer was born near Warsaw, Poland on December 10,1894 and he therefore left as part of the era’s mass Eastern European emigration following World War I, thus escaping the Holocaust by hiding in the boiler room of a ship to the United States. He arrived in the United States in 1921 while working as the manager for an acting company. Over the next five years, Pfefer gradually established himself among the top booking agents. Upon arriving in the Big Apple, Jack Pfefer quickly aligned himself with renowned New York promoter Jack Curley, Pfefer performed as the group’s main talent manager, and he was primarily responsible for scouting potential European grapplers while also overseeing the organization’s financial books. Moreover, as Curley’s health began to decline, Pfefer began to position himself among the heirs to the New York wrestling throne. Then in 1932, a dispute caused an eventual rift between Curley and Londos, and the New York territory quickly deteriorated without its top drawing card. The agreement subsequently extended the Trust’s influence throughout all of North America, with Curley, Packs, Mondt, Fabiani, Ed White, and Paul Bowser all agreeing to share the profits evenly. As a result, Jack Pfefer consequently found himself without any allies, ostracized by his fellow wrestling peers, a bitter Pfefer looked to exact revenge, and he therefore arranged an interview with Dan Parker, who was the sports editor for the New York Daily Mirror. Pfefer subsequently took the step of revealing most of pro wrestling’s secrets and inner workings, freely admitting the sport’s “fakery”. Everett Marshall bout by proclaiming, Londos and Marshall meet at Garden tonight for 26th time, score - Londos 26, Marshall 0. ”With the New York territory in shambles, Pfefer then began promoting light-heavyweights along with Columbus booker Al Haft and Charlie & Willie Johnson. He was renowned for his booking of “freak” characters, most notably including the French Angel and the Swedish Angel, moreover, Pfefer initiated numerous innovations, including such novelties as feature tag team bouts and midget wrestling. Nonetheless, he continued booking matches until 1967, and then on September 13,1974, to this day, he remains one of the sport’s most controversial figures, yet he is also acknowledged among its most imaginative promoters. Pfefer was close friends with many of the personalities he worked with and had a habit of sending gifts to their families. Stu Hart took a liking to him and asked him to be the godfather of Harts tenth child and seventh son. Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum Ellison, Lillian, the Fabulous Moolah, First Goddess of the Squared Circle
12.
Sideshow
–
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction. See also, Sideshow attractions section on list of Circus skills page, there are four main types of classic sideshow attractions, The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten sequential acts under one tent for a single admission price. The ten-in-one might be partly a freak show exhibiting human oddities, however, for varietys sake, the acts in a ten-in-one would also include working acts who would perform magic tricks or daredevil stunts. In addition, the show performers might also perform acts or stunts. The ten-in-one would often end in a blowoff or ding, an act not advertised on the outside. The blowoff act would be described provocatively, often as something deemed too strong for women and children, a Museum Show which might be deceptively billed as Worlds Greatest Freaks Past and Present, is a sideshow in which the exhibits are usually not alive. It might include tanks of piranhas or cages with unusual animals, some of the exhibits might even be dummies or photographs of the billed attractions. It could still be truthfully billed with the claim $1,000 reward if not absolutely real — please do not touch or feed the animals on exhibit. The Single-O and the Museum Show are usually operated as grind shows, meaning that patrons may enter at any time, * A Girl Show was sometimes offered in which women were the primary attraction. These could range from the revue with fully clothed performers to the racier kootch or hootchie-kootchie show which might play either partly clothed or strong, working acts often exhibited a number of stunts that could be counted on to draw crowds. These stunts used little-known methods and offered the elements of danger, although the mainstream media often explained fanciful methods of performing these acts, the real secret was usually that there is no secret, you just do it. Such acts included fire eating, sword swallowing, knife throwing, body piercing, lying on a bed of nails, walking up a ladder of sharp swords, interest in sideshows declined as television made it easy to see the worlds most exotic attractions. Moreover, viewing human oddities became distasteful as the public conscience changed, the performers often protested that they had no objection to the sideshow, especially since it provided not only a good income for them, but in many cases it provided their only possible job. The sideshow seemed destined for oblivion, until only a few exemplars of the ten-in-one remained, a greater number of Single O attractions still tour carnivals. In the early 1990s, Jim Rose developed a modern sideshow called the Jim Rose Circus, the show drew audiences at venues unknown to old-time sideshows, like rock clubs and the 1992 Lollapalooza festival. The Jim Rose Circus held its last known performance in 2013 at The London Burlesque Festival, the impact of the Jim Rose Circus on pop culture inspired a new wave of performers. There are now more sideshow performers than at any time in the genres history. At the same time in Canada, Scott McClelland, grandson of itinerant showman N. P, lewchuk, formed Carnival Diablo, a show that performs frequently to this day
13.
Tor Johnson
–
Tore Johansson, better known by the stage name Tor Johnson, was a Swedish professional wrestler and actor. He appeared in many B-movies including some Ed Wood films, Johnson was born in Kalmar län, Sweden, the son of Karl J. Johansson and Lovisa Petersson. Johnson weighed 181 kilograms at his heaviest and he had a full head of black hair, but shaved it to maintain an imposing and villainous appearance in his wrestling and acting work. He began getting bit parts in films upon moving to California, usually as the strongman or weightlifter and his film career ended in the early 1960s, after he appeared in a string of poorly rated films. However, he continued to make appearances on television and made a number of commercials, during his career as an actor, Johnson befriended director Ed Wood, who directed him in a number of films, including Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space. He was very friendly to work with, actress Valda Hansen, during this period, Johnson appeared as a guest contestant on the quiz show You Bet Your Life, during which he showed the shows host, Groucho Marx, his scariest face. Marx ran off the stage in mock terror, then returned and pleaded, in 1971, Johnson died from heart failure at the San Fernando Valley Hospital in San Fernando, California. He was buried at the Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall, Johnson was portrayed by wrestler George The Animal Steele in Tim Burtons film Ed Wood. Johnson was featured extensively in the work of cartoonist Drew Friedman. The comics supposedly follow Johnson as he becomes involved in various seedy adventures, although he is depicted as a slow-witted, white-eyed lummox based on Johnsons persona in Ed Woods films. In the film Mad Max, the character, played by Mel Gibson, can be seen wearing a Tor Johnson mask in an effort to cheer up his wife. Numerous films Johnson appeared in would be riffed by Mystery Science Theater 3000, Tor Johnson at the Internet Movie Database Tor Johnson at AllMovie Tor Johnson at Find a Grave
14.
Ed Wood
–
Edward Davis Wood, Jr. was an American filmmaker, actor, writer, producer, and director. In the 1950s, Wood made a number of films in the science fiction, comedy. In the 1960s and 1970s, he made movies and wrote over 80 pulp crime, horror. In 1980, he was awarded a Golden Turkey Award as Worst Director of All Time. Woods career and camp approach has earned him and his films a cult following, eventually, they settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, where Ed Wood, Jr. was born in 1924. According to Woods second wife, Kathy OHara, Woods mother Lillian would dress him in girls clothing when he was a child because she had wanted a daughter. For the rest of his life, Wood crossdressed, infatuated with the feel of angora on his skin, during his childhood, Wood was interested in the performing arts and pulp fiction. He collected comics and pulp magazines, and adored movies, most notably Westerns, serials, buck Jones and Bela Lugosi were two of his earliest childhood idols. On his 12th birthday, in 1936, Wood received as a gift his first movie camera, one of Woods first paid jobs was as a cinema usher, and he also sang and played drums in a band. He later fronted a singing quartet called Eddie Woods Little Splinters, in 1942, Wood enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Assigned to the 2nd Defense Battalions, he reached the rank of Corporal before he was discharged. He was involved in the Battle of Tarawa, among others, Wood later claimed that he feared being wounded in battle more than he feared being killed because he wore a bra and panties under his uniform. According to Ed Woods military service record obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Wood served as a clerk typist at American Samoa, Mare Island, California and San Pedro, the only medal/award he received was the Good Conduct Medal. In 1948, Wood wrote, produced, directed, and starred in Casual Company, a derived from his unpublished novel. It opened at the Village Playhouse to negative reviews on October 25, in 1952, Wood was introduced to actor Bela Lugosi by friend and fellow writer-producer Alex Gordon, Woods roommate at the time, who went on to help create American International Pictures. Lugosis son, Bela Lugosi, Jr. Lugosi had become dependent on morphine as a way of controlling his debilitating sciatica over the years, and was in a horrendous physical state. Wood billed himself under a number of different pseudonyms, including Ann Gora and Akdov Telmig (The backwards form of his favorite drink, the vodka gimlet. In 1953, Wood wrote and directed the exploitative semi-documentary Glen or Glenda with producer George Weiss, the film was loosely based on trans woman Christine Jorgensen
15.
The Fabulous Moolah
–
Mary Lillian Ellison was an American professional wrestler, better known by her ring name The Fabulous Moolah. She began her working with promoter Billy Wolfe and his wife, wrestler and trainer Mildred Burke. She won the NWA World Womens Championship in 1956 and was the most prominent holder of the title for approximately the next 30 years, Ellison was marketed by the WWF as holding the record for the longest title reign by any athlete in any professional sport. According to WWE, she was also the first WWF Womens Champion, in addition, Ellison was a prominent trainer and promoter in womens professional wrestling, but other female wrestlers have accused her of financial and sexual exploitation. In the 1990s, she returned to the WWF in a role with longtime friend Mae Young. In 2010, WWE recognized her as the 27th best wrestler ever, Mary Lillian Ellison was born in 1923 in Kershaw County, South Carolina, and grew up in Tookiedoo,12 miles from Columbia. The youngest of five children, Ellison was the daughter of a part Cherokee father. Her parents owned a farm, a store, and a service station. When her mother died of cancer, eight-year-old Ellison went to live with her paternal grandmother, at age 10, Ellison was still deeply distraught over her mothers death, to cheer her up, her father took her to the local wrestling matches. Ellison liked the matches, but it was not until she saw Womens Champion Mildred Burke wrestle that they began to mean more to me. Ellison returned to the Columbia home of her father and brothers and she graduated Columbia High School, but at age 14 married 21-year-old Walter Carroll. They soon became parents to a daughter, a few months after the birth of her daughter, she divorced Carroll. Still only 15, she left her daughter with a friend, Ellison began her wrestling career with Mildred Burkes husband Billy Wolfe, the dominant womens promoter of the time. She competed with other female wrestlers, stepping into the ring with the likes of Mae Young, Cecilia Blevins. She, however, soon began a romance with wrestler Johnny Long, Long later introduced Ellison to Jack Pfefer who gave her the moniker Slave Girl Moolah. By the early 1950s, Moolah was a valet for Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, accompanying him to the ring while providing eye candy for the male audiences, Ellison broke up the partnership because Rogers kept pushing her to begin a sexual relationship. She then served as the valet for the Elephant Boy, Olivas was Mexican, but had very dark skin, which caused controversy when Ellison, a white woman, would kiss him on the cheek during their ring entrance routine. At one show in Oklahoma City, a man, who thought that Olivas was a black man, Moolah later left Pfeffers promotion and began wrestling under Boston promoters Tony Santos and Paul Bowser
16.
Jess McMahon
–
Roderick James Jess McMahon, Sr. was an American professional wrestling and professional boxing promoter, and the patriarch of the McMahon family. He founded the Capitol Wrestling Corporation with Toots Mondt in 1952, McMahons son, Vincent James McMahon, later took over and founded the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Roderick James McMahon was born May 26,1882, to hotel owners Roderick McMahon and his parents had recently moved from Ireland to New York City. He and his siblings Lauretta, Catharine and Edward attended Manhattan College, Roderick graduated with a commercial diploma at the age of 17. The McMahon brothers showed a higher interest in sports than in a banking career, by 1909, the McMahon brothers were managing partners of the Olympic Athletic Club and bookers at the Empire and St. Nichols Athletic Clubs, located in Harlem. Because of a loss of public interest in boxing, the two McMahons expanded their affairs in 1911, founding the New York Lincoln Giants, a baseball team. With a team that included five of the best black players in the nation, touring with the squad, McMahon and his brother ventured to Havana, Cuba, in 1915, where they co-promoted the 45-round fight between Jess Willard and then-champion Jack Johnson. In the 1930s, the McMahons operated the Commonwealth Casino, on East 135th Street in Harlem, the McMahons booked black fighters to cater to Harlems growing black population, fights between blacks and whites drew the largest, racially mixed crowds. In 1922, they established a professional basketball team, the Commonwealth Big 5. For two years, the team defeated black and white opponents, including Harlems other black professional team, sportswriters considered the Big 5 the best black team in the nation, although they could not defeat the dominant white team of the time, the Original Celtics. After 1915, Jess anchored in Long Island, where he became the first McMahon to promote professional wrestling, the wrestling wars led McMahon to ally himself with another independent faction, captained by Carlos Louis Henriquez. Together they booked the Coney Island and Brooklyn Sport Stadiums, with Carlos being the fan favorite. The formation of the Trust calmed New York territory enough to allow McMahon access to a pool of wrestlers. Among those wrestlers were Jim Browning, Hans Kampfer, Mike Romano, by 1937, wrestlings popularity was waning. However, while most bookers left the city for fresher ground and his contacts allowed him to freely trade wrestlers with promoters in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. A perpetual force in the Northeastern sportsworld, McMahon may be remembered for his spell as matchmaker at the Garden than for his 20 years as a wrestling promoter. On November 22,1954, as a result of a hemorrhage, Jess died at a hospital in Wilkes-Barre. Upon Jesss death, his son, Vincent J. McMahon took over the business, eventually creating the World Wide Wrestling Federation promotion
17.
Atlanta
–
Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
18.
NWA World Heavyweight Championship
–
The National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in the National Wrestling Alliance. Its lineage has been traced from the first World Heavyweight Championship and this effectively makes it the oldest surviving wrestling championship in the world. With many territorial promotions appearing across the United States, the NWA was formed in 1948 as an overall governing wrestling body, like franchises, these territories had the option of NWA membership. The promotion owners had to recognize the NWA heavyweight, junior heavyweight, Ric Flair holds the record for the most reigns with nine. Every year, the NWA World Heavyweight Champion would travel to each territory, the purpose of the world champion was to make the top contender look good and still hold the title. The NWA board of directors, composed mostly of territory owners, by the late 1950s, however, the system began to break down. As Lou Thesz continued to hold the title, other wrestlers such as Verne Gagne became frustrated over the lack of change. There were also disputes over the number of appearances the champion would make in different regions, on June 14,1957 in Chicago, Lou Thesz defended the world title against Canadian wrestler Édouard Carpentier in a two out of three falls match. Thesz and Carpentier split the first two falls, in the third fall, Thesz was disqualified by referee Ed Whalen who raised Carpentiers hand in victory. The NWA later voided the change based on the disqualification. Thesz defeated Carpentier by disqualification in a Montreal rematch on July 24, Carpentier would also be able to make appearances in the US as champion while Thesz was on an overseas tour. However, as a result of disputes within the NWA, Carpentiers manager, wrestling promoter Eddie Quinn. The organization dealt with the situation by announcing 71 days after Carpentiers win in Chicago that it did not recognize Carpentiers win and had never recognized it, Quinn started promoting Carpentier as the true NWA world champion based on the match with Thesz. In 1958, Quinn started shopping Carpentier around to promoters interested in leaving the NWA, a victory over Carpentier could give a local champion a credible claim to the world championship of wrestling. Verne Gagne, who had been trying to become NWA World Heavyweight Champion for some time, defeated Carpentier in Omaha and this was recognized as a title change by those NWA affiliate promotions that would later evolve into the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This disputed version of the NWA World Heavyweight Title was later known as the World Heavyweight Championship, the title was unified with the AWA World Heavyweight Championship on September 7,1963. The AWA title continued to exist until the AWA ceased operations in 1991, the Boston NWA affiliate known as the Atlantic Athletic Commission arranged a match between Killer Kowalski and Carpentier in 1958. Kowalskis victory created what was known as the ACC World Heavyweight Title and later the Big Time Wrestling World title which was active until 1975
19.
Face (professional wrestling)
–
In professional wrestling, a face is a heroic or a good guy wrestler, booked by the promotion with the aim of being cheered by fans. Faces, traditionally, wrestle within the rules and avoid cheating while behaving positively towards the referee, such characters are also referred to as blue-eyes in British wrestling, and técnicos in lucha libre. The face character is portrayed as a relative to the heel wrestlers. Not everything a face wrestler does must be heroic, faces need only to be cheered by the audience to be effective characters, the vast majority of wrestling storylines involving faces place a face against a heel, although more elaborate set-ups often happen as well. While many modern faces still fit this model, other versions of the character are now also common. A good example would be Stone Cold Steve Austin who despite playing an early on in his career would start to be seen more of an anti-hero because of his popularity with the fans. While clearly not championing rule following, nor submission to authority, during this time, wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Sting used tactics traditionally associated with heels, but remained popular with the fans. Conversely, Kurt Angle was introduced to the then-WWF with an American hero gimmick based on his medal win at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He presented himself as a model, and stressed the need to work hard to realize ones dreams. Angles character served as a meta-reference to how wrestling had changed, unusually, Angle did not use any of these heroic mannerisms when playing a face character, instead acting as somewhat of an antihero with a few elements of the lovable loser character archetype. Fans sometimes dislike face wrestlers, despite the way they are promoted, some reasons for this include repetitive in-ring antics, a limited moveset, a lengthy title reign, lack of selling his or her opponents moves, or an uninteresting character. This often results in wrestlers who are supposed to be cheered receiving a negative or no reaction from the fans. Some face wrestlers would often give high fives or give out merchandise to fans entering the ring before their match, such as T-shirts, sunglasses, hats. Bret Hart was one of the first superstars to make this popular, rey Mysterio, who has been a face in WWE since his debut, would go to any fan wearing a replica of his mask, and touch their head with his head for good luck before wrestling. Alberto Del Rio, after turning face, would give his scarf to a fan before entering the ring. Big Show would give his hat to a fan when he was a face, the majority of the time, faces who are low-carders, or lesser known, are used as jobbers. These wrestlers usually lose matches against established wrestlers, some faces, such as Ricky Steamboat and Hulk Hogan, promoted an image as a family man and supported their persona by appearing with their family members before and after matches. These actions often relate to wrestlers promoting charity work or other actions outside of the ring, blurring the lines between scripted wrestling and their personal lives, glossary of professional wrestling terms Heel Foley, Mick
20.
Heel
–
The heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. It is based on the projection of one bone, the calcaneus or heel bone and this tissue has a system of pressure chambers that both acts as a shock absorber and stabilises the sole. Each of these chambers contains fibrofatty tissue covered by a layer of connective tissue made of collagen fibers. These septa are attached both to the plantar aponeurosis above and the soles skin below. The sole of the foot is one of the most highly vascularized regions of the surface. The Achilles tendon is the tendon of the triceps surae, a three-headed group of muscles—the soleus. The main function of the triceps surae is plantar flexion, i. e. to stretch the foot downward and it is accompanied by a fourth head, the slight plantaris muscle, the long slender tendon of which is also attached to the heel bone but not visible. The compressive forces applied to the foot are distributed along five rays, the lateral rays stretch over the cuboid bone to the heel bone and the medial rays over the three cuneiform bones and the navicular bone to the ankle bone. In this context the heel thus forms the point of support that together with the balls of the large. Cracked heels is a health problem and it may cause infections. It is caused by dryness of the skin, and accumulation of dead skin. Over time it may cause pain and irritations, various moisturising creams and foot files are available to cure and prevent it. In the long-footed mammals, both the species and the clawed forms which walk on the toes, the heel is well above the ground at the apex of the angular joint known as the hock. In plantigrade species it rests on the ground, in birds, the heel is the backward-pointing joint which is often mistaken as the knee
21.
Yankee
–
The term Yankee and its contracted form Yank have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the scope of context, most broadly, Outside the United States, Yank is used informally to refer to any American, including Southerners. Within Southern American English, Yankee is a term used to refer to any and all Northerners. The speech dialect of Eastern New England is called Yankee or Yankee dialect, within New England itself, the term Yankee refers specifically to old-stock New Englanders of English descent. The informal British and Irish English Yank refers to Americans in general and it is especially popular among Britons and Australians and sometimes carries pejorative overtones. The Southern American English Yankee is typically uncontracted and at least mildly pejorative, the root of the term is uncertain. In 1758, British General James Wolfe made the earliest recorded use of the word Yankee to refer to people from what became the United States, later British use of the word often was derogatory, as in a cartoon of 1775 ridiculing Yankee soldiers. The meaning of Yankee has varied over time, in the 18th century, it referred to residents of New England descended from the original English settlers of the region. Mark Twain used the word in this sense the following century in his novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, as early as the 1770s, British people applied the term to any person from what became the United States. In the 19th century, Americans in the southern United States employed the word in reference to Americans from the northern United States, though not to recent immigrants from Europe. Thus, a visitor to Richmond, Virginia commented in 1818, The enterprising people are mostly strangers, Scots, Irish, another theory surmises that the word is borrowed from the Wyandot pronunciation of the French langlais, sounded as Yan-gee. Linguists, however, do not support any Indian origins, the change from English to Yengees is very trifling. Sonneck noted that multiple American writers since 1775 had repeated this story as if it were fact, despite what he suggested were clear holes in it. First, he noted that it was proposed at the start of the American Revolution and would have been a welcome anti-English rhetoric. Second, it had never been the tradition of any Indian tribe to transfer their name to group of people. Third and most importantly, there had never been a tribe called the Yankoos, most linguists look to Dutch sources, noting the extensive interaction between the colonial Dutch in New Netherland and the colonial English in New England. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives its origin as around 1683, when it was applied insultingly to Dutch Americans by the English, however, it was at some point reappropriated by Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam who started using it against the English colonists of neighboring Connecticut. Linguist Jan de Vries notes that there was mention of a pirate named Dutch Yanky in the 17th century
22.
Gorgeous George
–
George Raymond Wagner was an American professional wrestler best known by his ring name Gorgeous George. He was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002, George Raymond Wagner was born March 24,1915 in Butte, Nebraska. For a time, he and his parents lived on a farm near the village of Phoenix in Holt County and probably in Seward County before they moved to Waterloo, Iowa and later Sioux City. When George was seven years old, his family moved to Houston, Texas, as a child, he trained at the local YMCA and often staged matches against his friends. In 1929, he dropped out of Milby High School at age 14, at this time, he competed at carnivals, where he could earn 35 cents for a win. By age 17, he was getting booked by the top promoter, Morris Siegel. Moreover, on May 19,1939, he captured the Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Championship, nevertheless, he soon developed a reputation as a solid in-ring wrestler. In the late 1930s, he met Elizabeth Betty Hanson, whom he would marry in an in-ring ceremony. When the wedding proved a good drawing card, the couple re-enacted it in arenas across the country, Wagner was impressed with the bravado of such a character, but he believed that he could take it to a much greater extreme. What he needed was a new professional persona, later, in Portland, Oregon, Betty told Dean Higinbotham, the nephew of Bettys sister, Evangeline Eva, how George got the name Gorgeous George. In the early 1940s George had a match at the Portland Oregon Armory. As he walked down the aisle to the ring, there were two women on his right, two rows back from the ring. One of the women loudly exclaimed, Oh, isnt he gorgeous and that word gorgeous struck George and he immediately felt he had found his new professional persona. As Elsie Hanson, Bettys mother, was a skilled seamstress, George wore those capes in all his future matches. Such showmanship was unheard of for the time, and consequently, Gorgeous George was soon recruited to Los Angeles by promoter Johnny Doyle. Known as the Human Orchid, his persona was created in part by growing his long, dyeing it platinum blonde. Furthermore, he transformed his ring entrance into a spectacle that would often take up more time than his actual matches. He strolled nobly to the ring to the sounds of Pomp and Circumstance, followed by his valet and a purple spotlight
23.
Johnny Valentine
–
John Theodore Wisniski, better known by his ring name Johnny Valentine, was an American professional wrestler with a career spanning almost three decades. He has been inducted into four halls of fame for his achievements in wrestling, Wisniski was the father of professional wrestler Greg The Hammer Valentine. He held numerous titles, including the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. He alternated between being a villain and a hero during the Golden Era in the 1940s through 1960s of wrestling, in 1975, he was injured in a plane crash, he suffered a broken back and was forced to retire from wrestling. He worked briefly as a manager before retiring altogether and he suffered from several health problems during his retirement, which worsened considerably after a fall in 2000. Wisniski debuted as a wrestler in 1947, wrestling Karl Nowena in Buenos Aires. In order to make the matches as believable as possible Wisniski insisted the men he faced in the ring hit him as hard as possible, from that he earned a strong reputation as being a very tough man. On New Years Day,1950, Buddy Rogers defeated Wisniski in the finals of a United States title tournament and he also competed in the NWAs Capitol Wrestling territory. Jerry Graham, who was a co-holder of the Northeast version of the NWA United States Tag Team Championship, selected Wisniski in November 1959 to take over the title from Grahams injured partner. They were beaten for the belts the following April, but Wisniski took on a new partner, Buddy Rogers. Wisniskis rivalry with the Kangaroos continued, as the Kangaroos regained the belts in a one week later. Wisniski went over one year without holding a championship before teaming with a new partner, Wisniski & Ellis lost the belts to Buddy Rogers & Handsome Johnny Barend in a match where Arnold Skoaland subbed for Ellis, but the belts were still up, on Washington, DC TV. Rogers & Barend then defeated the team of Wisniski & Ellis 2 pins to 1 in a main event at Madison Square Garden. In Toronto, Wisniski and three different partners won the International Tag Team title during 1963, Wisniski left the territory without dropping the title. He wrestled in Japan in the mid-1960s and had a series of matches against Antonio Inoki and those matches are regarded as the bouts that helped build Inoki into an elite wrestler in Japan, as Valentine was the highest-profile foreign wrestler Inoki had ever faced at the time. Valentine put over Inoki in the matches, dropping the Toronto version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship to him catapulting Inokis career in the process, Wisniski also continued to wrestle in the former Capitol Wrestling territory, which had since been renamed the World Wide Wrestling Federation. While there, he had one last reign with what was known as the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship. Wisniski later turned on Parisi, however and this ignited a brief feud with Bruno Sammartino, who was billed as Parisis cousin
24.
Buddy Rogers (wrestler)
–
Herman Gustav Rohde Jr. better known by the ring name Buddy Rogers, was an American professional wrestler. Rogers was the son of German immigrant parents, Rogers was athletic, and took up wrestling at age nine at the local YMCA. Rogers joined the Camden YMCA Wrestling League and won its heavyweight championship and he also excelled in football, boxing, track and swimming. In 1937, he won the YMCAs three-mile swimming championship, Rogers joined the Dale Brothers Circus as a wrestler at age 17. Rogers later worked at a shipyard, and became a police officer, Rogers visited the offices of professional wrestling promoters Ray and Frank Hanley, who gave him his first match on July 4,1939 against Moe Brazen, which he won. Rogers soon became a top professional wrestler using his name around his hometown where he gained his first major win over Ed Strangler Lewis. Like many professional wrestlers, Rogers was likely not the height and weight listed, as he probably stood 511 tall and he continued his career in Houston, where he assumed the name Buddy Rogers. Rogers would get his first title during his tenure there, winning the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship four times, once from Lou Thesz, after leaving the Texas territory for Columbus, Ohio, Rogers bleached his hair, and was given the moniker Natural Guy by promoter Jack Pfefer. The moniker later evolved to Nature Boy, in the early 1950s, Lillian Ellison worked as his valet. Ellison claims that the partnership ended after Rogers pushed for a sexual relationship, with the advent of television, Rogers flashy look, great physique and bombastic personality instantly caught the ire of audiences. The first sign of Rogers impact was his involvement in Sam Muchnicks opposition promotion in St. Louis, Missouri and he was pitted against Lou Thesz as a draw. In the end, Muchnicks promotion was powerful enough with Rogers as its star that the two promotions merged. Rogers continued control of the Midwest as a booker and professional wrestler, most notably in Chicago, frequently selling out the 11, in the 1950s, Rogers expanded into Vince McMahon, Sr. s Capitol Wrestling Corporation. He also wrestled in the Al Haft promotion out of Columbus, Ohio in the 1950s, in 1961, the National Wrestling Alliance voted him into an NWA World Heavyweight Championship match. In addition, the $148,000 gate in ticket sales was a wrestling record for almost twenty years. The contest, which was a two out of three match, was billed as the Match of the Century, during which both men had gained a pinfall. However, when OConnor missed a dropkick and hit his head, Rogers pinned him to win the match, at the time, Rogers was working at two different jobs in Chicago, but he never walked into work again according to his autobiography. Many promoters felt that Rogers favored northeastern promoters over other territories, promoters and noted shooters Bill Miller and Karl Gotch confronted Rogers in Columbus and broke his hand
25.
Vampire
–
A vampire is a being from folklore who subsists by feeding on the life essence of the living. In European folklore, vampires were undead beings that often visited loved ones and they wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from todays gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism. In modern times, however, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited. However, it is Bram Stokers 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the vampire novel. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, the vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre. Vampires had already discussed in French and German literature. After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the practice of exhuming bodies. These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity, among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpirь. Another, less widespread theory, is that the Slavic languages have borrowed the word from a Turkic term for witch. Czech linguist Václav Machek proposes Slovak verb vrepiť sa, or its hypothetical anagram vperiť sa as an etymological background, and thus translates upír as someone who thrusts, bites. An early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise Word of Saint Grigoriy, dated variously to the 11th–13th centuries, the notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires. It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour, these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open. It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, although vampires were generally described as undead, some folktales spoke of them as living beings. The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore, in Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead
26.
Los Angeles
–
Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
27.
Dick Beyer
–
Dick Beyer is an American retired professional wrestler who is best known by his ring names, The Destroyer or Doctor X. As an athlete at Syracuse University, Beyer was a member of the varsity football and he played in the 1953 Orange Bowl for Syracuse. Beyer graduated with a Masters Degree in education and is a member of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Deltas Syracuse Chapter, Beyer is also an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. Beyer was a teacher in New York until he began his wrestling career, Beyer began as a babyface wrestler in the mid-1950s. His career as a wrestler, The Destroyer, began in 1962 in Los Angeles. Beyer went on to defend the WWA title for 10 months, in early 1963, Beyer wrestled three sold-out matches against Shohei “Giant” Baba at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. In May 1963, Beyer traveled to Japan for the first time, to wrestle with Rikidōzan, in June 1964, Beyer returned to Los Angeles and beat Dick the Bruiser for another WWA title. Beyer lost the title to Bob Ellis in September, won it back in November, between 1966 and 1972, Beyer wrestled as Doctor X while in Minneapolis, although he was known as The Destroyer elsewhere. During his time as Doctor X, Beyer had matches with many of the top names in the business including his real life brother-in-law Billy Red Lyons. In fact, it was Lyons who handed X his first American Wrestling Association defeat on Minneapolis television when he defeated the good Doctor with a four leg lock. In August 1970, X removed his own mask to get a chance at revenge against his former partner Black Jack Lanza and he stood in center ring with announcer Marty ONeill, who told the fans that X was a former coach from Syracuse University. X then removed his mask, handed it to St. Paul promoter Eddie Williams, in other AWA cities, he was actually unmasked by both Lanza and Paul Diamond. In these matches, his name was revealed to be Bruce Marshall, the reason for Beyer wanting to be unmasked was that, he and his family were set to go on a world tour, where he would also wrestle again as The Destroyer. It has been speculated that by late August 1970, Beyer had already left the AWA, when Beyer removed his own mask on the August 8,1970 card in St. Paul. During 1972, Beyer had several battles with Crippler Ray Stevens and their last match resulted in Beyer as Doctor X having his leg broken. This injury allowed Beyer to leave the Minneapolis area to join a tour in Japan. From 1973, Beyer wrestled in Japan for six years, in a deal with Giant Baba. During his tenure in Japan, he had a feud with Mil Máscaras which resulted in a series of seven matches
28.
Lou Thesz
–
Aloysius Martin Lou Thesz was an American professional wrestler. A six-time world champion, he held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship three times, for a total of 10 years, three months and nine days – longer than anyone else in history. Thesz is regarded as one of, if not the, greatest wrestler of all time, born in Banat, Michigan in 1916, Theszs family moved to St. Louis when he was a young boy. His working-class immigrant parents hailed from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, beginning in Theszs early youth, his father personally gave him a tough and thorough education in Greco-Roman wrestling, which provided the fundamentals for his later success. As a teenager, he trained in amateur wrestling with legendary wrestler Ad Santel. Thesz made his wrestling debut in 1932, at the age of 16. He soon met Ed Strangler Lewis, the biggest wrestling star of the 1920s, who taught a young Lou the art of hooking, and the two formed a lasting friendship. By 1937, Thesz had become one of the biggest stars in the St. Thesz dropped the title to Steve Crusher Casey in Boston six weeks later. He won the National Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship in 1939, once again defeating Marshall, in 1948, the National Wrestling Alliance was formed, the purpose being to create one world champion for all the various wrestling territories throughout North America. Orville Brown, the reigning Midwest World Heavyweight Championship holder, was named the first champion, quinn and Muchnick ended their promotional war, and Thesz promotion was absorbed into the NWA. Part of the deal was a unification match between Brown and Thesz, who held the National Wrestling Associations World Heavyweight Championship. Thesz was chosen for his skill as a hooker to prevent double crosses by would-be shooters who would deviate from the finish for personal glory. Between 1949 and 1956, Thesz set out to all the existing world titles into the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship. Thesz finally dropped the title to Whipper Billy Watson in 1956 and he regained the title from Watson seven months later. 1957 was an important year for Thesz, on June 14, despite the NWAs decision, there were some promotions who continued to recognize Carpentiers claim to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. That same year, Thesz became the first wrestler to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in Japan and their bouts popularized professional wrestling in Japan, gaining the sport mainstream acceptance. In 1963, Thesz came out of semi-retirement to win his sixth world championship from Buddy Rogers at the age of 46. Legend has it that Rogers was having second thoughts about dropping the title and he would hold the title until 1966 when, at the age of 49, he was dethroned by Gene Kiniski
29.
Regis Philbin
–
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin is an American media personality, actor, and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Sometimes called the hardest working man in business, Philbin holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera. His trademarks include his excited manner, his Bronx accent, his wit, Philbin debuted and hosted Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, hosted Million Dollar Password, and the first season of Americas Got Talent. Philbin was born on August 25,1931 in the Bronx and his father, Francis Frank Philbin, a U. S. Marine who served in the Pacific, was of Irish heritage. His mother, Filomena Florence, was from an Italian immigrant family of Arbëreshë descent from Greci and they lived in the Van Nest section of the Bronx. He was supposedly named Regis because his father wanted him to attend the prestigious Regis High School, Philbin said his brother,20 years younger than he, had asked not to be mentioned on television or in the press. He later served in the United States Navy as an officer, then went through a few behind-the-scenes jobs in television. In his earliest show business work, Philbin was a page at The Tonight Show in the 1950s, later he wrote for Los Angeles talk show host Tom Duggan and nervously filled in one night when the hard-drinking Duggan didnt show up. He also was an announcer on The Tonight Show in 1962, in 1957, Regis left his job as assistant news editor to Baxter Ward at KCOP, Los Angeles to make his fortune in New York. His replacement at KCOP was George Van Valkenburg and his first talk show was The Regis Philbin Show on KOGO-TV in San Diego. Philbin gained his first national exposure in 1967 as Joey Bishops sidekick on The Joey Bishop Show on television, in a Johnny Carson-Ed McMahon vein, Bishop would playfully tease Philbin and Philbin would take the barbs in stride. A few nights later, assured by Bishop that all was well, as revealed in his book, How I Got This Way, this was actually all a ruse planned by Bishop and Regis to steal the spotlight and attract some of Johnny Carsons viewers. When The Joey Bishop Show was canceled, Bishop returned the favor and walked off the show on the air unannounced, in 1964, Philbin took over the show that replaced The Steve Allen Show when Steve Allen left the show. The audience did not accept Philbin as a replacement for Allens zany antics, Johnny Carson was too strong in the ratings for the same time slot. According to Philbin, Carson was his inspiration, from 1975 to 1981, he co-hosted A. M. Los Angeles, a morning talk show on KABC-TV, first with Sarah Purcell. Philbins presence brought the show from the bottom of the ratings to No.1. During the early 1970s, Philbin also commuted each weekend to St. Louis, a 1978 book called The Great 1960s Quiz, authored by Dan Carlinksy, asked, Who was Regis Philbin
30.
The Mike Douglas Show
–
The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas. Initially it aired only in the Cleveland, Ohio area during much of its first two years on the air, followed by expansion to Philadelphia and nationwide and it went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1981. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, the program premiered on KYW in Cleveland on December 11,1961, and featured a mix of light banter with guests and musical performances, along with more-serious interviews with prominent newsmakers. Joining Douglas as part of the lineup was the Ellie Frankel trio. Instead of a comedic monologue, Douglas, given his vocalist background. Each week would have a different co-host who would every day with Douglas. In addition, faulty microphones on the inaugural broadcast were coupled with equally problematic chairs that caused a pair of guests to fall off stage, the show was postponed until a representative for banning such books could be found. In February 1963, singer Barbra Streisand was the shows co-host, during that week, she was performing in a local club, and was asked by the club owner to promote her appearances on Douglas show each day. The reason given was because Cleveland newspapers were in the midst of a labor strike. Douglas later said that the station erased the videotapes of Streisands appearance, as most early television programs did, in September 1963, Douglas show was syndicated to four other television markets that had a Westinghouse-owned station, Pittsburgh, Boston, Baltimore and San Francisco. Less than one year later, the show had expanded to a total of 27 cities, on November 22,1963, Douglas was speaking with Federal Housing Administrator Robert C. Weaver, when station newscaster John Dancy interrupted the live broadcast by walking through the audience in order to give the first reports of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the show soon ended as NBC began its four-day coverage of the tragedy. With NBC moving back to Cleveland and KYW-TV Westinghouse moving to Philly, but it was the only real big moneymaker for Westinghouse at the time, so the Douglas show moved with KYW to eastern Pennsylvania in August. At first, it was broadcast from a small 140-seat basement studio located in the KYW-TV building at 1619 Walnut Street. It continued to be aired live until the year when Zsa Zsa Gabor called Morey Amsterdam a son of a bitch for interrupting her joke during the April 29,1966 program. After that, the program aired on a tape delay basis. Live broadcasts were attempted only on a few special occasions thereafter, future political consultant and Fox News Channel founder and CEO Roger Ailes served as producer, and then Executive Producer. It was while working on the show in 1967 that he met Richard Nixon with whom he had a discussion about television
31.
Dick the Bruiser
–
William Fritz Afflis was an American professional wrestler and football player, better known by his ring name, Dick the Bruiser. Born in Delphi, Indiana, Afflis grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, graduating from Lafayette Jefferson High School where he played football, Afflis went on to attend Purdue University, where he played varsity football. Afflis played American football for the Green Bay Packers as a lineman in the early 1950s, Afflis started his career in Chicago in 1955 under the Bruiser moniker where he faced Verne Gagne and Lou Thesz. From there into the late 1950s, Dick the Bruiser wrestled live every Thursday on TV in the Detroit area and his typical opponent was an up and coming young wrestler who would be pulverized by the Bruiser. His matches and interviews were so effective he became a name in the Detroit area. His only defeat on live TV was at the hands of Cowboy Bob Ellis, however, in two rematches with Ellis at the Olympia in Detroit, the Bruiser was victorious. A real bar fight with football player Alex Karras gained Afflis attention, Afflis, along with fellow wrestler and business partner Wilbur Snyder, purchased the Indianapolis NWA promotion in 1964 from its longtime owner Jim Barnett. Afflis renamed the territory the World Wrestling Association and promoted himself as its champion, while he ran it as an independent promotion with its own titles and champion, the WWA had a working agreement with the larger AWA, sharing talent and recognizing their championships. This agreement benefited both promotions and led to the Bruiser having multiple AWA Tag-Team Title reigns, primarily with tag partner, The Crusher. The Bruiser was the first to christen Manager Bobby Heenan with the nickname of The Weasel during his run in the territory, Afflis WWA ran from 1964 until 1989, when Afflis finally tired of losing talent, TV, and fan attendance to the World Wrestling Federation. Afflis, with his charisma, NFL notoriety, and gravelly-voiced, tough-guy persona was a legitimate cross-media star and he made his home on the northwest side of the city. Indianapolis native David Letterman would later name his television shows band The Worlds Most Dangerous Band as a derivation of Dick the Bruisers nickname, The Worlds Most Dangerous Wrestler. The moniker Dick the Bruiser was even used in the 1980s by George Baier, baiers Richard T. Bruiser was an effective, entertaining impersonation of Afflis, who actually played himself in a number of popular TV ads for WRIF. He also worked as a talent agent for World Championship Wrestling, Afflis died of internal bleeding on November 10,1991, according to a spokesman for Suncoast Hospital in Largo, Florida, near his winter home. His widow, Louise, said her husband had been weightlifting at home with his son, Jon Carney. He was entombed at Washington Park North Cemetery in Indianapolis
32.
WWE
–
Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. was an American professional wrestling promotion and the sanctioning body for the World Wide Wrestling Federation and later World Wrestling Federation. Founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1953, Capitol Wrestling Corporation is the precursor to todays WWE, run by Jess grandson, Jess McMahon was a successful boxing promoter who began working with Tex Rickard in 1926. With the help of Rickard, he began promoting boxing at the third Madison Square Garden, a few years prior, professional wrestler Toots Mondt had created a new challenge of professional wrestling that he called “Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling”. He convinced wrestler Ed Lewis and his manager Billy Sandow to implement this new solution, after much success, a disagreement over power caused the trio to dissolve and, with it, their promotion. Mondt later formed partnerships with other promoters, including Jack Curley in New York City. Mondt eventually took over the New York wrestling scene, due to the fact Curley was dying, with the aid of several bookers, together, McMahon and Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. which later joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1953. In November 1954, Jess McMahon died and Ray Fabiani, one of Mondts associates, both men left the company in protest following the incident and formed the WWWF in the process, awarding Rogers the new WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in April of that year. He lost the championship to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17,1963, after gaining a television program deal and turning preliminary wrestler Lou Albano as a manager for Sammartinos heel opponents, the WWWF was doing sell out business by 1970. Mondt left the company in the late 1960s and although the WWWF had withdrawn from the NWA, Vince McMahon, at the annual meeting of the NWA in 1983, the McMahons and WWF employee Jim Barnett all withdrew from the organization. By March 1979, for marketing purposes, the World Wide Wrestling Federation was renamed the World Wrestling Federation and that same year, Vincent J. McMahons son, Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sports, Inc. incorporated on February 21,1980, originally in Massachusetts. In 1982, Titan Sports Inc. acquired Capitols operations, effectively relocating its headquarters to Greenwich, in an attempt to make the WWF the premier wrestling promotion in the world, McMahon began an expansion that fundamentally changed the industry. In the end, the elder McMahon would never live to see his company grow from a promotion to what is now a worldwide organization. He died from cancer at 69 years old on May 24,1984. By 1985, Titan moved to Stamford, Connecticut then establishing a new entity in 1987 in Delaware which later merged with the old company in 1988. Titan later changed its name to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. before finally becoming World Wrestling Entertainment, list of independent wrestling promotions in the United States
33.
Ed Farhat
–
Edward George Farhat was an American professional wrestler best known as by his ring name The Sheik. He is also one of the originators of what became the wrestling style. He started out wrestling in the Chicago area as The Sheik of Araby after having served in the U. S. Army and he often teamed with Gypsy Joe. Later on he went to Texas, during his early career, his biggest match was one he didnt even wrestle in. The publicity from the event helped push the Sheik character to a prominent level. He returned when McMahon formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation to feud with Bruno Sammartino in the WWWFs major markets in the late 1960s, the Sheiks wrestling was centered on his character of a rich wild man from Syria. Before each match he would use stalling tactics as he would kneel on a rug to pray to Allah. Hed lock on choke holds and refuse to break them, the hold would have him sit over his opponents back as he applied a chinlock. He used hidden pencils to cut open his opponents faces, often, the tactic backfired and the opponent got The Sheiks pencil, leading to the extensive scarring on Farhats forehead. The other illegal move was his fireball that he threw into his opponents faces, sometimes burning their face severely and he didnt speak on camera, apart from the incomprehensible, oft-uttered phrase aloo, aloo. which he repeated in the ring. He was actually saying quickly Kalamazoo, at the start of his career his wife Joyce played the part of his valet Princess Saleema who would burn incense in the ring. He had three different managers during his career to cut promos on his behalf and his first manager was Abdullah Farouk but when he managed full-time in WWF, Eddy Creatchman became his manager. When Creatchman was unable to work with him he had Supermouth Dave Drason later in his career and his biggest feud was his seemingly career-long feud with Bobo Brazil in Detroit, the Sheiks main territory. The two feuded over Sheiks version of the United States Championship, frequently selling out Cobo Hall and this is seen briefly on the documentary movie, I Like to Hurt People. The two took the feud to several markets, most notably Memphis, Tennessee and Los Angeles and his other major opponent in Los Angeles was Fred Blassie. Sheik and Blassie faced off several times, including matches in the Grand Olympic Auditorium. In 1968, he was brought into the WWWF for title matches with champion Bruno Sammartino, Sammartino and Sheik also had a series of matches in Boston, including one sell out the day after a crippling snow storm, and public transportation not yet restored. Starting in 1969, he wrestled regularly in Toronto, where he was undefeated for 127 matches at Maple Leaf Gardens
34.
John Tolos
–
John Tolos, nicknamed The Golden Greek, was a Greek-Canadian professional wrestler, and professional wrestling manager. John was born on September 18,1930 in Hamilton, Ontario to Greek parents, Nicolaos, during the 1950s and 60s, Tolos was part of the Canadian Wrecking Crew with his brother Chris Tolos. On December 28,1963, John and Chris captured the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship in Teaneck, New Jersey in two straight falls from Gorilla Monsoon and Killer Kowalski. While both teams were heels at the time, the Tolos Brothers did an interview prior to the title match. That night, they were cheered throughout, mr. Perfect lost his Intercontinental Title to Bret Hart at SummerSlam, after which an injury would sideline Hennig from competition for more than a year. With Hennig indefinitely out of action, along with The Beverly Brothers getting a new manager in The Genius, Tolos quietly left the WWF. Tolos then had a run in Herb Abrams Universal Wrestling Federation, managing Cowboy Bob Orton, Cactus Jack, Tolos died in Los Angeles, California on May 29,2009. His death was kidney failure followed by a series of heart attacks
35.
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
–
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is an American sports stadium located in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The stadium serves as the home to the University of Southern California Trojans football team, the facility has a permanent seating capacity of 93,607 for USC football games, making it the largest football stadium in the Pac-12 Conference. For Rams games, capacity is at 80,000, giving it the fourth-largest capacity in the NFL, the stadium is located in Exposition Park and across the street from USC. From 1959 to 2016, the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was located adjacent to the Coliseum, the Coliseum is the first stadium to have hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice, in 1932 and 1984 and has been proposed to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The stadium was the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball from 1958 to 1961 and was the host venue for games 3,4. It was the site of the First AFL-NFL World Championship Game, later called Super Bowl I, additionally, it has served as a home field for a number of other teams, including the Los Angeles Raiders of the NFL, and UCLA Bruins football. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on July 27,1984, under the lease the University has day-to-day management and operation responsibility for both the Coliseum and Sports Arena. The 98-year lease took effect on July 29,2013, and was signed by the parties on September 5,2013. The Coliseum is now primarily the home of the USC Trojans football team, Most of USCs regular home games, especially the alternating games with rivals UCLA and Notre Dame, attract a capacity crowd. The current official capacity of the Coliseum is 93,607, USCs women lacrosse and soccer teams use the Coliseum for selected games, usually involving major opponents and televised games. USC also rents the Coliseum to various events, including soccer games, musical concerts. The Olympic Cauldron was built for the stadiums two Olympic Games and it is still lit during the fourth quarter of USC football games, and other special occasions. It was lit to honor the fallen Israeli Athletes from the 1972 Munich Olympics Games and it was also lit for several days following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. The torch was lit for over a following the September 11 attacks in 2001. In 2004, the cauldron was lit non-stop for seven days in tribute to president Ronald Reagan and it was lit again in April 2005 following the death of Pope John Paul II, who had celebrated Mass at the Coliseum during his visit to Los Angeles in 1987. At the Los Angeles Dodgers 50th anniversary game on March 29,2008, charity ceremony, while Neil Diamonds Heartlight was played and the majority of the attendees turned on their complimentary souvenir keychain flashlights. It was lit for the duration of Special Olympics World Games held in Los Angeles from July 25,2015 to August 2,2015, the cauldron was most recently lit for the returning Los Angeles Rams first home game on September 18,2016 against the Seattle Seahawks. The Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a memorial to L. A. veterans of World War I, the official ground breaking ceremony took place on December 21,1921 with work being completed in just over 16 months, on May 1,1923
36.
Bruno Sammartino
–
Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino is an Italian-born American retired professional wrestler, best known for his work with the World Wide Wrestling Federation, which is now known as WWE. There, he held the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship for over 11 years across two reigns, the first of which is the longest single reign in the history at 2,803 days. Dubbed The Living Legend, Sammartino is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Sammartinos wrestling style was more mat-oriented which was typical of wrestlers from his era. His brawling, power moves, and personal charisma helped him become the most popular American wrestler in the 1960s through the mid 1980s and he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 6,2013, by his longtime friend, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Born in Pizzoferrato, Abruzzo, Italy on October 6,1935, four older siblings died during his time in Italy. During his childhood, Sammartinos family hid from German soldiers in a mountain called Valla Rocca, during this time, Sammartinos mother, Emilia, would sneak into their German-occupied town for food and supplies. In 1950, he moved to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when Sammartino first came to the United States, he spoke no English and was sickly from his experiences of surviving during the war years. This made him a target for bullies in school. Sammartino wanted to build himself up physically and became devoted to weight training, Sammartinos devotion to weightlifting nearly resulted in a berth on the 1956 U. S. Olympic team. He was edged out by Paul Anderson – who outweighed Sammartino by 70 pounds, in the early years of Sammartinos career, he was measured at 510 and weighed around 280 pounds. Sammartino set a record in the bench press with a lift of 565 pounds in 1959. Sammartino completed this lift while not wearing any elbow or wrist wraps, when he brought the bar down, he did not bounce it off his chest, but set it there for two seconds before attempting the press. Sammartino also competed in bodybuilding and won Mr. Allegheny in the late 1950s and his high school, Schenley High School, did not have a wrestling program, but he worked out with the University of Pittsburgh wrestling team under storied coach Rex Peery. Sammartino became known for performing stunts in the Pittsburgh area. It was there that he was spotted by local wrestling promoter Rudy Miller, Miller knew that Sammartino could easily be marketed as an ethnic strongman, and that he would appeal to Italian immigrants who supported wrestling. Sammartino made his debut in Pittsburgh on December 17,1959. On December 23, he defeated Miguel Torres for the local Spectator Sports promotion in Pittsburgh and he soon became extremely popular, appearing frequently on the local TV wrestling program, Studio Wrestling. In 1966, Sammartino bought the Pittsburgh-based Spectator Sports promotion which promoted in the Tri-State area of Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia
