Wrestling As You Like It 1950-11-04 / Gorgeous George

Spring has sprung, and my garden needs some love this weekend, but I'm still going to put up a couple quick posts of old scans. Let's continue on the wrestling theme with this cool little magazine that also offers the TV listings.



Scan of Wrestling As You Like It 1950-11-04

I got this little magazine because I'm terribly fond of this wrestler on the cover, Gorgeous George. He's got a nice wiki page HERE

I love this flamboyant character. George brought a new type of theater to wrestling, playing the effeminate Lord Fauntleroy type to angry crowds enraged at his unfair tactics. He played a royal disdain of the unwashed masses and mocked manliness with his well groomed hair and over the top displays of vanity. Ali says he learned the drawing power of a man that taunted the masses from George, and James Brown says George taught him a little something on showmanship. JB's bit with the valet and the cape is pure George.

The wiki links a great page of images at a neat website called House of Deception HERE

This particular magazine interested me also because of its inclusion of television schedules. You can really see the interplay between the two mediums at work with just a quick glance. Wrestling sold TVs and TVs sold wrestling. It's notable how boxing and wrestling have pushed technology and media over the years. Satellite feeds and pay per view developed for these sports long before their use for other purposes. I think the recent UFC pay per view might have been the biggest ever but don't quote me on that. Even in the nineteenth century, the newest technologies were used to get the boxing results out to all parts of the nation as quickly as possible. The primitive drives the cutting edge, eh?

Anyways, cheers and enjoy.