Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Republic Pictures produced many quality movie serials in the 1930s and 1940s. One of their finer offerings was Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), a twelve chapter serial (affiliate link) based on the popular comic book super hero. Captain Marvel is known as Shazam today. Billy Batson, played by Frank Coghlan, Jr., accompanies the Malcolm Expedition to Siam. While searching an
On the same day Joe Stecher wrestled Stanislaus Zbyszko for the recognized version of the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in St. Louis, Ed “Strangler” Lewis challenged “Big” Wayne Munn for his disputed Michigan-Illinois World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. Lewis dropped the title to Munn in February 1925. In April 1925, Zbyszko defeated Munn in a famous double-cross. The match between Lewis and
Jake Kilrain is best known as the last and toughest challenger to John L. Sullivan in the last bare knuckle world championship fight. Despite Kilrain’s inability to beat John L. Sullivan, he had a successful career both before and after the bout with the mighty Sullivan. Fighting for 10 more years in gloved bouts, Kilrain was mostly successful but on
On October 24, 1941, Monogram Pictures released Spooks Run Wild starring the East Side Kids and Bela Lugosi. At this point in his career, Bela Lugosi was relegated to “B” movies. He played in several films with the East Side Kids, which were all enjoyable if not exactly classic cinema. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall and Bobby Jordan play the leaders
Evan “Strangler” Lewis was a scary competitor. Although he was not a large man at 5’09” and weighed 170 pounds, Lewis’ mastery of submissions made him an equal or better of most wrestlers of his era. Jack Carkeek was a terrific wrestler but one match with Lewis almost caused him to retire. Lewis’ reputation was strongly related to his feared
On April 7, 1914, 22-year-old Wladek Zbyszko met 22-year-old Ed “Strangler” Lewis would meet in the first of many matches between the two men. They would cooperate in a number of worked or “prearranged” matches. Lewis in fact dropped his American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship to Wladek Zbyszko in 1917. In the early 1920s, Lewis would drop his World Heavyweight Wrestling
Frank J. Quinn, a local St. Louis attorney, served as the manager for professional wrestlers George Baptise, Charley Olson and Fred Beell. Originally an admirer of George Baptiste, who was a legend in the St. Louis neighborhood around Cook and Vandeventer Avenues. Baptiste would employ Quinn as his manger and later attorney for his tent and awning company. During his
On January 29, 1940, First National Pictures, the Warner Brothers “B” film company, released the spy thriller British Intelligence (1940). The film is set in Britain during World War I. Released almost two years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the film showed that Hollywood and probably most of the countries sympathies were with Britain and the Allies. While British
Samuel Rachmann promoted the International Wrestling Tournament in New York during 1915. Rachmann invited wrestlers from around the world to the tournament but his real intention was to establish European Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion Alex Aberg as the successor to the retired Frank Gotch as World Champion. Rachmann’s plan for establishing Aberg was going as planned after the tournament kicked off
In early 1916, Martin “Farmer” Burns, who trained and managed Frank Gotch to the World Heavyweight Championship, began denying that he developed current American Heavyweight Champion Joe Stecher. The claim seemed odd because Burns had been working with Stecher for several years. Burns helped prepare Stecher for his championship bout with Charlie Cutler in 1915. In a way, what Burns